Over the years, cyber threats have come in many shapes and sizes. Viruses that scramble your data and hold it for ransom, worms that conscript your computer into armies and forced to illegally attack websites, and phishing emails designed to steal personal information from you are just some examples if threats today. The method of attack has changed consistently throughout the years because of a constant game of cat and mouse between cybersecurity researchers and cybercriminals – as new flaws and vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, companies race to “patch” them over to keep it from being exploited. While computers are in many ways more secure than ever, it’s still important to stay up-to-date and have an antivirus to keep you safe from as-yet-unseen threats. Likewise, staying conscious of potential threats and never downloading files from untrustworthy sources or suspicious links in the first place is a good policy to have.
There has been mixed messaging around keeping your Mac backed up, so it is important to understand what options Apple has built for keeping their users’ data safe.
The option most people are familiar with is iCloud. This service is tied to your Apple ID and can back up certain kinds of data to Apple’s servers. The strength in this is that, being in the cloud, your data is safe in more than one place. This means that, even if your device is lost or damaged, the data you had stored with iCloud, be it contacts, photos, or documents, is safe and accessible elsewhere. Likewise, any data you have in the cloud can be synchronized to other devices. This means that you can have one centralized photo library, one calendar, and one set of contacts that will stay consistent across any of your devices – from desktops to smartphones, laptops to tablets. Anywhere you have an internet connection, you can stay backed up and stay in sync across everything.
There are shortcomings to this approach – iCloud has its own weaknesses. First and foremost, iCloud, at least for Macs, is fairly incomplete. iCloud can only back up and synchronize what you tell it to, and it cannot back up everything. The most complete iCloud backup is going to have large holes in it – music libraries, pictures or videos outside your “Photos” library, and your applications themselves are all things that cannot be backed up this way, and that’s to say nothing about any other data you may have outside your Desktop or Documents folders. Depending on how much data you have, it’s important to also remember that this is a service that costs money. While Apple does give you 5 GB for free, this can quickly be surpassed by even a single video file with most modern smartphones. If you want more storage, you’re going to have to pay a monthly subscription fee, which can add up over the long term. Another issue is that of maximum capacity; Apple does not sell more than two terabytes of iCloud storage. While this might not be an issue for the average user, this may be a limitation for people with very large collections of data, like Photographers or video editors. While it does have some clever tricks for taking the burden off of your Mac’s internal storage, iCloud cannot replace local storage outright, and will always be limited by the speed of your internet connection.
On the other hand, you have Time Machine. Time Machine is Apple’s local backup and has been built into every Mac since 2007. With Time Machine, you have the ability to fully back up your Mac to an external storage drive with all of your files, settings, and applications. This means that, should something happen to your Mac or its data, you could get essentially everything back in exactly the state it was in at the time of the last backup. This is not even limited to a single computer, either – you could conceivably restore everything from a ten-year-old iMac to a brand-new MacBook Air, for example, despite them having nothing in common physically. Another strength to Time Machine is the cost against iCloud. Just one purchase of an external hard drive of sufficient capacity, and you’re set for as long as the hard drive continues to function. With most drives lasting at least a few (usually more) years and with the overall cost being eclipsed by a large cloud storage plan within a year or less, the long-term cost is often fractional in comparison. Finally, you also have “history” with Time Machine. As its name implies, Time Machine does not store just one backup, but as many backups as the external drive’s capacity allows, allowing you to retrieve files or data from days, weeks, months, or years ago – up until the first backup. This way, if you accidentally delete something you did not mean to, or change a file by accident, you can “go back in time” to retrieve an older version. Time Machine will not fill up the drive completely, either. As it runs out of space, it will simply thin out the herd of older backups, starting with the more granular time periods and working up to the larger ones in order of recency.
However, just as iCloud is not perfect, Time Machine has its flaws too. For one, it’s a local backup only. This means that, if something should happen to the external hard drive, it’s as good as gone. This can be alleviated with diligence and by using more than one drive, perhaps keeping at least one always stored in a fire safe or a safety deposit box off-site and swapping them periodically, but this brings the cost and effort on your part up. For laptops especially, this need to be connected physically to the drive for the backup to occur can also be a bit of an inconvenience on a device designed to be portable, especially in cases where the laptop is often on the go.
For the sake of redundancy, as well as some of the aforementioned weaknesses to each approach, a hybrid strategy is always our best recommendation. Where possible, both strategies should be employed to cover the weaknesses of the other. This way, should one fail, the other can be used instead. We cannot overstate the importance of maintaining a good backup, because it only takes one bad day to lose you months or years of information. Reach out to us at RGB and we can help formulate a backup plan that’s right for you.
One of the situations we see far too often these days is when a user runs out of storage for their data. With Macs and PCs, storage is definitely on a higher scale from many other devices out there, but many of the problems are the same – too many programs or too much data can quickly fill any storage you may have on your computer. Just as many underestimate how much data they can accumulate in a couple years with a smartphone, many underestimate how much can be accumulated over the life of their computer, which in some cases can go beyond a decade. Although most will never make it to that ten year mark, most systems are kept for several years anyway, and thus the storage needs can far exceed even the most extreme cases elsewhere. You can avoid this problem by choosing the right amount of storage for your digital needs.
The most common group of users to encounter this barrier are definitely the Mac users out there. Especially with how tightly focused many art schools, musicians, and graphics design careers are on the Mac ecosystem, their users, on average, store a great deal of their music, photos, and other media on their Macs – whether for work or personal use.
The problem is exacerbated further by the most common Mac configurations, namely the MacBook line, having relatively small hard drive capacities. The reason for this is that the types of storage many Macs and premium PCs use is much faster and delivers a much more snappy experience, at the cost of being more expensive than their more standard counterparts for a given amount of space. The base model MacBooks frequently have only 128 GB of storage available, and that’s what most people go with without a second thought, as it is the most inexpensive option. While this may sound like a lot, especially when compared to the smartphones we carry with us everyday, it’s important to consider the fact that, on average, many of these Macs are not only far more expensive than their smartphone counterparts, but their users also tend to keep them far longer, as previously mentioned. That’s to say nothing of the fact that many Mac users store complete backups of their entire iPhone’s content on their Macs, in addition to everything else. When you take that factor in by itself, you can see why this amount of space may prove to be insufficient rather quickly.
With PCs, the lines aren’t so clear-cut. With how many different manufacturers there are out there, each producing multiple lineups of different types of Windows-based devices, the narrative tends to break down a little. Many desktop computers and laptops, especially in the lower and middle-range, tend to come with a whole 1 Terabyte of storage as standard. This is far more than most people really need, but is the most cost effective option for a lot of manufacturers. Paradoxically, as you get into price ranges closer to the high-end, and more in line with what you might pay for a Mac, the storage starts to decrease in many models, especially the thin-and-light laptops people are so fond of these days. As mentioned in the case of the MacBooks, this more expensive form of storage starts to become much more common in the higher-end systems available. These types of drives, called Solid State Drives, are much faster and more durable than their classic Disk Drive predecessors – even many older systems can see a huge boost in speed and responsiveness with this type of drive under the hood. However, the price tradeoff is again apparant – every step up in storage will typically run users a good deal of money, thus discouraging people to go any higher than the most inexpensive option.
In our experiences over the years, we tend to see a few situations that stand out most commonly, with the bulk of people falling into three distinct scenarios…
One of the most common cases is, of course, the people who mainly use their computer for web browsing and email. For those that do most of their work online, keeping only minimal collections of documents, pictures, or other files on the computer itself, the storage needs are pretty minimal. With the proliferation of video streaming services such as Youtube, Netflix, and Hulu – or just as commonly, music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and Google Play Music, many who do most of their work online can get most of their entertainment online as well. Users who fit this bill can expect to need very little storage on their systems, and often even the smallest options will be more than sufficient. An entire class of computer has been built around this scenario, the most well known of which being Google’s Chromebooks – a type of computer that is most often cheap, fast, and lightweight, with minimal storage options that instead rely on the cloud and internet services such as Google Docs to do most of the heavy lifting.
This next case usually encompasses those who store large collections of data on their computers. Be it pictures or videos, music or documents, they are often rather similar to those in the above scenario in terms of how they use their computers from day to day. However, there will often be times in which they might find themselves storing or editing pictures from their cameras or smartphones, or perhaps even dabbling in video editing. Those of us who fit this category will want to invest in the larger storage options available, depending on the computer in question. While the average photo only takes up a tiny fraction of the space on your system, over the course of years (or even decades!) it can be very easy to build up a collection of tens or even hundreds of thousands of photos or other important files. With most systems coming with a 1 Terabyte drive, you’re guaranteed to get a good deal of mileage for your needs. Although, depending on how much you have, you may need even more space over time. Of course, if you’re looking at a Mac or higher-end PC with more limited capacity drives, you should definitely opt for some of the larger options, despite the extra cost, since more storage can easily make the difference in the computer’s viability for the future.
For some people, their computer essentially IS their job, for all intents and purposes – their livelihood and all their work is done through it, and all their files and documentation are exclusively stored there. This is especially true for those in a career in (or going to school for) design or creative fields such as photography, cinema, 3D modelling, or manufacturing. The software for this type of work is usually quite expansive on its own, and many of the files users will work with daily will be quite large. Between RAW photos and high-resolution video, or complex 3D models and textures, even shorter projects can take up a great deal of space. This doesn’t just apply to the professionals in these fields either; very often, even hobbyists and amateurs will encounter problems with not having enough space for their passion. Even when it comes to more casual usage, modern video games can take up a lot of space, too – some modern titles encompass more than 50 Gigabytes a piece. If any of this sounds like you, you’re best advised to go with the largest options available to you. You may even want to consider external forms of storage such as the Cloud or external hard drives. For a relatively modest fee, you can expand the space available to you dramatically.
Beyond just providing more storage, both the Cloud and external hard drives can provide an exceptionally important quality – backup. Especially for the latter cases, having a backup of your data is paramount. Computers can break, hard drives can die, and certain malware can even take your files hostage and hold them for ransom. Even if it has never happened to you before, it can happen to anyone – and in the case of the first two problems, it will happen eventually.
Whatever your situation may be, choosing the right amount of storage for your computer can be more significant than any other detail in a new purchase. It’s important to remember that the computer is a tool, and it’s what that tool is used to do and create that is the most important. Of course, if you’r ever unsure of your needs or are simply looking for some advice, feel free to talk to us at RGB Computer Solutions.
Earlier last month, Google announced it would discontinue its photo manager, Picasa, in exchange for a heavier focus on its cloud-based Google Photos service. For many people who have used Picasa for organizing and editing their pictures for many years, this represents a big change in the way they will accomplish this task in the future.
Making the Shift
For many out there, this change will not be an easy one – often times, people who see the need for a photo manager will have quite a sizable collection stored up, and to migrate to a new service will not be an easy proposition. However, there is hope for a relatively painless transition for some. At the moment, Picasa allows the back up of pictures and videos to its online storage service, “Picasa Web Albums”, which is Google Photos’ predecessor.
One of the good things about the similarity of these two online services is that, as part of its migration, users who log in to Google Photos with the same Google account as their Picasa Web Albums will notice that their new Photos service has all the pictures and videos from their Web Albums account already synchronized. For those that don’t use the service, Google has also provided a small application that uploads image and video files automatically, from sources of your choice, called “Google Photos Backup”. It can even detect when a camera memory card is inserted or an external drive is plugged in, pulling the pictures up as soon as it is connected.
The service also has the benefit of being cloud-based, which we’ve gone over in previous articles, but it’s worth mentioning again that often these files will be kept considerably safer online where failures, accidents, or acts of god are far less likely to occur. As far as how much storage you get for all your pictures and videos, the amount is virtually unlimited.* (More on this below)
Functionality
Picasa is more than just an organizer of sorts, and this is reflected as well in Google Photos – filtering, recoloring, cropping, and many other functions are still present, albeit in different varieties and configurations from its predecessor. As far as its overall capability goes, it should be relatively similar to Picasa in function, although we did notice certain options were absent or had been replaced by different ones. When it comes down to it though, it’s truly up to you whether the changes made on that front are worthwhile or detrimental.
Unfortunately, not every part of this change has been a rosy one. While a lot of the editing functions are still intact, many of Picasa’s more discrete functions have been lost, and while some of these features, such as collage and poster work or custom screensavers weren’t particularly widely used, it is still a shame to see an objective step back in functionality. Some of the options for sharing photos have also been removed, such as attaching files straight to emails. However, with the files living online now, the option to get a link to specific images which anyone can view has been added, and can be useful for sharing the files via email.
On the subject of sharing, Photos also introduces a handy feature for family and friends to enjoy, which is known as “Shared Albums”. Shared albums allow for multiple people to have access to a specific album of sorts, which can be added to and commented on by people of your choosing.
All in all, this migration will be a difficult one for some, and an easy one for others. There will be some adjustment, but this change is not without its advantages.
Storage Settings
Regarding the unlimited storage of pictures and videos, especially for those photography enthusiasts out there, there are two settings for saving files: “High Quality” and “Original”.
Only files saved under the High Quality settings are given unlimited space, and they are restricted to a maximum of 16 MP for photos, and 1080p for videos. What this means is that, for any picture shot at a resolution beyond 16 Megapixels, Google will downsample uploads to that size. Likewise, for videos shot beyond 1080p (Full HD), such as 1440p (Quad HD) and 2160p (Ultra HD), the versions stored online are downsampled to meet the restriction. Storing files using the “Original” setting will save the files at their original qualities, but these files will count against your Google Drive storage. For most people, however, using inexpensive digital cameras or smartphones, qualities will be within the acceptable range.
We’ve spoken on the subject of data backups and how important they are in the past, but we’ve never really explored the different options available in some of the categories of backup methods.
In recent years especially, one of those backup methods has gone from trendy idea to industry standard, and many users find that, for better or for worse, their data is always kept safe in the cloud.
Now, as mentioned before, there are different options available for cloud storage intended for different purposes and users. In fact, with how trendy this type of service has become, every other tech company under the sun wants to get in on the business. At this point, there are probably more clouds on the internet than clouds in the sky!
We’ll be going over some of the most prevalent and popular platforms, as well as the more specialized file hosters, especially those for photos.
PROVIDERS:
Thanks to their significant marketing power, and their advantages when it comes to tying into their other products and services, the most widely used cloud storage providers tend to be, unsuprisingly, the largest players in the tech community already. However, despite the unlevel playing field, alot of smaller services have cropped up over time and, through either unique features, value, or persistence, have managed to grow considerably since their creations.
First off, we have Dropbox. Dropbox is one of the more independent ones here, and was one of the first cloud services to really make it big in the industry. They give users 2 GB of storage for free, and basic plans start at $10 per month for 1 Terabyte of storage. This amount of space is typically more than enough for the average user, and they offer more advanced features like file sharing with special links, recovery of deleted files, viewing of older versions of modified documents, among others. They have even higher plans for business and enterprise customers with more storage and features available.
Next, there’s Google Drive. To be frank, if you’re on the internet frequently, you probably use at least one Google service or another. Between Gmail, Youtube, Google Chrome, Google Earth, Google Search and so many others, it’s kind of hard to avoid at least part of their reach. Also, most of the smartphones in the world run Google’s Android OS. To tie a lot of it together, google provides Google Drive users with 15 GB of free space, which is shared between Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Docs (Google’s free online office productivity suite) as well. Plans start at $2 a month for 100 GB of storage and $10 a month for 1 TB of storage. Storage options extend to a whopping 30 TB if desired, and several amounts in between.
If you own any iDevices or Mac computers from Apple’s venerable lines, there’s a good chance you have run into or had experience with Apple’s own cloud storage, aptly named “iCloud”. iCloud is very well integrated into Apple’s devices, and allows you to store complete backups of said devices online, which can then be accessed from other apps or even used to migrate seamlessly to a newer device if, for example, you were to upgrade to the next iPhone. Larger storage options are available, and to a degree, necessary if you wish to make use of this function, however. Apple starts users off with 5 GB of free storage, and for only $0.99 a month, will give you 50 GB of storage. Plenty for the average iPhone or iPad user. Plans also come in 200 GB and 1 TB flavors for those wishing to back up their Macs or multiple iOS devices for $2.99 and $9.99, respectively.
On the subject of large companies and their cloud storage, Windows 8 and Windows 10 users have probably noticed over the past couple of years an increasing involvement in Microsoft’s productivity tools and, indeed, Windows itself’s affairs by Onedrive, Microsoft’s latest evolution of its cloud service. Fueled by its specialties in productivity, especially in educational and business fields, Microsoft has always understood the importance of the data their software is used to create, and has had cloud service for years now. Onedrive, however, takes things a step further beyond its predecessors such as skydrive et cetera, and, as mentioned before, has become a major component in the Office suite. Users start off with 5 GB of storage for free, with a 50 GB plan for $2 a month, and a 1 TB plan for $6.99 a month which includes Skype minutes and a subscription to Office 365, providing constant access to the latest version of Microsoft Office and all of its components, with updates and upgrades to newer versions as long as the subscription is active. There is also a premium plan for $9.99 a month that includes 1 TB in addition to Microsoft Office per person for up to 5 users, and further business options are available.
Whereas most of our previous entries have been focused on productivity specifically, with the one exception potentially being iCloud, it’s definitely worth mentioning that there are some Cloud service companies that take a more broad and automatic approach. Whereas services like Dropbox, Onedrive, and Google Drive require you to be manually placing files into their folders in order for them to be backed up and synchronized, a service like Carbonite automatically backs up the folders and files that you select without any further intervention required. Like some of the others on this list, it also provides a sort of “backup of previous backups”, in which you can see older versions of files and folders from previous backups, just in case you delete something you didn’t want to, or if you make a change that you want to revert. Carbonite’s encryption is also rock-solid, so any files saved through their service are very secure, which can be very important for business owners. However, as mentioned before, Carbonite is not as focused as other Cloud services, and lacks a lot of the file sharing and collaboration features that others on this list provide. However, in the interest of security alone, Carbonite is one of the best. Carbonite bills yearly instead of monthly. For unlimited storage for one user, it charges $59.99 per year, with a $99.99 option for backing up external drives and devices, should you require more than one storage device backed up.
As many people would agree, the most important files for most are photos. Especially with the proliferation of smartphones and relatively low-cost cameras, it seems that everyone has their own digital photo album, filled with memories they would like to protect. As a result, a good number of file hosting services similar to the previously mentioned cloud storage drives have begun cropping up. These, however, are specialized almost entirely in picture and video media. Storage amounts and features vary. While a host like Yahoo’s Flickr offers up to 1 TB of space for free and focuses on the professional and amateur photography communities, that’s what they’re most focused in. On the other hand. services like Photobucket, Shutterfly, and Snapfish have focuses ranging anywhere from custom designs to photo printing and creative use. In the sense of creative use, these companies may offer anything from custom calendars to coffee mugs and greeting cards, from canvas tote bags to mouse pads, and that’s only to name some of the possibilities that can be worked with the photos of your choosing. Of course, while the safekeeping of their users’ photos is still paramount, providing the ability to express some creativity while doing so is a convenient option for many looking to back up.
The advent of cloud storage and file hosting services has really changed the ways in which we can keep our files with us, and keep our files safe. However, cloud storage is not always the best option for long-term backups, and, like any backup method for important files, should never be counted on alone. Subscription costs can really stack up over the course of the year, and while most services provide the capability to retrieve deleted files within a time period, if you end up needing anything that you deleted to free up space later down the line, recovery will be impossible.
Too often I encounter people who have lost important files or pictures that they will never be able to replace, and even more often I hear the reasoning that there’s “never been a need for a backup”, or that “nothing’s ever gone wrong in the past”. Remember, folks: it only needs to happen once, and that once is too many. Statistically speaking, it’s unlikely that you won’t be afflicted with some form of data loss in your life; from dead hard drives and scratched disks, to dropped laptops or smashed phones, technology can be a delicate thing, so why play that game of Russian Roulette? Backing up your data is something that you will never regret until you don’t do it.
The cloud storage and sharing application DropBox has grown tremendously in popularity. Not familiar with Dropbox? It is a “freemium” cloud-based application for storing files. Users install a small utility that allows the content to be synched among multiple devices like laptops, tablet, smart phone or any device that supports a web browser.
The company announced earlier this year that it now has 25 million users globally – over 500% of growth in less than a year. It isn’t just registrations. Users are saving more than 200 million files per day; that’s more files per day than tweets on Twitter. Pretty impressive for a company that doesn’t spend a dime on advertising.
Even if you are using Dropbox, there is a big chance you aren’t taking full advantage of its capabilities. There are many uses for Dropbox beyond just basic file synchronization and sharing. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Access Portable Applications from Everywhere
Many applications don’t have an installation or are supported by portable application solutions, which means they can be run from any PC. Many people carry commonly used portable applications around on a thumb drive, but those could be easily lost or damaged. A better solution is to store your must have portable applications on Dropbox where they can be synchronized to all of your machines.
A similar idea is to store application settings files in Dropbox so that your application settings are always kept in synch across all machines.
Monitor Computer Use Remotely
Do you want to keep an eye on your teens computer activities? Another novel solution for Dropbox is to monitor the use of a computer. You can install a silent key logger or screen capture program and configure the application to store its log files to your Dropbox folder, which makes the file accessible everywhere.
Cloud Storage for Your iTunes
Instead of sharing your iTunes or other music library with your family using a shared hard drive, just drop the files in your Dropbox folder. Once the library is on Dropbox all of the songs, ratings, etc. are instantly accessible by everyone you’ve shared the Dropbox folder. Users that want to access the iTunes library hold down the Shift key (or Option for Macs) while opening iTunes, and a prompt that allows the new iTunes library to be selected is displayed. Select the Dropbox folder and you are ready to go.
An added benefit is that you can even listen to your music library stored on Dropbox using the web interface.
Automatically Trigger Events Remotely
Many applications include features that monitor a folder and perform some task if file is found. You can trigger this work remotely by having the application monitor your Dropbox folder. The more technically savvy could create a custom script that monitors a folder. This solution is obviously not a solution for sophisticated scheduling software, but it does work.
Google has announced an enhancement to its already popular Google applications suite a cloud-based laptop developed in conjunction with manufacturers Samsung and Acer named what else – Chromebook. According to Google,
“You won’t have to wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You’ll be reading email in seconds.”
8 seconds actually, according to the product’s website. Who emails anymore? That’s a topic for another post.
The new offering from Google uses the company’s Chrome browser and Chromium operating system. Goggle, says the device can last an entire day on a single charge. An impressive feat and definitely one the that those tethered at an undesirable location with an electrical umbilical cord promising to complete one more blog post will welcome.
The device features:
Automatic software updates
Optional 3G with 100G data transfer
Built in security
Flash support
Cloud based storage
Chromebooks are expected to be available in the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain on June 15, and additional countries will follow. Google released Chromebook initially for students at $20.00 per month at last week’s Google I/O conference. Now the company has announced Chromebooks for Business and Education for $28 per user per month for businesses.
What Do You Mean Cloud Computing Isn’t Magic
Despite shouts of Windows killer and the end of the desktop. It won’t happen. It’s hype. A storm or a dead spot and the laptop is rendered unusable – although Google promises it will fix the issue soon. Aren’t these basically slightly fancier versions of 80’s style dumb terminals. Plus, Google’s cloud-based operating system is not the first cloud based version – at least 10 viable options exist and they have not managed to “change the game.” That spot currently belongs to the venerable all-star Apple iPad, which introduced a sexy form factor, and a unique browsing experience that has enticed millions of users to drop a grand on something nobody really needs.
However, at $20 a month, the Chromebook is not a significant investment and will likely entice many to at least try it out. Before renting the device, users may want to ask a few questions like:
Who will do customer service? Will customers be caught between retailers selling the device and Google to get answers?
How frequently can hardware be exchanged?
Who will fix the laptop should something go wrong?
What happens if your kid breaks the device?
What’s the privacy policy for information that is stored on Google’s servers?
We are not trying to be overly critical of the device. It might be awesome. Interested in taking a Chromebook for a test drive? The devices will be available at Amazon and Best Buy domestically starting next month. If you decide to invest, be sure to come back and let us know what you think of your new toy.
Cloud computing seems to be everywhere. It has spilled outside of company walls directly in the hands of individuals at an amazing pace. You don’t have to be a techie to be sucked into wanting it – enticed by commercials that beckon, “To the cloud!”
Even those that have managed to miss the marketing coverage might have experienced the cloud. Do you manage your finances at Mint.com? Have you used Facebook or Flickr? You’ve been to the cloud.
Now, vendors are focusing even more on individuals with the introduction of personal clouds. Personal clouds promise every day users the ability to store all of their “stuff” in the cloud. Files, photos, movies, music, financial data or other personal content can be warehoused in a personal cloud where the individual controls access. As far back as 2009, ancient in internet time, EMC’s CTO discussed personal clouds describing three essential features: control, convenience and permanent archive. Individuals with privacy concerns might immediately say something starting with “Big brother,” mumble a rant, and end with “everything about me.” However, pragmatically, a significant portion of individual personal data is already spread across multiple sites where it is even more difficult to monitor and control privacy and access.
Personal clouds come in multiple models. One model is the traditional remote hosting model where users upload files to a remote location manually or via synchronization. A second model reverses the original concept.
Instead of uploading and interacting with remote content, new cloud services like PogoPlug, Tonido and Iomega Personal Cloud allow PCs, smart phones, tablets and their applications to be accessible from everywhere over the internet. With these new cloud services, data never leaves the individual personal storage device and is only accessible by those invited into the user’s personal cloud.
What are the implications for personal computing? Substantial. Vendors offering products and services like hard drive backup, remote machine access and disaster recovery might soon find themselves competing, or unable to compete, with personal cloud products. Personal clouds make it possible for even the most unsophisticated users or small businesses to implement protections against losing valuable data and time due to a physical machine failure or software corruption. Further, as more and more mobile devices dominate the technology landscape, personal clouds could eliminate the need to copy media repeatedly between devices – store it once and access It everywhere.
The personal cloud is an exciting space, but it is far from mature. No standards exist for personal clouds, so the capabilities and technologies used across platform will vary significantly making it more difficult for users to move easily between personal cloud vendors. In spite of these challenges, personal cloud computing is likely to expand in adoption due to rapidly expanding feature set and because, well, it’s just cool.
If you are anything like us, you have multiple devices. You might own a smart phone, a desktop, laptop, maybe an iPad, Android or other tablet – and are occasionally stuck in a situation where a document you need isn’t in the right place at the right time. It’s locked away at home or a laptop battery dies and you can’t retrieve it. In short, it’s annoying, and occasionally disastrous. What’s an alternative if you don’t want to carry around an external hard drive or USB device? Consider storing your documents online, that would be the cloud for the cool among you. Zoho, Google and other online productivity have features similar to very popular MS Office suite, but with additional features that help simplify your life.
Obviously, the big win with taking your documents online is that become instantly accessible from all devices, including your phone, anywhere you have an internet connection. However, that’s not the only improvement to how you work.
What else is useful?
You can translate your documents to other languages in Google Docs by going to the “Tools” menu, select “Translate Document” and a list of available languages is displayed.
Almost all of the tools make it easier for you to work on a document with other people by offering real time chat and collaboration. Many of the tools support other document formats including each other. So you don’t have to worry about being locked in if you decide to try out a service. In addition, concerns like software maintenance, computer spyware,
Are you a little skittish about giving up Office? Don’t be. Most of the tools let you store your Office documents as well.
To complete your newfound sense of device freedom, you might, want to head over to http://myfav.es/ to customize a portable start up page that is also accessible from anywhere you are connected. The startup page lets you access your favorite sites without all of those locally stored bookmarks (which happen to be stuck at home with your spreadsheet). The layout is minimal and MyFav.es requires no accounts.
Even Sweeter
Most online productivity suites are free or have a very low per user entry cost (e.g. $3.00 per user per month for Zoho standard) Interestingly, on June 15th, Google will release a Netbook that starts at $20.00 per month for students. If you aren’t quite ready to buy the kiddos a laptop or iPad, it might be a viable alternative.
Amazon has launched three new cloud computing services targeted at every day users: Cloud Drive and Cloud Player on Web and Android. The new services allow users to store music on Amazon’s cloud and access it from the web or using a smart phone. It’s like an iPod in the sky. Even if someone has never heard of cloud computing, they have heard of MP3s or have a song or 10,000 stored on their computer’s hard drive. Now, these users can get 5GB in free storage from Amazon and access music anywhere. It sounds too good to be true. Is it?
What’s is the Cloud Drive
Amazon Cloud Drive is a personal cloud service for storing personal files like music, pictures or documents. The Cloud Drive targets everyday users, unlike Amazon’s popular Amazon Web Services cloud platform. Using the Cloud Drive, or similar services, users can eliminate the need to constantly move and synchronize files between devices. Every user is eligible for 5GB of free storage just by signing-up. If 5MB isn’t enough, then users can purchase up to one terabyte of storage for $1.00 per GB per year.
Amazon is also apparently using the Cloud Drive to promote their music service. Users that buy an Amazon MP3 album, automatically receive 20GB of free storage for one year, and music purchased from Amazon doesn’t count against the storage limit. Once files are uploaded to the Cloud Drive, they can be downloaded or streamed back on most internet capable devices, which is almost everything these days.
The Cloud Drive Makes Everyone Happy, Except…
Amazon’s new Cloud Drive is likely to attract a lot of attention; the company does know a thing or two about attracting customers. However, not everyone is delighted with Amazon’s cloud merry-making. Amazon has not received permission from major Hollywood film studios and top record companies to store music and movies on the cloud. Hollywood is making it very clear that they believe current licenses do not allow for cloud distribution or storage, which means Amazon’s new services, violates their legal rights. Hurting the feelings of media elite like the RIAA, could be a costly move for Amazon, just ask LimeWire.
Privacy advocates are also raising red flags. In the Amazon Cloud Drive Terms of Use, users must grant Amazon rights to access files. In fact, users must give Amazon the right
“ to access, retain, use and disclose your account information and Your Files”
While most users probably didn’t take time to read the small print, many who did might be bristling at Amazon’s request for complete visibility. As more average users move from local computers and laptops to cloud storage, they will need to become conscience of exactly how the services they chose to use work. You wouldn’t want your impromptu performance of Great Balls of Fire last holiday getting into the wrong hands, would you?
Even those that have managed to miss the marketing coverage might have experienced the cloud. Do you manage your finances at Mint.com? Have you used Facebook or Flickr? You’ve been to the cloud.
Instead of uploading and interacting with remote content, new cloud services like 
You can translate your documents to other languages in Google Docs by going to the “Tools” menu, select “Translate Document” and a list of available languages is displayed.