Google Drive
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LG launches LG Cloud, blows raspberries at S-Cloud
Four days before the purported launch of Samsung's cloud service, Korea's other technology giant has unveiled LG Cloud. The eponymous service offers 5GB free space as standard, while owners of LG's Smart TVs or smartphones will get 50GB free for six months. It'll push content between your devices, appropriately compressed for the medium, so high definition images on your TV will be slimmed down to save your phone's data cap. The free beta begins in South Korea and the US from May 1st, with a global rollout pencilled in for next year -- but don't worry, the company made it clear you'll be able to use it on your holidays, if you can find a signal.
Google Drive now offers a bumpy ride for Chrome OS dev-channel users
You knew it was gonna happen, but Google's cloud-based storage service has now been married to its cloud-based operating system, as Chrome OS users who receive updates via the dev-channel may now benefit from integration with Google Drive. Most notably, Drive will now appear as an additional folder within the file manager, although the implementation isn't without its quirks. For example, our peers at TechCrunch described the inability to make these files available for offline access. It goes without saying that dev-channel releases aren't for everyone, but if you enjoy living on the edge, then be sure to take a peep at what Google has in store for the inevitable mainstream release.
Dropbox adds automatic photo uploads for Windows and Mac, up to 3GB just for using it
Dropbox isn't short of aficionados, but it's undoubtedly lost some of its gleam since Google drove the cloud war into a frenzy. In response, Dropbox's devs have been at the squat rack pumping up their multimedia credentials, recently adding auto photo and video uploads to their Android app and now extending that feature to any camera, tablet, smartphone or SD card via the Mac or Windows utility -- an add-on that was previously beta-only. Access the web interface and you'll see your stills arranged in a handy new Photos page, which displays them as large thumbnails bunched together by month. There's a blunter enticement too: your first auto upload will secure 500MB in extra storage, with subsequent efforts also rewarded up to 3GB. Perhaps that cardboard isn't looking so soggy after all.
Chrome OS and Google Drive to get intimate in version 20
When Google finally announced its shiny new cloud-based Drive service, many people will have been glad to see an extra bit of storage tacked onto their daily gadget lives. Some, however, spin out a generally more nebular existence, and that'd be the Chrome OS faithful. If you find yourself amongst their number, you'll be pleased to know that Sundar Pichai, SVP for Chrome, revealed in an interview with Wired that the next iteration of its slight operating system will come with Drive tightly sewn into the fabric. The idea is that the service will operate as the local file system, and all the core OS functionality will use Drive for storing data. Third party apps like VMware are already baking in Drive functionality, and expect more to follow when it lands in version 20.
Google Drive is coming to Linux, tells users to 'hang tight'
As you may know, there is at least one out and proud Ubuntu devotee on staff. So, when Google Drive was announced, there were a few grumbles from those who noticed Linux was absent from the list of supported platforms. Especially in the wake of Picasa for Linux, many were afraid that Big G was slowly killing off it's (comparably) robust support of the open-source OS. But, rest easy, in addition to Dropbox and Ubuntu One, soon enough you'll be able to use Google's offering as well. Google Docs community manager Teresa Wu (we assume, soon enough, that will be Google Drive community manager) swung by a potential customer's Google+ profile to assuage his ire over the lack of Linux support. The message, while not very detailed, was quite clear: "we're working on Linux support -- hang tight!"
Google Drive preview: an in-depth look at features and functionality
It's been a long time in the making, but the once-mythical cloud storage service known to all as Google Drive is real, and it made its official debut today -- and even though Goog's taken plenty of time to make it available to the masses, our impatience certainly got the worst of us, and we immediately started digging through the new service. So what does this online storage option entail? Will it make you delete your Dropbox and SkyDrive accounts and jump for joy? Or has Google simply waited too long to start playing the game? Read on to find out our first impressions.
Daily Update for April 24, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Why Google Drive matters but APIs matter more
Today, Google Drive finally made its debut, offering what has become the industry-standard 5GB of free space. Its purchase model is similar to Apple's, Amazon's, and other leaders in this field. We posted earlier about its introduction. Expect to pay US$48/year for 20GB. This is $4/month versus iCloud's $40/year for 20GB. Drive supports accounts up to 16TB. Google Docs storage does not count against your Drive, and retains is super-economical pricing. You can pick up 20GB of Docs for $5/year, 80 GB for $20/year, etc. As expected, Drive uses a high level of encryption, using SSL (hopefully Google will resist the temptation to index your personal files) with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, massive simultaneous data replication in geographically dispersed centers and 24/7 "support (This is Google, however, so keep your expectations in line with that basic fact.). In other words, it's what we've come to expect from the cloud storage industry. But when it comes to cloud, success lies far less in centralized storage and more in the ubiquity of data access. When I put a document into my Dropbox, I know that I'll be able retrieve, read, edit and update that from nearly any platform I use. From Android to iOS, Mac to Windows, a large range of apps support the Dropbox APIs (I asked Dropbox for API and platform adoption numbers but did not hear back before this post went live). That's important because ubiquity doesn't mean "available on the cloud from select platforms and select applications." Ubiquity means "my data, right now." Google Docs APIs have made great inroads into this arena. Docs are nearly as available as Dropbox. iCloud, while available extensively through Apple's Mac and iOS platform is barely integrated into Windows (Apple did announce further API support intentions in the past), Android, webOS, etc. In my mixed-platform family, that's a big consideration for where I choose to spend my money. That's why Google's Drive API announcement on their less frequented developers site represents a key factor in this story. It's an OAuth-based system, similar to the Google Apps API (read "Docs"), and will grow and evolve as Docs did with the potential for a similar reach across platforms. It's a big, bad, wild west cloud-world out there. Nice to see Google step into the shootout.
PSA: If you purchased extra Gmail storage, your Google Drive just got bigger
5GB, huh? Not quite enough for you? If you were wise enough to up the capacity of your Gmail inbox + Picasa allotment before today, your Google Drive experience just got a lot more awesome. A trio of editors here at Engadget HQ managed to upgrade their Gmail boxes a couple of years ago, and at the time (read: it's no longer an available option), Google was offering an extra 20GB for use across its properties for a mere $5 per year. Upon loading Google Drive today, we each found a healthy 25GB waiting to be filled, with no expectation of additional payments to Google. Be sure to let us know if you're seeing a similar boost in capaciousness down in comments below, particularly for those who splurged on one of the more current Gmail add-on plans.
Google Drive vs. the competition: pricing plans and perks, compared
Sometimes a table says a thousand words. Now that Google has finally announced its cloud service, Google Drive, we're sure more than a few of you are crunching the numbers in your head in an attempt to figure which is the best deal. Far be it for us to tell you which service to use when we've barely had a chance to poke around Drive, but for now, better if we lay out those gigabytes and dollars in number form, rather than squeeze them into a crowded paragraph, don'tcha think? Follow past the break for a brief breakdown of what you'll get from Google, along with Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive and iCloud.
Google launches Google Drive
Google launched Google Drive, an online service that lets you create, share and store your documents online. You can use the desktop client to upload videos, photographs, Google docs and more to Google's cloud. When you're on the go, you can access these files using a mobile client. Google Drive includes 5 GB of free storage, and additional space is available at a rate of US$4 per month for 20 GB of storage (up to 16 TB supported). The service will launch with support for Windows and Mac desktops as well as Android devices. An iOS client is in the works. Google also increased your free amount of Gmail today, now up to 10 GB. Also, if you update to Google Drive, be aware that docs.google.com will redirect to drive.google.com, which (as The Next Web suggests) indicates somewhat of a rebranding of Docs into Drive. You can read more about Google Drive and sign up for the service on Google's website.
Google Drive official: 5GB of free storage, Chrome web apps, Wave-like sharing and editing (video)
If it happened any other way, it just wouldn't be as satisfying, now would it? After years of leaks, murmurs, hubbub and other familiar synonyms, Google's mythical cloud storage platform is now official... sort of. As Lady Fate would have it, the company apparently outed a memo of the features on its French blog earlier today, but before it could yank the 'pull' switch, an eagle-eyed reader managed to grab the text and run it through -- surprise, surprise -- Google Translate. What's left is an official-as-you'll-get-right-now transcript of Google Drive's features, but contrary to the hype, it all feels way more enterprise-centric than consumers may have wanted. For starters, there's no real mention of music (we guess Google Music is on its own, there), and there's just 5GB of free storage for "documents, videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs, etc." According to the brief, it's designed to let users "live, work and play in the cloud," with direct integration with Docs and Google+. We're also told that Drive can be installed on one's Mac, PC or Android phone / tablet, while an iOS version will be "available in the coming weeks." Of note, Google's making this accessible to visually impaired consumers with the use of a screen reader. As for features? Naturally, Google's flexing its search muscles in as many ways as possible; if you scan in a newspaper clipping, a simple Search All within Drive will allow results to appear directly from said clipping. If you upload a shot of the Eiffel Tower, it'll show up whenever you search for the aforesaid icon. Moreover, Drive will allow folks to open over 30 types of documents directly from a web browser, including HD video, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and more -- "even without the software installed on your computer." For those concerned about access, the new platform will have the same infrastructure as any other Google Apps services, giving admins a familiar set of management tools on that end. On the topic of storage, just 5GB are provided gratis, with 25GB costing $2.49 per month, 100GB running you $4.99 per month and 1TB demanding $49.99 per month, with a maximum of 16TB ($799.99 per month, if you're curious) per user; thankfully, Google Docs will not be included in your usage total. Finally, the note played up the ability to "attach documents directly into your Drive Gmail," and given that it's intended to be an open platform, Goog's promising to work with third party developers in order to enhance Drive's functionality even further. The source link below is still dead as of right now, but it simply can't be long before the lights are officially turned on. Oh, and if you're not enamored at the moment, the outfit's suggesting that "many more developments" will be arriving in the coming weeks. Update: It's live on the Google Play store, and a pair of explanatory videos are embedded after the break!
Google Docs bumps up free storage to 5GB, primes servers for Drive?
Is space at a premium in your Google Docs folder? Good news from Mountain View, then, as it's just stealth-increased the storage allowance for its cloud-based document editor. Unfortunately, anyone that's already plumped for a paid extension of their Google Docs storage won't see an extra 5GB on top. This new storage limit also tallies with what we're expecting to see from Google Drive -- presumably pretty soon. [Thanks Kenji]
Dropbox update adds public links to any file or folder
Dropbox has just announced an update to its self-named service that provides new public sharing links. This update, which appears to be an end-run against the imminent launch of Google's competing Drive app, makes it possible to share read-only folders with anyone -- regardless of whether or not they have a Dropbox account. The files you're linking to no longer need to be in your Dropbox Public folder. To use the new public sharing links, you right-click a file or folder and select "Get Link." This makes the file or folder public, using a link that is generated by Dropbox and then copied to your clipboard. You can't make the link auto-expire; instead, you'll need to make the file or folder private again using the Dropbox website. This feature, which is already available in competitors like SugarSync and LogMeIn Cubby, makes Dropbox a competitor against file-sending services like YouSendIt. It's expected that the new feature will go live today. According to Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, a photo auto-upload feature will also be debuting soon on the iPhone app.
Google app review video shows Share to 'Drive' option
To close out each week, the Android Developer Relations team hosts a Friday App Review video. This Friday, however, the focus is far from whatever apps are being showcased (psst... it's Handy Scanner); instead, all eyes are on the Share to 'Drive' option, seen just below the 'Bluetooth' logo in the screen capture above. It's shown at the 32:53 mark in the video just after the break, and while this certainly isn't confirmation that Goog's own cloud storage service will be hitting the masses soon, it's one of the more tangible pieces of evidence that Google Drive is at least a real initiative. Come to think of it, we've got a couple of passes to Google I/O 2012, which just so happens to get going in around two months. Anyone else feeling that tug of puzzle pieces coming together?
Google Drive leaks suggest 5GB free storage, in-app document editing
Mountain View has been leaking Google Drive details like a glacial trickle, but we still have no firm notion of how much free cloud storage it'll bring or just how deeply it'll be integrated with other services. There have been rumors of a Dropbox-like 2GB limit, but now a screenshot purporting to show the beta version's main welcome page points to a healthy 5GB instead. Moreover, Google's Support portal mentions that the Drive app for Android will have document-editing capabilities, which brings us back to the question of whether this is a whole new service, or an add-on to Google Docs or indeed a complete re-branding of Google's documents platform. Regardless, calling it 'Drive' still makes it sound like sat nav.
Google Drive SDK, Gmail integration hinted at in Google Docs source code
Still wondering if Mountain View's Google Drive service will launch as a Google Docs rebranding? The folks at the Google Operating System blog have some code you might want to peek at, then. Apparently the Docs' source code mentions an SDK connected to the upcoming Google Drive, opening the door for third party app support. The code hints at deeper Gmail integration too, "Say goodbye to email attachments and hello to real time collaboration," it says, "Drag anything shared with you to My Drive for easy access." If Drive turns out to be more than a hefty Docs update, at the very least it seems clear that the new service will play nice with El Goog's other web apps -- after all, isn't that what that consolidated privacy policy is supposed to be about?
GDrive test page pops up in Google search, inches closer to an actual product
The GDrive leaks and rumors have started up again in earnest, really for the first time since 2007. The service seemed to destined for the dustbin when Docs started accepting any type of file, but in September hints started dropping that Drive may be resurrected. The latest interesting, if not entirely telling development, is a link to a "test page for Platypus (GDrive)" that pops up when you Google "Writely," the online word processor that eventually became Google Docs. Those with more robust memories may remember that Platypus was the codename attached to Google's cloud storage solution back when it was originally being dogfooded. Clicking on the link takes you Google Docs, just as any Writely.com URL would, but that does line up nicely with what we've heard about Drive being a rebranded Docs -- potentially with a file syncing component. Hopefully the Mountain View crew will take the covers off this bad boy soon -- we can't take much more of this mystery and intrigue stuff.
Google Drive could finally be ready for launch, may just be rebranded Docs
GDrive, GDisk, Google Drive - whatever they're calling it these days - is coming. At least according to our friends over at TechCrunch. The service has not just been a rumor, but an actual product since 2007. Sadly though, it never made it past the dogfooding stage. The internal cloud storage tool for Googlers has been highly anticipated, but in 2010 it seemed like the final nail was put in its coffin when Docs was turned into a makeshift replacement with the ability to store any file. Well, Google Drive still exists, and speculation is that Google Docs will eventually be rebranded as Drive and relaunched with non-Docs file storage moved to the forefront. What's more, it's rumored that there will be a desktop syncing component, similar to Dropbox. Of course, the image above (from a Google-sponsored presentation) and recently discovered mentions of Drive.Google.com in Chromium don't necessarily mean anything. But, if Google actually plans on taking this Chrome OS thing seriously, Drive seems like a natural companion service. For now though, we're just going to have wait patiently to see what, if anything, comes of these latest rumblings.
