Google Drive: Will it put Dropbox and Box out of business?

By now you know it’s no secret that Google has officially unveiled Google Drive. Hell, Google wasted no time in making it available to everyone. Early signs are that the cloud storage service will be a juggernaut in this field, and it certainly has the potential to leapfrog any and all competitors in its way. Box.net and Dropbox are the two heavy hitters already established in this sector of the market so we’ll take a look at each and decide who has the edge. We’ll first look at the features of each and then compare pricing and storage options for all three.

Google Drive - Google Drive has standard file uploading and desktop syncing, but Google takes things more than just a step further. With the advent of Google Drive, Google found it natural to incorporate the features of Google Docs, a document upload and editing service. While Box.net has document creation support, you can only create one type of document — a Microsoft Word file. Like the competition,Google Drive has companion apps for PC, Mac, and Android, with iOS coming soon.

Dropbox doesn’t allow you to create more than folders. Being able to create and spreadsheets, presentations, rich text files, forms, and even drawings is enough to attract many people. Furthermore, you and your colleagues and friends can collaborate on any of the documents in your Google Drive account. Not only can both parties make changes, but they can comment on a document to alert others to notable changes.To make matters worse for the competition, innovative search tools allow you to search for a file by text — even if that file is an image.

If I uploaded an infographic and I wanted to find it by one of the words on the graphic, Google Drive will use a technology called Optical Character Recognition to find the word within the image and return it as a result. And if all of that wasn’t enough, Google Drive allows you to convert an image to a document upon uploading. This is a great feature for transcribing text from an image and it only takes a few seconds. Finally, upgrading your storage capacity also gives you upgraded storage capacity on Google services like Gmail and Picasa.

Dropbox - As I mentioned in the section above, Dropbox doesn’t offer any document creation or editing tools unless you count the desktop folder integration available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can collaborate on documents in this manner, but it’s not as seamless as Google Drive as you have to save a file and sync it to Dropbox, then have your colleague open and edit that file on their end. You can’t create or edit any files on their web interface. Uploading is the only way to get a file into your account.

You can create folders, but that’s about it. There are standard options for sorting and searching. You can allow people to view a Dropbox folder using a link, a convenient feature that’ll allow you to share the innards of a particular folder or file without having to add them to a project or share a folder with them. Dropbox’s claim to fame is their upgrade incentives. They’ll give you more and more storage for different things like beta testing, inviting friends, and more.

Box.net - Box.net is a lot more flexible than Dropbox, though falls short of Google Drive in some areas. While you can create documents using its web interface, you can only create rich text documents. Like Dropbox, you’ll need the desktop and mobile applications to get that functionality. Box.net supports comments for collaborators to stay up to date on the latest changes. You can also assign tasks so people know what they need to be working on, something I’m sure small groups and big businesses all enjoy, alike.

A contacts feature allows you to easily interact with and contact people you are collaborating with. Box.net caters itself to the enterprise and small business market more than the other two, though personal users don’t miss out on any of what they have to offer. Searching and sorting, like Dropbox, is a standard affair.

Pricing and storage options

Below is a comparison of all storage options for each aforementioned service. As you can see, Google Drive has a clear advantage over the competition. Not only are rates affordable, but upgrading your storage capacity also gives you upgraded storage capacity in other services. While Dropbox gives you the ability to get more free storage using incentives, you can get twice the storage with Google Drive for a fraction of the cost of the other two.

Dropbox is a bit more affordable than Box.net. Google Drive does not offer unlimited options which may be a deal breaker for some enterprise users, though they do have a whopping 16TB option. For all intents and purposes, however, Google Drive gives you the most for the least amount of money.

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UK Android fans to get Samsung Galaxy S Advance April 30

If you’re in need of a new Android smartphone and Samsung is your brand, fans in the UK will be able to get their hands on the new Galaxy S Advance starting on April 30. Sure, we will have another new high-end device in the Galaxy S III before you know it with the official announcement coming in about a week. Some folks aren’t in the market for high-end device or need a smartphone before that.

The Galaxy S Advance has respectable hardware with a four-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 x 480. The device also has a 1 GHz dual core processor, 768 MB of memory, either 8 GB or 16 GB of storage, and five-megapixel rear camera. The rear camera has an LED flash and can record 720p HD video.


Power for the smartphone comes from a 1500 mAh battery and the smartphone has a microSD card slot. The phone supports HSPA connectivity and is 9.69 mm thick. The biggest downside to this device is it’s running Gingerbread rather than Android 4.0 out-of-the-box. Clove has the smartphone in stock right now for £322.80, which is the equivalent of $522.75. Presumably, that April 30 launch date is on carriers such as Vodafone.

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Galaxy S II receives Ice Cream Sandwich in Australia

Samsung is taking its Android 4.0 rollout down under with the arrival of Ice Cream Sandwich for Telstra’s Galaxy S II. The Australian carrier is pushing the 200MB update over-the-air, though users can also find the OS refresh via Samsung’s Kies software. Installation brings the GSII to an Android 4.0.3 build skinned with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface.
The update doesn’t cover the Galaxy S II 4G also available from Telstra. Owners of the standard variant can check for their taste of ICS via the system updates dialog within the phone’s settings.

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Leak shows several Verizon devices will complete Ice Cream Sandwich testing in early/mid May

It seems we have an idea of where some Verizon Wireless devices are in the process of receiving Android 4.0. A new leak has revealed dates for the conclusion of testing for the HTC Rezound and the Motorola DROID RAZR and its MAXX cousin. The former will complete testing on May 7th, while the latter two are scheduled for May 17th.

While these time frames may already account for the time needed for testing any unexpected bugs, these days could change at any time. Naturally we’d expect an OTA to come out shortly after testing is complete, but anything can happen.
As you can see in the image above, the Motorola XOOM 3G and 4G finished testing about a week ago, and its updates are being held waiting for Google’s green light. In related OTA news, the LG Revolution, HTC Rhyme, LG Spectrum, and DROID Bionic all have updates either in testing or on hold and ready to be rolled out, but these sit under a list different from the Ice Cream Sandwich list. Expect little more than bug fixing updates from those, for the time being. 

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Twitter for Android updated for more languages, slight design changes, and more

The official Twitter for Android application has recently gotten another update. A lot of performance issues were addressed in the previous update so most of the changes here are features. For starters, we’ve got some new languages — Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian, Thai are all now supported.

They’ve made some changes to the Discover tab, too, including UI updates and more information regarding what your friends are doing on Twitter. You’ll see when they update their lists, when they follow someone new, and when they retweet or favorite a tweet. You’ll also get push notifications when your own tweets have been favorited, retweeted, or when you have a new follower. This 2.5MB update is available in the Google Play Store.

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Google Drive The Online Storage For Keeping All Your Files In Sync

There are many online cloud storage facilities are available for the different devices that are out there. There is iCloud the cloud service from Apple for its devices, live mesh from Microsoft which allows you to sync all your files with the windows devices including your windows device.
But from all of them the most famous and widely used is the Dropbox cloud storage which is available for all the devices that are there in the market through its app. Doesn’t matter whether you are using android, iOS or windows mobile dropbox was there to help you to sync your files across multiple devices.




Now Google have launched their own cloud storage which is specifically meant for their android devices and is called Google Drive and will allow you to sync all the Google related contents easily across your entire android device.
Google have also introduced a host of new features into their cloud storage system which will make sure that it keeps up to your needs. According to the Senior VP of chrome and Apps at Google Sundar Pichai he mentions that Google Drive is more about creating and collaborating with storage rather than just simple storage.

At its launch Google Drive comes with 5Gb of free storage and you can expand this storage to 25Gb for just $2.49/month. If you think that 25Gb isn’t enough for your storage needs than you go for 100Gb and 200Gb which are available for $4.99/month and $9.99/month respectively.

If you are a part of large corporation and you need immense cloud storage then don’t worry because you can get storage spaces of up to 16TB for $799/month.
The Google drive desktop client is available for windows, OS X and android along with iOS support. You can download the android app for your device from the Play Store.


Features Of Google Drive:

• Google Drive has replaced the Google Docs. With the new service you can instantly create new documents, spreadsheets and presentation which you can share with your friends and also see the changes being made in real time.
• Google Drive links had replaced the bulky attachments so now you can access them very easily
• If you upload any pictures or videos to Google drive it is instantly available in your Google+ account. So you are just a click away from sharing
• Google drive features a powerful search option which can look up contents by search words or even filter by file types. The new option in search is the ability to recognize images and texts from any scanned documents.
• Support for 30 different file types allowing you to access them from Adobe Photoshop, illustrator and HD video. You can view the contents with installing the necessary software’s.
• With Google drive app you can create and view files from a variety of different apps directly
• You can easily share a document with multiple people and also edit permission whether they can edit or comment on the file.
• Keep a record of all the changes that are being made to a document which can go back up to 30days. Every time you save a document a new copy is saved.

So here are some of the features of Google Drive and do let us know what kind of service it will be.

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9 Android Apps for Blogging from Your Android

At one point or another, almost all of us have tried blogging in some form.  Whether it be sitting down on your computer and logging into Blogger.com or micro-blogging with services like twitter from your cell phone, chances are good you have tried your hand at something.  Heck, even My Android, and many of your favorite tech sites use Blogspot to "blog" the news.  While some of you like to stay on top of things and push out time sensitive articles, others like to offer up random bits of information whenever the urge strikes.  Thankfully, that Android phone you have in your pocket is a valuable tool to help you no matter what your needs are. 

We've put together a quick list of ten applications to help current and aspiring bloggers handle things from an Android phone.  Now, as with all of our lists, we know this is not comprehensive, nor is it ever complete.  That's where we turn to you guys.  If you have an app that you are using for blogging purposes, share it with the rest of us.  Leave a comment below with the name of the application so that we can check it out.  As time passes, we'll revisit some of our lists and amend them with new titles!

1. WordPress (Official Client) - Has been improving slowly and steadily since it first debuted in the Android Market.  While it might not be the ideal experience to do a lot of blogging, it's great for creating drafts and/or editing work done by others.  With no visual editor, it does rely on knowledge of basic HTML/PHP/CSS coding.  We'd love to see a tablet friendly version that takes advantage of fragments.

2. Tumblr (Official Client) - Simple and straightforward application for a simple and straightforward blogging service.  Clean and easy to post text, quotes, links, pictures, etc.

3. Posterous (Official Client) - Post to your personal, public site or private groups with this sharp looking application.  No frills or clutter to get in the way of sharing your thoughts whenever inspiration strikes.

4. Blogger (Official Client) - Oddly enough, this Google app is the latest of the big blogging tools to hit the Android Market.  As one would expect, it lets users create new articles add pictures, labels, and more.  Not quite as feature-rich as third party alternatives, we expect Google to roll updates out on a regular basis.

5. AnyPost - More micro-blogging than conventional blogging, this app supports Ping.fm so it syncs Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and more.  Toss a photo or geo-location in and spice up your words.

6. Blogger-Droid -  Until Google released the official app, this was a popular alternative.  Users can view, edit, and delete posts as well as upload images, view comments, and post comments.  Available in both free (ad-supported) and paid ($3.16 US) versions.

7. Pixelpipe -  Manage blogs posts for more than 75 services including Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, MoveableType, tumbler, and LiveJournal.  Also supports other tools and services such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Blogger, Twitter, Foursquare, and Dropbox.

8. Moby - Share text, audio, pictures, and videos across a couple dozen social networking and blogging services.  Supports big players like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, and Netlog.

9. MyTumblr - With a gorgeous look and rich set of features, it's easy to see why this app has more been downloaded over 50,000 times.  Available in free (ad-supported) and paid flavors, users can view a full dashboard of options, submit every Tumblr type of post, set notifications, integrate with Twitter, and stream audio and video posts.

Now, we know we've got a good list here, but there are bound to apps that you might prefer over the titles listed above.  What have you been using on your Android phone to stay connected to your blog?  Leave a comment below and let us know what else we should be considering!

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HCL MeTab U1 vs Micromax FunBook

Both these tablets are education focused, so we compare them based on their specifications and other parameters to find which one is better.

Both HCL MeTab U1 and Micromax Funbook were launched within a span of a few days and both of them are focused on education. Here we've compared the two.

Hardware

Both tablets have more or less the same hardware and software. Both have 7 inch capacitive touchscreens with 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Both are based on Android 4.0.3. However, while the Micromax Funbook does offer access to Google Play app store MeTab doesn't, and this is a big flaw as it means that one will not have access to the lakhs of apps on Android's app store.

HCL MeTab also has a slower 1 GHz processor compared to the 1.2 GHz unit that powers the Funbook (however this difference could be the result of overclocking as both use ARM A8 processors). On the RAM front both use a 512 MB DDR3 RAM, which is low for an Android 4.0 device.

There is a front facing VGA camera on both tablets and neither has a rear camera. HCL MeTab scores higher than Funbook because it has a 3600 mAh battery; compared to Micromax's 2800 mAh unit.

In terms of connectivity too both have the same feature list with HDMI and USB ports, and WiFisupport. Neither has 3G, but Micromax is offering a free Tata Photon dongle with the tablet, making it a better offer.

Micromax is also priced better at Rs 6,500 compared to HCL MeTab U1 at Rs 7,999.

Educational content

Micromax and HCL differ in their content strategy. Micromax offers an educational content marketplace called Vriti, where there are 500 different course materials from about 30 content publishers. These materials can be bought starting at Rs 50 and going up to thousands of rupees.

HCL has varying content plans for its different MeTab tablets. MeTab U1 doesn't have any content and is priced at Rs 8,000 while the, K12 version which offers course material from KG to 12th is priced at Rs 11,499 (Rs 3,500 for the content,) and the higher education version, on which some content can be accessed on the cloud is offered at Rs 10,000 (Rs 2,000 for content and cloud access).

While in terms of content both have something to offer, we like the Micromax deal better because it offers all the choice and doesn't force any content on users; while HCL's tablet limits the choices.

The Micromax offering is also much more scalable. It is a third party offering on the Micromax Funbook and the content creator has announced that its platform will be available for all Android tablets, but then Micromax is not charging for education content.

Availability

Both companies are India based and have a very strong presence here. Micromax being a mobile phone brand has wider reach, but then it has limited the launch to 50 cities right now. HCL on the other hand is an IT company selling laptops and other IT products therefore its network is slightly limited. In terms of service, HCL's network is stronger as it not only supports its own products, but also products from several other brands; while Micromax relies more on third party services.

Verdict

We have not tested these tablets, but going by first impressions, the made in India Micromax tablet is slightly better.

In terms of price and availablity Micromax Funbook is a clear winner and has the same hardware as HCL; we don't think our opinion is going to change even after testing the hardware.

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Instagram For Android : App Review

Instagram for Android has finally arrived, a free social image sharing app that has already been downloaded more than 1 million times. You start with creating a free account and linking your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr accounts with it (note that app requires access to post on your behalf to these networks). Once done, you can choose to follow instagram updates from your friends within the app - these appear in the home tab as your news feed. You can choose to shoot a new picture or upload one from your gallery, add a desired effect, add an optional comment and choose which social networks the image should be shared on. However, much to our dismay, the Android versions does not offer as many picture effects as the iOS version yet.


 Features:

☆ 100% free custom designed filters and borders
☆ Lux works its magic by making your photos more vibrant and brings out details in your photos you couldn't see before
☆ Instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Foursquare (Flickr coming very soon)

☆ Interact with friends through giving & receiving likes and comments

☆ Works with Android versions 2.2 and above that support OpenGL ES 2
☆ Full front & back camera support


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Watch Live Tv & On-demand Movies On The Move

Television and movies are popular methods of entertainment, but many of us may not have the liberty to sit in front of a TV at a pre-determined time to catch a movie or a TV show. Thanks to handheld devices becoming more powerful and wireless Internet speeds slowly picking up, you can easily view live TV, full-length movies and tv shows on your tablet or smartphone. The free services usually offer limited content while the paid option could cost as a monthly DTH package. But the price you pay could make sense if you travel and often find some free time on your hands. Just connect to the internet and use these apps/sites to get entertained on the move.

 Live TV

Myplex Now TV
Apalya's Myplex Now is a free service and offer a variety of content on multiple devices. The product is available in two versions- Myplex Now (live TV and on-demand movies)and through a dedicated website www.myplex.tv (an on-demand movie service, currently free and in Beta with thousands of movies on offer).Stay updated anywhere with Live news (current affairs, business, sports, cricket, DLF IPL etc). Works with Wi-Fi, 3G or 2G access.Also available on Nokia Ovi, Windows Phone 7 and iPhone.List of Popular Live Channels available are:

9XM
Aajtak
Aastha Bhajan
Aastha TV
Asianet News
Channel UFX
Darshan 24
Dharm TV
DWTV Asia
E24
ET Now
Focus TV
Food First Channel
GOD TV
Gurbani
Hamar TV
Headlines Today
History Channel
HY TV
Indiavision
Jaya Max
JAYA Plus
Jaya TV
Jeevan TV
Kuber Music
NDTV 24x7
NDTV Good Times
NDTV India
NDTV Profit
NE Bangla
NE Hi Fi
NE TV
News 24
News Live
NTV Kerala
Ollywood TV
OTV News
RAJ News
RAJ TV
Rang Channel
Sri Sankara TV
Star Ananda
Star Majha
Star News
Star One (Life OK)
Star Utsav
Suvarna News
Tarang Music
Time TV
Times Now
TV9 Kannada
TV9 Telugu
UTV Bindass
UTV Movies
Zoom

nexGTV

nexGTv Client offers a compelling end-user experience to view TV on mobile devices. It is the easiest and quickest way to have access to the widest array of content offering from Live TV Channels to Video-On-Demand. You can use 2G, 3G or Wifi connections to access or download this application.

neGTv Features:

Wide Selection of Indian Live channels and latest Movies on Demand
Quick Channel Preview
Superior Picture Quality
Integrated Channel Guide
Fast Channel launch & Switching
Video On Demand
On Screen Controls

This Application is India Specific and carries best of the Indian Content whether it is Entertainment, News, Sports, Religional , you can find it all here. This is one stop for all your Tv viewing needs.The content/channel streaming does not work outside India

YuppTV

like  others this app also offers Live TV Channels to Video-On-Demand

  

Ditto TV

Ditto is paid service available f

or mobile devices. It works over 3G or Wi-Fi and even includes an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), just like a digital set top box. They offer various monthly packages, starting at rs.49 per month (for three channels), going up to rs.199 per month (for the complete suite of 20 live tv channels.)

Mundu TV

Mundu offers live TV on mobile devices and computers -a single subscription can be used accross devices. There is a choice of monthly, quarterly or yearly payment plans- price starts at rs.33 per month and can go up t rs.1499 per quarter for all channels (over 50 channels are available.)List of Popular Live Channels available are:

- Music
> 9x Music
> 9x Jhakaas
> B4U Music
> Music India
> Blue Frog
-Movies
> B4U Movies
> UTV Movies
-Entertainment
> UTV Stars
> UTV Bindass
> Cartoon Network
> Pogo
-Lifestyle
> Travel XP
> NDTV GoodTimes
-Business News
> CNBC TV 18
> CNBC Awaaz
> NDTV Profit
> UTV Bloomberg
- News
> Aajtak
> Headlines Today
> NDTV India
> NDTV 24x7
- Regional
> Telugu - Maa / Raj / Sakshi / TV5
> TamilNadu - Jaya / Raj / Polimer
> Marathi - Films / Plays
> Gujurati - Films / Plays

ZengaTV

Zenga TV presents a range of Indian television channels which plays through your default media player. There is a variety of channels from shopping channels to movie and news channels available.

Movie Streaming

BIGFlix

This app offers video on demand for English, Hindi and Indian language movies & TV shows. A monthly subscription of rs.249 gives you access to unlimited movies.

Samsung My Movies

Also powered by BigFlix, the app is available only for Samsung Galaxy S sereis smartphones and Galaxy Tab users. It streams music videos, trailers and full movies to supported Samsung devicesand that too for free. The collection usually includes only those movies that have done well at the box office.

IPL.indiatimes.com

This dedicated page, in a tie-up with YouTube, only streams live IPL matches. There is other information on the page too- IPL points for various teams, previous match highlights, scorecards & upcoming match schedules.

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