Archive for: Cloud Storage
There have been a lot of reports over the last few days about Apple, iCloud.com domain name and CloudMe (the company that used to be called iCloud). Om Malik and Techcrunch have reported that Apple has acquired the iCloud.com domain name from CloudMe for approximately $4.5 million.
A few news sources have reported that Apple will use iCloud.com for their new music service. However, I dont think this is the case.
Apple seem to always be ahead of the times, but in this case I think Apple has realised that the Cloud is the way forward for content and its about time they embracced it. I think Apple will use iCloud.com as their new locker service in which users will be able to store their music, videos, pictures, basically anything they puchase from the iTunes store. Plus, im sure that Apple will allow us to access this account via any iOS related device and stream the content directly.
It will now be interesting to see if Apple launch this at WWDC on the 6th of June, because it will also mean that we will be getting a new iOS and possibly a Mac OS X.
Amazon.com seems to have finally succeeded in breaking into the “cloud” market with their new “Amazon Cloud Drive.” It touts a default of 5GB of online storage for free, unlimited access from any computer and, of course, reassures customers they will never have to worry about losing their files again. Their claim is, “Anything digital, securely stored, available anywhere.” But is it really as great as they claim? I decided to dig deeper and find out.
I received an email from Amazon when the cloud drive was launched and was given $2.00 in credit towards mp3 purchases. Intrigued by this new development (and the free music credits), I ventured to their website to check it out. I quickly found a song I wanted and clicked the buy button. It asked if I wanted to save the music to my cloud drive. “Simple enough,” I thought. Then I wouldn’t have to download it – I could just stream it. I immediately went to my new cloud drive, selected my new song (which was available immediately) and pressed play. It buffered up the song and played but I discovered it was also downloading to my computer as well. Bummer.
Next I decided to try uploading some music. I clicked “Upload to your Cloud Drive” and was prompted to download the “Amazon MP3 Uploader.” Wait a minute – so I have to use proprietary software to upload music? “That’s a bit inconvenient,” I thought, but I downloaded it anyway. After installing the software, it decided it had to scan my entire hard drive for music, which was a long and tedious process. Once it finally loaded, it told me I had X playlists and X songs not in my cloud drive and asked if I wanted to upload it all now. I declined (as it would have been way more than 5GB of space) and chose a few albums to upload. What I found was that it killed my internet speed and I saw no way to limit the upload rate. Frustrated after about 20 minutes of sluggish internet, I killed the uploader until that night when it could run and not bother me.
In the meantime, I checked out the Android mp3 player from Amazon, wondering if it too would have to download my music before playing it. I discovered that while it can play the song through buffered memory, it still has to download; so listening while downloading isn’t a good option as the song often plays faster than it downloads (unless you’re using Wi-Fi). So once again I’m stuck waiting.
Ultimately, I was able to get the music I wanted uploaded and then downloaded again (to my phone). Now that I have done so, I can simply open the Amazon cloud player and quickly hear what I want (slightly faster than searching my hard drive and includes better filtering options). So was the hassle worth it?
Pros:
- Music can save directly to the cloud (optional). This allows me to download my new music at my convenience and on whatever computer or mobile device I wish to listen to it on.
- I no longer have to use a USB flash drive or external to move music around.
- Creating a playlist is simple
- Music can be viewed by songs, albums, artists, or genres.
- In addition to music, the cloud drive can also store documents, pictures and videos
- Music can be listened to through a web browser or via a mobile device using Amazon’s MP3 app.
- 5GB free storage space
Cons:
- Uploading and downloading again is time consuming
- No upload speed limiter makes for doing anything else while uploading nearly impossible (and I have a 15MB connection)
- Must use proprietary software to upload music
- Must buy an annual subscription if you want more than 5GB of storage at $1/GB.
- No true streaming – music has to be downloaded to each device you wish to listen on
Overall, I would say Amazon has a potentially great thing going on here. If they simply added the ability to stream without downloading, I would give the Amazon Cloud Player and Drive 5/5 stars. As it is now, and considering their hefty fees for storage in excess of 5GB, I give it 3.5/5 stars. It’s a great concept, but could use a few tweaks to make it the best.
Cloud storage is huge, and many of us have stored our data in the cloud already. Whether we’re storing documents or media, the cloud gives us a safe place other than our hard drive to access our data in case of a mishap on our hard drive. Still there are others who think that it is too dangerous to store our most vital information in the cloud because we no longer have control of it. No matter what side of the fence you are on, cloud storage is become a reality for more than personal use, but also for businesses.
Cincopa is now offering cloud storage for digital music in an application called Tubemystuff. The idea is that most of our media far outweighs the storage capacity of our mobile devices. Many of us have hundreds if not thousands of gigabytes of music and video that simply can’t come with us. This is what Tubemystuff plans on changing. Rather than having to pick and choose what to bring with you, you upload what you want, and Tubemystuff allows you to access the other stuff later via a cloud connection.
You have the capability to listen to stored music when you home PC is online and offline, but the product prefers that you create huge playlists on their servers so that you don’t have to rely on the physical storage of your computer. While compelling, I’m not quite sure the audio quality would be the same. I’ve used other cloud services and the quality does seem to be reduced.
There are a variety of services just like this. Do you use any? Can you recommend something better. Let us know what cloud services you use in order to access your media while away from home.
Approaching the end of another year, perhaps you’ve not had the time to think about the security of your data. Too often many of us simply rely on our physical hard drive space, unaware that if something happened one of two things would happen. First you’d either lose all of your data and have to start over, or secondly, you’d have to pay a hefty price to have the data scraped from the hard drive and placed on another hard drive or DVD. It’s a frustrating experience that I’ve been through a few times and I’m sure a lot of you out there can relate.
Since those times I’ve become a huge supporter of cloud storage, a place offsite that is safe from anything affecting my physical computer. Backing up my files is useful especially if you’ve got data that you cherish. It could be anything from important work documents to cherished family photos. Having a backup is vital is you want to ensure the longevity of your information and the team here at Crenk will share the top 4 online backups that you might want to consider as a new years resolution.
Storage is a huge topic for most technology users. Whether we store locally or in the cloud, there’s never enough space. As a content creator, video, audio, photos, writings, this all takes space, and the more frequent you do it the more quickly your space fills up.
I’m a firm believer of using multiple forms of storage for redundancy and access requirements. I’ve got an account on Zumodrive, Box.net, and Dropbox, each of them for different needs and clients, but I also have two external drives that I back up my main system to, but they are all physical drives that require a direct connection to my computer. Now’s the time to cut those wires and Imation has the answer.
The Imation Pro WX Wireless USB Hard Drive cuts the cords and allows you to store your data from up to 30 ft. away. I at first scoffed at this considering that it did little for me if I’m trying to access my data remotely, but I soon saw uses for this if I’m on my laptop.
Sitting at home and backing up data on your laptop no longer requires a direct connection. If I’m on my couch, and the wireless hard drive is on, I can simply use the USB connection to send data straight to the external.
Personally that’s great, but I’m still a firm believer of the cloud since I don’t want all the data stored locally, but will need access to it on matter where I am. But, if you’re someone who simply uses their computers at home, perhaps this is an option, if you’ve got the money to drop for it ($450).
But if you access all your data from home, a more cost effective external might suffice for now.
