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Google Drive was launched in April of 2012 and encompasses Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, among other Google apps. In addition to being an office productivity suite, Drive allows users to upload their files and photos. Users get 15GB of free storage between Gmail, Photos and Drive, with the option to purchase more on a monthly basis.

Like with Docs, Google allows users to create links to share uploaded files. Google Drive supports a variety of image and video formats, as well as Microsoft Office and Adobe file formats. Third-party apps can integrate and store data in Drive, while the official Mac and Windows apps allow automatic syncing of local data from a desktop.

On Chrome, the Drive app can sync files for offline viewing. Android and iOS apps allow users to view all their files on the go and make edits.

 

Google Drive gains search improvements on Android, iOS, and web

Google has highlighted new features for Google Drive apps today that it says make it easier to search for files on Android, iOS, and web.

Among the improvements to search in the app, you’ll now be able to narrow your search by file type and open advanced search from the search box. For iOS specifically, users can now get quick access to recent files and search from the Home screen icon using 3D Touch and the ability to search from iOS’s Spotlight feature.

Here’s a full list of improvements courtesy of Google:

  • Narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web.
  • Open advanced search instantly from the search box.
  • Access recent files or search Drive from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS.
  • Search Drive using the iOS search bar without opening the Drive app.
  • Search for shared files by file owner using their name or email address.
  • Use advanced search options like the date a file was modified, words it contains, or who it was shared with.

Google says the improvements for Drive will roll out to the Android and iOS apps over the coming weeks.

Google Drive for iOS updated w/ 3D Touch support, Slide Over & Split View multitasking

Google today has updated its Drive app on iOS with a handful of notable new features and enhancements. First off, today’s update to Drive, which bumps the app to version 4.4, adds 3D Touch support for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users. Now, pushing with more pressure on the Drive app icon will bring up two options, one to quickly upload photos and another to quickly search the contents of your Drive.


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Drive for Android adds sharing notifications, access to shared files without a Google account

Google Drive updates arriving today include new features for the Android app including sharing notifications and the ability to share with people without a Google account.

As part of its Drive mobile app updates today, both users of the iOS and Android apps can now enable notifications for when files are shared with them. Not only is it a notification, but it also acts as a quick links to jump right into the file or folder. And in addition, Google notes that “If a file/folder owner has notifications turned on and someone requests access to their content, the owner will be notified of the request instantly on their mobile device so they can quickly grant access.”

And while the Google Drive iOS app is getting what Google describes as a new consistent sharing experience (essentially bringing it up to par with Android), Android users are getting the ability to share with people without a Google account:

Until now, a Google Account was needed to view shared files on an Android device. Now, people can do this without a Google Account just like they can on the web.

The updated Google Drive app for Android is available now.

Here’s how to download the WhatsApp APK and enable Google Drive backups

Last week, WhatsApp announced that it will be bringing a much-needed feature to its Android app: Google Drive backups. While the updated version of the app hasn’t hit the Google Play Store yet, you can already download it directly from WhatsApp and install the Drive backup-equipped app on your phone now. Installing it couldn’t be simpler:
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Google Drive clocks out early, service disruption impacts Docs + other apps [Updated]

Update: Google says all services are restored!

Seeing Google Drive and other services unresponsive this afternoon? Rest assured that it’s not just you. Google has acknowledged the service disruption on its app status page with this message posted within the hour:

We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive. We will provide more information shortly.


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WhatsApp integrates auto Google Drive backups for chat history, photos & video

Google today announced that WhatsApp on Android — the popular messaging platform Facebook acquired a couple years back for $19 billion— is integrating the ability to backup content directly to Google Drive from within the app. That means that WhatsApp users will be able to quickly make a secure backup of their chat history, voice messages, photos, and videos and have it accessible from their Google accounts.
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Google Drive for iOS update brings multiple file select, quick sharing, and more

A new update to Google Drive for iOS brings a couple notable, highly-requested features to the app. Included in the update, users will now be able to select multiple files at once in order to perform an action like saving for offline, adding a star to important files, or rearranging and organizing. The new feature is something that has long been requested by users and makes managing and sharing multiple files at once much easier than in the past.

In addition, the update includes the ability to share, rename or view file details much quicker with new quick share buttons when tapping on a file.

And lastly, Google says the updated app will include the usual performance improvements.

The updated Google Drive app for iOS is available on the App Store now.

Google Docs & Sheets for Android learn a few new useful tricks

Update: This post has been updated to include an APKMirror link to the Docs update which includes Print Layout.

Google Docs and Sheets, two of products that make up Google’s suite of online productivity tools, have received some small updates on Android that will come in handy for mobile warriors (sorry, had to say it).

Let’s start with Docs. Now from the overflow menu of a document you’ll find a new Print Layout option that, when selected, will show you a fully paginated (each page labeled with its order in the document), read-only version of your document. This is what your document will look like printed on paper. Print Layout will continue to update in real-time as collaborators make changes. The ability to edit from within the Print Layout view will come in the future.

The other new updates today come for Google Sheets. The first is a new “intuitive keyboard functionality.” Now when you tap a cell in a Sheets spreadsheet, either the alphabetic or numeric will open depending on which type of characters are in the cell. Tap a cell with only numbers in it, Sheets will open the numeric keypad so you don’t have to make another tap to switch to it. Nice touch.

The final update to hit Sheets is autofill. As you can see in the GIF above, autofill makes it easy to complete a pattern without the tedium of going cell-by-cell and doing it yourself. Select the data you want to repeat and drag to the cells you’d like to repeat it in, and Sheets will fill in the cells using the pattern of your selected data.

The latter two updates for Sheets can be found in the latest update to the app for Android in Google Play, while an APK download of Docs including Print Layout can be found on APKMirror.

Google axes editing of Docs on mobile web, presenting install banners for multiple file types

Google Drive for the mobile web has always restricted editing to just Docs files — attempting to edit Sheets or Slides files required downloading the Google Drive app for iOS or Android. That changes today. No, you won’t be able to edit Sheets or Slides files now, but rather Google is also killing off the editing capabilities in Docs for mobile web.

The change makes total sense, if for consistency at the very least. But Google says it’s because the Drive native mobile app is “easier to use and offers more robust functionality.” Native apps typically have more access to the hardware and system-level software capabilities of the devices they’re installed on than web apps, and since they are downloaded directly onto the device, much of the boilerplate user interface doesn’t have to be loaded from the Internet each time the user goes to use them.

From now on, when a Drive user opens a Docs, Sheets, or Slides document from the mobile web, they’ll be presented with one of Google’s new app install banners that make it easy to launch or download the native app, and then be taken directly to the file they were initially viewing in the browser. Tapping the pencil icon in the top right will also trigger the banner to appear.

The user interface across the mobile web viewers for the three aforementioned editing tools have also been cleaned up to create a more consistent experience, which is nice.

Google’s new Microsoft Office plugin allows users to open and save Drive files

Google has a new plugin out for Microsoft Office (Windows only, for now) which makes it possible to access files stored in Drive from Office and save edits back to the cloud storage service, as well as create new files in Office and save them directly to Drive. The plugin works with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint (2007, 2010, and 2013 versions), and Office 365.

Here’s what saving a new document looks like in Word once the plugin is installed:

This plugin isn’t anything monumental, but Microsoft’s Office suite of productivity applications still has an undeniably significant hold on the corporate market. By making Drive more interoperable with the suite, Google can ease people into trying its cloud-based applications for getting work done, initially by pushing the benefit of Drive for sharing files with teams, and easily accessing files across devices. It’s a strategy Google’s competitors have claimed to use to gain a foothold in the corporate world – get enough average employees in a company using your product for some of their needs, and eventually IT will budge and consider switching over for everything. Google has a website up dedicated to the new plugin.

Google’s productivity apps receive minor updates for paid and unpaid users

Google’s productivity apps have received two small updates today, one specifically for paid customers of Google Apps, the enterprise-grade version of Google’s online productivity suite for those who want to use Google products with their own domain, and the other for all users of the products. Let’s take a look.

First off, a couple products which tend to fall under the “Docs” brand have received a new UI button (pictured above) for all users which makes it clearer want kind of access you have to a document you’re viewing, and easier to request greater access. If you’re viewing a spreadsheet and have only been granted the ability to view it but not edit or add comments, for example, you’ll see a blue button which says “View only.” Clicking the downward facing arrow reveals the option to request greater access, in this case the ability to edit. Viewers with the ability to comment will see a similar button in the color green. The blue “View only” button will appear across Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings, while the “Comment only” button will only appear across Slides, Sheets, and Drawings.

The second minor change up on the block is specifically for Apps administrators, and alerts company employees to when a document they’ve shared with someone cannot be viewed by that person for one reason or another. Oftentimes to prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands, Google Apps administrators will restrict their employees from sharing files with any user of Google’s apps other than those on the same domain (i.e. tom@corpemail.com). This is what it may look like if you attempt to share a document with someone outside your corporation and sharing outside your own domain is disabled:

More information on both updates is available on the Google Apps Updates blog, here for the new Docs UI buttons, and here for the new invalid sharing settings alerts.

Acer Chromebase Touch: Unboxing the all-in-one Chrome OS touchscreen desktop [Video]

Acer recently unveiled a new range of all-in-one desktop computers running Chrome OS. The Acer Chromebase Touch is one of the company’s most recent models, and it has a 21.5-inch, full HD touchscreen. It’s powered by a Tegra K1 quad-core processor, 4 GB RAM, 16 GB of storage and a couple of 3W front-firing speakers.


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No, Google’s Photos app isn’t uploading photos without you knowing it

Over the past day or so we’ve seen a number of reports across the web claiming that Google’s Photos app is uploading photos even after it’s been uninstalled. Of course the worry is that customers could be racking up huge cellular data overages from having it “switched on without them knowing it”. The truth is, having the Photos app installed or uninstalled makes no difference to whether or not your snaps are being uploaded to Google’s drive in the sky.


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Google appears to be sunsetting the classic Drive UI

Are you a holdout who’s been using the classic Google Drive ever since Google unveiled the new design over a year ago? Unfortunately, it seems that your time to give in has come.

Initially spotted by a tipster talking to the (unofficial) Google Operating System blog, the toggle in Drive’s settings dropdown which allowed switching between the new Drive experience and the classic version appears to be disappearing. I can no longer see it myself. It was possible to switch to the classic version by clicking the settings icon in Drive and then choosing “Leave the new Drive”.

We don’t have our own image of it, but thanks to techinfoweb.com here’s what the toggle did look like:

 

And from a Google support page on how to switch between the two (it’s still live), here’s a comparison of the design and user interface of the new Drive and the classic Drive:

 

I know a lot of diehard users were upset when Google unveiled the new Drive, but I’m not quite sure what exactly is believed to be worse about the new experience. Maybe one of you can enlighten me?

Google Drive for Android 2.2.23 brings ability to download/send multiple files at once

Google Drive for Android, the cloud storage service by Google, received an update yesterday that brings a helpful new improvement for those who rely on the service to access files across devices and share them with others.

Version 2.2.23, which hasn’t propagated completely in Google Play but can be pulled from APKMirror (click here), includes the ability to send and/or download multiple files at once. All you need to do to select multiple files is hold down on one file, and then a blue checkmark will appear indicating the file has been selected. After that just tap the checkmark for every file you want to include and the menu at the bottom of the screen will allow you to choose what you want to do with the selected files.

This should be useful for those who may have a lot of photos, music, and other files stored in Drive that they want to download to a new device, upload to a network like Tumblr, or whatever else. For reference, here’s what the previous version of Drive looked like when you selected multiple files:

 

No option to download or send the files is present when multiple photos are selected (the overflow menu doesn’t include them either). To do so you had to visit the info page of each file individually and send or download from there. A nice little update that avid Drive users will surely appreciate.

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Google Calendar for iPhone adds Drive integration, new interactive notifications, more

Google Calendar is out with an improved version for the iPhone today with version 1.1. The list of changes is short but the improvements should be welcome.

The update includes integration with Google Drive so users can connect files with events on your calendar. Interactive notifications now include the ability to open directions from alerts or respond to guests via email. Finally, users can now see week numbers next to the calendar and more entries using the week view.

Google Calendar for iPhone is available for free on the App Store. Version 1.1 follows the initial launch in mid-March. Full release notes below:
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Google introduces Photos app with unlimited photo and video syncing on Android, iOS, and the web

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Google has taken the wraps off its new Google Photos product at its I/O conference today. Google says Photos is a private single home for your personal photo and video collection that you can access from any device. Photos boasts the ability to automatically organize your photos for you as well as built-in sharing capabilities.
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Gartner: Chromebook sales up 24 percent over 2014, still huge in education

Gartner today released the results of a report finding that Chromebooks in 2015 have continued to see double-digit year-over-year growth for Google with education still as the primary market for browser-based computers. 7.3 million Chromebook units are expected to be sold in 2015, a 27 percent increase over 2014, while 72 percent of those sales are expected to be from the education sector.

In the above chart breaking down Chromebook sales for 2014 by region and segment, you can see education held the lion’s share in all the major markets Google sells to, with consumer sales coming in second, and sales to the business segment trailing far behind – save for in Asia Pacific, where those latter two are reversed.
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Google Drive for Android gets updated w/ performance improvements, PDF enhancements

Google is rolling out an update for the Google Drive for Android app today that it says brings a long list of performance improvements and polish.

Google says the update also includes enhancements to PDFs with “the ability to see completed form data.”

The updated Google Drive for Android app, version 2.2.183.15, should be available to all through Google Play over the coming week.

Google released updates to other Android apps today including new features for Google Docs and Slides and improvements for Gmail.

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Google Drive’s OCR feature now lets you edit scanned docs in 200+ languages

 

Google has long had Optical Character Recognition features in Google Drive, allowing scanned paper document uploaded to Drive to be indexed and edited. Now, Google just recently expanded the feature to more than 200 languages and 25 writing styles.

To make this possible, engineering teams across Google pursued an approach to OCR focused on broad language coverage, with a goal of designing an architecture that could potentially work with all existing languages and writing systems. We do this in part by using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to make sense of the input as a whole sequence, rather than first trying to break it apart into pieces. This is similar to how modern speech recognition systems recognize audio input…

Once you scan a document and upload it to Drive, you just need to right-click on it and select ‘Open with’ -> ‘Google Docs’.

Google adds that you don’t even need to set your language preference, Drive will automatically detect it when uploading a document.

You can access the OCR features both on the web and through the Google Drive app for Android.

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Google Drive Android app is about to make sharing files easier

If you’ve ever uploaded a file to Google Drive specifically to share it, Google is about to make the process easier: it’s adding a share button to the upload confirmation. As soon as a file is uploaded, just hit the Share Link button.

The updated version of the app will be rolling out over the next week, with a few other improvements thrown in.

  • Ability to access a contact’s extended information from the sharing section of the details pane of a file in Drive
  • Ability to remove a parent of a file from the details pane when a file is multi-parented
  • Support for 23 new languages (Afrikaans, Amharic, Armenian, Basque, Bengali, Chinese (Hong Kong), Estonian, French (Canada), Galician, Georgian, Icelandic, Kannada, Khmer, Lao, Malayalam, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Sinhala, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Zulu)
  • PDF viewer improvements (better scrolling and handling of multi-layout PDFs)
  • Performance and UI improvements

Google Drive is a free download from Google Play. The company recently enabled Drive users to access their Google+ photos directly.

Google Drive for Work and Apps for Education getting plethora of new security features

Google has today announced that it’s bringing new sharing controls, alerts and “audit events” to both Google Drive for Work and Google for Education over the coming weeks. Security is one of the biggest concerns that companies have about moving their data to the cloud, and Google hopes these new features will help make the transition just a little bit easier…


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