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Use Web Applications - Cloud College (Part 2)

9/13/2013 5:18:46 PM

5.    Synchronize your stuff

The cloud is perhaps at its best when used for keeping personal files and folders synchronized between different computers and devices. Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is one of the slickest services, offering 2GB of free storage (more is available for a fee or if you encourage friends to sign up to the free service). On a PC, for instance, it creates a special folder for files that you would like to synchronize, automatically passing on any changes in the contents to all devices with the service installed. Dropbox is available for a wide variety of computers and devices.

Both Google Drive (https://drive.google.com) and Microsoft Skydrive (www.skydrive.com) synchronize files in a similar manner.

A network attached storage (Nas) device can be used to create a personal cloud

A network attached storage (Nas) device can be used to create a personal cloud

6.    Share files

Cloud storage is also great for sharing files – particularly those that are too big to email. Although the storage and synchronization services mentioned earlier can all do this, there are also free services such as Pipebytes (www.pipebytes.com) and Send this file (www.sendthisfile.com), which are handy for sending a large file to one or two recipients. For sharing music, video or photos with lots of people, dedicated sharing sites such as Flickr, Picasa and Soundcloud (www.soundcloud.com) are ideal.

7.    Use cloud apps

Cloud apps can save money and don’t need powerful hardware. Webmail is a familiar example, but services such as the aforementioned Office Web Apps and Google Drive have full office applications (including word processing, spreadsheets and presentations) that run entirely in a browser. Lesser-known free cloud apps include Photoshop Express (www.photoshop.com) and Pixlr (www.pixlr.com) for photo editing, Panda Cloud Antivirus (www.cloudantivirus.com) for security and Free File Convert (www.freefileconvert.com) for file conversion. Some providers charge subscriptions, including accounting services Sage One (www.sageone.com) and Xero (www.xero.com).

Cloud apps such as Pixlr, a free photo-editing app, don’t need powerful hardware in order to perform complex tasks

Cloud apps such as Pixlr, a free photo-editing app, don’t need powerful hardware in order to perform complex tasks

8.    Printing in the cloud

It might sound odd, but the cloud can even be used for printing from devices that can’t ordinarily or easily connect to a printer, such as tablets and smartphones. Google Cloud Print (www.google.com), for example, allows remote printing of documents via the Google Chrome web browser and Google mobile apps, and some websites also support Google Cloud print directly – these will display a button with a Google Cloud Print logo. Any printer can be used, but a Google Account is needed, and the computer connected to the printer must be turned on and running Google Chrome. To print from other apps, an app such as the free Cloud Print for Android (www.snipca.com) or the $4.5 Print Central for iOS (www.snipca.com) is needed. HP’s Eprint (www.snipca.com) is a similar idea, but needs an Eprint-enabled HP printer.

9.    Build your cloud

Creating your own cloud storage (often called a personal cloud) is not too difficult. At its simplest, it can be an internet connected hard disk with the ability to access files from a browser, such as one of Western Digital’s My Book Live range – Another example is the Iomega EZMedia and Backup Center, which also includes a 1TB hard disk.

Many routers with a USB port can also be used to share files stored on a connected hard disk or USB memory key, although the sharing features are often very basic. Dedicated network drives (sometimes called network-attached storage or Nas devices) have the best personal cloud features, with easy-to-use sharing services for photos, videos, music and documents, using attractive web galleries.

The advantage of a Nas device is that, because the galleries run on the Nas itself, there are no upload limits or subscriptions to worry about, and all the data stays on your own home network. However, the speed of remote downloads will be governed by the upload speed of the user’s internet connection

10.  Back up your cloud data

Though the large cloud-service operators are trustworthy and reliable, even the most sophisticated services can fail from time to time – as could your own internet connection. So if you want to ensure that you can always access your files, it is a good idea to keep local copies of important documents that are stored in the cloud.

Back up emails from your webmail service with Mailstore Home

Back up emails from your webmail service with Mailstore Home

Synchronization and backup services such as Dropbox do this automatically, provided the relevant application is installed and running. To make sure files are always up to date, leave these programs running all the time and open them occasionally to check for errors or problems, because error notifications often go unnoticed.

Webmail in particular tends to be more prone to outages. Email from any service can be downloaded and archived using the free Mailstore Home program (www.snipca.com). Gmail has its own offline feature, though to set this up you will require the Google Chrome browser, plus an app from the Chrome Web Store at www.snipca.com

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