2012 - Page 4 of 4 - Neil Turner's Blog

The technical superiority of Dropbox

December 23, 2024April 29, 2012 by Neil Turner

Although I’ve made a few edits to my SkyDrive vs Dropbox vs Google Drive blog post from last week, I haven’t gone into much detail about some of the more technical aspects of the services. Dropbox, being the more mature of the three, has some clever tricks up its sleeves which Google Drive doesn’t have, and SkyDrive also appears to lack too.

LAN sync

LAN sync is a DropBox feature that will share files between computers on the same network. If you have Dropbox open and signed in to the same account on two computers on the same network, and save a file into your Dropbox folder on one computer, then as well as uploading that file to Dropbox’s servers, that computer will also send the file to your other computer over the network. This is much quicker than the other computer waiting for the file to be uploaded to Dropbox’s servers to download it again, and saves on your bandwidth. Google Drive doesn’t have LAN sync, and I don’t think SkyDrive does either.

Sadly, LAN sync only works between desktop computers; if you save a file on your iPhone, it won’t appear on your desktop until your desktop has downloaded it from Dropbox’s servers, even if you have Wifi enabled on your iPhone.

Delta syncing

If you edit a file that’s already in your Dropbox, Dropbox will detect which bits of the files have changed, and then only upload those changes. Google Drive isn’t quite so intelligent and will just upload the whole file again. So if you have a 750 MB high definition video in your Dropbox, and change some of the metadata in the file’s header, Dropbox may only need to upload a few kilobytes (and other computers on your Dropbox account will only need to download those few kilobytes too). Google Drive will instead upload the whole 750 MB file again. Coupled with the lack of LAN sync, as mentioned above, that’s a lot of bandwidth being used unnecessarily.

Duplicate file detection

If you put two identical copies of a file in your Dropbox folder, Dropbox will detect that they’re the same and just upload one copy, but make sure that both copies are on its servers (note that both copies will count towards your total storage space). Google Drive will still upload both files regardless of the fact that they contain the exact same data.

Resurrecting deleted files

Dropbox keeps a file history going back 30 days, meaning you can recover deleted files and also revert to older versions of existing files. Google Drive doesn’t appear to let you revert file versions but deleted items go in a trash folder. But Dropbox is also clever about deleted files. Say you have a file in your Dropbox folder, which you then drag to the Recycle Bin; Dropbox will delete the file, but let you recover it on the web if you wish; but also, if you undelete that file on your desktop and put it back into your Dropbox, Dropbox will detect that the file was already on its servers and just make the file live again – it won’t need to upload it again.

Memory efficient desktop client

Client name	32/64-bit	Idle CPU Usage	Real memory usage	Virtual memory usage
Dropbox	32-bit	0 %	41.7 MB	56.6 MB
Google Drive	32-bit	1.5 %	61.7 MB	64.6 MB
SkyDrive	64-bit	0.3 %	17.1 MB	22.5 MB

I ran all three clients at the same time and compared their performance using Mac OS X’s Activity Monitor. SkyDrive is arguably the clear winner here – although it uses a little more CPU than Dropbox, its memory usage is tiny, and it’s the only one of the three to take advantage of OS X’s code operations for 64-bit applications. Google Drive is a hog by comparison, using almost 3 times more memory than SkyDrive and much more CPU – and this is whilst idle, i.e. not syncing files. Furthermore, this is despite not having the advanced features that Dropbox has.

Obviously Google Drive is new and it’s likely that future releases will reach closer feature parity with Dropbox, but right now, Dropbox is technically superior than Google Drive, thus working faster and saving your bandwidth. I haven’t looked into SkyDrive as much as I possibly should have and will revisit this post when I have more information.

Much of the information for this article is sourced from this post on Dropbox’s foums.

SkyDrive vs Dropbox vs Google Drive

December 23, 2024April 24, 2012 by Neil Turner

Back in December I did a quick comparative review of Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Dropbox, and basically declared Dropbox the winner. Things have changed since then – Skydrive, now known as OneDrive, has become much simpler, and Google Drive has launched (literally a few hours ago). So, it’s about time to revisit the subject of which is the best.

Storage space

If we’re talking free, then OneDrive is the clear winner here. At the moment, you can get 25 GB of space for free, although this is for a limited time only; if you don’t sign up before the offer ends, you’ll have 7 GB. But this still compares favourably with Google Drive, which offers 5 GB, and Dropbox, which offers only 2 GB (although it’s easy to get more, up to a maximum of 18 GB).

If you’re willing to pay, then Google’s cheapest package is 25 GB for $2.49 per month ($29.88 per year), Dropbox’s cheapest is 50 GB for $9.99 per month or $99 per year (but you still get extra space with referrals so you may get up to 82 GB), and Microsoft’s cheapest is £6 per year for an extra 20 GB on top of your free 25 GB, for a total of 45 GB. On this basis, OneDrive also wins for being the cheapest.

So, if it’s lots of space you’re after, go for OneDrive.

A screenshot of the announcement page for Google Drive

Desktop compatibility

If you want to be able to use your files on a computer, you’ll need to install a desktop client. If you use Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS X Lion, then all three services will cater for you. If not, then your choices are a little more restrictive.

If you use Linux, then Dropbox is your only option, as OneDrive and Google Drive doesn’t yet have an official client. Dropbox and Google Drive support Windows XP, but OneDrive doesn’t – although it is possibly to mount your OneDrive in XP using the command line, if you’re happy to do that sort of thing. OneDrive will also only work on Mac OS X Lion – earlier releases aren’t supported. Google Drive definitely works on Lion but I’m not sure about older OS releases.

Dropbox also seems to offer more features – files can be synchronised between computers over a LAN if they’re on the same network, thus making uploads faster between machines, and you can also enable ‘selective sync’ if you don’t want all of your Dropbox folders to be synced to certain computers. There’s also some extra options when you right-click a file, allowing you to copy a public link to that file in your Dropbox to share – OneDrive and Google Drive only offer this on their online versions.

On my Mac, Dropbox used the least RAM of all three – around half that of Google Drive. All three apps are 32-bit only, however, and do not take advantage of the performance improvements available to 64-bit apps on the Mac.

Dropbox is also very bandwidth efficient, especially when compared to Google Drive; if you modify a file in your Dropbox, only the parts of the file that have been changed will be uploaded, not the whole file as with Google Drive. Finally, Dropbox and Google Drive put indicators on each icon to show its status – whether the file has been synced or is being synced, and, on a Mac at least, OneDrive doesn’t do this.

Dropbox wins this round, for greater compatibility and more features.

Mobile compatibility

None of the three services officially support all four major smartphone platforms – iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Google Drive is, at time of writing, Android only, although an iOS app is in the works and should be available shortly. Dropbox has official apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, and there is an unofficial Windows Phone app called Boxfiles (which I believe costs a small amount of money to buy). OneDrive has official apps for iOS and Windows Phone, but no Android or BlackBerry client; although Browser for SkyDrive is a third-party Android app. So, chalk another win for Dropbox as it’s the only one that can be used on all four smartphone platforms, albeit unofficially on Windows Phone.

Web access

All three services are designed to help you move files between multiple computers, but what if you need to access your files on a computer where you haven’t installed the desktop client? Well, thankfully you can also access your files in any web browser on all three services.

Dropbox’s web access is basic, allowing you to do basic file and folder operations, view photos and movies and recover previous versions of files, but you can’t edit any documents stored on it. OneDrive and Google Drive both integrate file editors – Office Live and Google Docs respectively – so you can actually view and edit documents online. Unfortunately, files created in Google Docs on Google Drive can only be edited in Google Docs unless they’re exported as Microsoft Office or OpenDocument files, so even on the desktop, opening a Google Docs file will open your web browser.

All services allow you to search your storage, but Dropbox’s search is quite basic. OneDrive uses Bing, which should be more powerful, but Google Drive excels by including OCR support in its search, letting you search text inside image files, and image recognition, so it would recognise photos of the Eiffel Tower (for example) and allow you to search for these accordingly.

Security and Sharing

Google Drive is arguably more secure than Dropbox or OneDrive because it allows 2-factor authentication along with the rest of your Google account, so even if someone has your password, it’s almost impossible for that person to get access to your account. Note that all three now offer this (March 2014)

All three let you share files with others, and while Dropbox is the only one that lets you do this on the desktop as well as online, OneDrive will also share files with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace (although you can’t control which friends can access it). Google Drive similarly offers Google+ integration.

Google Drive and OneDrive also provide collaboration tools with other users; whereas Dropbox simply lets you share a file with another user, Google Drive and OneDrive will let others edit the file, track their changes and allow you to chat whilst doing it.

Third-party access

Dropbox has an open API which means that you can allow third-parties to access your files, such as ifttt, and also means that unofficial clients can give you access to your Dropbox. Google Drive also has an open API, but having only just launched means that there are only a few sites, like HelloFax, which can use it as yet. But, this does mean that unofficial clients for platforms like BlackBerry and Windows Phone are possible in the future. Similarly, OneDrive has an API which has resulted in the aforementioned unofficial Android client, as well as a plugin for Outlook, but there isn’t yet the breadth of apps which take advantage of the Dropbox API.

In summary

If you’re after a lot of space, go for OneDrive, as it gives you more free space than the others and extra space is pretty cheap. If you need to collaborate on documents, or regularly work on the web rather than on a computer where you can save files, then Google Drive and OneDrive are both worth considering. But if you want the greatest compatibility, and, in my opinion, something simple that just works, go for Dropbox.

Of course, all of these services are constantly evolving – and Google Drive only launched today – so this advice may well change in future. In the meantime, I’m personally sticking with Dropbox – and here’s my referral link for good measure.

(credit to Lifehacker for some of the information in this article)

Note that this article was updated on the 27th April to mention the SkyDrive API and the availability of an unofficial SkyDrive app for Android.

The Equal Civil Marriage Consultation

December 23, 2024April 8, 2012 by Neil Turner

If you live in Britain, and have an opinion on the proposal to allow same-sex couples to have a civil marriage, please go to the Home Office web site and complete their consultation questionnaire. It shouldn’t take any longer than 10 minutes to do, and will ensure that the Home Office receives a large number of views.

If you don’t yet have an opinion on the matter, have a read of my views, and then make your own mind up.

It probably won’t surprise you that I am very much in favour of marriage equality – allowing couples to marry regardless of their sexual orientation. My reasons are:

It’s achieving equality. Right now, depending on your sexual orientation, you can either have a marriage or a civil partnership. This isn’t fair – nobody chooses to be gay, straight or bisexual. It’s not a lifestyle choice. Having one set of rules for one type of people and another site for another type is discrimination, pure and simple. If, say, black people were banned from getting married and had to get civil partnerships instead, there would be outrage.
It will save the marriages of transsexuals. At present, if a man and a woman are married, and the man wishes to undergo a sex change to become a woman, then by law the marriage must be dissolved – even if the couple still love each other. It doesn’t even convert to a civil partnership – the couple would have to acquire that later, at an extra cost. To me, that’s totally wrong.

Some people seem to think that allowing same-sex couples to have civil partnerships is good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I think civil partnerships are a great idea, and their introduction in 2005 was a massive step forward for gay rights. For the first time, same-sex couples could have the same legal rights as different-sex couples, including the right to a civil ceremony that is very similar to marriage. But it’s not the same – it’s still one set of rules for one group, and another set for another group. This consultation will remove that distinction, and provide one set of rules for everyone, regardless of gender.

I do, however, feel that this consultation could go further. As it stands, the Home Office are only consulting on civil marriage – i.e. non-religious ceremonies. Even if same-sex civil marriages become legal – and I hope they do – religious organisations won’t be able to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies (although they can offer blessings as now). There are some religious groups out there, like the Quakers and Unitarians, who would like to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies if legally allowed to do so. I don’t think all religious institutions should be forced to marry same-sex couples, but those institutions that want to do so should be allowed to do so. If you agree, note this in the comments on the consultation.

And a final word. As you know, Christine and I are getting married ourselves next year. We’re fortunate that we’re a different-sex couple who love each other. I really hope that, in the future, my same-sex friends who love each other will be able to do the same. Please, do your bit and fill out the consultation. Thank you.

Distracted by a Pictionary clone

December 23, 2024March 23, 2012 by Neil Turner

A screenshot of the game Draw Something. The drawing is a crude depiction of a king on a throne and the word is 'throne'.

So I would have blogged more this week, but I’ve been spending my time playing Draw Something. I’m sure the novelty will wear off, and I sort-of agree with TechCrunch’s analysis – i.e. it sucks – but right now it’s rather addictive. The use of push notifications is a stroke of genius.

We probably all know by now that the game’s creators, OMGPOP, have just been bought out by Zynga, creators of FarmVille, for millions of dollars. Which would have probably been unthinkable merely a few weeks ago, when the game was only playable online and maybe only had a few thousand players. Then it launched on iPhone and Android, and suddenly millions of people have downloaded it. It’s currently the biggest-selling paid-for app on Apple’s App Store, especially now that it’s available for 99 cents (69p) for a limited time.

App of the Week: Osfoora

December 23, 2024March 14, 2012 by Neil Turner

I’ve reviewed several Twitter clients over the past couple of years, and just over two years ago I had a look at Tweetie, which was a freemium Twitter app for Mac OS X and at the time my preferred choice of Twitter client. The developer of Tweetie later got hired by Twitter themselves and with the launch of the Mac App Store last year came an official Twitter for Mac client based on Tweetie.

Until recently this was my favoured Twitter client on my Mac, but having used Tweetbot on my iPhone for some time I felt that I wanted a more powerful desktop Twitter client too. Osfoora had just been launched, so I gave it a spin, and I have to say I’m impressed.

The interface is apparently very similar to Twitterific, a veteran Twitter client that I’ve never really used before, but it’s also very similar to the official Twitter for Mac app so users should feel quite at home with it. I’ll therefore focus on what sets it apart from the official app.

Firstly, it supports the rather useful Tweet Marker service, which lets you bookmark your position when reading through your timeline. If you read every tweet in your timeline and use multiple devices (like a PC and a smartphone), Tweet Marker allows you to read some tweets on your phone (while travelling home on a train for example), and then pick up where you left off on your PC at home. Tweetbot also supports this on the iPhone. It’s a free service but donations are requested.

Moving on, as you’ll see in the screenshot, thumbnails of images in tweets are shown inline, so that you can easily see a preview before clicking them to view them full size. This is good as sometimes you’ll click on an image that looks interesting to find that it’s actually rather boring, or worse, an announcement that you’ve lost the game (sorry). Popular image services like TwitPic, yFrog, Instagram and Twitter’s own image hosting service are supported.

When composing a new tweet, you can include the title of the current song that you’re playing in iTunes by simply clicking a button, and like with the official client typing ‘@’ allows auto-completing of Twitter handles if you want to mention someone.

In terms of more advanced features, support for Read It Later and Instapaper is included, so you can save interesting links to these services for later reading. This isn’t as useful as it is on a mobile app, but I’ve still found myself saving links for later reading. You can also ‘mute’ specific usernames, in case someone you follow starts tweeting more than usual about something that you don’t care about and want a bit of a break. Conversely, you can also have tweets from other usernames highlighted, if you feel they’re more important than other tweets on your timeline. Unlike Tweetbot, Osfoora doesn’t yet support the muting of hashtags (which is useful when TV shows like X-Factor are on) or muting of clients (to hide tweets about what TV shows people are watching, what games they are playing or where they’ve checked into on Foursquare, for example). This would be useful to me.

Like most third-party clients, you get a choice of URL shorteners, rather than using Twitter’s own, although CloudApp is currently the only other one supported – no support for bit.ly, for example. Similarly you don’t have to use Twitter’s own image hosting service if you don’t want to.

Osfoora doesn’t yet support live streaming – tweets are refreshed on a schedule. However, this can be set to every minute if you wish, and support for live streaming should come in a future update. A nice touch is that a small message briefly appears at the bottom of the timeline stating how many tweets were received at the last refresh – although Osfoora also supports Growl notifications, I find this less jarring.

Finally, there’s support for multiple Twitter accounts, although each account gets its own timeline window. You can hide them though, or just use one window and use a keyboard shortcut to cycle through them.

Osfoora is £2.99 from the Mac App Store. It’s also available on iOS, but I haven’t tested it as I’m happy with Tweetbot at the moment.

Not so much leaping as groaning

February 24, 2024February 29, 2012 by Neil Turner

As I only get to do this once every four years, here’s the obligatory leap day post (see also posts from 2008 and 2004). I’ve not been able to any leaping today, or anything much at all actually as I’ve been ill with gastroenteritis since yesterday. I’m starting to feel better but almost all of yesterday was spent in bed.

The photo for this post is of a Steampunk recreation of K-9 from Doctor Who, called K-1909, currently on show as part of a Steampunk exhibition at the Bradford Industrial Museum. You should go – it’s free to get in, and runs until early May.

Coffee

January 2, 2024February 13, 2012 by Neil Turner

“Many consider complexity of circumstances and motives to be precious indulgences that can wait until a better world has been achieved.” ―Albert Murray ☕️ — *Photo by anokarina, under a Creative Commons License.*

When wanting to choose a photo for this post, I found that none of me 2500+ Flickr photos were tagged with ‘coffee’, hence the use of someone else’s photo under license. The reason for this is that I don’t drink coffee.

Or rather, I never used to drink coffee. But now I do. Occasionally.

Until now I’ve been that awkward person who, when asked whether I wanted tea or coffee, wanted something else like water or juice or hot chocolate or anything that wasn’t a hot caffeinated beverage. But as coffee shops have become more and more prevalent I’ve been curious to see if I really do still hate coffee.

In Starbucks, I’d been having their Frappucinos for some time – the non-coffee ones – and on a day when I was feeling particularly tired after an early start I opted for a caramel coffee one, hoping it would perk me up and wouldn’t have the bitterness that I hate about normal coffee (I also don’t like dark chocolate, or bitter ales, incidentally). Thankfully, it didn’t, and so step one of accepting coffee into my life was achieved.

The problem with blended drinks like Frappucinos are that they’re cold drinks. Great in summer, when it’s warm – or some semblance thereof, this is northern England we’re talking about here – but in the cold mid-winter the last thing you want is a thick, ice cold drink when you actually want to warm up. So, again, I decided to experiment – a caramel latte. And, it wasn’t bad.

So far I’ve had a few lattes, although not all of them a success (I won’t name the outlet that gave me a latte that frankly tasted foul, but bleurgh, I had the aftertaste in my mouth for hours afterwards). Next I may push the boat out a little further and try a cappuccino.

For those of you who are hardened coffee drinkers, it may seem bizarre that I’m only now discovering coffee in my late twenties. But sometimes, rather than assuming that just because you didn’t like something 10 years ago, you won’t like it now, it’s worth trying it again.

Chilly

September 26, 2024January 22, 2012 by Neil Turner

So yesterday was a bit cold, with a very strong wind blowing down the Calder Valley. Christine and I went up to Hebden Bridge for a bit of shopping, and to see Hugo at the Hebden Bridge Picture House.

The Picture House is one of two small independent cinemas in the area – the other being the Rex Cinema at Elland, which is geographically closer but a bit of an arse to get to by public transport. It’s a nice cinema, showing one film a day on weekday evenings and matinées at weekends, and usually the films are those that have been in mainstream cinemas some time previously, with very generous legroom. It’s also competitively priced with cheap refreshments, and serves an area otherwise not well served by cinemas – the nearest multiplexes at present are Bradford, Huddersfield or Burnley, which are some trek away.

Unfortunately the cinema isn’t in great nick – there’s quite a bit of work to be done to the building. As it’s owned by the local council, a recent council tax rise has been levied to pay for improvements. Its future is also potentially threatened by the opening of a multiplex cinema in Halifax in a few months time, which is a shame as it has a lot of character.

Hugo, incidentally, is a very good film if you haven’t already seen it.

Thankfully today’s been a little warmer and less windy.

10 years

December 23, 2024January 14, 2012 by Neil Turner

If I could go back in time and tell 17 year old me that in 10 years time I’d still be blogging, 17 year old me would probably be rather surprised. But here I am – 27 year old me is celebrating this blog’s 10th blogiversary. A whole decade of blogging. Wow.

When I did my ‘hello world’ post back on the 14th January 2002 I would never have imagined that I’d still be going now. Despite all the changes in my life over the past 10 years – moving to new places, going to university, getting jobs, finding the love of my life – this blog remained here. Sure, it’s changed a lot, but pretty much every blog entry I’ve made is still intact here.

So, happy birthday blog. Maybe you’ll even be here in 20 years time.