cloud storage
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Google One subscribers get thorough automatic backups for Android phones
If you're a Google One subscriber, there's a new perk to your cloud storage service. Starting today, all Google One memberships include automatic phone backups as long as you own an Android device. The feature builds on the operating system's existing backup functionality, which ensures your texts, contacts and apps are automatically saved to the cloud, to include photos, videos and MMS messages as well. The feature is available to everyone on the same account.
Paid Dropbox users are getting 1TB more storage space today
Dropbox has spent much of the last few years focused on its products for enterprise business, but the company got its start by offering a simple, reasonably priced cloud storage and sync option. With major competition in the space from Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Apple iCloud, Dropbox today is making its plans a bit more enticing. The first Dropbox paid tier, called plus, now has 2TB of storage, double what it had before and the same as you'll get with similar $10/month plans from Google and Apple. The catch is that Dropbox Plus only costs $10 per month if you sign up for an annual plan -- otherwise, you'll now be billed $11.99 per month. That's still a bit more expensive than the competition, but it's definitely closer than it was before. And Dropbox was quick to point out that it makes all its revenue through subscriptions, so it's not selling your personal information. Given the intense interest in user privacy these days, it's not surprising to see them taking an Apple-like stance when comparing its service to Google's products.
Dropbox limits free accounts to three linked devices
If you're used to linking Dropbox to every device you own, you might want to reach for your credit card. Liliputing has noticed that Dropbox quietly started limiting its free Basic tier to a maximum of three linked devices as of March. If that's too confining, you'll have to shell out for a $10 Plus or $20 Professional subscription. You can keep any links you've already established, but you won't get to add any more until you go below that three-device maximum.
Engadget giveaway: win a Lyve Home photo and video hub courtesy of Lyve!
That photography fetish could be overloading your device and cloud storage isn't always the best at searching and organizing media files. Plus, you probably want easy access to those files from all your devices. That's where the Lyve app could help and with the 2TB Lyve Home storage hub, you've got a centralized spot to store high-res versions of all that media. The app optimizes files for mobile so you'll always have a copy on your devices and the Home is a network connected backup with a 5-inch touchscreen. It can continuously sync with Dropbox, Google Drive, iPhoto and desktop folders, and offers WiFi along with an array of ports for direct input. The app is free and the company has provided us with two of the Lyve Home storage devices so a pair of Engadget readers can keep their visual life organized and on-hand. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget for up to three chances at winning. Whether it's for reminiscing or "leverage," Lyve could give you access to years of fashion faux pas, cat videos and photo bombs, just when you need them. Winners: congratulations to Sagar P. of Princeton, NJ and Albert A. of Grayslake, IL.
Engadget giveaway: win an iPhone 6 and 5TB of cloud storage courtesy of MediaFire!
Finding enough space to house your worldly possessions in a place like New York City can be a bit pricey, but unlike a hulking vinyl collection, stashing digital files is more affordable than ever. MediaFire currently offers a free cloud storage option (15GB) and its Pro (1TB) and Business (up to 100TB) accounts are currently 50-percent off, making it a simple and affordable way to organize your digital self. Those files are readily accessible through the MediaFire website or its dedicated desktop and mobile apps. You get unlimited downloads as part of the service, too, so you can share files to your heart's content. The company wants to get two lucky Engadget readers started right away, so it's provided an iPhone 6 and a 5TB (for life!) MediaFire account for each of them. Plus, five additional winners will each get a Pro account with one full year of cloud storage. Just make your way to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning one of Apple's latest and some online acreage for all your digital stuff. Winners: congratulations to Rick T. of Portland OR. and Greg N. of Dickinson, ND.!
OneDrive for Android gets push notifications for shared items
Good news for those of you who use Microsoft's cloud storage service on Android. Earlier today, the OneDrive app received an update that now lets it send push notifications for shared files and folders to your device, making it easier to keep up with collaborators on the changes being made to documents. In addition to that, this new version also allows you to get custom pin code timeouts within the application, as well as adding thumbnails to OneDrive for Business files. These improvements should help make OneDrive for Android much better on Google's platform, something that's going to be appreciated by people who utilize Redmond's virtual locker regularly.
In Germany, these servers want to keep every home warm
Most places around the world are getting ready to bring out the blankets and coats, in preparation for the cold, cold season ahead. Knowing this, a company called Cloud & Heat has come up with a very interesting idea, one that's beneficial to both it and the parties interested in giving it a try. In exchange for heat, the Germany-based firm is offering to put a cabinet filled with servers in people's homes. As Slate points out, Cloud & Heat isn't the only company working on heat-for-server-housing program, but others aren't as advanced in the implementation stages. Unfortunately, the service isn't free for home owners, since there is a one-time (undisclosed) installation fee. The good news: Cloud & Heat takes care of the electricity and internet bills, so the deal could turn out to be more than decent.
Apple's new iCloud pricing: Better, bigger, still not much for free
Apple has announced new iCloud pricing, kind of an important thing when you consider that the company will soon be asking us to take more of our images and documents off of our devices and entrust them to the cloud. The new pricing strategy starts off the same -- a measly 5 GB of storage for free -- but then quickly ramps up both in capacity and price. The monthly price for 20GB is now just $0.99, 200GB weighs in at $3.99, 500GB is $9.99, and a whopping 1 TB will put you back $19.99 per month. That pricing is much lower than it used to be and the maximum available storage is now in the range that it would make even someone like me happy, but the pricing for the high end is still a bit high. Dropbox, for example, made the Pro plan (1 TB) $9.99 per month or just $99.99 annually. Google is charging about the same as Dropbox for Google Drive -- that same 1TB of cloud storage will cost you just $10 a month. Still, it's an improvement. Apple should, in my opinion, bump the minimum level to 20GB for free so that more iPhone/iPad users will take advantage of the service. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
ThisLife wants to store and manage all your photos
ThisLife is an intriguing and capable photo system from the folks at Shutterfly. It's been in beta for a long time, and we last took a look 2 years ago when the service was by invitation only. ThisLife is an end-to-end photo manager. It gathers photos from your local computer, cell phones, tablets, and any social services you are a part of. It uploads them in full resolution and then provides a web based portal and dedicated apps for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. ThisLife automatically uploads in the background on iOS, and you can tell it to only upload when you are on Wi-Fi if you are watching your data use. On a Mac, there is an auto uploader that watches what is going into iPhoto and uploads images in the background, or you can do it all manually. You can also point the uploader to folders on your Mac and upload those. Families can have sharing, so all photos from all devices can be uploaded into a large pool -- or not -- as the user wants. Like iPhoto, you can tag the photos with locations and people names, and you can rotate, crop or delete individual photos or groups of photos. There are no other editing tools, so don't expect filters and some of the other tools iPhoto provides. On the web, or using the iOS app you get views of your library, people, places, stories, and a find function. Stories are photos grouped by theme. I tried the app on my iPad, and also uploaded about 2,000 photos from my laptop. Everything went smoothly. When I uploaded duplicates, the ThisLife software figured that out and only uploaded the highest resolution photo. Getting photos back is a breeze: any photo in the collection can be downloaded in full resolution to your desktop, laptop, or to your iOS device. The ThisLife system is not alone in the consumer space, but it does provide a more end-to-end solution. iPhoto limits you to Apple devices. Flickr and Google+ do photo editing and syncing, but they don't aggregate from other social networks. Once your photos are in the cloud, you can forward them to others, either singly or as a group. ThisLife supports adding annotations to photos, and you can even record a short voice clip. You can also order photo books, with the design and layout nicely automated by ThisLife. The automation and level of control with This Life is commendable. I never saw any bugs, and uploading was quite fast over my not-so-speedy DSL connection. Improvements? I can think of a few. There are small differences in the GUI between the Mac and iOS versions, so if you learn on one platform everything is not in the same place on another platform. While help is available using the web based portal, there is no help in the iOS apps. I'd also like to see the ability to change the size of the thumbnails in the web version. ThisLife only supports jpeg images, and a wide variety of video formats. Some people might be happier with TIF format storage or even RAW file uploads. Pricing is quite reasonable for the features offered. A free plan provides space for 2,500 photos. A $59.00 annual plan offers storage for 25,000 photos and video up to 100 GB. To sweeten the deal, you can get a photo book printed for free. A Premium service is $139.00 annually, providing storage for 100,000 photos and videos up to 400 GB. There is also a free photo book offered at the Premium level. Prices are quite fluid, but for a rough comparison SmugMug charges begin at $40.00 per year for unlimited storage, Flickr offers a terabyte for free, and Google+ is $120.00 annually for a terabyte. While all the services overlap, not all have all the features you may want, while ThisLife pretty much does everything. ThisLife is a powerful service for getting all your photos in one place. Vice President Erik Weitzman told me he was hoping to offer a reliable and easy to use service for families that have photos scattered over many computers and mobile devices. That goal is accomplished with ThisLife, and I think families and individuals will see this as a worthwhile solution. You can certainly try the free limited services to get a taste of how it all works, and of course the company is hoping you will find it attractive and sign up. I think many people will appreciate another option in the increasingly crowded field of photography management and storage.
Diablo 3 enables cross-platform saves as Ultimate Evil looms
Blizzard has implemented cloud saving in its latest update for the console versions of Diablo 3, allowing players to transfer their character data across platform generations for the upcoming Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition. Diablo 3's cross-manufacturer cloud saving feature allows players to transfer their data from a PlayStation 3 to an Xbox One, or from an Xbox 360 to a PlayStation 4. The process, outlined at Blizzard's blog, involves installing the latest Diablo 3 console patch, exporting save data to Blizzard's cloud service, and linking a user's Sony Entertainment Network and Xbox Live accounts via Battle.net. Diablo 3 does not currently support save transfers between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, or between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PC saves are also incompatible with the console versions of Diablo 3, and Sony-exclusive Diablo 3 content (including Drake's Amulet and other items) will not transfer to Xbox platforms. Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition launches for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PS4 on August 19. [Image: Blizzard]
Engadget giveaway: win an iPad mini and GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition courtesy of younity!
Summer has long been the season of vacations, beach outings and BBQs, and that means documenting every possible moment on camera. It helps to have your tunes close at hand, too, in case the party's about to jump off. The task of copying over playlists and organizing photos in the aftermath can be a pain, but younity's personal cloud service could help simplify the task. Instead of syncing and storing data on the cloud, it turns all your devices into dedicated media streamers. That means you have centralized access to all of your files, regardless of which gadget they're on -- they just need to be connected to the internet. Younity also added GoPro integration, letting you discover, catalog and instantly share camera content right from your iPhone or iPad. That's why this week, one lucky Engadget reader will be winning a GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition camera and an iPad mini. All you need to do is head down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this adventurous combo courtesy of the folks at younity. Winner: congratulations to Hector R. of Miami, FL!
Dropbox makes syncing your large files faster
Cloud storage service Dropbox has announced a feature called Streaming Sync, which promises to improve the way its platform handles the syncing of large files. Thanks to Streaming Sync, which is part of a revamped desktop client, users will get a major speed boost when syncing any file over 16MB -- up to twice as fast as any regular sync, according to the company. Dropbox notes that it was able to accomplish this by overlapping the upload and download phase of the file synchronization, meaning it can use its servers to push the data to your device, rather than letting your smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop do all the work. Along with Streaming Sync, Dropbox also brought support for four additional languages to the app, as well as the ability to view your most recent account activity via a new notifications menu.
Engadget giveaway: win a Cloud Frame and 1TB of storage courtesy of nixplay!
Let's face it, we all probably know someone who isn't online (or doesn't quite know how to get there). So having a way to share our endless stream of food pics family photos to a frame in their home or office, without any effort on their part, seems like a sine qua non. Nixplay offers just that with its digital Cloud Frame, and the company has given us two of the 15-inch models and 1TB of cloud storage for a pair of lucky Engadget readers this week. The frame let's you curate slideshows using its web interface and even lets you pull in content from your social media hubs like Facebook and Instagram. You can also set up an address book and share photo sets to different Cloud Frames anywhere in the world, as long as they're connected to WiFi. Just be careful, this isn't SnapChat and the photos will be on display to anyone in the room. You can enter up to three times, so just head down to the RaffleCopter widget below for your chance at winning this Cloud Frame and online storage combo. Winners: congratulations to Jay M., Richboro, PA and Rick B., Orlando, FL.
Google Drive for Android to lose document editing, prompt downloads of Docs and Sheets apps
Looks like the new Docs and Sheets apps were harbingers of changes for Google Drive's Android app. The good folks at Android Police parsed Drive's new, currently unreleased version and discovered that it no longer has document or sheet editing capabilities. Should you try to make changes, the app prompts you to download the appropriate app to do so. Choose not to download and attempt to open a file, and you'll be greeted by a view-only mode. While users may be a bit miffed at being force-fed a pair of new apps, it may prove beneficial. Separating the doc editing and cloud storage components will (presumably) let Google streamline the experience for each and give you option to download only the apps you need.
Amazon makes Kindle documents available via Cloud Drive
If you have any documents (or e-books acquired in a "non-standard" way) stored on your Kindle, now you can access them anywhere via Amazon Cloud Drive. Starting today, documents uploaded to your e-reader via your browser, mobile device or email will automatically be stored in a new "My Send-to-Kindle Docs" folder within Cloud Drive. Unlike previous document uploads that were automatically converted to Kindle format, new additions will be saved in the cloud in their original format. That means you'll be able to edit the Word doc for your book on show ponies (might we suggest a working title of Pageant Ponies: America's Real Beauty Queens?) from your desktop seconds after catching a typo. With the move, Kindle owners can combine their existing 5GB of free cloud storage with the 5GB offered to Cloud Drive users for a total of 10GB of space. You know what that means: plenty of room to store sequels to your equine masterpiece once you hit it big. Image source: Flickr/Zhao!
Dropbox launches Carousel and expands Dropbox for Business
Dropbox wants to be the go-to source for sharing videos and photos online, and their new app seeks to make that familiar task even easier. Today the company launched Carousel, a fast new photo and video sharing app that allows users to quickly sort and find visual media files in their archives. Rather than having to search through folders for the image you want Carousel allows you to quickly view the files themselves. Images stored via Carousel can be shared a number of ways, whether the recipient has Dropbox or not, including via email or even a phone number. Carousel can store as many files as you have space for with your Dropbox plan. Here's Carousel's launch video, which makes some intriguing promises regarding the speed of pulling up and finding media. You can download the iOS app here. The company also announced that its enterprise-styled Dropbox for Business service is now open to all users. According to Dropbox, the service allows users to link their personal and business accounts to be managed in one neat area. Users with the service are given two separate folders, one for personal use and one for work. This lets you quickly and easily switch between your personal and work files on any of your mobile devices. Below is a video Dropbox produced to explain all the benefits of Dropbox for Business. The news comes alongside the announcement that the company now has 275 million users, up from 200 million this past November.
Dropbox will link business and personal accounts early next month
Good news for Dropbox users: soon, you'll be able to switch between business and personal files without having to constantly sign in and out. The tool really only applies to those who use Dropbox for Business, as it will give them simultaneous access to corporate-controlled files and their own documents. Naturally, the ability to manage two accounts from one place will extend to your smartphone and tablet as well as the desktop. The cloud-storage company first introduced the single-login feature in beta testing late last year, but it will officially launch on April 9th. According to The Verge, Dropbox will announce "new tools for administrators" on that date as well. Given Dropbox competitor Google Drive's recently reduced storage rates, we wouldn't be surprised if any pricing tweaks are announced, too. We'll be on hand at the press event next month, so stay tuned.
Google Drive goes to war with iCloud and Dropbox with insane price drop
Google has made it clear for years that they're determined to be the number one name in the cloud storage game, but with their latest price drop they're declaring war on their competitors. While iCloud gives 5 GB of storage for free to all Apple device owners, Google Drive's basic service has provided 15 GB for free since May of 2013. To meet that same 15 GB of storage an iCloud user would have to pay $20 a year. Meanwhile under the new pricing Google announced this weekend for $1.99 a month ($24 dollars a year), just $4 more than 20GB of iCloud, Google Drive users get 100GB of storage. For $9.99 a month, or $120 a year, Drive users get 1 TB of cloud storage. A $100 a year of paid iCloud service meanwhile only nets iCloud users a total of 55 GB of total storage, and Dropbox users 100 GB. Currently Drive storage maxes out at 30 TB for $300 a month. Paying users of Google Drive have already had their storage updated to reflect the new pricing structure, meaning there's extra space for your Drive, Mail, and Google+ photos. We get that Apple isn't as invested in the cloud storage game as Google -- the companies have different aims and goals -- but we hope this move motivates an expansion of iCloud's basic services. Apple is known for its innovations, but with basic free storage amounts that are a third of what the competition offers, Google is eating iCloud's lunch and giving it a swirly to top it all off. Come on Cupertino -- It's time to update iCloud. Google shouldn't be kicking your butt like this.
Report: Razer unveils cloud save support for PC games
Gaming peripheral maker Razer has added a new feature to its GameBooster software suite that allows users to store their PC game saves in the cloud, according to IGN. While still in beta, Razer's Save Game Manager supports "over 2,000 existing PC titles," while also allowing players to manually add other games to the cloud storage queue. Currently, saves are stored to a user's Dropbox folder, though Razer hopes to expand the service to include other cloud-based storage solutions in the near future. In addition, Save Game Manager can upload PC settings to the cloud for easy access in the future. Those interested in putting Save Game Manager through its paces can download the GameBooster software suite, free of charge, from Razer's website. Keep in mind, this is beta software, so if something goes wrong and you lose a save, you'll have no recourse. As with all important data, multiple backups are your only safe bet. [Image: Razer]
SugarSync for Android gets more offline features, full-resolution media uploads
Cloud storage service SugarSync has updated its Android app with quite a few nifty features. For starters, the application now allows any file to be saved to your device or SD card card -- a feature that will come in handy when you don't have a connection. You can also rename folders/files and export them to other apps, while some optimization on the tablet side will make SugarSync for Android look better on larger screens. Most importantly, perhaps, the new version uploads pictures and videos at their full resolution -- and we know how meaningful this is for some of you.
