Google is finally ready to unveil its long-rumored, long-awaited, and previously almost launched online storage product. Google Drive, as the Wall Street Journal says it will be called, is a natural extension of Google's Docs service.
According to the WSJ's sources, Drive will allow users to upload documents, images, and videos to Google's servers where they can be accessed from any Web-connected device, as well as easily shared. We'd imagine there will be a Google Drive Android --- and iOS --- app very shortly or even simultaneously with launch.
Drive will fulfill the unfulfilled promise that was GDrive, which nearly launched five years ago, but was instead stillborn. Set to launch in late 2007, it never did, but the multitude of mobile devices and a need to store data online has created room for products like Apple's iCloud and Dropbox, which says that as of October 2011, it had more than 45 million users who saved one billion files every few days.
As you might expect, Google Drive will be added to Google Apps, its suite of online software that the company sells to businesses. In that space, Drive would compete with Box.net, which sells cloud storage to businesses.
Although the news is welcome, the date remains vague. The WSJ said the service could launch in weeks --- or as far out as months. There will be a basic free package, but those who wish to store a large amount of data can pay for additional storage (nothing new there, meaning that it's a scenario many such services use).
Pricing for that extra storage is unknown, but a source familiar with the initiative said that Google aims to price such storage for a smaller fee than Dropbox, which allows people to store as much as 2GB for free, but then charges $10 (50GB) or $20 (100GB) a month for additional storage, and 1TB of team storage for five users at $795 a month.
Facebook Inc. has opened its books to eager investors, but some don’t like what they see.
Profit margins have been shrinking. Costs have been rising. And the stock structure means that founder Mark Zuckerberg controls 57 percent of the voting shares, giving him near-dictatorial power over the company’s future.
Other potential problems: Facebook does not operate in China, the world’s largest social networking market. The company’s regulatory filing this week also showed that it makes little money from advertising on mobile devices, which may soon be the primary way users access the Internet and visit social networks.
“Mobile advertising simply doesn’t have the legs that online advertising has,” said Nate Elliott, an analyst at Forrester Research. “If all the users moved to mobile, there’s no guarantee they could make anything like what they’re making now.”
Adding it all up, investors eager to get in on Facebook’s initial public offering this spring are worrying the company will not be able to live up to the hype and sky-high prices that shares are expected to reach.
“Emotionally, people will want to own a piece of it,” said Tim Ghriskey, the chief investment officer at Solaris Group. “But this is a very speculative investment at this point in its life cycle.”
2010, Rory Read said the company would leverage its PC chip technology to attack the fast-growing tablet segment as well as emerging markets but stay away from the smartphone market.
"We're going to double down on client and mobility ... I'm not suggesting we dive into smartphones, a heavily crowded space with low margins ... I'm going to focus on client mobility, thin and light," Read said.
Much of AMD's focus recently has been on selling chips for laptops.
Read took a shot at larger rival Intel's historic dominance of the PC chip market and said the rise of tablets and other mobile gadgets, where Intel so far has been weak, open new opportunities for companies including AMD to innovate.
"You'll see a breakdown of proprietary control points, those control points that have dominated our industry for years and years," Read said. "The status quo will break down."
Read took the chipmaker's helm in August, ending a long search after CEO Dirk Meyer left over differences with AMD's board about the company's lack of progress making chips for increasingly popular mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
Gesturing with his hands and delivering a presentation with the energy of a motivational speaker, and even jumping down from the two-foot-high stage when he finished, Read said AMD would focus on opportunities in cloud computing and growing demand from developing countries like China for entry level PCs and other devices.
Facing problems manufacturing a newly launched 32 nanometer PC chip, Read in November announced he was slashing 10 percent of AMD's workforce to save about $200 million in annual operating costs.
AMD this year will concentrate on improving its execution rather than pushing the envelope with new technology, he said.
Google Plus continues to get more open bit by bit, and just today made the service available to teens age 13 and up. Previously, Google Plus was restricted to people 18 and up. Along with the wave of new teenagers, Google Plus is also getting new privacy and security features--a fairly important thing if the service is to become something parents encourage their children to use.
Google is probably doing the slow rollout on purpose. This is their third or fourth wave of opening the service up. Each time it's followed by new statistics on membership, and this time will be no different. Millions of teens are going to sign up in the near future.
Google Plus Opens To Teens
Google Plus is now open to everyone 13 and up, and I'm guessing there will be plenty of takers.
This kind of news should be music to a video marketer's ears, because teenagers are among the most avid video consumers. They're also much more prone to social activity, with most of today's teenagers having grown up with mobile devices, Facebook, and Twitter.
The influx of teenagers 13 and up to Google Plus means the demographic will change almost overnight. It should also make Google Plus a more attractive social video marketing tool for brands and businesses--particularly those that create content known to appeal to teenagers: I'm thinking about action-oriented brands like Go Pro and Red Bull, music videos and music industry brands, movie trailers, etc.
Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is FishPop.
FishPop doesn't appear in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
FishPop is described as follows:
Something's Fishy FishPop is a fun fast-paced game with fish that pop when you touch them. It's fun for all ages.
If you like to let your kids play with your expensive mobile devices then this is the game for you. Guaranteed to provide endless minutes of near silence interrupted only by the sound of giggles and popping fish.
Survival Mode
How many fish can you pop before all the fish escape? Tens? Hundreds? thousands? Hit the Chum Can when it drops to lure in more fish. Pop the Jellyfish to slow everyone down. Don't pop the Octopus unless you want a giant ink blot the fish will hide behind.
Timed Pop
How many can you pop in 60 seconds? Keep popping the same type of fish for bonus.
Aquarium Mode
This is nice calm mode where you can see all the fish and pop them or not. Great for toddlers trying to develop touchscreen skills. Before you know it, they'll be texting Grandma.
FishPop has a rating of 4.0 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
It's better when we can look at both Android Market and Amazon Appstore ratings, although they generally don't agree, anyway. However, there are 35 ratings, with a 4.0 average, so since this is the Amazon Appstore FAOTD, we'd recommend "buying" it.
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is FishPop.
FishPop doesn't appear in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
FishPop is described as follows:
Something's Fishy FishPop is a fun fast-paced game with fish that pop when you touch them. It's fun for all ages.
If you like to let your kids play with your expensive mobile devices then this is the game for you. Guaranteed to provide endless minutes of near silence interrupted only by the sound of giggles and popping fish.
Survival Mode
How many fish can you pop before all the fish escape? Tens? Hundreds? thousands? Hit the Chum Can when it drops to lure in more fish. Pop the Jellyfish to slow everyone down. Don't pop the Octopus unless you want a giant ink blot the fish will hide behind.
Timed Pop
How many can you pop in 60 seconds? Keep popping the same type of fish for bonus.
Aquarium Mode
This is nice calm mode where you can see all the fish and pop them or not. Great for toddlers trying to develop touchscreen skills. Before you know it, they'll be texting Grandma.
FishPop has a rating of 4.0 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
It's better when we can look at both Android Market and Amazon Appstore ratings, although they generally don't agree, anyway. However, there are 35 ratings, with a 4.0 average, so since this is the Amazon Appstore FAOTD, we'd recommend "buying" it.
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
An enterprising developer has duplicated the facial unlock feature from Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in iOS. From the video, embedded below, the developer says that he is going to attempt to submit the code to the App Store.
However, we know that Apple has already applied for a patent on facial unlocking for iOS devices back in 2010. Since the company doesn't tend to approve apps that duplicates features, either in or planned for their OS, it's unlikely that the app will see approval.
It's possible that Apple will approve the app for some time, and then boot it later, as a patent application doesn't necessarily mean if and when the feature will make it into the OS (although we'd bet on yes).
Notably, while Apple filed for a patent prior to Google announcing the facial unlock feature in Ice Cream Sandwich, the technology for Google's facial recognition software came from its PittPatt acquisition. While PittPatt has been working on that technology since 2004, and was issued a patent for facial recognition in 2007, that was not for mobile devices.
Corning's Gorilla Glass is strong, but it's not impenetrable and not scratch-proof, no matter what the marketing hype. You wouldn't expect the company to stand on its laurels, what with more mobile devices needing still better protection, and it's not: it plans to introduce Gorilla Glass 2 at CES, which runs Jan. 10-13, 2012.
While the company issued a press release for its upcoming introduction, it didn't detail much about the new product, and you wouldn't expect them to anyway. What they did say was that details on Gorilla Glass 2 would be included in an announcement planned for Monday, Jan. 9, pre-CES.
The company will also allow booth visitors to "try out" Gorilla Glass 2. We'd hope they would have some sort of comparative test, between the original and the new version.
Gorilla Glass was used in about 20 percent of the world's approximately 200 million mobile handsets in 2010, according to Wikipedia. Consumers are also usually quick to note when a handset or other mobile device was produced without Gorilla Glass --- and not in a good way.
While you await new revelations of the strength of Gorilla Glass 2, take a look at the video below showing some fun you can do with already super-strong Gorilla Glass.
Open your presents, and jump on the Internet and start shopping again. That seems to have been the order of business this year, according to IBM's Smarter Commerce unit, which tracked online shopping on Christmas Day just as it had on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
IBM said that online shopping rose 16.4 percent on Christmas Day 2011 when compared with 2010. Meanwhile, it's becoming increasing obvious that folks are getting used to shopping on smaller screens, as dollar amount of purchases made using mobile devices leaped by 172.9 percent.
iOS accounted for 13.4 percent of online sales on Christmas day, with the iPad being used for 7 percent of them, while its smaller sibling, the iPhone, accounted for 6.4 percent of all online sales. Meanwhile, in third place was a Android at 5 percent.
John Squire, chief strategy officer at IBM Smarter Commerce, was impressed by the growth in mobile sales. "The iPad wasn’t even around two years ago and now it’s the leading mobile device for purchases. Android came out from nowhere last year, and now it is in third place."
Also:
18.3 percent of all online sessions on a retailer's site were initiated from a mobile device, up from 8.4 percent on Christmas Day 2010 --- an increase of 117.8 percent
Sales from mobile devices reached 14.4 percent versus 5.3 percent on Christmas Day 2010 --- an increase of 172.9 percent.
Compare those figures to IBM's figures for Black Friday: then 14.3 percent of online shopping on Black Friday 2011 was done from a mobile device. Sales from mobile devices reached 9.8 percent on Black Friday 2011.
Clearly, folks were more comfortable with mobile shopping on Christmas Day; perhaps couch surfing. What will 2012 bring, in terms of mobile shopping?
Volkswagen is experiencing a RIM outage --- and nightly, too --- but it's of the carmaker's own volition. The company has agreed to disable BlackBerry email services for off-shift workers, following complaints by employees that work - life balance was being adversely affected by off-shift emails.
Under the deal, VW's BlackBerry servers stop routing emails to off-shift employees 30 minutes after the end of their shift. Routing begins again 30 minutes before employees return to work. The deal covers employees in Germany who working under trade union negotiated contracts. That would, of course, exclude VW executives.
It's something that's been discussed in the U.S., as well, and naturally applies to employees who receive emails not just to BlackBerrys, but also to other mobile devices that might simply use ActiveSync (say on an iPhone) or some third party app, such as Enhanced Email on Android. Work - Life balance has been impacted worldwide due to the proliferation of such mobile email, and unlike Germany's unusually liberal employee protection policies, folks in the U.S. may be inundated with email all night long.
It's especially a problem if a worker is receiving emails on their mobile device in the middle of the night, due to the globalization of their company.
Will Hutton, chair of the Big Innovation Centre at The Work Foundation said
"It's bad for the individual worker's performance being online and available 24-7. You do need downtime, you do need periods in which you can actually reflect on something without needing instantaneously to give a reaction.
"Secondly it has a poor impact on an individual's well-being. I think that one has to patrol quite carefully the borderline between work and non-work.
"So I can see why some firms are taking this action, the problem is that a universal response is impossible... but certainly we should have the capacity to be opted out of it rather than be opted in."
Thierry Breton, chief executive of the giant French information technology services company, Atos has taken a more radical step, banning internal email altogether from 2014. This follows statements by Breton in which he said that Atos employees were wasting hours of their lives on internal emails both at home and at work.
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