Sticky Password Cloud 7 review: The ideal solution for password management across platforms

It's a multi-device world. It's not uncommon to have a work PC, a home PC, a smartphone, and a tablet, often with different operating systems. It's also an increasingly insecure world, where every week seems to bring news of a new data breach.

With more and more day-to-day work moving from the desktop to the browser, and the expectation of a seamless shift as you move from one platform to another, these two facts converge dangerously: A password shared among multiple sites means all of your data, and perhaps your entire online identity, is only as safe as the most poorly-secured site you visit. Sticky Password can help.

Sticky Password will alert you to passwords you might consider changing.

Sticky Password Cloud runs as a standalone application under Windows, but also integrates itself into multiple browsers. The user can exclude some supported browsers, if desired. It also has Droid and iOS apps, all of which can share a common database of passwords, memos, and so on, through your personal, albeit unfortunately named, StickyPortal. When a new device attempts to connect to the shared cloud data, a one-time PIN is sent to the email address used when you set up the account.

Sticky Password helps you manage dozens, or hundreds, of passwords. You don't need to remember a thing -- except your master password for Sticky Password itself, of course. While Sticky Password doesn't force you to use a different password for each site, it makes it very easy to do so. It recognizes (most) login or account setup screens, and if it sees something that looks like it's asking you for a password, it can generate one, including mixed case, numbers, and symbols.

Random passwords foil dictionary and pattern-based attacks.

Sticky Password integrates well with most major PC browsers. It appears as a clickable icon in the menu bar or status bar (depending on browser and preference), and thankfully does not add a toolbar. Support for browser upgrades is prompt. Sticky Password is very actively supported; the company recognizes that this is a vital utility to its users and, in my experience, reported bugs are addressed promptly.

An obvious downside is that if your Sticky Password database is lost (through catastrophic drive failure, for example), you may be in serious trouble. There are some solutions to this: You can do an export (plain or encrypted) of your password database, and store this in a secondary location (if it's not encrypted, it better be very secure). Further, it produces backup database files regularly. You can back these files up (or make sure your favorite backup program or service, such as Carbonite, includes them), instead of doing an export yourself. And, with Sticky Password Cloud, you can now sync your passwords across multiple devices, with the encrypted data stored remotely. The user is in control of if data is synced.

This is something each user must weigh carefully. Any time all your information passes through a single bottleneck, there's a risk. No matter how secure the servers are, there is always a chance of an unknown exploit being discovered, or a user error leaving an opening. On the other hand, failing to use unique passwords on each site opens up even more points of risk.

Sticky Password allows organization into folders, helpful for large databases.

Sticky Password Cloud adds in a few new features beyond the cloud functionality. Lamantine Software has added grouping for secure memos, improved support for import of bookmarks and passwords from additional browsers, and updated Sticky Password Cloud to the latest look and feel.

Licensing for Sticky Password Cloud is a bit unusual: It covers all devices for a single user for one fee, 20.00, which is good, but it must be renewed annually, which is less good. For those who are not multi-device users or who do not want syncing, there is Sticky Password Desktop, which has no time limits on its license, and no cloud functionality.

Lamantine Software donates a portion of Sticky Password Cloud sales to helping endangered manatees (Oh, the huge manatees!).

Keith Ramos

How often can you protect both data and aquatic mammals? Not often!

Sticky Password is a permanent part of my computing life. I have been using it day in and day out for two years now, and I have encountered only small issues, rapidly resolved. If you are using another password management tool, compare feature sets. If you aren't using a password management tool, you should be, and Sticky Password is one of the best.

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Maxthon 4.2 review: Browser integrates cloud functionality and multiple session logins

Maxthon Cloud Browser puts tight integration with multiple devices at the heart of its feature list. It also offers a number of utility and convenience features to enhance normal day-to-day Web use.

Maxthon allows you to open up a new session, permitting multiple logins to the same site.

The free Maxthon Passport account is how syncing and integration is handled. Setting it up is trivial—put in a name and a password, and reply to a configuration email. Once I did this, I was able to install the Maxthon browser on my iPad and import my bookmarks and open tabs.

However, this review is primarily about the PC version of the browser. Maxthon Cloud browser uses two rendering engines, Trident and Webkit, to handle both newer and older pages optimally. Speed is good, even on image-heavy pages.

Maxthon Cloud Browser has several built-in features that provide helpful utilities or enhancements. One such is “Reader Mode”, which can (on some pages—the option does not appear on every page) figure out what the main article you’re trying to read is, and then display it without ads, pop-ups, and other distractions. Another is the screen capture feature, which will take a shot of either the whole page (including that scrolled offscreen), or a selected region.

Maxthon in normal mode shows all the usual ads, buttons, and other decorations.

A new feature in Maxthon Cloud Browser is multiple sessions. This allows a user to log in to the same site with different IDs, which is helpful if you maintain multiple accounts for various purposes. As with most modern browsers, Maxthon also has a private mode.

On the negative side, I spent some time trying to get Flash to load and run properly. Even after searching the forums and trying multiple suggested solutions, it was not working. Eventually, I did get it to work, but only by uninstalling the browser and reinstalling it in the suggested default directory. Even though the installer program offers a choice of target directory, the altered path was not propagated through the configuration. The company stated that a fix is in the works and will be addressed in a stable release by mid-February.

In general, documentation is sparse; the forums provide the main venue through which information about features and functionality can be gained.

Maxthon's Reader mode clears away Web clutter to focus just on the main article.

Maxthon has a built-in ad blocker, but it works very sporadically as compared to the AdBlock plugin and similar tools. There is a fairly large selection of plugins and extensions available for Maxthon Cloud Browser, but many are not available in English language versions (so I couldn’t evaluate them), or are of limited functionality.

As is often the case with browsers beyond the top three or four, while Maxthon Cloud Browser has no glaring flaws and does a perfectly functional job of doing “browser things,” it’s hard to find something significantly unique/superior to the existing major browsers to make me switch to it for my day-to-day use on a PC. As with Opera 18, those who regularly move across platforms and need their environment preserved as they move from machine to machine may find it much more appealing.

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WD My Cloud review: A better, more secure alternative to cloud storage

I love the cloud. I depend on it. The cloud allows me to access my data from any device at any time; from anywhere I have broadband access. And I can share some or all of that information with other people: A boon to productivity when I’m collaborating with someone.

I’ve become so addicted to that flexibility that I’m willing to pay a subscription fee, even though I don’t trust the service provider to keep my information entirely secure. I never put anything sensitive in the cloud, such as my tax returns or other financial data. And I never rely solely on the cloud. I always keep backup copies on storage devices that I have complete control over.

WD’s My Cloud delivers the best of both worlds. It’s a hard drive that connects to my home network, so it’s as secure as I can make it. But I can access it from the Internet—from a PC, smartphone, or tablet—just like a cloud service. And I can create user accounts with passwords to allow family, friends, and colleagues to access specific folders, so we can share information (or media) and collaborate. I can also transfer files between the My Cloud and cloud-storage services, such as Dropbox.

Robert CardinWD's My Cloud NAS box delivers all the convenience of a cloud-storage service in a device that's completely in your control.

Hmm. My Cloud sounds a lot like WD’s My Book Live product line, doesn’t it? As it turns out, the My Cloud series is replacing the My Book line, and the new desktop and mobile apps WD is launching alongside My Cloud will also work with the older drives. But there’s one My Cloud feature you won’t find on any My Book Live: a USB 3.0 port that can host a digital camera for direct file transfers. Alternatively, you can connect a stand-alone USB hard drive into this port and expand the My Cloud’s storage capacity.

As with the My Book Live, you can also back up your PC to the My Cloud over your network. And the drive supports Apple’s Time Machine technology, so you can back up Mac clients, too. And unlike some NAS manufacturers that limit the number of free client licenses you get, Western Digital will back up as many computers as you’d care to connect to it (there are practical limitations, of course, based on the amount of available storage). If you’d like, you can mirror these backups on a public cloud service.

You connect a digital camera directly to the My Cloud's USB 3.0 port, or add an additional drive to expand its storage capacity.

WD offers mobile apps for the Android and iOS operating systems, which helps solve another problem many of us face: data fragmentation caused by having stored files on multiple devices. Install the apps onto your smartphones and tablets, and you can send all your media files over the Internet to your My Cloud. I just wish my digital camera was smart enough to support an app that could do that (yes, I should buy a Wi-Fi-enabled storage card).

Installing the My Cloud is pretty much a plug-and-play affair: It even detected my double-NAT’d router and configured itself to work under those circumstances without any intervention on my part. (I’m in a double NAT situation because there’s no retail alternative to AT&T’s U-verse gateway/router combo). When the Lab benchmarked the My Cloud, it delivered very fast file-transfer performance, reading a 10GB collection of files at 29.9 MBps and writing it at 21.4MBps. It performed equally well with a single 10GB file, reading it at an impressive 79.4 MBps and writing back to the drive at 62.1MBps.

The WD My Cloud delivers excellent file-transfer performance.

Moving beyond backup services, the My Cloud has an onboard DLNA server and iTunes support, so it can stream media to various entertainment systems in your home that also support DLNA or iTunes (I’m talking about smart TVs, network-capable AV receivers, and media-streaming boxes such as the Roku or WD’s own WD TV Live). Unlike Microsoft’s discontinued Windows Home Server 2011, the My Cloud cannot stream media to a client over the Internet. WD doesn’t provide BitTorrent support, either.

The My Cloud is very reasonably priced: The 2TB model reviewed here goes for $150, and WD offers a 3TB model for $180 and a 4TB model for $250. Relying on a single-drive NAS for backup or storing critical data is a little risky, however, since you stand to lose everything if the device fails.

WD mostly solves this problem with a feature it calls “safepoints.” A safepoint is a snapshot of the drive that can be stored on another storage device on your network or on a drive attached to the My Cloud's USB port. Should the drive fail, you can recover all your data—including all your backups of your client PCs and Macs—from the safepoint on a healthy drive. And once you’ve created a safepoint, the My Cloud can be set up to automatically create new ones at specified intervals.

WD plans to offer two- and four-drive units down the road. If the drives in these models can be configured as RAID 1 (where data is automatically mirrored), it will add another layer of data security. There is, however, one shortcoming to both of these solutions: No amount of redundancy will preserve your data if both your original and your backup(s) are in the same physical location that location is devastated by fire, flood, earthquake, or some other disaster.

The My Cloud Dashboard provides a at-a-glance update of the NAS box's status.

The thing is, very few other NAS manufacturers offer a solution for this problem, either (the new Drobo Transporter 2.0 is supposed to be capable of backing up to another Transporter 2.0 via the cloud, but the company has yet to send one for review).

And considering everything that the My Cloud does do, that criticism becomes a small detail. If you need storage that’s available from just about everywhere, and you don’t want to rely on a third-party cloud service to provide it, WD’s My Cloud is a brilliant solution.

Michael manages PCWorld's hardware product reviews and contributes to TechHive's coverage of home-control systems and sound bars.
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Review: IDriveSync secures cloud storage

IDriveSync Basic IDriveSync offers both storage and security in one, and it does so with an added level of security that its rivals don't offer.

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Cloud storage and security are two concepts that many people think are exclusive. But that's not the case with IDriveSync, a cloud storage tool that puts the user in control of security.

Once you add files to your IDriveSync folder, they are automatically encrypted and synced to your cloud-based storage space.

IDriveSync bills itself as a "sync and share solution,"and it's a good description. This software-and-service combo allows you to sync files across multiple devices, including Macs, PCs, Android, and iOS devices, and lets you share files with friends and colleagues. It also is accessible via the Web.

Once you install IDriveSync on your desktop, it adds an IDriveSync folder to your computer—and I like that it allows you to select the folder's location. You simply drag files to that folder in order to save them to your IDriveSync account, where they will be synced across all of the devices that you use to access the service. I also like it that IDriveSync saves the 30 most recent versions of each file, so you can go back and see what changes have been made.

IDriveSync has some handy features that anyone looking for a cloud storage service will appreciate. I like the different views that IDriveSync offers when you're browsing the content you've saved. You can browse by folder and file name, or you can use the Timeline view, which allows you to browse files chronologically, by the date they were updated. And with any photos that you've saved, you can choose to view them individually or using the Gallery view, which arranges them on a black background for a better look.

I also like the "Out of Box" feature, which allows you to save files to the cloud without first transferring them to your IDriveSync folder. This feature allows you to save files or folders directly to the cloud, where they will be stored until you need them—not synced across your multiple devices. This feature is handy for any data you don't need to access or update frequently.

IDriveSync makes it easy to share files, and encrypts everything you share.

But where IDriveSync really distinguishes itself is on security. All of the data you store in your IDriveSync account is automatically encrypted, and you can select the level of encryption. By default, IDriveSync uses 256-bit AES encryption for storing and transferring data. If you want to go above and beyond, you can opt for private encryption, where you set the encryption key yourself. With this option, IDriveSync does not have access to the key, which offers an extra level of security—but it also means that if you forget your encryption key, your data is gone forever, as the company cannot help you recover it.

You select your encryption level when you set up your account, and you cannot change this option once it's selected, so it's best to choose carefully.

The security offered by IDriveSync will appeal to users who have concerns about services like Dropbox, which has suffered from well-publicized security pitfalls. And IDriveSync's offering is more complete than what you get from Boxcryptor. That service lets you add an encrypted folder to a cloud storage service you already use, like Dropbox or Google Drive, but it's not a storage service on its own, and it doesn't offer the private key-level encryption that IDriveSync does. IDriveSync offers both storage and security in one, and it does so with an added level of security that its rivals don't offer.

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Review: Open Drive turns cloud storage services into one big file sharing network

Open Drive If you are looking for a document or a template, you would normally Google for it. But a lot of people keep these things on their cloud storage services, and are willing to share. Open Drive indexes them...

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You can keep your Google Drive files private, or you can use it as one huge file sharing network. Many Google Drive users allow public access to their files, which means that if they have a certain type of file that you also need, you can request a copy...if you can find it.

Ironically for a company whose core business is based around search, you cannot directly search for anyone else's files within Google Drive, nor can you look effectively for them using regular Google search either. Mcom Multicartes created Chrome extension Open Drive to provide a search interface for these public files so you can find them more easily and efficiently.

Open Drive's search can be slow, but its thoroughness more than makes up for it.

What's more, using Open Drive, you can also simultaneously search other cloud storage systems (such as Dropbox, SkyDrive, Evernote, and Box) and have those files sent to your Google Drive account. Depending on how many cloud services you are searching across, searching may take a few moments for the results to come back, so be patient.

Once you get your results, you can then do one of the following: download it, send a copy to your Google Drive, get a shortlink to the document (for say emailing, or sending to someone via IM), or simply open it and see what is there.

If you can't find what you're looking for, you can join Open Drive's Google Plus community and request what you need. If another member of the group has it, they can send it to you.

As with any search engine results, there's some dross mixed in with the gold. However, there is still a high success rate in finding relevant files. Searching across so many cloud services at once in the same interface, saving time and mouse clicks is so convenient it borders on amazing.

Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser.

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Review: BoxCryptor encrypts data in the cloud

You may be too concerned about privacy and security to leave naked files lying around on a remote server. That's completely fair, but don't let it keep you from using the cloud. BoxCryptor is a free Windows desktop app that creates an encrypted folder that can be placed inside your cloud storage folder.

Once you create the folder and assign a password, simply drag and drop the files you want protected into that folder. BoxCryptor instantly encrypts and protects them using the AES-256 standard. To unlock the folder and view your files, simply run BoxCryptor, navigate to the encrypted folder and enter your password. For more details, see "How to encrypt your cloud storage for free."

BoxCryptor works with Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, SugarSync, or any other cloud storage provider.

If someone attempts to open the files without the password, an error message will show. However, only the file contents are hidden: The file name and file format are still in plain sight. So for super-duper extra security, change the file name to something innocuous.

It's worth pointing out that once you set the password for the encrypted folder, it can never be retrieved or reset. If you forget the password, the files inside the folder are lost forever. When choosing a password, choose something complex but unforgettable.

Developer Secomba offers editions for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, and Windows RT as well. The free license is limited to one drive (and unlimited devices), but the $45 Unlimited Personal and $100 Unlimited Business licenses let you use as many computers and devices as you like. Secomba's comparison chart shows the differences between the different licenses.

Expatriate Scotsman now living in Wurzburg, Germany, freelance writer, frustrated future bestselling author, obsessed bibliophile. Other interests include trying to understand The Architect in the Matrix movies, decrypting codes and ciphers, and trying to persuade my landlord and my wife to let me have a Highland Cow for a pet.
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Keep your calendar out of the cloud with Efficient Calendar

When it comes to desktop calendar software on the PC, there is little argument that the big dog in the park is Microsoft Outlook. However, while Outlook comes with a hefty feature set, it also comes with a hefty price tag—more than most people would want to pay to schedule their time. Efficient Calendar takes the core calendar functions of Outlook into a standalone desktop application at a small fraction of the price.

The Calendar view shows your upcoming events at a glance.

Calendar events are very easy to create. You can specify the start and end times, control recurrence, assign a color-coded label, and attach or link documents. Comments can be entered in a full rich-text editor, and the labels can be easily customized if the provided default labels are not to your liking.

Similarly, the Tasks function is very robust—perhaps overkill for people just looking for a basic to-do checklist. You can set start and due dates, assign a status (such as "not started" or "on hold"), and specify how complete you feel the task is as a percentage. Tasks also have labels, attachments, recurrence settings, and rich-text comments like calendar events do.

The software makes automatic local backups of your calendar file, and the application moves your deleted events and tasks into a Recycle Bin folder, so you can recover something you accidentally deleted very easily.

The Tasks view shows the status of your currently active tasks.

The Achilles heel of Efficient Calendar comes down to data portability. As an Outlook substitute, Efficient Calendar can import and export Outlook-compatible CSV files. However, it does not import or export the much more common iCalendar format (*.ics) used by Google, Hotmail, Yahoo!, Apple, and a litany of others. It does not sync with any cloud calendar providers, which is great if you are anti-cloud but not so great if you need your calendar on your Android, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Efficient Calendar does, however, have a server solution that lets you share a calendar with mutliple users. The server itself is free, while the Network edition costs more to license than the Personal edition does.

If a Task or Calendar event is deleted, it gets moved to the Recycle Bin.

For the people who don't need (or don't want) their calendar on their mobile devices or on the Internet, Efficient Calendar is a great buy. For everyone else, the 30-day trial is fully functional and should give you an idea if the limitations are something you can live with or not.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Nathanael is a freelance writer who lives with his family in Caldwell, Idaho. Besides writing about software, he also specializes in eBook conversions.
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What’s the Fastest Cloud Storage Service?

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Microsoft, Chicago Agree to Deal for Public Employee Cloud Service

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New $250 Chromebook Brings ARM’s Biggest Processor to the Cloud

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Rumor: Apple Wants to Take Cable TV to the Cloud

Apple’s desire to move more concretely into the television arena has long been teased and whispered. Yesterday, even more rumors surfaced, claiming that the Cupertino company is talking to cable providers about developing a new type of set-top “cable-plus” box. Today, the Wall Street Journal outlined Apple’s alleged plans even further with a detailed description of the proposed capabilities for the Apple cable box.

The paper claims that the box is designed to “erase the distinction between live and on-demand content,” starting with a cloud-based DVR-type feature that stores full television episodes as they air and allows cable subscribers to watch any show from the current season on-demand. Separate streaming content deals could bring past seasons of shows to the Apple box. Theoretically, the Apple set-top box could bring you all the past and current episodes of your favorite show from a single, convenient interface.

Speaking of, the WSJ says that the set-top box’s interface could look identical to the icons used by Apple’s iOS devices. The company also allegedly wants to integrate social media into the mix and allow users to stream media from the set-top box to their iOS devices, sort of like a reverse AirPlay.

All in all, it sounds remarkably similar to what Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson he wanted to do with an Apple television:

“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

Of course, things aren’t quite that easy. Even if the rumor turns out to be true, the cable industry and content providers are said to be hesitant to agree to such a drastic change to the status quo — or to give Apple a foothold in the cable market at all. The specter of iTunes’ musical dominance looms large and the WSJ’s sources say Apple has yet to sign a deal with even a single cable operator.

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Navigate Your Cloud Storage Services With Otixo

Cloud storage is exploding. Old standbys like Dropbox and SkyDrive keep getting better, while new competition like Google Drive keeps things interesting. But with this glut of high-quality online file storage services, a new need arises: A way to tie all services together, find where you kept what file, and transfer files between services without having to re-upload them. Otixo is a $10-per-month service (or free plan with limited bandwidth) that tries to do just that.

Otixo lets you connect to numerous file storage services and browse them all using one simple interface.I've tested Otixo's free plan that allows up to 2GB bandwidth usage per month and is otherwise identical to the paid plan. To use Otixo, you must trust it with access to all of your file storage services, so I connected it to my Box.net, Dropbox, Picasa, and SkyDrive accounts.

Otixo is a webapp, so there's nothing to download. The interface is straightforward: A tree on the left shows all connected cloud services, and lets you drill into each service. To the right of the tree, a large table lists the files in the folder you are currently browsing. It's the same setup as Windows Explorer and most other classic file managers, really. One thing missing from the UI is a usage gauge: Each service has a different quota, and Otixo doesn't make it easy to see how much free space I have left in Dropbox or SkyDrive (for example).

Copying a file or folder between services is as easy as drag-and-drop: I clicked a folder in my Dropbox and dragged it over to my Box.net account. The transfer was not instantaneous, but it was smooth. Otixo shows a progress bar in the bottom-left corner explaining what is going on, and at the end of the process, I had a copy of the same folder in my Box.net account.

Speaking of "not instantaneous," that's something that could be said about the Otixo experience in general. When you first click a new folder, it comes up blank with a large watermark that says "Empty." Only after you wait a few seconds does the folder's content appear. So while the interface itself is reasonably responsive, this per-folder delay makes things feel slow, not to mention momentarily harrowing.

Otixo's other highlight is cross-service search, the idea being that you can type something like "*.jpg" into the search box and get a listing of all JPEG images you have stored across all cloud services. This did not work well for me: When I searched, results came up only from Dropbox folders I've already browsed. Not so useful, because if I already browsed the folder, I am probably aware of its contents. This is a Dropbox-specific issue and will be remedied soon, Otixo says.

While Otixo supports a wide range of cloud-based storage services, it doesn't support everything. For example, I use CrashPlan to back up my entire computer to the cloud, but Otixo doesn't offer a CrashPlan connection. Still, if you use more than one cloud storage service and are sometimes not sure which files are where, Otixo can come in handy.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can use latest version of this Web-based software.

--Erez Zukerman

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Adobe Creative Cloud: The Evolution of the Creative Suite

Adobe just revealed a much clearer picture of Creative Suite 6 (CS6), the next iteration of its industry-leading collection of graphic design, video editing and web development desktop applications. Concurrent to the announcement, the company also unveiled the new essential dimension to this suite of apps that it’s really making a push for: Creative Cloud, its new web-based subscription service.

Scott Morris, Senior Marketing Director at Adobe, said the company considered Creative Cloud to be “the next step in the evolution of Creative Suite.” In the same way that at launch, Creative Suite revolutionized Adobe’s pricing scheme and allowed users to purchase a bundle of apps for a much cheaper cost than making individual (and expensive) purchases for each app, subscribing to Creative Cloud opens the door to the complete collection of CS6 apps – including such familiar titles as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, DreamWeaver – along with real-time updates for each app as soon as they’re pushed out by Adobe.

The service will start at $49.99/month for individual users and includes all of Adobe’s touch apps (available on iOS and Android), 20GB of cloud storage, and Adobe Business Catalyst for publishing and hosting up to five different websites. Additionally, you can step up to a $69.99/month subscription on Creative Cloud to get “Apple Genius Bar”-like support features on Adobe’s apps.

Here’s how a subscription to Creative Cloud would work: You’ll be eligible to download every CS app, and you’ll get everything new that’s coming out every single time. But the catch is you can only install these apps on two machines, which you can’t use simultaneously, and your license will work for only one kind of system: either Windows or Mac. So if, say, you’re using a Windows computer at work and a Mac at home, you’ll need to get two separate subscriptions to get all your Adobe apps on both devices.

As mentioned, Adobe’s touch apps (Photoshop Touch, Kuler, Collage, Proto, Ideas and Debut) are also included in your Creative Cloud membership, but Morris says the ability to download the apps seamlessly onto your mobile devices without making separate purchases on iTunes or Google Play won’t be ready at launch. Instead, the company is making amends by giving away a month of subscription for free – a $49.99 value – if you purchase at least three of the touch apps while your Creative Cloud subscription is active.

You can pre-order a subscription to be the first to get Creative Cloud as soon as Adobe releases it.

These details come just ahead of Adobe’s announcement, to be headed by CEO Shantanu Narayen and slated for 10 AM Pacific Time today. The presentation will be livestreamed on Adobe’s launch site and replays will later be made available on tv.adobe.com.

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First Look: Nivio Cloud Software Service Is Promising, but Overly Complicated

Because Nivio is still in by-invitation beta, with elements such as a native iPad app not ready in time for this article, it's a bit premature to develop a formal opinion on Nivio. An ambitious attempt to adapt Windows--and Windows applications--for mobile devices, Nivio could turn into a powerful service, but right now it's just too darn complicated to use.

Even launching Nivio is a hassle. While the developers put the finishing touches on its iPad app (which I'm hoping will streamline the process), beta testers are directed to a third-party virtualization app, Wyse PocketCloud. Once you install it, however, you don't actually run it to use Nivio; rather, you open Safari and navigate to the Nivio website. (Nivio uses the Wyse technology behind the scenes to power its system.) Once you've logged in, Nivio brings you to a home page from which you can launch the Nivio Desktop app (which requires a second login).

Once you finally see Nivio's Windows desktop, you still have to hunt for the Office apps: All that appears on the desktop are shortcuts to nDrive (Nivio's storage service), nApps (a store with virtualized versions of desktop apps), Internet Explorer, the Recycle Bin, and a shortcut to Nivio's online help desk.

This Web page showing your Nivio files is one stop of many on the way to seeing its Windows desktop.

At the bottom of the screen, Nivio has added its own taskbar, with half a dozen icons whose functions aren't particularly intuitive. One icon brings up a pop-up menu linking to a file browser, a desktop-snapshot utility, help, and a disconnect command. An arrow-shaped icon turns into a virtual mouse, which helps you pinpoint small icons on applications (a lot of Office Ribbon icons are pretty tiny). Another icon summons the virtual keyboard, a different one zooms in on an area of the screen, and still another one relates to PocketCloud Companion (which apparently relates to the Wyse technology).

It's all very confusing, and none of it helped me access the Office applications. I finally found them listed in the folder you get when you tap the nApps icon; you can also reach them by tapping on an arrow at the right end of the Nivio taskbar, which brings up the familiar Windows Start button (which in turn lets you summon programs). But Nivio should consider simply putting shortcuts on the default desktop.

Nivio's service offers access to virtualized versions of several dozen Windows applications and applets.

Nivio's navigation tools (particularly the virtual mouse) are its concession to the problem of dealing with the Office Ribbon on a small screen, without a hardware mouse. Once you get used to the arrangement, it's a reasonable compromise, but I prefer CloudOn's decision to tinker with the Ribbon design in order to make icons large enough to use with a fingertip.

Nivio's version of Internet Explorer worked well on static sites--I was able to play a Flash-based bridge game that I couldn't log in to in OnLive Desktop's version of IE. But Nivio engineers say they haven't gotten around to optimizing it for video, and the clips I saw did indeed look jerky.

Admittedly, Nivio offers a larger selection of virtualized applications than the other cloud-based services I looked at; most notably it's the only one to offer the Microsoft Visio diagramming program. Because you can run Nivio on PCs as well as on mobile devices, accessing files on nDrive is easy regardless of what device you're working on.

But price may become an issue, as Nivio will charge subscription fees for the applications you use, on top of a monthly fee for use of nDesktop, its virtualized version of Windows. For example, Office use will run $15 a month, while individual Office apps will go for $7.50 a month. The company is making 10GB of nDrive storage available for free to all comers, but you'll have to pay by the hour for using nDesktop. Individuals can pay $5 per month for 10 hours of nDesktop use or $15 a month for unlimited use.

Until Nivio becomes simpler to use (and eliminates IE video problems), it's a tough sell at any price. But if it solves those problems, its growing application portfolio could make it attractive.

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Can Your Software Live in the Cloud?

If you've ever tried to work with a Microsoft Office document on a mobile device, you know that the traditional tools--mobile productivity suites such as Documents To Go and Quickoffice, or Web apps such as Google Docs and Zoho Office--are imperfect. They often lack features found in the native applications, or they mess up the document's formatting.

But several new services take a different approach to helping you do real work on tablets and smartphones: They run Microsoft Office or other productivity programs on remote servers, delivering to your mobile device a version of the traditional user interface optimized for the device's capabilities.

In a way, the three services I looked at--CloudOn, Nivio, and OnLive Desktop--are basically updated implementations of the thin-client concept that has been kicking around for years. (Remember Larry Ellison's New Internet Computer?) Though the idea was never a big hit in the past, the time may have finally come for that approach, thanks to the widespread availability of broadband Internet access and the rapid growth of devices that don't run Windows or OS X and have limited computing power.

All three services deliver the popular Office trifecta (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) to the iPad (some to Android devices as well). And all three have a Web-based storage component so that you can access your files anywhere (Nivio and OnLive offer storage as part of their service, while CloudOn integrates with Box.com and Dropbox).

They differ significantly in other ways, however. CloudOn delivers its applications (in addition to the Office apps, it has just added Adobe Reader and a universal image file viewer) in a spartan user interface of its own design. Nivio and OnLive Desktop, meanwhile, both provide a full-blown virtual Windows desktop, including versions of Internet Explorer that support (in varying degrees) technologies such as Flash and run sites that Safari doesn't.

CloudOn's user interface is the simplest to use. The latest release of CloudOn adds support for Adobe Reader and a universal image-file viewer.

At this writing, OnLive Desktop also offers Windows' Paint and Calculator accessories, plus Microsoft Surface Collage--a touchscreen-optimized app for turning the desktop into a digital photo frame with a slew of customization options. Nivio, which is still in invitation-only beta (you can get on the wait list at Nivio's website), offers a menu of apps to which you can buy monthly access. All three services say they are working to add more applications.

What Device Do You Want to Use Today?

The devices these services support vary. CloudOn, at this writing, runs on Apple's iPad, but the company expects to add Android (2.3 or later) support within a month or so. OnLive supports iPads and Android (2.3 or later) tablets. Nivio can run in any HTML 5-capable browser, but it offers apps for Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android (2.1 or later) devices.

You'll find differences under the hood, too. CloudOn and OnLive Desktop do all the computing on their servers. Enter a number in a cell in Excel, for instance, and the cloud servers crunch your data. The service then sends to your mobile device an interactive image of what you would see if you were running Excel on your desktop, a process that is sometimes referred to as pixel-streaming. The services' respective secret sauces lie in how they optimize the transmission of data, as well as in the adjustments required to operate a point-and-click application on a touchscreen.

Nivio is a bit more complicated. On an application-by-application basis, it determines which functions are more efficiently performed in the cloud and which are better managed by the mobile device, and then hands off processes accordingly. The company believes that this highly customized approach will ultimately enable superior application offerings and performance, but it may take longer to optimize some features. For example, Sachin Duggal, Nivio cofounder and "chief wizard," says that video performance in IE isn't yet what it should be.

Nivio's service offers access to virtualized versions of several dozen Windows apps and applets.

Subscription Fees Vary

Prices for these services, all on a subscription basis, are in flux. OnLive is offering a basic free service with 2GB of file storage and the core Office apps, but you can't run IE or access file attachments in email without upgrading to the $5-a-month Plus service.

Also, Microsoft has said that OnLive's service violates its licensing agreements. OnLive recently replaced the Windows 7 desktop with Windows Terminal Server, a move that Microsoft says is a step in the right direction. Microsoft says that the licensing negotiations continue; OnLive declined to comment on licensing issues. Whether any settlement with Microsoft might affect pricing is unclear.

OnLive Desktop's version of IE lets you see videos on your iPad that you can't view in Safari.

CloudOn and Nivio both say that they have licensing agreements for their hosting of Office apps. CloudOn is free for now, but Milind Gadekar, CEO and cofounder, says he expects to introduce competitive pricing soon. Nivio's website lists several plans that it intends to offer when it comes out of beta, all of which include free access to 10GB of file storage; basic plans start at $2 a month for 10 hours of access to its desktop service, and $15 a month buys you unlimited access. However, on top of that you must also pay subscription fees for the apps you use: For example, Microsoft Office access will cost $15 a month, and individual apps such as Word or Excel will run $7.50 a month.

People who are reasonably content using free Web apps to tinker with Office documents while away from their PCs may decide that they don't want to pay for these services. But if you're hoping to replace a laptop with a tablet (preferably one with a Bluetooth keyboard) without giving up the full functionality of Microsoft's desktop software--and if broadband access isn't a concern for you--these services are well worth a look. If nothing else, they might well prove to be an attractive alternative to commercial mobile office packages.

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Report: Google To Launch “Drive” Cloud Storage Service

Never one to  let others hog the spotlight, Google is getting set to launch a new cloud storage service, putting the search giant on a collision course with the likes of Dropbox and SugarSync.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the new service, which is simply called Drive, would allow users to upload and store their music, video, and other files to Google’s servers where they can later be retrieved from any web-connected device.

The service, the Journal says, will feature a smartphone and tablet app for mobile users, similar to those offered by the aforementioned Dropbox, SugarSync, and to a lesser extend Apple’s iCloud. Apple’s service is currently only available to iOS 5 users. In the report, the Journal cites sources familiar with Google’s Drive as saying the service will make it to market in the coming weeks or months.

Drive will in all likelihood offer users a certain amount of storage space for free. Users looking for more space will probably have to cough up some cash. The interesting thing here is that Google already offers some form of web-based storage for photos, videos, and documents via Picasa, YouTube, and Google Docs. What makes Drive special is it will be the first time Google allows its users to storage all of their files in one place.

Since cloud storage and mobile computing go hand-in-hand, we’re curious to see if Google will integrate Drive with its Android operating system. Could a cloud-ready Ice Cream Sandwich be on the horizon? We’ll just have to wait to see.

via The Wall Street Journal

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