Storage galore -- Motorola introduces 64 GB Moto X
With lots of apps and games coming in respectable sizes, those who are looking to buy a new smartphone have to pay close attention to the amount of available out-of-the-box storage, as otherwise they quickly risk running out of space. A microSD card can do the trick, but a slot is not offered on all smartphones. So what can you do?
Motorola believes that the best approach in the case of the Moto X is to increase the amount of internal storage. Considering the company introduced the Moto G with a microSD card slot not too long ago, this appears to be a strange call.
Canon launches Irista photo cloud storage locker
There are no shortage of options nowadays for storing photos. You can turn to physical media, like external HDDs, general-purpose cloud services, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, and specialized services, like Flickr. Physical media usually offers higher storage capacities, but cloud services are more easily-available.
I prefer a combination of the two, uploading photos snapped with my smartphone in the cloud and keeping photos taken with my DSLR on a NAS (Network Attached Storage). Why? Because smartphone photos are small in size, which allows me to store plenty of them on a free cloud storage plan, while DSLR photos are huge, by comparison, as I only shoot RAW, which is where a large HDD comes in. (I might move most of them to Flickr one day though, as 1 TB for free is enticing.) But, if you want to go all-in on cloud storage for photos, Canon just unveiled its own dedicated service, called Irista, which warrants some attention.
Many security experts do not encrypt storage devices
New research has found that half of security professionals don't bother to secure data on portable devices.
The findings, uncovered by an iStorage survey which questioned 500 attendees at Infosec 2014, revealed that 50 per cent of security pros don't bother with security measures or encryption when it comes to data on USB sticks or portable hard drives.
Mixed messages from the personal and entry level storage market
In the first quarter of 2014 the worldwide market for personal and entry-level storage declined by 6.9 percent, according to IDC's storage tracker.
It's not all bad news though, the entry-level segment which targets mainly home office and small business users experienced 14 percent growth compared to the same quarter last year.
Self-encrypting solid state drive helps protect corporate data
Mobile workforces and a changing threat landscape means that corporate data is more at risk than ever before.
A study last year by research specialist Forrester shows that 32 percent of all data breaches were due to the loss or theft of corporate laptops. In addition between June 2012 and June 2013, business travelers lost over 10,000 laptops, smartphones, tablets and other personal electronic devices in seven of the world's largest airports.
Microsoft gives OneDrive for Business users 40 times more storage space
Free storage space is very common, and it's available from the likes of Dropbox, Google and countless others. Microsoft's OneDrive also gives users a certain amount of free online storage space, and today business users receive a massive boost -- a forty-fold increase in capacity. OneDrive for Business storage is being boosted from 25GB to 1TB per user, and the same is true for Office 365 ProPlus customers.
Microsoft is putting ever-increasing faith in the cloud, particularly for its business users. "The cloud is about breaking down walls between people and information. Not building a new set of islands in the sky", states the Office blog. There's a third announcement too: "we’ll help organizations migrate data to OneDrive for Business". It's not quite clear exactly what this entails, but it certainly sounds good for anyone who has their data hosted elsewhere.
Dropbox befriends businesses, announces Carousel
Cloud storage service Dropbox has officially announced the public availability of Dropbox for Business, a new product designed to boost the company's penetration in the enterprise cloud storage market. There, it will go against existing offerings from competing services like Box.
Dropbox for Business is designed to appeal to both enterprises and their employees, so it will give enrolled users the option to switch between work and personal content. Administrators will be able to have better control over company data, according to Dropbox, with the help of features like remote wipe, account transfer and audit log sharing, which allow them to keep track of data stored in Dropbox's cloud.
AMI StorTrends launches new infrastructure assessment tool
Buying storage used to be a case of simply deciding how much space you needed, but these days it's much more complicated.
Making the wrong storage choices can impact on the performance of your entire IT infrastructure. To help with the problem American Megatrends (AMI) is launching a new tool, StorTrends iDATA, to provide admins with an accurate assessment of performance, capacity and throughput requirements.
How to create a bootable Windows 8.1 Update USB drive
Even though Windows 8.1 has been designed to work fine on touch-enabled devices as well as traditional PCs, many argued that Microsoft was still not doing enough to please those who are exclusively relying on a keyboard and mouse to navigate through the operating system. Luckily for them, Microsoft has listened to user feedback and introduced Windows 8.1 Update, during the latest Build conference.
Microsoft has revealed that Windows 8.1 Update -- well, the Update bit anyway -- will roll out to consumers starting April 8. The refreshed operating system as well as the individual update are already available though, to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Here is how you can create a bootable Windows 8.1 Update USB drive.
Much ado about nothing -- Dropbox quells fears of file snooping on users
Throughout today I have watched, with a sort of detached fascination, the attention suddenly being heaped upon cloud storage service Dropbox. It is certainly not the sort of publicity a company wants, either. It also is unwarranted. The company, at least by some outlets, is being accused of policing users' personal files in a search for copyrighted material.
The fact is, this all came about based on a tweet from one lone user, who was simply mentioning a system that was already in place, and has been for some time. Darrell Whitelaw, the user at the center of this, was only asking a question, not accusing the service of anything.
LaCie Fuel expands iPad capacity by 2TB
Whatever size tablet you opt for, there’s a good chance you’ll fill the available space in no time at all. Apps, photos, and HD movies all consume a sizable amount of space, forcing you to manage your storage wisely.
If you own an iPhone or iPad you can boost your device’s available capacity with an LaCie Fuel 2.5 inch wireless drive. The LaCie Fuel offers wireless streaming to up to five devices without an internet connection, and Airplay compatibility for mirroring content on a larger screen. It can also create its own Wi-Fi network and act as a hotspot when connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.
Google Drive price cut gives a little and takes a lot
This week, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee calls for a "bill of rights" for the Internet. Much of the media coverage focuses on governments, but I see corporations as greater concerns. Who has more direct access to your stuff? Google is front and center, but by no means alone, profiting from your content.
Today's big Google Drive price cut -- $1.99 and $9.99 monthly down from $4.99 and $49.99 for 100GB and 1TB, respectively -- makes me wonder. The search and information giant offers more value for less money. The question: Who benefits more? Customers paying less, or Google getting their business? I have to wonder when, if not already, the company will use contextual data gathered from your Drive for targeted everything, from Now to ads and more.
There's finally a great Dropbox client for Windows Phone
Windows Phone may be seeing new, popular titles launched in Store, like Facebook Messenger, Instagram and Vine, but the tiled smartphone operating system continues to lack some notable apps. The reason is major developers are still waiting for the platform to gain more traction before committing.
YouTube is absent, but there are a couple of good clients available that nearly make up for it. But, when it comes to Dropbox a decent selection is virtually non-existent. Part of the reason is the cloud storage service is focusing its resources in mobile on Android and iOS, like many other major companies, and (probably the majority of) Windows Phone users are in OneDrive's backyard already, whether they like it or not. But, if they choose to embrace Dropbox now they can turn to CloudSix for Dropbox.
BlackBerry brings OneDrive to BB 10 smartphones
After being forced to drop the SkyDrive name following a legal dispute with UK broadband provider Sky, Microsoft relaunched its cloud storage service, last month, under a new, yet somewhat familiar moniker, OneDrive. Rebranded apps quickly hit Android, iOS, OS X and Windows Phone, adding new features in the process.
With the OneDrive roll-out almost complete, BlackBerry (yes, that is right) just introduced the cloud storage service on its own platform, BlackBerry 10. The move effectively gives Microsoft access to more potential customers, and allows OneDrive to better rival the availability of other market competitors, like Box.
Plan to buy Samsung's Galaxy S5? Get a microSD card too (or the 32 GB model)
The amount of storage that is advertised in a product's specifications sheet never matches the user-available capacity when software is preinstalled on the device. That is to be expected, but there comes a point when customers may be getting too little space to store some content and install a few apps. With just a couple of games, that are growing in size nowadays, there might be nothing left available.
That is what upcoming Galaxy S5 buyers will have to deal with, as the preinstalled software on Samsung's new flagship takes up more than half of the advertised storage on the 16 GB model. Yes, that is roughly 8 GB occupied out-of-the-box.
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