if the files were ever synced to your computer, you might be able to recover them using software that can undelete files. Personally, I'd just use dropbox ... it's dead simple.
The Google Docs (and Spreadsheets/Forms/etc.) native files are, however, links to online resources that are manipulated via an API, not document files in the usual sense.
Some things like management principles, accounting, and others could be better learned in a short course instead of learning the hard way. In a struggling startup, a mistake like that could mean success or failure.
i've done all of those, and I can tell you first hand ... learning is best by doing ... it's not comfortable .. but you figure it out .... pass the accounting to an accountant ... or theres tons of 101 courses on youtube ... management itself is learnt by doing ...
if you are looking for sources of inspiration, check out http://socialengineered.net/. Most discussions are borderline illegal, but it does get your hack juices flowing!
True or not, phones are becoming a medium to bring value to a larger ecosystem. I can see android's value to Google. The only play Amazon might have here is to control media consumption by offering their phones. Somehow it seems unlikely of them to offer phones for free though.
Amazon already sells their Kindle devices at a loss [1], it doesn't seem like a stretch to think that with an even lower cost device such as a phone that they might try to offer it for free to up their marketshare and ecosystem.
There's a difference between selling at a loss and giving something for free.
If you sell something at a loss, the consumer still had to put up some money and has a clear interest in using the product. That makes taking the loss upfront less of a risk since the consumer is more likely to use the product and eventually make a profit for you.
If you give it away for free, people will accept the product, whether they are interested in using it or not. That means a smaller percentage of people who take the product will actually be likely to use it. That makes recouping your loss much harder.
I can see free with contract (we have that already), but free without? Maybe they could do it if they focused on what I've wanted in a phone recently, a small phonebook and alarm capable device that tethers extremely well with good battery life, so I can just pair it with a small tablet when I want the extra smartphone features.
I don't imagine that costing too much, so it might fall within any acceptable loss they have built in to their products. Then again, it would have less capability to generate revenue for them, unless it changed data that passed through it (replacing adds, etc), which would be pretty horrendous.
It's not clear it'll be at a loss over the life of item from that link, it's based on a teardown at release, and it's very possible if not likely the cost will go down.
