Hasta La Gadget!

This morning there was an issue with connectivity for users hoping to access the file storage system known as Google Drive. Responsiveness in app systems such as Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs have been lacking throughout the morning, but Google’s official report now suggests that all problems have been fixed up real nice. Meanwhile Google has been tipped to be starting up a competitor for Evernote and OneNote in the wake of their shutdown (not quite deactivated as yet) of Google Reader.

With the shutdown of Google Reader there’s been a bit of an outcry from the public – or at least the vocal part of the public – to keep it around for the future. Many – including the creator of the technology known as RSS himself – have made it clear that Google Reader is no longer a necessity as RSS-friendly services have appeared from so many different angles you’ll have a tough time NOT having a service to read all your favorite news sources with.

Google Keep, on the other hand, is a system that’s been rumored in the past and was made “prematurely public”, as it were, over the weekend. This system appears to be ready to use Google Drive to store information recorded as notes for your many multiple devices. This sort of system would go into direct competition with Evernote and OneNote and connectivity with Dropbox.

“The problem with Google Drive should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.” – Google

Above you’ll find the official Google response to the situation at hand with Google Drive. At the moment if you’re still seeing some distressing downtime, be sure to report to Google right away. They’ll be ready to knock down some walls and bring your free services back up to speed. Meanwhile have a peek at the timeline below for more information on Google Drive and its immediate past!

Google Drive downtime issue UPDATE: Resolved is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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We think it’s safe to say the UI redesign for Gmail 2.0 for iOS has received a large amount of praise from its users as the company is now expanding the UI design into its web apps.

Gmail users who access their email account with its mobile web app or Gmail Offline will now be able to enjoy the same UI design as Gmail 2.0 for iOS users have been enjoying for a few months now. Users will also be able to use Gmail 2.0′s search and Google Calendar integration, which were two features Google received a high amount of praise for from its iOS users.

Not only will the 2.0 redesign be available for iOS users who prefer to live life app-less, but it is also available for Android, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire users. As for Windows Phone users, you’ll have to wait your turn as Google has yet to deem you worthy of partaking in the new UI changes. Hopefully that will change soon considering how much better the new UI is compared to the previous version.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Top 10 CES Gadgets, iPad 2 Display Dock Looks Like The Ones At Apple Stores,

Iran’s struggle with the unfiltered internet is well documented — the nation has spent years fending off cyber attacks, blocking access and potentially fencing its own intranet off from the outside world. Sites like YouTube and Facebook can often only be accessed by using a VPN, bypassing the country’s internet filter. Sadly, Iranian users may have to get their Harlem shake fix elsewhere: Iran is putting the lid on “illegal” VPN access. “Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked,” explained Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, Iran’s head of information and communications technology committee. “Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used.”

Registered and legal VPN access can still be purchased, but the typical filter workarounds no longer work. That’s not stopping Iran’s most dedicated internet users though: one local took to Facebook to confirm that VPN access had been restricting, noting that he was using an unrelated method to dodge Iran’s content control efforts. The crackdown may have also blocked access to commonly used sites, such as Yahoo or Google Parliament plans to study the issue more in the coming week, and will presumably tweak the policy as necessary.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Reuters

We’ve all heard about the travel money scam – a friend contacts you via IM or email frantic, saying they are overseas and have lost all their money and need some to get help. Many other variations exist, as well as other scams altogether. The hijacking attempts reached their peek in the summer of 2011, prompting Google to declare a “war against account hijackers.” Earlier today, the company announced that Google account hacking has been reduced by 99.7-percent since then.

Initially, spammers were forced to change how they went about scamming individuals due to security measures implemented with the accounts. To get around them, the scammers were forced to hijack email accounts, as well as any other account they can get into using the same login information. According to Google, it has observed individual hijackers attempting to infiltrate a million Gmail accounts for weeks on end using stolen passwords.

To help protect against these issues, Google implemented security measures that looked beyond the simple email/password combination. A series of variables are looked at when checking whether the account is being accessed by its owner; there are in excess of 120 variables that can be used. If the login looks too risky, other security measures are kicked into gear.

Questions are posed to the person logging into the account, such as the phone number associated with it or the security question that was created when the account was made. As Google states, because of the nature of these questions, it is difficult for a hijacker who has the email/password combo to know these answers. As a result, Google has seen a drop in account hijacking of 99.7-percent since 2011.

Still, as Google points out, the best security involves help from the account owner. Gmail users can help foil attackers by using a complex, unique password, by turning on 2-step verification, and by ensuring that the recovery options in the account are set up with correct information, such as a secondary email address and phone number.

[via Google Public Policy Blogspot]

Google’s “war against account hijackers” results in a 99.7% reduction is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.