Today we're running down what's coming to Google IO 2017, the company's annual software conference aimed at developers. This event takes place on May 17th, 18th, and 19th of May - that's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. We'll be at the event series to get up-close-and-personal photos, video, and any hands-on bits that can be had. For everything else, there's streaming video.
Microsoft is doubling down on the cloud, using its BUILD 2017 developer event to hammer home the idea that in a mobile- and cloud-first world, data crunching comes first. Hopes of new Surface hardware were dashed at day one of the annual conference, with the software behemoth instead focusing on Cortana, Artificial Intelligence, the IoT, and how best to organize the cloud when the levels of data being generated are growing exponentially.
Don't expect the Surface Book 2, Surface Pro 5, or even a Surface Phone at Microsoft's event this week, but do expect its answer to Google's Chromebook. Anticipation for what the software giant will do next with its premium Surface range has never been higher, not least because it was a disappointing glitch in an otherwise healthy financial quarter. It looks, though, like we'll have to wait a little longer to see how Microsoft will address that, because the company is too busy going back to school.
Google has made its Cloud Speech API generally available to developers following its successful open beta last year. This Automatic Speech Recognition service is built upon the same foundation that powers Google Assistant and Google Now's speech recognition abilities, and it aims to solve the speech-to-text needs of Google Cloud customers, the company says. Joining its general availability are a couple improvements and expanded support.
Uploading files and documents to cloud services is so common these days that users don't give a second thought about the process. They presume a level of security and privacy that these services offer. Sometimes, however, those presumptions can be proven terribly wrong, as what users of Microsoft's document sharing service, Docs.com, found out the hard way. Apparently, it was possible to use Docs.com's own search feature to get access to users' presumed private files. And Microsoft's response? Temporarily disable the search function.
Amazon is, of course, most famous for its retail store first and foremost, and perhaps its digital content second. But for the geekier crowd, Amazon’s name is also synonymous to cloud infrastructure through its Amazon Web Services. Powering not a few critical cloud services, AWS is venturing into the business of directly offering services, particularly for enterprises. Its latest stab at that market is Chime, which, unlike its name, is going to be a more or less noisy service, as it enables companies to chat in groups, whether by voice or by video.
Dropbox is pushing its collaborative tools, graduating Dropbox Paper to a full product as it tries to avoid being dismissed as just another cloud storage service. First launched in October 2015, Paper is effectively a hosted workspace within which teams can manage a project from various locations and with multiple shared documents. After several months as a closed-beta, it opened up to all midway through last year.
At CES 2017 on Friday, Microsoft announced its latest plan to get involved in cars and their technology. No, the company isn't making its own autonomous vehicle like everyone else seems to be doing these days. Instead it's Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, a cloud system built on the Azure platform that will power connected cars and their growing number of services. Along with things like navigation and "in-car productivity," it will be used to bring Cortana to the road.
Well that took them long enough. The battle for cloud storage supremacy has somewhat quieted down in recent months (will leave it to the reader to decide who won), so we don't really foresee any major pricing changes, save for the occasional seasonal sale or discount. That said, we're definitely welcoming with open arms any, hopefully permanent, change that will give our wallets, and our minds, a bit of a respite. Like even a 16% or 17% discount when purchasing Google Drive space for a whole year, instead of having to renew every month.
Plex recently announced a feature that makes life easier for some users: Plex Cloud, a way to access and stream content stored on a cloud service. Amazon Drive was named as one of the cloud storage options for Plex Cloud (the only one initially), but troubles soon started for the company. Unfortunately, those troubles have proven too much to handle, and so Plex is dropping Amazon Drive support entirely.
For the modern computer user and knowledge worker, cloud storage is an inevitable fact of life. For mobile device users with very limited internal storage, it becomes a necessity. Apple’s iPhones have long been criticized by some camps for lacking a data storage expansion option and the company is unlikely to change its ways. Instead, it is now offering even more space on its iCloud storage service, up to 2 TB in fact, to give more room for your photos, videos, and files.
Oracle is looking to tackle the cloud market in a big way, announcing today that it will acquire NetSuite for a staggering $9.3 billion. That's enough money to firmly position this deal as one of the largest in Oracle's history, which is no stranger to multi-billion dollar buyouts. NetSuite has the distinction of being the first company to offer cloud-based computing, launching way back in 1998.
