Living in the Cloud - no need for 8GB storage

[xorg]

Living in the Cloud means you access all of your content, including media, over the air, not needing to store much content on your phone. I was doing this successfully on my Pre but can do much more on EVO, especially thanks to 4G.

Dropbox - Allows you to access files on computer (any file type) from the cloud. If you edit a document/file on phone, it directly posts it back into cloud when finished. It is then almost immediately available to your other computers. You can take a picture/video or voice recording via Dropbox (in menu) and then it immediately posts it to your other computers. It's not for streaming though. I often use this to get files from PC to EVO instead of using USB connection. Download Dropbox on all of your home computers/laptops, setup and then get Dropbox client in Market. You start with 2GB storage free but can 5GB+ free or more with referrals. A must for power users.

Orb - Dropbox is great for documents and sharing files but it's not for streaming and you don't want to permanently store music/video there. With Orb, you can stream all of your media stored on PC at home - music, videos, pictures, files. This works great for audio/pics but to view high quality video, you need a good upload rate from your home ISP. You are not limited to size of SD card as you could access Terabytes of content from home computer if you have that much. Can also access TV tuner if on PC and webcam(s). The Orb client costs $10 on Market but you can also use the web version free on Evo via my.orb.com. Download server side software free from orb.com to setup the media access on your PC.

Grooveshark - Pandora and Slacker are great for genre specific radio but Grooveshark allows you to listen to any particular song/album. No need to store music on your phone. You can even set a cache (by GB) to store streaming music locally up to a point for offline/airplane mode. Get these in the Market. I think Grooveshark is doing a free trial for now. They used to anyway.

I have a Bluetooth car stereo so listen to music streaming from Orb/Pandora/Grooveshark. 3G is good enough for high bitrate music streams. 2G is even good enough for low bitrate music (Pandora has a high/low bitrate option and I think the Orb client auto adjusts).

Between these apps, I have no need for more than 8GB on my phone. Might need more for large apps, like games, but I haven't used up more than 3GB on my SD card yet. You might want to store some things that you need access to just in case you don't get wireless access on phone, which is rare these days unless on plane. Even WiFi is available on planes now if you want to pay for it or can find a trial code.

Battery drain will be more than if playing local media but in most cases, I'm charging while listening at work or in car - most of the time I'm streaming. It's not for everyone but I've been doing it for almost a year on Pre with good results.

Any other tools you use to 'live in the cloud'?

 

[pwnst_r]

Once data plans are truly unlimited then I'll think about it. Until then, nah.

 

[xorg]

^Not sure what you mean. Sprint is truly unlimited on EVO.

I should have stated, I typically use a bit over 2GB/month, maybe 3GB, and listen to music almost daily - though not much video. It does work out well. Try first and if it doesn't for you, then buy a bigger card. There's no cost to any of the options, unless you want the Orb app - though web-based client is free.

 

[vicw926a4]

That's great as long as you have direct access to the cloud, but for those times when it isn't, such as flying, or driving through dead areas, that falls flat in a hurry. I'll stick with my plan to pick up 32gb for my new EVO next month.

 

[badbradd2]

According to Grooveshark it costs $3 a month or $30 a year...NOT free. You have to be a VIP member.

 

[pwnst_r]

My only issue with groove shark is the very inconsistent audio quality. pandora and last.fm blow it away.

 

[xorg]

That's great as long as you have direct access to the cloud, but for those times when it isn't, such as flying, or driving through dead areas, that falls flat in a hurry. I'll stick with my plan to pick up 32gb for my new EVO next month.

I travel around the country often and usually don't have an issue. Sprint roams data on Verizon and others and even 2G is fast enough for music. For plane, I do have some music loaded but I also sometimes find a free pass for WiFi access on plane.

It's worked out very well for me over the past year on Pre, even better on EVO. Anyone else doing this successfully?

As far as Grooveshark, it was free on Pre and I used it for a while. Did end up buying a year. But an alternative is to use Orb and keep all your music home. Can get Terabytes of music that way, not limited to size of card.

 

[badbradd2]

But for Orb, in order to stream you music, don't you need to leave your computer on and connected to your network?

On grooveshark can I listen to an album by selecting it or do I have to physically make up a playlist with each song in that album?

I'm interested in Grooveshark...$3 a month is nothing.

 

[xorg]

Yes, for Orb, would need to have computer always on, which I do as a home theatre PC.

Grooveshark does let you select an album to play or you can add it to a playlist.

 

[Gekko]

rather than use Dropbox i like to use FTP and sync my Local C Drive Folder filled will all of my files back and forth from my PC and the Cloud and my phone and the Cloud. this can all be done for free and is all using open standards.

PC with filezilla<------------------>ftp.drivehq.com

Android Phone with AndFTP<------------->ftp.drivehq.com

Free Online File Storage & Sharing; Online Backup; FTP Hosting, Client, Server & Software; SMTP / POP3 Email Hosting; Remote Offsite Internet Data Backup. Free 1GB FTP space

FileZilla - The free FTP solution

FTP, FTPS and SFTP Android client - AndFTP

 

[Frankenstein]

I've been "living in the cloud" for a while now too, except video, so thanks for the orb recommendation. Is there a good way to rip DVDs to your computer? It has been my dream for a while now to transfer all of my movies to a hard drive connected to my home server and stream anywhere. Sounds like orb covers the streaming, so now I just need to get my 700 movies on my computer.

By the way, I personally think slacker blows away Pandora in both form and function.

 

[xorg]

^Cool. Thanks for the tip. You get more free storage from Dropbox though and they give you up to 5GB free with referrals, maybe more.

 

[badbradd2]

For the FTP option, I've though about this too, but do you have to play all of your files out of a parent directory, or is there an FTP client on Android that actually creates a nice user interface from your files ftp'd? If that makes sense haha.

 

[Gekko]

all of my personal files together are about 10MB in total. mostly Word and Excel files but i have a few photos etc. i try to keep it light and not be an "accumulator" or "hoarder". i hate clutter and i'm a minimalist so i only keep what i need.

also - i don't buy or keep mp3 files or video files etc. i like to stream all of my music directly from the radio station. i don't want to play DJ - i like the radio station to do it for me. also listening to current radio keeps me fresh rather than listen to the same shiit all of the time.

 

[Gekko]

For the FTP option, I've though about this too, but do you have to play all of your files out of a parent directory, or is there an FTP client on Android that actually creates a nice user interface from your files ftp'd? If that makes sense haha.

i have 3 Folders on my PC Desktop-

"Local C Drive Folder" (Primary Folder)
- "Personal" (Sub Folder)
- "Work" (Sub Folder)

filezilla and AndFTP do a great job with this and both have a great interface.

with a click of the button - filezilla sends my folders to the cloud.

 

[anon28322]

Dropbox downloads the content onto the phone....

 

[srkmagnus]

I've never really thought of keeping files in the cloud to access via the phone. some real good suggestions in here, thanks everyone for sharing.

 

[slighmd]

Plans here suck big time. I'm paying roughly $17 converted to usd and all the data i get is a measly 5mb. Im paying 800php per month, and data is 0.15php per kb.

 

[xorg]

One cool feature with Dropbox is that you can create a new picture/video/audio recording and when you take the picture or whatever, it directly sends it to dropbox, so it's then available to all of your PCs also using dropbox.

It's in the Dropbox 'menu'. Download Dropbox first to PC, set it up and then get the Dropbox client from Market.

 

[KenEBoy]

Ineresting. From what I'm reading you have to copy files to another server in order to access them?
I downloaded the Home Pipe app which does quite nicely to access file son my home PC. Issue is, the connection can't be established once the PC goes into sleep mode. Anyone know if there is a way to wake up a sleeping computer remotely in order to start streaming content?