Google

Google releases revamped Google Drive 2.0 for iOS

8 September 2013 6:59 PM
Revamped Google Drive App

Revamped Google Drive App

Google has released Google Drive 2.0 — a total revamp of the cloud-storage app that lets you edit and share documents and spreadsheets. The new version of Google Drive features Google’s signature “card” layout, which lets you view documents and photos as tiled grids. However you can still view them in list view if that’s your preference.

Other changes to Google Drive 2.0 include the ability to edit documents in landscape view, an easier to access the search function, better logic when grouping folders and improved ways to copy and share files. Google Drive 2.0 for iOS is a free download.

Game: Google Brings Skeeball to Your Browser

29 May 2013 12:43 AM
Image courtesy of Google, Inc

Image courtesy of Google, Inc

Just in time for summer, Google is rolling out a modern twist on the classic boardwalk game Skeeball.

The game, called “Roll It,” can be played directly in your Chrome browser — and if you don’t already have Chrome, this is as good as an incentive as any to download it now.

To play, Chrome must be running on your computer or smartphone (any device which can access the browser should do actually). Visit Google Roll It on your desktop and g.co/rollit on your phone. Enter the code provided to sync the two. You’ll have the option of playing against yourself or others, and then can set the ball up to roll in any direction you choose.

Then the fun part starts: Stand up, wind back your arm and align your smartphone up with the computer screen. As though the mobile device is the ball, swing it toward the direction of the browser, just like you would in real-life skeeball. This will ultimately release a virtual ball on the desktop version and you’ll rack up points based on which bucket it lands in. So long, productivity. It’s been nice knowin’ ya.

Best viewed on Google Chrome for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Image courtesy of Google – Story by Mashable

YouTube introduces ultra-low bandwidth 144p video quality

3 May 2013 7:14 PM

YouTube videos are buffering all the time and you can only watch them a couple of seconds before they stop to buffer again? Or maybe the buffering takes ages and there is no apparent reason for that? This is usually the case when an Internet connection is not the most reliable one, or not fast at all but can also be because an Internet service provider is throttling the YouTube bandwidth artificially. Sometimes, it may also be because your ISP started to throttle your account, maybe because you passed a certain traffic threshold or because of other reasons.

YouTube introduced a new ultra-low bandwidth viewing option for select videos on the video hosting site. Up until now, videos were offered in qualities between 240p and 4k on the video hosting site with 320p being available on the site since the beginning.

If you have opened YouTube’s video quality menu recently you may have spotted a new 144p video quality option. Seen below from TheEllenShow.

144p (c) TheEllenShow - Shift It, Shift It in Forward

144p (c) TheEllenShow – Shift It, Shift It in Forward

The new quality level is not available for all videos and it is unclear if it will be made available for all, or if Google uses an algorithm of sorts to determine when to make it available. It is for instance possible that it is only enabled on videos that are requested by mobile users or low bandwidth users a lot. There has not been an official announcement of the feature so this is all guesswork right now.

The quality is not that great as you can imagine and only suitable if you are watching the video on a small screen, if you are only interested in the audio, or if you want to view the video no matter what and can’t get the other quality levels to play properly on the site.

It may be an option for the desktop as well because of this but make sure you play it in a player window that is appropriately sized as you will end up with an image quality level that is not the greatest. Still, the new option may be worth a shot for YouTube users who often experience playback issues on the site.

Google Is Retiring Its Meebo Bar On June 6 To Focus On Google+

29 April 2013 4:43 PM
Meebo's homepage as of December 2011.

Meebo’s homepage as of December 2011.

Google will retire the website widget service Meebo Bar just one year after buying the company that built it. Google bought Meebo on 4 June 2012 reportedly for $100m (£643k), before proceeding to strip away much of its functionality.

The advertising giant confirmed this in an early email this morning to all publishers saying it reason for scrapping the tool is to focus on its Google+ plugins.

It started as an instant-messaging service compatible with other web chat programs. It then evolved into the Meebo bar, which could be installed by webmasters along the tops of their sites and allowed visitors to easily share links with friends. It also slurped up data about people and used that to hit them with advertising.

Before Meebo’s demise, Google stripped away all its features until it only consisted of the Meebo bar with added Google+ capabilities.

It will be retired on 6 June, a few weeks before Google Reader is due to be scrapped, here is the email the advertising giant (Google) sent out this morning:

Dear Meebo Bar Publisher,

Five years ago, we launched the Meebo Bar to bring community, engagement, and revenue to publisher sites.

As part of the Google team, this continues to be our focus, but we want to best serve mobile and desktop publishers moving forward. Therefore, we have decided to focus our resources on initiatives like the recently launched Google+Sign-In (which includes interactive posts and over-the-air app installs) and the Google+ plug-ins.

This means we will retire the Meebo Bar, effective June 6, 2013.

Thank you for being a Meebo Bar publisher. We have truly appreciated the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,
Sandy, Seth, and the Meebo Team

Is it unclear what will happen to the “Sandy, Seth, and the Meebo Team”, who signed the statement, although it is possible they will be taken on by the advertising giant to create new features for It’s Google+ servicew.

Before Google bought Meebo, it was used by 100 million people a month, apparently.

Source: Email / https://www.meebo.com

China unveils ‘world’s fastest smartphone’

24 February 2013 7:18 PM
Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment group, has unveiled what it claims is the world’s fastest smartphone and announced a 60% annual rise in shipments of its mobile devices.

Headlining at the mobile phone industry’s annual gathering in Barcelona, which opened its doors a day after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied across Spain in protest at national austerity, Huawei presented its latest device to run on Google’s Android software.

The Ascend P2 connects to the web two or three times faster than other smartphones when using Wi-Fi, its maker claims, downloading high-definition films in minutes and videos, songs and eBooks in just seconds.

In the Christmas quarter, Huawei overtook BlackBerry to become the world’s third largest smartphone maker. Although it is some way behind Samsung and Apple, its less expensive but high-performing handsets are attracting a growing following.

It shipped a total of 127m consumer devices last year, of which 32m were smartphones alongside more basic “feature” phones, home broadband modems and dongles to connect laptops to mobile networks.

The division generated $7.5bn of revenues in 2012, a 10% increase on the previous year. Overall income including sales of network equipment to telecoms companies totalled $35.4bn, bringing Huawei level for the first time with the market leader Ericsson.

For the full story check out The Guardian