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Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: Backups and Clouds and Dolly Drive!
Another Sunday means another talkcast! As you may have noticed, Kelly's put some prep work in for tonight. We have some special guests tonight coming in from Dolly Drive, and we'll be discussing backup services, and cloud services, and what happens when you get your backup all in your cloud, or your cloud all in your backup (I forget which way it goes). Tonight, aside from the usual Aftershow Shenanigans, we have giveaways! Aside from the LIFETIME accounts we're giving away on the site (see the "noticed" link above), we will also be giving away a couple of those same lifetime accounts live on the show! Yeah, I thought it was pretty nice of them too. Since it's really all about you, the community, do see if you can join us, won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or other SIP clients (aside from Skype or Google Voice), basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Talkcast preview: Dolly Drive and backups and Kelly and...you?
I know, it's weird to see a sneak peek of the talkcast, but this week it's a Very Special Talkcast. We'll be chatting with the Dolly Drive folks about backups and cloud syncing and what it all means for users and their data. You may have noticed a couple of our staffers have been known to bang the backup drum, and that's because it's super important to make sure you have another copy of your data someplace. It's our way of looking out for you, the technological equivalent of reminding you to put your coat on before you leave the house. I'd go on more, but the Dolly Drive Blog has a very nice writeup themselves, and I don't have a lot to add to it except that you should join us Sunday evening (7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern) for the live show. We will be discussing backups and clouds and syncs. A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what have yous... Here's the bit I can tell you about the Talkcast: Dolly Drive has graciously agreed to give away permanent free accounts to some listeners! "But Kelly!", you may be saying, "I'm not listening NOW, I'm reading!" Excellent point, Dear Reader. Knowing full well that the W in our name is for Weblog, not Webcast, Dolly Drive has also reserved two permanent 50 GB Lifetime accounts to give away to our fabulous readers! We will inform the winners on Sunday evening, after 9pm Pacific/Midnight Eastern, along with the winners of our talkcast giveaways. As with all the things we give away on the site, we have a few rules that we have to point out, so here's the fine print: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before April 7, 2013 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Two winners will be selected and each will receive a permanent lifetime 50 GB Dolly Drive account valued at $42USD/yr Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Daily Update for August 16, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Dolly Drive brings the Time Machine cloud closer to European customers
Everyone's favorite sheep-shaped online backup point, Dolly Drive, has opened a data center in Rome, Italy to give European Mac users faster Time Machine backups to the cloud. The new facility is part of a planned grid of data centers for the relatively new (less than a year old) and fast-growing backup company, which uses the built-in Time Machine capabilities of Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 to perform remote cloud backups. It's expected that the new data center will speed up initial and incremental backups for European users. Those current Dolly Drive customers will be notified by the company soon to have their data migrated to the military grade data storage facility. For those who aren't familiar with Dolly Drive, the company debuted at Macworld Expo 2011 and was a huge hit with those in attendance. Subscriptions are available starting at $5 per month for 50 GB of storage, climbing to $55 monthly for a whopping 2 TB of backups in the cloud. The Dolly Drive app can also be used to create a bootable clone on a local external disk drive.
Apple's steps toward backup in the cloud tread lightly on third-party developers
Jenna Wortham of the New York Times wrote, "How do you know if you've created a really great, useful iPhone app? Apple tries to put you out of business." That's a pretty common reaction to Monday's WWDC keynote, and the shock and awe was not limited to iPhone apps. On Friday, TUAW mused about what Apple's return to cloud services might mean to backup-in-the-cloud developers. On Monday, Apple introduced iCloud, a way to push your music, photos, calendars and other data to the cloud so that it's "always accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC," with instant access to that data across all your devices. While it does not appear that this service is any kind of substitute for a comprehensive backup strategy, it does show Apple continuing to move in the direction of taking charge of users' data protection needs. TUAW was curious how third-party cloud developers would react to Apple's entry into an arena that might step on the toes of their current offerings. We talked to the developers of Dolly Drive, CrashPlan and Arq to ascertain their reactions to iCloud. What we found was this: iCloud isn't about to drive Mac backup solutions out of business, the way that the keynote announcements challenged products like Readability, Instapaper and Sparrow. Dolly Drive Dolly Drive provides online backups using Apple's Time Machine technology for Mac OS X. Its cloud storage solutions merge the Mac Time Machine user experience with offsite safety to guard against a calamity that takes down your local backups as well as your computer. TUAW contacted Dolly Drive to see what they had to say about Apple's iCloud. Dolly Drive's spokesperson Leigh Kessler told TUAW, "iCloud is an example of Apple ingenuity and excites us as a solution for sharing among Apple devices. But we hope Mac users are not confused into thinking that iCloud's convenience is a substitute for true data backup and we think Apple would agree. Time Machine is still the most comprehensive way to protect and recover everything on your Mac and Dolly Drive is still the only way to do that in the cloud." Kessler provided the following table to differentiate Dolly Drive from iCloud. iCloud lets you iCloud doesn't Dolly Drive will see all your itunes library from all your mac and apple devices stream a limited number of photos from your iOS devices onto your mac and Apple TV sync documents that have been integrated into the iCloud framework. Backup a set of items that are on your iOS devices provide Mac desktop or laptop backup provide automatic iPhoto sync backup for music that is deleted from your music library backup or sync of documents that don't comply with iCloud backup all and any OS X computer file to Dolly Grid cloud storage recover from a crash with Dolly Clone backup from anywhere your computer is multiple times a day CrashPlan CrashPlan provides an always-on cloud-based solution for online data backup. Instead of using a Time Machine interface, CrashPlan runs in the background of your Mac performing regular updates to remote servers. CrashPlan's Mike Evangelist told TUAW, "We are still absorbing the many facets of Apple's announcements, but our feeling is generally positive. First and foremost [iCloud] will validate cloud options for the average user. In a sense [it's] assuring non-technical people that the cloud is nothing to fear." He explained, "As is typical with Apple's solutions, iCloud is stripped down to a few essential features. We see it as an opportunity to continue to provide robust, cross-platform solutions for home and business users. Small and large businesses have needs that are clearly not addressed by iCloud, including security, monitoring and management, the ability to run local servers, and a lot more. That's where CrashPlan PRO excels." Arq and SyncPhotos Stefan Reitshamer is the developer behind Arq, whose backup solution is built around Amazon's S3 cloud-based data storage infrastructure. He was intrigued by what Apple's new technology means. "Apple is trying to get rid of the file concept in OS X, just like iOS. There are no files in iOS -- there are only apps and their data. In the keynote we never saw a Finder window or a file -- only the new Launchpad. Likewise, the iCloud backup stuff is built into apps. So unless all your apps have added iCloud integration, iCloud backup isn't going to suffice." "The syncing stuff looked very single-user," Reitshamer continued, "aside from the calendar sharing. The photo stream stuff was cool but it only synched to a single person's devices. You still can't do what my SyncPhotos app does (sync new photos from someone else's computer). It's not surprising. They've never been very interested in groupware; they're usually more focused on the individual user." Conclusions While iCloud approaches the notion of moving your data to the cloud, it still has a long way to go if Apple decideds to take it to a full backup solution. iCloud will ship with 5 GB of free storage (not counting purchased items like music and apps), with additional increments likely purchasable by the user.
Dolly Drive 1.2 expands to 2 terabytes, adds seeding program
We met Dolly Drive when it was barely a week old. This week, version 1.2 became available with increased storage capacity, increased upload speed and incremental cloning. Dolly Drive is a cloud-based backup solution that works with Apple's Time Machine. Once configured, Time Machine treats it as it would any backup volume. Additionally, Dolly Drive creates a local bootable backup, giving you both a local and an off-site backup of your stuff. Version 1.2 increases the offline storage cap to a generous 2 terabytes. Also, incremental cloning improves the speed of that process, and a new multi-site grid infrastructure on DD's end decreases users' upload time. I've been happily using Dolly Drive for half a year now. Prices start at US$5/mo. for 50 GB of storage and max out at $55/mo for 2 TB. As a bonus, users receive an additional 5 GB storage per month at no extra cost for every month that they remain a customer.
World Backup Day: Ad-hoc backups to the cloud & more giveaways
Happy World Backup Day! The only safe way forward is to back up; that's why we've joined the cause for data saving with tips, techniques and giveaways all day today. As Steve mentioned earlier today, there are lots of cloud-based backup services eager to help you protect your data while solving the onsite/offsite conundrum. A backup of uncertain status in a single location isn't much better than no backup at all -- for one thing, it gives you a sense of confidence that your data is protected when it might not be. Getting your data tucked away with Dolly Drive, Backjack, Backblaze, Mozy, Carbonite or CrashPlan may not be the fastest or cheapest approach, but sooner or later it may save your bacon. Compare and contrast plans here. (Lifehacker has a full rundown on how CrashPlan can help you sleep soundly at night, knowing your backups are solid.) Even if you're not up for a full-on cloud backup solution (whether due to bandwidth or budget constraints), there are still some surprisingly easy ways to back up your key files in the cloud, and do it for cheap or free. All of these approaches require a bit more thinking than the automated tools above, but if you're the sort of person who makes copies of your bank statements or saves your dry cleaning receipts, then you can probably get into these habits, too.
Macworld 2011: Dolly Drive syncs Time Machine to the cloud, creates bootable backup
We're finding many useful solutions here at Macworld Expo, and among them is Dolly Drive. This new solution (they just launched this week) offers encrypted Time Machine sync to the cloud and even creates a bootable version of the local drive you've been using for Time Machine thus far. I spoke with Anthony about the product, how it works and what the future holds. There are three interesting things about Dolly Drive. First, it allows Time Machine to behave just like Time Machine. The primary difference is that your backups live out in the cloud instead of locally. The benefits are obvious. Let's say you're at a meeting in the field, only to realize that an important file is corrupt or missing entirely. If it lives on an external drive back in your home or office, you're out of luck. Dolly Drive lets you restore it from the cloud, using Time Machine's familiar UI, getting you back in business. Check for more and our video of Dolly Drive in action after the break.
