Cloud Apps

The topics covered in the previous two chapters, Cloud Storage and Cloud Syncing, are mostly passive from the user’s point of view. Sure, you may drag a file into a folder, update a contact, or click a Share button, but for the most part, storage, sharing, and syncing are just “plumbing”—stuff that goes on behind the scenes without requiring much interaction. In this chapter, we turn to cloud-based apps with more overt user interaction, from productivity apps to entertainment.

To summarize the next few pages: almost any computing task you may need to perform, you can probably do in a cloud-based app.

I should point out that, when I say “cloud app” or “cloud-based app,” I don’t merely mean apps that run in your Web browser, although there are many such apps—and I mention quite a few of them in this chapter. For our purposes, a cloud app is one for which the bulk of the heavy lifting—the actual computation—happens in the Cloud. You’ll need some way to interact with them, and Web browsers are often the logical choice. But you might equally well use a client app on your computer, mobile device, or set-top box. The input/output method isn’t as crucial to cloud apps as where the “app” part happens.

Cloud-based apps are rarely the only way to accomplish tasks, and they’re not always the best way—but they’re getting better all the time. The major selling points for cloud apps tend to be:

  • Economy: It’s often less expensive over time to do something using a cloud app than to purchase local software that does the same thing. And when it comes to entertainment, it’s far less expensive to subscribe to an all-you-can-watch service like Netflix than to buy or rent individual movies or TV shows (but see Subscriptions for Everything, later, for more perspective).
  • Sharing and collaboration: Documents created online can be shared with others more conveniently than documents created on your computer. In many cases, multiple people can even edit a document at the same time, which is difficult to pull off when using local apps.
  • Compatibility: As long as you have a modern Web browser or the appropriate (and often free) app on your computer, mobile device, or set-top box, it doesn’t matter which operating system you’re using or whether all your software is up to date. Cloud-based apps have broader compatibility than their local counterparts. It doesn’t even matter if you’re using your own device or a borrowed (or rented) device—everything should continue to work the same way regardless of how you access it.
  • Online storage: The documents you create and media you consume via the Cloud need not chew up storage space on your devices; online storage is effectively unlimited. You should, however, take claims that the provider handles all the backups for you with a grain of salt—see Backing Up Stuff from the Cloud.

I won’t attempt the Sisyphean task of cataloguing every cloud app out there. But I do want to provide a rich set of examples to illustrate the types of cloud apps currently available and some of the ways in which they compare, and to make some casual recommendations for each of several major types of cloud apps. I’ve divided the discussion into two broad categories: Productivity Apps and Entertainment from the Cloud.

Productivity Apps

Let’s start with productivity apps—cloud-based tools for accomplishing day-to-day business tasks. Most of these examples use a Web browser for an interface, at least on Macs and PCs; in many cases, you can (and indeed must) download dedicated apps for mobile devices.

Office Suites

For the big three office tasks—word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations—there are many options. The following are all free in their basic incarnations, though the providers would be happy to take your money for extra storage, added features, or business accounts:

  • Google’s G Suite (including Google Docs for word processing, Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Google Slides for presentations, and Google Drive for storage, among other components) are perhaps the best known. They have just a fraction of the features in the Microsoft Office desktop apps, but they cover all the basics and make sharing and collaboration trivially easy.
  • Apple’s iWork for iCloud consists of Web-based versions of Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets), and Keynote (presentations). They all sync documents with their Mac and iOS counterparts, and allow real-time collaboration. Although the Web apps aren’t yet as full-featured as the Mac and iOS versions, they’re catching up quickly.
  • Microsoft Office Online includes Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, plus access to contacts, calendars, and Microsoft’s OneDrive online storage. While not 100 percent feature-complete compared to the desktop versions of the apps, they’re as close as you’ll find, and the very best choice in terms of compatibility when sharing documents with other Office users. Although the Web apps don’t work on iOS and Android devices, the free Microsoft Office mobile apps are roughly equivalent, and sync files with Office Online via OneDrive. Unfortunately, the mobile apps are read-only unless you have a paid Office 365 subscription (available as an in-app purchase).
  • Zoho Productivity Apps include Writer, Sheet, and Show for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively—plus Calendar and Notebook apps. The full Zoho suite contains dozens of other business apps.

Graphics Apps

If you want to paint, draw, or edit photos online, there are more choices than you can imagine. All of these are free, at least for basic use:

  • JGraph’s draw.io is a (Flash-free) browser-based tool for creating charts and graphs. Like Picozu, below, it even works in Web browsers on iOS and Android devices—no app required.
  • Janvas is an elaborate vector drawing tool you can use in a Web browser (no Flash required) or via an iOS app.
  • Photoshop Express Editor, Adobe’s online version of Photoshop, doesn’t look or act much like the desktop version, but it does contain a nice array of basic image editing features, all with a Flash interface.
  • Picozu uses HTML5 and CSS3 for a Flash-free, browser-based image editor with a respectable list of features. It works in iOS and Android browsers, too.
  • Pixlr Editor is a Photoshop work-alike that you interact with entirely in your Web browser (using Flash). Pixlr Express is a more limited image editing tool available both in a browser and as an iOS or Android app.
  • In the same general category as Pixlr Editor, SumoPaint is a Flash-based image editing and painting app with features and interface inspired by Photoshop. It works in desktop Web browsers.

Databases

For tracking and managing tabular data in more complex ways than a spreadsheet permits, you can choose from among numerous cloud-based databases, such as Airtable, Fusioo, and Knack. All of these offer easy-to-use interfaces and rich feature sets, including connections with many other products and services (often using Zapier as an intermediary; see Automation and the Cloud). I have no experience with any of these, but I mention them because they fill in gaps left by cloud-based office suites such as G Suite, iWork for iCloud, and Office Online.

Meetings and Screen Sharing

If you need to meet with a single person far away, a phone call or video chat is a fine way to do it. But what if you need to have half a dozen people in your meeting? Or give a live training session to hundreds? And what if you want all the participants to see not only video of your face but also a PowerPoint presentation, an app, or your entire screen? No worries—cloud apps to the rescue. Here are a few examples:

  • Face to Face Broadcasting (F2F), in beta testing at publication time, appears to have tons of potential. It offers free, instant broadcasting to up to a million people, live chat among the participants, and optional video recording and distribution via YouTube. The person who starts the broadcast can choose to show up to half a dozen other people on screen at once; share an entire screen, a single window, or just a browser tab; and manage the layout in real time. At the moment, the service doesn’t support Safari on the Mac (but does support Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera), and iOS devices can’t connect yet either (although an iOS app is in the works).
  • Fuze Meeting, a cloud service from FuzeBox, uses a free client app for each participant, supports multi-person video meetings, and lets users share an entire display or a single application from a local computer. You can also upload PowerPoint presentations and display them within the app.
  • Google Hangouts, much like Face to Face Broadcasting, let you have a multi-person video meeting with screen sharing (and optional live streaming and recording)—all without leaving your Web browser. The service is even free. However, participants do need to download and install a browser extension (or use a mobile app from Google) for full functionality.
  • You may think of Microsoft’s Skype as an audio and video chat app, but it can do much more, including screen sharing and multi-person video conferencing.
  • Zoom lets participants share any window or app—or an entire display—using client apps. The free version of Zoom supports up to 100 people in a meeting, each with live video—but meetings can last only 40 minutes or less. A Pro plan, with unlimited meeting length, costs $14.99 per month.

Other Productivity Apps

There are many other varieties of cloud-based productivity apps, and I wanted to throw together a little potpourri to give you a sampling:

  • ABBYY FineReader Online performs optical character recognition (OCR) on scanned or photographed images that you upload, and converts them to searchable PDF or to editable Word, Excel, RTF, or text files.
  • Evernote gives you cloud-based management of documents, Web pages, text snippets, and other content—accessible via a browser or native apps for nearly any platform. Your content syncs among your devices automatically.
  • Google Cloud Print lets you install an app on one of your computers that enables the cloud service to find, and print to, a local printer. For example, you can print to your own printer while you’re at a coffee shop; your laptop or mobile device sends the file to the cloud app, which then sends it to the app running on your computer at home, which then forwards it to your printer. This is but one of numerous cloud printing services. An increasing number of printers have built-in software to identify themselves to cloud servers such that you can accomplish the same thing without having to install any software on a computer.
  • LastPass is a password manager with features comparable to 1Password. But it’s unusual in that it doesn’t store your usernames, passwords, and other confidential data locally and then sync it via the Cloud; instead, everything is kept securely in the Cloud at all times, and you interact with it using browser extensions. Only the data you need at any moment is transferred to your computer.
  • Slack gives business teams and other groups a flexible platform for both private and public messaging, file sharing, and voice and video calls. Take Control authors, editors, and contractors use it daily, and it’s a favorite among programmers and other high-tech types. (Our own Glenn Fleishman has written two books about it: Take Control of Slack Basics and Take Control of Slack Admin.)
  • Trello is a fascinating project management system, available in a browser or mobile app. It lets you (or a group of people) manage tasks, ideas, and workflows using a simple metaphor resembling cards tacked on an infinitely expanding bulletin board, grouped into lists. (It’s free, so try it out—it makes much more sense once you use it.) To learn more about Trello, read Adam Engst’s article Trello Offers Compelling Collaboration Tool in TidBITS.
  • Workflowy offers simple yet elegant Web-based outlining and list management capabilities.

Entertainment from the Cloud

Cloud apps aren’t just about getting work done. They’re also great for play—watching TV shows and movies, listening to music, and playing games. In a typical scenario, the cloud app provides an interface for choosing content and controlling playback (or gameplay), with everything streamed live to either a Web browser (on a Mac or PC) or an app (on a mobile device or set-top box).

Some providers go out of their way to work with manufacturers and make apps available for every conceivable platform. For example, if I wanted to watch a show from Netflix, I could use the Netflix app built into my smart TV, Apple TV, TiVo, or Blu-ray player. Or, I could use the Netflix app on my iPad (optionally displaying the show on my TV via AirPlay), or view the show in a browser on my Mac. That’s six ways I can access the same content (though some platforms are better than others—for example, the Apple TV supports a higher resolution and offers a better interface for Netflix than the other options listed here).

Nearly every TV and cable network has its own cloud service and apps. In addition, you can buy, rent, or subscribe to streaming media from providers such as:

And if you’re looking for a set-top box to get that content onto your TV (perhaps along with games and other goodies), you have many options, including:

The problem with all these providers and platforms is that no single one of them is likely to have everything you want. While it’s true that Netflix lets you pay one low price to stream as many shows as you want—and offers a huge selection—there are plenty of movies and TV shows that aren’t available on Netflix and possibly never will be. So, you can sign up for a second all-you-can-watch service, such as HBO Now, but again, even though it gives you unlimited access to its own content, you’ll miss out on content created exclusively for Amazon, Showtime, Starz, Yahoo, and other providers.

Indeed, it’s not hard to imagine a near future in which most people expect to pay separately for a dozen or more different streaming media providers, month after month. Even though various bundles exist, I have yet to see one that covers every network and provider I care about. I’d like to think that Apple or another big company will eventually solve this problem, but only time will tell.

Joe’s Recommendations: Cloud Apps

When it comes to conventional office productivity tasks, my advice is similar to what I’ve said about other cloud services: you’ll experience the least friction if you stay within the ecosystem you use the most (Apple’s, Google’s, or Microsoft’s). However, if you need to share a document, spreadsheet, or presentation with someone else and you’re unsure what platform they prefer, these days, Google’s G Suite apps are the de facto standard, and what most people will probably expect. (Of course, there’s no reason an iCloud or Microsoft Office user can’t also use Google Docs, or vice versa, but Google’s products—while not necessarily the best—are the most common, and thus less likely to meet with resistance.)

I don’t have any specific recommendations for other cloud-based productivity apps (such as graphics and databases), because I’ve used them very little. When it comes to meetings and video conferencing, Skype and Google Hangouts both seem to be common enough that you can invite someone to either one without preamble or apology, although I should point out that, as a category, video conferencing is a mess. (That is, every service has its own set of frustrations, limitations, and detractors, and no clear winner has yet emerged.)

As for entertainment, if I were the sort of person who subscribed to a music streaming service (which I am not), I’d go with Apple Music because of its reasonable cost and its excellent integration with all my Apple devices. For TV and movies, I can’t yet offer any general guidance. (Personally, I pay for a cable TV subscription with a couple of premium channels, plus Netflix, Showtime, and the occasional TV series on iTunes—but wish dearly that I could get all the shows I love with much less hassle and cost. Some day.)

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset