Yesterday Google publicly launched Google Drive with an announcement on its Official Blog. Drive is a new service where you can store your files online in the cloud. Drive enters the market for cloud storage where competing options already exist — notably, Dropbox, SugarSync, Apple iCloud, Microsoft Skydrive, and Amazon Cloud Drive.

Google Drive offers more features than simply uploading and storing files to a directory in the cloud. You can store you stuff - video files, photos, Google Docs, PDFs, etc. You can also create, view, convert formats, make comments, index and search, collaborate on projects, and manage sharing with friends and family. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology allows word search of scanned documents. Accessibility options for sight-impaired Drive users enable the use of a screen reader. Google calls Drive a platform, making possible 3rd-party add-on apps for purposes such as faxing files or editing videos.

With feet firmly on the ground, access your Drive from anywhere – over the web, from your home or office, or using mobile devices. From Google Play, install Drive on your Mac or PC, or download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. (Not ready yet: Drive app for iOS devices.)

Current Google users will appreciate the Drive upgrade from the old Google Docs portal. Google users’ existing familiarity with Docs, and Drive’s integration with other Google Account services, make Drive a seamless transition and no-brainer choice for many Google users. The rollout of Drive for existing Gmail users and enterprise Google Apps customers will be automatic; but if you don’t have it enabled yet, you can request it.

Which way to the cloud? What does it cost? Which community cloud are you? 

Google Drive is free for the first 5GB of storage. Upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

Dropbox is free for the first 2GB of storage. (If you refer new customers, you can get 500MB per each, up to 18GB free.) Or select a plan: 50GB for $9.99/month (or $99.99/year); 100GB for $19.99/month ($199.99/year); plus you get 1GB free storage per referral for up to 32 new customers. Team plans and terabyte storage also available. (Given the comparison to Google, can we expect a price drop? Else you need to refer more customers.)

SugarSync is free for the first 5GB of storage. Or select a plan: 30GB for $4.99/month (or $49.99/year), 60GB for $9.99/month ($99.99/year) or 100GB for $14.99/month ($149.99/year). (Given the comparison to Google, can we expect a price drop?)

Apple iCloud is free for the first 5GB of storage, for the Mac OS X Lion and every new iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with iOS 5. Upgrade for an additional 10GB for $20/year, 20GB for $40/year, or 50GB for $100/year. iCloud also integrates seamlessly across the Apple platform. Remember the famous ads, ”Are you PC or Mac?” For mobility and the cloud market, the new question is ”Are you a Mac or Googler?”

Microsoft updated Skydrive this week too. You get 7 GB of free storage. Additional storage options are available with a Windows Live ID at $10, $25, or $50/year for 20GB, 50GB, or 100GB. Skydrive syncs files with Windows, Windows Phone, Mac OSX, and Apple iOS clients. (Note no Android app.) Developing target apps for OSX and iOS is now mandatory to stay competitive in the consumer market.

Last but not least, the Amazon Cloud is free for the first 5GB of storage, plus 1000 songs. Additional plans are available – including unlimited MP3 music storage for songs purchased at Amazon – per year for 20GB @ $20, 50GB @ $50, 100GB @ $100, 200GB @ $200, 500GB @ $500, or 1TB @ $1000. (Did you notice a pattern?)

A walk down Memory Lane

Gmail began in 2004, when the way to get an account was by invitation only. Back in the day, there was an open source hack/kluge, called “G-drive”. This version installed a virtual drive in your [Windows] file directory. You could drag and drop files onto G-drive, which sent email to your Gmail with the G-drive files as attachments. No longer do people need to email files to themselves. At last, in 2012, Google Drive is here.

The tale of the toothbrush and the cloud

On April 5, Larry Page published his letter to investors, “2012 Update from the CEO.” In it he reiterates and updates the Google vision. He describes the “toothbrush test” for Google products. Do we use Google products twice a day? Page’s metaphor intends to go beyond simply choosing Google as a favored brand to use twice a day. Page is describing how we create new habits and change our culture where no need previously existed. On February 27, National Public Radio aired a feature story [listen here] about the new book, “The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in Life and Business”, by Charles Duhigg. The story goes, in early 1900s America, people didn’t brush their teeth daily until a Pepsodent toothpaste ad campaign compelled them to want to have the appeal of clean teeth. Upon enjoying Pepsodent toothpaste, and flattered by the Pepsodent advertising, the American public changed their habits and began to brush their teeth.

Internet access is all you need to use a cloud service provider, such as Google. You should avoid email service that is dependent on your local electric, cable-TV, phone or internet service provider, because what happens to your account if move or change ISPs? Or hardware dependent, for that matter. Back to 2005, watching the destruction in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, I decided to have a cloud strategy for me and my family. I changed my habits to safeguard my data. You might move to the cloud intentionally, or it might creep up on you little-by-little for convenience. Cloud storage will help you organize the clutter or confusion of your data, and multiple versions of it, in too many places. Maybe a cloud drive will replace your thumb drive. Maybe even make obsolete the desktop computer. Your habits will evolve. Resistance is futile.

Kingston Digital Inc. announced this week that it was shipping the first 32GB microSDHC flash memory cards, which it has earmarked for business solutions and smartphone uses as our multimedia words get larger.

“The need for additional portable storage has grown as the mobile phone has transitioned from a simple voice device to a powerful multifunctional tool which is used to email, listen to music, take photos and watch movies,” said Mike Kuppinger, flash card product manager at Kingston. “Mobile phones are about more than just staying in touch as we also use them to take pictures at our kids’ sporting events, shoot videos on vacation and post to social media sites. An extra 32GB of expandable memory takes these capabilities even further.”

A 32GB microSDHC card is capable of storing nearly 29,000 photos, over 6,000 songs and more than 2,000 minutes of video, accoriding to Kingston.

The card is verified to work with the HTC Evo 4G, Shadow, Droid X, Blackberry Bold 9000, and Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.

LaCie recently announced a brand new product to its portable flash drive lineup called the XtremKey. This new drive offers industrial strength and guaranteed protection of your files in some of the most extreme environments.

Featuring a military tested Zamac enclosure; composed of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper, the device is practically indestructible and is tested to withstand drops up to 10 feet, endure 10 tons of truck resistance and can tolerate temperatures ranging all the way up to 392 degrees to as low as -122 degrees.

The list continues, with a fully waterproof design of up to 333ft, wear-resistant screw threads as well as a rubber O-ring to keep water and other materials out and if speed is the only thing your worried about, you will be pleased to hear that the XtremKey offers maximum read speeds of up to 40MB/s and 30MB/s write speeds, which is very good.

So even if you find yourself to be biggest klutz, you should never have to worry about dropping or somehow destroying an XtremKey flash drive and having it bust into a million pieces like a regular flash drive might.

With all these cool stats and claims LaCie throws out at us, I decided to actually go outside myself and put the product to the test. I witnessed some pretty impressive results from this product. First off, I threw it up a few feet and let it drop onto the concrete a few times. No physical damage was present and when I plugged the drive into my laptop, I was able to access my files no problem. Finally, I took a five-gallon bucket, filled it up to the top with water and submerged the product. When I unscrewed the metal casing, there was not a single drop of water inside.

Aside from the rugged design and strong build quality, the product performed no different than a regular 16GB flash drive. Files loaded on and off the device very quickly and I really like how when plugged into a Mac computer, the product displays an image of the device on the desktop instead of the regular drive icon. This makes the XtremKey really easy to find on a cluttered desktop. Another nice plus is that the company includes a two-year subscription of four gigabytes of online storage through Wuala.com as well as a two-year product warranty.

One thing I found that I wasn’t happy about is when the drive is plugged into the computer, it generates a lot of heat and since the drive is metal, naturally it acts as a conductor and retains the heat. As soon as I went to disconnect the drive out from the USB port, I noticed the product was almost burning hot and I wasn’t able to hold it for more than a few seconds without burning my fingers. I would have also like to have seen an LED light or something on the drive to show activity and that it is plugged in correctly. My final gripe is I wish LaCie had scaled down the end of the product since it sometimes can block access to other USB ports. Other than those few things, it’s a very solid product.

So is the XtremKey for you? If you are in the construction field or outdoors and need to carry your files, the XtremKey is a must. It is also great for people that misplace things often since chances are if you do happen to leave it outside in the rain, the product shouldn’t be affected. I found the XtremKey to work as advertized and I don’t consider it a bad value for the money. The XtremKey is available in eight, 16, 32 and 64 GB capacities ranging from $49.99 to $249.99.

Seagate calls their new Replica drive an “appliance,” and it’s a rare apt marketing plot.

You see, by 2012, Seagate and other research firms estimate the average household will store more than a terabyte of data, including videos, family photos, music, programs, vital documents and even homework. Currently, less than half of consumers back up their data.

People think they don’t need to back up their files, and others think it takes too much time. Still more people don’t know how to preserve their files.

That’s where the “appliance” comes in.

Seagate wants you to consider a backup drive int he same light that you look at your refrigerator or oven — an appliance with a single, vital use. And the company has finally made it easy.

We tested the Seagate Replica 500GB Multiple PC backup drive, and we were impressed. As soon as you plug in the drive, the device is ready to start backing up your files. We’re used to installing software and going through a little (a lot) of configuration, but Seagate’s just saying “screw it — let’s just back up the damn drive.”

It’s effortless. Every time you back up a drive, the on-board software overwrites the oldest versions of each file, so you can avoid clutter and a quickly filled drive.

The drive will quickly fill, however, if you have all your eggs in one basket. If you have all your videos and music and photos on your C: drive, the software is going to have you do a little work. That’s the one bad thing we found with this drive. A “mere” 500GB just doesn’t do it in the iTunes age, where every time you download a video, you’re getting a 500MB standard version and a huge high-definition version.

When this product is available in a 2TB setting — or more — then we can safely say we’re in the backup appliance age.

But assuming for a second that 500GB is enough for you, the Replica functions better as a single PC backup solution than a multi-PC solution. The included dock insinuates that you can put the drive on a desk and back up all your computers from there, but that’s useless if you have a desktop in your bedroom and another in the basement.

For a single PC, or a PC and a laptop, the automation of the Replica makes it easy to back up your system files, documents, and some of your multimedia files. As ease of use goes, the Replica is as good as it currently gets.

While the size does matter, the Replica is a great solution. The included recovery CD allows you to restore your computer to its original state, even if your internal hard drive fails. This function combines with the practical ability to drag and drop backed up files if you delete them accidentally from your PC. The Replica is a functional, useful tool, if not totally an appliance yet.

The 500GB Multi-PC version is available for $129. A 250GB single-PC model sells for $88.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced today that it is now shipping the world’s first, two terabyte, 7200 RPM hard disk drive.

The new 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 is a high performance, super-high capacity drive with a five-platter design and a 32MB cache and 3GB per second SATA interface.

“The new Deskstar 7K2000 reflects our ongoing commitment to provide customers, channel partners and OEMs with proven, reliable solutions for enabling desktop computers, gaming systems, workstations and desktop RAID arrays” said Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing of Hitachi GST. “At Hitachi, we continue to offer one of the broadest product lines in the world with a focus on delivering industry-leading hard drives that meet the reliability, performance, capacity and power needs of a variety of traditional and emerging market segments.”

Because every portable device we carry around with you says something about who you are — you know you judge every iPhone user — Iomega believes that your portable hard drive should as well, and from what we see, they seem to have delivered. The Iomega eGo portable hard drives are sleek devices, covered in anodized aluminum in multiple colors along with little shiny bits to further raise the eye-catching factor.

The eGo series comes in a range of sizes expected for a portable hard drive, between 250GB and 500GB. Iomega promises that the devices can survive falls of over four feet, which is quite decent, though I wouldn’t decide to test these limits on purpose. The devices are USB 2.0 powered, meaning you don’t have to carry around another power brick.

Iomega also included some nifty extras; the device comes with download instructions for McAfee VirusScan Plus to guard against viruses and malware (obviously useless to OS X users), a few backup utilities (slightly redundant for OS X users who know what Time Machine is), and a 2BG cloud storage with MozyHome. An extra all users can appreciate is a Y-shaped USB splitter that frees up the USB port that the hard drive is plugged into.

These are certainly great dad and grad gift ideas; they’re neat looking tools in a neat package.

Iomega, a company under the wing of local tech and storage giant EMC Corporation, announced Wednesday that they have released a New England Patriots-themed portable hard drive.

The Iomega eGo Patriots edition is decked out with the team logo above a 2.5″ 250 GB hard drive.

The tiny drive is a USB 2.0 product and retails for $129.99 at local retailers including Staples, the Patriots ProShop, and online at Patriots.com.

The eGo also comes with EMC’s Retrospect Express HD backup software, which allows automatic and on-demand backups of your files and drives. It works with Windows and Mac computers.

The Discgear Selector 100FX is a handy solution for keep track of your loose CD’s and DVD’s.

We’re in an age where CD-R’s are less than a dime a dozen and DVD and Blu-ray/HD-DVD -R’s are starting to show up more commonly. The Selector 100FX takes care of that by letting you throw everyone in one bin, label them and pick out what you need individually.

All you have to do is slide the lever over to the CD you want and it’s ready when you open the case.

The 100FX has a tubular design, doesn’t take up much space, (14.75″ x 5.5″ x 6.25″) so there’s no worrying about your precious desktop space.

There has never been a way to put 100 CD’s together more easily. I was very impressed with this Discgear selection.