Dropbox 2.0 launches for iOS with new Photos tab and a streamlined UI

Dropbox 20 launches for iOS with new Photos tab and a streamlined UI

Most of us would call the Dropbox mobile app very utilitarian, built for browsing files and not much else. It’s becoming more of a media viewer in its own right with its just-arrived Dropbox 2.0 for iOS users. The cloud storage service gains a dedicated Photos tab that takes advantage of all those automatic uploads from the past few months: the panel organizes photos by the time taken and offers an unintrusive full-screen mode for reliving memories. Hitting the major milestone has also given Dropbox an incentive to rework the interface as a whole, simplifying uploads to specific folders alongside removing the visual clutter. The developer hasn’t yet given Android the same treatment, although the company’s tendency to keep its major apps on an equal footing suggests it won’t be too long before everyone gets a clearer view of their images in the cloud.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: Dropbox

Source: App Store

Dropbox for iOS updates with complete redesign

Dropbox just released a huge update for its iOS app, and it comes with a complete redesign of the user interface, as well as the addition of a new Photos tab that comes with a timeline view of all your automatically uploaded photos and videos. They’ve also streamlined the way that you can upload files to your Dropbox from your iOS devices.

2012-12-14_162254-dp1

First off, Dropbox went for a more modern UI in its redesign, and everything looks a lot more flatter and square-shaped than before. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, though — it gives the app a more simpler look. However, Dropbox has stuck with their traditional blue interface, which has been around ever since its inception, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon.

The new Photos tab brings up a gallery of images that you uploaded from anywhere and lets you scroll through them and view the thumbnails. That tab, which was added earlier in the Android version, has replaced the Uploads tab, and all uploads are now done through an icon at the top of each folder.

Speaking of uploads and the new upload button, you can navigate to a specific folder and then either send files directly into it or create a new folder for the upload. The new + icon at the top of every page in the app allows you to do this, and frankly, it’s extremely nice to have that feature now, which is probably one of the greatest changes in this UI update.


Dropbox for iOS updates with complete redesign is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Why NASA wants the next Moon landing to crash (but not burn)

Tonight NASA will be pushing twin lunar-orbiting spacecraft down towards our moon in order to crash them out with one final mission after nearly a full Earth-year’s work. This final mission will have Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission probes “Ebb” and “Flow” rammed purposefully into an unnamed moon mountain using up the remaining fuel reserves on both units. This final mission will help NASA engineers validate models outlining fuel consumption so as to improve future mission fuel needs.

moon

The two craft still flying above the heavenly body as this article is published have reached a point at which their usefulness is no longer greater than their potential for giving us information on remaining fuel supplies. At the moment its also true that the exact amount of fuel that either craft has inside it is not known precisely, this knowledge being part of the endgame of the crash.

The image you see above is of the moon (surprise!) showing “Lunar Heritage Sites” as well as the final mile the GRAIL team will be flying along – starting down there at the South of the moon and crashing right up near the top, circled in red. Below you’ll see just about as detailed a look as you’re going to get of the impact site – the actual crash won’t be visible as it’ll be in relative dark as it happens. Images from NASA/GSFC.

maps

The crashes will occur in order with Ebb reaching solid moon surface at approximately 2:28:40 p.m. PST. The craft known as Flow will reach the surface right around 20 seconds after Ebb has landed. Both craft have been flying “in formation” according to NASA since January 1st, 2012.

“Our lunar twins may be in the twilight of their operational lives, but one thing is for sure, they are going down swinging. Even during the last half of their last orbit, we are going to do an engineering experiment that could help future missions operate more efficiently.” – GRAIL project manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California

The final descent that these craft will be making will have depletion burn of their fuel reserves in a way that makes them skim the surface of the moon until “the elevated terrain of the target mountain gets in their way.” In other words, yes, they will literally be crashing into a moon mountain. Lehman continued, “We’ve had our share of challenges during this mission and always come through in flying colors, but nobody I know around here has ever flown into a moon mountain before. It’ll be a first for us, that’s for sure.”

mountains

Above: Ebb and Flow points of impact on both of their friendly moon mountain resting places. Image from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT/GSFC.

The original set of tasks set forth for Ebb and Flow included capturing gravity field maps of the moon, they having generated the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body to date. Congratulations, Ebb and Flow! You did well! Now it’s time for you to crash into a moon mountain at 3,760 mph (1.7 kilometers per second) – have fun!


Why NASA wants the next Moon landing to crash (but not burn) is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Does Huawei have an 8.5″ smartphone in the works?

Rumor has it that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will sport a whopping 6.3” display, which seems to border on tablet size already, making us wonder if Samsung might be getting a bit too enthusiastic over large screen smartphones. However it looks like Huawei might have beaten them to the punch as according to a tweet by Eldar Murtazin, he appears to have attended a Huawei event and he even posted a photo of a Huawei device which he claims measures a whopping 8.5”! Before you think that this is normal sized for a tablet, he claims that this is in reality a smartphone.

We can’t help but think it’s ridiculous for anyone to put such a big device up to their ear – after all not everyone wants to wear a Bluetooth headset all day, or carry one with them all the time either. To give it some perspective, the iPad mini features a display size of 7.9”, so if you’ve held one or seen one in real life, imagine putting that to your ear, only 0.6” bigger. We’re not sure if this photo has been faked because he seems to be holding it rather weirdly, or maybe he’s holding it from the security pegs they usually place on phones during events. Either way we’re not sure when Huawei will be launching said device, but what do you guys think?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung, LG and Sony to launch 5″ Full HD smartphones in first half of 2013 [Rumor], Sony 2013 Flagship Smartphone Features Glass Design [Rumor] ,

Editor’s Letter: Get ready to Expand

In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

This turned into a surprisingly busy week in news, and I’m proud to say we made a little of our own this week with the announcement of Expand. The brainchild of our very own Darren Murph, this is something we’ve been working on for roughly a year now and, with the pieces falling into place, it’s finally time to tell you all about it. The concept is pretty simple. It’s a gadget event not unlike the best in the world (your CESes, your MWCs) but with one crucial difference: this one’s for you.

Continue reading Editor’s Letter: Get ready to Expand

Comments

Irish government drops Blackberry in favor of iPads

The other day we reported that the US Immigrations had decided to pilot run RIM’s Blackberry 10 program, although this was two months after they had dropped RIM and gone with the iPhone. Now it looks like the Irish government is following suit in which the Teachta Dála’s in the lower house of the Oireachtas will be dropping Blackberrys in favor of the iPad. So what’s the reason behind this drop? Is it because the iPad is more popular, or they no longer believe in the capabilities of Blackberry? Actually it has more to do with  cost, and according to the SiliconRepublic: (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Mobile advertising firm calls iPad mini a “game changer”, Microsoft reportedly asking Apple to take smaller cut in sales made within Office for iOS,

Ubergizmo Giveaway: Another Five Nexus 7 Tablets To Win!

Your week is about to end, but this may be the one last thing that you should pay attention to for today :) . First of all, we would like to congratulate the five winners of our recent Nexus 7 giveaway:

Omar A. from Chicago
Steven H. from Colorado Springs
Neal T. from Chino, CA
Travis B. from Erie, PA
Austin S. from Citrus Heights, CA

For those who still *really want* a Google Nexus 7 tablet, it’s still an early Christmas at Ubergizmo, and this time, we are joining forces with Google to give away another five Nexus 7 tablets (32GB, WiFi) along with five $25 Google Play gift cards. In our Nexus 7 Review, we called it the ‘best 7-inch tablet’, and 5 months after its arrival onto the scene, it remains a formidable value-proposition as it offers great hardware (NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC), a pure Android experience and quick access to the latest OS updates and features.

Who wants one? :) … Read the rules in the full post to enter. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Ubergizmo Giveaway: Five Nexus 7 Tablets To Win!, iPad mini Review,

Google ousting Sync support on January 30

Google announced today that they’re doing some “winter cleaning” by getting rid of some of their services and features that they think weren’t getting a lot of use. One of the biggest services they’re getting rid of is Google Sync, which was designed to allow access to GMail, Calendar, and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, but the company is recommending that users move to alternatives.

IMG_1300 copy

As a replacement, Google is recommending CalDAV for calendar, CardDAV for contacts, and IMAP for email, but iPhone owners will also likely use the new Gmail app for email anyway. The company says that Google Sync will no longer be available on new accounts beginning January 30, 2013, but it will still work for users who already have it set up.

Google Sync will also be fully supported for people who have paid for a Google Apps account for business, government, or education purposes. Of course, this shouldn’t affect a lot users, since most mobile operating systems, including iOS, support CardDAV and CalDAV, but it’ll definitely take some getting used to as far setting up Google Sync differently than before.

Also as a part of the company’s winter cleaning, Google discontinued some of their “less popular” Calendar features, such as appointment slots and Smart Rescheduler. They’re also shutting down their Issue Tracker API in Google Code, and will also be discontinuing their Punchd Android and iOS app, which was an app that could store loyalty cards from various stores.


Google ousting Sync support on January 30 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Holiday Treats Are Even Better When You Destroy Them in Slow Motion

Conan O’Brien probably understands the absurdity of slow-motion destruction porn better than anyone else. But really, we’ve never seen anything like Andy Richter dressed as Santa getting doused by an ocean of egg nog in slow motion. So sticky. So good. Bless you, Conan. [Devour] More »

Wireless AMBER Alert program shutting down at end of year

The coalition of groups and government agencies that brought us Wireless AMBER Alerts announced today that the program will be ending at the end of the year. AMBER Alerts, as most you already know, aim to alert the public to recent abductions in an effort to get kidnapped children home safely as quickly as possible. Never fear though, as Wireless AMBER Alerts aren’t going away, they’re just being rolled into a new program called Wireless Emergency Alerts, which was launched earlier this year.

amberalerts

With the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, those who sign up will get locally-relevant alerts about abductions on top of “Presidential and Imminent threat alerts.” Rolled out by CTIA, the FCC, and FEMA, WEA offers one particularly useful improvement over WAA. Those who are signed up to receive WEA will get AMBER Alerts for the area they’re presently in, regardless of whether or not they live in that area.

The announcement gives an example of someone from Chicago who is visiting Boston. If that person is signed up to receive Wireless Emergency Alerts and an abduction happens in Boston, they’ll get the alert despite the fact that they’re normally in Chicago. On the flip side, alerts for abductions that occur in Chicago while this person is in Boston won’t be sent to their phone.

So, mobile AMBER Alerts aren’t going away, they’re just being rolled into a more comprehensive alert system. The Wireless AMBER Alert system is scheduled to go dark on December 31, 2012 after running since 2005. We’ll likely hear more about this shut down as we get closer to December 31, so stay tuned.


Wireless AMBER Alert program shutting down at end of year is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.