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Plex is shutting down its personal cloud streaming service
Media streaming service Plex is shutting down its cloud service at the end of November. The company is making the move because of technical issues and cost concerns. Once support ends, you'll have to stream media from your own server, computer or Network Attached Storage to your connected devices instead of your favored cloud storage service.
Amazon drops its unlimited cloud storage plan
For a couple of years now, Amazon has had one of the more desirable cloud storage plans out there, offering infinity terabytes for just $60 per year. If you were taking advantage of that to store your 8K RAW video, however, you now need to pay more: Amazon has officially killed the plan. Instead, you get a not-as-generous 1TB for the same price, and up to 30TB for an addition $60 per terabyte -- an eye watering $1,800 per year.
Plex Cloud lets you dump your home media server
Thanks to streaming, physical formats like CDs and Blu-rays aren't as popular than they once were. Some people choose to sign up for a monthly subscription like Netflix or Spotify, while others take the DIY approach. For many years, Plex has helped people build their own media collections and stream that content to (nearly) every connected device they own. However, it required either a computer or Network Attached Storage (NAS) to do so. Today, the company has opened a new avenue in its media streaming strategy with the launch of Plex Cloud. Gone is the need for the server in the cupboard, replaced with an Amazon Drive subscription and a Plex Pass.
Amazon now offers unlimited cloud storage for £55 per year
One of the benefits of being an Amazon Prime member is unlimited cloud storage for photos, as well as 5GB of space for other file types. If you own any of the retailer's Fire devices, too, you get unlimited storage for photos taken with that product, as well as 5 gigs for whatever else. Amazon's latest offer is altogether more simple: For £55 per year, you can get unlimited cloud storage, full stop.
Google Drive triples free storage to 15 GB
We were just talking about how Amazon is competing with Apple and other cloud services by offering 5 GB of storage for free. Now, that turns out to be old news, because today Google announced that free storage spanning several Google services like Gmail, Google+ and Google Drive is now going to come in the extra-large economy size -- a whopping 15 GB. Google says the changes will be rolling out over the next several weeks to all customers. All that space is shared, so if you are just using Google Drive Photo (for example), that 15 GB is shared with any other Google services that require storage. Still, 15 GB is a very competitive number since Apple and Amazon give you 5 GB with iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive, respectively, and Dropbox provides a measly 2 GB free. A similar service from MediaFire offers 10 GB of free storage, but the free tier includes ads. All the services allow you to get more storage for an additional fee. It will be interesting to see if Apple and other services respond to Google's challenge or stand pat. With this move, Google has unified its storage system, a similar concept to the Apple pool of iCloud storage, although at this point Apple does not count image storage in Photo Stream against your 5 GB allotment. Google has a free iOS app so you can access this storage space, and it can also be managed through a web browser on any computer.
