Following years of rumors saying that Google would launch a cloud-based storage service to compete with players such as Dropbox, Google did indeed introduce Google Drive in late April. You can to fill a gap in google’s Chrome OS.

As we’ve reported before, with Chrome OS, Google bet heavily on the idea that consumers and business users would have no problem storing data and using applications in the cloud, without working on the locally stored data/applications model that most people are used to. Now, there are clear signs that Google Drive is going to be the stopgap that solves this Chrome OS problem.

In a recent post, I wrote:

"Google could create useful synergies between a new cloud-based storage service and Chrome OS, and there might even be room to give people storage incentives in the cloud if they choose Chrome OS. That kind of incentive might entice some businesses to adopt Chromebooks and Google’s operating system.The price-per-gigabyte of storage has been dropping for many years, and it now represents a way that Google could spend very little to offer free incentives to adopt Chrome OS."

Sure enough, Sundar Pichai, the Googler who manages development of Chrome OS as well as the Google Apps online services, has confirmed that Google will closely integrateGoogle Drive online storage with an upcoming version of the Chrome OS operating system. Wired reports this:

"Basically, Google Drive — a service that operates on the web — will perform as if it was the local file system. If you open the ‘save file’ dialog box on Chrome OS, for instance, the system will take you straight to Google Drive. “We’ll…effectively integrate [Google] Drive into the native file system of Chrome OS,” says Scott Johnson, Google’s Google Drive product manager. “All the core OS functionality will use [Google] Drive as a place to store data — if that’s what you opt in to.”

Many people who have written Chromebooks off, and many people who think Google Drive is just an entertainment play, should take note of this. Think about it. One of the barriers to adoption for Chrome OS so far has been that it is not designed to work with locally stored data and apps. Instead, it concentrates everything on the cloud. But with Google Drive, users have a free and obvious way–and a way provided by Google–to marry storage, data and applications with use of Google’s operating system.

f systems running Chrome OS start to come with large amounts of free Google Drive storage as an incentive to use the operating system, some enterprises might bite simply because Google would be providing them an end-to-end cloud computing solution: the OS, the storage, the cloud-based applications (Google Docs) and the tight security that Chrome OS is known for and that enterprises demand. 

Look for Google’s next play to be offering incentives to enterprises for lots of free cloud storage via Google Drive if they choose to adopt Chromebooks. It’s a shrewd way in the door to enterprises, where Microsoft still has such dominant market share.

For years now, many of the most interesting advancements in robotics have arrived via open source robot platforms and community contributions to them. Among open source robotics efforts, Willow Garage–a project that originated at Stanford University–may be the most famous and accomplished. Robots being developed within it run ROS (Robot Operating System) software, and are surprisingly capable. At least 25 institutions are developing robotics applications on Willow Garage’s open platform, and now, Willow garage has announced the launch of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). This is likely to be huge news for robot fans.

According to the OSRF announcement:

"The OSRF is an independent, non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community. Their mission is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. In conjunction with the formation of the OSRF, the Board of Directors was also announced. The Board of Directors comprises a worldwide collection of educators, leaders and visionaries in the field of robotics."

Among the luminaries on the OSRF board are:

- Wolfram Burgard, a professor at the University of Freiburg where he leads the Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems.

- Ryan Gariepy, the co-founder and CTO of Clearpath Robotics. Clearpath Robotics specializes in the design and manufacture of robust and reliable unmanned vehicle solutions for industrial R&D.

- Brian Gerkey, Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage.

- Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks.

- Sam Park, the executive vice president of Yujin Robot. At Yujin Robot he has directed the commercialization of educational and entertainment robots, elderly service robots and home cleaning robots.

That’s quite a distinguished board. The first initiative of the OSRF will be participating in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The DARPA Robotics Challenge launches in October of this year and offers a $2 million prize "to whomever can help push the state-of-the-art in robotics beyond today’s capabilities in support of the DoD’s disaster recovery mission."

"It’s always been the intention of Willow Garage to create an independent body that can take our initial work in open source robotics and see it grow beyond the confines of a single organization,"  said Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage, in a statement. "The reality is that the popularity of open source robotics in general, and ROS specifically, has grown beyond our wildest expectations. Willow Garage will enthusiastically support the goals of the OSRF." 

For much more coverage of open source robotics, see OStatic’s posts here, here, and here. 

It’s sort of a weird time for game developers and publishers. Despite a reluctance on the part of Microsoft and Sony to talk about and/or announce next generation console hardware, the current crop of consoles are gettting long in the tooth and, as many suspect, facing succession. It’s already happening with Nintendo’s Wii console as the Wii U draws closer to release, and within the next year or so, it’s conceivable to think there will be a PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 in the wild, too. Despite the uncertainty, however, EA isn’t holding back and intends to invest a healthy $80 million into developing titles for next generation consoles. Does EA know something we don’t?

“We intend to invest $80 million in gen-4 console development in fiscal 2013,” EA CEO John Riccitiello said, according to GamesIndustry International. “We are strong believers that console will return to strong growth, representing great opportunity, one that is in lockstep with our digital plan.”

Hard copy sales dropped 7 percent for EA in the past year, and looking ahead, the games publisher expects another single-digit decline during its fiscal 2013 period (April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013). So, why isn’t EA fretting, and why commit $80 million to developing games for consoles that haven’t launched yet? For one, developing games for consoles is like having a license to print money. And secondly, EA expects digital sales to make up for declining hard copy sales.

Riccitiello described the company’s digital growth as being “robust,” according to All Things D. And that’s a fair assessment. EA raked in $1.2 billion in digital revenue last year, a 47 percent year-over-year increaase. FIFA 12 made $100 million in digital revenue all on its own, and looking forward, EA expects digital sales to total $1.7 billion in the next year.

For years now, Dell Computer has experimented with shipping computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu, and Dell also just announced a long-term Linux-focused agreement with Red Hat. Now, Dell–the world’s number two PC maker–is seeking community input for the design of an Ubuntu-based laptop aimed specifically at developers. The initiative is dubbed Project Sputnik, and is yet another way that Dell remains open to Ubuntu-based computers.

According to the Project Sputnik page:

"Project Sputnik is based on Dell’s XPS13 ultrabook and supports Ubuntu 12.04.  The image will come with the necessary drivers to support the HW along with a very basic set of general developer tools.  Then you can use the included profile management tool to pull down appropriate tools from a github repository [this is currently being developed].  The initial profiles will be for Ruby, Android and JavaScript development."

There is also a blog post with much more information on Project Sputnik, which notes:

"To put it in context, Sputnik is part of an effort by Dell to better understand and serve the needs of developers in Web companies.  We want to finds ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible.  And what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish, running the 12.04 LTS release of Ubuntu Linux."

The idea is a very good one. Lots of developers might welcome an Ubuntu-based laptop loaded with the right tools for a very low price. And, the blog post makes clear that the Sputnik computer will eventually spread out to the cloud via the OpenStack platform:

"When we initially pitched Sputnik to Ubuntu’s founder Mark Shuttleworth a couple months ago he really liked the idea.  In his eyes however, he saw something bigger.  Where it got really interesting for him was when this laptop was optimized for DevOps.  In this scenario we would have a common set of tools from client, to test, to production, thereby tying Sputnik via a common tool chain to a cloud backend powered by OpenStack.  Developers could create ‘micro clouds’ locally and then push them to the cloud writ large."

This project is one worth watching, and Dell has set a six-month timeframe for bringing it to fruition.

Visit any major city on the planet, roll through its development over the past 100 years and you’ll notice something about the height of the skyline. When you need to pack more people into a fixed area, X and Y are not enough. You MUST build upwards. Tecnobitscasts an eye over Microsoft’s need for a better packing density.

Around 1985, rumour in the computing community was that a lab in the States had created a 1GB memory module using a cube of gelatinous substance and a pair of lasers mounted, Transformers-style, on WWII gun sluices. Not exactly ‘stick in your pocket for £5 friendly’.

The interesting part is that this era of experiment into larger memory types should move in the X, Y and Z directions.

Around two years ago, JEDEC professed a preference for the industry to ‘have a good go’ at 3D memory configurations. In fact, it’s something that (kind of) already exists. If you consider each module in your existing rig as the X and Y of a configuration, then having 4 sticks in row gives you the Z factor.

The future of 3D memory is centred on the idea of cramming all that (and more) into a single stick.

The wonderfully named Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMC) already has IBM, Samsung and Micron as key members and, now, they have added Microsoft to their ranks.

The goal of the organisation is laudable. They want to deliver memory access that’s around 15x faster than anything you’re likely to get with DDR3 and, at the same time, reduce overall energy requirements by around 70% – compared to a DDR3 solution.

Overall, the programme was given a boost when HMC announced last December that it was possible to construct the inter-layer connections using IBM wafer baking technology. So it looks like Jacobs will miss out on this contract.

While the world plus dog presently marvels at the idea of a 100G system (100Gb connectivity), the path toward a 400G solution is being laid and, according to its supporters, 3D memory solutions could be a key component for the systems of the future.

A recent survey of top level corporate tech gurus showed that the number of companies already looking at 100G technology (33%) was almost balanced by those who had no intention of going past their existing 1G/10G networking before 2013 (24%).

While consumers might love their products, Jacobs simply doesn't bake the right kind of wafer for HMC

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