Storage

Microsoft releases SkyDrive Pro iOS app for Office 365 subscribers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Windows maker Microsoft today released a new iOS app focused on its SkyDrive storage, which is deeply integrated throughout its Windows 8 and Windows Phone offerings. Although the company already has a nice SkyDrive app on the App Store which gives you quick access to 25GB of free cloud storage in the Microsoft cloud for your personal files, this one's different in that it requires SharePoint or Office365 credentials and is meant for businesses subscribed to Office 365 ...

Google Drive iOS app gains commenting and swipeable galleries

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2013

If you use Google Drive to keep your files safely backed up in the Google cloud, pay attention as the Internet giant has just pushed an interesting little update making its iOS client a whole lot more useful for collaborative work than before.

Google Drive for the iPhone and iPad has been bumped up to version 1.4, adding swipeable images while viewing them in full screen, in addition to comments for your Google Docs files.

The first feature lets you swipe through the images stored in your Drive as you would in Apple's stock iOS Photos app. The latter capability supports viewing, creating, replying to and resolving comments in Google Docs files.

Commenting was previously available via the web interface, but not on mobile devices. The free application is now live on the App Store so go ahead and update it if you haven't already...

Google now gives you 15GB of shared Gmail, Google+ Photos and Drive storage

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Hands up who lives in the Google cloud. If you keep your images on Google+ Photos (formerly Picasa Web Albums), manage documents in Google Drive or file messages with large attachments in Gmail, you are tapping the power of Google's cloud storage. But up until today, each of these relied on their private cloud locker in the sky, which was inconvenient.

This morning, Google has tweaked the offering to include fifteen gigabytes of unified, free storage shared across Gmail, Drive and Google+ Photos. Previously, Google gave you ten gigabytes for Gmail and an additional five gigabytes of combined storage limited to Drive and Google+ Photos.

The change strengthens the Drive brand while simplifying things for consumers, akin to Apple's iCloud that comes with five free gigabytes of shared cloud storage...

Google Drive update adds landscape editing on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 8, 2013

Google continues to refine its Drive cloud storage client on Apple's iOS platform. Just last month, the Internet giant has rolled out support for pinch-to-zoom on slides, QuickOffice integration and, multiple media uploads, to name a few. And previously, the software has added such handy capabilities as native and collaborative editing of both documents and spreadsheets on iOS devices. Monday morning, Google pushed another maintenance update that adds landscape support for document editing on the iPhone and iPod touch, in addition to minor bug fixes and faster performance...

Major SkyDrive update: revamped UI, full-res photos, iPhone 5 and iPad mini support

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

There's a good reason why Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage client for iOS has seen its last update in June of last year: revenue sharing. Per Apple's rules, third-party software is required to share 30 percent of proceeds from in-app sales with Apple.

For example, when you fire up Dropbox's excellent iOS client and upgrade to a paid storage tier within the app, your iTunes credit card on file gets charged and Apple earns its 30 percent share.

Though Microsoft wanted to introduce that same functionality into the SkyDrive app, it wouldn't share any revenue with Apple. Neither party would budge and a spokesperson previously said Microsoft was "in contact with Apple regarding the matter."

The two parties have supposedly reached an amicable solution because Microsoft today announced SkyDrive 3.0, a major new version rocking an overhauled interface, support for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini and a few other features...

Seagate dominates the mobile storage competition with 1TB Wireless Plus

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

After meeting with Seagate at CES, I was excited to get my paws on their new Wireless Plus, which is big brother to the recently retired and previously reviewed GoFlex Satellite. We all need our digital content on the go and, often, our iOS devices do not have enough room. I know my 16GB are carefully utilized on both iPad mini and iPhone. Toting around a Wi-Fi enabled 1TB Seagate drive prevents the need for choosing which media to bring along. Just drag and drop your media file to the Wireless Plus and walk out the door...

Dropbox CEO: iCloud is a lock-in brimming with ‘bizarre limitations’

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 4, 2013

Apple's iCloud, a service that brings together all of your desktop and mobile devices with seamless synch and cloud-based storage, is basically a lock-in, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston opined speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Praising his company's cross-platform approach to file sharing, Houston blasted iCloud for imposing "bizarre limitations" on what users can do with their files, remarking that people shouldn't really care what platform they are using in order to access their files anywhere and on any device...

Dropbox refreshed with all-new PDF viewer, push alerts for shared folders

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Dropbox on Monday rolled out a shiny new admin console for enterprise users and last week released a new Sync API to make it much easier for programmers to write software which treats cloud Dropbox files as if they were local.

Today, the hot cloud storage startup gave its iOS client some love by pushing out an update containing three useful enhancements.

First up, the Dropbox app sports an all-new PDF viewer with search and nice thumbnail view. Second, you will now receive a push notification when a folder has been shared with you. And third, Dropbox now lets you sort your files by date modified (finally!). The free update is available now from the App Store...

Latest Bump update turns your iPhone into a flash drive

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Bump has really come a long way since it debuted in the App Store back in 2009. The app, which once only allowed users to exchange contact information, now facilitates the sharing of photos, documents and even Dropbox files between mobile devices.

But the latest update looks to take Bump to a whole new level, with a revamped 'Bump to PC' feature. Users can now move files between their iPhones (or Android phones), and any computer, effectively turning their handsets into a personal flash drive...

Dropbox’s new Sync API lets apps treat cloud files as if they were local

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 6, 2013

The hot cloud storage startup Dropbox today announced a new application programming interface (API) for in-app synch. It makes programmers' life much easier by letting their native iOS/Android apps treat users' cloud-based files as if they were stored locally.

"Give your app its own private Dropbox client and leave the syncing to us", Dropbox proclaims.

By way of plugging in the API, apps can easily gain rich features such as file sharing and seamless real-time syncing akin to the Documents in the Cloud feature found in some iCloud-enabled apps. Without the Sync API, Dropbox apps can only support manual downloads and uploads and devs must do all the heavy lifting themselves...

Use your iOS device as USB flash storage with roqyUSB

Mike Schnier ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

One of the features I've missed from the classic iPods is the ability to plug the devices into a computer in order to directly access their hard drives or flash memory. When I was in school, I didn't carry a USB key around with me because I always had my iPod and everyone had the cables handy. While there is software that can transfer files between an iPhone and a PC, we're generally not permitted to install programs on shared computers.

One solution is roqyUSB, a jailbreak utility that allows users to create virtual hard disks which can be accessed by USB. This isn't the first virtual USB drive we've seen for jailbroken devices, but it is the first we've seen in a default repository...

128GB iPad 4 to start at $799

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2013

A brand new SKU (Stock-Keeping Unit) in the full-size iPad lineup that one blog obtained from retail sources suggested that Apple's readying to add a new top-of-the-line fourth-generation iPad model with 128 gigabytes of storage. The development corroborates an earlier finding of code hooks in iTunes 11 and iOS 6.1 that points to the new 128GB full-size iPad model. And now, the same publication that leaked the 128GB SKU claims to have pinpointed the prices for this "Ultimate" iPad model...