SecondBrain is a personal aggregator that doesn't just aim to collect all your online content in one place - it helps you organize it. It's a bit del.icio.us, a bit FriendFeed and a bit Onaswarm, all rolled into one, with a new twist you're not going to find anywhere else.
You can import content from Twitter, del.icio.us, Blogger, Wordpress, Digg and StumbleUpon, and that's less than half the list. You can also get your content into SecondBrain by adding links directly to the site. With most other aggregators or social bookmarking sites, that's all you have to do. This is where SecondBrain gets interesting, because it allows you to organize your content into collections and share it with your people who follow your updates. SecondBrain's latest feature gives all users 1GB free storage.
It's still lacking certain features, the most significant one being the inability to export your links, but we've been told that's in the works.
SecondBrain appeals to that obsessive compulsive need to keep all your online content neatly tagged and filed away. And what better way to do this than with a service that allows you to share it with other like-minded people?
A while back, we asked for reader feedback for off-site backup solutions. Unsurprisingly, many of you said you used Jungle Disk which is a disk-based utility that allows for easy backup to Amazon's S3 storage platform. S3 is inexpensive, efficient and Amazon's servers are fast, which makes it a great tool to use for either server or local drive backups. However, if you don't want to stare at the command line or grapple with a web interface, especially for automated backups, Jungle Disk is a tremendous time savor.
Today, Jungle Disk released version 2.0 of their software for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can read the release notes, but here are some highlights:
Brand new interface that makes setting up the service easier than ever and a very intuitive back-up selection utility
Support for Jungle Disk 2.0 buckets and compatibility buckets
Support for European S3 buckets
Support for multiple backups and independent scheduling
Have you ever wanted to view or edit a file that wasn't sitting on your own hard drive? Sure you have.
It's either on your work machine, or on your mom's machine, or it's on your brother's Alienware gaming machine in the basement and you just don't want to get up to deal with it. You wish you had a network drive for all of these machines.
The great thing about external drives on the mac is that they show up on your desktop immediately. Like this little USB thumbdrives. We love how they JUST WORK.
Basically, ExpanDrive is a souped up SFTP client. You don't have to set up any configurations, you can log in to any machine with its current credentials to access files and edit them seamlessly.
Just like they were on your own drive.
If you get disconnected, no problem...you'll automatically reconnect when you're able to.
This basically lets you use any computer that you have access to as an external drive for storage. As long as that computer has an internet connection and is turned on...you're set!
Currently, the cost is $29, and that's an introductory price, so it could go up in the future.
There are hundreds of online file storage alternatives available now, ranging from the very sketchy to the expensively professional. With such a crowded field, Irish startup PutPlace is playing a slightly different angle to win your business: they're making it personal. The service is designed to be a secure, "future-proof" place to put your important family and business documents.
PutPlace is currently in beta, so you can test it for free. When it launches, they'll offer annual subscriptions, presumably with rates varying based on the amount of storage used. This really isn't big news for advanced users who are already on the offsite backup bandwagon, but there are still plenty of people who haven't gotten there yet. If backup were easier, fewer novice users would have to go through the traumatic experience of losing everything to a hard drive failure. PutPlace might be able to help them by putting on a friendly, trustworthy face.
If you're tired of online storage services that give you just a gigabyte or two of space for your files, you might want ot check out Wuala. It's a peer to peer storage solution, which means that you can store a near infinite amount of data online just by freeing up some space on your own hard drive to host other users' encrypted files. Wuala is currently in private alpha, but we've got 500 invites to give away. Read on to find out how to snag one.
When you first sign up for Wuala, you'll be able to upload up to 1GB. Once you've demonstrated that you've got a high speed internet connection and that your computer is on for more than 4 hours a day, Wuala will let you allocate free space on your hard drive for hosting other users files. If you make 10GB available, you'll be able to upload 10GB of your own files. Sharing 50GB will net you 50GB of online storage. And so on.
The program interface is familiar and easy to use. It looks a lot like Windows Explorer, with a system of folders and file icons. You can easily create or delete folders just by right-clicking to bring up a context menu. And you can either upload files by opening an "Add Files" window or just by dragging and dropping them from your desktop.
There are hundreds of ways to backup your important data. You can schedule automatic backups to a DVD-RW, spare hard drive, or use an offsite backup solution to save your data on a remote server in case anything ever happens to your PC. But while offsite services like Carbonite and Mozy provide a secure option for backing up your files online, neither is free (while Mozy offers a free service, account holders can only backup 2GB for free).
Zoogmo offers a novel approach to offsite backup. Instead of saving your files to a central server, this Windows application lets users create peer to peer networks to store files. So if you've got three or four friends with broadband connections and a few spare GB of disk space all you have to do is ask them to download and install Zoogmo and add you as a partner. When you initiate a backup, Zoogmo will check to see which of your partners are online and begin saving your files on their computers.
All your data will be encrypted so that nobody can access your files without your login information. So if you want to save your tax or medical documents offsite, there's little to no risk of your friends reading through them.
Zoogmo is currently in public beta, which means it's free for anyone to use. While in beta there's a file size limit of 50MB, so don't expect to backup your ripped DVD collection using Zoogmo.
There was once a rumor that said ZFS support would be included in Mac OS X Leopard. While the CEO of Sun (who you'd think might be in a better position than many to know) told an audience this is true, it turned out to be false. The geekiest of Mac geeks were disappointed to the greatest degree as their favorite operating system would not harness the benefits of the ZFS file system. However, the interesting thing about geeks is that if a company won't do something for them, they'll just figure it out themselves.
As a result, we are happy to present to you the ZFS project at Mac OS Forge. If you'd like to add ZFS support to your Mac, this is the place to go. The site's got everything from download links to FAQs and getting started tutorials. Keep in mind that adding ZFS support to your Mac is still experimental, so we recommend keeping this away from any machines with important data.
If the ZFS project ever matures to a really reliable state, this could become a popular open source addition to Macs around the world in the same way Firefox has become the standard browser on many computers today. ZFS definitely seems like the future of file systems, so you can bet many of us are rooting for this to get better.
A friend of the Squad, (we're not naming names here Ben), recently had a little mishap with his data backup plan. He was doing a fresh install of Leopard on his Mac, and so he backed all of his data up to a external hard drive, installed OS X 10.5, and then found out that the drive was corrupt.
No problem, he logged into Mozy, his online backup service to access his 60GB of offsite data. But he had to wait 12 hours before the data was ready, and then he had to download 100 different dmg files. He wasn't pleased.
We've mostly heard good things about Mozy, but we've also heard people rave about Carbonite, Amazon's Jungle Disk, and several other services. And we're intrigued by, if a bit disappointed by ADrive. But honestly, we're not sure which is best, so we thought we'd ask you, our trusted readers. What do you use for offsite data backups, do you like it, and why?
ADrive is a new online file storing service that gives you more space for free than any other site we've seen. Ever. We're talking 50GB big. But the thing about having that much storage space is that you're going to need a good way to upload and download files. And that's something ADrive is currently missing.
ADrive's "coming soon" section says that the company will be adding a desktop client for drag and drop uploading, personalized snapshots for retrieving older versions of your data, and premium accounts in case 50GB isn't enough for you.
But right now, all you get is a web based uploader. While you can upload multiple files at once, there is no way to upload entire directories and subdirectories, which means if you wanted to use ADrive as a complete backup solution you'd need to recreate your desktop file structure and upload the contents of each folder one by one.
Upload and download speeds are also not the greatest we've seen, ranging from 100KB/sec to 200KB/sec. At that rate, it will take a lot of time to upload or retrieve 50GB of data. There doesn't seem to be a file size limit. We started to upload a 2GB file with no problem, but we didn't wait around for the upload to finish because it was going to take an estimated 13 hours to complete.
You can also share files you've uploaded by clicking a "share" button to make them public.
While we're a bit underwhelmed at the moment, we're keeping an eye on this company, if for no other reason than the fact that we would love to find a free backup solution that gives us enough room to store more than a few important files.
DivShare, which we have covered before, is not just another online storage site. It lets users upload and download unlimited files, and also well as offers a Facebook application and a power uploading tool. They have now released a no download web document viewer.
Even though we love downloads at Download Squad, keeping things online sure does have its remotely accessible benefits, and that's just what DivShare is doing with their flash based web document viewer. The new tool allows for viewing all types of documents from videos, photos and audio material anywhere. These documents can either be kept private, or embedded in websites, blogs or social networks.
Also released into the DivShare stables is a new iPhone app that allows for searching, downloading and emailing DivShare files straight from Apple's device. There will also be a few other specialty items getting released this week, including a Facebook collaboration tool, developer API and private label video players. If you haven't checked out what DivShare can offer your unlimited file storage needs, now could be the time.
Running out of Gmail space already? How would you like some additional storage space so that you never, ever have to erase anything ever again? Well, everyone's wishes have been answered!
Google has just announced standard Gmail accounts will get a storage increase as part of the Infinity+1 plan. Standard users will get a rough increase of about 1GB of space, plus creeping increases over time. While businesses and schools that are part of the Google Apps program will see storage increase to an unspecified amount (likely a few extra GB). Premier Edition users will notice a change from 10GB to 25GB, for the same fees they currently pay. ($50/user, per year)
With storage costs constantly decreasing and Google opening new datacenters all over the US, we're sure we will see changes in other areas as well, including Picasa, the rumored rebuild of Orkut 2.0, and among their numerous other acquisitions.
If you are a corporate Gmail user, get ready for double the email storage capacity and some new security tools.
Google has reworked some components to their online business application suite and doubling email is hot on the list. The current business users, hundreds of thousands of them in the public and private sectors, will see their 10 GB of space jump to 25 GB. The next exciting addition is the inclusion of security features through the recent Postini acquisition. Although Gmail's spam blocker and virus tools are pretty good, Postini's addition is sure to set a new standard in web based email solutions. The new security tools will be able to insulate email from viruses and spam, as well as recover lost data, and also ensure employees are not violating company policies.
Standard Gmail users can expect their storage to hover under the 3 GB point for a while, and as for the security features, no word on whether they will be integrated. The Standard Edition of Google Apps is free, while the Premier Edition with more storage is $50 per user, per year.
Online storage sites are a dime a dozen these days. In fact, many offer several gigs of storage for free. Digital Bucket isn't free, or at least it won't be when it exits beta. But it does offer a few nice features.
Digital Bucket's interface is almost identical to the basic Windows File Explorer. Once you upload files, you can drag and drop, copy and paste, rename, zip, or unzip them.
You can also share files with other user and set file permissions limiting access to specific users. This could come in handy if you're working on a collaborative project or want to share access to certain documents with colleagues or clients.
Digital Bucket also works with Zoho, which means you can view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. There are also online music and video players and a photo album organizer and viewer.
The service is set to emerge from beta next week, at which point you'll be able to choose from several tiers of membership starting at $15 per year for 1GB of storage and a limited feature set. For $149 per year, you get 25GB, larger file size limits, and more features.
Monthly fees can add up. While you probably realize the monthly fees you pay for your car or mortage add up to tens or hundrds of thousands of dollars, how often do you stop to think of the other fees in your life? How much money have you spent over the years on cable or cellphone bills? What online storage space?
iForem has come up with a way to eliminate the monthly fees for its online backup storage site. It just charges a really high price up front. We're talking $20 for 20MB of storage, or $1024 for 1GB. Sure, you can get storage from services like Mozy and Carbonite for a fairly low monthly fee, but if you stop paying, you lose your storage.
What makes iForem's model unique (beside the high price) is a guarantee that your data will always be available. The idea is that iForem will take your ridiculously high up-front payment and invest it in a trust. As your money makes money for the company, some of that revenue will be pumped back into server space, security, and all the other things you'd want from an online storage site. Over time, as your friends continue to pay monthly fees to their online backup companies, you'll (theoretically) realize that they've paid more money over the years than you have.
But the way we see it, there's at least three problems:
You can already get 5GB for free from services like Xdrive.
1GB in 20 years will probably seem pretty tiny.
If the company goes under in less than 15 years, you're not going to get your money's worth.
Google has apparently updated the name servers on GoogleDrive.com as noted by Garett Rogers. This could be one of the final steps necessary in launching the online storage solution. Could it be built into Google Apps? Or maybe a standalone service? We will have to wait and see.
GoogleDrive.com has been on quite a journey since its original registration in 2004. It sat parked until in 2006 it expired and picked up by a squatter. Then in July of 2007 Google's official domain management company took control on it. Now it's been transferred to Google servers.
Have you ever wanted to view or edit a file that wasn't sitting on your own hard drive? Sure you have.
