Feb 12
Feb 06
The cloud is a wonderful place, and it makes sense that developers are wanting to get in on the action, especially with Dropbox, which boasts over 100 million users so far. Finally, though, the company has announced the Sync API, which will allow developers to easily integrate their products with Dropbox without the developers having to do a lot of the work.
In the past, developers could integrate their services with Dropbox, but many of the abilities, such as syncing, would be the responsibility of the developer, meaning that Dropbox only supplied the storage at the time. However, Dropbox is bringing some of that to an end and will be transitioning some of the developers responsibilities onto itself.
Essentially, the Sync API allows other apps to just work with Dropbox, and it can even act as if Dropbox were a local filesystem on the device itself. The API takes care of syncing and caching, as well as retrying uploads and downloads, which gets rid of all the grunt work that developers had to go through in the past to achieve similar results.
The Sync API is available now from Dropbox’s Developer webpage, and all the information you need to get started is right there. A few developers have actually already been using the new API in their apps, including Chris Cox, who is the developer of Squarespace Note. Cox notes that the new API cut his Dropbox code in half, which can also cut down loading times for the app.
Dropbox introduces Sync API for iOS and Android is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 06
The lives of devs eager to take advantage of storage in the cloud are about to get a whole lot easier thanks to Dropbox’s new Sync API. The tool streamlines the process of integrating with the service, offloading most of the heavy lifting onto Dropbox itself. Now, that’s not entirely new, since Dropbox has been open to other app makers for sometime. The big sell here are the actual syncing capabilities. Until now, apps have been able to tap into your online well of files, but syncing has always been a dev-implemented process built on top of the existing APIs. The downloading, storing, change tracking and uploading were all the responsibility of the developer. The Sync API does away with the much of the set up work and allows the creation of apps that simply sync across platforms without any hacking or jury-rigging. Apps can simply ask if you want to sync with Dropbox now and the act of creating and maintaining a folder won’t necessitate any further user input (though, it still can if the dev so chooses). The API is available today, and the first program to take advantage of the private in-app Dropbox client, Squarespace Note is awaiting approval before landing in the App Store. For more, check out the blog post at the source.
Update: As some of you may have noticed the source link was missing. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Filed under: Storage, Internet
Source: Dropbox
Jan 30
Dropbox Goes Beyond Managing Files, Announces Document Previews And Photo Sharing
Posted in: Today's Chili
Steve Ballmer might be dissing Dropbox as a “little startup,” but the company is at least making efforts, giant steps if I may call it, to improvement. Dropbox announced a new feature called Dropbox Documents Preview today at its headquarters in San Francisco. The new feature will basically allow users to browse or preview files in various formats (.doc, .docx, PDFs, PowerPoint files), saving you the worry of having to download the wrong file. Unfortunately, Microsoft Excel files are not supported for now. Users will be able to view a pop-up window to preview documents. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DIY Circuit Board Wedding Invitation Is The Bomb, Nokia Begins To See Progress, 
Jan 30
Welcome to Wednesday evening everyone. Today was RIM’s big day, as it rebranded itself as BlackBerry and launched the latest version of its mobile OS, BlackBerry 10. We were there at the launch event to take it all in and get some hands-on time with the new handsets the company has introduced, and you can catch all of the news from the show in our BlackBerry 10 event wrap-up. Be sure to read through the hands-on posts, because it seems that BlackBerry is doing some interesting things with its new phone.
Of course, there were plenty of other headlines to cover throughout the day, with Dropbox announcing a new feature called Documents Preview. Speaking of Dropbox, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer had some not-so-nice things to say about the service today. Zynga’s chief game designer has left the company after four years, while Twitter has improved photo and video viewing in its website interface. Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales predictions today, and the white Nexus 4 took some time to pose for the camera once again.
A trio of Galaxy Tab user agent profile worked their way into the spotlight today, and Toyota has recalled 1.1 million vehicles. Rovio was spotted teasing its new “Escape from Hoth” update to Angry Birds Star Wars, and Netflix is planning at least five new shows a year to compete with HBO. A giant asteroid will be zooming past the Earth on February 15, while Apple has secured a trademark for the layout and design of its stores.
Qualcomm shared quarterly earnings today, as did Facebook, Electronic Arts, and Lenovo. IBM’s Watson will soon be heading off to his first university, while a new trailer for INJUSTICE: Gods Among Us dropped today. Foursquare delivered a bunch of different Best of Foursquare lists today, while Ticketmaster has announced that it will be ditching CAPTCHA. Finally tonight, Cory Gunther spends some quality time with 2014 KIA Forte, Chris Burns delivers his review of the Acer Iconia W510, and Chris Davies asks if RIM even realizes what went wrong with its business. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 30, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jan 30
Dropbox Documents Preview announced, makes it easier to browse photos and docs
Posted in: Today's ChiliToday, Dropbox announced quite a few new features for its web interface during an event at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. One of the new features is called Documents Preview, which will help users browse files quickly and select the ones they need. The company also showed off a new photos tab that makes it easier to view and share photos that users have uploaded.
The new features aren’t available just yet, though. The company says that users should be seeing the new features in the next few months. However, it’s important to note that Documents Preview won’t support all file types, but the more popular ones will be supported, including .doc, .docx, and .pdf. For files that are not supported, users will still have the option to download or share the file like usual.
Dropbox also updated photo views on the web interface, laying out photos in a grid of thumbnails and organizing them chronology by when they were taken, rather than by name. A similar feature has already launched in Dropbox’s Android app in a bit of a beta preview of this functionality, but it will hit the web interface within a few months. Furthermore, the company is making it easier to share photos, allowing users to select photos from the web viewer and create new albums to share to social media or send through email.
These updates and new features are just another stepping stone for Dropbox to become more than just a simple file-sharing service. The company is looking to make it easier to manage all those files that you store in your Dropbox, and of course, many of them are photos and documents that can take a while to sift through if not organized properly.
[via Forbes]
Dropbox Documents Preview announced, makes it easier to browse photos and docs is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jan 30
Any photos you have on Dropbox are about to be organized. A new virtual photo album service rounds up literally every image you’ve got in Dropbox, puts them in one place, and sorts them by date. Pretty great—or maybe pretty scary if you’re not sure what’s in your Dropbox. More »
Jan 30
Microsoft is no stranger to industry flak, but it’s always better to give than to receive, right? Steve Ballmer thinks so, and in a recent Bloomberg interview, he took a second away from talking up the new Office 2013 to smite Dropbox, saying that the 100 million users it boasts “sounds like a pretty small number to me.” He recovered slightly by adding “I’m not beating on Dropbox,” only to follow it with the finishing blow: “They’re a fine little startup and that’s great.” We doubt anyone else would call Dropbox a startup at this point, but Microsoft’s chief can’t be seen complimenting a SkyDrive rival now, can he? After having to defend the user stats for Redmond’s Yammer, he was also quizzed on the undying native Office for iPad rumor, to which he had “nothing to say,” apart from “we’ll see what we see in the future.” If these snippets aren’t quite enough, then head to the source link for the full interview. Ballmer may be a little less shouty these days, but it’s good to know he’s still capable of delivering the odd high-caliber burn.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Via: The Verge
Source: Bloomberg
Jan 30
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn’t afraid to speak his mind when it comes to competition, and that’s exactly what he did just recently speaking about Google and Dropbox. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Ballmer discussed the company’s new Office 2013 suite, as well as its SkyDrive cloud storage service, and said that he’s confident that Microsoft’s new Office products will gain a lot of users, despite competition from Google’s own set of office suite products.
Speaking about Dropbox, Ballmer mentioned that the service’s 100 million users “sounds like a pretty small number,” and he noted that Office users outnumber Dropbox’s user base by quite a few. While he wasn’t necessarily trying to downplay Dropbox’s significance, Ballmer said that it’s merely just a “fine little startup.”
Microsoft currently boasts around one billion Office users, and while many think that number will stay stagnant, Ballmer disagrees and says that the service will continue to grow and bring in new users, thanks to the “more and more people” entering the classroom or office and taking on more information-heavy jobs.
Towards the end of the interview, Ballmer was asked about Office coming to the iPad, and declined to directly comment on it. However, he did say that the company is “very glad” and “very happy” with the product, and “it makes sense on the devices like the Mac and the PC.” As far as future plans for an iPad version of Office, though? “We’ll see what we see in the future.”
[via Bloomberg Businessweek]
Ballmer not worried about competition from Google, downplays Dropbox is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jan 12
Dropbox is rapidly bulking up its Android app’s photo sharing strength after lavishing some early attention on iOS. A newly posted refresh for the Google-friendly version lets photographers mass-select whole albums’ worth of images quickly to share with anyone, whether they’re Dropbox users or not. Android users who’ve been eager for parity just need to swing by the Google Play source link to get their fill.
Filed under: Cellphones, Storage, Mobile
Via: Dropbox
Source: Google Play
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