Open Clouds for All vs iCloud for Apple products
Credit: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Tres Vance
With the release of IOS 5 and the subsequent record breaking iPhone 4S, I thought it was a great time for the return of the Androidiac. Full disclosure, I am an iPad 2 owner as well as having a rooted HTC Evo 3D. I upgraded to the Evo 3D this summer and I wouldn’t trade it for any other phone. Let’s get right down to it. The release of iCloud puts Apple in the marketing game known as the cloud. What does it do to the technology landscape? Put simply it is a series of synchronized apps that move data similar to a bus or transportation system. Your Mac or PC is a conduit for information not the center of your digital home experience.
The great drawback is that these features only work for and on Apple products. That’s great if you have only Apple products and work in an environment where you only collaborate with people using the same. If you don’t live in a walled garden then there are some alternatives for each feature included in iCloud.
The following comparison considers: iCloud Features VS Amazon vs Google Apps:
A.iTunes in the Cloud:
iTunes provides a way to synchronize multiple devices from the cloud to each device and vice versa. What it is not! It is not a way to synchronize from device to device. As described by Apple this allows you to store up to 5 GB for free “in the cloud” and then synchronize to your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It is an “Apple device only” solution to store and share your media.
VS
B.Amazon MP3 Store and Cloud Drive
It provides unlimited SPACE for music. It provides Client applications for Android, Blackberry, and Palm. It is a browser App for IOS. 5GB of free space is available for everything else including documents, pictures, and applications.
Winner: B.Amazon MP3 (Google’s Music is an invitation beta and was not considered)
A.Photo Stream:
Does the same for photos except that it will use WIFI to push the images to any Apple Device on your network
VS
B.Google Picasa
Cross Platform (all devices including IOS)
Winner: B.Google Picasa
A.Documents in the Cloud:
If the app you are using is iCloud capable meaning that as of this article is iWorks, you can synchronize documents to the cloud.
VS
B.Google Apps Standard (Free)
Google Apps allows you to synchronize Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Blogs, Google+, Twitter to every mobile platform and operating system including Apple devices. With native tools for synchronizing Microsoft Office and Outlook with Google Servers. Gmail can also import mail from separate systems and includes 7GB of space for email alone. Business users have 25GB for $50 per year.
Winner: B.Google Apps
A.Apps and Backup:
Replaces the iTunes device backup capabilities and moves them to the cloud.
VS
B.No comprehensive solution for Android or other platforms.
Winner: A.Apple
A.Calendar, Mail, and Contacts:
Imports all of these into a .me account using your Apple ID.
VS
B.Google Apps
See above. No question that Google Apps can also be labeled as “yourdomainhere.com” so even your company can use them. Apple iCloud is limited to Apple products and its own branding.
Winner: B.Google Apps
A.Find My Friends
These are Apps that let you locate people and things on a map. Friends and all things must be Apple
VS
B.Google Latitude
Winner: NONE this is just a horrible idea.
Tres is a researcher, information technology consultant/analyst, businessman, and contributor at entrepreneurweek.com blog network. He may be reached at eweekcomauthor@gmail.com.
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