Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

Be sure to register in our forums and post your comments - we want to hear from you!


Zune Thoughts

Loading feed...

Apple Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...





All posts tagged "dropbox"


Friday, February 3, 2012

Test Dropbox's Newest Photo and Video Import Feature, Get Up to 4.5GB Space Free

Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng in "Digital Home Software" @ 06:30 AM

http://lifehacker.com/5881692/get-u...otos-and-videos

"You can never have too much Dropbox space, and now for a special beta period you can grab some additional free space while Dropbox is testing their automatic photo and video uploading feature. In exchange for trying their experimental build, you can get up to 4.5GB of extra space for free."

Free extra space, new features to try on Dropbox, what is there to not like? I just tried it, and the feature works very well. A bit too well for me, given I wanted it to sync the edited files folder on the phone, and not the original camera folder. There is no way to change the sync folder, so I guess the feature is not really for power users.


Monday, August 1, 2011

iTwin: Your Missing Link Has Been Found

Posted by Chris Sacksteder in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 08:00 AM

iTwin first picture

Product Category: File Sharing Utility
Manufacturer: iTwin, Inc.
Where to Buy: Amazon [Affiliate]
Price: $99.99 USD
System Requirements: Windows 7, XP or Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Specifications: Size: 90mm x 21mm x 8mm; 50g. Symmetrical USB (2.0) connectors, LED activity lights.

Pros:

  • Easy to use.
  • Can connect two computers to copy files when other means don't work.
  • Easier than connecting to a remote file share.

Cons:

  • May not be as good as connecting to a file share.
  • Needs access to company's server to operate.
  • No local help or trouble-shooting options.

Summary: This is a unique little device that enables secure file sharing between two (and only two) computers, and may be just the thing you need when other methods are blocked by company firewalls or home routers, or are simply too difficult to set up by a novice user. The company's slick marketing-oriented web site may over state its features, but it works well. Read more...


Saturday, July 30, 2011

Do It Yourself Dropbox-Like Capability For Sharing Files

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 01:00 PM

http://www.itworld.com/storage/1865...ox-alternatives

"Dropbox, when it's working and you feel good about it, is that kind of advanced technology that's indistinguishable from magic. You drop a file into a folder, and it's available on the web, on your other machines, and on your phone, often with multiple version backups. But the curtain has been drawn back on Dropbox's conjury lately, with Terms of Service (TOS) changes, a brief but scary any-password-opens-any-account moment, and then another TOS change that left many confused."

Our regular readers will know that we have posted about Dropbox and similar services before. In some circumstances you may be interested in "going it alone" and mimicking Dropbox features with other tools and service offerings. The ITWorld website has a posting which suggests a couple of ways you could accomplish this using Windows Live SkyDrive and Goodsync. The approaches are not too difficult to follow, and could be just what you need.


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dropbox Versus The Competition: How Do They Compare?

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 06:30 PM

http://lifehacker.com/5818908/dropb...s-right-for-you

"Dropbox may be the most popular service for syncing files and storing them online, but that doesn't mean it's the best. Some of us are currently considering Dropbox alternatives due to recent security or privacy concerns, while others just want to see what else is available. Here's how Dropbox stacks up against four other major online syncing services: Windows Live Mesh, SpiderOak, SugarSync, and Wuala."

As we continue our march toward high dependence on cloud-based, online storage, services like Dropbox become household terms. If you were to ask someone to recommend an online storage service, Dropbox might be the very first one mentioned. But is it the best? That is what the folks at Lifehacker set out to consider with another of their effective articles comparing technology alternatives. This time around they are considering the Dropbox service versus four competing alternatives: Live Mesh, SpiderOak., SugarSync, and Wuala. In a nutshell, each of these services provides facilities for storing and backing up your files, sharing them with others, and keeping them in sync across multiple computers and/or mobile devices. Each one has some unique capability, and each could be a "best fit" for your needs. The Read link has the complete story and will help you identify which service deserves your (possibly) undivided attention.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Does Skydrive Compare Favorably To Dropbox In Terms Of Ease Of Use?

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 06:30 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/micr...g-to-use-2011-6

"Microsoft's online file storage service, Windows Live SkyDrive, has been a teeth-gnashing flail ever since its introduction. It looks like a bunch of file folders sitting on a hard drive -- but you can't drag and drop files and folders into one another or right click them to copy and paste or do any of the other things you've been able to do in the Windows file system for more than a decade. There's some kind of tie into Office Web Apps, but it's weird and inconsistent -- you can upload files directly from a menu item in Office 2010 apps, but not from earlier versions of Office. You can do some things from the browser, while other features require you to open a desktop Office app."

The idea is enticingly simple: use cloud-based storage to access your files from virtually any Internet-based device. Even if you have never used the Dropbox service, you have probably heard its name, and have an idea what it does. Similarly, you may also have heard of Windows Live Skydrive, but are not completely sure of what it offers. The two products are not identical in functionality (e.g. Dropbox offers file synchronization across devices, while Skydrive does not, although Microsoft offers this functionality in other ways, namely Windows Live Mesh), but they do have some overlap. What makes this article interesting is its description of how the interfaces for the two services compare. If you have used both services, let us know in the comments if you agree with this author's contention that Dropbox is just easier to use.


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Wuala: The Best Alternative to Dropbox?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 03:00 PM

http://lifehacker.com/#!5798179/wua...xtra-free-space

If you're looking to get more bang for your buck than what Dropbox offers, Wuala might be worth checking out: their prices are cheaper, they have more "in-between" pricing in terms of storage, and they cover the Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android platforms. Perhaps the coolest thing they've done though is allow you to offer Wuala the use of your hard drive; if you give them 100 GB of space on a your always-on computer (that's an important part), you'll get 70 GB of storage on their servers. Given how cheap local storage is, that seems like a good deal to me! I'm a very happy Dropbox user, but I find myself tempted by this...how about you?


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Forget Your Presentation at Home? Look to the Cloud!

Posted by Steven McPherson in "Digital Home Software" @ 09:30 AM

http://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...vices-compared/

"With these services, never again will you have to say, "Oh, I forgot that on my home computer." Instead, your most important files, like pictures, videos and music, will be accessible from anywhere. But for the uninitiated user, choosing a quality service can be a daunting task. We've rounded up five of the best cloud storage services currently available so you can pick the one that suits your data storage needs the best"

I love the whole concept of the cloud. The idea of being able to access the data that you create and interact with everyday at anytime, anywhere on any device is where our IT and Personal data needs to move to. I realize that there are lots of folks out there that are uncomfortable with storing private data in someone else data storage device under someone else's control but I would say fear not. Your data is probably more secure stored away from you silo'd hard-drive than any where else. After all, there are professionals now managing your data.

Digital Trends has done a very nice review of 5 cloud based data storage sites. I have to admit I'm starting to move more and more of my both personal and work data to the cloud so this review proved really helpful for me.


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cloud Storage Services Compared

Posted by Richard Chao in "Digital Home Software" @ 12:55 PM

http://lifehacker.com/#!5786884/clo...zon-cloud-drive

"With Amazon's recent entry into consumer cloud storage, we've got quite a few competitors offering great and varying options-but which one is the best? Here's a look at Windows Live SkyDrive, Dropbox, and Amazon Cloud Drive, and our top pick for storing you files in the cloud."

VS. VS.

The field of cloud storage services is getting more competitive everyday. A few of the more well known names are Microsoft's Live SkyDrive, Dropbox and the recently released Amazon Cloud Drive. Lifehacker has posted a comparison between the three services in order to help you decide which service suits you best.

SkyDrive gives you 25GB of space for free, the feature set is fairly sparse, files are limited to 50MB and there is no pathway for expansion. Dropbox gives you an initial 2GB for free with 250MB extra for each person you signup. Additional storage is available but at a fairly steep price. Dropbox also has the advantage of having client software available on the most mobile platforms. Amazon Cloud Drive users are given 5GB with an 20GB available if you buy a music album from the Amazon MP3 store. Additional storage is relatively cheap but there is no client for iOS devices.

Each service have their own advantages and draw backs. Ultimately, there is no definitive answer as to which service is best as it is really up to what your own individual needs are.


Thursday, December 23, 2010

How To Use Dropbox To Sync Your iTunes

Posted by Andy Dixon in "Digital Home Software" @ 08:00 PM

http://lifehacker.com/5715126/how-t...rs-with-dropbox

"If you run iTunes on multiple devices, chances are you've had trouble keeping your libraries in sync. Maybe you've even tried Dropbox but ran into syncing conflicts. Here's how to sync iTunes with Dropbox problem-free, on Windows or Mac. Aside from the benefit of having all your iTunes media in sync and backed up, you gain a lot of additional conveniences by syncing your music library using Dropbox. Most of these conveniences will help you get more from your smartphone or mobile device. If you have any mobile device that has an official Dropbox app available (currently that means iOS, Android, and Blackberry), you can access all of your iTunes media directly from your device without the need to sync. If you have an iDevice device, you'll no longer be restricted to syncing it with a single machine."

If you're and iTunes user the you will probably have experienced the hassles of sharing music between multiple devices. This interesting article from Lifehacker has a very nice guide on how to use Dropbox to sync between devices instead. As it mentions above you'll also get the benefit of having your music backed up in the cloud as well, which is handy should something happen to your PC/Mac/iPod.


Friday, December 17, 2010

Dropbox Hits the Big 1 Dot 0

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 04:00 PM

http://blog.dropbox.com/?p=581

"We're super excited to announce the new hotness that we've been cooking up for the past few months: Dropbox 1.0! In addition to hundreds (yep, hundreds) of bug fixes, vastly reduced resource usage (think of it as the Prius model of Dropbox), Dropbox 1.0 ("Rainbow Shell") also offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, and a shiny new installation wizard. Those are just the CliffsNotes though - here's the true story behind Dropbox 1.0..."

If you need to keep files in sync, Dropbox is a great tool to do it - they've reached the big 1.0 milestone, and added a few new features. The most important of which is likely selective sync; if you're synching 30 GB worth of files between your PCs and you have a netbook with 32 GB of storage, you might want to trim that down a bit - now you can.

Don't have a Dropbox account yet? Sign up for free using this link and you'll get a bonus 250 MB of storage (and so will I).


Friday, July 30, 2010

Busting Bandwidth Bugaboos: Troubleshooting ISP Speed Problems

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 11:30 AM

Since most Thoughts Media readers are using high-speed Internet, I decided this article would benefit everyone, so it's one of our rare across-the-network pieces of content. I hope you find it useful!

Figure 1: What is this, 1994 all over again?

Whenever bandwidth is discussed, there's always lots of finger pointing because there are so many variables, and players involved, that it's rarely a simple issue. My particular bandwidth bugaboo this morning? I was ticked off that Dropbox (referral) was only uploading at 10 KB/s. I left a 900 MB transfer running all night and it wasn't finished in the morning, and that's when I discovered the awful speed. My first instinct was to point a finger at Dropbox, thinking there was some sort of bandwidth throttling going on. I did a speed test with a tool my ISP provides (speedtest.shaw.ca) and was shocked to see 1.7 Mbps downloads and 107 kbps uploads (Figure 1). It's normally 20x that on downloads and 10x that on uploads, so I knew something was wrong beyond just Dropbox. Read more...


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Easy Photo Sharing With Dropbox

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 07:00 AM

There are a lot of ways to share photos online, but not all of them are as easy as others. Dropbox, a popular file synchronization service, has one of of the quickest and simplest methods I've seen. Read more...


Thursday, July 1, 2010

Microsoft's Sync Strategy: A Bit of a Mess?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 12:00 PM

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/re...tm_campaign=rss

"It's fair to say that Microsoft's product offerings are something of a mess. Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh overlap (the difference being that the former is PC-to-PC, the latter is PC-to-cloud), Live Mesh and My Phone overlap (they're both device-to-cloud), and SkyDrive, Live Mesh, and My Phone all overlap (they all incorporate their own cloud storage)."

This article overstates the case slightly - Live Mesh was always a technology preview, nothing more. Live Sync is the consumer-facing sync product from Windows Live, and the new version is using Mesh on the back-end, so it's easy to see that Microsoft's long term plan was to migrate from the original FolderShare code to Mesh. Now that's not to say that the new version of Live Sync is trouble-free...in fact, I think it's almost a disaster in terms of performance. And the limit of 2 GB on Skydrive sync is puzzling...why not let them use the full 25 GB offered by Skydrive and become a market leader in one fell swoop? Maybe there are concerns of people using their 25 GB for piracy and copyright theft?I expect Mesh to be shut down as a service before the end of the year, and hopefully the Skydrive storage component will get increased over time. I think it makes sense for the phone sync component to stand alone for now - it's based on an acquisition by Microsoft - though I hope it comes into alignment with the other services over the next year. Read more...


Featured Product

The Canon PowerShot S100 - The incredibly fun and small camera that offers you 12.1 megapixels with a bright f/2.0 lens and full 1080p video recording . MORE INFO

News Tip or Feedback?

Contact us

Thoughts Media Sites

Windows Phone Thoughts

Digital Home Thoughts

Zune Thoughts

Apple Thoughts

Laptop Thoughts

Android Thoughts

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...