drive
Latest
Google accelerates encryption initiative in wake of PRISM controversy
For a company that keeps millions of users' personal emails and data under lock and key, Google found itself in a bad place earlier this year -- on a list of "providers" that reportedly gave the NSA direct access to their central servers. The company immediately took steps to calm consumers, assuring its user base that it didn't create a federal "back door," and demanding more transparency from government agencies. Now, the Mountain View search giant has told The Washington Post that it's accelerating its encryption initiative, which will hopefully offer users another layer of comforting protection. "It's an arms race," Google VP of security engineering Eric Grosse told the paper. "We see these government agencies as among the most skilled players in this game." That is to say, protecting user data isn't easy -- intelligence firms and skilled hackers can eventually find their way around even the most sophisticated encryption, but building these kinds of walls has become a necessity in a post-PRISM world. The move is designed to protect Google users against unauthorized snooping, but Mountain View will still have to comply with court orders and official requests. Still, who are we to argue with a more defensible inbox?
Google updates Drive for iOS with new card UI, easier way to browse files
You know how they say that when it rains, it pours? Well, shortly after unveiling a new set of native ware for Chrome, Google's also taken the time to announce an update to its Drive app on iOS. Most notable is the introduction of the card-style user interface, something we saw make its way to the Android version of Google Drive earlier this year. There's now a better way to browse and preview files as well, plus an easier approach to how links get copied within the app -- essentially, this means users will see a new option that automatically copies file links to the clipboard. The update doesn't appear to be live everywhere just yet, but keep an eye on the App Store as it should be arriving very soon.
Gmail for iOS nets improved Drive and Google+ integration
Sure, Gmail on iOS was completely redesigned in June, but Mountain View's just pushed out a fresh update with a few features to polish things off. Version 2.4 of the email app bakes in improved integration with Drive and Google+, making links to the platforms open in their respective apps. Of course, if you'd rather continue following links to the web, the application's settings can be tweaked accordingly. Rounding out the release is a spruced up attachment system with larger image thumbnails that can be opened up in a full screen mode. To grab the refreshed app, head to the neighboring source link.
AirCast for Android sends local or cloud videos to Chromecast, test it out now
ClockworkMod dev Koushik Dutta has teased us with a few interesting ways to get our own media streaming on Chromecast, but now he's actually releasing one to the public. AirCast runs on your Android device and streams video from the gallery, Dropbox or Google Drive to Google dongle, with playback controls available in the app or from the notification bar. So why is this ready for release now? According to the developer, he's reverse engineered the protocols and is no longer using the SDK. Still, the app is just in testing now and he warns that the button doesn't appear in gallery apps on some devices, including the HTC One. It will stop working on its own after a couple of days while Dutta works the kinks out, look below for links to the download or more information, and check out a video demo after the break.
Google Drive updates Docs and Slides with integrated search
It's hardly worthy of any presses being halted, but those interested in minor Google Drive updates should take notice. Google has just updated Docs and Slides to let users select text, click on said text, and have Google search results pop up in addition to users' own Drive documents. The point? Easy hyperlinking for related websites, which ought to be a boon for budding students or digital bookworms who prefer to annotate just about everything. As Google puts it: "Starting today, the link tool now offers you suggestions based on the text you are hyperlinking just in case you don't have the URL you need offhand. To try it out, select the text you want and click the "Insert link" icon from the menu bar (or use Ctrl K)."
Google Drive makes it easy to email spreadsheets, copy/paste your heart away
Google Drive updates might be few and far in between, but they usually add welcome changes to the service -- take for example its recently improved copy/paste function. You can now paste tables from spreadsheets into Gmail with their formatting intact, and it doesn't even matter what browser you use. Chrome users get a bit of extra, of course, like bringing shapes from drawings into presentations and copying slides from one presentation to another. While minor at best, these upgrades do make it easier to share data from Drive -- when it's online, anyway.
Google's 'last step' in Buzz shutdown: moving all data to Google Drive
Google's social networking effort Buzz shut its doors last year but has popped up yet again, for what may be the last time. In an email that just went out to former users, Google noted it's packaging Buzz data into two files which will be stored on their Drive accounts. One is private, which will hold all of their posts both public and private, and another is public, which will contain a copy of any of their public Buzz posts, accessible to anyone who has a direct link (old Buzz links will redirect here.) One important note, is that your comments on others posts will be saved to their Drive files, and you won't be able to delete them once the shift happens "on or after July 17th." Need to do a total wipe / some selective editing? Check the link below to see your profile or the text of the message for a more thorough explanation after the break.
Google Drive for Android updated with card UI and refined scanner function
Cards, cards, cards... that's the refrain around the Google campus these days. Everything is getting turned into cards. That now includes your documents stored on Drive, too. The Google Drive app for Android was updated today with a whole new UI that moves towards the refined Holo design of the Play Music app and displays your uploaded files as "cards," though, you can always revert to a tweaked list view. The cards offer a thumbnail preview along with the file name and an icon indicating the type of document. The ability to snap photos and have the results turned into a OCR-processed PDF has also been updated slightly. The feature is now called "scan" and it automatically crops photos to contain only the document you need to upload. Lastly, you can finally tweak text settings in sheets, delivering a much more robust mobile formatting experience. Just hit up the Play Store to get your update now.
Xbox One will have a slot-loading Blu-ray drive to go with its 500GB HDD
Microsoft has confirmed what many saw as inevitable: the Xbox will have a Blu-ray drive. The company just announced the victor in the drive wars will be installed as a slot-loading front unit in each new Xbox One along with a 500GB HDD, a 360-degree switch from Redmond's last console, as it were. As we noted earlier, games purchased on Blu-ray disks will be ripped to the hard disk automatically to keep usage down. Microsoft heavily resisted the move to Blu-ray in the Xbox 360, but has caved to the inevitable, no doubt having come to an agreement with Sony, Panasonic and Philips (the owners of the tech), through gritted teeth.
The Daily Roundup for 05.13.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Google unveils 'Save to Drive' button for websites, streamlines content delivery to cloud storage
Google Drive may be playing catch-up to its competitors in some ways, but the cloud storage team in Mountain View is forging ahead in others. Today, Big G announced a 'Save to Drive' button that allow users to save content directly from websites to Google-fied cloud lockers. Adding the button's easy, as it only requires a few lines of HTML, and a JavaScript API allows web admins to control their behavior. Folks looking to take advantage of the new button can learn more about it on the Google Developers portal, and as for the rest of us, we'll just enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Offline Google Drive now automatically saves files, lets you create and edit drawings
Well, it looks as if the Drive news just keep pouring in. Shortly after outing a couple of new features that make the service a little more friendly with collaborators, Google's rather quietly taken to its own social network to announce some offline tidbits. Starting today, users of Mountain View's cloud-based storage goods can easily create and edit any drawings without the need for an internet connection. What's more, Docs, Sheets and Slides will now be automatically available offline -- something that should come in very handy while you're, say, 20,000 feet up in the air with no Gogo in sight. Fret not if you don't see these changes the next time you log in, as Google says "it may take a few days" before the rollout is carried out.
Google Drive adds apps folders and customer properties for developers
Google realizes the importance of its Drive online file storage service in our always-on, always-connected world. To make Drive better for users and developers alike, Google has added two new features, app data folders and custom properties, to its Drive SDK. The app data folder serves as a hidden storage space that developers can use to store configuration files and other important app data that shouldn't be changed by the user. Files stored within an app data folder are hidden from both the user and from other apps. Only your app can see what is stored within this location. It prevents other apps from taking information from your files and also stops users from accidentally deleting core app files. Also, developers now can use their app to add custom properties to a Drive file and then track that property. In an example provided by Google, developers could create a project-management app that tracks a file as it moves through the review process. You can read more about the app data folders and customer properties on Google's website and ask questions on Stack Overflow.
Google Keep briefly teases note-taking utility for Drive, vanishes soon after
Another day, another leak from Google. As The Next Web reports, a note-collecting service called Keep was accessible on Google Drive for a short period of time last night -- and if your short-term memory is a bit cloudy, Drive itself got leaked in a similarly bizarre fashion before getting official last year. 1E100 had initially found source code, images and various links that seemed to point to Keep, which apparently went live soon after. Interestingly, while all of the links point to error pages, one redirects to a specific, unresolveable app url on Google Play. Android Police was able to snag some screenshots of the web app in action -- albeit disconnected from Drive at the time -- noting that it's reminiscent of Mountain View's late Notebook service that was killed in '09. Whether the likes of Evernote will have to worry remains to be seen, but the added functionality to Drive will certainly be appreciated -- now, how about letting us get at that Now app for iOS?
HGST unites nanoimprints, self-assembling molecules to double hard drive space
Hard drive makers are in a race to boost capacities and keep spinning disks at least a beat ahead of flash drives on the value curve. We've seen some exotic developments as a result, but HGST wants to go the extra mile by relying on two breakthroughs at once. Its future storage primarily takes advantage of self-assembling polymer molecules that align themselves into rows. By first splitting the molecules into very small lines and then using an equally rare nanoimprinting technology to put them into circular tracks, HGST can create platters with a 10 nanometer-wide bit pattern that's twice as dense as current hard drives. The technique should hold up in the real world despite ditching typical photolithography, the company says: the nanoimprinting remains useful in the error-prone world of storage, and it should scale as the patterns get smaller. If only the drive designer had a roadmap -- while the company has a tendency to bring its research to market, the lack of a timetable hints that we won't see these nanoimprinted drives very soon.
Google Drive gets file previews, Android app now outfitted with video streaming
Mountain View has just made it easier to peek the contents of Google Drive files on the web with a brand-new preview feature. Now, users will be able to quickly view up to 30 file types (photos, videos, PDFs and more) in a lightbox overlay, and thumb through by clicking right and left arrows within the window. When it comes to documents, folks can zoom in and out, scroll through pages, and even select and copy text. If the update hasn't made it to your account already, Page and Co. say you can expect it to roll out over the next few days. As for the Drive's Android app, it's been updated to let devices wielding Honeycomb or higher stream video saved on the service. According to the changelogs, the application has also been upgraded with performance enhancements, pinch-to-zoom in the presentation viewer and a grab bag of bug fixes and assorted tweaks.
Google lets users connect Drive-enabled Chrome apps alongside its own
There was a time when cloud storage was more or less just that. A digital locker for those files you need on the go. As more and more apps and services fold this functionality into their general operation, the cloud part needs to be increasingly transparent. Something Google is tackling with the latest change to its Drive service. Starting today, you will be able to connect Drive-enabled apps to the main interface. So, next time you want to create something with Pixlr Editor, or Ujam, or want to open a file in such an app, you can do that right from the comfort of your Google account page. Not only does this mean that your favorite Chrome tools can be brought right into your workflow, Google clearly hopes it might inspire more developers to "elevate" their apps with the same functionality. Apps already sporting the integration, however, should be available to connect immediately.
Google Drive scores multiple photo and video uploads on iOS, Wallet gets visual refresh on Android
Mountain View's just doled out an update to Google Drive on iOS, giving it the ever so slight bump to version 1.2.2 and a handful of new features. Font fanatics could see the addition of Helvetica Neue to Docs as the big ticket item in the new release, but the ability to upload multiple photos and videos otherwise headlines the batch of improvements. With the latest version, pinch to zoom now works with slides and QuickOffice users can open files and save them to Drive. In addition, spreadsheets have been freshly endowed with improvements to animations, diagonal scrolling and cell formatting for dates, decimals, currency and the like. Google Wallet on Android also received an update, but it focused on delivering a revamped UI and sundry improvements to stability and battery use. Now, the app packs navigation tabs and houses cards under the "My Wallet" section. Hit the neighboring source links to give either application a spin.
LaCie Blade Runner drive now available, offers stand-out storage for $300
LaCie teased us at CES with the prospect of a rare high-concept hard drive design in the Blade Runner, but it left out the rather important matter of when we could buy the Philippe Starck-designed storage. As we've discovered, we didn't have to wait long -- the Blade Runner has just become available. Plunk down $300 and you'll get a 4TB, USB 3.0-based external drive that melds a blob-like disk shell with aluminum blades that both cool the main body and create a (minor) conversation piece. Just be sure to hurry if you're looking for a dash of art with your extra drive space, as it's doubtful that the Blade Runner's 9,999-unit production run will last.
Google Slides gets offline editing, begins rolling out today
Google made Docs available for offline editing this past summer and now it's extending the capability to Slides. In a rollout slated to begin today, users of the web-based app (formerly known as presentations for Docs) will be able to edit, comment and control r/w privileges on Drive-hosted slides without being tethered to the internet -- those tweaks will simply auto-upload the next time a connection is established. You'll need to be currently enrolled in offline editing for Docs to take advantage of this new feature, as it's not enabled by default. But if not, don't stress, Google's included detailed instructions in the source below. So, what's next in line for offline editing? Oh, that'd be Google Sheets.
