We got an e-mail earlier today from a Webware reader and Omnidrive user who told us the online storage service has been out since early this morning. We sleuthed around a little and tried to get in touch with Omnidrive CEO Nik Cubrilovic, whose personal blog is also down, although we've heard nothing back yet. As of publishing this, the service is still down.
Last month Read/WriteWeb broke a story about the online storage service heading to the mythical Internet deadpool after picking up on a flurry of unresolved technical difficulties that had been listed in the official and unofficial Omnidrive support forums. Cubrilovic responded to the RWW post saying that all was peachy, with a new release on the way and a healthy dose of funding in the can. However, hours later Ex-CTO Phil Morle responded with a completely different story, saying that there were no more staff on board and that he had never been paid for his services over his four-month stint with the company. Worse yet, Morle said that member dues weren't properly going to paying the monthly server bill, leading to unexpected downtimes.
If the downtime is permanent, the real losers in this situation are the paying users with critical data that cannot be accessed. Deadpool or not, the best you can hope for in a situation like this is an escape hatch to get your data out and migrate it elsewhere. We'll keep you posted.
Update: (1/9) A handful of users have let us know that the Windows desktop client is still working for them, despite the Omnidrive site and connected support forums being down.
Waiting for Google's online hard-drive service to launch? Check out Digital Bucket, a new storage service that's simple and intuitive. We've seen plenty of virtual desktop services here at Webware, and the one thing many have in common is attempting to emulate an existing GUI. In the case of Digital Bucket, that look and feel is the Microsoft Windows file explorer, and as I've found by using the service this morning-- this isn't a bad thing.
When it comes to files, drag and drop is by nature a very effective way of moving things around. In the Web world, this was a relatively difficult thing to manage until recently. Getting your files onto Digital Bucket in the first place involves hand picking files off your hard drive. There's also a simple mode that will sync an entire drive or folder of your choice. Once they're on there, you can drag and drop at will, sorting them into various music, video, and document folders. There's also a tagging system to let you quickly group and sort similar files.
The file uploader is simple to use, and gives you plenty of information about the status of your files.
(Credit: CNET Networks)What makes Digital Bucket "webby" is its collaborative nature. During the beta test you get a 1GB storage, and two collaborators. These folks gets access to your virtual storage space, and you can place all sorts of permissions on your files on a per-user basis to control access. You can also monitor their bandwidth usage through the admin controls, and set up file feeds that they can subscribe to see the newest additions without having to log-in. Digital Bucket is rolling out the multiuser feature only with their $149-a-year business user tier, so users of the less expensive basic and pro accounts are on their own--literally.
Another handy feature of Digital Bucket is the integration with Zoho to let you edit any documents or spreadsheets you've got stored. Box.net and Omnidrive have this feature, and it's wonderfully helpful if you don't feel like firing up another app on your computer to quickly view what's on it. Likewise, there's a picture viewer that does full-screen slide-shows, and music and video previews that play right inside the file browser.
I really enjoy the look and feel of Digital Bucket. In terms of value for your buck, ideally the company could transition the beta into a free service, and add shared accounts on the two lower-tiered subscriptions. If you're really looking for a free gigabyte of space (or more) to stash your stuff, there are already a handful of services like the aforementioned Box.net and Omnidrive, along with others like Xdrive (5GB), eSnips (5GB), and MediaMax (25GB).
View your files like you would on a Windows machine, although the picture preview mode is a little bit more svelte than XP's.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Box.net is beta testing a new plug-in for Microsoft Office that lets users save Office files to their Box.net storage folders. The plug-in works for both Office 2003 and 2007 on Windows XP and Vista, provides users a new "Save to Box.net" button, and gives visual notification when the file is uploading and then successfully sent. Users can then access that file anytime on their Box.net Web storage folder.
Box.net users can now download a plug-in for Microsoft Office to save files right to their Web storage folders.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The new plug-in was built using Box.net's developer API, which the Box.net team says can be used to add this functionality to other applications. Box.net is also planning to add support for their network-sharing platform, which supports centralized file access and sharing for multiple users.
This is definitely a worthy download if you're a Box.net user, as it skips the need to fire up your browser and upload your files. However, similar solutions from competing companies offer a more robust option for file junkies. Omnidrive and Xdrive's virtual drives let you open and save remote files right from Word, or any other application for that matter, although I have a feeling Box.net isn't that far behind with their own virtual drive solution.
[via DownloadSquad]
Ignite finished strong with presentations from Justin.tv, RobotReplay, and Omnidrive.
Justin Kan of Justin.tv talked about how easy it is to promote your site or product with the right strategy. It also doesn't hurt to have a camera hooked to a laptop, with an EV-DO connection streaming every second of your life. Our previous Justin.tv coverage here and here. Surreal moment of the talk? Checking Justin.tv and seeing him talking to us. Creepy
Andre Charland discussed the difficulty of launching his new site RobotReplay, which lets Web site owners keep track of where their visitors are going, and what they're looking at for free. Related: Atten.tv, which we checked out last week.
Nik Cubrilovic of Omnidrive talked to the crowd about its new proposed protocol called WebFS, which the company wants to be a standard interface for transferring files around the Web. In laymen terms, it means you've got one central storage point for all your files stored online, and that storage is used by multiple services. Interesting.
That's it for Ignite. The rest of the Web 2.0 Expo kicks off tomorrow, so be sure to check back for continued coverage. And don't forget, if you're in San Francisco, it's not too late to grab your free exhibition pass.
A slide from Justin.tv's presentation about how to get free publicity. For the record, we're hefeweizen fans
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Steekr is a new online storage service with automated backup software for both Windows and Mac. Users get a gigabyte to store whatever they want. Steekr is a sibling product to SteekUp, parent company Agematis' business-centric backup service that gives customers 100GB with a paid subscription. The new service is designed for casual users who want to automate file backups or move large files between locations without optical media.
The software installation is needed only for people who want to automate file backups. If you want to stick to the Web, you can still back up anything you want with a small drag and drop zone for files. Both versions of the backup application are pretty lightweight, with the Windows version coming in at just under 5MB.
I found the software interface to be a little counterintuitive, with no drag-and-drop functionality. For both the Windows and Mac version, you must dig through nested folders within a file explorer and check or uncheck the files and folders you want to sync up or transfer. This can get cumbersome, especially with 10 or more files.
Steekr has some neat features, like a media player that will show off your pictures and music files as a slide show. You can build your own playlist and skip to various files on the fly. What's missing is the capability to embed content like you can with Box.net's widget, and share your files on blogs or social networking sites. The interface is kind of widget-like, so I'm assuming they're adding that functionality later.
Steekr is a solid effort, but online storage is a very competitive space. Services like Xdrive are either giving away more storage (5GB for Xdrive), or offering tighter integration with other services (like Omnidrive and Zoho). If Steekr wants to stand out, it's either going to have to make files a little easier to manage, or bump up the storage.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
(Credit:
Omnidrive)
We covered Omnidrive back in November, and at the time the service had promise but no real partnership with Web apps that would bring it all together. Today, Omnidrive was updated to integrate several of Zoho's online applications. First up is support for Zoho Writer, the browser-based word processor. Next week will see added support for Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show, effectively allowing users to manage Zoho office documents without having to leave the Omnidrive interface.
Omnidrive solves a variety of problems that can occur when working with Web-based applications, primarily by offering a centralized storage system and dealing with multiple windows. This new integration should take the guesswork out of mixing regular application files and Zoho documents in one place.
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