However, the system still only works with Gmail and the photo-sharing service Picasa. There's no mention of it expanding to encompass other Google services like Google Docs, for example. And there's definitely no mention of the seemingly mythical GDrive, the long-rumored online storage system supposedly under development which would allow for the upload of any file type for safe storage in the cloud. We're beginning to wonder: will Google ever offer us a real cloud storage solution?

Over on The Next Web, blogger Alex Wilhelm thinks the increased storage space hints at Google's future plans with their upcoming netbook operating system, Google Chrome OS. We have to admit, the same thought occurred to us as well. After all, netbooks don't typically have the same hard disk space as their larger, less totable counterparts. However, that's not always the case these days given the new middle-of-the-road offerings like the HP Mini 311, for example, which falls somewhere between an ultra-portable netbook and full-sized notebook with its 350 GB hard drive option.

But Alex has a point: by providing this type of cloud storage solution, netbooks can remain basic machines which are smaller and cost less. That would pave the way for the Google Chrome OS line of netbooks to be even more affordable devices than what's on the market today since they wouldn't need to come equipped with large hard drives.

Obviously, an OS-integrated cloud storage system of this nature would be a natural fit for Google's cloud operating system designed specifically for netbooks. And yet, it still seems to be an incomplete offering at this time.

But Still So Limited!

As much as we want to believe that the new changes are a sign of Google's plans for Chrome OS, it's just as possible that they're nothing more than the great discounts they appear to be. There's nothing all that new being introduced here - just better rates and more available space.

Sadly, the core storage offering itself is unchanged. It's still very limited, only encompassing Gmail and Picasa photos. What about the rest of our files - like the ones stored in Google Docs? What about our music and movie collections? What about the hundred or so of home videos we can't bear to delete from our hard drives? Google has no centralized solution for any of this yet. And many are beginning to wonder if they ever will.

In the tech community, there have been rumors about an all-encompassing online storage service called GDrive for years on end now, and yet, nothing has ever come of it. According to speculation (and wishful thinking), the supposed system would allow for the upload of all types of files and would tie together all of Google's services.

In our imaginations, we envision a dashboard that links us to our online Google Docs, our photos, our Gmail, our Google Sites, and our multimedia content. The GDrive of our dreams would be accessible from any computer, keeping in sync all our user data, preferences, and settings. You can see a hint of how this sync could work with the way the Google Chrome web browser stores your favorites. Your bookmarked sites are now available in the browser no matter what PC you use while a backup copy sits in Google Docs. GDrive should do the same, but not just for web browser favorites - for everything. That would be the final step for making a cloud OS a reality.

It's almost strange at this point that Google hasn't released something of the sort yet. In fact, they've let Microsoft beat them to the punch in this instance courtesy of Microsoft's SkyDrive service which launched back in early 2008. SkyDrive offers a free 25 GB of online storage for your files and also serves as the central repository for Windows Live Photos as well as the documents created via the new Office Web Applications service, Microsoft's challenge to Google Docs. But where's Google's answer to this? When will it come? Will it ever?

Perhaps the company is waiting for the release of Google Chrome OS to dazzle us with some sort of revamped interface for a game-changing cloud computing operating system. Or perhaps the company is just doing what it does best: offering solutions that are simply good enough.

Up until now, Dazzboard supported this to-and-fro between PC and mobile while also allowing you to upload to media sharing sites like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. Today, the company adds one more option: MySites, a web-based service offering an unlimited amount of cloud storage.

The first step to using Dazzboard is installing the software, which currently works only as a browser plugin (IE/Firefox) on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 PCs. The company has a Mac version in the works and will support Google Chrome once extensions come to that browser. A Facebook app and iGoogle gadget are also available.

From the web-based Dazzboard interface, you can easily move your files to and from the supported platforms and online services. You can browse, play, and organize your files which are organized into three categories: photos, music, and mobile.

For now, Dazzboard's focus is on the consumer market so for end users, the service is free. However, companies and brands wanting to use Dazzboard's API can do so if they're interested in sharing their content with website visitors or Facebook fans. Dazzboard simplifies the process of having that content pushed from web to mobile and handles the content's global mobile distribution for the brand. This service will be available for a fee and will help keep the consumer-level offering free.

...Now With Unlimited Cloud Storage!

With Dazzboard's new "Cloud Storage" option introduced today, you can upload files to MySites, a personalized homepage designed for file sharing. The MySites web service provides you with a custom URL (yourname.mysites.com), privacy control features, an RSS feed, and a multi-file upload option for sharing several files at once. After uploading your media, your page will feature the files and links to download and you also have the option to share the files using embed codes, Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking services (Delicious, Digg, Google and Reddit), and even mobile QR codes.

Unbelievably, MySites, a free service, has no upload limit, no file size limit, no resizing of the original file, no download limits, no speed limits, no nag screens, and no watermarking. You can play your content right from MySites as the service provides players for the different file types hosted there (video, music, etc.) The company also plans to offer a Dropbox-style desktop client and API in the near future.

Dazzboard does not have an iPhone application at this time and may or may not ever build one. Since iTunes essentially does the same thing for iPhones and iPods, it would almost be foolhardy for Dazzboard to try and compete with Apple or any of the other thousands of apps available in the crowded market that is the iTunes App Store. Instead, Dazzboard's focus is on the other mobile devices outside of Apple's ecosystem. That's not a bad plan. Although sometimes it seems like everyone owns an iPhone these days, the reality is that worldwide, their are still plenty of other mobile phones to choose from. Now those device owners can enjoy media on their mobiles, too.

Do You Need This?

Some people may think that backing up their cloud-stored documents is a somewhat unnecessary step to take. After all, the cloud, especially a service as robust as Google Docs, is often already being used as the trustworthy backup location for the local files created on your computer. However, those who use Google Docs as their only location for creating and storing files may be feeling that it's "better safe than sorry."

Although arguably safer than storing files on your own PC's hard drive, using just one cloud service for critical files can still be seen as a "single point of failure," to use I.T.-speak. Besides, considering what we saw occur with Twittergate (the attack on Twitter HQ where a hacker gained access to the company's private documents hosted on Google Docs), there's always the possibility that a malicious individual could gain access to your account and do terrible things...like wipe out your important documents just for fun or perhaps even hold them hostage for ransom! Maybe that's being overly paranoid, but if your files are really that critical, it's better to take the extra precaution just in case.

Of course, you could certainly perform this type of backup procedure yourself, but Gladinet saves you the time by automating the process. Plus, since it runs on pre-configured intervals, you don't have to remember to do it.

The new Google Docs backup feature is available in the Professional and soon-to-launch Premium edition of the software available for download here. Unfortunately, Gladinet is PC-only software at the moment, but the company reports a Mac version is on the roadmap.

After you install ZumoDrive on your desktop, you will see a new disk drive in your file manager. Once you copy data to this new network drive, it is automatically saved to the cloud.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach. Other cloud storage apps, like Soonr, Mozy, Syncplicity, or Microsoft's Live Mesh, integrate with your existing file structure and, depending on the program, put a stronger emphasis on backup or synchronization.

While it is quite handy to see the same file structure on your phone, netbook, and desktop, this also means that your files only live in the cloud. ZumoDrive keeps a cache of files on your hard drive, but that is only a cache and doesn't necessarily contain all of your files. If you are looking for a backup solution or an easy way to sync your folders between different machines, then ZumoDrive is not necessarily the best way to go.

Instead, we think that the best way to use ZumoDrive is in conjunction with its iPhone app.

iPhone App

If you are comfortable with the way ZumoDrive works, then its iPhone application (iTunes link) is a great extension to the service. The app features three different views: Files, Music, and Photos. The files menu lets you browse through all your files and folders on your ZumoDrive. The music and photos views present you with views that are similar to Apple's own iPod and Photos apps on the iPhone. It should be noted, however, that ZumoDrive will use up some space on your iPhone, as it creates its own local cache of your documents.

Pricing

ZumoDrive's original prices during the private beta were a bit on the steep side, but the company has now reduced its prices. You will still get 1GB of free storage and the 10GB 'starter plan' will still cost you $2.99 a month. If you need more space, however, then 25GB will now set you back $6.99, 50GB $11.99, and 100GB $19.99 per month.

Verdict

If you are mostly interested in saving and syncing office documents and accessing them from your iPhone, Soonr is currently a better solution (our review) - especially because it opens up documents faster than ZumoDrive and because it allows you to remotely print documents from within the iPhone app. However, if you are mostly interested in being able to access your music files and photos, then ZumoDrive is a better solution than Soonr.

Of course, there is also a whole range of other apps that bridge the gap between your mobile device and your desktop - and many of these programs have a larger (though also more specialized) feature set than ZumoDrive. If you are solely looking for a photo app, for example, we would recommend Phanfare's Photon (especially after this week's update of its iPhone app), and if you just want to access all of your music, then Simplify Media is still one of the best solutions (though you do have to keep your computer running at all times for it to work).

ZumoDrive is less powerful than these apps, but it does provide a good comprehensive solution if you want quick and easy access to more music and photos than your iPhone or iPod Touch could normally handle.

While you currently have to complete the registration on your iPhone, the central hub for getting started is really Soonr's desktop client, which is basic, but gets the job done. The client, which is available for Mac and Windows, lets you choose which files to sync to Soonr's servers and gives you an overview of how much online storage you have been using and the latest status updates. Soonr also provides a web interface that lets you manage all your documents.

The iPhone interface was clearly designed with the user in mind. A dashboard provides you with all the latest updates like newly added files and folders, or printed documents. You can also browse through your files and view them with a more traditional file browser.

One feature we would like to see here is the ability to bookmark folders that you often use, so that you don't have to navigate the directory tree every time you want to access a new file.

Finding and Sharing Files

While the file browser is useful, those of us with a large number of files on their computers will surely welcome Soonr's search function, which allows you to search inside your files.

Soonr also makes it incredibly easy to share files. You can share files directly with other Soonr users, or send an email or SMS with an invitation. You can also forward files as attachments to any email address.

One feature we would like to see here is integration with the iPhone contacts application. It would also be great if you could upload files to Soonr by forwarding an email to the service. That way, whenever you get a document that isn't natively supported by the iPhone mail client, you could access it through Soonr.

Remote Printing

Another useful feature of Soonr is the ability to print files remotely. The desktop client automatically discovers the default printer on your computers and the print job completes without any further interaction.

Verdict

Soonr is one of the most useful productivity apps we have seen for the iPhone. Some web apps like Syncplicity also let you access your cloud storage, but they can't provide the ease of use and compatibility with a large number of file types in the same way a native application like Soonr can.

In the long run, it would be great if Soonr would also let you edit files on the iPhone, but even without this feature, it's already incredibly useful.

As we pointed out in our initial review of the service, Wuala uses the computers of other users to store a large part of the data on the service. Users who share a larger part of their hard drives are rewarded with more cloud storage.

Web Interface: Great for Photo Sharing

The new web interface turns Wuala into a capable file sharing service, though it has a few limitations. We really like the ability of Wuala to work as a great photo sharing site thanks to the new web interface. It is also great for sharing public documents and videos. However, you can't actually manage your shared files from the web interface.

Wuala also lets you share files privately over the web by providing you with a 'secret' URL to your files.

Wuala is operating in a crowded market, with other services like drop.io or Box.net offering a lot of the same functionality without having to use a desktop application. Currently, Wuala's users are storing almost 30 million files on the service and this web interface is surely going to increase the popularity of the service. Whether that is enough to lift it over some of its competitors remains to be seen, however, as some users will surely have some privacy concerns about the distributed storage solution.

Windows in the Cloud

Given how many companies rely on Windows servers to run their business, adding support for this operating system makes good sense for Amazon. The pricing for these Windows services, however, is considerably higher than that for running Linux instances on EC2.

As Mary Jo Foley notes, Amazon will also attend Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference next week, which is interesting, given that Microsoft is also expected to unveil its own cloud computing platform at this conference.

Slicehost

Slicehost was founded two years ago and quickly became one of the more popular cloud computing and hosting companies on the Internet. Slicehost's offering are mostly complimentary to Rackspace's services and Slicehost expects to integrate Rackspace's new CloudFiles storage solution in the near future.

Slicehost also announced a number of new features, including the availability of larger 'slices' and lower prices for its high-end offerings.

JungleDisk

By acquiring JungleDisk, Rackspace is now supported by one of the most popular online backup and file storage solutions. Rackspace is planning to integrate JungleDisk into all its products, but it will also continue to support S3.

Challenging Amazon

With these new services, Rackspace is directly competing with Amazon's Web services. The JungleDisk acquisition and the new cloud storage services go up against Amazon's S3, while the Slicehost acquisition competes directly with Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud.

Thanks to its established user base, Rackspace is in a good position to challenge Amazon's cloud computing services and, if anything, it is good to see that the competition in this space is heating up.

Disclosure: Rackspace is a RWW sponsor.

Amazon will continue to offer the pricing under the "pay what you use" model where there is no minimum fee or long term equipment required.

According to Alyssa Henry, general manager of the Amazon Simple Storage Service, ""The growth of Amazon Web Services has allowed us to become even more efficient and further lower our operating expenses. AWS remains committed to passing savings along to our customers. Just six months ago, we announced a reduction in data transfer costs, and today we're pleased to pass new storage savings along to our customers."

But it's clear that this pricing change is more than a simple "pass the savings on to you" move by the company. Since the company formerly had a flat pricing plan, the new tiered pricing and volume discounts makes it clear that Amazon is looking to edge out their competition. The service now also looks more appealing to the enterprise who may have felt that, before, there was not enough of a savings to use cloud storage as opposed to host-your-own storage behind the firewall.

The new pricing goes into effect November 1st, 2008.

"CloudFS is the next step in our overall mission to provide the industry's most flexible and broadest range of hosting options -- from traditional complex managed hosting to cloud compute solutions," said Mosso co-founder Jonathan Bryce in a press release.

CloudFS launches today to a limited number of customers in free private beta. The private beta will last until the third quarter of 2008, at which time the service will open in a public beta. The target price at the time is $0.15/per gigabyte.