By Tracey Dowdy
One of my favorite quotes from Anchorman is the line, “Boy, that escalated quickly.” That’s kind of how I feel about Amazon’s latest move in the cloud storage arena.
Last year they announced free, unlimited photo storage on Cloud Drive for members of Amazon Prime. That was a significant boost for Prime when coupled with membership perks like free two day shipping and unlimited streaming video. Yesterday, with their announcement of Unlimited Photos or Unlimited Everything for members and non-members alike, they’ve changed the landscape of cloud storage again.
Amazon certainly isn’t the first to offer cloud storage but they are the first to offer it to anyone, regardless of membership. Unlimited photo storage will still be free for Prime members, but for everyone else the service is offered at $11.99 for photos and $59.99 for all other media – video, documents, music – per year and when compared to other cloud storage providers, there’s a significant price difference.
Amazon has recognized one very important fact: the average consumer has accumulated a significant amount of media over the years from photos and video to documents, all scattered across multiple devices, and most of us really have no idea how much storage we need.
“Most people have a lifetime of birthdays, vacations, holidays, and everyday moments stored across numerous devices. And, they don’t know how many gigabytes of storage they need to back all of them up…With the two new plans we are introducing today, customers don’t need to worry about storage space–they now have an affordable, secure solution to store unlimited amounts of photos, videos, movies, music, and files in one convenient place.” Josh Petersen, Director of Amazon Cloud Drive
To make the deal even sweeter and lure potential users from other cloud services, Amazon is offering a free three month trial. They’re banking on both the sweetness of the deal and the fact that frankly, most of us are not going shift again in three months once we’ve taken the time and trouble to upload in the first place. Plus, once you’ve chosen to store everything on Cloud Drive, how much more likely are you to choose Prime membership to take advantage of that free, two day shipping? And since you’re already buying books, why wouldn’t you just buy your music…and your movies…and your groceries…
But before you jump from DropBox or iCloud, stop and consider what you need. A terabyte is a lot of storage and for most of us, more than sufficient. Plus, if you’ve already invested time and money uploading to other cloud services, moving everything over is daunting and may not be worth it. On the other hand, if you’ve been debating what to do and just need to get everything tucked away to sort through and manage at some point in the future, it’s hard to argue with Amazon’s price point. And as several commentators have pointed out, at the very least Amazon’s announcement may force other cloud storage providers to examine their prices and services in order to stay competitive.
Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Toronto, ON. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances and researches on subjects from family and education to pop culture and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.
Toca Pet Doctor allows kids to choose an animal from their virtual waiting room to treat and nurse back to health. Kids learn empathy and caring for others as they care for the animals and even help them to fall sleep. Kids can wake up the animals when they want to care for them again. Like other Toca Boca apps, the idea is no rules and no stress, so there are no points to earn or rewards, just free play that encourages compassion and may even reduce your child’s fear of going to the doctor. (iOS, Android – $2.99)
Based on the Nickelodeon show, Wallykazam! Letter and Word Magic lets your child interact with Wally Trollman and his friends to learn letters and words by going on adventures through the forest, tracing words in the night sky, or building towers out of rhymes. The 3D graphics are outstanding and the even the reward activity is educational and fun. The app gives your pre-schooler a head start on phonics and sound combinations, while entertaining him for hours. (iOS, Android – $3.99/$6.99)
Little Fox Music Box offers just three songs but don’t let that deter you. Each song is animated with its own interactive world, so kids will enjoy searching the landscape to see what surprises are in the hidden in the background. Kids can change the season by turning the wheel during “Old Mac Donald Had a Farm” or paint the Northern Lights during “Evening Song.” Parents can turn off the music and switch to the karaoke version, so you and your little ones can sing along or play your own music and record it in Fox’s Studio. Note: In-app purchases are still enabled even when turned off, so parents should be mindful if little ones are playing unsupervised. (iOS, Android – $2.99 with in-app purchases)
Reading Rainbow is everything you loved about the TV show – including beloved host LeVar Burton – transformed into an app. The focus is on books and the joy of reading, and kids can choose to read themselves or have a book read aloud to them. Reading preferences are customized to the child’s interests – action, adventure, animals, fairy tales, dinosaurs – so kids are sure to stay engaged. Finishing a book earns rewards and parents can track progress through the app’s dashboard. (iPad, Kindle Fire – Free but with in-app purchases)
How much did you love your Lite Brite? How much did you hate trying to keep track of the little pegs? Or better yet, how many did your mom suck up in the vacuum cleaner? The Art of Glow is basically your old Lite Brite transformed for this generation. Kids can finger paint using shapes, colors and animation, and designs can be simple or complex using original artwork or adding animated twinkling stars or fireworks. (iOS, Android – Free/$.99 Pro version)
Voted one of the best toys of 2014 by Parents Magazine, Lego Fusion brings all the fun of Lego without the terrifying possibility of stepping on a piece barefoot in the dark. The app requires purchasing a Lego Fusion product from the Lego Store or Toys R Us and then downloading the corresponding app. The child can then design and build their own town, battle towers, or resort within the app, and then capture the design to create a virtual world that they can explore. The possibilities are limited only by your child’s imagination and that guarantees hours of creative play. (iOS, Android – Free)
