dropbox

SkyDrive and iCloud: Why choose?

Microsoft is pitting its SkyDrive cloud storage against Apple's iCloud and makes many valid points. However, cloud services aren't a zero-sum game.

The software giant has launched a SkyDrive vs. iCloud comparison and makes a bevy of good points. As far as marketing SkyDrive goes, Microsoft's effort is good for awareness.

But the idea that any one cloud storage service will dominate is pure folly. The reality is that most of us will use multiple cloud services. Small businesses will too. This cloud service multiplication will become more prevalent as uploading content -- say an iTunes library … Read more

Amazon Cloud Drive gains desktop app

Amazon today introduced a desktop application for Cloud Drive, its consumer data storage service to better rival recently launched Google Drive and other cloud storage services.

The new desktop application for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS 10.6 or 10.7 allows people to drag and drop files as if they were transferring files to a local hard drive.

Cloud Drive, which launched last year, gives people tiered levels starting with 5 gigabytes of free storage, or enough to hold about 1,000 songs or 2,000 photos. Services are then available for $20 to $100 per year … Read more

Apple reportedly working with Dropbox on rejected apps

Apple is reportedly working with Dropbox to resolve an issue that has led to a number of developers' iOS apps being rejected from the App Store.

The apps, which are based on the Dropbox SDK, are apparently being rejected because they contain links to external purchase options. The issue has raised the ire of developers, who took to Dropbox forums to criticize Apple's action.

However, that action seems to be in line with Apple's App Store rules, which prohibit external purchases if there's not also an option for Apple's in-app purchases. Apple's developer rules state: &… Read more

How to set up the new Dropbox camera upload feature on Mac

Dropbox has released version 1.4 of its Mac and Windows app, which enables a feature called Camera Upload. If you're looking to get started with the Windows version, Lance Whitney explained how to set it up in an earlier post.

You may remember during beta testing of the camera upload feature, you had the chance to get up to 3.5GB of free Dropbox storage, just by uploading photos and videos. The additional free storage carries over with the official release, giving you 500MB on your first upload and up to 3GB of storage. If you don't … Read more

Dropbox now lets you upload photos directly from your camera

Dropbox users who find it a hassle getting photos off their camera and onto their online storage site now have a way to avoid the middleman.

The new Dropbox 1.4 software for Windows, OS X, or Linux can automatically upload photos not just from a camera, but from a smartphone, tablet, SD card, and just about any other gadget that houses your images.

How can Dropbox users set this up? Here's how it works in Windows:

First, install the new version of Dropbox. Then right-click the Dropbox icon in the System tray and select Preferences. You should see … Read more

Google Drive for Android is a beefier Google Docs app

If you haven't noticed, Google Docs for Android has just morphed into Google Drive. Or perhaps more accurately, it has been sucked up by the brand-new file-syncing and file-sharing app. This means that not only does it give you access to all of your old Docs, it also lets you access and store any kind of file in your cloud-enabled Google Drive account.

Similar to the experience on the Web, Google Drive for Android opens up to a main navigation panel, from which you can see a list of all your files (My Drive), files that have been shared … Read more

How to get the most free online storage

Google Drive. Dropbox. Box. SkyDrive. Cubby. iCloud.

All cloud storage services. All offer a free plan, with varying levels of storage and features. All offer paid upgrades for more storage and yet more features. With pricing becoming such a hot topic, especially with the launch of Google Drive, let's take a look at the free upgrades some of these services are offering, and how you can take advantage of them today.

With so many different cloud storage options out there, some of the service providers are offering free storage in exchange for promoting the respective service or recruiting friends … Read more

Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox? Heck, use 'em all!

It's true that the newly launched Google Drive competes with plenty of other services for sharing files across all your devices. But there's something very different in this particular situation than in a lot of online services.

Namely this: why not use them all?

With social networking, few people have the patience to keep a lively feed of activity at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and any number of other sites. We gravitate toward the one where our contacts are active.

And with e-mail, it's inconvenient to have multiple addresses on multiple services, generally speaking.

But with … Read more

How to back up your Dropbox account

A critical part of any storage solution is having reliable backups. Dropbox keeps backups of all the files you store on your Dropbox account, but having a local backup can often make it easier to recover your files. You'll also want to back up your files if you're considering switching to another provider, like Google Drive or one of the many other cloud-storage services.

To back up everything from your Dropbox account, log in to your account via the Dropbox Web site, then hit Ctrl+A to highlight all your files and folders. Click the Download button that … Read more

Google Drive: It's slick, integrated...and not exactly free

Google is set today to open Google Drive, a service to store files online and share them among various computing devices that turns out to be a lot more important than you might think.

Why? Two reasons:

First, Google's service goes well beyond rivals because of integration with Google Docs, Google+, Gmail, and other services. Second, beyond a basic free level, ordinary consumers will pay to use Google Drive -- not much, but enough to make them into customers, not just users of an advertising-subsidized service. That's a pretty big philosophical shift for Google.

What is Google Drive? … Read more