Google introduced photo tours today—a new feature of Google Maps that allows users to watch 3D photomontages of worldwide landmarks by virtue of user-contributed content.
The tours are now available for more than 15,000 locations, and they include popular tourist spots like Italy’s St. Mark’s Basilica or Yosemite’s Half Dome. The new feature is accessible when a user searches for a place, and then the left-hand panel will display any live photo tours. Just click the thumbnail or link to embark on the photo tour. Indications for photo tours also appear when browsing Google Maps. In this instance, just click a landmark’s label to find an available photo tour.
Along with the release of the long-awaited Google Drive, Google also released a slick Mac app accompanying the service. However, it looks like the Google Drive for Mac app is causing some issues for some. Over on the Google Products Forums, the amount of users complaining that Drive is causing Finder on OS X to crash is growing. One of our readers, Mike, reported Finder crashing a whopping eight times since he installed Drive earlier this afternoon and has included the crash report to prove it.
Also, in the thread, user robbysibrahim said the issue stopped for him when he paused syncing. This obviously is not a permanent solution, but it should work until Google rolls out an official fix. A Google support member joined the thread in hopes of helping the users, but his suggestions have not provided a fix.
Right now, it is a little unclear why this is happening. However, we have reached out to Google in the hopes of hearing back. This is obviously very frustrating for users who want to try Google Drive on launch day. Are you seeing similar issues? Cheers, Mike!
You probably know by now that Google just unveiled its new cloud service called “Google Drive.“ The service integrates with Google Docs online, offers an Android app, and it provides a desktop app for Dropbox-like functionality. In addition, Google announced availability of a Google Drive SDK and 18 web apps that used the SDK to create apps integrated with the service.
Integrating your application with Google Drive makes it available to millions of users. Drive apps are distributed from the Chrome Web Store, and can be used with any modern browser. Plus, your app can take advantage of Google’s sharing, storage, and identity management features.
So, what exactly will the Google Drive SDK allow you to do? Google will allow you to integrate sharing through Drive directly into your apps that manage files such as web app Lucidchart. Google already partnered with 18 apps that have integrated Drive features. The post also explained how Google would let you tap into Drive’s storage and indexing features: Read more
Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt took the stand at 9 a.m. PST this morning to give his direct testimony during the Oracle v. Google trial, and while the questioning hulked along, the executive’s answers glimmered with cynicism.
Oracle’s counsel immediately showcased a plethora of documents from 2005 and 2006 that seemingly depicted the Internet giant as having prior knowledge about needing Sun software licensing agreements to apply Java in the Android mobile operating system, but the Executive Chairman denied the exhibited emails and presentations and remained steadfast to his defense that he was unaware Google even needed permission to employ the open-source software.
Oracle, a database software giant based in Redwood City, Calif., sued Google in August 2010, and alleged the Android operating system violated a number of patents and copyrights within Java, which Oracle acquired through Sun Microsystems. Android currently runs on more than 150 million mobile devices. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., denies the contention.
In today’s court appearance, Oracle is essentially alleging that Schmidt and Google had clear knowledge that they did not have explicit rights to use Java in Android. Meanwhile, many Google officials, including Schmidt, profess otherwise.
[Schmidt's testimony lasted until 12 p.m. PST—see below for details.]
After what felt like years of speculation, Google finally released its Google Drive product. The rumors were true: 5GB, Mac and PC apps, collaboration and editing, OCR, and —of course —a hefty search. Google also released an Android Google Drive app that allows you to access the service directly from your mobile device.
Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.
Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just… there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices. You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. We’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices. And regardless of platform, blind users can access Drive with a screen reader.
Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.
As for pricing, Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal did some digging and discovered additional storage is significantly cheaper than alternatives such as Dropbox and SugarSync: Read more
Google accidentally posted its long-awaited Google Drive announcement on its Official French Blog this morning, but the search engine quickly deleted the mishap.
Fortunately, Google+ user Gerwin Sturm (via François Bacconnet) ran the post through Google translate, and then he copied it to his account. So, here (finally!) are all the nitty gritty details:
