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By 3 December 2010 | Categories: news

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New cloud-based storage and sharing utility coming from Google?
 
Google is apparently working on its own cloud-based storage offering, dubbed Cloud Picker, with which to take on the likes of Dropbox and ZumoDrive. According to TechCrunch, numerous bloggers and website forums revealed what appears to be a new storage product, which enables users to organise and search photos, documents, videos and more that are stored in the cloud. This new product also seems to be targeted at the consumer market as opposed to being a new tool for the enterprise segment.  
 
Chrome gaining browser usage ground
 
Google’s Chrome web browser attracted the most new users during November as its global usage increased from 8.5% in October to 9.26% in November, according to statistics released by Net Applications. Most of Chrome’s increased userbase looks to be emanating from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), as it dropped in overall usage from 59.18% to 58.44%. Mozilla’s Firefox (the second most popular browser after IE) remained almost unchanged dropping slightly from 22.83% to 22.76%. Apple’s Safari also gained some users rising from 5.36% to 5.55%.
 
 
Facebook attains its biggest valuation thus far
 
According to TechSpot, the latest valuation of the social networking behemoth Facebook, places the financial worth of the company at around $50 billion, which is the highest it’s ever been for the private, six year old firm. This compared to social games company Zynga’s reported value of $5.51 billion, which employs Facebook as a platform for some of its most popular games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. Even one of the company’s main competitors micro-blogging site Twitter started looking for new funding recently, valuing the company at a mere $3 billion.    
 
 
 
Sending data at the speed of light
 
According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM has revealed a breakthrough in computer chips that can send data at a blistering pace using pulses of light. The company stated that this research makes it possible for the development of future chips that can send over a trillion bits of data per second, which is 25 times the capacity of optical components typically employed in today’s high-performance PCs. 
 
New Ovi Maps for mobiles boasting plenty of new functionality
 
Nokia’s Beta Labs has released the latest beta version (v3.06) of Ovi Maps for mobile. By utilising this latest version of Ovi Maps, mobile users will be able to download (via Wi-Fi) Street Maps directly to their Nokia phone without having to be connected to a PC or notebook.
 
Besides this, users will also find that the My Position and Search functions are now integrated (dubbed Map) and when this new function is accessed it will show their last map view. There is also a new long tap functionality in order to delete as well as to rename collections and routes amongst the eight new functions included.
 

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