Learning Ecosystems

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