dslreports logo
 story category
Google To Debut Cloud Storage
'Google Music' to be Unveiled Today in San Francisco
Right on the heels of Amazon's new Cloud Drive service, Google is expected today to announced their own cloud storage service: Google Music. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Google will show off the service at the I/O conference today in San Francisco. The service is expected to initially offer more storage than Amazon, allowing users to store up to 20,000 songs without charge (compared to Amazon's 5GB or 2,000 songs). Like Amazon, Google is refusing music industry demands that these types of simple storage offerings require additional streaming licenses, which means some interesting legal fireworks are on the horizon. These services are also surfacing at a time where companies like AT&T are implementing usage-based billing, so it will be interesting to see just how well cloud storage and caps get along. Update: the Google Music URL has gone live.
view:
topics flat nest 
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned)

Member

Google Cloud storage?

Yeah, it's called GMail.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08

Premium Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

said by mob:

Yeah, it's called GMail.

This. I send so much stuff to my gmail account, mostly pics from my phone. Works good man.
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned)

Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

Exactly. I hate the tiny sms pics, so I try to send them as emails on wifi if possible.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon to mob

Member

to mob
I use Orb (free), which shares all forms of media/data from my home PC. Can have TBs of data access from phone or laptop. Between Orb and Dropbox, that's all you need to live in the cloud.

Jameson
Premium Member
join:2004-05-28
united state

Jameson

Premium Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

said by xenophon:

I use Orb (free), which shares all forms of media/data from my home PC. Can have TBs of data access from phone or laptop. Between Orb and Dropbox, that's all you need to live in the cloud.

Orb is not cloud
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

Basically Orb does the same function (for media) yet is only limited to size of storage on your PC. It's not a 3rd party cloud service, it's a personal cloud service. Since it does all forms of media/files, it's offers more than Amazon/Google cloud services.
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned)

Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

yeah, and I have a NAS that does all that + more on a 25/25 fiber run.
But I still use GMail to send big pics from my phone via wifi.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

Does your NAS have a transparent iPhone/Android app? Orb has a smartphone client that directly plays media from a personal media server.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska

Premium Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

Yeah, and it works like complete crap on both my android products. I've moved onto plex and playon instead. They work fine on my dell streak 7 and hd2. I do have music on the amazon cloud too. Orb lost me as a user.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

Yeah, I use Playon too... haven't tried Plex yet. Not having any issues with Orb though on Android.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska

Premium Member

Re: Google Cloud storage?

I started using plex once they released their android app. Did not seriously use them until they also released their roku app, which works very well. Better than playon for roku actually.

JasonOD
@comcast.net

JasonOD

Anon

Can't see this succeeding

Or at least it will be a bumpy ride. Look for:

1) Lawsuits
2) No one outside Android will support this (IOS, WinPhone7, BB, etc)
3) It's made by google, which = lack of trust, no support, and a likely crappy beta experience
talz13
join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

talz13

Member

Re: Can't see this succeeding

said by JasonOD :

2) No one outside Android will support this (IOS, WinPhone7, BB, etc)
3) It's made by google, which = lack of trust, no support, and a likely crappy beta experience

Man, that gmail has been a killer... so unreliable and unsupported. Google just can't do anything right, can they?
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9 to JasonOD

Premium Member

to JasonOD
said by JasonOD :

3) It's made by google, which = lack of trust, no support, and a likely crappy beta experience

It's called Google Music Beta. Karl forgot that piece of the service's name. I think Google will launch it a make a big deal of the service. True techies will embrace it and leverage the service. The mass populace will care less....especially if Apple ever launches its service. Depending on how Google employs the service, it could sync music off of Android devices into the cloud, in a similar fashion as it does with apps and settings. Users eventually may not even realize they're using Google Music Beta.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler to JasonOD

Premium Member

to JasonOD
said by JasonOD :

1) Lawsuits

They don't seem to have stopped Amazon from releasing their cloud service, nor do they seem to be a deterrent for Google and/or Apple (whenever their cloud-based iTunes lifts off).
said by JasonOD :

2) No one outside Android will support this (IOS, WinPhone7, BB, etc)

Nobody outside Windows Phones supports Zune streaming, nor do non-iOS devices support iTunes. Again, limited support doesn't seem to stop these software developments from operating.
said by JasonOD :

3) It's made by google, which = lack of trust, no support, and a likely crappy beta experience

Because Apple, Microsoft, and BlackBerry all scream super trustworthy, right? All mobile devices come with EULAs with sizes that could crush a small country, regardless of their manufacturer.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

Re: Can't see this succeeding

said by Thaler:

said by JasonOD :

2) No one outside Android will support this (IOS, WinPhone7, BB, etc)

Nobody outside Windows Phones supports Zune streaming, nor do non-iOS devices support iTunes. Again, limited support doesn't seem to stop these software developments from operating.

This is a non-issue; Google can just write an app for that. Most of the music I listen to on my iPhone is from an Shoutcast server, so I just use a third party app. The iPhone music player doesn't support Shoutcast at all, and Safari only has partial support (no support for metadata, no support for AAC+v2, etc).

The same can be said for other music apps like Pandora. You don't need to use the built-in iPhone app to play music.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Re: Can't see this succeeding

Well yeah, a third party can come in and make all the exclusivity moot. Or hell, maybe Google might continue to play the device-agnostic field and make it available to all mobile platforms.

I personally feel that Amazon MP3 will be going this route, as Amazon already has good footprints on all the mobile platforms already. it's just a matter of time before they implement the Cloud player into other platforms.
45612019 (banned)
join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

45612019 (banned)

Member

"Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 320k&q

What is this, the 1990s? What a useless service.

Lossless streaming or nothing, Google. Get on it!

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Re: "Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 32

We had nothing until Amazon fired the first shot w/ lossy streaming - and this wasn't all that long ago. Once ISPs quit crapping themselves over caps, then maybe we'll talk lossless. Right now though, I'll take more free online storage, thank you.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to 45612019

MVM

to 45612019
Why? Not even audiophiles can tell the difference between 320Kbps MP3 and lossless audio in blind tests, and the only reason to have lossless audio is to avoid generational deterioration when re-encoding. If you're streaming audio, particularly to a mobile device, there's no generational deterioration concerns, so lossless is pointless. In fact, streaming lossless audio is a waste of bandwidth, since you're blowing most of a megabit per second on the placebo effect.
45612019 (banned)
join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

45612019 (banned)

Member

Re: "Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 32

lol @ worrying about one megabit a second of bandwidth usage. Like I said, what is this, the 1990s?

I'd rather just set up a streaming server on my home connection. Yes, that's right. Most "civilized" areas of the United States have broadband connections available to consumers with upload speeds in excess of 1 mbit/s now.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Re: "Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 32

said by 45612019:

lol @ worrying about one megabit a second of bandwidth usage. Like I said, what is this, the 1990s?

I'd rather just set up a streaming server on my home connection. Yes, that's right. Most "civilized" areas of the United States have broadband connections available to consumers with upload speeds in excess of 1 mbit/s now.

You do know that having > 1 Mb/s from your home connection doesn't guarantee you have a > 1 Mb/s to your cell, or non-capped service, right? Unfortunately, capped/throttled mobile data providers are still a wide majority these days.
45612019 (banned)
join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

45612019 (banned)

Member

Re: "Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 32

So you're saying Google would be immune to throttling?

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Re: "Audio quality for streaming files can be as high as 32

I'm just saying that lossy service beats no service, that is all.

twaddle
@sbcglobal.net

twaddle

Anon

Cloud computing and CAPS

Cloud Computing for the consumer isn't going to fly for very far or very long in the face of CAPS.Waht good is having storage or apps stored remotely when you are penalized for accessing them and running the very real possibility of over-extending the sesnseless CAPS imposed by less than benevolent ISPs.
THere will come a point to where even the most desperate consumer will say no to the continual shift of business expenses to the catagory of surcharges. The Internet will be relegated to the elite few who can afford to use it. Never fear the golden goose called the Internet will be killed by capitalism at its worst..

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Cloud computing and CAPS

said by twaddle :

Cloud Computing for the consumer isn't going to fly for very far or very long in the face of CAPS.

I have a couple choices here. Take my collection of songs from all my old CDs and put the songs on my cellphone and home PC. Or put the songs in the Cloud(either Amazon or Google). This is a no-brainer. Put them on both. Access my songs from the device itself and no bandwidth charges are incurred. And have the songs in the Cloud for backup purposes in case my home PC self destructs or my house burns down taking the original CDs with the fire.
jjeffeory
jjeffeory
join:2002-12-04
Bloomington, IN

jjeffeory to twaddle

Member

to twaddle
Yawn... I agree with you, but I've been complaining about this for several years on THIS forum.

Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

Cloud problems

Recent Amazon issues show how cloud service can be unreliable.
Music or documents, I do not feel confident in those services, especially privacy.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Cloud problems

it is just as reliable as your home pc.

actually it would be more reliable.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler to Tomek

Premium Member

to Tomek
What problems? My music's still been up since Amazon released the service.

If you're talking about small hiccups, then honestly - I couldn't care. It's music, not missile codes. Being without my tunes for a few minutes, even a few hours, isn't life-ending. However, if you really want to see how to bungle up the cloud, look no further than Sony.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

The Site is Up (Kind of) For Those That Are Interested

If you want to take a shot at getting an invite, here ya go.

»music.google.com/music/u ··· vite?u=0

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

sivran

Premium Member

Hoping it'll be better than Amazon

Here's hoping it won't sort your music in the same brain-dead manner that Amazon CloudDrive does!