At day 2 of Google I/O 2012, the company just announced that the long-awaited mobile versions for Google Drive--on both iOS and Chrome OS--will be available in their respective app stores later today. It's still the same storage solution we all know and love, allowing you store your documents and files in the cloud then pulling them down for a later look. But now, users can save files to their devices for offline access too, and they can invite others to collaborate on a document right from within the app.
In Chrome OS, Google Drive clearly has better integration, with background syncing and almost-instantaneous document viewing. Plus, across all devices, everything is updated in real-time and the collaboration demonstrated worked well. However, we have to give Google kudos for making the essential app available on iOS (both the iPhone and iPad) as well.
But possibly the most important feature announced was certainly offline editing for Docs (finally!). Google stated that the same offline editing would soon be available on other Drive apps as well, for instance on its presentation tools. The apps will locally save any changes you make to your documents, and will be immediately updated once hop back onto a Wi-Fi or network connection.
Google Drive is free and will drop into the app stores sometime today.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.