Google Drive

The long rumored “G-Drive” has been eluding us for a few years now but it is finally here. Google is going head-to-head with Dropbox with its Google Drive and here are some of the advantages of using Google’s solution:

• Paid plans are cheaper
• Offers more free space 5GB  (unless you have Dropbox referrals)
• Images and videos uploaded through Google+ do not count against your available space (restrictions apply)
• Document collaboration ala Google Docs
• Supports online viewing for "over 30 file types" including Photoshop, illustrator and HD Video (not sure how the support stacks up to Dropbox)
• Sync appears to be much faster than Dropbox
• Space also applies to other Google products: Gmail & Picasa
• Shared files give you a commenting and chat interface – which is actually more useful than it sounds
• If you happen to be grandfathered into a Google storage plan the prices are DIRT CHEAP.
• Improved search over Dropbox – including OCR recognition of PDFs, etc. This is really nice for eBooks.
• Files can be kept forever even if you stop paying. Stop paying and your files over the free storage limit will remain with read-only access as long as you want them. You could consider it pay once forever hosting.
• File-level app permissions. Apps don’t need access to your entire Dropbox, you can grant them access to a single file.

The service is still not available for everyone, it is slowly rolling out..

Google Drive

8-Bit Kuwait Map

This is just great, the ability to view Kuwait in retro 8-bit mode. It might not be very helpful but its damn awesome.

Use Dropbox? Get An Extra 23GB For Free

I use Dropbox constantly but I rarely put large or a lot of files in it due to its limited free space. There are payable options but I’m waiting for the long rumored Google G-Drive to make an appearance.

Anyway, the steps are simple:

• Uninstall Dropbox from your Android device.
• Download this special version of Dropbox [here].
• Install it and login.
• Wait for the confirmation email (took me a couple of hours).
• Uninstall Dropbox and re-download the latest version from Google Play.

via XDA Developers

Google Launches Google Play

Google launched their one-stop shop entertainment store yesterday. It is basically a rebranded Android Market with extra features. You can purchase Android apps, movies, music, and books.

of course Google is still not showing love for us here in Kuwait as we can only access the app store officially.

Google Play

Features

10 Apps for 10 Cents Each

With the celebration of the 10th billion Android Market download, Google is offering a deal by putting 10 top rated apps for 10 cents each that will change daily for a period of 10 days.

So if you haven’t purchased any of the apps before purchasing them now will coast you a total of just a little over 250 fils.

Android Market

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is in Kuwait

If you follow me on twitter you would already know that I got my Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android’s latest and greatest  yesterday from Berserk online store.

As expected the device design looks beautiful, and its just marginally heavier than the Samsung Galaxy SII. The device fits comfortably in the hand and it doesn’t feel huge, even with that 4.65″ screen. The 720p screen looks outstanding, you really notice the bump in resolution.

There isn’t much of a size difference in size between the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S2 as most of the increase in screen size came from removing almost all of the bezel in the Galaxy Nexus and getting rid off al the physical face buttons.

The device also feels very snappy, thanks to the vanilla Android experience I guess. Icecream Sandwich is a complete overhaul and is closer to the tablet Android OS than any previous Android release.

What I wasn’t expecting that the Galaxy Nexus came with a noise isolating in-ear headset that looked very good quality and is not Beats By Dre like some HTC phones but its better than most if not all of the standard headsets out there.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new little friend.

As I said, I got the phone from Berserk online store. Their website isunder construction but they can be reached via Twitter, Facebook and even Google+. I got the device for KD265

Introducing The Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich (video)

Google and Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Nexus “Nexus Prime” and Ice Cream Sandwich today at their Hong Kong event. The phone and the softeware should be available in November.

It turns out the they Galaxy Nexus’s specs are the underwhelming ones that I previously mentioned. having 1.2Ghz CPU, 5MP rear camera, 1750 mAh battery. But its still considered one hell of a device.

The current phone specs are lacking the 2100Mhz band. I wonder how will this effect us here or are we going to wait for an international version.

Thanks Mohammed

The Closest You Can Get To Siri on Android

The iPhone 4S was a bit of a disappointment, waiting almost 18 months for a just a camera and processor upgrade. But Apple had a trick up their sleeve, making the coolest feature in iOS 5 an iPhone 4S exclusive even though most -if not all- voice to text transcribing is not done on the device itself but in the cloud.

Google in the other hand had simple voice search/command linked to its search app in Android. It is used even by Google Translate with its latest update giving it one hell of a functionality.

Vlingo Virtual Assistant:

The original is still the best voice-powered Virtual Assistant on Android.Looking for Siri-like functionality on your Android device? Look no further.

Link

Voice Actions:

Voice Action takes it a step further by enabling you to set alarms, reminders and ask it other various questions and it will answer. Its based on Google Voice Search so you must have it installed.

Link

Edwin

Another Google Search based app is Edwin, this app also lets you turn on stuff like bluetooth, wifi, ask it the time and weather. The searches are done via Wolfram Alpha (same as Siri)

Link

With that said, Apple’s implementation of voice commands is the most elegant of the bunch. Hope Google does the same in the next Android update.

Nexus Prime To Be Announced on October 19th?

Android just joined the twitter party and its second tweet was the video above with the description reading “Live: YouTube.com/Android, 10/19/11, 10AM, Hong Kong Time (HKT)”. So it’s a safe assumption to say that they will be releasing Ice Cream Sandwich in 4 days, But will they also be announcing the Nexus Prime? I hope so.

The Nexus Prime announcement was scheduled for October 11th, but was postponed due to Steve Job’s death.

October is One Geeky Month

We just heard yesterday from Apple the specs of the latest iPhone 4S. Next week its Samsung and Google’s turn to announce the anticipated Nexus Prime/Galaxy, a rumored 4.65″ screen with 720P Super Amoled Plus display And from the teaser video it looks like it will have a curved screen. And by the end of the month Nokia world will be taking place and we should see the first Nokia Windows Mobile Phone device. I hope they don’t reveal something too awesome or that means I’ll be broke this month. That’s not taking into account the Amazon’s Kindle Fire that was announced last week.