10 Cloud Storage Services, Recommendations, and Tips

Cloud storage provides many benefits over local storage and is the direction the future is headed. With it you can access files from any location on any device, are better backed up with redundant systems and hardware, and it is more secure than your home network. Some people are 100% in the cloud while others only use it as a backup. Either way, if you are not taking advantage of the cloud then you are possibly at risk and certainly behind the eight ball.

Before you begin you must formulate a plan that works for you and that you are comfortable using. If someone else sets it up and you do not understand how and why things work the way they work you are in trouble. If this is your first step towards cloud storage I recommend that you first use it as a backup to your physical local data. This will give you peace of mind and allow you to interact with the cloud to gain a comfort level while still being able to work in a familiar way with your local data.

Remember to set up a solution that you can manage! I prefer saving to the cloud manually, but you may want an automatic solution to set it and forget it. My files are spread across multiple services to take advantage of the different services' strengths. If that is to much for you to track then keep everything in one spot. One final recommendation before we look at some options; be sure to backup your cloud data with another cloud service to always have two copies.

Service Name	- CX
Free Storage	- 10 GB, up to 6 GB more for referring
Paid Storage	- Starting at $4.99/month for 25 GB
File Size Limit	- None
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- iOS, Android
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Features	- Collaboration

Service Name	- Google Drive
Free Storage	- 5 GB
Paid Storage	- Starting at $2.49/month for 25 GB
File Size Limit	- 10 GB
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Feature	- Collaboration

Service Name	- SugarSync
Free Storage	- 5 GB
Paid Storage	- Starting at $4.99/month for 30 GB
File Size Limit	- None
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes (enhanced)
Mobile App	- Android, iOS, BBerry, Windows, Symbian
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Feature	- Outlook Plugin

Service Name	- Dropbox
Free Storage	- 2 GB, up to 16 GB more for referring
Paid Storage	- Starting at $9.99/month for 50 GB
File Size Limit	- 2 GB
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac, Linux
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android, iOS, BlackBerry
File Sharing	- Yes

Service Name	- Box
Free Storage	- 5 GB
Paid Storage	- Starting at $9.99/month for 25 GB
File Size Limit	- 100 MB
Desktop App	- No
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android, iOS
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Feature	- Upload by email

Service Name	- SkyDrive
Free Storage	- 7 GB
Paid Storage	- Starting at $10.00/month for 20 GB
File Size Limit	- 2 GB
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android, iOS, Windows
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Feature	- Office Web Apps

Service Name	- Mozy Stash
Free Storage	- 2 GB, plus 256 MB for each referral
Paid Storage	- Starting at $5.99/month for 50 GB
File Size Limit	- None
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android, iOS
File Sharing	- No

Service Name	- iCloud
Free Storage	- 5 GB
Paid Storage	- Starting at $20.00/year for 10 GB
File Size Limit	- Unkown
Desktop App	- Mac (OS X Lion)
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- iOS 5
File Sharing	- No

Service Name	- HiDrive
Free Storage	- 5 GB, plus 5 GB for referring ten people
Paid Storage	- Starting at 9.90 €/year for 100 GB
File Size Limit	- 2 GB
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android, iOS, Windows
File Sharing	- Yes
Other Feature	- Third party uploading

Service Name	- Google Music
Free Storage	- 20,000 Songs (maximum 300MB per song)
Paid Storage	- Not available
File Size Limit	- N/A
Desktop App	- Windows, Mac, Linux
Sync Option	- Yes
Mobile App	- Android
File Sharing	- No

Although the last item is not a traditional cloud service I included it to make you think outside the box. You can also use Picasa to get 1GB free photo storage and online email services provide a lot of free space.

As a side note and personal recommendation, if you have more than one device a nice set up for your local data is to store nothing on your individual machines. I have a single external hard drive connected to my router so that all computers on the network can access it. This way all my files are in one location to make organization and cleanup easier. I then have another external hard drive to protect against hardware failure that is connected once a month to do a 1-to-1 copy (no compression) of the primary drive that is stored un-networked and unplugged for a backup. In a perfect world the backup should be at another physical location, but it is a hassle for me. In the event of an emergency this setup allows me to grab just a single drive to save my entire digital life. Of course that only works if I am home, if not, the cloud is there to save me.

Enjoy saving and working in the cloud. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments section below. Once you are set up, or if you are already, let everyone know what services you use or recommended below.

Snapjoy Stores And Organizes Your Photos - Review, Tour, And Invites

Snapjoy effortlessly organizes your photos while being backed up in the cloud. The website provides a simple and fast interface for uploading your pictures. The startup was founded by JP Ren and Michael Dwan because, as two photographers, they wanted a safe place to share pictures with people while automatically organizing the ever increasing quantity of images taken and stored.

There are no storage/upload limits during the beta period. After that, you will get 5 GB of storage for free with additional paid options available; no word on when the beta will end, but JP said users will be given at least 30 days notice. The free plan is exceptional compared to 1 GB on Picasa, 2 GB on Dropbox, and Flickr's 300 MB monthly limit (it would take you seventeen months to upload 5 GB). If you are not backing up your photos offsite in the cloud then this is a great chance to do just that. Snapjoy has given me twenty invites exclusively to give to you so be sure to request an invite (instructions at the end). Time for the tour!

The home page - be sure to check out the Live Demo.

Creating your account is fast and only needs minimal information. There are no privacy options because the default is, and always will be, private.

It lets you know if your selected username is available. The shown username URL is not currently active, but they plan to offer more public types of sharing in the future, at which time I believe this profile will play a role.

Welcome!

Now it is time upload your pictures. For Windows and Mac you can do a traditional upload where you select the files (I used this method). They also offer "Shoebox" for Mac, which offers a drag and drop style upload.

During the upload you have the ability to cancel individual files from uploading. You will notice only JPG and JPEG are supported. The ability to support RAW files is being looked at.

Upload complete and images are being processed.

If your images lack EXIF data the system is not able to properly organize them. If you are uploading them right out of the camera then this should not be an issue, but if it is for whatever reason, you are able to adjust the date and time details of any photo as shown later on.

After uploading my second set I came to my Timeline.

This is the individual photo display and edit page with a commenting section.

On the left are your editing icons where you can download, rotate, edit date/time details, and delete the photo. The download functionality could use some work as it only opens another tab/window with the full resolution version so that you can right click on it to save the image.

Over to the right side is your sharing button.

Edit the date and time taken.

There are many Library views available. This is the Timeline view we saw before where you can click each row title to drill down further.

Last Roll shows your 48 most recent uploads.

Remember when is fun, especially with a large Library. It randomly displays a photo to bring back your memories.

Shared with you shows the photos you have access to that where shared by your family and friends.

Unsorted (Lost & Found) brings the pictures together that have no date and time information so that you can update them.

This is the view after pressing the delete icon; it moves that photo to your trash.

Your trash folder's images will automatically delete after 30 days, or you can empty it immediately.

Restoring a deleted image is easy.

The settings page lets you view your information and change your password.

Overall the service is clean and responsive with the available storage size and back up aspect being its selling point. Sharing is currently simple but effective, although I hope to see additional features soon. Those features, or others, are coming soon because they have told me to "expect new things within the next week". Snapjoy has some serious work to contend on a large scale but they have built a very strong base platform with an excellent UI to build off of. Besides more social features, enhanced sharing, and better downloading I personally hope to see automatic uploading (desktop and mobile), printing options, embedding capabilities, and enhanced image editing.

I highly recommend you try it out and let everyone know what you think in the comments below. If you want an invite please email me at dain@dainbinder.com and I will get you in. Enjoy! Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Psonar Closes their Cloud Music Service

Psonar Cloud is closing on August 10, 2011 and has already turned off the music uploading piece. Under pressure from Google Music Beta, Amazon Cloud Player, and Apple's soon to launch service they are no longer able to compete. Instead they will focus their efforts on Psonar Pay Per Play which is set to launch in public beta this August. Current users have 30 days to save their songs from the cloud.

Their message:

One of the principles we promised to respect when you signed up for the service was keeping you fully informed of what we're planning to do - and letting you know of changes as early as possible.

Over the past 22 months we've stored over 2,000,000 tracks for people and have had over 15,000 users sign up to the service worldwide.

Nonetheless, as a small entrepreneurial business we have to react to changes in our market and two significant changes have led us to change the focus of the Psonar service:

The launch of cloud music storage services by Amazon, Apple and Google
The increasing interest in, and demand for, Psonar Pay Per Play
The impact of these leads us to re-focus all our effort on Psonar Pay Per Play. In consequence, we've turned off the music uploading component of the Psonar Cloud service and, from 10 August 2011, we'll be closing down the storage servers as well. This gives users at least 30 days in which to download any music they want to save locally or to transfer to Amazon, Apple or Google.

Since we would not be where we are without the loyalty and encouragement of our users, we'd like to offer everyone 100 complimentary plays on the Psonar Pay Per Play platform once the public beta goes live in August.

What was Psonar Cloud?

Cloud Save for Chrome is a must have extension for Chrome OS

Cloud Save is a Chrome extension that allows you to, obviously, save to the cloud. You can bypass your hard drive completely, which is a much needed feature for Chrome OS and the Cr-48. Once you download it you will never let it go. You can upload directly to Picasa, Flickr, Google Docs, Dropbox, CloudApp, Box.net, Min.us, Droplr, Posterous, and TwitPic. Just right click on what you need to save and you will see the Cloud Save option. Google needs to get its creator on the payroll!