References to GDrive Appear in Google Pack File

GDrive Reference

Some references to the long rumored Google service “GDrive” have appeared in a file used by Google Pack. The file categorizes GDrive as a Online file backup and Storage service and has the following description:

“GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.”

This is some pretty hard evidence that GDrive is indeed a reality but truthfully other than the fact that it will be done in Google’s own style the service will really only be an online storage service.

Currently the online storage service is chock full of competitors and even though Google will come in a bully them around a bit there is no indication to me that Google will do it right. To have a great online storage service you need to have some sort of desktop app. I can’t think of a single desktop application from Google that I would actually install on my computer. The only app that is even worth looking at is Picasa, but that is only because in the Windows world there aren’t any good free photo management applications and Picasa is the best option.

I know that everyone wants to look at Google as this big friendly company that can do no wrong but from what I can see, the only services that they built themselves that are worth using is their search engine and Gmail, everything else that I use (and probably most of you use) are apps that Google acquired.

I hope that Google can get it right, I really do, but from my perspective there really are no indications that they can do it.

First Official Description of GDrive.

Disable Automatic iPhone Backups

Everyone complains about how long it takes to backup their iPhone when syncing, (it takes a while for me to but I try not to complain too much). The first solution to this problem that I would suggest is taking some applications off of your iPhone, the apps on the phone the longer it will take to backup.

The second solution to this problem is to disable it through the command line. Before I tell you how to do it though remember that you will no longer have a backup of your iPhone on your computer, so if something terrible happens and you have to do a full restore you won’t have that backup to fall back on, all of your settings will be lost and all of the saved data from your apps will be as well. But, if you are willing to deal with all of that and you are still willing to go through with it here’s how to do it.

  1. Quit iTunes
  2. Open Terminal.app
  3. paste this into the window and hit return:

    defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

  4. Open iTunes
  5. Plug in your iPhone and sync to your hearts content

Changing “true” to “false” in the command above will turn backups back on.

Box.net Starts Mobile Version

I’ve heard of Box.net before and love its services but they recently released a mobile version of their online storage service. Brian from Box.net emailed me saying “The Box app allows users to access files stored on Box.net, giving iPhone users the ability to store and access Word, Excel and PDF documents.”

I tried it out by going to i.box.net and it works great. I put some pdf documents on it and they loaded up flawlessly for me.

I will mention that I tried to stream an MP3 from Box.net to my iPhone and it didn’t work, I don’t know whether or not I had an issue while uploading it or if Box.net doesn’t allow you to stream MP3’s but none the less it didn’t work (I figured I’d give that a mention).

Other then that simple issue I had with music it works great. Box.net gives you 1GB of free online storage and you can upgrade to up to 15GB for $19.95/month or $199.95/year. They also have plans for 5GB at $7.95/month or $79.95/year, but the free 1GB plan is plenty for me.

If you need a place to store just about anything Box.net is great but it is even greater if you need access to your documents on the go.