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Universal Online Backup for PCs, Macs, Smartphones and Tablets

IDrive is one of the few online backup services that offers backup not only for Windows and Mac computers but also for smartphones and tablets. IDrive has been a steady and constant innovator of online and mobile backup and at only $4.95/month for 150GB they offer a compelling service and now that you can backup as many devices as you want it makes IDrive even more interesting.

The complete news release is included below for your information.

Want to know more about IDrive online backup? Read our complete IDrive Review for more information.

Start Backing up with IDrive

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SugarSync 2012 Update Roundup

The SugarSync team has been busy in the New Year already with several new features here in 2012. They have announced updates to both the Android and iPhone/iPad apps and made enhancements to the public sharing of links for both free and paid SugarSync users.

SugarSync was the first app I knew of on Android that automatically synced your photos automatically from your Android device to your SugarSync account and your computers. Photos are only a part of the content you create on your Android device though, video is probably the second most common content you create. Getting those videos on your computer and backed up safely can be more time consuming than it should be. SugarSync has changed all of that now though with the ability to sync not just your photos from your Android device, but also your videos with AutoSync Video in the new SugarSync Android app. The new video sync only syncs when on wifi to make sure you do not go over any mobile bandwidth cap so no need to worry about using up your mobile data plan.

SugarSync also released a new iPhone/iPad app that will make uploaded photos from your iPhone/iPad easier and better. The best part is the new batch upload feature that allows you to select all the photos from your iPhone/iPad device that you want to upload and then tap upload and all the selected files will be uploaded. To make it even better it will be done in the background so you can go and tweet, play more Angry Birds, or do whatever else you want while SugarSync takes care of the hard work of uploading your photos.

Aside from mobile app updates, SugarSync has also updated their file sharing file size limits. Previously free users could only share files up to 25MB and paid users had a 2GB files size limit. Those limits have have been removed so people can share as large of file as they need to. Now those large home videos or large presentations can be shared with your friends and family. Public links still have bandwidth limits in place to prevent any kind of abuse. Free users have a bandwidth limit of 10GB and paid users 250GB, more than enough to share your files with friends and family.

SugarSync has been leading the way in the mobile apps with their ability to sync files from mobile devices to a SugarSync user account and their computers. It will be an interesting year to see how their apps continue to grow.

Want to know more about SugarSync? Read our SugarSync review for more information.

Start Backing up with SugarSync

Posted in SugarSync | Tagged android, ios, ipad, iphone, Sync | 1 Comment

Insync is GDrive

If you follow TechCrunch or LifeHacker you might have heard about Insync already. If you have not heard of Insync and use Google Docs or have been waiting for the fabled GDrive then you will definitely want to check out this service.

Currently only available for Windows and Mac operating systems Insync connects to your Google Docs account and will sync files between your computers and your Google Docs storage. The application and service is free and relies on your storage with Google Docs. Google gives you 1GB of storage free with your Google Docs and you can purchase more storage straight from Google. Pricing for additional Google storage is relatively cheap compared to Dropbox. To compare a 100GB Dropbox account costs $199.00/year. Additional Google storage for 400GB will only cost you $100.00/year! Google storage is shared between Google Docs, Google Picasa (Photos), Gmail and other Google services.

Insync is free and very simple to signup for with your Google account. Once you have signed in you can download the desktop application and install it on your Windows or Mac PC. I installed it on my old Windows XP machine and have been trying it out since I heard about it and have been impressed so far. The application will automatically download all of the files you currently have in your Google Docs folder. You can then edit those files on your local computer and they will automatically be synced back to your Google Docs account where you can edit them via your web browser. You can easy copy files into the Insync folder similar to your Dropbox folder and those files will automatically be stored in Google Docs.

You can manage multiple Google Docs accounts with one Insync application which is great for those people with multiple logins for Google. You can easily share files with others and control who has access to what files. With this being Google Docs you can also easily access those files on your mobile device.

Overall Insync is what many have been waiting for from Google as GDrive. If Google ever planned on shipping GDrive they should look seriously at Insync and possibly consider having them join Google. While there could still be some rough edges it certainly is more than we have seen from Google. One feature that would be nice is to be able to have the photos that are uploaded available in Google Photos and music available in Google Music (for those that can access it). While those features would be nice it is understandable why that is not possible currently since Google has different API’s for all their services and they cannot even get all of their own services to work together.

Insync is not specifically a backup service, it does offer some benefits for people wanting to use Google storage as backup. You could easily use a local backup application to create a backup of files in the Insync folder that would then sync to Google storage. Since Google storage is relatively cheap and Insync is now free you could easily maintain several versions of files in your Google storage. Insync is also great for downloading and backing up your Google Docs files. While I like Google Docs I feel much better being able to have local copies of those files. I have used Backupify to backup my Google Docs as well but the convenience of local copies is excellent.

Start Using Insync

Posted in Google | Tagged Insync | Leave a comment

Anniversary Giveaway!

Happy New Year and Happy 3rd Anniversary to OnlineBackupDeals.com! To celebrate the New Year and our 3rd Anniversary we are offering a chance to win a free year on online backup from our number online backup service, Backblaze, and a 1TB external hard drive.

The give away runs until the end of January and the more you tweet the more chances you have to win. We are using Rafflecopter to help run the giveaway so hopefully things will run smoothly. If you are new to Rafflecopter there is a video at the bottom of the post that shows how easy it is to use the widget to enter.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let the entries begin!

How To Enter Rafflecopter Giveaways

How to Enter Rafflecopter Giveaways from Rafflecopter on Vimeo.

Note: Backblaze has not sponsored this giveaway we will provide the winner with a gift subscription for the service. The 1 TB hard drive will be shipped directly to the winner.

Posted in Blog | Tagged contest, Freebie, Giveaway | 59 Comments

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to take a few minutes and say Merry Christmas! I will be taking a few days off here after this afternoon and spending some quality time with my family and some extended family. It has been an exciting and interesting year covering the online backup and storage industry and I am looking forward to continuing in 2012.

January will mark OnlineBackupDeals.com third anniversary and I am hoping to start January off with a few contests. I hope to post the details on January 1st so be sure to subscribe, like or follow us on your favourite social network so you find out about them.

I hope you and yours have an enjoyable Christmas season and unless I notice big news breaking during the holidays you probably won’t hear from OnlineBackupDeals.com until January 1, 2012.

Merry Christmas!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Merry Christmas | Leave a comment

Dropbox Version 2 for Android Released

I posted the other day that there was a preview of the new Dropbox app for Android available. Dropbox version 2 for Android is now available in the Android market so you can install the final version of the app now.

I have been using the preview version for a few days now and it has improved over the first version. I particularly like the new bulk upload feature, but I think I mentioned that in my previous post.

If you use Dropbox on your Android powered smartphone or tablet be sure to check out this new version.

You can install the Dropbox version 2 for Android from the Android Market.

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Free Online Backup Service, Backzup.com, Protecting Over 20,000 Computers

I cannot even sign up for Backzup because I have used the same email address with other Livedrive resellers.

I first heard about the company Backzup shortly after Backify came crashing down. Their launch press release is dated November 23 which was exactly one week after Backify was closed down by Livedrive. I did not even bother to post their launch press release here but wanted to post this one since the founder of Backzup indirectly mentions Backify. There has been some suggestions that Backzup is related to Backify in the comments. That does not seem to be the case after reading this press release.

While Backzup does not appear to be Backify reborn, it clearly is a Livedrive reseller. I cannot even sign up for the service with my email address since I have signed up with other Livedrive resellers in the past. While the 512GB of free space is a tempting offer for many and it is a large amount of space, larger than many other services, you need to wonder how they can afford to offer such a large amount of storage for free? The old saying “if it sounds to good to be true it probably is” comes to mind.

I would advise people that before signing up for any of Livedrive resellers to please be sure to read the comments on the Livedrive review page. If you are going to store your data with Livedrive why not just sign up with Livedrive instead of a reseller. Then you can avoid some of the whole Backify mess from happening all over again.

I will include the Backzup press release below for you to read and if you want to know more about Livedrive the service you would actually be using with Backzup read our Livedrive review for more information.

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Posted in Livedrive | Tagged Backzup | 2 Comments

New Dropbox App for Android Preview Released

If you use Dropbox on your Android smartphone or tablet and are a Dropbox user you might want to take a look at the latest release of the Dropbox Android app. It is not released in the Android Market yet so you will need to be able to install apps from other sources, but if you want to give it a try you can grab the app and install it from here.

This new version has been optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich but so far running it on Gingerbread seems to run fine for me. Here is a list of the new features from the forum post:

  • Favorites: quick offline access to files
  • Bulk upload photos and videos
  • Rename files and folders
  • Single-tap access to all file and folder actions
  • Improved gallery view
  • Upload from and export to local storage
  • Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

I downloaded it and installed it on my smartphone with Gingerbread installed and it seems to work fine. I have not tested everything out (thought I would come write about it and play later) but I like the new bulk upload feature. Something that was really missing in the Dropbox app previously.

If you give it a try leave a comment of what you think about it.

Posted in Dropbox | Tagged android, App, apps, mobile | 1 Comment

Carbonite Offers Tips to Keep Holiday Memories Safe

Carbonite is offering some good tips to remind people how to keep their memories of the holidays safe. Of course these are good tips to keep in mind all year long, but especially over the holidays. You can’t redo your babies first Christmas or the surprise of your kids when they open that special present that they had been asking for all year.

If you are like me you might not connect your devices to your computer very often to download the photos you have taken with your phone. If that is the case don’t forget to use a service like SugarSync or maybe even Google+ on your phone to automatically sync your photos from your phone to the cloud. While they might not be the perfect backup of photos from your smartphone it might help protect your photos you take.

You also might want to look into an Eye-Fi card for your digital camera. I have been looking at getting one to automatically download my photos from my camera to my computer. They are not very expensive anymore and could help save your precious photos to your computer easily.

The complete news release is included below for your information.

Want to know more about Carbonite online backup? Read our complete Carbonite Review for more information.

Start Backing up with Carbonite

Latest Posts / Deals about Carbonite

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Online Backup Gift Giving

With only a few days left until Christmas you don’t have much time left to get out there and buy your Christmas presents. If you want to avoid the crowds and the craziness of the stores an option that you do still have is to buy a years subscription to an online backup service for your friends and family. Thankfully there are some excellent options for giving online backup this holiday season.

There are three services that offer gift subscriptions that I know of, amazingly they are also our top three services:

Backblaze – If you need the easiest way to backup a computer for your friends or family member it does not get any easier than Backblaze. Perfect for those that might not be around their friends or family members computer to often.

Click here give Backblaze!

 

CrashPlan – If your friend or family member knows a lot about computers, runs Linux, has multiple computers or is the one that is often fixing your computer CrashPlan could be the perfect gift for them. With lots of control over backup they can make sure they backup exactly what they want to where they want. You can even save 20% on your purchase of a gift subscription making it perhaps the best deal of the three right now.

Click here to give CrashPlan!

 

Carbonite – With the new features recently released by Carbonite it is a great option for those friends and family members that land somewhere between the simplicity of Backblaze and the total control of CrashPlan. Unfortunately it is an option only available to existing users of Carbonite since you have to purchase it through your account.

Click here to sign up with Carbonite and gift it!

 

So if you need to get a gift and want to help make sure their computer files stay safe better go buy them an online backup gift subscription today! They will thank you if and when their hard drive dies.

Posted in Backblaze, Carbonite, Crashplan | Tagged Christmas, Gift | Leave a comment