Dropbox is currently running a promotion that extends the available storage space for users who use the service’s photo import feature.

Storage space is increased in 500 Megabyte chunks by a maximum of 4.5 Gigabytes. For this to work, it is necessary to run the new Dropbox 1.3.12 client. This client is experimental and only linked at the Dropbox forum and not on the main site.

It is not clear if users will keep the additional storage space forever, or if it is only available in the beta period.

During this beta period, we are also offering additional free space to test automatic uploading of photos and videos. For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500MB space bonus, up to 4.5GB total.

It is however likely that users will receive the space upgrade permanently.

To receive the update, users need to upload photos via the new photo import feature. If you do not have that many photos on your camera, you could simply shoot a lot of photos, connect your camera to Dropbox to get the additional 4.5 Gigabytes of online storage space.

Some users have reported that the feature is not available on their computer, even after installing the latest experimental Dropbox client. It is not clear why it is not there at this point, but there seems to be no option available to force it to appear. Dropbox also notes that photo import is currently not working under Linux or Apple Macintosh 10.4 systems.

The photo import feature relies on Autoplay, which needs to be enabled. This is done under Start Menu > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > AutoPlay in Windows 7.

Check out the forum post and let me know if you were able to get the import option to work on your computer. (thanks Caschy)

If it works on your computer, you could use it to get an extra 4.5 Gigabyte of Dropbox storage. Not too shabby if you ask me.

DumpTruck is owned and managed by Golden Frog. Giganews users currently can log in on the Dumptruck website using their Giganews credentials. The Golden Frog developers plan to release smartphone apps to manage the account on the go to access the core storage itself.

The only interface is simple but effective. New files can be uploaded via drag and drop, or by selecting upload from the toolbar which opens the file browser where one or multiple files can be selected for uploading.

Files can be sorted into folders, or moved, copied and downloaded from the storage space. Uploading at the time of writing was not super fast though, it took for instance more than 10 seconds to upload a 1.6 Megabyte file on a 10 Megabyte per second upload line. Downloads on the other hand are faster, with multiple simultaneous downloads reaching all transfer speeds of 1 Megabyte per second and above.

Dumptruck has no file size limitations. It is perfectly possible to download a file with a size of one, two or even four Gigabytes to the storage service. All uploads and downloads, and stored files, are secured with a 256-bit AES encryption key to make sure that no unauthorized parties can access the files at any time.

Planned features, besides the ones already mentioned, include extra password protection, file sharing with friends, and desktop applications for Mac and Windows to access the files directly from the desktop (not WebDav).

The service is rather bare bones at the moment. Options to stop and resume downloads are missing, as are options to synchronize date automatically between devices. It is however likely that the developers will integrate at least some of the new features in the future. For now, it is basic web storage service.

The option to use WebDav or a third party application for access would change this significantly. It would make file management that much more comfortable. Still, it is another free useful service that is free of charge for all Giganews users.

Update: I have just been told that WebDav is already supported by DumpTruck. Information on how to setup the service under Windows 7 are provided on this page.

Support for WebDav is definitely a game changer. Users can now manage their files comfortable from the system file browser, and not solely from the Internet client.

About those events: Dropbox was in the news lately; The cloud storage hosting and synchronization service recently changed their terms of service to better reflect that they decrypt user data stored on Dropbox to comply with valid legal process and U.S. law. This currently affects about one user per month on Dropbox. Dropbox uses strong AES encryption automatically to encrypt all data transfers and data on their servers.

Dropbox came under fire earlier this month when a security researcher found out that Dropbox’s local authentication file was not linked to a specific system. Attackers could use the file on other compatible devices to sync all data from a Dropbox account without authenticating. What made matters worse was the fact that the access was not listed in Dropbox’s access history, and that changing the password did not invalidate that file.

And then there was Google who announced that they would close down Google Video for good. Users were given time to download their uploaded videos from the service for a period of about four weeks. After that, the videos and all stored information would be no longer available on the Internet.

These unrelated events outline two major cloud hosting dangers: Data availability and security.

Data Availability

Who would have thought that Google Video would be discontinued one day? Sure, it became pretty obvious after the purchase of Youtube, but before that? Closing down a service is an extreme but it happens frequently. You see services going down for a limited period of time more often than that. It recently hit Amazon’s cloud storage service which caused service disruptions for popular destinations such as Foursquare or Quora.

You may still believe that sites like Facebook will be there forever. Look at MySpace for instance to see that the logic is flawed. The site is still there but what was once the most popular social networking site on the Internet is now fighting for survival. If it goes down, so will data of all of its users.

Your consequence should be obvious: Keep a local copy of data that you hold dear. You can use backup software to store the data in save locations locally, for instance on DVD or an external hard drive.

Businesses should keep local copies as well, considering that a service disruption might otherwise cut them off from data that they need to run the business. So, instead of relying solely on cloud storage to store contact information, important documents or applications, they need to make those available locally as well to be prepared when the cloud service goes temporarily or permanently down.

Suggested Actions

• Local Backups and copies of data
• Regular backups or synchronization of data

Security

Data security is the second big issue that you need to address to protect your data in the cloud. Some users say, you should not upload anything to the cloud that needs to be kept secure and protected from third party access. While that’s a sound advice, it is not always as easy as that.

The next best thing is to make sure your data is properly encrypted. That’s on the other hand not possible in all scenarios. Sure, you can encrypt your data before you upload it to a storage solution like Dropbox or Microsoft’s SkyDrive. But you cannot encrypt videos that you upload to Youtube, or text that you publish on your Facebook wall.

You need to follow two different approaches when it comes to securing your data in the cloud. You encrypt what you can, usually files that you have direct access to. I suggest True Crypt for the job but you can use other encryption software as long as it is updated regularly.

I’m going to write a separate article on encrypting Dropbox data with True Crypt.

You need to evaluate data that you post in semi-public or public places, and data that you do not have direct control of once you have uploaded it to the cloud. This includes Youtube videos, wall posts on Facebook, a comment on a third party site or showing everyone your favorite artists on Last.fm.

You may have control over deletion on some services, but that does not mean that the data is gone for good. Someone may have read and liked your Facebook wall post or someone may have downloaded your Youtube video and published it on another video hosting site. You lose full control over your data as soon as you upload it to a semi-public or public place on the Internet.

There is not really a lot you can do once you have uploaded the data. Some services charge a premium to get data removed from the Internet, but even they cannot guarantee that every last bit gets removed.

Suggested Actions

• Encrypting data whenever possible
• Evaluate data before you post it online

Closing Words

Hosting data in the cloud can be very beneficial for individuals and businesses alike. The benefits have however overshadowed some of the dangers of storing data online. The dangers become more present as more and more people and organizations move to the cloud, and with news that put the focus on those dangers.

Every Amazon customer, even new customers without purchases, gets 5 Gigabytes of online storage. US customers who have purchased at least one digital music album on Amazon get 20 Gigabytes of extra space for the first year.

Mp3 files that are purchased on Amazon can be transferred to the cloud drive where they do not count against the storage limitations.

Paid plans are available starting at 20 Gigabytes and up to 1000 Gigabytes. Each Gigabyte sets you back $1 per year with no additional costs (which means no data transfer rates).

Amazon Cloud Drive appears to be browser based at this point in time, with no option to map the storage or access it via third party tools. Upload and download of data is handled via the browser interface. All data transfers make use of HTTPS and authentication.

The cloud storage is folder based with folders for documents, music, pictures and videos available by default. Users can create folders or subfolders to sort and organize files. I was not able to upload using Firefox, switched to Google Chrome and it worked without problems in the browser.

The uploads are handled in the background, it is possible to switch pages on Amazon Cloud Drive without interrupting the uploading or downloading of files.

Files can be moved, copied, renamed, downloaded or deleted once they have been uploaded to Amazon’s online storage.

US users can install Amazon’s Cloud Player for Web or Cloud Player for Android to play the music they have uploaded to the cloud. The web player supports all popular web browsers with the exception of Opera (officially). Both players can play mp3 and aac music files as long as they have no drm. Basic controls are available to select songs based on artist, title or album. It is furthermore possible to create playlists.

5 Gigabytes seems to be the standard free storage size that most cloud based storage services offer. Amazon Cloud Drive looks solid on paper, especially the pricing is attractive when compared to solutions such as Dropbox. Dropbox on the other hand is more flexible when it comes to accessing the storage space and transferring data. It is just not practicable to upload thousands of files, stored in multiple folders to Amazon Cloud Drive. Another missing feature is a file sharing option.

Amazon customers from the US, who purchase mp3 albums regularly are most likely to use Cloud Drive extensively, especially if they own an Android smartphone as they are then able to use the player on the Android phone to listen to music stored online. Plus they can use the Amazon Cloud Player to upload music from their computer more comfortably.

Everyone else is severely limited by the web-only interface. The Terms of Service contain several passages that could convince users not to upload files to the Amazon Cloud Drive.

You give us the right to access, retain, use and disclose your account information and Your Files

We may also restrict your access to the Service if we determine that your use of the Service violates this Agreement or substantially exceeds normal use by other users

While those appear to be common phrases in Terms of Services it is still scary to know that Amazon may access and use the files that you upload.

Here is the link if you want to try out Amazon Cloud Drive.

Chances are you are already entrusting this mystical cloud with your data by dropping it into the famous box, watching it skydive, uploading it with unseen simplicity or just backing it up securely with Mozy (ran out of metaphors on this one). The catch is, this fluffy “cloud” in reality consists of hardware that doesn’t come in lite or free versions, thus inflicting these otherwise great services with individual usage caps on free accounts, usually set at around 2GB with the exception of SkyDrive which has some other disadvantages, though. Of course, obtaining additional on-line storage with a paid membership is a decent choice… Until you familiarize yourself with the idea propelling Wuala.

Wuala takes a unique approach to secure online storage. After registering for a free account, you immediately get 1 free gigabyte of online storage managed through a convenient cross-platform client (JRE required). What? 1GB, are you kidding? Behold, this is merely the beginning. Obviously, if you are serious about full-scale online backup of the majority of your data or just need to store/share large files in a long-term fashion, 2 gigs just won’t cut it and Wuala’s 1GB won’t even cut through half. That is, unless you buy additional storage at competitive rates or, even better, begin trading your local diskspace for remote space.

Wuala doesn’t stop at simply storing user data in encrypted form on their back-bone servers. It boosts its overall accessibility, speed and reliability ahead of the competition using deliberate redundancy – by spreading encrypted chunks of received files over a vast network of peers who decided to become “pro” members merely by giving up an unused portion of their hard drive in exchange for secure online storage accessible from anywhere and due to the very nature of the system expandable to sizes never seen before with free accounts.

Who is eligible to participate in this storage-trading network you ask? Well, all you need is some spare space on your HDD, reliable internet connection and the ability to meet a requirement of staying on-line in the long term for at least 17% of the time. What if you fail to meet the last criteria later on? Don’t worry. If your on-line presence drops, you won’t be allowed to upload more until you match up again but you will NOT lose your data. Clearly, your disk space is of little use if it cannot be accessed at least now and then. Therefore, the calculation determining the amount of online space you receive in exchange for your local space takes into account two factors: amount of shared space and your online presence. Simple math tells us a realistic rate to expect would be somewhere between 170MB and 700MB for 1GB of your harddisk space, which is not bad, provided you have some spare gigabytes to pass around. I, for instance, have been online for about 35% of the time (and rising) since signing up a few days ago, thus earning a total of 8GB online so far for the 20GBs shared with the world. With my 0.5TB HDD half-empty, I’m aiming for about 100GB of online space in the future… Oh, did I mention Wuala keeps old file versions and lets you share uploaded files, create public groups or set up folders on your computer to be synced online regularly?

To make myself clear, I still don’t put full trust in the “The Cloud” with my data. I always use it to either mirror my data to remote storage for backup purposes or upload files of less importance with the mere intention of sharing/accessing them online. If your data is really valuable to you, never rely solely on remote storage, no matter how extremely safe and secure it allegedly is.

Got some spare gigabytes to share with the internets? Don’t hesitate to join in! Got more questions about security, privacy and sharing options? Check out the extensive FAQ.

The free software program SkyDrive Explorer integrates the Windows Live SkyDrive storage space in Windows Explorer. It will display a new SkyDrive Explorer icon in the My Computer menu after installation. A login to Windows Live is required to access the data that is stored in Windows Live SkyDrive. The program will automatically display the login window with options to store the login data for easier usage.

SkyDrive Explorer currently offers the following functionality:

• View the structure and contents of folders in SkyDrive.
• View files information (type, size, creation date in GMT format).
• Create new root folders and subfolders.
• Copy files into the storage.
• Delete files and folders.
• Copy files from the storage to the computer.
• Copy folders and subfolders from the storage to the computer keeping their structure.
• Use Drag & Drop for files operations.
• Rename files and folders.
• Create links to SkyDrive folders on your computer.

SkyDrive Explorer makes it easier to work with files that are hosted at the Windows Live SkyDrive service. It provides access to some features that are not offered by the web service itself including multi-file-operations like renaming, deleting or copying multiple files or folders. The standard Microsoft library for Windows Live ID services is used which means that the personal information are not passed to the SkyDrive Explorer engine. The traffic between the local computer system and the online storage uses the https protcol to protect against network snooping.

Windows Live SkyDrive Explorer is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The program executables can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

The concept of ZumoDrive is to move the data to a server on the Internet. The data is accessible like any other local folder on the computer or electronic device which makes it interesting for various things like hosting the music collection online. Local software like iTunes acts like the data would be local content.

The online storage provider ZumoDrive uses an algorithm to sync popular documents with the local device so that the data is available even in situations without Internet connection.

ZumoDrive keeps track of edited files providing access to older versions of the same file. It also makes use of a trashcan that can be used to recover – or permanently delete – files. Both of these options are available when logging into the homepage of the service.

The service is offering 1 Gigabyte of free storage space with the option for paid upgrades. An upgrade to 10 Gigabytes of storage space for example costs $2.99 per month.

ZumoDrive is currently in private beta available for Windows and Macintosh. Versions for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android plattform will be released soon. You need to enter an invitation code. The following one was provided by Techcrunch and is working at the moment.

OpenDrive is another service that enters the market which adds itself to the list of available devices in My Computer. It’s currently only available for Windows XP and Windows Vista users but a Mac version is in the making according to the developers.

It’s basically a remote drive that can be used to transfer and synchronize files with the online storage efficiently. One interesting feature is the ability to view links of the files in your OpenDrive folder that can be copied and send to friends and contacts immediately.

OpenDrive comes with basic security settings that allow the owner to manage the access rights of a folder. It can be set to be private, public or viewable to friends, family and contacts.

Users of BOXSTr.com can use OpenDrive without registering a new user account at the website. They can simply login with their BOXSTr user data and their files will be automatically synced with OpenDrive.

Users of the public beta get 1 Gigabyte of storage space which should be enough for most uses.