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Be Glad

March 1, 2013 By 2 Comments

gladinetHopefully by now, you’ve found a cloud storage plan you’re comfortable with.

Many is the time I’ve blogged about cloud solutions.  It’s one of the true promises of the digital age that has met it’s potential at a good price.

How does the cloud help your VO business?  By making your essential files available no matter where you are; by giving you a common bucket to share your files from; by providing you a simple back-up of important resources; by letting you control access traditional desktop files with a smartphone, etc., etc., etc.

See my blog:  Make Your Own Cloud, and look for all the “cloud” links within.

Cloud storage plans are getting less and less expensive for more and more storage.  This week, though, I ran across a promotion that blew me away… the best bang for your buck I’ve seen yet.

It’s from GLADINET.

I use a version of a Gladinet storage solution in conjunction with my Nuance PaperPort program (pdf and document management system).  I’ve found Gladinet very reliable and customer-friendly.

But their newest promotion of 1 TeraByte of storage for $9.99/mo is off-the-charts the best deal I’ve seen yet.

It’s called the Gladinet Cloud Team Edition and offers the following enhancements to the cloud desktop:

  •  1000GB (1TB) of Amazon storage or you can use your existing storage account
  • Web browser, PC & Mac clients, file server support and mobile apps.
  • Attach your local folders to the cloud and access anywhere
  • Backup or sync any local folder
  • Folder level permission control & share folders and files
  • Share files with anyone
  • Active Directory Integration
  • Access your files from mobile devices and web browsers

The ‘Personal Edition’ is only $6.99/mo and offers 100Gb, and the ‘Business Edition’ offers 3TB for $12.99/mo!

See this Gladinet home page for complete song ‘n’ dance, and links to the various offers.  For now (i.e. this week)  this the best offer I’ve seen.

CourVO

Filed Under: The Cloud, Web Resources, Web/Tech Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Make Your Own Cloud

November 21, 2012 By 1 Comment

Don’t get me wrong…I love DropBox, and Box.net, and SugarSync, and ZeroPC, Cubby, SkyDrive and any of about 30 other great “cloud” solution for saving, backing-up, sharing, and accessing your data.  I love the idea of “cloud” so much I’ve blogged about it several times:  A Hard Drive is So…Yesterday / Be Part of the Cloud Crowd / 7 Disruptive Technologies That Have Shaped the Business of VoiceOvers.

All these services are like Kodak was in its heyday.  They made rotten cameras, but they made the best film, and you had to keep coming back for the film.  They made a fortune on it.  It’s the same thing with today’s printers (not quite a dying breed…yet).  You can buy a printer for dirt cheap these days, but the CARTRIDGES cost plenty, and you have to keep coming back for ‘em.

All the popular Cloud drive systems are on the payment plan.  Their service is becoming essential.  But to go beyond 5-Gigs or 10-Gigs, you hafta pay a monthly or yearly fee.  The prices are reasonable considering what you get, but you have to keep coming back for it.

For a little over $100 (probably less by the time I write this), you can reserve one Terabyte of Cloud storage.  You can access it from anywhere, your smartphone, your desktop, your laptop, your tablet.  Anywhere there is WiFi or internet connections this cloud is available.  You can share links, make private and public “galleries” or “albums”…give audio file access to your clients (no more YouSendIt!)…and the best part it…you don’t have to keep coming back to pay for it.

SeaGate’s GoFlex Home Network Storage System hard drive plugs right into your WiFi network access point. The software comes with it.  It took me 10 minutes to install the hardware and software, and alla sudden, I can access all my files from anywhere.  SeaGate offers both iOS and Android apps to do the same from your smartphone or tablet.  The unit also comes with a USB port for access to even more portability or information.

NetGear offers a snazzy solution, too…attaching a couple Terabytes of storage right in the same box along with the WiFi access point.  Their All In One WiFi Storage Router is a little pricier than the SeaGate solution I just mentioned, but sure makes a nice package.  The unit has a SD card slot for added I/O.

I’ll grant you, the best of the best –  DropBox –  is seductively easy to use.  I’m not saying this is for everybody, but at least you don’t have to keep coming back for it.

CourVO

Filed Under: Hardware, The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Attach Me

July 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Have you noticed how just about every online site you’ve ever signed-up for is becoming uber-social?  Voice Over people seem to like social, so we fall victim about as much as anybody to the promise of social networking.

Plaxo started out as a place to sync your contact list…now it wants to be…well…everything.

SpringPad was an evernote-style utility when it launched…now it’s gone social too.

SoundCloud was cool when it was just a place to store and play your soundfiles.  It had kind of a social component from the start…but a new version is coming out that makes it a FaceBook wanna-be.

Now you can link your content from these sites and more to FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr…the list goes on.

If I were to draw a diagram of all the interconnectedness of all the online social sites…it would look something like this:

Yeah, kind of a mess.  But  there’s not supposed to be any sense to it.  We live in a time where lots of people are throwing lots of stuff against the wall to see if it sticks, and some of it slid down the wall and got trod underfoot…even with lots of venture capital.  I just got an email like that yesterday from the people at VoyURL.  Down the tubes!

I’m seeing a lot of these sites now start to mimic PINTEREST in it’s wide-open layout of pictures…lots of pictures (see SpringPad if you don’t believe me).

Well, here’s a new offering that makes sense, and shows promise…let’s see if it survives.

ATTACHMENTS.ME is a site that makes a Pinterest-looking page out of all your Gmail attachments.  But it does a whole lot more than that, actually.  Use it with Box.net, DropBox, and Google Drive to organize, send, and access all your attachment files from all your cloud-based services.

Attachments.me works as a Google Chrome extension, and on your iPhone, iPad, and Android device.  It integrates right into your Gmail accounts.

I’m still exploring all it can do.  My thanks to Kat Keesling for finding this gem.  If you can stand listening to the terrible voice-over on this video demo, watch to get their in-house demonstration.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking, The Cloud, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Be Part of the Cloud Crowd

February 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

No online development will continue to have meaningful impact on the voiceover business like “the cloud” does.

Sure, you’re on DropBox or Box.net…and that’s great!  You may even be on Microsoft’s Skydrive.

But wouldn’t you like to show you clients you’re TOTALLY in control of this cloud thing?

What about developing your own client portal?

It’s a way to extend the brand you display on your website, your business cards, your twitter page, and your email blasts.  Imagine a branded page where you clients can go to download the files you’ve recorded for them.  This creates a wrap-around service for them that keeps ‘em in the fold of your brand from the point of contact to the delivery of the product (followed, of course, by your branded invoice!).

Click on the portal I’ve had built for CourVO.com to see what I mean.  Simple and clean.

There are services that design this for you.  FILE GENIUS is one that comes to mind.

From their promotional materials:  “…File Genius is now used by over 52,000 professionals and is the fastest growing portal solution available. More than 20,000 new users have come onboard in the past 4 months.  Unlike Box.net, Sharefile.com, and other online portals you do not pay for users, bandwidth, throughput, or any other “extras”.  Our solution moves files from one location to another and stores and organizes them for access in an extremely secure web environment. Anyone, including your clients, with a secure user account and access to the internet can use it and exchange documents. You can take a no-charge trial, no payment information is required,..”

File Genius may be overkill.  In which case,  just email me (courvo@courvo.com), and I’ll have my guy here in Vegas set it up for you…he’s very reasonable.

Some other new solutions “in the cloud” lately, are very impressive.

For you iPad users, check out OnLive Desktop.  It installs on your iOS tablet, but when you launch it looks and acts like you’ve got a fully-functional Windows desktop at your disposal with MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (plus much more).  That is INDEED what you have at your fingertips… the program is in the cloud on some super-fast Windows servers.  You don’t even sense a lag-time.  You can do anything you’d do on  your desktop, even store and share to DropBox and much more.  Free for starters.  You pay $5/mo for the SUPER fast connection, and some extra features, but it’s pretty awesome with just the free installation.

Another program like this is ZEROPC.  Much the same as OnLive, this puts all your files in the cloud, and on your tablet, or your PC screen seamlessly.

Sometimes you have to play with these programs to understand the real potential of having all your “stuff” available to you no matter where you are.

-Demos
-Bio
-Pics
-Content files
-Links

Be creative…make this stuff work for  you…they’re just tools…but extremely powerful tools.

CourVO

Filed Under: The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SoundCloud Grows Up

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“The YouTube site for Sound”…that’s what some are calling SoundCloud these days.

The Berlin-based company launched in 2008, and now has 10-million users…and has just raised 50-million in venture capital funding.

From an article on TechCrunch:  Soundcloud “…has had over five million official SoundCloud iphone/android apps downloaded and over 10,000 third party apps have been developed on SoundCloud’s open platform (recent additions include integrations with professional music creation software Pro Tools and Cakewalk).”

The site is certainly a good fit for voice actors. You can store your demos there, then share, embed, post, link, email, and get social.  Follow other SoundClouders and get followers.  Join groups, and converse in forums.

Embedding any voice file anywhere is easy (or link).  You can even customize your embedded player to the color and size you want.  (See my embedded demo on the home page of this blog)

Not content to rest on their laurels, the developers at SoundCloud Labs are now coming out with what anyone would expect might be a next-gen step:  STORYWHEEL.  Using pics from Instagram (voted most popular iPhone app of 2011) to provide the pics, and SoundCloud to match with the audio, StoryWheel shows promise.

SoundCloud offers modest functionality for a free membership, but you’ll probably want to choose one of their other 4 premium plans ranging from ~$37.50/year (~$11.66/mo) to ~$610/yr ( ~$76.50/mo).

CourVO

 

 

Filed Under: Software, Technology, The Cloud, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

6 Cool Usable Tools

August 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My list-making gene is expressing itself again.

Part of the reason is that the News Director in my newsroom (ahem…my boss) asked me to compile some online journalism search tools for my colleagues.

In the process, I found all sorts of resources that anyone — Yes, even voice actors — could use to their advantage in their business.

Some of you really liked Storify, which I most recently blogged about last month.  Another couple of tools much like Storify are: KeepStream and Curate.us.

Yeah, that’s great, Courvo…but we’re not journalists, we just humble voice actors, and except you nutty bloggers, most of us VO’ s don’t see much of a use for online tools like this.

I hear ya.  I feel your pain… so here’s one of the coolest tools I came across that we can ALL use:  TheNameEngine.  This site “…provides the correct name pronunciations of athletes, entertainers, politicians, newsmakers, and more. Even well-known names are often pronounced in different ways, leaving you to wonder what the correct pronunciation is. You’ll find the right answer here. Better yet, you’ll actually hear the right answer…”

Another site that will help tell YOUR story as a voice actor is SlideShare.  Slide share lets you create share-able slide presentations.  That’s an oversimplification, the visual presentation you create or import is embeddable all over — your blog, your FaceBook page, your LinkedIn profile, and much more more. It accepts nearly any possible presentation file format you could imagine (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.).  SlideShare is not new, actually, but it may be new to you:  “SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. With 50 million monthly visitors and 90 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 250 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.”

Finally, for a little fun, try Wordle.net.  Wordle creates a “word cloud” from available resources…documents, websites, blogs, pdf’s…you name it.  This is actually a neat visual tool you can use in promotional materials, your home page, newsletters, email, etc.  Wordle gives great prominence in the graphical representation to the words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Here are two examples.  I did a Worlde word cloud for Bob Souer’s Blog and this blog.  Here’s Bob’s:

Wordle for Bob Souer's Blog

As you know, Bob has a lot of friends, and frequently introduces his blog articles by saying “My friend XXXXX,…”  and his Wordle reflects that.  He also must use the words, “voice”, “post”, “video”, “blog”,  and “things”.

Here’s the Wordle for this blog:

Courvo's Blog Wordle

Apparently, last week’s interview with ACX’s head honcho influenced these returns, and surprisingly, the response to BranchOut ( an article I also wrote last week) had a similar effect.

With Wordle, you can orient the word cloud sideway, vertically, change the colors, mix up the words horizontally/vertically, choose different fonts…and…well, you get the idea.

I’ve written a lot of blogs about online tools that are applicable to a lot of different endeavours.  TOOLS.  It’s how you use them.  Be creative.  Use the ones that work for you, and say “so long” to the rest.

CourVO

 

Filed Under: The Cloud, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

22+ Ways to Send Large Files

August 1, 2011 By 26 Comments

10-hour long AudioBooks?  40-module E-Learning projects?  100-slide PowerPoint Presentation?

Oh, and did I mention, the client wants all the finished production in .wav files?    You know…the best quality, and the BIGGEST size?

Today’s Voice talent has to be a whiz at sending big audio files with dependability, ease, and speed.  You may have already seen some of the solutions in the list below, or maybe you can comment to this blog with a suggestion that others could benefit from.  {Ed. note:  be sure to read all the way to the bottom, as several readers have made subsequent suggestions after seeing a gap I’d left on the list}

THE OBVIOUS

One of the oldest and most rock-solid solutions is to “FTP” (File Transfer Protocol) your file.  Your client may already have this set-up from their end, in which case they’ll send you their sign-on information, and all you have to do is log-on and upload.  You may have your own FTP site, in which case you can upload the files, then send your client the log-on information, or just send the URL from your domain name. (eg:  http://courvo.com/audiofiles/Toyota/JulyPromo.wav)

FTP on a Windows OS system takes place from the Windows explorer screen, not the browser (exceptions, see below).  FTP can be dead simple (98% of the time), or it can get complex if you want to use different parameters.  #1 site for FTP tutorial.  #2 site for FTP Tutorial.

If your comfortable with accessing the control panel of the entity that hosts your domain name (GoDaddy, HostGator, etc.) they almost always have a way to transfer, upload, and download files from within their user interface.

Finally, if you want to FTP using a browser-based solution, here are a few:

FileZilla
Egnyte
CoreFTP
SmartFTP
FTPX
FlashPeak

EASY, POPULAR AND FREE (to a point)

DropBox and Box.net are near-identical services that  have devised ways to make file transfer easy, for people as untech as oatmeal.  Both have plans that are free up to 2 Gigs… then it starts getting into monthly or yearly plans that add-on features and more storage.

DropBox is probably the more popular and easy…but honestly, Box.net now has an agreement with Google Docs that certainly makes it a real consideration, and you can post your demo’s on your LinkedIn profile with Box.net.

Both can be run from your local computer, or “in the cloud” (web-based).  Even if you aren’t sending large audio files all the time, you really should just get a free DropBox account.  You’ll start finding ways that make it real handy.

Securing a paid account with either of these services means you get more storage and more features.

Honorable mention in this category:  Microsoft’s SKYDRIVE, and SugarSync.

The advantages to SkyDrive are many.  You can access from a web browser anywhere…the free account includes 25 Gigs of storage (not a misprint)…and it’s integrated into Microsoft LIVE, and Microsoft Office.  I used it to send a bunch of project files to a client in a folder where I store a ton of audio files, but with security protection, he could only see and download the file I designated from that online folder…no other files.

SugarSync is more DropBox-esque, and offers a feature that resides on your desktop called “Magic Briefcase” that works much like DropBox.  It’s also operated from a browser  “in the cloud”, but any files you change on one machine immediately changes on the other machines where you have SugarSync installed.

BTW for you Tablet-enabled VO’s:  DropBox, Box.net, and SugarSync all have apps for the iPad and Android.  SkyDrive files are accessible through the QuickOffice apps.

BRAINLESSLY EASY, POPULAR AND FREE (to a point)

YouSendIt.com is just about every voice actor’s default favorite.  A parallel, equally-easy site is DropSend.com.

With both services, you can be on the site, add your file (up to 2 Gigs), put in an email address, send within a minute or two, and not even have to sign-up or subscribe.  Dead simple.

YouSendIt lets you try any of their 3 plans free, full-featured for two weeks.  DropSend lets you send up to five files free every month and never join or pay (but you have to put up with some slowing ads).

{Here’s what I do…I double up on these free sites using different email addresses.  So with SkyDrive, I have two accounts = 50 Gigs!!!, and with DropSend — again two free accounts — up to 10 free file transfers every month.}

 

WORTHY ALTERNATIVES:

(I’m less familiar with these, but each has it’s own niche that may be right for you.  All are web-based and work with Mac or Windows).

ADOBE SENDNOW  (only up to 100Mg, and only first transfer is free…but they DO handle multi-media files)

TRANSFER BIG FILES  (claims to be the worlds fastest.  Also used https and encryption if you want)

SENDSPACE

SENDTHISFILE

LARGEFILESASAP

WETRANSFER

MEDIASEND

FILESDIRECT

SIZEABLESEND

Author’s note (8-3-11):  Eldorec.com owner, and everybody’s favorite hi-tech audio expert — George Whittam –  reminds me in the comments below of Ge.tt a site that not only transfers big files for free, but the client can begin downloading the file before you’re even done UPloading it.  Too cool!

ALSO glealned from comments:;  Manish M Shah recommends FileApartment.com, and Dave Fennoy reminds us all that Skype handles large file transfers.  From Skype’s FAQ files:  “…there is no limit to the size or number of files you can send using Skype, and if you lose internet connectivity while a file is being sent, sending the file will automatically continue after the connection is re-established, even if one or both of you go offline for a while…”  Spiffy!

Beau Weaver (8-4-11) writes to say he uses MediaFire with great dependability.  I hadn’t heard of that one, either, so let’s add it to the list.

“Shannon” (2-2-12) writes to suggest Binfer works great.  http://www.binfer.com

Kevin Hill (3-15-12) suggests ShareFile.  He says:  It’s easy to use and includes security and management options, plus white labeling, that make it ideal for businesses. It’s web-based but also has some nice tools, like a desktop widget and outlook plugin, as well as mobile apps for all the major devices. It’s not free, but there is a free 30 day trial period.

David Menashe (9-28-12) mentions on FaceBook:  https://wetransfer.com/

Which ones did I miss?  ‘Got a favorite?  Let me know by commenting below, and I’ll add it to the list.

CourVO

 

Filed Under: Technology, The Cloud, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Google Music

May 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

On the heels of Amazon.com’s new CloudDrive Sound Player (see my blog from Mar 30), Google is launching it’s own “Google Music” service.

This is an inevitable move on Google’s part (next week, they’ll be challenging Purina in the pet food arena…kidding!), as they play catch-up with iTunes…in fact, they may never catch up to Apple, which is DOMINANT in this area, but I’ve learned never to underestimate Google.

Many voice-actors use Sound-Cloud or AudioBoo to share their demos online, on their websites, blogs, or in emails.  Now that Amazon and Google are entering this market, too, you can anticipate a rush to add features, maybe some price wars, and growing ease-of-use.  At least that’s usually how the free-market system works.

At this point, the Google Music service is fairly rudimentary, in fact all you can do is ask for an invite.  Also, most announcements mention the caveat that it’s a free service for now.

But ANYTIME Google enters into a competitive online marketplace it sends ripples.  Information Week is already out with a couple of articles about Google Music: “HANDS ON WITH GOOGLE’S MUSIC BETA CLOUD SERVICE“, and “CLOUD MUSIC DEATH MATCH: AMAZON VERSUS GOOGLE“.

(Of course) Mashable has the latest on this, too: Google Music is (finally) Here.

…and below is a YouTube video explaining how it works.

CourVO

Filed Under: Music, Technology, The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cloud Storage

April 20, 2011 By 3 Comments

The response to Andy Boyns’ FaceBook post yesterday about DropBox surprised me.

I thought EVERYONE had heard of that service by now.

2Gigs of free storage in the cloud…but the best part is the unbelievable ease-of-use with which DropBox has designed their product.  It appears as just another file folder on your desktop or in your Documents directory.  You treat it like any other folder…make subfolders…copy & paste stuff in and out…add subfolders…all that.  But wherever else you have DropBox installed, all that “stuff” magically appears there as well.  Other computers, other states, other countries, favorite clients, iPads…everywhere you have an account installed.

Even more handy is that fact that you can be invited, or invite others to “share” folders with your DropBox.  This means that clients can put you in their account (with your permission),  and you can copy & paste sound files there as if it were another folder in your directory, and wondrously, on the other end, your client finds it in THEIR folder.

This makes YouSendIt, or DropSend seem almost archaic.  FTP?  Forget it!…too complicated.

Some find that the free 2Gig account gets filled pretty fast, and upgrading means paying a monthly or yearly fee.  Visit their site for details.

Here’s a great blog article on How to Use DropBox as a Killer Collaborative Work Tool.

Other contenders:  Box.net, Amazon, and Microsoft SkyDrive.

Box.net is almost as easy as DropBox, but unless they’ve stepped up lately with a drop-dead-easy DropBox functionality, you still have to log onto the Box.net site to share files.  They have a similar free/pay-to-upgrade structure.

One good thing about DropBox and Box.net is that virtually every file-sharing iPad or iPhone app you can find has DropBox and Box.net compatibility built-in.   You’ll find that VERY handy.

Amazon is a real heavyweight in cloud storage for companies, but individual consumers can get lost in the esoteric and arcane functionality…in fact, I’ve never been able to figure it out…until now.

Here’s a website that explains how to turn the Amazon Cloud Drive into desktop-accessible storage.

Finally, for sheer size of cloud storage, Microsoft’s SKYDRIVE system can’t be beat.  MS offers 25 Gigs of free storage space online!  You need a Windows LIVE ID to get on, but the sign-up is easy, and the online interface is also pretty intuitive.  I’ve used this service to send major big files to clients.  I store it on my SkyDrive account…assign private status to the file, so only parties I designate can see it, then I send my client the URL.  That file is the only thing they see on my SkyDrive account…and they do not have access to the other stuff I have stored there.

I’m sure there are other similar services.  Zoho comes to mind….  but I think hands-down, the above lead the field.

CourVO

(Author adds 4-21-11 the worthy alternative of SugarSync…my thanks to John McClain for that suggestion).

Filed Under: iPad, iPhone, Software, The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Amazon Sound Player

March 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

“The Cloud” is where it’s at these days, and Amazon.com just made a huge announcement.

First of all they’re GIVING AWAY 5Gigs of free storage in the cloud, called CloudDrive.  This isn’t as good as Microsoft’s unbelievable 25 Gigs on SkyDrive (see my blog of last July)… but Amazon’s service is rock-solid, and their Cloud has some nifty features, letting you upload virtually anything in a digital format:  documents, music, etc.

But even better is their Cloud Player service.  This reminds me a lot of a cross between iTunes and SoundCloud.  Cloud Player lets you buy music, store music, play music, download music, listen on your Android, your PC and other devices from the cloud.  It comes with an app for Android, and for your PC that is a mp3 Cloud Player application.

Here’s the reason this, and other online programs are so handy for VO’s.  Like SoundCloud and AudioBoo, the Amazon Cloud Player will let you link back to your stored sound files…like DEMOS?!!…and then you can handily post the link to places like FaceBook, Twitter, your Website, and others so people can hear your demos wherever they land.

Go to Amazon’s main home page to read the latest.

CourVO

 

Filed Under: The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,