Google Drive for Android is receiving a major update today that includes a new UI, document scanner, and editing improvements. In terms of the UI, Google is introduce a card-style layout, similar to what we are seeing across a number of their apps like Google Play and Google Keep. In this new UI, you get to see larger previews of documents to help you discover information quicker.  

Along with the new UI, Google is introducing a document scanner, which allows you take photos of of documents, business cards, etc. and save them for later. Google will turn them into PDF files, but remember that Drive recognizes text in documents so you can search for items embedded later on.

They improved the editing experience as well. After the update, you’ll be able to adjust font types and sizes for a spreadsheet and tweak cell colors and alignment from within the app.

You can also choose to download copies of documents to your device from the action menu inside settings.

Here is the rest of the changelog:

• New grid view makes it easier to find your files
• New quick preview lets you view photos and other files from within the app
• Scan documents, receipts and letters for safe keeping in Drive; then search by contents once uploaded
• Download a copy of files to your local device (Honeycomb+)
• Spreadsheet editor now supports changing fonts, colors and cell alignment
• View properties of files from within the editors
• Bug fixes and visual improvements

Via:  Android Blog

Google Drive Updated on Android With New Card-style UI, Document Scanner, and More is a post from: Droid Life

The Android team just announced a new update to the Google Drive app, one that brings spreadsheet editing to your mobile life. This new feature allows you to switch fonts, resize columns, sort data, and more. You’ll also be able to see live edits as they happen, just like through a browser. Talk about nailing a set of features that business folk have likely been requesting over and over again. 

The changelog from the Play store lists these changes as well:

• Edit content of tables in google Docs editor
• Formatting is maintained when copy/pasting within Google Docs
• Single tap to enter edit mode in Google Docs editor
• Add a shortcut to Drive files/folders to your homescreen for quick access
• Send Link now supports copying link to clipboard

Via:  Android Blog | Play Link

Google Drive Update Introduces Spreadsheet Editing for Android is a post from: Droid Life

Today, Google has announced the ability to share your important or not-so-important documents from Google Drive right to your Google+ profile. People in your circles that you select on the share page can then view the files while others are left in the cold. This is a great example of how Google is tying all of their services together. So far, you can share PDF files, videos, slideshows, and more.

Go give it the rundown if you’re so inclined.

Via: Google Drive

Cheers Nick!

Share Your Google Drive Content With Fellow Google+ Users Starting Today is a post from: Droid Life

Today, Google has pushed out an update to Drive for Android. Included in the update is the ability to comment on user documents (finally), view presentations including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides, and table support. 

Google is also hoping to get people excited for future updates as well. It looks like native editing and real-time collaboration should be hitting the app sometime soon according to a blog post from Google’s Drive team. Excited? We are.

Play Link

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: Google

Cheers Adam and BurnBabyBurn!

Google Drive Updated – Comment on Documents, View Presentations, and More is a post from: Droid Life

QuickOffice, one of the top office suites on Android, has been acquired by Google, the Mountain View based company announced this morning. Your immediate reaction is probably the same as ours – “Time for Google Drive to get some much needed love and polishing.”

Google wouldn’t mention Drive specifically, but they did have this to say:

Today, consumers, businesses and schools use Google Apps to get stuff done from anywhere, with anyone and on any device. Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we’ll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our Apps product suite.

We aren’t sure how much longer they will continue to keep QuickOffice up and running, but Google is looking forward to welcoming their team and users to the party.

Via:  Google

Google Acquires QuickOffice, Probably Looking to Improve Drive is a post from: Droid Life

Yep, Google Drive is available now in the Play Store. It really is just an overhauled Google Docs, so if you already have that app installed, it will be a simple update. We are still waiting for drive.google.com to go live though.

Update:  I take that back, drive.google.com is now live. Doesn’t appear to be GApps support yet.

Play Link

Click here to view the embedded video.

Update 2:  The Google team has announced it on the Docs blog and yes, it is taking over for Docs. It’s exactly as reported earlier except for the pricing of upgrades. You will have the option to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. Not bad pricing.

Cheers Jon, Spencer, Bret, and Wintergon!

Google Drive App is Live in the Play Store, Actually Just Update Your Docs App is a post from: Droid Life

A whole bunch of hints were dropped within the last 24 hours, suggesting that Google Drive could launch as early as today. According to a prematurely posted article to the French Google Enterprise blog, that’s exactly what is about to happen. A Google+ reader noticed a post about the new service go up and copied it all just in case it was pulled. Once saved, Google translate took care of the rest, revealing all of the details that we expect to come at some point today. We have them for you below. 

Breakdown:

• It’s like a glorified Google Docs locker. Google is even referring to it as the “evolution of Docs.”
• Will have a 99.9% uptime.
• You get 5GB of storage for free.
• You can purchase more started at 20GB for $4/month up to 16TB.
• A new Android app will launch or they may just replace Google Docs, tough to tell.

Full post:

Posted by Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice President, Google Chrome & Apps

Today we launch Google Drive, a centralized space where you can create, share, collaborate and store all your documents. You establish a budget with your staff that you develop a presentation with a working group or hosting a seminar, you can now do it in Drive. Download and access all your documents, videos, photos, Google Docs, PDF, etc..
Next step in the evolution of Google Docs and functionality of downloading any material, Drive will allow you to live, work and play in the Cloud.

Google Drive, you can:
Create and collaborate. Google Docs is integrated directly into Google Drive, allowing you to work in real time with colleagues on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Add and reply to comments on any media (PDF, image, videotape, etc.) and be informed when other people comment on or wish to share documents with you

Keep your documents securely and access anywhere and any device connected to the Internet. All your documents are just … there. Whatever happens. Drive you can install on your Mac, PC or download the application Drive on your phone or Android tablet. IOS version of the application will be available in the coming weeks. Drive is also accessible to visually impaired people using a screen reader tool

Search All. Search by keyword and filter by document type, owner, activity, etc.. Drive can even recognize the text content of a document scanned by technology OCR. For example, if you download the scanned image of an old newspaper clipping, you can search using one of the words quoted in the article. We have even begun to tap the image recognition: if you upload a picture of the Eiffel Tower in Drive, the next time you search the term [Eiffel Tower], the image will appear in the results

Open more than 30 types of documents directly from a Web browser – including high-definition video, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop – even without the proper software installed on your computer

We know that you need to access your documents in order to work everyday. Google Drive uses the same infrastructure as any other Google Apps services, which means it also has the same administrative tools, security and reliability, among others:

Centralized management: new tools are available in the Apps control interface for administrators to add or remove storage space for individual or groups of users

Security: encryption of data transfer between your browser and our servers, and check option 2 in time to prevent non-authorized access to an account by requiring users to log on returning secure code generated from their mobile phone

Data replication: synchronous replication of data in multiple data centers ensures the safety and accessibility of your records even in the unlikely event one of our data centers is temporarily unavailable

Availability: 99.9% uptime guarantee so you can be assured that your documents are accessible when you need it
Each user has access to Google Apps 5GB storage included in the suite Google Apps administrators can centrally manage and purchase additional storage space. When a user reaches the limit, administrators can purchase the necessary space of 20GB for $ 4 per month to 16TB (Google Docs are not counted in the quota of storage space).
Starting today, Google Apps administrators will see new orders for Drive in their management interface. Users of companies have opted for the quick launch, will enable Google Drive on drive.google.com / start and will receive their access in the following weeks.

Drive is designed to work harmoniously with all the products you use – whether Google products or third party service. You can share your photos on Google Drive + and will soon be able to attach documents directly into your emails Drive Gmail. Drive is intended to be an open platform, so we work with many third party developers, allowing you to do things such as sending faxes, edit videos and create models directly from Drive website. To install these applications, visit the Chrome Web Store and follow the events for more useful applications to come.
It is only the beginning of Google Drive, many developments are coming. Stay tuned!

Via:  TechCrunch

Cheers Jeff!

French Google Blog Outs Google Drive Ahead of Launch? Here are the Details is a post from: Droid Life

Is today the day? Will Google Drive launch, giving the world 5GB of Google cloud storage, an app to control it, and unicorn dust to make it all magical? Well, it may be magical without the unicorn dust, but there is still a chance it could launch today. We heard last week that Drive would launch this week and some things are already happening behind the scenes that would semi-support that. First, we have a Google Support page that references Drive and how you can transfer document ownership between users. On top of that, users are noticing that their Google Docs accounts are being bumped from 1GB of storage up to 5GB, which is the rumored amount of space that we will all receive at launch.

Google tends to launch products later in the morning or early afternoons (at least it seems that way), so if today is the day, we may not see anything for a couple of hours. When we do, expect to see videos to their Youtube channels, posts to their blogs, etc. Stay tuned!

Via:  Google Support | The Verge | Engadget

Google Drive Support Pages Spotted, Docs Storage Upped to 5GB – Release Imminent? is a post from: Droid Life

According to The Next Web, Google’s Dropbox competitor known as Drive, will launch next week on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. When released, users will receive 5GB of free storage with the option to upgrade to more at various price levels.

What we are trying to decide though, is if we care? Dropbox and Box are both awesome cloud storage services with great Android apps, so why switch? I already have 50GB on Box for free and another 30GB on Dropbox thanks to my HTC One X, so why would I want to migrate over to Google’s new service? Well for one, it adds another level to the ecosystem. Our email, contacts, music, navigation, maps, calendars, etc. are all run by Google, so this would add a missing piece. If your life is dedicated to Google, you should be happy about this. If you love stiff competition outside of the mega-companies, then this may ruffle your feathers.

Ready for Google Drive or are you satisfied with the others?

Via:  TheNextWeb

Google Drive Launching Next Week with 5GB of Free Storage? is a post from: Droid Life

Is Google Drive on the verge of a release? According to leaked screenshots posted this week, it certainly appears that way. Rumors have a launch happening the week of April 16, with users seeing anywhere from 2GB to 5GB out of the gate. There is a chance that they will be able to upgrade that limit by paying or by referring customers, however, referring customers seems highly unlikely. To my knowledge, Google has never offered a reward for referring people to any of their services. After all, this is Google we are talking about here. All they need to do is add a toolbar link to “Drive” and users will flock in. Google users are Google users, meaning they can access all Google products already with a single sign-in, including this new Drive service.

As one would expect, there should be mobile apps and PC software to help you upload docs or files easily and also access them from anywhere.

I for one am looking forward to a Google-based all-in-one storage service. As an Android enthusiast, Google handles almost all of my digital life, so storing my files with them simply makes sense.

Via:  Talk Android

Google Drive Could Launch Week of April 16, Users to Get 5GB of Storage is a post from: Droid Life

According to sources of Giga OM, Google is supposedly ready to launch their cloud-based storage service known as Drive, as early as the first week of April. From info gathered in the report, Google is looking to offer 1GB for free storage and then have users pay for additional space. Also, there will be an available API for third party use, unlike that of Google Music for folks to store content on the Drive from other applications.

April is right around the corner, so it looks like we have something to look forward to next week. Google is making a strong push to tie all of their services together, so I will actually be happy when I don’t have to use Dropbox and Box anymore and can rely on Google for all of my online needs. Anyone else feel the same way, or should Google bump up the free storage space a bit?

Via: Phandroid, Giga OM

Rumor: Google Drive Ready to Launch in the First Week of April? is a post from: Droid Life

Reports from the Wall Street Journal have hatched many stories across the Internet regarding Google’s up and coming launch of a cloud storage based system that would compete with and most likely try to dominate the competition. The service from Google is called, “Drive” and those close to the project say that it will be free for everyone unless if you want bigger online storage.

Drive is “expected” to launch in the coming weeks or months according to WSJ. Many have been comparing the new service to Dropbox or Box, but there are no official details as to whether or not this is exactly true. Some reports state Drive is a way for users to upload media/documents to the cloud, then share it across any other platform they see fit. Others have it pegged along the lines of tying in more with Google+ and Search, plus Your World. If reports from WSJ are correct, then maybe we will find out fairly soon.

Via: WSJ

Google to Launch Cloud Storage Service “Drive” in Coming Weeks or Months? is a post from: Droid Life