storage Stories June 28, 2016
The folks at Lexar sent over a 128GB 1800x-series microSDXC card for me to test out with an Android smartphone that’s capable of shooting 4K video. Lexar notes in its press materials that its professional 1800x line can max out at 270MB/s write speed, which is certainly more than enough for 4K video. Although the statistics are true, there are some things to consider, especially when taking into account the price ($200) of such a card. expand full story
storage Stories June 24, 2016
Chrome OS will finally get a storage manager in an upcoming update
Chrome OS has always been pretty bare bones, but as an avid user and fan of the OS, even I have to admit it’s missing features it really shouldn’t be. With the limited storage available on most Chromebooks, you’d think a storage manager would be available, but you would be wrong. Thankfully, that will be changing very soon.
storage Stories March 28, 2016
Google Photos for Android recently received a slight redesign in the form of a bottom bar that signified a change in the Material Design guidelines. A smaller app update today changes the behavior of how edited photos are saved.
storage Stories November 13, 2015
Google expands Local Guides in Maps with new rewards
Google announced today that it’s expanding the Local Guides feature it has for Google Maps that aims to act as a community-driven virtual guide for points of interest with an integrated rewards program (which it could position as a Yelp competitor).
Among the biggest update for the expansion is new rewards for users, allowing access to upgraded Google Drive storage, early access to Google products and features, and more.
Google detailed the new rewards, which include the ability for users to earn a free 1 TB upgrade of Drive storage by accumulating a certain number of points. The top reward will make users eligible to attend Google’s inaugural summit in 2016: “… you’ll be able to meet other top Guides from around the world, explore the Google campus, and get the latest info about Google Maps. Look out for details early next year.”
Here’s a look at the new rewards:
Level 1 (0 – 4 points): Enter exclusive contests (think new Google devices!) in select countries.
Level 2 (5 – 49 points): Get early access to new Google products and features.
Level 3 (50 – 199 points): Show up in the Google Maps app with your official Local Guides badge.
Level 4 (200 – 499 points): Receive a free 1 TB upgrade of your Drive storage, allowing you to keep all the stories, photos, and videos from your travels in one safe place.
Level 5 (500+ points): The very top Local Guides will become eligible to apply to attend our inaugural summit in 2016, where you’ll be able to meet other top Guides from around the world, explore the Google campus, and get the latest info about Google Maps. Look out for details early next year.
Users can earn points by using the feature in Google Maps to do things like leaving a review, answering questions, uploading photos, and submitting fixes.
The expansion also includes an update that makes it easier for contributors to view and track local guides they’ve submitted.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puDNfWfILl4]
storage Stories November 2, 2015
Nextbit’s Robin is a new smartphone that’s primary goal is to eliminate the lack of smartphone storage. Robin uses the cloud and intelligently archives stuff you don’t use or need often, while backing it up to the cloud. Recently, we took a trip to Nextbit HQ for a closer look at Robin and to see what it’s all about…
storage Stories July 1, 2015
Update: Google says that the issue has now been fixed and limits have been reapplied.
The new Google Photos service saw its launch last month at Google I/O 2015, and its announcement came with much fanfare thanks to its “unlimited” storage option—which lets you store as many photos and videos as you want for free as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some amount of quality. Now, it looks like some users who have tried to take advantage of this offer are actually hitting an invisible limit… expand full story
storage Stories June 22, 2015
Dropbox fans, you’re in luck – version 3.0.0 is completely redesigned to follow Google’s Material Design guidelines.
storage Stories June 4, 2015
The capacity of flash storage devices just keeps climbing at an exponential rate, and now we’re hearing (via CNET) that California-based Microdia plans to introduce a 512 GB—yes, five hundred twelve gigabyte—microSD card later this summer. expand full story
storage Stories April 21, 2015
9to5Toys Last Call: 11.6-inch Acer & Dell Chromebooks from $140, HooToo travel router $15, more
Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
storage Stories January 5, 2015
As part of its CES announcements kicking off today, SanDisk revealed its new, faster Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0 with micro-USB for use with Android devices as well as PC and Mac computers. expand full story
storage Stories October 27, 2014
Microsoft on Monday announced that it will be eliminating its top-tier cloud storage plan and offering unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 subscribers at no additional cost. The change will begin rolling out today for Office 365 Home, Personal and University customers and will continue over the coming months. expand full story
storage Stories March 13, 2014
Google announced today on its blog that it’s lowering the monthly pricing plans it offers for users buying extra storage on Google Drive. Google attributes the changes to “recent infrastructure improvements” that is allowing it to offer more affordable storage options. Google reminds us that, as always, Drive storage purchased through the new plans counts towards storage for Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos.
The new plans begin at just $1.99 for 100GB down from the previous $4.99 for the same amount of storage. There is also a new $10 plan for 1TB (down from $50 previously), and a 10TB and up option that starts at $99.99. Google will also continue offering the free 15GB option that comes with your Google account for Drive, Gmail and Google+.
How big is a terabyte anyway? Well, that’s enough storage for you to take a selfie twice a day for the next 200 years and still have room left over for… shall we say… less important things. Like before, storage continues to work across Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos. And, of course, the 15GB plan remains free.
The new pricing plans for Google Drive are available now through www.google.com/settings/storage. Users that are already signed up for a monthly plan will be automatically switched to the new, better plans. expand full story
storage Stories November 21, 2011
The guys and gals over at iFixit are once again tearing down our favorite electronic devices, this time the new Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble. The end result is a repairability score of 6 out of 10 and a few interesting findings, especially in comparison to the Kindle Fire. Today we also get our first root for the device, allowing the Android Market to run with some minor limitations. Liliputing (via SlashGear) has compiled a complete guide using tips from various posters on Xda-developers.
A few noteworthy findings that you may have previously be unaware of include:
Storage– While Barnes & Noble advertises 16GB of onboard internal storage (saying the 6GB included in Amazon’s Kindle Fire makes it “deficient for a media tablet”), the truth is only 1GB is available for content other than B&N content. iFixit says only 12GB of the 16GB is actually available to the user, while only 1GB of that 12 is available for content other than that downloaded from the B&N app store. Looks like the majority of your content (other than content purchased from B&N) will have to be stored mostly on microSD.
We also get a nice comparison of the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. iFixit explains: expand full story
storage Stories September 1, 2011
If you believe the rumors, Google’s been working on a cloud-based drive for your computer since 2005. Code-named “Platypus” and also known as GDrive, it was supposed to arrive long ago, as I wrote over at TG Daily in January 2009. Today’s article by TechCrunch asserts that the search company may be close to launching Gdrive, based on code hooks discovered in Chrome that point to the drive.google.com URL:
Diving a bit deeper into the code reviews, what’s most striking is that drive.google.com doesn’t appear to be referenced anywhere besides this one exposed ticket. This suggests that it’s either no big deal, or that Google is keeping this very secret.
TechCrunch also reminds us of Steven Levy’s book “In The Plex” which describes how Google+ lead Bradley Horowitz “convinced Google’s top executives not to launch” Gdrive back in 2008 because he felt “the concept of a ‘file’ was outdated”.
storage Stories July 1, 2011
Google has always integrated products, into products, into products. Google+ is no different, where we see many of Google’s product incorporated into this invite only product. One of these is Picasa, who historically only had a storage limit of 1GB, but now that Google+ is on the market things have changed. ReadWriteWeb has posted a break down on what pictures count torwards what storage.
As it turns out, there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re signed up for Google+, photos up to 2048×2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes long won’t count towards this free storage limit. And Google will automatically resize photos for you when you upload them to Google+, so they stay under the free size limit.
That means only photos uploaded directly to Picasa Web Albums over the 2048×2048 size will count towards the 1 GB of free storage, explains Google. And when that limit is reached, photos will be automatically resized.
Meanwhile, for non-Google+ users, there are slightly stricter rules: photos up to 800×800 and videos up to 15 minutes won’t count towards free storage. Again, when the 1 GB limit is reached, larger photos will be resized down.
To sum this up, any Google user can now upload unlimited pictures to Picasa as long as they’re under 2048×2048. If they’re above 2048×2048 you are given 1GB of storage, but they’ll be resized. Google+ users can upload photos up to 2048×2048 that won’t count towards the limit, and Google will automatically resize them to stay within the limits. Get storing!
