Top Bananas | Tag Archives: iCloud

Alternatives to iCloud

Posted on July 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple’s iCloud only gives 5Gb of storage space, so you may want to use alternative cloud services.

Apple’s iCloud has never been great. Instead it’s just been acceptable, which means alternatives are usually much better in terms of price and performance. The whole idea behind cloud services is that you can store data on the Internet and access that data anywhere you want just as long as you have an Internet connection. The drawback is that your data is potentially vulnerable to others. A document on your hard disk will always be more secure than one stored on the cloud.

While iCloud is nothing special, it does work. However, you may want more storage space without having to pay extra for what other services give you for free so here are some alternatives to iCloud that you can use separately or in conjunction with iCloud.

iCloud offers 5Gb free.

Dropbox offers 2Gb free.

Google Drive offers 15Gb free.

Amazon Drive offers 5Gb free.

Box offers 10Gb free.

Microsoft OneDrive offers 5Gb free.

So if you want free storage, Google Drive is the best deal. Of course, if you want to pay for storage, look at the price plans for all the different services. Most people prefer the convenience of a single service so they don’t have to wonder which cloud service they stored a document on. However, by choosing the free plan on multiple services, you can get lots of free storage space in exchange for the inconvenience of storing dat on different cloud services.

Apple’s iCloud may be decent, but it’s not the only option available. Comparison shop and you’ll likely find a cloud service better than iCloud.

To learn more about various cloud services, click here.

iWork on iCloud

Posted on February 22, 2016 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: iWork on iCloud is Apple’s iWork office suite available within a browser on any computer capable of accessing the Internet.

In the office suite market, Microsoft Office dominates. Practically every company uses Microsoft Office and the main reason isn’t necessarily because Microsoft Office is the best office suite available that meets their needs, but because they want file compatibility. Opening Microsoft Office documents with other programs (such as WordPerfect Office or LibreOffice) can be troublesome with complicated documents, so companies want to minimize their troubles by standardizing on Microsoft Office.

If you have to share Microsoft Office files with everyone, then you might as well use Microsoft Office, especially if your company will buy it for you. If you just need general word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation programs, then you may not need Microsoft Office at all. In that case you can use the free iWork office suite that comes with every new Macintosh.

Pages can import and export Microsoft Word documents, Numbers can import and export Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and Keynote can import and export Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. With iWork free on every new Macintosh, you can try iWork and see if it will meet your needs before buying Microsoft Office.

As an alternative to using iWork on your Macintosh, you can also use iWork on iCloud. The main idea is that you can access Pages, Numbers, or Keynote completely through your browser using a Macintosh, Windows PC, or Linux PC. With iWork on iCloud, you can always access your files on any device you wish that has an Internet connection. That means you can now use iWork on Windows, Linux, Android, or any other operating system you wish.

By giving you the freedom to use iWork on iCloud with any computer, you will always have an office suite available absolutely free. Even though iWork isn’t completely compatible with complicated Microsoft Office files, it may be compatible enough so give it a try and see if it might work for you.

There’s no way Apple or anyone else can displace Microsoft Office as the dominant office suite in the world. However, iWork, LibreOffice, and Google Docs can chip away at Microsoft Office’s market share by being free. In fact, try all free alternatives. Many people only use Microsoft Office and never try anything else so they think Microsoft Office is the only office suite around. By trying free alternatives, you might find that iWork on the Macintosh or iWork on iCloud might actually be better suited to your needs, but you’ll never know until you try them.

To learn more about iWork on iCloud, click here.

Backup Everything

Posted on November 5, 2015 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Time Machine is just one of many options for backing up the data on a Macintosh.

Imagine if someone stole your Macintosh. Would you lose anything valuable? If not, then you don’t need to worry about backing up your data. However, chances are good you’d be missing a crucial e-mail address, a priceless photograph, or an important document of some kind. For most people, their Macintosh contains at least one file that they would never want to lose.

Perhaps the most crucial data on anyone’s Macintosh is their collection of photographs. Every time you sync your iPhone or iPad with a Macintosh, you can store any pictures from your iPhone/iPad to your Macintosh. Now you can delete those images on your iPhone/iPad to make room for more pictures.

Often times people capture vacation photos and store them on their Macintosh. Yet those pictures are now the only copy that exists in the whole world. If someone steals your Macintosh, your house or office catches fire and burns your Macintosh to a crisp, or your hard disk simply fails, there goes all your precious memories. If you’ve never backed up your photos, you could risk losing years of priceless photos.

That’s why you absolutely need to back up your data, especially important data like pictures. The simplest way to back up any Macintosh is to buy an external hard disk, connect it to your Macintosh with a USB cable, and then use Time Machine, OS X’s built-in backup program.

Once you set up Time Machine, it backs up your entire Macintosh every hour. Not only does this mean you can find data you may have accidentally erased, but you can also recover any programs you might have deleted by mistake as well. At the very least, you should use Time Machine and get an external hard disk that’s at least the same size as the hard disk in your Macintosh, preferably larger. The larger your external hard disk, the more backups you can save and you can never have too many backups of your data.

The biggest problem with Time Machine is that it requires an external hard disk that sits right next to your Macintosh, so if a disaster strikes your Macintosh, chances are good it will also strike and kill your external hard disk. So for photos and any other crucial data, you should also use iCloud or a similar online storage service like Microsoft’s OneDrive or DropBox.

The idea is that you save your crucial data like pictures on your Macintosh and also in iCloud. Now if something wipes out your Macintosh, your crucial files are still safe on iCloud. At the very least, use Time Machine, but for better protection, use Time Machine and iCloud or another online storage service.

You want a local backup (such as an external hard drive) and an online backup (such as iCloud). Now your data should be safe.

So if you’re the type of person who captures hundreds of baby pictures of your kids and never makes a backup to either Time Machine or iCloud, be careful. If losing years of irreplaceable photos is something you’d rather not imagine, then it’s time to make sure you backup everything on your Macintosh with Time Machine and iCloud today before disaster strikes. You can never have enough backups. Don’t tempt fate.

To learn how to use Time Machine, click here.

Personal Cloud Storage

Posted on October 11, 2015 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Personal cloud storage devices are external hard disks that you can also access over the Internet.

The big problem with computers is that they never have enough storage. No matter how large the hard disk might be, you could always use a bigger one. Perhaps an even bigger problem is that once you store data on your hard disk, you can only access it from the computer physically attached to that hard disk. So if you store crucial data on a desktop computer and take a trip with your laptop, you can’t access your data on your desktop computer.

If you make a copy of data, now you have to worry about which copy might be the most current. Because of this hassle, many people are using cloud storage services such as Microsoft’s OneDrive or Apple’s iCloud. The idea behind cloud storage is that you store data in the cloud that you can access anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection. (If you don’t have an Internet connection, you can’t access that data.)

The problem with cloud storage is that you never know who may have access to your data. Even if you encrypt your data, copies of your data will be stored on computers all over the world that may be out of your control. That’s why many people are choosing personal cloud storage devices.

Basically personal cloud storage devices are nothing more than an external hard disk connected to the Internet. That means you can access your data from a computer physically connected to that personal cloud storage device, but also access that data remotely over the Internet wherever you happen to be, from any device you happen to be using at the time (provided that device can open your files).

Personal cloud storage devices create a private cloud just for you. Now you always have physical access to your data and encryption protects your data (hopefully) from anyone trying to access your personal cloud device. By creating a personal cloud, you get the best of both worlds of an external hard disk for local access plus cloud storage for remote access.

Of course personal cloud storage devices cost more than ordinary external hard disks, and you have to plug them into your Internet connection through an Ethernet cable, but for many people, personal cloud storage devices give you security and control that ordinary cloud services can’t offer. Plus you don’t have to pay a monthly fee to a cloud service to use anyone’s storage.

Naturally personal cloud storage devices are only useful if you need to access data remotely, but if you do, consider making your own personal cloud. Just remember that your personal cloud is only as safe as the device so if your home or office goes up in flames, your personal cloud storage device (and all you data) will go up in flames with it.

Despite these drawbacks, personal cloud storage devices are worth looking into if you travel often. Even if you don’t, a personal cloud storage device can be handy for accessing your data from multiple devices such as a desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet in your home or office.

Not everyone may need a personal cloud but maybe you do. It could be a convenience that turns into a necessity once you start using it and then wonder how you ever got along without it all this time.