Cloud computing

Sensor motes sniff out Google I/O data trends

We're all used to the idea that Google tracks what we do online. But if you go to Google I/O, you'll find that the data-hungry company, in partnership with the O'Reilly Data Sensing Lab, is keeping tabs on the physical world, too.

At its developer conference, the company has a set up a network of 525 sensor motes. Each small electronics board monitors temperature, humidity, ambient light levels, air quality, audio noise, and radio-frequency noise. And with footstep detectors, some monitor where people are going at the conference, too. … Read more

Microsoft touts Office 365 buyers that dumped Google Apps

There are a lot of businesses that pay for office suites, but two days before the Google I/O show, Microsoft spotlighted three that picked its Office 365 after trying Google Apps.

Google got a head start with Google Apps, the online service that includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. But Microsoft has a massive customer base using its old-school Office products who are natural candidates for moving to Microsoft's online suite.

Three customers -- Sensia Halsovard, Sepco III, and Arysta LifeScience -- all picked Office 365 "after having deployed or piloted Google Apps," Microsoft touted Monday. … Read more

Google Drive documents list goes empty for users

Some Google Drive users discovered their list of documents to be empty on Friday, though the documents themselves appeared to remain intact.

Several readers reported the problem, in which the Google Drive page was devoid of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files as well as other files stored in Google's cloud-synchronized, Web-based tools.

However, at least in some cases, open documents still worked, new documents could be created, existing documents could be found through the Web page's search bar, and local search on a person's computer could retrieve files stored on local hard drives.

Google's status … Read more

Full-size photos arrive for real on Google+

Google now lets Google+ users override a setting that limited photos they uploaded to a maximum width or height of 2,048 pixels, a move that photo enthusiasts will welcome but that will mean people will have to keep a closer eye on how much data they have stored at Google.

Previously, Google+ photos were limited unless they were uploaded automatically from an Android device using Google's software, or unless people embarked on a somewhat complicated workaround using Google's Picasa photo editing and cataloging software. Now, by changing Google+ settings, people can upload full-resolution photos through the usual … Read more

Google's Quickoffice comes to Android, iPhone

Some competitors would figure if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But when it comes to Google's strategy for competing with Microsoft's productivity suite, the company is trying to do both in a way.

Last night, Google released Android and iPhone versions of its Quickoffice software for handling Office files. The software, which lets people view and edit Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files, runs natively on various devices the way Office does, not in the cloud the way Google Apps does.

The software, available to customers of the company's Google Apps for Business service, is on … Read more

My Google spreadsheet fail

I'm a cloud-computing, Chrome OS fanboy for the most part. But today was one of of those days I was glad to have old-school Mac and Windows PCs lying around my home office.

I'm no power user, but Google Docs suits me for word processing, while Google Sheets works fine for creating spreadsheets. However, when it comes to importing and editing files from the incumbent power, Microsoft Office, Google just isn't meeting even my low-end needs.

Google handles such documents -- in either the older .doc and .xls formats, and the newer .docx and .xlsx formats -- … Read more

RapidShare scraps unlimited storage with short notice

Online storage provider RapidShare is expanding what it offers for its free service -- but it's also scrapped its earlier unlimited plan, even for customers who paid in advance for a longer-term period.

The Swiss company, with more than 50 employees, more than a thousand servers, and the capacity to store several petabytes of user data, announced the change March 12. Paying customers get a choice between a 250GB plan costing 10 euros ($12.96) a month and a 500GB plan costing 20 euros a month. The previous unlimited-storage option vanishes Wednesday.

The change reflects a reality for cloud … Read more

Google Drive goes down for many users

Google Drive was having some hiccups earlier today but apparently has since recovered.

The online file storage site had been inaccessible for a large number of users today. On its status page, Google initially said that it's "investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive" as of 7:17 a.m. PT and that it will "provide more information shortly."

A second update on the status page offered a bit more information:

We're aware of a problem with Google Drive affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google … Read more

Outlook, Hotmail are back up following lengthy outage

Outlook and Hotmail are up and running once again.

A problem had rendered both online e-mail services inaccessible to many users since yesterday. But Microsoft's status page now shows both of them are back in business.

The page gives no details as to what caused the outages or how they were resolved.

Hotmail, Outlook, and SkyDrive were all hit by downtime yesterday, starting at around 2:30 p.m. PT. Many users had taken to Twitter to report the outage and express their frustration over the inability to access their e-mail.

Microsoft's status page shows that the problem … Read more