Michal Ždanský In two days, Dropbox got some interesting competition. Microsoft upgraded its SkyDrive cloud service at the expense of LiveMesh, which disappeared, a day later Google rushed in with the long-awaited Google Drive.
Microsoft SkyDrive
In the case of Microsoft, this is far from a new service, it was already introduced in 2007 exclusively for Windows. With the new version, Microsoft apparently wants to compete with the ever-growing Dropbox and has completely revised the philosophy of its cloud solution to imitate the successful model.
Like Dropbox, Skydrive will create its own folder where everything will be synced to the cloud storage, which is a big change from LiveMesh where you had to manually select folders to sync. You can find more similarities with Dropbox here, for example: you will see rotating arrows for syncing folders, synced files have a green check mark.
While LiveMesh was a Windows exclusive, SkyDrive comes with a Mac and iOS app. The mobile application has similar functions as you can find with Dropbox, i.e. primarily viewing stored files and opening them in other applications. However, the Mac app has its drawbacks. For example, files can only be shared via the web interface, and synchronization is generally very slow, sometimes reaching tens of kB/s.
Existing SkyDrive users get 25 GB of free space, new users get only 7 GB. The place can of course be extended for a certain fee. Compared to Dropbox, the prices are more than favorable, for $10 a year you get 20 GB, for $25 a year you get 50 GB of space, and you get 100 GB for $50 a year. In the case of Dropbox, the same space will cost you four times more, however, there are several options to expand your account by up to several GB for free.
You can download the Mac app <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a> and iOS applications can be found in App Store free.
Google Drive
Google's cloud sync service has been rumored for over a year, and it was almost certain that the company would introduce such a service. However, this is not a completely new matter, but a redesigned Google Docs. It was previously possible to upload other files to this service, but the maximum storage size of 1 GB was quite limiting. Now the space has been expanded to 5 GB and Google Docs has changed to Google Drive, Google Drive in Czech.
The cloud service itself can display up to thirty types of files in the web interface: from office documents to Photoshop and Illustrator files. Editing of documents from Google Docs remains and saved documents do not count towards the used space. Google also announced that the service will also get OCR technology for recognizing text from images and analyzing them. In theory, for example, you will be able to write "Prague Castle" and Google Drive will search for photos where it is in the pictures. After all, the search will be one of the domains of the service and will not only cover the file names, but also the content and other information that can be obtained from the files.
As for applications, the mobile client is currently only available for Android, so Apple computer users will have to make do with the Mac application only. It is very similar to Dropbox – it will create its own folder in the system that will be synchronized with the web storage. However, you do not have to synchronize everything, you can also manually choose which folders will be synchronized and which will not.
Files inside the main folder will always be marked with the appropriate icon depending on whether they are synchronized or if uploading to the website is in progress. However, there are several limitations. Sharing is possible, as with SkyDrive, only from the web interface, moreover, documents from Google Docs, which have their own folder, work only as a shortcut, and after opening them, you will be redirected to the browser, where you will find yourself in the appropriate editor.
However, the synergy of Google Docs and Google Drive opens up interesting possibilities when working in a team, where files need to be shared and the latest version always available. This has been working for docs for a while now, you can even watch others work live. However, the web interface adds the possibility of commenting on individual files regardless of format, and you can also follow the entire "conversation" via e-mail.
Google relies in part on extensions through APIs to allow third-party developers to integrate the service into their applications. Currently, there are already several applications for Android that offer connection with Google Drive, even a separate category was dedicated to these applications.
When you sign up for the service, you get 5 GB of space for free. If you need more, you need to pay extra. In terms of price, Google Drive is somewhere between SkyDrive and Dropbox. You'll pay $25 each month to upgrade to 2,49GB, 100GB costs $4,99 a month, and a full terabyte is available for $49,99 a month.
You can sign up for the service and download the client for Mac <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a>.
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Dropbox update
Currently, the most successful cloud storage does not have to fight for its position in the market yet, and Dropbox developers continue to expand the functions of this service. The latest update brings enhanced sharing options. Until now, it was only possible to send a link to files in a folder via the context menu on the computer Public, or you could have created a separate collective folder. Now you can create a link to any file or folder in Dropbox without having to share it directly.
Because sharing a folder required the other party to also have an active Dropbox account, and the only way to link multiple files with a single URL was to wrap them in an archive. With redesigned sharing, you can also create a link to a folder from the context menu, and its contents can then be viewed or downloaded via that link without the need for your own Dropbox account.
I just miss being able to share an entire folder directly from the mobile app for iOS and Dropbox won't have an error. MacDropAny is also a great application for Mac, thanks to which you can share folders directly from the file structure and you don't have to copy anything, which is great.
“While LiveMesh was a Windows exclusive, SkyDrive comes with a Mac and iOS app. "
I don't know about you, but I've been using the live mesh client on osx successfully for several years.
"Like Dropbox, Skydrive creates its own folder where everything syncs to the cloud storage, which is a big change from LiveMesh, where you had to manually select folders to sync."
I would rephrase that: …which is a step back from LiveMesh, where you could manually select multiple folders to sync.
Being able to choose multiple folders and not have to cram everything I want to sync into one is the main reason I use SugarSync over DropBox.
But Dropbox can do that too :-)
Yes? And was he able to do it even when I was making a decision? (About 2 years ago?)
I'm a SkyDrive user and I only got 7Gb :(
Ah, so I had to expand it myself. But this is only temporary.