Category: Reviews

If you use a couple of cloud services, you’ll know the pain of managing files across them. I have some important files stored on my Dropbox account but I even have some documents on Google Docs, now here Otixo comes into the play and helps me in managing those files.

To keep it simple, Otixo is like Windows explorer for your files on the cloud!

Otixo Features

• Manage all your files on the cloud from a single dashboard.
• Otixo currently supports 6 cloud services including Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, WebTV, MobileMe and FTP.
• You can copy files from one cloud service to another, search for files on all cloud services at a time.
• Ability to download and upload files, additionally, you can also rename, cut, paste and delete the files.

Otixo on Desktop

If you don’t spend much of your time on browsing, then you might be interested in this. On Windows XP and Windows 7 you can map the network drive and thus manage the files directly from the desktop.

Here’s how you can do it on Windows XP –

• Click Start, open My network places.

• Double-click on Add network place.
• Proceed by clicking next and enter the network address as https://dav.otixo.com..

• Then enter your username and password to login and name your drive and you’re done.

For Windows 7 Users – Otixo has a tutorial on how to map the network drive on Windows 7.

The Big Question

The war between cloud services is getting hotter day by day, and now even Apple introduced its so called iCloud. The question is, will these cloud services allow Otixo to grow? Let’s take example of Dropbox, as it’s one of the cloud service supported by Otixo, it is indirectly supporting other cloud services (Box, Google Docs etc)!

I know, only time can answer this one.

Otixo in Action

Do try out Otixo and drop in your comments.

Cloud services are getting popular day by day, after all it’s the best way to backup, share and sync files. No doubt, Dropbox is a great way to backup and store your files on the cloud, but have you ever thought of an alternative? May be you haven’t, but Wuala is a good alternative when compared to Dropbox.

Security

After the Last Pass security has compromised, many people came to know about the danger of storing files on the cloud and I suppose this can happen with even Dropbox! But I bet this won’t happen with Wuala.  Files stored on Wuala are not available through its website, so chances of getting your files compromised are almost nil!

There are only two ways to access your files stored on Wuala, one is through the desktop app, second one is through the java app available on its website.

Free Cloud Storage

Wuala by default offers just 1GB of cloud storage, that might sound pretty less as Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage at the beginning (although they are some tasks that are to finished).

Like Dropbox you can always refer Wuala to your friends and gain free space up to 3GB. For people interested in paying for storage for premium needs, I found that Wuala plans are actually cheaper than Dropbox.

Uploading and Downloading Speed

Can’t comment on uploading speed, but Downloading speed is much better than Dropbox, reason is each file you upload to Wuala server has five similar copies of it, so Wuala downloads the file from five locations simultaneously and thus better speed (same technique is used by download managers). 😉

Collaboration

This awesome feature is completely missing in Dropbox. If you and a group of friends are working on a document (provided, all have Wuala installed on their machine) then with Wuala’s Collaboration feature you can edit the file and thus appear the same in your friend’s computer (just like Google Docs). You can notify your friends of the changes you made through the comments.

With Dropbox, the file cannot be worked on by two people at the same time but can be accessed by a group.

Local Cache

When you download a file or a folder in Wuala, it stores Download cache in its folder and this increases with time and thus can consume most of your disk space. Unlike Dropbox, in which cache folder is hidden, in Wuala you clear Download cache from the settings window.

Wuala in Action

Like Dropbox, Wuala supports many devices including Android, iOS, Windows, Linux and Mac.

I have migrated from Dropbox to Wuala, will you? Drop in your opinions!

Link: Wuala