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The Google Drive review you’ve been waiting for — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell
Excerpt:
Google Drive, the long-awaited file storage and syncing service, launch[ed yesterday]. If you follow tech news closely, you’ve seen bits and pieces of the news leaking out over the past two weeks. We’ve tested it and we’ve talked to the team leaders. Forget all the speculation. Here’s what Google Drive actually is.
Full-sized screenshots of the Google Drive iPad app — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell
Excerpt:
Google Drive launched [yesterday], but the iOS version of the app was unexpectedly not ready. Google says it’s almost there, but it won’t launch for “a few weeks.” But Google provided ReadWriteWeb with a bunch of full-size screenshots of the app, so we could know what to expect.
Google’s Drive adds to a complicated cloud — from technologyreview.com by Tom Simonite
Excerpt:
A new cloud-storage service from the search giant steps on the toes of startups like Dropbox and opens a new front against Apple and Microsoft.
Addendum on 4/26:
- Is Google’s onerous TOS designed to steal your stuff? –– from PCMag.com by John C. Dvorak
People are far too concerned about Google’s potential for abuse. (From DSC: I disagree; there is room for concern when you hold that much power/data in your hands. Think of political campaigns as but one example. What if someone — or some government or some terrorist organization or drug cartel — pays off some Google employee to nab Person ABC’s mailbox, documents, data? Call me skeptical…but I think anything’s possible these days given the moral fabric of our world.) - Google Drive terms of service: ‘A toxic brew’ — from cnet.com by Rafe Needleman
Google isn’t about to make your private files public, but that doesn’t excuse its sloppy terms of service. Google has inadvertently stoked privacy concerns about files uploaded to its newly released Google Drive by issuing poorly written rules that are more apt to confuse than to clarify. - Hands on with Google Drive — from PCMag.com by Mark Hachman
While Google has positioned its new Google Drive cloud-storage service as one that straddles the consumer and business space, those using it for collaboration will probably get the most out of it.
Also see:
- Just how big is the Amazon cloud anyway? — from gigaom.com by Barb Darrow
- 3 cloud services that make work easier — from Inc.com by Christina DesMarais
Protect yourself against data loss, security blunders, and–that real productivity killer–inefficiency.
Addendum on 4/27/12:
- Google Apps for Education and the New Google Drive — from hackeducation.com by Audrey Watters
Section headings:
- Remote controls are dead
- Let’s bring social in
- There’s an app for it
- Viewer is the king
Excerpt:
- Luminous Design – the Future of Smart TV — from innovationexcellence.com
What is the future of Smart TV? How to create a luminous design that will enlighten TV experience across devices, and make it really consistently Smart? Who could tell us the way better than Dale Herigstad? Dale is Chief Interaction Officer at Possible, and an internationally recognized designer and thought leader on the future of interactive and “many-screen” rich media interfaces.
Description of app:
AutisMate is an autism communication, therapy, and learning tool that promotes communication, functional skills, generalization, task analysis, independence, and social skills in people with Autism. AutisMate allows those with autism to communicate through familiar scenes, large images of their environment that can include video, symbols, and social stories as well. Parents and therapists can easily add their own videos and images, symbols (over 12,000 included), custom voice recordings, and synthesized voices to fully and easily customize the app for its user’s current and future needs. The app was designed specifically for the language, speech, generalization, and categorization challenges that individuals with autism often face. GPS reduces navigation by presenting users with scenes from their current location. Making custom word boards for different categories with symbols or your own images is made very simple, and users can get to them with just a click. There’s no difficult navigation, which children with autism often struggle with, as found in many other speech apps out there today.
I originally saw this at:
- Labor of love: Developer creates iPad app to help his autistic brother — from techcrunch.com by Chris Velazco
When Jonathan Izak graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, he decided to put his new degree in Computer Science to very good use. In an effort to help his 10-year old autistic brother Oriel communicate and learn new tasks, he developed a new iPad app called Autismate to try and simplify the process.
Comments (emphasis DSC)
- If you ever wanted to know what four dimensional geometry could be like, install this app. For the low, low price of $2.99, you’ll take an exciting journey into the Fourth Dimension. “Textbook” doesn’t do this app justice, virtually every page is interactive. — Nicholas Nguyen March 19, 2012
- “The app is very cool, and it’s unlike pretty much anything we’ve seen in the App Store.” — Sam Byford, The Verge
- “This is one of my most favorite iOS apps ever.” — George Musser, senior editor at Scientific American and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory
- “Fantastic! This is what someone really smart, and who really knows how to teach well, can do with a tablet. And the authors are funny, too, which is a neat bonus.” — DNY
- “Blew my mind. I generally don’t use ‘learning’ apps as they’re mostly gimmicks. This one, though, truly made me think. I hope this developer comes out with more outstanding apps such as this one. Bravo!” — Iceitic
- “Fantastic app. I work at a leading UK university. If only all our material was this well written and presented. Definitely worth buying and then spending a bit of time with over a day or two to get your head around the fourth dimension. Great app!” — JulesFM
Also see:
- fourthdimensionapp.com
- ‘The Fourth Dimension’ for iOS: learn to see in 4D (hands-on) — from the Verge.com by Sam Byford
It’s priced fairly low ($2.99 for a universal iPhone/iPad app) and uses innovative design to explore a single, focused concept, and while you’ll be done with it after twenty minutes or so that actually adds to the appeal. It’s a bite-sized chunk of brain training that’s a lot of fun to wrap your head around, and it probably couldn’t have been produced any other way. That’s about the most you can ask for in an app these days.
Animator creates incredible musical painting with $5 iPad app [VIDEO] — from Mashable by Christine Erickson
Excerpt:
“I really recommend it to anyone who does storyboards, concept art and animators, filmmakers, producers, whatever — this is the future,” says the video’s lead animator and director, Whitney Alexander. (You can see the full making-of here.)
Also see:
New IBM app presents nearly 1,000 years of math history — from wired.com by Alexandra Chang
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Minds of Modern Mathematics interactive timeline.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired