Windows Live SkyDrive is the underdog of Microsoft’s Windows Live suite of web services and applications since it launched in 2007. While similar services like DropBox garner a lot of fans, an iCloud announcement from Cupertino gets favorable press. However, with 25GB free storage space offered and over 100 million users, I think SkyDrive deserves better.

The latest release announced today may just be the trigger to usher SkyDrive to the next level. The release, built on HTML5 and incorporating recent browser advances, is faster, easier to navigate, and provides a  great experience for viewing photos. The refreshed experience will help users to use SkyDrive as a single service for sharing across Windows, Office, and mobile devices including Windows Phone, iPhone and Android.

The best part of the relaunch announcement? The latest refresh is already rolling  out to  customers worldwide. I had the new SkyDrive in about 10 minutes of the press release.

Experience

By using caching and hardware acceleration, the latest release of SkyDrive reduces the time to perform common tasks like clicking a folder. Microsoft claims that the time it takes to perform such tasks will drop from 6-9 seconds down to 100-300 milliseconds. The speed is evident as I clicked across folders, uploaded files, and created new documents to test a few scenarios.

The new SkyDrive brings together all photos, docs, and files into one view and the layout is consistent with Hotmail’s Quick views feature while the navigational elements are borrowed from Windows. Also, this release adds a useful information pane in place of ads. Yes, SkyDrive is ad-free now.

Internet Explorer 9 + Windows 7

With Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7, you can pin SkyDrive to your taskbar for quick access to your files and create Office documents stored on SkyDrive via Office Web Apps in just one click using Jumplist.

Photos

The new SkyDrive can compete with the best of photo sharing and storage services in terms of feature offerings and the experience.

The photos are arranged in neat squares using CSS3 Transitions and there is no pagination. With infinite scrolling like Bing’s image search, it looks and feels like a native application. Within the photo-albums, the photos are presented in their original aspect ratio and as best-fits.   While viewing your albums, the folder icon is replaced by a slideshow of thumbnails of contents of that album. Also, using the HTML5 video tag, SkyDrive now supports playback of H.264 videos (up to 100 MB).

Windows Phone

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced deeper integration between SkyDrive and Windows Phone with the Mango release later this year. With that release, users will be able to share photos stored on SkyDrive via email, text, or IM and the Office hub would bring instant access to documents to allow users to view folders and files directly on their phone.

What can you do if you want to send an entire CD to someone? Sending large files as an email attachment is usually a problem. Most email providers have limits on the size of attachments. For example, Yahoo’s and Gmail’s limit is 20mb, with Hotmail trailing behind at 10mb.

You could use any one of several online file storage sites, or even set up your own FTP server. These all take time and usually require some setup. There are easier ways to send large files if you don’t want to waste time.

A new service called WeTransfer allows you to attach several files, up to 2Gb in total, and send a download link to a person or group. There is no sign-up required. You can use any fromaddress you wish and include a short message to the recipients.

WeTransfer couldn’t be much easier to use. However, if you need alternatives, take a look at YouSendit, which has been around a long time and is just as easy to use.

I like to use WinDroplr, which allows you to quickly upload and create short URLs to share in email, Facebook or Twitter. It’s fast and easy but it requires you to install a simple program on your PC.

One of my rock-star friends likes to use Box.net to share his unique creations online. It’s free, and you can even mount Box.net as a virtual drive on your PC.

What’s your favorite method for sending large files to people? Be sure to tell us in the comments below.

The worst possible time to make a backup is probably right after a computer crash, but that’s precisely the time when most computer users stop and consider doing so.

For most users backup isn’t a top priority, so they often forget to create regular scheduled backups, in case the worst happens.

However, with the introduction of online backup services, it’s now possible to create and upload backup of your files automatically, the software program runs in the background and uploads all your files onto the server whenever they are saved. This means you have a current and reliable backup to restore from.

There are numerous free online backup services out there, and in this post I will review 4 of the best.

SugarSync

Formerly known as Sharpcast, offers 5GB of online backup space, free for life, it supports automatic file synchronisation which allows you to keep your libraries updated across all your computers. Storage space is upgradable to 10GB if you refer friends, both gaining 500MB each.

Dropbox

Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage space, and is popular amongst computer geeks due to its support for Linux. While 2GB isn’t a lot of storage space, you can upgrade your free account by referring your friends; students get 500MB for each referral, and non-students get 250MB. The max free storage space allowed for students is 16GB and for non students it’s 8GB.

OpenDrive

OpenDrive offers 5GB storage space for free; it has features similar to SugarSync and Dropbox with automatic backups and synchronization abilities. Although it does provide ample space for free account holders, the space is not upgradable by referring friends. I also don’t like the fact that OpenDrive places a watermark on your images if you decide to share them on forums.

Mozy

Mozy is one of the most popular online backup companies out there, and offers 2GB of free storage space. We like the clean interface of Mozy, which is very easy to use. It has bandwidth throttling features to prevent it from clogging up your internet connection.

Out of all of these services, which I have personally tested, SugarSync is my favourite as it has a good 5GB storage space, straight out of the cuff, and is expandable to 10GB which is an impressive amount of storage space.

=== About the Author ===

Guest post written by Abdul Karim, a tech enthusiast, Windows fan and writer for the online backup services website

In a surprising move, AVG, the software firm behind one of the most popular free antivirus solutions in the market, has announced the launch of a new cloud based storage solution called LiveKive. While cloud-storage options are a dime a dozen these days, AVG plans on utilizing its expertise to give an edge to its offering.

With AVG LiveKive, AVG is taking its passion and expertise in free security technology to the cloud-based storage market,said J.R. Smith, chief executive officer of AVG Technologies. By storing information on our safe and secure servers, customers significantly reduce the temptation for thieves and hackers to attempt accessing files stored on an individual PC or mobile device.

During the beta testing phase, AVG will be offering 5 GB of free storage to all users. AVG is promising quick and easy access to stored content from any synced device. Although, the sparsely worded official announcement doesn’t specify which devices will be supported, given AVG’s presence in the Android Market, as well as its availability for Windows and Linux, we are anticipating these platforms will be supported (at the very least).

The beta testing phase was expected to have started from this week. However, it seems to have been delayed. I have reached out to AVG, and will update this post when I hear back from them.

One of the best features that makes online backup incredibly practical is their use of the Incremental Foreverparadigm. In order to understand what an Incremental Forever paradigm is, let’s take a look at the way backups were previously done.

Because data is constantly changing, multiple copies of all files must be kept on-hand in case an older historical file version needs to be restored or rolled back. Although an obvious solution would be to create a new backup tape every day, this was a slow and expensive process.
The main problem with this methodology was that you had to copy lots of redundant data, while blocking access to the computer while the backup window was taking place.
In order to fix this problem, 2 incremental backup paradigms were created: Differential Incremental and Cumulative Incremental.

With the Cumulative Incremental approach, a full system backup is performed once per cycle. (A cycle is usually 30 or 40 days) After that, a daily incremental backup is performed. This incremental backup only contains the data which has changed since first full backup was performed. At the end of the cycle, a new full backup is made and the process starts over from the beginning.

Although the Cumulative Incremental paradigm offered fast, simple recovery, the backups would start to get very large towards the end of the cycle. Large backups eat up lots of expensive storage, and create long backup windows where the computer can’t be used.

The Differential Incremental was designed as a time-saving and space-saving improvement over the Cumulative Incremental paradigm. With this approach, you still have the first full backup at the beginning of the backup cycle. But every subsequent incremental backup only copies changes from the previous day.

Although this approach was much faster and more economical than the Cumulative Incremental approach, it still had one major drawback. The emergency recovery process was much slower and more error-prone because there were so many different backup fragments to track and load.
If you had to recover a backup from day 15 of the backup cycle, you’d have to load 16 different backup tapes: the first full backup from day 0, and the following 15 incremental backups which made up the final active version.

The Incremental Forever paradigm is a software-based approach that combines the best of both worlds. You get the elegance and simplicity of the Cumulative Incremental paradigm with the speed and efficiency of the Differential Incremental paradigm.
An Incremental Forever backup only requires a single full backup of your data. After that, you can perform perpetual incremental backups without ever requiring another full backup. (Hence the name Incremental Forever)

This approach works by taking your latest incremental backup and using software to combine it with your most recent full backup version. And every day, the latest incremental version is appended to the previous day’s backup to artificially form a new full backup.

From the end-user’s perspective, it will appear as if you just created a new full backup every day. However, the backup server is smart enough not to store any of the duplicated data. This way, 30 days worth of full daily backup copies each 10GB in size will only amount to 11 GB in total storage.

But in the event that you need to recover, you can just pull whichever full backup copy is required without worrying about managing multiple tapes.
When this methodology is delivered as part of an online backup service, it has 3 main benefits:

• Faster, simpler recovery
• Fully automated backups with minimal backup windows
• No backup tapes to fiddle with or ship off-site

If you’ve grown tired of the manual labor involved in full daily backups, Cumulative Incremental backups, or Differential Incremental backups, you may want to consider automating your data protection using an online backup service with Incremental Forever technology.

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About The Author: Storagepipe Solutions is celebrating their tenth year as the leading Canada online backup provider.

Like so many other advances in technology, cloud services are most likely here to stay. Their capabilities for upgrading and continued expansion ensure that they probably won’t become obsolete or just end up being fly-by-nightservices.

For these and other reasons, it seems relatively safe to say that the future of cloud services is looking very promising. This is evident in the fact that some services have already created and made available some new apps, as well as improvements to existing apps.

Here are a few predictions for the future of cloud apps:

Because they are so amenable to updating and expansion, cloud services will continue to offer improved services. Some areas where this will possibly be seen include:

• Delivery capabilities: it will be easier for users to retrieve information that has been backed up and stored. This can be very important to those businesses for which every minute that they cannot access information can cause anything from monetary losses to even loss of lives.
• Ease of installation and use: cloud services providers who wish to remain successful and competitive in this growing field will want to constantly improve their cloud apps to where they can be downloaded faster and are easier to use.
• More competitive prices or price options: These can include pay for what you useplans, as well as packageor bundleplans that are comparable to if now less expensive than other cloud apps.
• Continuous introduction of new apps and improvements to existing apps: New apps will focus on the ability to combine features (Windows Azure and Windows HPC Server are one example of combined features-this app is already available), or be used use with social networking sites. Improvements to existing apps will concentrate on providing better performance, quality, and functionality.

If your company provides cloud services, your company’s future as well as the future of the cloud apps it provides will hinge on how willing you are to keep up with technological advances, not only in the area of cloud apps but in other areas as well. Like any other type of technology or computer services, cloud services are not going to stand still, and neither can your company.

For some companies, particularly those in foreign countries where computer technology is just now beginning to catch upto the rest of the world, cloud services and subsequently using cloud apps is a relatively new concept. As these companies become able to access more and more computer services, however, it stands to reason that they will eventually be looking at cloud services.

Will your company be ready to take advantage of this expanding market? It will be if you and your fellow workers have continued to increase your knowledge of cloud services and cloud apps. In order to do this, you and everyone else in your company connected with cloud services will have to constantly be reading the latest news on cloud technology and keeping up with the latest additions to cloud services. Then you will have to use what you have learned by constantly creating new cloud apps and improving on those you already provide.

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About the author: Jennifer Williams is a writer, turned traveler, turned blogger (allovertech). She has recently traded in her nomadic ways to write about everything she finds interesting from the comfort of her couch. Follow her at @JtotheWilliams

There was once a time when setting up a home office literally had to mean setting up a full-sized office. However, times have changed. Largely thanks to technology, you can have a fully functional office with nothing more than a computer — although we recommend you also invest in a desk and a chair. Much of the reason for this is cloud computing, which has allowed an amazing chunk of your work to happen in virtual space. Here are some things you can do with cloud computing that will shrink the needed size for your home office.

Take Documents Digital
There are almost no types of documents that can’t be taken into a digital format. Signed contracts, receipts, and other similar documentation all retain legal validity in electronic format and printed documents can easily be scanned and stored. There are even mobile applications which will automatically transform snapshots of physical items into easy-to-use text-based PDFs.
Take it a step further by using cloud storage. This will allow you to access all of these important documents from anywhere that you have internet access.

Contact Information: Always at Your Fingertips
It’s never been easier to store digital information. Almost every email server allows you to store digital contacts which can be retrieved from other locations, and you can even use Gmail and Apple ID to integrate the contact information with your smart phone. Further, mobile phone applications have made the storage of business cards as easy as can be. You take a picture of the card and all of the data is automatically uploaded to your phone and (if enabled) web-based contacts.

Financial Record-Keeping Moves to the Cloud
Thanks to big names like Quick Books and Sage, finances have been thought of as a part of electronics for a while. The cloud takes this one step further in evolution by allowing you to track expenses from anywhere you have internet access, use multi-account reporting, and much more.

Note-Taking in Cyberspace
Rather than taking notes on paper or in a text document, why not try out one of the many CRMs available? You can set up client accounts, record important details, make notations, and retrieve it all whenever you need to. Beyond making note-keeping easy, this also provides an extra layer of legal protection and enables easier collaboration. BaseCamp, QuickBase, and SalesForce are just a few of the big names in cloud CRMs, but there are customized solutions for every budget and need level.

Downsize Your Hardware
Rather than using physical storage and software that you install from disks, try using cloud storage and solutions. It will completely eliminate the need for most home office hardware.

Other Advantages
Cloud storage offers other advantages, too, including lower costs than standard servers, greater security, improved mobility, easier integration, and simpler search options. However, for the office minimalist, following these steps can get rid of most of your documents, your financial records, your note system, a lot of hardware, and your contact storage system. Just imagine what your home office will look like once you’ve made these changes.

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Guest post by Stephen Cline, a business and finance professional out in the real world, since graduating with his dual degree. Big into technology in the workplace, he’s a big supporter of cloud storage and other tools to work efficiently. Follow him on Twitter- @stephlines

Dropbox is one of my favorite ways to synchronize and backup files, however, the limit on basic account is only 2GB which is pretty less considering that you can easily fill it up with few vacation pictures and videos. You could use the multiple Dropbox account trick to backup more files though.

Also see: Other Online Free Storage Websites and Tools

Dropbox also provides users with an option to invite friends and get 250MB extra storage for every friend of yours who signs up. But did you know that you can also get 250MB of storage space for free by just clicking on the "Get Started" link in your Dropbox account?

If not, go ahead and login to Dropbox and click on the Get Started link to increase your Dropbox storage space by 250 MB, if you don’t have a Dropbox account yet, you can always use my sign up link to add to my quota . Sign up for Free 2GB Dropbox Storage Account.

(h/t Life Hacker)

Guest post by Srikanth.

There are many online file storage services available. It is a very good idea to store your data on secured servers, this not only saves your hard disk space but also allows you to sync and recover any lost data during a system crash or any other natural disasters.

Here in are some of the paid and free online file storage services that provide tons of free and paid storage space to store your data securely. Many of these services also allow you to share files over the web and by using specific clients, you can also backup your data automatically without the fear of losing data. The table below shows a detailed comparison of some of the popular online file storage services, look at the table and decide which service best suits you.

Web host/ Features	IDrive	RapidShare	Drop.io	MegaUpload
Language supported	English	English and German	English	English, German, French and Italian
Free trial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage Space	2 GB Free	500 GB for Paid customers	100 MB	50 GB Free and 1 TB for Paid customers
Maximum Upload file Size	None	200 MB for Free users and 2000 MB for paid users	100 MB	1024 MB for free users and not applicable for paid users
Bandwidth limit	Not applicable	500 kbps for free users and paid users can download 2.66 GB per day	None	No Parallel downloads for Free users and unlimited for paid users
Upload Options	Web based and through client	Web based or Direct upload	-	Web based or Direct upload
System Compatibility	Windows 2000, XP and Vista systems	Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems	Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems	Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems
Option to delete files	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sync option	Yes	No	No	No
Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Encryption	Yes	No	Yes	No

Guest blogger Srikanth writes on Tech Inspiration blog about tips, gadgets, and technology. Check out his blog or Linkedin profile for more.

There are many times when you may come across document and files on the internet, many times you may download the document and then upload it to a online file storage service.

If you are Box.net, you can now directly upload files to your account from a Web URL with the help of a Firefox add-on. This add-on is a updated version of the previously mention Open it Online extension which allows users to open documents online without the need to have software installed on their PC.

After installing the add-on when you click on any document or download link, you will see a additional option to save the file directly to Box.net.

Selecting the option will open another confirmation window asking you whether you want to save the file to Box.net.

Select the folder you want to save the file to and it will automatically be saved to your Box.net account.

If you are looking to directly copy your documents to box.net like you do on a local drive, check out our earlier article on how you can mount box.net as a local drive.

To learn more about the add-on visit the Box.net blog. Download the Open It Online Firefox add-on to directly upload files from the web to your Box.net account.