Last year, Dropbox introduced an iPhone app to the masses for easy access to stored data in the cloud. With the software, you can snap pics with an iPhone and have the images shot up online to your Dropbox web account. In turn, that automatically synchronizes any other computers you have running Dropbox, so the pics are available there too. And that’s just one example of the software functionality — you can also share file links, download files for offline access and sync videos as well.

Dropbox recently tipped their hand about an application for Android and BlackBerry handsets, although I missed the memo. The guys at Geek.com received the news as did other Dropbox users. Although there’s no firm date on when these two mobile platforms will see the application, Dropbox say that “more mobile magic is coming soon.”

I wonder if the Dropbox team is attending Mobile World Congress, which kicks off on February 15? That would set the stage for a nice Android and BlackBerry coming out party, no? Of course, if the Dropbox is team is still looking for feature requests, I’d love to see the new application support music playback of files stored online. I use that functionality in the ZumoDrive application, which offers a similar service to Dropbox.

Related research from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Forget Synching, Let’s Put Music in the Cloud!

As someone who embraced the cloud early on, you’d think I’d be all over the news that Google is finally delivering the mythical “G-Drive.” Oh, they’re not calling it that, but soon you’ll be able to store whatever files you want within Google Docs. We all should have guessed this was coming — my first clue was when I noticed that Google is storing my synchronized bookmarks from Google Chrome in plain sight on Google Docs.

So why then am I not standing on the rooftops yelling “Huzzah!” at the top of my lungs?

On one hand, Google is beating the pants off the services I use when it comes to pricing. Google offers 1 GB for free and each GB after that is $0.25 per year. Let’s see how that compares to some of my favorite services at different levels of storage for a full year.

With its highly scalable infrastructure, Google competes very well on pricing, as expected. So that’s a clear win, but getting at and easily using the data across all of my mobile devices is a huge factor.

The other three services I use all offer a mobile client for either my iPhone, my Nexus One, or both. And if there isn’t a mobile client, it’s coming soon per each product’s website. Of course, Google could be working on a mobile client for access to this cloud data, but there was no word of that today. The clients I’m currently using aren’t basic access applications either.

Take ZumoDrive’s iPhone application for example. With it, my entire music collection can be streamed from the cloud to my handset. Essentially, even an old 4 GB iPhone could have a virtually near unlimited music collection with such a setup. The built-in music player might not be quite as good as the native iTunes application, but I’ll take a slightly inferior experience over the limitations of  fixed storage any day.

While Google’s new data storage offering will be useful to many, in its first iteration, it sounds like the real benefit will be for devices like laptops and netbooks over handsets. There’s definite value in it, but for now it appears like a place to park your data for a small fee. There’s plenty of places that already do that — and so much more for a wider range device types.

For now, I’m going to pass on the new service. I’ll likely test it out using the free 1 GB of space, but until I can easily use that data extensively on all of my devices, I’m sticking with what I use today. Ideally, I want my cloud data to act like, look like and behave like local data on everything. Of course,  if I change my mind or want some cheap basic storage, I can always make the purchase from any web connected device on the fly.

How about you? Does the new Google Docs feature appeal to you as a cloud storage service or are you going to use something else? We all have different data needs, software requirements and devices to use with the cloud, so I’m curious as to your take.

I haven’t bumped into the ZumoDrive folks just yet, but they did give me a heads-up on some big news. The cloud storage and synchronization company worked a deal with HP to power the CloudDrive service on the HP Mini netbook line starting this month. Essentially, owners of HP Mini netbooks have built-in web storage that virtually expands the local, physical storage. All content is stored centrally on Amazon S3 servers and pulled down as needed.

What I like best about ZumoDrive’s approach is how data in the cloud has a local look and feel. When I last looked at the service, I used iTunes to listen to music files stored online, but you really couldn’t tell where the data was. This seamless blurring of local vs cloud storage is a key strength for mobile users as is the cross-platform support and mobile client.

Some of the key CloudDrive features include:

• Seamless media integration – stream music, videos and photos to popular programs like, iTunes, iPhoto, Picasa and Windows Media Player.
• Offline access – enjoy frequently and recently used content.
• Folder linking – link any folder to HP CloudDrive for automatic future importing.
• Content auto-detection –content is detected on devices by type (music, photos, etc.) for easy bulk importing
• Improved iPhone app – move content seamlessly between an iPhone and one or more computers by storing it in HP CloudDrive.
• Playlist syncing – listen to playlists on netbooks or smartphones, even if they were created on another PC.
• File sharing – create a link to share a photo album, document, or entire folder for collaboration.

We’ll see if we can get a hands-on demo when meeting with either HP or ZumoDrive and report back on the experience. If it’s anything like what I’ve seen in the past, it ought to be good. The one outstanding question I have is the end-user cost — while CloudDrive will be bundled, the ZumoDrive service typically requires a monthly fee based on the amount of storage, although anyone can get 2 GB of storage for free.

Time for our Wednesday feature that highlights some of the latest iPhone news! Earlier this week, I noticed that the ZumoDrive application for iPhone received an update. The new version adds quite a bit of valuable functionality: support for iWork 09 and plain text files for starters and more important — to me, anyway — are upgrades to the streaming music functionality.

I store MP3 files on my ZumoDrive in the cloud. Using the iPhone app, I can stream that audio, but the client previously was pretty bare-bones. Now you can seek to any position in a song while it’s playing. At some point, ZumoDrive added support for album art too — I’m not sure if that just appeared in this version or a prior one, but it’s there now. I originally used this method to “carry” my 11 GB music library on my 8 GB iPhone, but I’m still using it from time to time on the iPhone 3GS. While many folks sync their entire music library on the handset’s local storage, I’m not a big “syncher,” so this method works out well.

Also hitting the headlines this week are more recurring rumors of a giant iPhone-like slate tablet. I’ve tried to refrain on these rumors lately but as CES approaches, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll hear anything official from Apple on such a product or platform next month. That would put the rumors to rest — finally — and give us a glimpse of where Apple might be headed with any potential new products. With Cupertino so heavily invested in both audio and video digital media, I’d gather that any product would focus mainly on content consumption.

Speaking of content, you can now broadcast your own, thanks to Ustream’s iPhone broadcast application for the iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets. Expect only a QVGA stream and a few second delay if you decide to use your iPhone as a live video camera for all the world to see. The new free app also includes support for video sharing via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook as well as video geotagging and usage over either 3G or Wi-Fi.

With all of my looks at web-based storage, I overlook Microsoft’s SkyDrive every now and again. It’s definitely worth the look due to the generous 25 GB of free storage. While you can download an ActiveX control to integrate your SkyDrive into Windows Explorer, but there’s another option pointed out by gHacks: SkyDrive Explorer, which just got an updated beta version yesterday.

The free download of SkyDrive Explorer adds some features that the ActiveX control currently doesn’t offer when using SkyDrive in a browser, namely: renaming objects, deleting groups of object and copying folders with subfolders and files from SkyDrive. And it makes it easier to take basic file or folder actions on your SkyDrive:

• View the structure and contents of folders in SkyDrive
• View files information (type, size, creation date in GMT format)
• Create new root folders and subfolders
• Copy files into storage
• Delete files and folders
• Copy files from storage to the computer
• Copy folders and subfolders from the storage to the computer keeping their structure
• Use Drag & Drop for files operations
• Rename files and folders
• Create links to SkyDrive folders on your computer

While I tend to work in a browser, there are plenty of folks that want to access files with in Windows Explorer. If you’re one of them, SkyDrive Explorer is worth the look. My installation in Windows 7 went without a hitch and the program integrated my SkyDrive in Windows Explorer as if it were a local system folder. Clicking the “local” SkyDrive does prompt you for your Windows Live credentials, but you can allow the app to remember them for quicker access. Now if I could only get my SkyDrive mounted as a drive so I could easily integrate cloud tunes with a local music player, I’d be really happy. Aside from Windows 7, SkyDrive Explorer works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003 / 2008.

James and I have been involved in the mobile technology space for quite some time now. He’s been using mobile devices “since they weighed 30 pounds.” Those are the days when I weighed 30 pounds, but you catch my drift. Between the two of us, we have years of practical experience in this space. And while new gadgets, operating systems and software appear on a daily basis, there are still some common fundamentals that are useful — mobile maxims, if you will. While the specific tools supporting them might change, these mobile suggestions never go out of style.

1. Always buy a second battery for your main device — This one is really simple. If you can afford it, buy a second battery for your main notebook or netbook upon purchasing the device. I do this for a few reasons. Doubling the battery life on any of my current — and presumably future — devices means that I have all day mobile computing. This frees me from having to work only in locations where I may be able to find an electrical outlet. I don’t have to be constrained to locations with electricity when I have two batteries. This also helps with leveling the “wear” in my batteries. Eventually, the batteries will hold less of a charge when full. By rotating batteries on a regular basis, I can even out that wear over time. If I don’t do that, I end up with two batteries that offer a wildly variable run time. Need another reason to buy a second battery at time of purchase? You don’t have to worry as much about battery availability in the future. There’s nothing worse than to have a device — and its batteries — become discontinued or hard to find when you really need a spare power pack.

2. Carry a toolkit for drive restores – It helps to expect the unexpected. In the case of mobile computers, it could be a hard drive failure, file corruption or who knows what. While you can’t anticipate every issue, you can easily prepare yourself for disaster with nothing more than a small flash drive. I carry one around with me and make sure it has software like a partition manager, certain device drivers, portable apps and anything else I might need in the event of a major issue. These days it’s not all that hard to build up a collection of such tools and drop them on a cheap USB drive. Why not even carry an OS with you? Ubuntu can be booted and run off of a flash drive in a pinch.

1. Have a backup plan for wireless connectivity — You can’t be totally mobile without some type of connectivity. So I pay for a monthly 3G plan with Verizon Wireless and use the very common USB adapter for it. This lets me use the connection with any Mac or PC, plus I can share that connection over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi in a pinch. But I also pay $10 a month for access to the Boingo Wireless network. I consider it cheap insurance and I often use it at a Starbucks or other location. I also have my iPhone set up for Internet Tethering, which is why I’m not upgrading beyond iPhone OS 3.0. I recommend having at least one backup connectivity plan, just in case your primary one goes on the fritz. It happened to me once before and because I was prepared, I was still productive.

2. When not in use, turn off the juice — There are many strategies for this mantra and they’ll vary based on your needs and your devices. For me it means to turn off radios and put devices into sleep mode when possible. I often use this strategy with my mail and RSS feeds. Because I use Google for both services and Google supports offline use via Gears — except for Snow Leopard installs — it’s common for me to fetch mail or feeds and then shut down my Wi-Fi or 3G. Although idle radios today are more efficient than they used to be, why have them use power when I can work offline for a while thanks to Gears? I also reduce the screen brightness on everything to the lowest usable level that’s still comfortable. For me that’s around 30% or so, but of course for you it could be different. The point is: aside from using the built-in power management features of your device, reducing your power needs can help bring more run time during the day.

5. Invest in a useful web-based data storage and synchronization service (or provide your own) — I actually use several tools in this area, mainly because if one experiences a service disruption, chances are one of the others will be fine. The idea behind this mantra is to have your data available to you regardless of what device you have with you. And if your device itself goes bad, a web-based storage service like Dropbox, SugarSync, Box.net, or ZumoDrive (to name a few) can be used with a public or borrowed machine. Ultimately, you don’t want to have data only available to one local device. When you do, you’re limited to using only that device. If you can’t use that device because the batteries ran down or because you left it somewhere, you’re dead in the water with local data. The corollary to this mantra is to provide your own remote storage. I’ve done just that with my Windows Home Server project, but you don’t need to buy or build another machine. Installing remote access software or using a service like LogMeIn can get you back to the data on a computer at home.

1. Consider using the “lightest” tool for the task at hand — Think about pairing the right tool with right task when it comes to mobile activities. For example, if I’m simply consuming basic content like email, I use my phone. Why? Because the phone battery lasts far longer than a laptop battery. It’s a “lighter” tool for the task and saves the battery on a “heavier tool” like my netbook or notebook for doing things I can’t easily do on the phone. I realize that it’s far more comfortable to reply or compose long emails on a larger device, so I often read my mail and mark items so I know I have to take action or respond. I later take action on those messages on the laptop if they require much typing. The same goes for checking a few items on the web. Why waste CPU cycles and battery life on a notebook or netbook if I can almost as easily hit them on a handset? Would I sit and surf the web for hours on a phone? Nope. But if I’m just checking the latest Techmeme headlines, browsing the most recent blog comments or something else that’s a bite-sized chunk of the web, why not do it on a “lighter” device? It seems a shame to waste precious battery life on a laptop for small, Internet morsels.

7. Tote a headset -- I make sure to always carry a wired headset and mic combo. At first, this one might sound frivolous, but I’ve found it to be very useful. It doesn’t add much weight to your gear bag, yet it can reap big rewards. I still carry a Bluetooth headset from time to time, but you run the risk of a dead battery. With a wired headset, battery life is one less thing to worry about. It comes in handy when you’re trying to work in a noisy area or you simply want to hear some relaxing music. I can also hear much better on a headset when a call comes in because I can be in any number of situations. It could be noisy when that phone rings unexpectedly, but I’m prepared to have my conversation regardless.

So those are my mobile mantras. Pick and choose to see what works for you. Even better — share yours in the comments so we can build up a nice useful list!

I believe that Nokia offered the Ovi Files Macintosh Connector prior to today, but the product manager of Ovi Files is just now touting the service. Like its PC counterpart, the Mac Connector allows for file sharing and synchronization from a Mac to the Ovi Files service:

• Remotely access the files stored on your OS X 10.5 (Leopard) based Mac from your mobile phone or web browser
• Send files to your friends, even if they don’t use Ovi
• Create an online mirror of content stored on your Mac using our Anytime Files feature

Sounds like similar functionality to Microsoft’s Windows Live Mesh and the other usual suspects in this space — Dropbox, ZumoDrive, SugarSync, and more.

At one point, Nokia was charging for the service: $80 a year for 10GB and $150 annually for 30GB. However, I recently read that Nokia decided to make the service free with 10GB of space. While it’s optimized for Nokia handsets, you don’t need one to use the service. That means if you need an online storage and synchronization service for PCs or Macs, this might fit the bill — without a bill.

I did just sign up for the service, but I’m not going to try the Mac Connector. I’m prepping myself to go on a Mac diet for a few weeks to get the full Microsoft Windows 7 immersion experience. I’ll have access to the final build tomorrow, so today is my transition day — I’m working all day on my Toshiba NB205 with the external monitor on Windows XP.

MobileMe users pining for remote iDisk access on an iPhone or iPod Touch can breathe easier. Apple added the free MobileMe iDisk to its App Store, enabling handheld control of files in the cloud. I say the app is free, but the reality is that it’s a free complement to Apple’s MobileMe pay service, priced at $99 per year. Why it took so long for remote handheld access to server-based MobileMe accounts is beyond me, but that’s a moot point now. With the free software on an iPhone or iPod Touch running iPhone OS 3.0 or better, users can:

• View public files on iDisk
• Access public folders
• Enable file sharing
• View supported file types on handset, i.e.: iWork, Office, PDF and QuickTime. Apple notes that files over 20MB in size may not be viewable

I’m sure that many folks are happy with Apple’s MobileMe service, but I’ve opted to pass it by. Instead, I use other services like Dropbox, SugarSync and ZumoDrive. Apple offers 20GB of storage for the $99 yearly fee, but the three services I’ve named are all cheaper on a cost-per-gigabyte basis. They also don’t necessarily lock you into a particular brand of handset, either. SugarSync, for example, supports iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. The service just added support for Google Android handsets, as well.

Thanks to HG for the tip!

Earlier today, the ZumoDrive folks pinged me with some updates on their services. The company offers a cloud storage and synchronization solution that works with Macs, PCs and the iPhone natively, or you can access it through a browser. There’s excellent integration with iTunes, making your cloud-stored music appear local. I especially like the audio streaming support in the iPhone app — if your library has DRM-free music like mine does, you can stream tunes from the cloud to your iPhone. It’s a great way to virtually expand the storage capacity of a phone, netbook or notebook if you have connectivity.

Here are the latest developments in the ZumoDrive world. 1. Yahoo! Mail integration – You can send any file or folder on your ZumoDrive with Yahoo! Mail.

1. ZumoDrive for Linux – I prefer cross-platform services so I can easily access and use them on any device. An alpha build of ZumoDrive for Linux is available for download. There are packages available for Ubuntu, Fedora, RedHat and CentOS.

2. Faster web interface – I don’t know what under-the-hood improvements there are, but the goal of the ZumoDrive team is to speed up responsiveness. Web uploads are now supported as well.

3. Proxy support – The latest ZumoDrive client for both PC and Mac will work if you’re behind a proxy and the client should be even faster than before.

As I’ve said before, ZumoDrive is well worth a look. So too is the “All My Mail” iPhone app from their sister company, Attassa. There’s obviously plenty of contenders in this space, so it may come down to personal preference and the services offered. Regardless of what cloud storage solution you use, I like to see the competition. It keeps these solutions maturing faster while I stay productive. Now when will we see mobile ZumoDrive clients for non-Apple devices?

Image Credit: PalmWebOS.org

Although I’m planning to get a Palm Pre handset next weekend in two weeks, I’m sort of disappointed in one particular feature. The phone only has 8GB of storage capacity and some of that is taken up by the operating system. I’m bummed by that for two reasons. My current everyday handset is the first-generation 8GB iPhone, so I’m not gaining anything in the storage department. Secondly, my current digital audio library is 9GB in size. That’s why I store my media locally and in the cloud: The music that I can’t fit on my phone can be streamed from the cloud. Currently, I’m using ZumoDrive for that purpose.

Call me crazy, but I think Amazon is missing a huge opportunity here and the best place to realize it is on the Palm Pre.

Let me backtrack a minute to set up this crazy scheme. When I bought my iPhone in July of 2007, 8GB seemed like overkill. I wasn’t buying much music back then so I never figured I’d have a space issue. But then I discovered Amazon with their DRM-free MP3 store. I actually hit their storefront every single day. It’s the first site I hit, in fact. Why? Because every day they offer a different MP3 album for anywhere between $1 and $4. I’ve bought more music in the last two years due to these deals than I did in the prior five. I really didn’t plan for that from a portable space perspective.

Fast-forward to today. We’ve already seen the Amazon MP3 app for the Pre. With it, you can purchase and download albums or tracks right on the device. I can’t do that today because of the way the MP3 store currently works. I have to be at a PC or Mac and use the Amazon MP3 Downloader application to get my music. But what if I didn’t want to download the music at all? Why couldn’t Amazon store it for me on their servers? Enter Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, aka: Amazon S3.

I’d love to see a combination of software and service that ties the Amazon MP3 store and S3 service together. What if that Amazon MP3 app for the Palm Pre gave you two options for your music purchase: download to device or store it on Amazon’s servers? Of course, the Pre’s media player would need to support streaming capabilities or you wouldn’t be able to actually play the music you have stored on Amazon’s servers. I suppose the other option would if the mobile Amazon application could connect and play the music. That’s not too far-fetched, assuming the application will allow for music previews before you buy. The playback function is likely already there.

The use of S3 with applications isn’t new. JungleDisk is a cross-platform backup client app that remotely stores your data on Amazon’s S3 servers. Using JungleDisk as an example, you can see that the cost of using S3 isn’t astronomical. You pay for what you use. In the case of JungleDisk it’s 15 cents per GB of storage per month while data transfers range between 10 cents and 17 cents per GB uploaded or downloaded.

While costs will vary based on usage and storage, I figure that this streaming model wouldn’t be much in my case, maybe two or three bucks a month. Heck, Amazon could even add 10 cents per track at the point of purchase and include storage and streaming services. There’s a few ways they could go with this.

The Pre gives them a good proving ground for this. It’s not an iPhone, for starters, and that’s important because there’s simply no way Apple would allow such an app on their phones. It’s just too competitive with what they currently do or potentially plan to do.

Palm and Amazon: If you’re listening, your best chance to really put the “web” in webOS is here now. Well not quite… it’s here on June 6th, but you get my point.

Although my toolset flips back-and-forth, I’m streaming far more music to my handset than I used to. Last summer I stumbled upon Simplify Media for this purpose, but lately I’ve opted to use ZumoDrive. Regardless of the solution, this approach gets around the smallish 8GB storage limit on my iPhone. ZumoDrive doesn’t require my computer to be on since all of the music files are stored in the cloud. However, Simplify Media is adding new features to their iPhone client that has me about to switch back for a while.

Simplify Music 2.0 costs $2.99 in the iTunes App Store and adds these new features for both the iPhone and iPod Touch:

• Search: Users can now search for artist, album and title across all connected computers as though it’s one giant library
• Favorites: Tag favorite music on the fly from personal libraries, or those of friends
• Playlists: Create an on-the-fly playlist for later enjoyment right on your phone or Touch
• Seek: Use the “scrub bar” to easily move forward or back in a streamed podcast or audio book

The software has always worked well for me: even on AT&T’s EDGE network. I like the artist biographies that Simplify offers as well, but that might be TMI for some of you. In any case, if you like what you see in the new release, I wouldn’t wait to purchase it. I hear that on May 14, the price is going up to $5.99: that $3 savings can add three more tunes to your collection.

Just a quick heads up that ZumoDrive has moved from private beta to public beta. Even better is the launch of a supporting iPhone application that I got to see early. It’s a nice complement to ZumoDrive’s hybrid cloud solution of backup and synchronization, and offers music streaming in addition to file and photo access.

The ZumoDrive folks took pricing feedback to heart as well. Gone is the flat $2.99 for every 10GB of storage: You’ll now see discounts for increased capacities. My full thoughts and impressions are available this morning over at GigaOm.

When I first heard about ZumoDrive, I almost passed it by. I figured that we’ve already pointed out enough file synchronization-type programs using the cloud by now between Live Mesh, Live Sync, Dropbox, SugarSync, etc. Then I saw a few distinctive features that made ZumoDrive a little different. I covered the two main ones in my short video demonstration, but if you missed it, I was impressed by these subtle touches: the ability to integrate MP3 files from the cloud right into iTunes and a way to mark a file for local storage as needed.

Not everyone uses iTunes, so perhaps the integration there isn’t important to you. It really isn’t for me either, but I find it impressive as a demonstration of what’s possible between cloud data and desktop apps. Having said that, let’s take a closer look at ZumoDrive’s service, which is more of an online storage solution than a true sync service.

I’m actually going to start with the pricing model because I find it good and bad at the same time. The good part is that it’s simple; the not-so-good bit is that the simplicity may make it cost ineffective as you need more storage. You’ll get 1GB at no charge to try ZumoDrive, which might be enough for basic data and some media files. If you’re going to synchronize a vast amount of data, however, you’ll pay $2.99 per month for every 10GB block of storage capacity.

So you don’t pay for bandwidth or transfers and the pricing is simple. The downside to me is that there’s currently no discount for higher storage amounts. It doesn’t matter if you want 10GB or 200GB; you’re paying the same flat $3 per 10GB. That’s not a problem with smaller amounts of storage, but even at 50GB, the difference shows. 50GB on Dropbox is $9.99 per month, while that same ten bucks nets you 60GB on SugarSync. ZumoDrive offers you 30GB for that same amount. The service and usability might be worth it to some, but if you’re a “cost-per-gig” watcher, this comes into play.

Like other similar services, there’s a client download and I like that the ZumoDrive supports both PC and Mac devices. In Windows, ZumoDrive sits in the system tray so you can easily access it or check your synchronization status. On a Mac, it quietly sits in the menubar.

One of the nicest touches is how ZumoDrive looks and acts like any other physical, removable drive. It shows as a Z:\ drive in Windows Explorer while it appears on the Mac desktop as a storage alias.

The virtual appearance of ZumoDrive as an actual drive makes it simple to use. Essentially it’s as if you physically installed a second hard drive or a removable USB drive in your system. You can add files or folders as you see fit and you start out with three default folders: Documents, Music and Pictures. All of these folders plus any other files or folders you add are stored on the ZumoDrive servers. That’s important to note because that’s different from a sync solution; in a case like that, all files and folders would be on all of your devices.

Instead, ZumoDrive behaves more like standard on-line storage, but with benefits. You can mark any files or folders to be kept as a local copy, for example. After all, you can’t access your ZumoDrive without a connection to the web and since the data isn’t synchronized across machines, you won’t have your info without using the offline feature.  You can also access your files in a web browser, so you’re not tied to a particular device. Like many other competing services, you can share files or folders for collaboration. You can even create instant photo albums for viewing on the web.

ZumoDrive is positioned well for netbooks because it adds data capacity that behaves like traditional removable storage, i.e.: USB drives or memory cards. It’s not complicated either, although you do have to keep track of what you’re storing locally when you use that feature. The drive mounting is nice but would be more useful if Windows saw it as a network location instead of a removable drive. In Windows 7, for example, I couldn’t save a backup to my ZumoDrive. This might be an issue with the Windows 7 beta, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Long story short: if you’re looking for on-line storage with a nice feature set, ZumoDrive is worth the look. As I said, it’s a private beta for now, but we have several hundred invite codes available to jkOnTheRun readers. Want one? Just hit up the ZumoDrive site and use the code: jkontherun when prompted. Or use this link. Get ‘em while they last!

The ZumoDrive folks are working on a supporting mobile application for both the iPhone and Android platforms. We’ll update you when we hear more on that front.

Today I’m taking a quick look at ZumoDrive, which is an online synchronization service in private beta. I’ll have more thoughts to share on ZumoDrive later this week. Why spend five minutes looking at yet another cloud-storage and sync tool? I’m impressed with the way ZumoDrive integrates cloud data and desktop client applications; I believe we’ll see more efforts on this front over the next year or two.

We have several hundred invites to the private beta of ZumoDrive, be sure to watch the video so you know how we’ll do that in a few days.

MoTR 160 is 19 minutes long and is a 17.4 MB file in MP3 format. CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly.

HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia)

TOPICS: Thoughts on the CrunchPad. Will it be a hit or a miss? Cloud synchronization services are filling up the sky. SugarSync adds Shared Folders in version 1.5. ZumoDrive warrants a closer look; especially for netbooks.

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