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Dropbox is already one of the biggest players in online storage. But the company wants to be more than that. At its first developers conference, Dropbox introduced new tools that app makers can use to make Dropbox the default save location for their data.
By saving your game progress, music playlists, contact lists, or other information to the cloud, you can pick up where you left off on any device. While Apple, Google, and Microsoft have their own cloud storage solutions, Dropbox is cross-platform which means you may one day be able to start a game on your iPad and pick up where you left off on your Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Dropbox could outdo iCloud, Google Drive, become the default storage, sync service for your apps
Dropbox has earned a name for itself by letting you save files to the cloud and access them from any device. Now the company wants to move beyond “files” and save *everything* to the cloud. It’s launched a platform that’ll let app developers do things like save your game progress, calendar data, or other information to Dropbox so it’s instantly synchronized across all your devices. [Wired] - A look at how carriers will be able to “differentiate” Ubuntu Phone OS without fragmenting it
One of the key arguments for why the world needs more smartphone operating systems is that Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry don’t give device makers and wireless carriers enough opportunities to customize the experience. It’s not clear that Ubuntu Phone OS is the answer… the customization options Canonical is showing off so far look pretty limited. [Jono Bacon] - Apple and Amazon end lawsuit over “App Store” name
In related news… wait, that dispute hadn’t been resolved yet? [Reuters] - Windows 8.1 RTM heading to manufacturers by August
It seems like just a few weeks ago that the public preview of Windows 8.1 was released (because it was). But it’s almost time for the RTM edition, which is basically the final version of Windows 8.1. That means customers could see the full version this fall. [ZDNet] - Lernstift smartpen will vibrate as you write to alert you of spelling, handwriting errors
A Kickstarter campaign will kick off tomorrow to raise money for a smart pen that doesn’t just digitize your words and send them to an electronic device. It’ll also monitor your spelling and penmanship and let you know when you make mistakes (because clearly, there’s no way that holding a vibrating pen could lead to any problems, right?) [LinuxGizmos] - Google brings back Gmail voice, video calls (through Hangouts)
You can start a phone call, voice chat, or video call from the Gmail window in your web browser again. But now Google’s using Hangouts on the backend. And if you’re in a country where Hangout calls are available, you can make all calls to the US or Canada for free. International rates start at 2 cents per minute. [Gmail Blog]
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Sounds like a rich target for mining by the NSA and similar “non domestic” surveillance and profiling organizations. All your base are belong to us!
Oh dear, “the man” knows my angry birds scores and pron habits…
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
….hahahahahahahahahahahahahahha
No thanks.
I hope app data backup becomes integrated into Android through some sort of Google Cloud Storage (what Google Drive uses) integration and not Dropbox. For just file backup, I use Amazon S3 which is what Dropbox uses. It’s cheaper in the long run especially if you make use of the automatic transfer to Amazon Glacier for less often used data.
I guess using Dropbox to access Amazon S3 storage is easier for people who don’t want to figure out how the backend stuff works but I prefer just using Amazon S3 and Glacier directly and skip Dropbox.