Google Compute Engine brings Linux virtual machines ‘at Google scale’

As anticipated, Google has just launched its cloud service for businesses at Google I/O 2012, called Google Compute Engine. Starting today Urs Holzle announced “anyone with large-scale computing needs” can access the infrastructure and efficiency of Google’s datacenters. The company is promising both performance and stability — Amazon EC2 they’re coming for you — claiming “this is how infrastructure as a service is supposed to work”. It’s also promising “50 percent more computes per dollar” than competitors. Beta testers will be on hand at later meetings to give impressions of the service, if you want to know how running your apps on 700,000 (and counting) cores feels. During the presentation we got a demo of a genome app and we’re sure if we understood what was going on, it would have been impressive. Hit the source links below for more details on “computing without limits” or to sign up for a test yourself.

Check the live blog for more details as they’re revealed.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Google Compute Engine brings Linux virtual machines ‘at Google scale’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Drive: 10 million users served

Google Drive 10 million users served

Day two of Google I/O 2012 has started, and Big G just gave us an update on the success of its cloud storage solution. Google Drive’s been accessed by over 10 million people, which comes out to about 1 million a week since its launch. Not a massive number, but it’s a pretty good start, and with the explosive growth of Android and the addition of Chrome OS and iDevice users to the Drive party, the cloud locker’s legion of users will continue to grow.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Google Drive: 10 million users served originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

We’re live at day two of I/O and the theme of this keynote is all about “Going Google.” With this focus on Mountain View’s various cloud-based apps, Clay Bavar, Director of Product Management for Google Apps, announced that Docs will now work offline for editing. In the onstage demo, Bavar was able to log into several devices, including a Nexus phone and tablet, to interact and collaborate in real-time on a document. Thanks to the smooth syncing at work, edits made from each device showed up as they were being entered, keystroke-by-keystroke. Now, those edits can also be created without a working internet connection and synced up later. You won’t have to wait long, either, to take this offline mode for a test spin, as the feature will be enabled later in the day, with that functionality “coming soon” for presentations and spreadsheets. Check out the official PR after the break.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Continue reading Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Drive client comes to Chrome OS and iOS, available today

Google Drive comes to Chrome OS and iOS

Windows, Mac and Android users are no longer alone in their access to Google Drive’s online repository. Now iOS and Chrome OS users can install a client and pull down their data and docs (though, the promised Linux client was nowhere to be seen at IO). The iOS app has all the features that make Drive drive great on Android, including OCR and picture recognition. As part of the demo, Clay Bavor, Director of Product Management for Google Apps, showed off the apps ability to decipher and index text from receipts he had taken a picture of. Perhaps more impressive though, was his ability to simply type “pyramids” and have his vacation snapshots pop up. There was no metadata attached to the images identifying them as the pyramids in Egypt, Google was able to recognize the landmarks by analyzing the photos.

Obviously, Drive and seamless integration with it is key to Chrome OS’s success. Now the browser-based OS finally has a native Drive client allowing you to quickly sync and access your data on the lightweight Linux machines. The ability to sync files with Chrome OS is great, but more importantly, an update to the web service has now made offline editing available — perhaps the most requested feature. Now with offline access ironed out and all the major desktop and mobile OSes under it’s belt Drive may actually be ready to challenge peripheral competitors like Dropbox.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Google Drive client comes to Chrome OS and iOS, available today originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad

Google just did what many thought wasn’t possible — it just put mobile Chrome on iOS. Both iPad and iPhone users will get the app, either with incognito browsing, syncing and that unique tabbed browsing interface intact. The company hasn’t said what’s changed versus the Android build, but it’s likely the main differences are matters of integration — Apple’s app rules won’t let Google bring in its own WebKit rendering engine tweaks or change the default browser. Whether or not that switch is a dealbreaker, Chrome should be available later today in the App Store for those who want a break from the Safari norm.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Update: No download just yet, but Google is teasing us with a video that you can find after the break. The iOS port shows up at the 43-second mark.

Update 2: It’s available! Hit the source link to get your copy.

Continue reading Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome and Google Drive Are Coming to iOS [Google Chrome]

Google announced at day two of I/O that Chrome is finally coming to the iPhone and iPad. If you’ve been waiting for the browser you’ll be glad to know you can download it this afternoon. More »

Chrome tops 310 million users, almost 100% growth over last year

Chrome tops 310 million users

Last year at Google IO, the company was bragging that it had racked up 160 million Chrome users. Since then, that number has nearly doubled, with the company claiming 310 million active users. Those consumers download roughly 1TB of data per day and type about 60 billion words according to Mountain View’s crack team of analysts. The company even claims that 13 years of time have been saved thanks to the magic of Chrome’s speedy rendering engine.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Chrome tops 310 million users, almost 100% growth over last year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live from Google I/O 2012’s day two keynote!

We’re not done. Not. Even. Close. The day one keynote may have been full of fun but we’re expecting even more from day two. What sort of things? Well, why don’t you tune in and find out, right here at the time below.

June 28, 2012 1:00 PM EDT

Live from Google I/O 2012’s day two keynote! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Glasses Aren’t Buyable Until 2014. Does that Mean Never? [Google Glasses]

BMX bikes! Skydiving! High fives! For everyone who was floored by the movie stunt-style debut of Google Glasses yesterday at day one of I/O, well, pump the brakes. They won’t even be consumer-ready until 2014, Sergey Brin told Bloomberg Television. More »

Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy

DNP Nexus 7 review

In 2008, when the Eee PC was revolutionizing the computing world and driving every manufacturer to make cheaper and smaller laptops, Sony washed its hands of the whole thing. The “race to the bottom,” the company said, would profoundly impact the industry, killing profit margins and flooding the market with cheap, terrible machines. Sony was wrong, its stance lasting about a year before joining the competition with its own VAIO W.

Four years on we’re buying better laptops than ever before and, with the netbook class now more or less dead, that downward competition seems to have shifted to the tablet front. A flood of cheap, truly awful slates preceded Amazon’s Kindle Fire, the $200 tablet from a major brand that looks to have been the proper catalyst in plunging prices. The latest challenger to enter the competition is ASUS, partnering with Google to create the first Nexus tablet, a device that not only will amaze with its MSRP, but with its quality. It’s called the Nexus 7, it too is $200, and it’s better than Amazon’s offering in every way but one.

Continue reading Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy

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Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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