cloud

Cubby out of beta, offers free 5GB accounts to all

Remember Cubby? It's the new file-syncing and -sharing service from LogMeIn (makers of my longtime favorite remote-access tool).

Cubby's been running a closed, invitation-only beta for some time, but I've got good news: now it's an open, no-invitation-required beta. That means anyone can sign up for a free Cubby account, which includes, among other things, 5GB of cloud storage.

But hold on a sec -- this isn't just another Dropbox wanna-be. For starters, the latter gives you only 2GB of free storage; Cubby gives you 5GB. And for each friend you refer who signs up, … Read more

Amazon Web Services slices S3 prices

Amazon Web Services will cut S3 prices by roughly 24 percent to 27 percent across all regions in a move that illustrates the cloud provider's ability to add economies of scale to its IT infrastructure.

"We're lowering prices for S3 by 24 percent to 27 percent in all regions," said Andy Jassy, senior vice president of Amazon Web Services.

The price cuts are one data point highlighting how AWS intends to disrupt "old-guard technology companies."

Jassy made the comments at Amazon Web Services' inaugural re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. The powwow was designed … Read more

Access your Photo Stream without iPhoto on OS X

Regardless of your feelings for iPhoto on OS X, having to launch and wait for it to load your photo library only to access a screenshot or a single photo in your Photo Stream can be annoying. The good news is, after following the steps laid out below, you'll be able to access your Photo Stream at any time, without even having iPhoto running. The process comes courtesy of a post by Ben Ward (which originated from a Mac OSX Hints thread) earlier this year. It looks more complicated than it really is, but as always, proceed at your … Read more

Google ups the ante against Amazon's cloud service

Google has added 36 new types of server to its rentable cloud infrastructure.

The additions to Google Compute Engine, the company's infrastructure-as-a-service technology, were announced by Google on Monday.

"At launch we offered four basic [instance types]," Barak Regev, head of Google's Cloud Platform in EMEA, told ZDNet. "If you aggregate [the 36 new instances] into brackets, you'll see they are touching the high-memory and high-CPU instances [but] the one that is most notable is the diskless file configuration."

Cisco nabs cloud-networking start-up Meraki for $1.2 billion

The three colleagues who created the cloud-networking and Wi-Fi startup Meraki at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science six years ago were not expecting to be acquired by Cisco Systems. But the tech giant announced today its intent to buy the startup saying it plans to throw down $1.2 billion in cash, along with retention-based incentives.

"The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises," Cisco's Enterprise Networking Group senior vice president Rob Soderbery said in a statement. "Meraki's … Read more

Access a virtual workspace that has Microsoft Office and other apps with CloudOn

CloudOn lets you add Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, and several other apps to your iPad through the use of cloud computing. CloudOn also lets you use your cloud storage accounts to handle your files. It installs easily.

CloudOn provides access to a clouded workspace with applications such as Microsoft Office. You can use CloudOn to edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files on your iPad. You can also access your cloud storage accounts, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and others for file storage from the workspace. With Adobe Reader and File Viewer also installed on the workspace, you can see almost … Read more

Cloud storage services have their benefits and flaws

Tons of options exist for which cloud storage service to choose from. You've got Google Drive, Box, SugarSync, DropBox, Apple's iCloud, and more. A new report by tech support site FixYa, which sourced data from its 25 million users, studies which service best fits different customers' needs.

For starters, DropBox and Box users have security concerns as well as complaints of lagging response time, according to FixYa. This isn't a huge surprise considering DropBox was hacked in July and hundreds of users were sent spam e-mails about online casinos and gambling sites. However, users also say they … Read more

Cisco kicks off fiscal year with strong earnings

Cisco shares rose by 6.8 percent on Tuesday after the bell as the networking giant published a rather solid earnings report for the first fiscal quarter of 2013.

The San Jose, Calif., based corporation reported a net income of $2.1 billion, or 39 cents a share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were 48 cents a share on a revenue of $11.9 billion -- up by 6 percent on an annual basis.Wall Street was expecting Cisco to report first quarter earnings of 46 cents per share on revenue of $11.78 billion.Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers asserted … Read more

How to share reminders in OS X

In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple included a few of its iOS applications, one of which is the Reminders app for setting up and organizing to-do lists. Reminders used to be part of Apple's iCal feature, but has migrated to a separate app that interfaces with the Calendar for all your Apple devices and with Apple's iCloud service. This unified setup not only makes sharing reminders among devices easy, but also offers a platform for sharing reminders among different iCloud users.

While a little redundant with standard calendar events, reminders are convenient alternatives since they are maintained in … Read more

Dropbox passes 100-million-user mark

Cloud storage company Dropbox has reached 100 million users, and to celebrate it's giving away gigabytes.

The company, now five years old, announced the milestone today in a blog entry written by founder Drew Houston.

"Once upon a time, Dropbox had its humble beginnings in a Boston train station when I forgot my USB stick at home," he wrote. "We're still unsure if it was fate or fluke, but one thing's stayed the same all these years: each of us has a unique reason for using Dropbox."

Houston told The New York Times … Read more