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Google Drive gets Gmail attachment capabilities, Open Doc Format support, and more

Google is on a tear adding new features to Google Drive. The company recently rolled out an improvement to how Gmail handles Drive attachments, as well as some nice feature updates to Drive for Android and iOS.

Two years after Google added the ability to share Drive links via Gmail with just one click, the company is now adding the ability to send actual attachments using the same mechanism. Google's productivity suite also gained the ability to handle Open document formats—ODT, ODS, and ODP—which should come in handy for Linux lovers and users in countries that have adopted Open formats over their proprietary counterparts, like Microsoft's DOCX.

Drive for Android, meanwhile, is getting Google Now integration, which lets you use an "Ok Google" voice command to search for Drive documents. And users of iPhone and iPads are getting the ability to upload content from other apps on their device.

Sony Pictures Computers Down for a Second Day After Network Breach

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems were down for the second day in a row Tuesday after hackers claimed responsibility for breaching the company’s network and defacing its website.

On Monday, Sony Pictures was forced to take its systems offline after its website momentarily displayed an ominous image of a red skeleton that said “Hacked by ” — an abbreviation that reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace. In their message, hackers warned that they had obtained internal corporate data and “top secrets” and threatened to leak them unless their demands were met. It was not clear what the hackers’ requests were.

“We’ve already warned you,” the hackers said in their message. “We continue until our request be met. We’ve obtained all your internal data including your secrets and top secrets. If you don’t obey us, we’ll release data shown below to the world.”

There was not yet evidence that the data had been released.

Sony has attributed the problem to “a system disruption.” The breach did not appear to affect Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Music Entertainment and other parts of the Sony Corporation. But within Sony Pictures, employees were still unable to get access to the company’s internal network Tuesday afternoon.

Emails sent to Sony Pictures employees bounced back on Tuesday. “Our email system is currently experiencing a disruption,” the return message read. “Please contact the person you wish to reach via office or mobile phone. Please do not reply to this email.”

The breach was the second time that Sony Corporation had been targeted by hackers. In 2011, hackers broke into the online network for Sony’s PlayStation game console, exposing names and credit card numbers for millions of customers.

Sony initially estimated the cost of that breach alone would cost $170 million, but that figure did not include the total cost of 50 class-action lawsuits, which sought up to $2 billion in damages.

Viber’s social layer Public Chat starts with a 460 million advantage

For an app that has over 460 million unique users and over 608 million registered users, it was only a matter of time before Viber decided to go beyond instant messaging, voice and calls. So Viber has started rolling out what it calls Public Chat, which is essentially a social media platform for users to engage with celebrities, personalities and brands