Author: Clinton

While much digital ink has been spilled this week on the changes coming to Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service, there is one element of this announcement that I haven’t seen much discussion on in the course of these writings.  That’s not to say it isn’t out there, just not much of it.  That element is the view that the announcement was nothing short of a victory of Google and the Google Drive service.  It is a victory without them having to “dive to the bottom” on pricing to win.  They simply stayed the course and let Microsoft figure out that giving away unlimited storage is unsustainable.

For those who somehow missed what I’m talking about, earlier this week Microsoft announced big changes coming to OneDrive:

• The Free account goes down from 15GB of storage to 5GB and the 15GB “Camera Roll” bonus (you got it when you sync’d your photos with OneDrive) is eliminated
• Office 365 subscribers now get 1TB of storage, not unlimited
• the 100GB and 200GB storage accounts are going away to for new subscribers (if you have one of these you can keep it) and is replaced with a $1.99/month 50GB account.

These changes fly in the face of the much hyped “unlimited” storage offer that Microsoft made just last year and has angered plenty of people because, until this change, OneDrive was really the best value out there when it came to cloud storage.

That has now changed and Google Drive is certainly looking to be one of the more attractive mainstream cloud storage offers out in the market.

Google continues to improve the Google Drive mobile experience with their latest update bringing mobile notifications to file shares and the ability to share files with those who don’t have a Google account.  The updated version is currently rolling out to the Google Play Store so you may not see the update on your device for a day or two.  Once you do however, many of the share notifications that you could only get via email are not on your Android devices themselves.  It is just the latest in a long series of updates where Google continues to improve their apps on Android and slowly eliminating the need to go to various website to be productive.

Google Drive for Android – Free – Download Now

YouTube is going into the premium content game.  Well, to be fair, they were kind of already there but they are getting legit with the announcement of YouTube Red.  The new ad-free, $9.99 per month YouTube Red will be officially launched next Wednesday, October 28, 2015 and will bring with it the ability to no only enjoy YouTube Red ad-free but also will allow you to download content for viewing offline later.

YouTube Red is the experience fans have been asking for. For just $9.99 a month, you’ll be able to enjoy videos across all of YouTube without ads, save videos to watch offline on your phone or tablet and play videos in the background.

For those of you in the United States, you can try YouTube Red free for 30 days when it launches.  Here is the really good news:  If you are a Google Play Music Unlimited subscriber, you get YouTube Red subscription included.  So essentially you get both for $9.99 per month.

YouTube Red

If you are using a 1st generation Chromecast and are a Spotify customer, good news is coming your way today.  The latest firmware update to the 1st Gen Chromecast brings support for the music streaming service casting, something that the 2015 Chromecast users have enjoyed for a couple of weeks now.  Google made it clear that the update would be coming and it appears that it is finally here.  The update is rolling out to now so you can check your Chromecast app and see if it is available to you.  If so, reboot your Chromecast and the new firmware will be applied.

When we think of Google we often think only of their mobile apps for Android and iOS rather than their desktop apps with the exception being Chrome.  The reality is that the Mountain View company makes some pretty desktop apps that, while often utilitarian in nature, do a great job at what they are designed to do.  A good example of this is the Google Photos desktop app.  Designed for Mac and Windows, the app allows you to upload photos from any folder, drive or even a storage card to your Google Photos account.  Moreover, it gives you complete control of the quality of the uploads (High Quality or Original) so you can decide which will work best for you.  Best of all of course is that the Google Photos desktop app is free as we have come to expect from Google.

Google Photos Desktop App – Free – Download Now

Google Docs for Android has received a nice update today that brings with it several new and important features to the document processing app.  The update is version 1.4.412.07.30 for those keeping score at home and brings things like spellcheck and word count to the app amongst other features and improvements.  The update to the app is rolling out to the Google Play Store now so you should see it as an OTA update any time today or over the next couple of days.

If you have been considering moving from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, I posted a 4-part series on my move over.  It’s not for everyone but with improvements like the ones today, the transition is certainly getting more on par from a feature perspective.

My Migration to Google Docs Part 1 – The Setup

My Migration to Google Docs Part 2 – Google Docs on All The Toys

My Migration to Google Docs Part 3 – Between the Google Sheets

My Migration to Google Docs Part 4 – Sliding to Google Slides