GDrive Finally Coming?
The long-rumored Google cloud storage service, which was called GDrive sometimes, is finally going to coming as an feature of Google Docs according to the Google Official Blog:
over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you’ll be able to upload and access your files from any computer — all you need is an Internet connection.
Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You’ll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don’t convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email.
A lot of collaboration features are going to be integrated to this service as well, such as Share Folder feature which was launched for Google Docs a while ago.
Read the full story at: Google Docs Official Blog
For enterprise users, you can refer to this post at Google Enterprise Blog, learning that what this coming service can benefit your enterprise collaboration and your business.
WEBMAIL WINS: 70% Prefer Gmail to Outlook
The famous media Mashable made a vote about webmail among its readers last week and here is the result:
This week, we asked you to make a choice about the web’s oldest form of communication: email. We pitted Microsoft’s Outlook, standard-bearer of desktop e-mail software and businesses worldwide, against Google’s Gmail, the webmail software that continues to innovate how we use and manage our inboxes.
After more than 5,000 votes, you’ve spoken loud and clear. The winner ….
… is Gmail (Gmail) by a landslide. With 3,684 votes (a full 70 percent of the vote), Gmail has trounced Microsoft Outlook (Microsoft Outlook), which garnered only 980 ballots (19 percent). The remaining 11 percent of you called the battle a tie.
Read the full story or participate in the discusssion at Mashable.com
Nexus One Reviews
Google anounced its new phone last week: the Nexus One. Engadget get its first hand on for this charming Android 2.1 smartphone and here is some quote of their review.
Hardware
The Nexus One is nothing if not handsome. From its ultra-thin body to sleek, curved edges, the phone is absolutely lustworthy. While it’s unmistakably HTC, there are plenty of design cues that feel authentically Google as well — and it’s that balance which makes the phone such an intriguing piece of hardware.
As you’ve heard, the Nexus One runs atop the much-hyped, rarely seen 1GHz Snapdragon CPU from Qualcomm (the same processor powering the HD2) — really the highlight of this show. The phone also has 512MB of both RAM and ROM, but those hoping for new application storage options will find themselves out of luck yet again — you’re still limited to that small partition for app use. The display is an AMOLED, 480 x 800 capacitive touchscreen, and the handset also contains a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer, along with an HSPA-capable GSM radio (AWS and euro 2100MHz bands only for 3G — sorry AT&T users), WiFi, the prerequisite AGPS chip, and a microSD slot (which comes loaded with a 4GB card, but is expandable to 32GB).Software
Android 2.1 is in no way dramatically different than the iteration of the OS which is currently running on the Motorola Droid (2.0.1). Still, there ARE changes:
Firstly, the place where Google really seems to have put a lot of its energies has been in the look and feel of homescreen navigation. In 2.1, Google has jettisoned key chunks of the established Android paradigm for how to get around its device.
Additionally Google has expanded the number of homescreens accessible from three to five (following a precedent set by skins like Sense and BLUR), adding a combo of webOS and iPhone style dots to help you keep track of where you’re situated.
Elsewhere, there are nips and tucks that are welcome, such as the improved Gallery application we mentioned previously, which seems to be one of the few areas actually tapping into the Snapdragon’s horsepower.
One other thing. As we mentioned in our impressions post, there’s no multitouch on the Nexus One. Now, we can live with a browser or Google Maps with no pinch-to-zoom, but not having a hardware keyboard hamstrings this device in other ways.
Availability
While the phone is manufactured by HTC and destined for use on T-Mobile’s network, Google will be the one doing the selling of the device. By all appearances, the company will have a new phone portal where buyers can pick between an unsubsidized, unlocked Nexus One for $529.99, or sign up for a two-year agreement with T-Mobile and purchase the phone for $179.99.
Move forward to Engadget.com for the full reviews.
Visit google.com/phone for the official information or order on the web.
New Mind Group’s Story: Why We Chose Google Apps
It started in 2007: New Mind Group, purveyors of managed services to SMBs in the greater Kalamazoo, Mich. area, began to run into severe scalability issues with traditional Microsoft Exchange installations. As businesses grew, so did their computing needs, but they didn’t have the money or facilities to grow proportionately. That’s when New Mind Group decided to help blaze a trail now being followed by the city of Los Angeles and go to Google Apps.
Like many service provider organizations, New Mind Group, founded in the early part of this millennium, started out as a small outsourced IT department to local businesses. It was only in 2007, as e-mail and other web solutions became less novelty and more necessity for even the smallest businesses, that they began focusing on providing SaaS applications, says New Mind Group Founder and President Daniel Jefferies.
Partnering with Google in 2007 was somewhat of a gamble, Jefferies says, because Google Apps didn’t yet offer things like Outlook integration of any kind. They hadn’t even formally launched their partner program. It was worth it, he says, because Google Apps solved every scalability problem their clients had, no data centers required. Moreover, the fact that all these different SaaS applications had a single login was immensely appealing to end-customers. New Mind Group also offers “login federation” so that other SaaS applications they offer, like cloud storage (in Amazon S3 or Rackspace Cloud) or Salesforce, will use that same username and password.
Google hasn’t let down Jefferies faith yet. Rather than wait years between full releases, Google constantly makes little tweaks and adds features on the fly: Jefferies calls this model “innovate and iterate,” and it suits him down to the ground since it means that Google, and New Mind Group by extension, is far more nimble with the products and services it can offer. In fact, Jefferies believes that the current trend towards hybrid legacy/cloud solutions shows that people are starting to accept the Google SaaS model as the correct one.
Read the full story at: mspmentor.com
Google Enterprise Blog- Zero-result queries: finding them, fixing them 03/18/2010
- Now it's easy to switch to Google Apps from Microsoft® Exchange 03/17/2010
- "Search" for us at SES New York! 03/16/2010
- Google Message Security wins SC Magazine Reader Trust award 03/15/2010
- Innovent Solutions: "test driving" eCommerce potential 03/15/2010
- Google Apps New Features
- Migrating from Microsoft Exchange now even easier with new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool 03/18/2010
- Contact delegation available in Gmail 03/15/2010
- Google Apps Marketplace now launched 03/10/2010
- Two-way calendar sync in Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 03/02/2010
- Six new features have graduated from Gmail Labs 02/25/2010