Cloud Battle Begins - Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive vs DropBox vs Box

DropBox

DropBox is the current king of cloud storage. Admittedly, it has not faced stiff competition till now but nonetheless it offers users a powerful set of tools. Currently it just offers 2GB of free storage, but its USP is its API, which can be and is being utilized by a legion of app developers across iOS and Android. This basically allows any app developer to integrate their app with DropBox seamlessly, something that now even Google is doing with Drive, but no one else has managed to replicate.

In terms of paid storage plans DropBox is not the best as its comparatively quite expensive. 50GB costs $9.99/month and 100GB costs 19.99/month. Apart from the dearth of storage plans, the plans themselves are quite expensive when compared to other offerings.

Obviously, its folder system is the most simplistic form of syncing we have seen, but now that this feature is being replicated by the competition, I believe DropBox will have a tougher time ahead. On the bright side, if you happen to own an HTC One series device then you can get 25GB of free DropBox storage for free.

Google Drive

Google Drive right from the get go offers 5GB of free space. Users can obviously opt for more storage if they are willing to pay. Users can get 25GB of storage for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month and a humungous 200GB for $9.99/month.

Like DropBox it creates a folder in your Mac, Android or PC and users can drag and drop files. Google says an iOS app is in the pipeline. Google has merged Google Docs with Google Drive so all your Docs will be present on the GDrive from the off set. But what separates it from the rest is the brilliant file support. It can open 30 different file types inside the web browser and can even open Photoshop files even if you don’t have Photoshop files on your machine. It even has an Evernote like OCR scanning feature, which scans text from an image.

Other strengths of the service include tight integration with Google services like Picasa, Gmail, Google+ and Android. The service cannot be interchangeably used with multiple Gmail accounts but that’s something Google is working on and for most people it will not be a major issue.

SkyDrive

SkyDrive offers the maximum free space, which is 7GB. So if the user needs a lot of space, then this is the cloud solution to die for. Having said that, Microsoft used to offer 25GB of space for free and it has downsized the free limit to 7GB, which is unfortunate. Users who have already used more than 4GB of space will retain the right to utilize 25GB of storage for free, but new subscribers will need to pay $10/year for 45GB of space. Other plans include 75GB for $25/year and 125GB for $50/year, which I believe is very good value.

Again like DropBox users can download an app, which creates a folder in your Mac or Windows PC. Older Windows users will be happy to hear that even Vista is supported. But the real strength of SkyDrive lies in its integration with Microsoft products like Office. Everything gets seamlessly synced across an array of devices and users can even edit documents inside a browser using Office 365. Users can even edit documents in groups or share links to files publicly or privately.

All this is cool, but the killer feature for me is ‘fetch’ which allows the user to access files from his home computer (If its on) that are not inside the SkyDrive folder. This for me is a tremendous utility and the main USP of SkyDrive, more than its integration with Microsoft products and storage prices.

Box

Box is somewhat an unknown entity and is the dark horse in this battle for the cloud. Like DropBox it has a very ubiquitous API for developers, and it also has very strong Google Docs support. Box also has strong versioning options and productivity apps like QuickOffice integrate it. It even has apps for Android and iOS, but the fact that it does not offer free users a folder like experience is a deal breaker.

Like Google Drive it offers free 5GB of storage, but it only offers a web-based tool to sync files on a PC or a Mac. Paid options include 25GB of storage for $9.99/month and 50GB of storage for $19.99/month. Sony smartphone users and iOS users are currently getting free 50GB of storage, which certainly is a high point.

Perhaps, the biggest USP of Box is its use in enterprise, which offers a number of collaboration features, but for the normal consumer currently minus the free iOS and Sony smartphone storage, I believe its slightly behind the curve considering the absence of a folder based syncing system for Windows and Mac.

jQuery Mobile 1.1.0

jQuery Mobile is a powerful jQuery-based framework for building websites for mobile devices. It is quite impressive in that it allows one to create a fully interactive experience with integrated Ajax support, navigation theming etc. without writing any code at all. Rather one can build quite powerful interfaces using just HTML5 with information about the presentation and interaction added as data attributes.
The latest release of jQuery Mobile 1.1.0 brings a number of improvements to the framework, particularly in the areas of toolbars and animations.
With this release, jQuery Mobile uses the much more elegant position:fixed CSS property to enabled fixed toolbars rather than the older buggy JavaScript-based solution. While this new approach doesn’t work on all platforms — that was the reason it wasn’t implemented this way in the first place — a fallback to the old method is provided as an optional extension.
The way page transitions are conducted has also been revamped, and the new method is now much smoother and faster. One thing the jQuery Mobile developers have made quite clear is that the performance of transitions on Android is abysmal, and there isn’t much that can be done about it. As such only newer Android platforms (3.x and 4.x) will support the bulk of the transitions, older Android versions will get a simple fade effect, no matter which effect is specified. Two new transitions, “Turn” and “Flow” have also been added.
Besides this with jQuery 1.1 you can also expect the following:

• A new subtler Ajax loader design that is configurable
• A “mini” version of all form elements
• Support for data-ajax=false on containers
• A new data-enhance attribute that allows turning off jQuery’s automatic enhancement features for a container
• A new improved version of ThemeRoller, which is a tool for creating jQuery Mobile themes.

You can find out more about this release from the release post and can download it from the jQuery Mobile website

MS SQL SERVER 2012 - REVIEW

As we've come to expect from new SQL Server releases, SQL Server 2012 has so many new features that it's impossible even to mention them all. Nearly everyone is well served, from the BI-hungry users of Reporting Services to the IT folks who oversee query performance and uptime. SQL Server 2012 brings improvements across the board, with only a few disappointing exceptions.
Reporting Services adds a web front end for data exploration and visualisation called Power View. Analysis Services introduces a new semantic model, giving BI specialists more flexibility in building solutions. New column store indexing shifts query performance into high gear, while new Data Quality Services and improvements to Master Data Services round out the tools for taking care of company data.
Of course, SQL Server 2012 also has a slew of new features that hit DBAs right where they live. I'll focus on these in this review, starting with some new capabilities that take high availability to a new level.

Higher high availability

Let's start with one of the largest efforts for this release, AlwaysOn. AlwaysOn is the new HA technology that will put database mirroring on the deprecation list. Being limited to a single target server for a mirror has been a nuisance since mirroring was implemented. Also, mirroring targets are completely useless until your primary database goes down, because they can't even be read from. AlwaysOn fills in both of these holes. You can easily configure many read-only copies of your primary database and use them for reporting while you're waiting for a disaster. And of course just like mirroring, you can set an AlwaysOn target to be completely synchronous with the primary or allow it to lag a little behind.
Readable mirrors alone solves a pretty big issue with mirroring, but the biggest issue solved by AlwaysOn is the failover of multiple dependent databases. Oftentimes two or more databases depend on one another for their operations, and if one of them has a failure, it's not enough to swap in just its mirroring partner because the databases it depends on are still on the other server. AlwaysOn addresses this problem with Availability Groups, which allow you to define a group of databases that must fail over together, so even if there isn't anything wrong with the other databases in the group, they'll fail over with the failed database to keep things running.
Database dependencies are another area DBAs have trouble managing. When you restore databases to different environments, there are a lot of considerations like linked servers, user accounts, and cross-database procedures and views that all have to be synched up to work properly. SQL Server 2012 introduces a feature called ContainedDB that allows you to identify a database to be self-contained so it's not allowed to have external dependencies. You can't write objects that have any dependencies in other databases, or even external dependencies in the server instance itself. In fact, the user accounts in a ContainedDB don't even have a server-level login associated with them, so you don't have to worry about synching those accounts when you move the database to a new box. You should be aware that there are some limitations in this first version, but we're off to a good start.
The next big improvement is with event logging and tracing. SQL Profiler is now officially on the deprecation list courtesy of the new XEvents (Extended Events) GUI. XEvents have been greatly expanded in this version and the new trace mechanism will use them exclusively. It's going to take some getting used to, but I promise it's a good thing. XEvents are far more flexible and much more lightweight than SQL Trace, which means tracing activity will have much less impact on your box. Along with the new trace mechanism, there's also a new replay mechanism called Distributed Replay, and fortunately it does just what the name implies, allowing you to replay a trace workload from multiple boxes so you can better simulate your production activity. This is really handy when you're testing upgrades or even just data explosion scenarios and the like.

Indexing improvements

There have been two major indexing improvements - online re-indexing and column store indexes. It's often the least touted features that make the biggest difference to DBAs, and the enhancement made to online re-indexing is one of those. We were all thrilled to get online re-indexing in SQL Server 2005, at least until we discovered that it didn't work for all data types. We quickly discovered that any index that has varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), or XML columns couldn't be re-indexed online. So we've had to build logic into our re-indexing routines that understands there are two types of indexes. Now that these data types can be re-indexed online, we can have true online index maintenance for our 24/7 applications. If only we could re-index individual table partitions online, we'd really be in business.
SQL Server 2012 also brings a new type of index called a column store index. Traditional indexes store data for each row and then join all those rows to complete the index. A column store index stores data for the columns and then joins those columns together to complete the index. Microsoft says this delivers about 10x the performance of a traditional index in the same scenario. However, in the data sets I've used and in the demos I've seen, the performance gain is many times more than that. Column store indexes were created for use in warehouses with huge data sets. The reason you don't want to use this for OLTP is because column stores are read-only.
As long as we're talking about performance, note that SQL Server 2012 can now be installed on Windows Server Core. This can increase not only the speed of the server in general, but also the security. On Server Core, there are fewer services running which means fewer security holes to plug, and fewer software bugs dragging down performance.

T-SQL enhancements

T-SQL doesn't have many new features, but the ones it has are cool enough. My favourites are the new LAG and EOMonth windowing functions. LAG gives each row in your result set access to the column data in the previous row. So say you've got a price column and you want to be able to easily display the current price and the previous price in the same row. LAG will let you do this. EOMonth is a function that lets you have instant access to the last day of the month for the value passed into it. There are other new functions, but I'll have to leave them to you to discover on your own.
Among all the T-SQL enhancements, FileTable is probably the coolest feature there is. Basically, it's file stream data that can be accessed directly from the file system. Let me explain. File stream allows you to store documents on the file system, but they're backed up with the database so you can make sure they're protected. FileTable takes this one step further. FileTable makes the line between database and file system transparent. You start by defining a table as a FileTable and assigning it a directory on the file system. Now all you have to do to put files in the table is just drop them into the folder from Windows Explorer. There's no T-SQL to write, nothing else special to do. You just manage the files at the file system level like you always have and they get stored in the database. You can also make changes to these files directly from T-SQL or at the Windows level.
SQL Server 2012 isn't all good news. There are some disappointments. For me, the biggest disappointment is the lack of love given to PowerShell in this release. Other than a few cmdlets for AlwaysOn and backup/restore, you'll find no real PowerShell improvements in SQL Server 2012. As heavily as Microsoft is relying on PowerShell these days, I fully expected more. Another disappointment is the lack of enhancements to SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio). Microsoft has ported SSMS to Visual Studio 2010, but other than what we get from that move (like better snippet management and integration with Team Foundation Server), there's really nothing to help DBAs manage their servers better.

Google Drive - Keep everything, Share anything.

Access everywhere.

Google Drive is everywhere you are—on the web, in your home, at the office and on the go. So wherever you are, your stuff is just...there. Ready to go, ready to share. Get started with 5 GB free.

Google Drive is available for:

• PC and Mac
• iPhone and iPad (coming soon)
• Android devices

 

Store your files in a safe place.

Things happen. Your phone goes for a swim. Your laptop takes an infinite snooze. No matter what happens to your devices, your files are safely stored in Google Drive.

Go beyond storage. Collaborate.

Google Drive lets you do more than just store your files. Share files with exactly who you want and edit them together, from any device.

Google Drive gives you instant access to Google Docs, a suite of editing tools that makes working together better—even when your teammates are miles away.

 

 

Get 5 GB for free.

Get started with 5 GB of free space. Upgrade to 25 GB for less than $2.50 a month, and you can store practically everything for next to nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

Create & collaborate.

In Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations instantly. Work together at the same time, on the same doc, and see changes as they appear.

Work better with the products you use everyday.

Gmail
Say goodbye to bulky email attachments. Send a link from Google Drive in Gmail and everyone has the same file, same version—automatically.

Google+
Your videos and pictures in Google Drive are instantly available in Google+, so you’re never more than one click away from sharing with your circles.

 

Powerful search.

Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.

 

 

View anything.

Open over 30 file types right in your browser—including HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop—even if you don’t have the program installed on your computer.

 

 

 

Google Drive with your favorite apps.

Create, open and share files from a variety of apps directly in Google Drive.

 

 

 

Share the way you want.

You can share files or folders with anyone, and choose whether they can view, edit or comment on your stuff.

 

 

   

 

 

 

Start a discussion.

Create and reply to comments to get feedback and make files more collaborative.

Go back in time.

Google Drive tracks every change you make—so when you hit the save button, a new revision is saved. You can look back as far as 30 days automatically, or choose a revision to save forever.

Ubuntu 12.04 'Precise Pangolin' Released

Canonical announced the release of the latest edition of its popular free Linux distribution, Ubuntu: version 12.04.Nicknamed Precise Pangolin, after the scaled mammal found in southern Africa and southeast Asia, version 12.04 is based on the 3.0.2 Linux kernel, aimed primarily at enterprise users, and is the fourth long-term support (LTS) release for the operating system, with maintenance updates guaranteed for five years.
The desktop version of the software is the first LTS release to be equipped with the Unity user interface, which was designed to simplify the Linux experience across desktops, laptops, and netbook-style computers alike. One addition to Unity is a new head-up display, which presents you with a list of potentially useful commands when you start typing (much like the search system in Windows Vista and Windows 7). Of particular interest to business users will be support for features such as desktop virtualization (from Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol).
The Server version of 12.04 includes OpenStack, for deploying a private cloud, and introduces Metal as a Service (MAAS), for bringing "the flexibility of cloud computing to physical server provisioning" (per a Canonical press release) to complex infrastructure projects in which Ubuntu is already a prominent fixture. Also present is an updated version of the Juju service orchestration tool, and support for the newest Intel-based servers. Ubuntu will be certified and supported on select HP ProLiant servers, as well.
Other technical and stability improvements have been made to this release of the OS, the first since version 11.10 ("Oneiric Ocelot") in October 2011. The next release, 12.10 ("Quantal Quetzal") is slated to arrive in October of this year, following Canonical's typical six-month release schedule.
 Home page : www.ubuntu.com

The first smartphone with Intel Chip - Lava Xolo X900

First Intel Inside smartphone coming from Lava.

Lava International's Xolo X900 will be launched in India and will have a Medfield Atom processor

The first smartphone with an Intel chip will become available in India this week from mobile device maker Lava International, ending a long wait for the chip maker to enter the smartphone market.
Lava will ship the Xolo X900 smartphone with Intel's Atom chip code-named Medfield, said a source familiar with the product plans. Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Tuesday also said that the first Intel Inside smartphone would ship later this week.
The smartphone has a 4.03-inch screen and an Intel Z2460 single-core chip running at 1.6Ghz. Intel has said that smartphones with the Z2460 chip can provide battery life of up to eight hours of 3G voice calling, six hours of high-definition video decoding, or five hours of 3G browsing, and standby time of 14 hours.
The Xolo X900 smartphone was originally announced by Lava and Intel at the Mobile World Congress Show in Barcelona toward the end of February. The smartphone comes with an as-yet-unknown version of Android and also has two cameras, high-definition video capabilities and NFC (near-field communication) to share information or make payments quickly at points of sale. The retail price for the smartphone was not immediately available.
Intel has also partnered with Lenovo, Motorola, Lava and Orange on smartphones. Lenovo's K900 smartphone with the Medfield chip is due next month, while Orange may ship an Intel Inside smartphone in June.
Xolo is a big breakthrough for Intel, which for years has fallen flat in efforts to enter the high-volume smartphone market. Intel in 2010 showed an LG smartphone based on the earlier Atom chip code-named Moorestown, but the device never reached customers. Intel primarily makes high-powered chips for PCs and servers, but in recent years it has thrown financial muscle behind developing low-power chips for tablets and smartphones, most of which use ARM processors.
There is space for Intel to compete with ARM in the smartphone market, Otellini said during a conference call Tuesday to discuss Intel's financial results. He acknowledged it may take time to establish a meaningful presence but said the smartphone market is big enough for Intel to find a place in it.
Some of the top smartphone makers include Apple and Samsung, which both use ARM processors in smartphones and tablets. Intel is having a "continuing dialogue" with both companies, Otellini said. He didn't specify details about the discussions, but Apple and Samsung both use Intel chips in PCs.
"I can't speak for Apple, but we know where they are and they know where we are," Otellini said.
The smartphone launch is a sign of progress, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. However, there are still questions on whether Intel can overtake ARM, whose processor designs are more power-efficient.
"ARM has obviously had a multiyear head start. Will there be an overnight transition? Of course not," McCarron said.
This is just Intel's first wave of products, and the competition could intensify as Intel releases faster and more power-efficient chips, McCarron said.

Google introduces new TV like metrics for measuring ads

Google is introducing tools such as one that measures the percentage of an online advertisement that is viewed and for what duration, to help advertisers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns beyond impressions and clicks.
The standardized metrics used today are largely clicks, user interaction rates and conversions. But major brands are interested in things like brand recall and brand favorability, a measure of whether they think positively about the brand, rather than just clicks and online sales, said Neal Mohan, Google's vice president of display advertising in a blog post on Wednesday.
"The lack of these actionable, truly useful metrics is a key reason that many major brands have been cautious in embracing digital advertising over the past decade, even as high-quality content and millions of users have moved online," Mohan said, hoping the new tools will do for digital advertising what ratings and market research did for TV in the 1950s.
Google reported earlier this month that while its profit grew 61% in the first quarter, the average "cost per click" paid by its advertisers declined for the second quarter running, and was down 12% year-over-year in the first quarter. A part of the decline is because users are shifting from desktop to mobile browsing, where advertising is cheaper. The total number of paid clicks on its ads continues to rise, Google said.
Google's new Brand Activate initiative includes tools such as Active View, which Sanaz Ahari, a Google senior product manager, described in a video as a way to measure the percentage of the advertisement that was seen, and for what duration. The tool counts "viewed" impressions which by a proposed Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard is a display ad that is at least 50% viewable on the screen for at least one second.
Another tool, Active GRP, is a web version of GRP, or a gross rating point, a key metric in offline media measurement that measures the size of the target audience reached by an advertisement campaign.
The tool which is being offered in a pilot program for DoubleClick for Advertisers clients as a first step, will roll it out to other products, with brands able to specify a range of audience GRP segments The tool will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web, Mohan said.
Both tools, which were to be announced Wednesday at the Ad Age Digital Conference in New York, will be submitted for accreditation by the Media Rating Council, an organization that accredits rating services and set standards.

Google warns - chance of 20,000+ website to be affected with malware

Google has warned 20,000 websites that they might be hacked and injected with JavaScript redirect malware, Google said.
In a message sent this week, Google said some pages of the website may be hacked. "Specifically, we think that JavaScript has been injected into your site by a third party and may be used to redirect users to malicious sites," the Google Search Quality team said. The team said files are infected with unfamiliar JavaScript and warned that site owners should search for files containing "eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,r)" in particular. The code may be placed in HTML, JavaScript or PHP files, Google said.
Websites were also warned that server configuration files could have been compromised."As a result of this, your site may be cloaking and showing the malicious content only in certain situations," Google said. It emphasized that it is important to remove the malware and fix the vulnerability to protect site visitors. Webmasters were also urged to keep their software up-to-date and to contact their Web hosts for technical support.
It is not the first time Google has warned website owners to look for malware infections, Google spokesman Mark Jansen said in an email. "It's part of our ongoing mission to be transparent with webmasters and do our bit to help prevent spam," he said. "In fact this isn't a new phenomenon; we communicate very openly with webmasters and always have done."
Google's anti-malware campaigns can have a big impact. Last July Google excluded more than 11 million URLs from the "co.cc" domain, because they were regularly used by cybercriminals to spread antivirus programs and conduct drive-by attacks. Google explained in a blog post at the time that some bulk providers could host more than 50,000 malware domains, and that it could flag whole bulk domains in severe cases.

Mac security software sales jump after Flashback infections make news

Sales of Mac security software have jumped since the news broke last week about a massive malware infection of Apple computers, according to application statistics and some antivirus vendors.
"We've seen a substantial increase in both sales and downloads of trial versions of our software," said Peter James, a spokesman for French security company Intego. "Part of this is certainly due to Flashback."
Intego, which develops and sells only Mac antivirus software, is best known for its $49.95 VirusBarrier V6. A 30-day free trial of the software is also available.
James did not provide sales figures for Intego's security software, or specify the increase his company has seen since a Russian antivirus firm said more than 600,000 Macs had been infected with Flashback, many of them in a recent campaign that exploited an at-the-time-unpatched vulnerability in Oracle's Java.
Another security provider echoed James.
"It would be true to say that we have seen a rise in the download rates of our free antivirus for Mac home users," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with U.K.-based Sophos.
Sophos, which sells security software only to enterprises and organizations, also offers a free Mac product to consumers: Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition.
Several other companies that sell Mac security software, including Symantec and F-Secure, did not reply to questions about their recent sales trends.
But statistics from Apple's Mac App Store, the online market that launched in January 2011, hint at a strong increase in Mac antivirus interest.
BitDefender Virus Scanner, a free app in the Mac App Store, is currently No. 16 on the top 200 list of the most popular free programs, down one spot from an earlier high of No. 15, according to AppShopper.com. BitDefender's app has been on that list for just 16 days.
Clam AV, another free antivirus program for the Mac, is at No. 14 today, down four spots from its highest point on the same list but up from No. 97 on April 2, two days before news of the Flashback infection began in earnest.
Meanwhile, Intego's VirusBarrier Plus was holding down the No. 78 spot on Wednesday, down from its peak of No. 17. The $9.99 app has been on AppShopper's top 200 list of paid apps for just one week.

Kaspersky's Virus Scanner, which also costs $9.99, is at No. 90, and reached a high of No. 73 in the seven days it's been on the list.
The spike in downloads and sales didn't surprise Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group, which tracks retail software sales in the U.S.
Although NPD doesn't have sales data on Mac antivirus software during the last week -- it takes the company longer than that to acquire and compile the numbers -- Baker said there's a strong link between security threats and sales.
"Historically, we have always seen a jump in security sales that correlate to highly publicized security issues," said Baker in an email reply to questions. "[But] the spike seems to be declining over the years as more consumers use and recognize the importance of security software."

Some Mac owners have been skeptical of the claims that Flashback has infected hundreds of thousands of machines, and have accused antivirus vendors like Dr. Web and Kaspersky -- the two Russian companies that have calculated the extent of the malware infection -- of hyping the threat to sell software.
One Sophos executive addressed those critics in a blog post today.
"For those of you inclined to let rip in the comments that I'm only discussing Mac malware, and talking up the risks, because we happen to have a free product to 'sell' you, please consider an alternative explanation," argued Paul Ducklin, who heads Sophos Asia-Pacific technology team. "Perhaps the reason we have a free product to 'sell' is because we think there is a genuine risk?"
Flashback had infected nearly 2% of the Macs that used Dr. Web's free checking tool, and the malware's makers currently control more than 650,000 systems.
Apple, which updated Java for Mac OS X on April 3 to quash the bug Flashback has been exploiting, promised to release a free detect-and-delete tool, probably within the next week.

Macs infected with Flashback Trojan downloader

 More than 600,000 Macs infected with Flashback Trojan downloader

Investigations by Russian antivirus firm Dr. Web have concluded that more than 600,000 Mac computers are currently infected by the new strain of Flashback Trojan, with a massive 56.6% of the total infected machines believed to be in the US alone. Apple released an update earlier this week to patch vulnerabilities in Java that could be exploited to run malicious code in a victim's computer, including the newest strain written of the  Trojan in question, but this will only protect those that are not already compromised by the malware.

Dr. Web revealed on their website yesterday morning that the Flashback botnet was some 550,000 strong. Later that day, malware analyst Sorokin Ivan revised that figure to more than 600,000 on Twitter.

 According to Dr. Web, the US has the most infections with 56.6% of the total infected with the BackDoor.Flashback.39 malware. Of the 300,000 plus infected machines, the Russian antivirus firm also revealed 274 were from Cupertino. Canada had the second highest infection rate with 19.8%, the UK has 12.8% and in fourth place with 6.1% of the total number of infected machines in Australia.

Internet security firm F-Secure has published detailed instructions on how to verify and remove the Trojan should your Mac computer already be infected. Interestingly, they state that the malware can infect a computer even without administrative permissions. "Whether or not the user inputs the administrator password, the malware will attempt to infect the system, though entering the password will affect how the infection is done."

The initial route to infection follows the same path. First the user visits a website which has been infected with the Flashback malware. Upon loading the infected webpage the script is executed, and it then immediately checks for the presence of several antivirus products. Should the presence of any be detected, the script then deletes itself and takes no further action.

If it doesn’t find anything, the malware then connects to a specified URL and downloads the payload. It then proceeds to install this payload, and infects the Mac computer. It appears to do this in one of two separate ways, dependent on whether you give administrative permissions.

.

For those that refuse to grant them, the malware searches for Microsoft Office 2008, 2011 and Word applications, as well as for Skype. If it fails to find these it then creates several files in the userspace area and creates a launch point in the   "~/.MacOSX/environment.plist" location of the Mac user’s home folder.

Those that grant administrative permission will find the infection follows another pathway, creating several files inside Safari’s "/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources" folder, and the creation of a launch point in "/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist" to start the malware when Safari is run.

Another note of particular interest is the way the code has been written. It appears to take complete advantage of the average Mac users’ notion that their computer can’t get infected and therefore doesn’t need an antivirus product installed. Those using certain internet security products will therefore not have been infected but it appears to have been written to specifically target those that don't have any installed.

It's also important to note that the installation of the latest security patches from Apple is not enough to resolve the issue for those already infected. Many are now questioning whether Apple could have done more to prevent infections on such a massive scale, especially since Oracle had patches available back in February, but Apple took almost two months longer to release them on their platform.

Google+ gets a facelift, improves simplicity and adds new features

If you've logged into Google+ today, you may have noticed some big changes. On Google's official blog, the maestro of search has outlined those changes, which include a thorough user interface revamp. These alterations, the company hopes, will make the social service simpler, more beautiful, more functional and more flexible. Google says the update will be rolling out for "the next few days", but a few hundred thousand accounts had already taken on the modifications as of this morning.

With the revamp comes a fresh look with a focus on apps. There is now a customizable navigation side "ribbon" which displays your apps. The ribbon has been designed with future changes in mind, according to Google. It also supports drag 'n drop for reordering your app icons to taste. For items on the ribbon that have additional features, context-sensitive menus will slide out as you mouse over them, giving users quick access to commonly used features. In the ribbon, Google has also added an "Explore" icon for viewing public interests and network trends.
Users with ample screen real estate will now notice a wider browser window reveals an easy way to message or "hangout" with other Google+ buddies. The service's instant communication features persistently (and conveniently) appear on the left side of the window.
The data stream has been changed significantly. Google is touting full-bleed media and conversation "cards" that make it easier to identify and join in on discussions. In addition, they've added a clever "activity drawer" -- a panel that users can slide out to reveal who's been paricipating in an particular item in their stream.
One of the more curious features is a slider which adjusts how much stuff is actually shown in a user's stream. There's an independent slider for each Circle a user has. If someone has a lot of chatty friends they don't care about but would still like to hear what family members are discussing, then that user can adjust the "Friends" slider to minimize updates from that circle. That user can also maximize the "Family" slider to make sure he or she doesn't miss out on anything from relatives.

Users spent 136x more time on Facebook than Google+

According to the latest data from comScore, Google+ users spent an average of 3.3 minutes per month on the social networking site in January. To put that into perspective, Facebook users spent an average of 7.5 hours last month which is about 136 times greater than your average Google+ visitor.

Google quickly downplayed comScore's findings. The search giant claims their own internal data shows higher numbers and that Google+ is growing.
Also according to comScore, Linkedin, MySpace and Twitter all out-classed Google+ in terms of time spent on the website per month. Users spent 17 minutes on Linkedin, 8 minutes on MySpace and 21 minutes on Twitter last month.
Although Google+ visitors are seemingly stricken with poor attention spans, what may be more worrisome for Google is that the attention deficit continues to grow. In November, Google+ users were spending an average of 5.1 minutes which slipped to 4.8 in December and 3.3 in January.
Where time spent on Google+ has been declining, Facebook has been prospering. In December, Facebookers logged an average of 7 hours on the site only to gain yet another 30 minutes in January. Facebook's increase between December and January alone is nearly 10 times what users spend on Google+ for an entire month.
At the beginning of February, Google+ announced it surpassed 100 million users. While that's certainly a large number, Facebook is by far still the most popular website of its kind. Zuckerberg's company lays claim to a whopping 845 million "active" users, 480 million of which use the service on a daily basis.

Intel to release Windows 8 tablets by year-end

Intel working with 10 vendors to release Windows 8 tablets by year-end. Intel is expanding into smartphones and tablets and Lenovo's K800 handset will be the first smartphone to use an Intel processor

Intel is working with 10 undisclosed Chinese and global vendors to design Windows 8 tablets using the company's chips, a senior company executive said Wednesday.
"You'll probably see many Intel-based tablets by the end of this year," Intel China chairman Sean Maloney said while speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.

Maloney made his comments as Intel has been working to expand its chip business into smartphones and tablets. The company's newest Atom processor, the Z2460 and also code-named "Medfield", is built for smartphones and tablets, and promises to give high computing performance while also offering long battery life.
The Medfield chip will be used in Chinese PC maker Lenovo's K800 handset, the first smartphone to use an Intel processor. The K800 will go on sale in China at the end of May, according to Lenovo vice president Wayne Chen.

Lenovo share of China's smartphone market last year was less than 5 percent, according to research firm Canalys. The K800 smartphone is positioned at the "high end", Maloney said.
Intel is also developing another mobile chip, code-named Clover Trail, which is designed for tablets and is scheduled to arrive this year. The chip features a 1.8 GHz processor, according to a slide shown during Maloney's speech.
Although Intel is best known as a PC chip producer, the company has big ambitions for the tablet and smartphone market, especially in China. "Our strategy in China now is to win with smartphones and tablets. We are making progress on it!" Maloney said during an online chat with Internet users earlier this week.
Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE also plans to launch a smartphone using Intel chips during the second half of this year, according to Maloney.
Intel is also developing two other Atom chips for smartphones. The Intel Atom Z2580 will offer twice the performance of the Medfield chip. The Atom Z2000 has a 1.0 GHz processor and is positioned for the lower end of the market.

Microsoft ranks 17th in contributors to Linux kernel

Commercial vendor contributed about 1 percent of changes to base code

For the first time ever, and probably only temporarily, Microsoft can be counted as a key contributor to Linux.
The company, which once portrayed the open source OS kernel as a form of cancer, has been ranked 17th on a tally of the largest code contributors to Linux.

The Linux Foundation's Linux Development Report, released on Tuesday, summarises who has contributed to the Linux kernel, from versions 2.6.36 to 3.2. The 10 largest contributors listed in the report are familiar names: Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google. But the appearance of Microsoft is a new one for the list, compiled annually.
Overall, Microsoft contributed 688 changes, or about 1.0 percent of the accepted changes to the kernel, since version 2.6.36. Company engineers also signed off on 2,174 changes, or about 1.1 percent of all the changes in this review period.
Much of the work Microsoft did centers around providing drivers for its own Hyper-V virtualisation technology. Microsoft's Hyper-V, part of Windows Server, can run Linux as a guest OS.
Linux kernel developer and LWN.net editor Jon Corbet, a co-author of the study, estimates that Microsoft's involvement peaked around last year's 3.0 release of Linux and will diminish over time. "Even the [hypervisor] drivers can only need so much cleaning up," he wrote in an article explaining the influx of Microsoft contribution.
For the Linux Foundation, Microsoft's involvement in Linux shows how widely used the OS kernel is these days. Microsoft must work with Linux to be part of the larger enterprise computing ecosystem.
In the time period covered by the report, more than 1,000 developers from nearly 200 companies contributed to the kernel. Lone contributors provided the largest number of changes, 11,413 changes or about 16.2 percent of all the changes in this review period. Among contributions from companies, Red Hat provided the most changes, or 7,563, or 10.7 percent of all changes. After Red Hat, Intel provided the next largest batch of changes, 5,075, or about 7.2 percent of all changes.
On average, between 8,000 and 12,000 patches are added to each new kernel release, which, overseen by Linus Torvalds, come out every two or three months. The vast majority of these changes are developed by outside parties.
In addition to Corbet, Linux kernel maintainer and Linux Foundation fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman and Linux Foundation Vice President of Marketing and Developer Services Amanda McPherson co-wrote the report.
The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organisation devoted to further developing and maintaining the open source Linux kernel. It is funded by companies that use Linux in their products and services, including HP, IBM, Intel, Novell and Oracle.

Five iPhone apps that Android lacks

iPhone users no longer have bragging rights about Instagram exclusivity, but these five apps will leave Android users green with envy

Flipboard

The tech press' darling news reader first launched for the iPad in 2010, and made its way to the iPhone last year. What's neat about Flipboard is how it creates a magazine-like reading format for content from social networks, RSS feeds and curated news sources. The nearest equivalent for Android users is Zite, which just launched in the Google Play store last week.

Pinterest

If iPhone users want an exclusive club, they might still find it in Pinterest, the social network that lets users pin photos, videos and links to their own virtual wall of favourite things. Although anyone with an invite to the service can access it through the web, for now the official mobile app is only available for iPhone.

Tweetbot

Twitter power users with Android phones might yearn for the slick interface of Tweetbot, which uses swipe-based shortcuts for replying, retweeting and viewing full conversation threads. And unlike Twitter's official app, Tweetbot doesn't try to shove popular hashtags down your throat.

Jetpack Joyride

Android users finally got one of the hottest time-wasters last month with the arrival of Temple Run, but they're still missing out on Jetpack Joyride. While careening by jetpack through an endless laboratory, players must dodge obstacles while completing missions and racking up coins for better gear. Like Temple Run, one game is never enough.

Infinity Blade

If there's one iPhone game that should made serious Android gamers jealous, it's Infinity Blade and its sequel. The core game consists of one-on-one swordfighting, where swipes and taps fend off your opponent's attacks. Meanwhile, a system of loot-gathering and leveling up is the glue that holds the game together. Publisher Epic said last year that it has no plans to bring Infinity Blade to Android, because the wide variety of hardware doesn't offer a consistent enough experience across all devices.

Microsoft Vista retired from mainstream support

Microsoft Vista retired from mainstream support. But security updates will continue until April 2017

Windows Vista has been shifted into what Microsoft calls extended support.
Vista, the problem-plagued operating system that never really took hold among users, will exit mainstream support today.

In a product's extended support phrase, Microsoft continues to provide security patches to all users, but offers other fixes - such as reliability and stability updates - only to organisations that have signed support contracts with the company.

Just seven weeks ago, Microsoft extended support for the consumer versions of Windows Vista - as well as Windows 7 - by five years to synchronise their support lifecycle with that of the comparable enterprise editions.
Previously, Microsoft had committed to supporting consumer software with security updates for just five years, not the 10 granted to business software.
Vista's last major update was Service Pack 2 (SP2), which debuted in May 2009.
Windows Vista's share of in-use operating systems has fallen dramatically since Microsoft introduced Windows 7 in October 2009. By the calculations of web metrics firm Net Applications, Vista now accounts for just 7.7% of all operating systems, and 8.3% of the machines running Windows.
Vista peaked at 19.1% in October 2009 and has been falling ever since. At the rate of its decline over the last 12 months, Vista will slip under the 5% bar in January 2013.
Vista will continue to run, of course: The migration into extended support does not make them inoperable. Microsoft will deliver security updates for Vista until mid-April 2017.
Vista users will be able to upgrade their PCs to Windows 8 when it ships later this year.

 

AOL to sell patents to Microsoft

AOL to sell patents to Microsoft in £630 million deal. AOL will continue to hold a significant patent portfolio of over 300 patents.

AOL has entered into a definitive agreement to sell over 800 of its patents and their related patent applications to Microsoft.

The sale of patents and a non-exclusive license to its retained patent portfolio will fetch the company over $1 billion (£630 million) in cash, AOL said.
Ailing AOL has been trying to sell its patents to raise cash, and the deal with Microsoft reflects growing interest from technology companies to acquire patent portfolios both to counter and deter patent litigation.

After the sale, AOL will receive a licence from Microsoft to the patents it has sold. It will also continue to hold over 300 patents and patent applications spanning core and strategic technologies, it said.
AOL did not disclose what were the patents it had sold, or in which technology areas. The deal was finalised after a competitive auction.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year, depending on regulatory approvals, including antitrust regulations.

Nokia's first Windows Phone with NFC - Lumia 610

Nokia has announced an NFC-enabled (near-field communication) version of the Lumia 610 smartphone, with operator Orange revealed as the first network to sell it.

Nokia has added an NFC (near-field communication) software stack on top of the Windows Phone OS, which doesn't yet have integrated support for the short-range communication technology.
Orange offers commercial NFC services in France and the UK, but isn't revealing when the Lumia 610 NFC will go on sale or what it will cost.

The standard version of the Lumia 610 will cost €189 (£156) without subsidies, and will begin shipping during the second quarter.
Payment is the NFC application that is getting the most attention, but other ways of using he technology are expected to drive usage in the beginning.
The availability of more phones will help drive NFC applications, first non-payment and simple apps including marketing, advertising, coupons, then payment, Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner, said earlier this year.
The Lumia 610 NFC can pair with accessories and read tags with a single tap. The latter allows users to check in on Foursquare, follow someone on Twitter, like someone on Facebook or tap a tag to start a download. Users will also be able to create their own tap with the Nokia Tag Writer app.
The video also demos how a user can tap the phone against a speaker to start streaming music to it.
ne can use it in as many places as possible, it has been certified for contactless payments with MasterCard and Visa. The Lumia 610 was announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. The phone has a 3.7-inch display with a 800-by-480 pixel resolution and a 5-megapixel camera.
It has only 256MB of RAM, compared to 512MB in Nokia's other Lumia phones, something developers have to keep in mind if they want their applications to run on the Lumia 610.

MojoMotor - A simple and affordable content management system for small websites

 MojoMotor is a simple publishing engine that lets you keep your site fresh.

Here is a problem both website designers and owners share: Once a website is created, who has to update its content over time? And how should they do it? The traditional solution for this problem is a CMS, or content management system, such as WordPress (aimed mainly at blogs) or Weebly. MojoMotor is one such content management system, but it prides itself on "doing less" and providing a lightweight interface both for developers and content editors.
For a content editor, MojoMotor can't be much simpler to use: There is no administrative backend to log in to, or a complex workflow with multiple page states and drafts. You do need to log in so that MojoMotor knows you're allowed to edit, but once that's done, the only special bit of interface you see is a toolbar on top of the screen. The rest of your browser window contains your website just like everyone sees it, but with one important difference: You can edit the text and images.
While you're viewing the website in MojoMotor's administration interface, certain parts of the page (such as its main content area, usually) are marked as editable and highlighted in color. To edit, just click anywhere in the highlighted area, and it morphs into a WYSIWYG editor with a simple toolbar for formatting text, creating links, and uploading images. You don't need to know HTML, Markdown, or any other special syntax. You do need to make sure that any images you upload are in the correct size for the website.
MojoMotor is easy to use for designers, too. To design a website in MojoMotor, you don't have to know PHP: MojoMotor websites are created as static HTML files with special MojoMotor tags that the system uses to make certain areas user editable. This makes MojoMotor an ideal tool for front-end designers who can create great layouts, HTML, and CSS, but don't know the first thing about back-end coding and working with PHP.
MojoMotor is not a one-size-fits-all solution: It is clearly aimed at small websites containing just a handful of pages. The system doesn't even include a built-in blogging engine, but third party website MojoAddons offers a plugin, MojoBlog, that lets users create a blog within their MojoMotor installation. Fortunately, MojoMotor makes it very easy to migrate your project to ExpressionEngine, a CMS from the same vendor that can easily support large scale websites.

Windows XP two year support deadline

No more updates for Windows XP after 8 April 2014

The two-year deadline for users of Windows XP and Office 2003 to abandon their software or face a life without official support started ticking on Sunday, Microsoft has reminded millions of customers.

In a message that follows up on last October’s 10-year anniversary announcement that support for XP would end on 8 April 2014, Microsoft marketing director, Stella Chernyak has underlined that users will not receive security updates, non-security hotfixes and technical support after that date.
“Windows XP and Office 2003 were great software releases for their time, but the technology environment has shifted. Technology continues to evolve and so do people’s needs and expectations,” she said.

This is consistent with the company’s 2002 support lifecycle policy that offered a minimum of 5 years mainstream support and 5 years extended support for the company’s software.
The problem, as ever, is that XP remains popular with up to half of Windows users still running XP up to SP3, a figure that suggests a sizable minority of users risk being caught out by the 2014 deadline.
Windows Vista and Office 2007 are also on notice and will continue to receive support until April 2017, the company has announced.
Microsoft wants businesses and consumers to upgrade to Windows 7 and Office 2010, though some may end up plumping for Windows 8, expected to make its commercial debut at the end of 2012.
For consumers unwilling to upgrade their PCs to a hardware spec that can run Windows 7 or Windows 8, the only alternative will be to embrace Linux. Current versions of Mint, Ubuntu or Fedora (to pick the most popular distributions) will happily run in a footprint similar to that of XP with the same conveniences (processor dependant) of a Windows 7 PC.
Inevitably some will continue to run XP just as a small number of users today continue to run Windows 2000 beyond its extended support date.
In late March, Mozilla announced that Firefox 12 would be the last version of the browser that would run on versions of XP before SP2.

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

For anyone who spends more than 30 minutes on a computer a day, surely you use a variety of keyboard shortcuts to save you time and move faster when doing your variety of activities on your computer.

Keyboard Shortcuts Terminology

The following is a list of what the keys look like on your keyboard and what they are called when speaking about them.
 (Command key) - On some Apple keyboards, this key also has an Apple logo ( )
 (Control key)
 (Option key) - "Alt" may also appear on this key
 (Shift key)
 (Caps Lock) - Toggles Caps Lock on or off
fn (Function key)
(Taken From Apple Support)

Most Used Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts For Beginners

The following is a list of very simple, shortcuts that everyone should know. They can be used nearly anywhere and are invaluable in saving time.

Command+C = Copy

This can be used for virtually anything in almost any program. You can copy files, text, and images.

Command+V = Paste

This is used to put the copied file in the place you want.

Command+Tab = Change Applications

This keyboard shortcut allows you to switch to different open applications very quickly. Hold Command down and press tab more than once to change to different applications. Release when you have chosen the application you want. This is called tabbing through applications.

Command+Shift+Tab = Change Applications (Reverse)

This is one of the less known keyboard shortcuts. If you want to go in the opposite direction when tabbing through applications simple hold shift and press as many times as needed.

Command+Q = Quit Application

This quits the application.

Command+Z = Undo

This allows you to undo something you did. This will normally be available in Word or a similar application. Of course this is available in many other places where you are creating something.

Command+Y or Command+Shift+Z = Redo

If you have used undo and change your mind, you can change it back.

Command+A =  Select All

Selects everything in a window. This can be in finder or in other places where selection of files is available. Can also be used in a  variety of other applications where you can select things

Click+Shift+Click = Select Multiple Files 

This selects all of the files from where you first clicked until the last place that you clicked

Command+Click = Select Certain Multiple Files

This will allow you to select many files on that are not necessarily in consecutive order.

Most Used Mac Keyboard Shortcuts For Intermediate Users

These are some keyboard shortcuts that many intermediate users do not know. Some of these keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time and frustration!

For Text

Command+(Left or Right Arrow Keys) = Skip to the Beginning or End of a Line of Text.

This can be used when editing text. This will save you a lot of time!

Command+Shift+(Left or Right Arrow Keys) = Highlight an Entire Line

This is one of the best keyboard shortcuts in my opinion. Highlight the entire line to quickly delete, copy, or replace text.

Alt+(Left or Right Arrow Keys) = Skip Across Text By Word

Skip across text by word rather than by character. This can be combined with shift in order to quickly highlight words.

For Web

These keyboard shortcuts will help you browse the net faster!

Command+W = Close Tab in Browser

Closes a single tab in a  browser window

Command+Shift+W = Close Entire Window

Closes the entire window and all of the tabs inside of a window.

Command+T = Open New Tab

Opens a new tab in your currently open window.

Backspace = Back

Go to the page you were on before in your browser.

Command+F = Find 

This Keyboard Shortcut Finds text on a webpage.

Command+Click = Open in New Tab

When holding Command and clicking on a link, a new tab will open with click link's content.

Control+Tab = Tab Through Tabbed Windows

Allows you to quickly move through different tabs. Adding shift will allows you to tab in the opposite direction.
Thats all of the keyboard shortcuts for now! There are plenty more keyboard shortcuts for Word, web browsers, and many other programs. More will be added in time!

Prey Project - an open source security application to track stolen Laptop

In this day and age, it is only natural for people to buff the security of their digital assistants such as their laptops, netbooks and MacBooks along with other devices that are being utilized on daily basis. This is to protect their devices from viruses, malwares and the like that could potentially compromise its security. But what about threats that are actually present in real life? There is always the possibility that your shiny gadget will be lost or stolen. So what can you do once such unfortunate scenario happens? Well, here's a solution that you will surely like.

Introducing Prey Project an open source security application that can run on Windows, Ubuntu, Mac, Linux, and Android. Basically what this software does is that it lets you track your devices at all times which means that if ever it gets lost or stolen, it gives you a fairly good chance of recovering it. So how much will you be forking out for this handy software? This software can be yours for the reasonable price of nothing (although for a small fee, you can avail of their PRO plans).

How Do You Track Stolen Laptop with Prey?

You install a tiny program into your PC, laptop or smartphone and it will simply sit there silently until the user flips the switch to the remote signal via an administration panel and then it will start working its magic. The signal is sent through the web or via SMS. Prey will then trigger its geo-location awareness through the device's GPS or through WiFi hotspots which will then triangulate the location of the device and report is back to you. When no internet connection is found, the program will triangulate the location through the nearest WiFi hotspot. Another cool thing that this software can do is that it can give off a loud alarm just in case you need audible proof that the thief is indeed in possession of your gadget.
Here's a video of Prey that introduces you to the software:
Prey is configured through their website, in which you obviously need to make an account with in order to start using the software. In order to begin tracking your device, you simply need to set the current status to missing. Check out the screenshot below to see how the control panel looks like. 

Say Cheese, Thief!

 If the laptop has a webcam, you will be able to make the software take a picture of the thief. So you now have photographic evidence which you can hand over to the police. You will also be able to take screenshots of the thief's active session. So if ever they log in to their social media account such as Facebook, you can take a screenshot of it. And just like that, you already have the name of the culprit.

Lock Your Device Down

With Prey, locking down your device is extremely easy so your gadget becomes unusable to the thief unless he manages to guess your password. In addition, you can also choose to hide your Thunderbird or Outlook data and also remove all the stored passwords. A very neat security feature.

Monitor Your Hardware

Prey is also capable of monitoring the hardware of your device and if ever there are changes made, you will be alerted. Prey will be able to determine your motherboard model, RAM, Bios version, CPU Model, # of cores and many others.

Conclusion

As you can see, Prey is a very neat software that could help you recover your precious gadget from the hands of the wrong-doers. Just a word of advice though. Once you were able to pin-down the culprit, never ever attempt to confront him by yourself despite how tempting it is to deliver your own brand of justice. Always seek help from the authorities first.
Prey is available for Windows, Ubuntu, Mac, Linux, and Android. A free account will let you register up to 3 devices at max. Paying for a PRO license enables you to lift the device limit along with other premium features to help you track stolen laptop.

Download Prey

Dropbox - The free Online file sharing and Synchronizing

Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically. Dropbox works just like any other folder on your computer, but with a few differences. Here's how it works:
* Drag and drop to move files around, just like you normally would
* Any files or folders inside Dropbox will get synchronized to Dropbox's servers and any other computer linked to your account.
* Green checkmarks will appear on top of your files to let you know that they're synced and up to date.

Your files are always safe. All data is transferred over SSL and encrypted with AES-256 before storage. Put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they'll automatically appear on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux). You can even download Dropbox apps for your smartphone or mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry). Everything in your Dropbox is available from the Dropbox website, too.

Main Features

Sync
* 2GB of online storage for free, with up to 100GB available to paying customers.
* Sync files of any size or type.
* Sync Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
* Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected.

File Sharing
* Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on the same files.
* See other people's changes instantly.
* Use your "Public" folder to link directly to files.
* Control who has access to your shared folders. Kick people out and remove the shared files from their computers in the process.
* Automatically create shareable online photo galleries out of regular folders.

Online Backup
* Automatic backup of your files.
* Undelete files and folders.
* Restore previous versions of your files.
* 30 days of undo history. Upgrades available for unlimited undo.
 
Dropbox has decided to double-down on its referral incentives and now offers users twice the free space for each person they sign up. Referrals can now net free users and paying subscribers up to 16GB (512MB per referral) of free storage space while paying Dropbox subscribers can gain up to 32GB (1GB per referral). There is a cap of 32 referrals per account.
Existing subscribers with tons of referrals already will be pleased to know that the bonus is retroactive. For example, if you've scored 2.5GB of extra storage because you've referred 10 people, then you'll also be receiving an additional 2.5GB of space in just a few days. The changes should be completely automatic.
Dropbox currently offers 2GB of space for free. Competitors such as Box and Sky Drive offer 5GB and 25GB without cost, respectively. However, Dropbox doesn't suffer from most of the "gotchas" competing services often have, such as limits on file sizes or limited platform availability. For this and other reasons, Dropbox has remained a fairly popular way to store files online.
In February, Dropbox offered up to 5GB of free storage to brave users willing to try out an experimental photo-import feature found on their beta client. I was told this space stacks with referral incentives (although I haven't verified this). If this is true, some free Dropbox users may actually have accounts with as much as 23GB of space.
Dropbox's attempt to grab more referrals comes at a time when competition is about to heat up. Just last week, the Wallstreet Journal was told Google Drive is on track for an April 16 launch. Although little is known about Google's upcoming cloud storage service, it is expected to be a direct competitor to Dropbox and is rumored to offer 5GB of space for free.