Google has finally released their own online file sync service after years of rumors; Google Drive will primarily enhance the experience for existing Google Docs users but also strikes a blow to some existing file sync and sharing services.It’s not like there isn’t any competition in the online backup and file sync sector with services like Carbonite, Dropbox and Microsoft’s Skydrive. Although it isn’t surprising that Google is moving in to the space it is much less dramatic than most industry “experts” seem to think.Each Google user have to apply for Google Drive before it’s activated, once it is up and running the existing Google Docs directory will become Google Drive. The difference between Google Drive and the old Docs directory is that it is possible to automatically sync files between Google Docs, a desktop/laptop computer and Android devices (Ipad and Iphone apps are on the way when this is written).Syncing from a desktop or laptop is done by downloading an application running in the background automatically syncing selected files. We tested the app with Windows 7 without any issues.Another interesting part of Google Drive is the collaboration options, although they already existed in Google Docs it’s now possible to easily share a document using Google + or even better e-mail a link to a bulky document in Google Drive using Gmail.Google Drive also saves all changes to documents, making it possible to go back to previous versions easily. This makes Google Drive more similar to Dropbox than pure backup services like Carbonite.When we tested Google Drive it was apparent that Google put some time into making the app display different file formats, for example it is possible to view Photoshop and Illustrator files without any third party programs.Google offers 5 GB of free storage, which falls somewhere in between Dropbox (2 GB) and Skydrive (7 GB). It is enough storage for most personal needs, however Google offers up to 16 TB of data. 25 GB of data costs $2.49 / month and 100 GB $4.99, compared to Dropbox which offers 100 GB for 19.99/month this is cheap. When buying Google Drive space, the storage can also be used for Picasa.The ones that should be scared of Google Drive is not Microsoft, because it is not a threat to Skydrive as Microsoft’s alternative is integrated in Microsoft Office, tightly. Instead Google Drive is a direct attack on services like Dropbox and Sugarsync, which has nothing to offer in terms of integration. Overall Google Drive is a good product, it has more value than Dropbox but is also a solid alternative in it’s free version.
Let’s face it, Windows is one of the most widely used and successful operating systems out there, but in order to really use it effectively there are just some must have apps, we have listed five of them;
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is slowly becoming the most popular web-browser out there. From almost being an experimental release by Google it has come a long way. Google recently added device syncing to Chrome, for example open tabs will be synced between your desktop and Android phone. Chrome also handles online apps and games very fast and has a number of Google features available as apps such as Google Docs, Gmail and Translate. Compared to Firefox and IE, Chrome is simply faster and more responsive.
Carbonite
Yes Carbonite is the only app that actually costs anything, but for the price it is a cheap way of backing up all your data to the cloud. Usually backup apps running in the background will steal system performance and be intrusive, but Carbonite is perhaps the most out of the way backup system that we know of.
Foxit PDF Reader
The Foxit reader is a light-weight PDF-reader, it is one of the fastest readers available and also takes up very little memory and space compared to similar alternatives from Adobe. Foxit also have a number of interesting features, such as social media integration. It’s possible for the user to mark a paragraph in a PDF and post it to Facebook or Twitter. For a fraction of what Adobe Acrobat costs the Foxit advanced-version for $99 also includes various PDF-editing options
Paint.net
There are various free image editors available for Windows, Paint.net is however the fastest and most straight-forward one to use. There aren’t that many frills but Paint.net have the basic features such as layers, history and various special effects. It also works with most image-formats and is updated on a regular basis.
TrueCrypt
Protecting your data is more important than ever as security threats are becoming more and more common. TrueCrypt may not be the most simple crypto software out there, but it has several key features such as whole drive encryption (also works for USB-drives), the ability to create hidden volumes and encrypted files etc. It is also open-source making sure that nothing fishy is going on in the background.
What other Windows apps do you think is essential?
It seems that when a tech company gets too extensive cash reserves they always want to go into augmented reality creating wearable computers (Microsoft and IBM has already been there).
Google has a research project going on, the company wants to create glasses connected to Google’s services to provide an augmented reality. The glasses will be able to display chats, messages, the weather and maps in a person's’ field of vision, according to a post the company made on Google+.
Controlling the Google Glasses is done by voice commands (similar to the IBM wearable computing efforts mentioned below). If you want to know what a day with Google Glasses is like view the video below:
Perhaps the market is ready for these type of devices, but it is doubtful that such glasses will be used for checking the weather or video-chatting. More likely usage scenarios are for providing information about anything the users sees, gaming and navigation in terrain.
Google is certainly not the first tech company to create wearable computers. Most wearable computer efforts for consumers has been failures.
One example is IBM who launched their wearable computer derived from a ThinkPad laptop in 1998. It had 233 MHz Intel processor, 64 MB RAM and was able to run Windows 98, according to the company website. The computer was controlled using voice commands.
Of course the computer never hit the market, and the commercial didn’t do it any favours either:
Aviary's free photo editor, Phoenix has been around for a while, it is gradually growing into a solid online alternative to photo editors like Paint.net, GIMP and Photoshop Express (Adobe's online version of the popular image editing suite).
When first launching Phoenix in your web-browser you will notice that the interface and icons is basically a lighter version of GIMP or Photoshop, with less options and icons. To the left there are selection tools, there is also a lasso tool and a magic wand. Phoenix also contain the usual paint-bucket, brush and text tools. There are also various smudge options and a clone stamp tool, which is quite useful.
Phoenix also features layers, which works the same way as in Photoshop and GIMP. It is also possible to create a layer in one of Aviary's other image creating tools (Peacock and Raven) and import it as a layer in Phoenix. It is also possible to create masks from layers and there are also various filtering options.
Why the effect tool Peacock is seperate from Aviary is difficult to understand, it would be easier if the effects were readily available from the menus instead of having to open it and then import layers from it. If you compare Phoenix and Pixlr in this department, Pixlr is a much more integrated product.
Peacock is however a pretty powerful image effects tool, with loads of different filters and options. It is very close to become too complex however. Also for some weird reason the user have to know that Peacock essentially means "image effect editor" in Aviaryan. Because it isn't clearly stated in Aviary Phoenix.
Overall Phoenix works surprisingly well for being a browser based photo editor, for example it is faster than expected and loads images from a local drive or URL pretty fast. It's also possible to import images from Flickr, Facebook and Google Picasa.
One issue with Phoenix is when you want to work with multiple images, in a desktop photo editor it's possible to have several images open at one time. In Phoenix you have to have several browser sessions open, and the different sessions doesn't work together. For more advanced image editing tasks this is definitely a drawback.
Most image-editing is done to put the images online, for that Aviary works well. However if you are an old print buff Phoenix will not cut it, simply because there are no print features.
A neat feature with the Aviary photo editing suite is that the Raven vector drawing editor is available, which means that you can create vector images in Raven and then move over to Phoenix to do the editing parts.
Saving files from Phoenix to the desktop is easy, and the integration is both fast and solid. It's also possible to save Egg files, which is attached to Phoenix This means that you can save a file to your desktop with all layers and history attached. Phoenix can also export files as PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF and PSD (Adobe Photoshop).
If you have an account (it's free) you can save your files in the Aviary's cloud storage, and also use the different social options available.
Overall Aviary Phoenix is a good online photo editing app for digital editing, it doesn't work for print. The power of Aviary Phoenix is not the image-editor itself but rather that there is a pretty big community behind it providing tutorials etc. Compared to Pixlr or Picnik (bought by Google), Aviary has a vector editor attached to it, making it easier to create digital graphics.
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