Dropbox looks to raise $250 million at $8 billion valuation

Fast-growing file-sharing and storage startup Dropbox Inc is trying to raise $250 million in additional funding in coming weeks, which would value the six-year-old company at more than $8 billion, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Monday.

The company may become the latest hot Silicon Valley startup to take advantage of flush investors and stratospheric valuations for fledgling tech companies. Loss-making Twitter Inc is now valued north of $20 billion after its debut; Pinterest, which only recently began to clarify its business model, last month won a round of financing that valued the nascent website at $3.8 billion.

But Dropbox has a problem: Some very big competitors want its business. And they are willing to offer absolutely anyone even more free cloud storage space than Dropbox to lure them away. For example, while Dropbox only offers 2 gigabytes of free storage, which isn’t enough to store a single downloaded movie, much less the photo library of a life-logging phone photographer, Google offers users 15 gigabytes of free storage, or 100 gigabytes to those who buy a Chromebook.

Dropbox, started in 2007 by a couple of MIT students, made its name as the simplest way for regular consumers to synchronize all their files between a desktop and a laptop. Every file in the Dropbox folder simply appeared on both machines. But over the past few years, Dropbox has also become a preferred way to handle moving files on and off phones and tablets, where syncing was an even more unpleasant and unreliable chore. 

Last year Dropbox cleverly added a feature to its mobile apps to automatically upload every photo taken on a user’s smartphone to Dropbox servers for syncing and safekeeping (with the user’s permission). Users could win additional free space for photos by convincing friends to sign up. By making uploading and syncing automatic – and invisible to the user – Dropbox helped fill its servers faster, and convinced more users to pay for additional space.

Valuing Dropbox at $8 billion seems completely reasonable in light of other recent Internet IPOs. Twitter had revenue of $317 million – and no profits in sight -- the year before it went public at a value of over $18 billion. And its active user base of 185 million at the end of 2012 was smaller than Dropbox’s is now.

The cloud storage market, like all cloud computing sectors, should continue to grow for the foreseeable future. But until one of these companies goes public, it won’t be clear how much the market is actually worth, as private company valuations are very different from the stock market.

Sony PlayStation 4 is Available For Pre-Order in India

The most awaited gaming console is now available for pre-order in India.  Yes, Game4u.com is taking pre-orders for the Playstation 4 at Rs.3000 deposit.  Before heading over to the portal please read the terms and conditions.  The Rs.3000 you pay now as deposit will be deducted from the final cost of console.  And the pre-ordered product will be available to you for a period of 7 days from the date of launch of PS4, if you dont pay the balance amount and claim your PS4 within this period, your Rs.3000 will be forfeited by Game4you.

Back during its pre-E3 press conference, Sony had announced that the PlayStation 4 will be launched in November and will cost $399 (Rs 23,300 approx) in the US, which is $100 less than rival Microsoft's console, the Xbox One, which is priced at $499 (Rs 28,900 approx).

For the price being paid, Sony is offering the system along with a controller and USB, HDMI and power cables. PlayStation 4 Eye is not part of the package, though, and can be bought separately for $59 (Rs 3,400 approx).

KEY FEATURES

• The all new Sony PlayStation 4  is powered by the most  powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art 1.84 TFLOPS graphics processor with 8GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 unified system memory, easing game creation and increasing the richness of content achievable on the platform. The end result is new games with rich, high-fidelity graphics and deeply immersive experiences.
• The DualShock®4 controller features new innovations to deliver more immersive gaming experiences, including a highly sensitive six-axis sensor as well as a touch pad located on the top of the controller which offers completely new ways to play and interact with games. The new Share button puts video streaming and sharing a tap away.
• Engage in endless personal challenges with your community, and share your epic triumphs with the press of a button. Simply hit the “SHARE button” on the controller, scan through the last few minutes of gameplay, tag it and return to the game – the video uploads as you play. The PS4 system also enhances social spectating by enabling you to broadcast your gameplay in real time.
• The PS4 system has the ability to learn about your preferences. It will learn your likes and dislikes, allowing you to discover content pre-loaded and ready to go on your console in your favorite game genres or by your favorite creators. Players also can look over game-related information shared by friends, view friends’ game play with ease, or obtain information about recommended content, including games, TV shows and movies.
• Remote Play on the PS4 system fully unlocks the PlayStation®Vita system’s potential, making it the ultimate companion device. With the PS Vita system, gamers will be able to seamlessly play a range of PS4 titles on the beautiful 5-inch display over Wi-Fi access points in a local area network.

SPECIFICATIONS

Main processor

• Single-chip custom processor
• CPU: low power x86-64 AMD “Jaguar”, 8 cores
• GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon™ based graphics engine

Memory

• GDDR5 8GB

Storage size

• 500GB Hard disk drive.

BD/DVD Drive (Read Only)

• BD x 6 CAV
• DVD x 8 CAV

Input / Output

• Super-Speed USBx (USB 3.0) port x 2
• AUX port x 1

Networking

• Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 1
• IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth® 2.1 (EDR)

AV Output

• HDMI out port
• DIGITAL OUTPUT (OPTICAL) port

Fore More Please Visit the Link - http://in.playstation.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 2

Credit : The Verge

Microsoft has launched the second version of the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro 2 is a device designed to be a laptop and tablet in one.

As with the original Pro hybrid, the Surface Pro 2 resembles a plain old tablet until you unfurl the integrated kickstand and attach a keyboard cover to the base, transforming the device into a small, funky-looking laptop. Many other details are unchanged. The tablet alone weighs 2 pounds and measures 0.53 inch thick, and boasts a 10.6-inch, 1920-by-1080 display. You’ll find a full-size USB port and a headphone jack on one side, and a MicroSD card slot and a Mini DisplayPort output on the other.

Enter the Surface Pro 2, which comes with one of Intel's latest fourth generation processors and runs the full 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 Pro. It's available with 64GB, 128GB 256GB and 512GB of storage, but you'll need some very deep pockets for the 512GB version, as Microsoft has started pre-order prices at £1,439 – and that's not including a touch or type keyboard cover. Fortunately, the 64GB version reviewed here costs a lot less, but at £719, we reckon the £799 128GB version is the best option when it comes to good value storage.

On the outside, the Surface Pro 2 is virtually identical to its predecessor. It's a little lighter, weighing 900g instead of 916g, but the tablet's sleek gunmetal grey magnesium chassis is still a slim 13.5mm thick and has the same soft-touch texture on the back panel. The ports haven't changed either, as you still get a single USB3 port, a micro SDXC card reader, a mini DisplayPort for connecting the Surface Pro 2 to an external display and a combined headphone and microphone jack.

Over to the right a micro-SD card slot allows memory to be boosted up to 64GB. It sits alongside a power connector that's still a bit more fiddly than we would like it to be, and alongside that is a MiniDisplay port that supports daisy chaining of two external monitors of resolutions up to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels.

On the left-hand side of the Surface Pro 2 is a single USB 3.0 port, a volume rocker and headphone jack, alongside a groove to help you flip the kickstand into its open position.

Luckily, the Pro 2 also comes with a Surface Pen to make interacting with the screen that bit easier. It works much like other drawing tablet pens and the screen will sense it even when it’s 2cm away. We found it a little difficult to use with the original Surface Pro unless it was lying flat on our work surface, but the Pro 2’s wider kickstand angle now makes it much more comfortable to use when the tablet’s propped up in laptop mode.

The pen is much more precise than using your fingers, but the accuracy of its sensor still isn’t completely perfect. Like the Surface Pen that came with the Surface Pro, we experienced a few tracking issues when we held the pen at an angle near the top corners of the screen. Unless we held the pen perpendicular to the display, the sensor would run away from our pen into the corners of the screen, making closing and minimising windows a little tricky. We didn’t experience this problem anywhere else on the screen, but it was a little disappointing to see this hasn’t been fixed yet.

Surface Pro 2 ships with Windows 8.1 Pro x64. Since there's no connected standby 64-bit version of Windows 8/8.1 yet, Surface Pro 2 ships without the feature. It also continues to behave more notebook like in the sleep/wake sense as a result. There's a delay between when you press the power/lock button and when you'll see the tablet respond as the system comes out of its sleep state. Ironically Surface Pro 2 comes with nothing more than a link to try Office 2013, while Surface 2 comes with a free copy of the Home & Student edition.

How to download the official Microsoft Windows 8.1 ISO

Upgrading your Windows 8 system to Windows 8.1 is simple enough through the Microsoft Store, but if you need to reinstall it or run the update on more than one PC, it can be inconvenient and time-consuming since Microsoft doesn't give you the option to save the update files.

There's a trick, however, that allows you to download the official Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft's servers with your Windows 8 product key. With the Windows 8.1 ISO, you can create DVD or USB media to update a Windows 8 PC to Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, as Paul Thurrott over at WinSupersite mentions, you can't use the ISO to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1 with a Windows 8 product key. The ISO is still worth having, though, just to be able to bypass the Microsoft Store when upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8. Here's how to download the official Windows 8.1 ISO:

Step 1: Go to Microsoft's page for upgrading to Windows 8 with a product key, then click on the light blue "Install Windows 8" button.

Step 2: Launch the setup file (Windows8-Setup.exe) and enter your Windows 8 product key when prompted. Continue the setup process until it begins downloading Windows 8.

Step 3: Close the Windows 8 setup window and confirm that you want to quit the setup.

Step 4: Back at the Microsoft upgrading to Windows 8 with a product key page, click on the light blue "Install Windows 8.1" button this time.

Step 5: Launch the setup file (WindowsSetupBox.exe), which will begin downloading the Windows 8.1 ISO.

Step 6: Once the ISO finishes downloading, the installer will take several minutes to check the download and uncompress the install files. When you're prompted to choose an installation option, pick "Install by creating media."

Step 7: Decide whether you want the installer to create USB flash drive media, or save the ISO file.

If you choose ISO, the ISO file (Windows.iso) will be saved to your PC and you'll be given the option to burn it to DVD. Once completed, you can actually go back and create the USB flash drive media as well. Just click on the "Install Windows" link on your Windows desktop. You'll be prompted to choose your installation option again. Pick "Install by creating media" again, insert a 4GB or larger USB flash drive, then choose the USB flash drive option. If you have any problems creating the USB flash media, you can still use the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool to create USB media with the Windows 8.1 ISO.

Finally : Official Instagram app coming to Windows Phone!

Tuesday at Nokia World, Nokia announced that a few of the most popular apps from iOS and Android -- Flipboard, Instagram, and Vine -- are at last coming to Windows Phone.

After months of pressure from Nokia, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed today that an official client will be made available to Windows Phone users shortly. "Our ultimate goal is to bring Instagram to everyone who wants to use it," says Systrom. "We're looking forward to watching the Windows Phone community use Instagram to capture and share beautiful moments in the coming weeks." The app closes a big hole in the Windows Phone ecosystem, allowing owners to use an officially supported Instagram client. Until now, those with a Windows Phone device had to rely on third-party clients to get their Vine and Instagram fixes.

Instagram is a big deal for Microsoft and Windows Phone. It also furthers the case for Windows Phone as the number three mobile OS as Nokia continues to push the market share in the right direction.