You got Gmail, big time: The week in tech

This week we look at how Google is harnessing Cloud technology to boost file-transfers and examine the latest Facebook hoax doing the rounds.

17:48 06 December 2012

This week we look at how Google is harnessing Cloud technology to boost file-transfers and examine the latest Facebook hoax doing the rounds.
There's that and more in this week's round-up of the latest tech news.

 

Huge file sharing for Gmail users

 

Google has integrated its Cloud-based storage service, Google Drive, with its email service Gmail, which means users will be able to email much larger files than ever before.

 

Both services are free to use and will allow users to send files up to a whopping 10GB by email, which is roughly 400 times larger than was previously possible.

 

This means sending video files, which hadn't been possible before without some serious compression, will now be far simpler. When writing a new email in Gmail, users will now have the option to attach a file from their Google Drive account.

 

It works because your Google Drive files are saved in the Cloud and therefore aren't technically attached to your emails, so the recipient just gets a shared link to download the file from the Cloud.

 

LG launches 84-inch television
 

The world's first commercially-avaliable 84-inch television has just been launched in in the UK, which is great if you have the space in your living room and £22,499.99 to spare.    If you're having a hard time contextualising that image above, imagine arranging four 42-inch flat-screen televisions into a rectangle - it's that big. But it's not just a bigger screen, it's sharper too.

 

The behemoth has an Ultra-HD display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, which will make your current 'full HD' TV with 1920 x 1080 pixels look, well, a bit rubbish frankly.

 

The LG 84LM960V's massive price tag is bound to be a bit much for most of us, but if you do fancy picking one up, they're now available to buy from selected stores, including John Lewis Sloane Square, Bentalls Kingston and Richer Sounds Southampton.

 

Facebook privacy update

 

Goliath social network Facebook recently proposed changes to its privacy policy, which would allow it to use data from your profile to "improve the quality of ads" shown on the site. It's also pulling the option for users to vote on changes to its privacy policy.

 

This has led to the resurgence of a hoax that was doing the rounds back in 2009 when Facebook tweaked its T&Cs. Users are posting a copied-and-pasted 'privacy notice', believing it will opt their accounts out of Facebook's new plans - but it won't.

 

You can see an explanation of why a 'privacy notice' status update doesn't supersede the terms and conditions each user agrees to when they first sign up here, but if you want to limit the information Facebook shares with advertisers, you need to adjust your sharing settings so that your posts and photos aren't made public, and are only shared with friends.
 
Google gives Christmas back

 

Google is sending out an update to its Android Jelly Bean for Nexus tablet and phone users, bringing some incremental changes and also giving back Christmas.

 

A bug with the previous Jelly Bean update meant that December was essentially missing from the calendar. The Jelly Bean 4.2.1 update gives Christmas back to Nexus users but also includes a few other refinements.
Users are reporting improved speed and enjoying smoother music streaming over Bluetooth. They are also saying that devices are now quicker to recognise when a tablet is in landscape or portrait mode and adjusting the screen accordingly.

 

If you have a Nexus 7 or 10 tablet or a Nexus 4 or Galaxy Nexus smartphone you'll soon be prompted to download the update.

 

Orange launches Skype-rival app

 

Orange is the latest company to launch an app which allows you to make free phone calls over the web, using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

 

The Libon app is now available on iOS (Apple) devices and is coming to Android-based devices in the New Year. It allows users to make free voice calls to other users in more than 90 countries worldwide, over wifi, 3G and, once it's more widely adopted, 4G.

 

Like Skype, the market leading VoIP service, it's free to download and use but there's also a premium version on offer for £1.99 a month.

 

The premium version will get you unlimited storage for saving conversations, call histories and voicemails, along with an hour's worth of calls to international mobiles and landlines in 31 countries. For more on saving money when making calls from abroad, see my article here.

 

Please note: Any rates or deals mentioned in this article were available at the time of writing.