Over the years, we have become increasingly dependent on digital media: word documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, pictures, videos and more.  We need access to those files wherever we are.

Luckily with the increased use of digital media has come the advent of cloud file storage. With the cloud, we can access our files from nearly anywhere on nearly any internet capable device like Cell phones and Tablets. Take a look at the cloud options below to find what’s right for you. If you’re an Android user it might be a mix of Dropbox and Amazon Cloud, while an iOS user might find that iCloud meets their needs by itself.

Dropbox

Developed by MIT graduates in 2007, Dropbox is one of the longest running cloud services as well as one of the better developed ones. It has well developed applications for all of the major mobile platforms (i.e., Apple iOS, Android, and Blackberry) and computer operating systems (i.e., Windows, Mac, and Linux). If you would like to access your files on a public computer, it also has a web interface that allows you to download and upload your files from any computer or mobile device without installing any software.

One useful feature of Dropbox is that it saves a local copy of your Dropbox files on any computer that you install the program on. It then automatically updates any changes to those files whenever it has an internet connection. What this means is that you’ll have access to your files even when you’re not connected to the internet, though any changes made on another computer since the last update will not be seen until it resynchronizes with the Dropbox server.

Accounts are free for up to two gigabytes of space with paid options for those that need more space beyond that. Because of the near universal device compatibility, Dropbox is probably the best cloud service at this point for general file storage. One of the few features that it doesn’t have is the ability to stream music.

iCloud – iOS devices and Computer (Mac and Windows)

Apple’s brand new iCloud service’s main benefit is synchronizing multiple iOS devices with each other and your Mac without needing to plug them into a computer with iTunes. It also brings native music and file cloud support to Apple devices, allowing you to stream music and make document changes across all of your devices. For Apple users, it has probably already become a full, viable replacement for Dropbox.

There are some minimum operating system requirements for setting up iCloud on your Mac, iOS devices, and Windows PC. For the Mac you will need OS X Lion (10.7.2) or later; iPhones and iPads will require iOS 5 which is a free upgrade available through iTunes; and Windows PCs will need to be running on Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7. To set up iCloud on your devices, simply follow these instructions found on Apple’s website.

Amazon Cloud – Android and Computer (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

For Android and computer users, Amazon Cloud fills in the streaming music hole left by Dropbox quite nicely. For the computer, go to Amazon.com and choose the Amazon Cloud Player. For your Android device, download the Amazon MP3 app from the Android Market. Accounts are free up to five gigabytes with all paid options including unlimited music storage. Music purchased through Amazon’s attached MP3 store does not count against your storage limit, even with the free option.

The Amazon Cloud also includes the ability to store files other than music. While this would seem to bring it close to Dropbox, the Amazon Cloud Drive can only be accessed through their web interface. Files cannot be automatically synced with your computer.

Google Music (Beta) – Android and Computer (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

Not willing to be left behind when it comes to trending technology or supporting their Android operating system, Google has recently come out with their own music cloud. Google Music allows you to use the native Music app on Android devices to stream your music from their server. While at first glance this seems extremely similar to Amazon Cloud, there are some differences. For one, Google Music offers space for “20,000 songs” for free. While it’s odd to offer storage space in units that vary in size, this is roughly equivalent to fifty gigabytes, ten times the free offering of Amazon Cloud. What Amazon Cloud has over Google Music is an integrated music store that automatically adds your purchases to the cloud and the ability to store files other than music.

Google Music is currently in Beta, which for Google means that it’s by invite only. That said, Google invites aren’t nearly as hard to come by as they were when Gmail was introduced. If you have a Motorola Xoom, you’ve been invited already. If you don’t have a Xoom, the Google Music has a link that allows you to add yourself to the waiting list.

Cloud Player – Blackberry

Most of us are attached to our Blackberries very close to all day, every day. If at the end of the day you have some battery life left to spare, you might consider adding music streaming to your Blackberry as well. If you’re looking for a cloud music app for your Blackberry, check out Cloud Player, which offers free, unlimited music storage and streaming.

Some Warnings

There are a couple of warnings that should be considered before setting up your accounts and uploading your files. First, as with any amount of increased access to data, there is some loss of security of your data. You should always use strong passwords for these services and you should not store sensitive data on a public cloud server. Second, because the federal laws protecting digital files are outdated, files that have been on a third party server, including email servers such as the ones used by gmail.com, for more than six months may be considered abandoned by law enforcement and subject to search without a warrant (read more about that here). While that certainly isn’t a major concern for most people, it’s worth knowing.

Have you ever been frustrated when you transfer your contacts over from your blackberry device to outlook but for some reason not all the contacts transfer over? This issue is very common and we at Solvere One deal with it a lot.  Here is a quick guide to ABC Amber Converter which is the software we use to fix the issue.

How it works: The ABC Amber converter is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a converter that takes all the items in your blackberry and puts them in an excel format that outlook will recognize. This way when you import the spreadsheet of your contacts it will import everything on your blackberry instead of missing a few items here and there.

1. First make a back up of your blackberry using the blackberry desktop manager. Save the backup to a folder you can find easily – we recommend the desktop.

2. Once the backup is created open ABC Amber Converter and open the back up file by choosing File -> Open -> browse to the desktop and choose the file.

3. ABC Amber Converter will take a few minutes to open the file and then you will be able to see  all your contacts in the contacts tab.  (You will notice that there are many other items you can browse from the backup file also, but that’s for another time).  Select all the contacts in the contacts tab and then choose the “Export (destination)” and choose “XLS (MS Excel)” and click on save as.  A dialogue box will prompt you to choose a location and once again save it somewhere easy to find.

4. Now you just need to import them into Outlook.  To do that go to File -> import and export -> import from another program or file -> choose “Comma separated values(DOS)” -> Click Browse and choose the file we created with ABC Amber Converter and then choose “Replace duplicated items” -> choose next and then import.  Outlook will take a couple of minutes to go through and add the contacts in and once it is done your Blackberry and Outlook will have the same contact lists.

Of course we don’t expect you to do this yourself, but you never can tell when this information may come in handy for a personal Blackberry you may have.  If you are having issues with your Blackbery just talk to your Solvere One Systems Administrator and we’ll take care of all the heavy lifting for you and get it back into shape!

An office environment can be quite stressful.  Working under demanding conditions and short deadlines can lead you to cut corners in your work.  While it may seem you are saving time in the moment, it can (and usually does) lead to wasted time in the future.  A good example of this is creating computer files and folders without having an efficient system of filing.  A lack of structure and organization can lead to hours of frustration and more undue stress searching for files and folders that are lost among a mess of other documents.  Here are a few quick tips to help you manage your files better.

1.  Draw up a directory tree – This is helpful in visualizing the architecture and hierarchy of your folders and files. It also gives you a chance to minimize folder location paths within the tree by eliminating unnecessary files or folders, which can be a tremendous timesaver.

Example of a directory tree

2.  Be consistent – It is important to develop a naming scheme that will help you quickly locate folders and retrieve files.

• Try using abbreviations when dealing with long words. Also, try to keep the character count under 25
• Try to select a meaningful name that will provide context to the computer user
• When dealing with files that require similar names, try adding the date and time for added distinction (MMDDYY_HHMMSS)\
• Do not use spaces in your file names. If necessary, use an underscore (_).

Whatever you may choose to follow as a scheme, it is most important to be consistent.  Once your system is committed to memory, you will be surprised how quickly you can navigate through your files and folders.

3.  Keep it small – It is ideal to maintain a folder structure that does not require you to do a great deal of down scrolling.  With each window you open, you will want to be able to see its entire contents without the need for scrolling.  To do this, try separating your folders by year or broad subject matter, e.g. Fiscal Year 2010, Proposals, Invoices, etc. Doing this could create a lengthy file structure, however, the benefit of knowing where your files are should outweigh the drawback of extra folder clicking.

4.  Save in one root location only – This will save you a lot of search time when you know all of your documents are saved within a folder structure in “drive A” as opposed to some being saved in “drive A, drive B and drive C”.  This can make using the windows search tool easier and time saving.  In addition, most office network infrastructures provide network drive locations for each user to save documents to. It is good practice to utilize the network drive as the primary location for saving documents and folders as the drive will more than likely be backed up on a regular basis, thus, minimizing the risk for data loss.

5.  Save often – When creating or dealing with a document, you should immediately save it in its proper location and frequently save your changes. It can save you time in selecting the location after you finish.  Also, should the application prematurely shutdown and an auto recovery backup isn’t an option, this can save you the time of retyping the document.

6.  Clean up – Be sure to delete obsolete files.  It helps to keep your folder structure from being cluttered with unnecessary documents and folders. It also helps to free up necessary drive space for new files and folders to be added.

By following these guidelines, you will save yourself several future headaches. Not only that, you will notice an uptick in your productivity and a decrease in your stress levels!