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

Last year with the launch of Google Drive, Google revamped their storage options for your data in the cloud. However, the data you had in your Drive account was separated from that storage you had in Gmail, which was also different from the photo storage you had in Google+. Today, Google announced that they are taking all that storage space and making them all into a tight little package for everyone. All Google users now have a free 15GB of storage space across the three applications and Google Apps users will receive 30GB of space. 

Along with this new unified storage space, Google has launched a new page to help you keep track of it. A pie chart will show you just how much space you are using in each app and how much that eats into your overall space. The options to upgrade to more storage are the same as they have always been, so if you see that you need more you can purchase it right there. This change will be rolling out over the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled.

Via: Google Drive

Cheers everyone who sent this in!

Google Merges Storage Between Drive, Gmail and G+ Photos, 15GB For Everyone and 30GB for Apps Users is a post from: Droid Life

This morning, the Drive team over at Google pushed out an updated Android application for the masses. Inside, users can now pinch to zoom inside the presentation viewer, Honeycomb (time to upgrade, folks) users can stream videos, and there are performance and stability improvements throughout the application.

What’s in this version:

• Performance improvements across the whole app
• Support for streaming video files on Honeycomb+
• Pinch to Zoom support in presentation viewer
• Bug fixes and other improvements

Since its release, the Drive app has become extremely robust and fun to use. Good work there, Google.

I <3 Drive.

Play Link

Google Drive App Receives Update, Allows for Pinch to Zoom in Presentation Viewer 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

Just now, Google’s teams have pushed out updates for three of their widely used applications - Google Wallet, Play Music, and Google Drive. For the most part, only Wallet and Drive have received new “features” so we’ll go over those. For Wallet users, the app includes new security and battery improvements as well as other fixes that should make the app more stable. Can never argue with that.

Google Drive app users have received the largest additions such as creating new folders, an update to gesture controls, pinch-to-zoom document editors, and lots more. As for Play Music, it’s merely some bug fixes with nothing new being added. Go get your updates!

Google Wallet | Google Play Music | Google Drive

Cheers David!

Google’s Drive, Wallet, and Play Music Receive Updates for Android 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

Google Drive has not been official for all that long, but Google is hoping to extend its reach with the new version of the SDK for the application that is tooled just for developers of mobile apps. The new set of APIs will allow applications a lot of new features that developers can integrate to use Google’s cloud storage service.

Using a secure Drive API, users will be able to open, edit and save documents to Drive through applications. There’s even an “open with” feature where you get to choose what application you open a Drive document on. There are more changes than that hidden under the hood of this SDK update, and developers should be using them on your favorite apps pretty soon.

Via: Google Developers Blog

Version 2 of Google Drive SDK Announced at I/O, Full Mobile Support for Android and iOS is a post from: Droid Life

Google Drive launched a couple weeks back and quickly got to work doing it’s thing by managing everyone’s files. Only problem with cloud-based apps like Drive is that if you have no connection you are left high and dry without your files. Fortunately for Drive power users, an interesting nugget of information dropped at the end of this week’s D conference that just wrapped up, and from Google’s Senior Vice President of Chrome Sundar Pichai no less:

It’s a natural evolution. Users like the familiarity. Sometimes wanting to be full-screen; if you’re watching YouTube or Netflix, you want to be immersed. It’s important to remember that we release a new version every six weeks; contrast that with Windows! Google Drive offline is coming five weeks from today.

“Five weeks from today.” That’s a pretty specific time-frame to just toss out off the top of your head. Currently, you can view Docs when you are offline but not edit them. It sounds like the team behind Drive has a little something up their sleeve, we’ll just have to wait and see when they want to show what it is.

Via: Phone Arena

Google Drive Offline Coming Within the Next Few Weeks? is a post from: Droid Life

A fantastic application has made its way onto the Play Store that will enable Android tablet users to produce some serious work while still being mobile. With CloudOn, you can access three of the major cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. Once connected to your online storage, you can then create/edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from anywhere you have an internet connection.

The application doesn’t stop there – with built in Adobe Reader, you can essentially open any type of file for viewing including PNGs, GIFs, and even PDFs. It’s a fantastic mobile tool that almost all Android tablet users should think about picking up. Starting today, you can give it a go in the Play Store for free. 

Play Link

Click here to view the embedded video.

CloudOn Released for Android – Create MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Documents While On the Go is a post from: Droid Life

Let’s be honest, Google Drive is really just a rebranded Google Docs that is aiming draw in a wider variety of consumers. Its current base is mostly business users or those of us who would rather not fork out the cash required for a top tier office suite but who still need cloud access to documents and other files. As “Drive” though, it’s clear that Google wants to take in users from the “cloud storage” arena and move away from simply being a “cloud document service.” After all, their new motto for the service is “Keep everything. Share anything.” With a free 5GB of storage to get everyone started and upgrades at monthly fees to expand your Drive, are you ready to make this your one-stop shop for the cloud? Will you stick with Dropbox or will you continue to use a variety of services?

Tuesday Poll: Are You Ready to Adopt Google Drive For All of Your Cloud Storage Needs? 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

With the launch of Google’s Drive service just on the horizon, Dropbox is making it easier than ever to share the files you own with a single link. Starting now, when you scroll through your entire list of  folders and files, you will see a link indicator on the right side. Click that button to be taken to the page where your file/folder resides and then easily share that link among family and friends. No more having to share entire folder contents or adding permissions, which was becoming rather bothersome.

Via: Dropbox

Sharing Content Made Even Easier With New Dropbox Link Feature is a post from: Droid Life