Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon’s Cloud Drive service hasn’t been around for too long — about a year now, but it’s already starting to feel like a viable replacement for Dropbox, especially considering that the company just added file-syncing capabilities to Cloud Drive today, allowing you to access your files from different devices anywhere.

The Windows and Mac apps for Cloud Drive have been updated with file syncing, allowing you to share files between multiple computers, which may not seem too enthralling at this point, and it’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it moves Cloud Drive one step closer to being a decent cloud storage service that could take on the likes of Dropbox and SkyDrive.

The new feature allows you to upload files from one computer and have them show up on other computers that you have connected to your Amazon Cloud Drive account, as well as the web interface, which you can access on any computer that doesn’t have the Cloud Drive app installed, allowing you to access your files from anywhere that has a computer.

Amazon Cloud Drive also comes with 5GB free, which is more than Dropbox’s 2GB free, which seems rather low compared to today’s standards. However, while Cloud Drive does have an Android version for mobile users, there’s no iOS version to be found yet, so Dropbox still has a slight lead right now, but it’s only a matter of time before they get some real competition creeping up on them.

Amazon Cloud Drive updates with file syncing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Two-step verification (also known as two-factor authentication) is becoming all the rage now. After the recent influx of security breaches and hacks on major services, companies are starting to implement two-step verification to prevent social engineers from gaining access to your personal data. Today, Apple is beginning to roll out its own two-step verification process for iCloud.

The process works similarly to other services with the feature. Users first need to enable two-step verification on the Apple ID website. After that, you can use your mobile device to receive verification codes either through a text message or using the Find my iPhone app in order to sign into Apple services.

This new feature for iCloud comes months after technology journalist Mat Honan was hacked and all of his iOS and Mac devices were erased, thanks to some clever social engineering by the hacker. Apple promised to beef up its security, and has introduced two-step verification today to prevent such things from happening again.

Currently, several companies support two-step verification, including Google, Dropbox, Facebook, Amazon, and Yahoo. Essentially the feature requires two types of verification in order to log into services, one of which is a virtual verification (like a password), and the other is a physical verification (a mobile phone in this case). This prevents anyone from accessing your account, even if they know the password.

[via 9to5Mac]

Apple iCloud now comes with two-step verification is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google may have distracted us from its Drive downtime with the new Drive Realtime API, but what exactly does that do for you if you’ve already taken the plunge or are considering jumping into the cloud? Thankfully Google has been working with a few service providers already to give us an idea of why the Drive Realtime API will change our lives, including Docs-style shared collaboration on Drive-stored code, collective scheduling, and even group graphics work.

Some of Google’s examples share some overlap, at least at first glance, with other services, like Google Docs, though with the benefits of a huge chunk of online space and Drive’s other advantages. Neutron Drive now supports a collective editor feature for any document or source code file you have in your Drive account, with room for multiple people to work on the same file simultaneously:

Elsewhere, there’s collaboration support for project scheduling, with Gantter using the new API to bake in IM-style chat, project editing, and Gantt diagram manipulation. Obviously there are controls around who can access documents and who can edit them, as well as color-coding so that each person’s changes are trackable:

Finally, from Google’s showcase, there’s draw.io, which as the name suggests is a diagramming app. Just as with the multi-author Gantt diagrams in Gantter, draw.io allows a remote team to work together on flowcharts, electronic circuits, and other diagrams:

Those developers keen to get onboard with the Drive Realtime API can find documentation and examples here, plus there’s a step-by-step guide to implementing it. There’s also a realtime collaborative Rubik’s Cube style puzzle you can play with.

Google: Here’s what our new Drive Realtime API can do is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In what may be considered as a surprise move, popular cloud-storage service Dropbox has acquired recently-launched Mailbox. The new email app that launched around a month ago to hordes of curious users is now in the hands of Dropbox. Both Mailbox and Dropbox announced the acquisition on their respective blogs.

Dropbox says that they fell in love with Mailbox right away, describing the app as “simple, delightful, and beautifully engineered.” Dropbox discovered that Mailbox’s calling was the same as theirs: “to solve life’s hidden problems and reimagine the things we do every day.” That’s when the Dropbox folks realized they would make a team.

Mailbox said that rather than grow the app and the company on its own, they’ve decided to join forces with Dropbox to possibly achieve more than what they could do on their own. The Mailbox app itself will still be sticking around and won’t be changing, save for a few new features coming in the future, including Dropbox integration, according to a hint from Mailbox CEO Gentry Underwood.

Exact plans for the acquisition haven’t been disclosed, but we should definitely be seeing more features coming to Mailbox. We reviewed the app shortly after its release, and its certainly worth a try. The developer says that 60 million emails are going in and out per day, and the company’s service capacity has grown 2,000x since launching last month.

Dropbox acquires recently-launched email app Mailbox is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a world that’s becoming increasingly swamped with cloud storage options, it’s good to see a true, original gangster innovating like the pressure is on. In a matter of moments, Dropbox is going to launch a re-imagined desktop client — one that promises “more visibility into activity in one’s Dropbox, faster access to your files, and a brand new look and feel.” The changes here are fairly subtle, but they’re ones that power users are bound to appreciate. You’ll be able to accept invitations with less friction, see links or albums that people have shared with you, and keep tabs on what’s changed in your Dropbox. There’s also a newfangled way to share your stuff with a link, right from the Dropbox menu.

Over on the mobile side, notifications for shared folders will also show up on the latest versions of Dropbox’s iOS and Android apps (and on the web at dropbox.com/events). Keep an eye on the source link; the new download links should be live any minute.

Filed under: Storage, Internet

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Source: Dropbox