Dropbox is a cloud service that provides storage and data sharing over any device.  A new paid version of the service has just been launched, known as “Dropbox for Teams”.  This service is priced at US$800 a year for five users and an additional US$125 for each additional user.

Dropbox for Teams is a cloud service aimed at professionals, placing a lot of emphasis on extensive administrative controls and support.  There is a capped total of 1TB of storage for the first five users of any contract, with each additional user getting an extra 200GB.

Along with extensive storage capabilities and centralised billing and support, this new Dropbox service also promises to sync across all devices that have Dropbox installed.  At the moment, it is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices.

Dropbox files are stored on encrypted Amazon S3 servers, with local copies also available on users’ computers for additional backup.  Basically, a local folder is created and synchronised to the Dropbox servers, with users then able to share specific folders through the use of invitations.

Dropbox for Teams also keeps a one month history of users’ work, although it has been critisized for a lack of integration with some business software.  For example, there is no workspaces, task management, or collaboration features available at this stage, according to TechNewsWorld.

However, people are already swarming to the service, thanks to some clever marketing and the promise of extensive billing and phone support.  It also offers the advantage of a data usage bonus, with files only counted once even when they are shared with others.

Google’s has launched its new language, Dart, which is already causing lots of debate among programmers and developers everywhere.  Some of the features include Snapshots, designed for the instant start-up of applications, along with a number of features that remove certain dynamic behaviours in order to make start-up and code analysis more efficient.

Dart is a JavaScript alternative, which Google way is better suited for creating large Web applications.  Google are aiming for a structured yet flexible language for the web, with a full range of support for mobile devices, computers, and servers.

Google will provide tools which enable Dart to run on all major browsers, with dart code either translated into Java, executed directly on a server side VM, or used with Dartboard within any browser window.

The Dart language specification has just been released, with Google urging for feedback from the development community.  Tutorials, articles, and sample code is also available.

From the official Dart website:

Dart is a new class-based programming language for creating structured web applications. Developed with the goals of simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, the Dart language combines powerful new language features with familiar language constructs into a clear, readable syntax.

Key features of the Dart language include:

Classes

Classes and interfaces provide a well understood mechanism for efficiently defining APIs. These constructs enable encapsulation and reuse of methods and data.

Optional types

Dart programmers can optionally add static types to their code. Depending on programmer preference and stage of application development, the code can migrate from a simple, untyped experimental prototype to a complex, modular application with typing. Because types state programmer intent, less documentation is required to explain what is happening in the code, and type-checking tools can be used for debugging.

Libraries

Developers can create and use libraries that are guaranteed not to change during runtime. Independently developed pieces of code can therefore rely on shared libraries.

Tooling

Dart will include a rich set of execution environments, libraries, and development tools built to support the language. These tools will enable productive and dynamic development, including edit-and-continue debugging and beyond—up to a style where you program an application outline, run it, and fill in the blanks as you run.

A number of US financial institutions have cut off links to WikiLeaks, leaving them without 95 percent of their revenue.  Activists have come out against the measures, saying it is an attack on free speech being initiated by a government who have run out of proper legal ideas.

Some of the major companies that have blocked donations to the WikiLeaks site include Mastercard, PayPal, Visa, Western Union, Amazon, and the Bank of America.  WikiLeaks has asked its supporters to donate money through other means immediately, with donations still available through online merchants, mobile phones, various money transfer systems, and good old fashioned checks.

“The financial blockade is a free speech issue,” said Trevor Timm, activist and blogger for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in an interview with TechNewsWorld.  Many activists around the world agree, and plans are likely to be under way (again) by Anonymous and other online hacking groups to disrupt the institutions involved.

Timm went on to say: “The government, realizing they couldn’t charge WikiLeaks with a crime for publishing classified information — because all newspapers do that — decided to pressure private companies like Amazon, Visa, and MasterCard into banning WikiLeaks.  The suppression of donations is essentially an end-run around the First Amendment. The government is not technically doing the censoring — they’re leaving the dirty work to private corporations — and so there’s no real legal remedy in the United States.”

Some of the institutions have already come out in defence of their actions, saying that Wikileaks are operating outside the law, however, according to Timm “WikiLeaks has not been convicted of — or even officially accused of — a crime by the United States. In fact, it’s clear to most First Amendment experts that they’ve done nothing illegal.”

Trapit is a personalised discovery engine that has been developed by the team behind Siri.  While Siri – the widely acclaimed voice operated personal assistant from the iPhone 4S – allows you to talk to your phone, Trapit organises the huge mass of online content into “traps” for easier consumption.

Trapit is developed by CALO, the same Silicon Valley defence project that developed Siri, although the intention behind this application is very different.  Artificial Intelligence is used to collect and organise online content into tailored “traps”, making the Internet that much smaller, more personalised, and easier to manage.

Trapit is still in the early stages of beta testing at the moment, with invitation requests currently required to get an account.  However, a public beta will become available some time in the next couple of months, with a full release likely next year.

While Trapit may seem similar on the surface to other apps and websites that perform content filtering and grouping, it goes against the dominant trend in news curation.  Instead of using social networking and collaborative filtering, Trapit is fully “personalised”.

“This whole idea of using your social networks to find information is not really a solution, it’s an accommodation,” said Gary Griffiths, Trapit’s CEO in a recent interview with xconomy.com, adding “It’s a recognition that there is way more stuff out there than you can ever find, so you just say, ‘I’m going to let my friends find it for me.’”

Trapit has already raised $5.6 million in venture capital, and according to reports, bidding for the technology may already be underway.  The development of this technology is likely to move into the mobile arena, and may get picked up by Google, Apple, or Facebook in the near future.

In a busy 8 hour hackathon, a team from Dexetra.com has built a Siri competitor for Android.  While Iris might not have all the bells and whistles of Apple’s Siri, it is functional, useful, and available soon on the Android Marketplace.

Iris allows users to search on various subjects, such as art, history, literature, and biology.  It works through the use of Android’s speech-to-text functionality, and can understand basic questions about a number of subjects.

In a statement from the developers: “When we started seeing results, everyone got excited and started a high speed coding race. In no time, we added Voice input, Text-to-speech, also a lot of hueristic humor into Iris. Not until late evening we decided on the name “iris.”, which would be Siri in reverse. And we also reverse engineered a crazy expansion – Intelligent Rival Imitator of Siri. We were still in the fun mode, but when we started using it the results were actually good, really good.”

There is a very early beta APK available right now, with the official version set to arrive later this week.  While ongoing development is likely to make this a very useful tool, more than anything else, Iris is a great story of how a technology purported to be “revolutionary” can imitated in a matter of hours.

Sergey Brin joined the Web 2.0 Summit, together with Google Senior Vice President of Social Business Vic Gundotra.  Brin spoke openly about the beginnings of Google+, and how he initially fought many of the features that have become so successful.

“I’m not a very social person myself,” said Brin, adding that he “was wrong” when resisting the socialisation of Google.  He also added that once it had been developed, he found Google+ “instantly compelling.”

However, the main man behind Google+, Vic Gundotra, said Brin was integral to the development of Google+, saying the video “Hangout” feature was Brin’s idea, and adding “He was intimately behind pushing us to make Hangout happen.”

Gundotra went on to speak of the future of Google+, and how they plan to “grow the graph” and bring regular Google users over to the social side.  “We have the users” said Gundotra, saying the emphasis is now on moving them across to Google+.

Some details about the Google+ API were also released during the talk, with Gundorta saying “I’m completely responsible for it,” and “we’re going to take a cautious approach.”  It seems Google are treating Google+ as a very long term project, and they are not interested in releasing anything that developers can’t rely on for the long term.

While there is no doubt that Google has its eyes on the prize with Google+, the big question is whether there is really any room for another huge social network.  Can Google+ really ever compete with Facebook, or will they start to look for new ways to differentiate themselves.

“The incumbent has a huge advantage. But we’re going to play a different game. It may take some period of time.” said Gundotra.