The following is a brief review of the Zumodrive cloud file storage/sync app for the Palm Pre smart phone. Background: Zumodrive is a cross-platform cloud-based file storage, synchronization and sharing service which provides up to 2GB of free file hosting and a tiered subscription model for larger volumes of file storage. Zumodrive may be accessed through the Web browser but also  has client apps for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iPhone, WebOS (Palm Pre and Pixi) and Android. Once you install the client software in Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X, Zumodrive will appear as a drive in your desktop file explorer. You can then drag and drop or save files into it. These files will appear in your online Zumodrive and any other computer with the client software installed. If you edit those files, for example a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, those changes will cascade through all the instances of your Zumodrive so that you always have the most up-to-date file version. Zumodrive also keeps version history so that you can revert to a previous file version. It also has a built-in Trash folder, so in case you accidentally delete a file you can recover it.

The desktop Zumodrive client software also allows folder linking. This useful feature lets you select a folder on your computer, for example Documents, and link it to your Zumodrive. From that point onward, all changes which occur in the linked folder will also cascade through your Zumodrive and into any other computers attached to your Zumodrive. It all happens in the background without requiring you to think about it. You can also share files and folders publicly or privately with edit or read-only privileges.

I recently installed the Zumodrive client app on my Palm Pre. Cloud-based file storage is a natural fit for this always-on, Web-connected device. There are several reasons why you would want to connect your smart phone to a cloud-based virtual disk. Hand-held devices are easy to damage or lose, so having your files hosted off-device is a good form of insurance. Hand-held devices also have limited storage capacity. My Pre has just under 8GB of available memory. Zumodrive can expand that memory dramatically, while also making the same files available to any number of other connected devices.

However, the Palm Pre client app currently has some significant limitations as compared to the desktop software. The Pre client is read-only; you can't upload or edit files with it. This limitation is unfortunate because it would really be nice to be able to take a photo or video with the Pre and then save it into the Zumodrive. It would be nice to be able to record a voice memo and save it to the Zumodrive. Perhaps a future iteration will include this functionality. If you use the app you should by all means request support for any features you would like to see.

As a read-only app, Zumodrive for Palm Pre works well. Music files play through the Pre's streaming media player. Photos are displayed in thumbnail grids or individually. A finger swipe will advance to the next photo in the folder. Major document formats such as PDF or .doc are handed over to the respective viewing apps on the Pre. These are all useful features, but one is left wishing for more. I certainly hope to see more features as time goes on.

Cloud file storage is both a competitive and rapidly developing market. Zumodrive is a decent offering which supports a lot of OS platforms and appears intent on delivering continuous service improvement. They will definitely need to deliver value if they want to survive the competition and consolidation in this market. I give the free service high marks, but the subscription pricing is higher than some competitors and the service lacks features such as in-browser document editing which are offered by competitors. Zumodrive is worth a try, but if you don't like it then you should look at other offerings for the sake of comparison. No one service is perfect, so it comes down to a matter of personal preference. In my case, I will need to see the subscription pricing go down substantially before I commit to Zumodrive. But I admit that I would say the same thing about most of the other cloud storage vendors as well!

If you are new to Linux, you may be confused as to why Ubuntu doesn't include support for Flash, DVD playback, MP3, Sun Java, etc. by default. Well, the reason is because while Linux is open source, free software without copyright restrictions, many of the multimedia plugins are proprietary - that is, not open source. However, Ubuntu 9.04 allows you to easily add several of the most common proprietary multimedia plugins in one stroke. Just go to Applications > Add/Remove and type "Ubuntu Restricted Extras" into the search box. Check the box and click the Apply Changes button. Now you are good to go!

Before I made the decision to ditch Windows Vista in favor of Ubuntu Linux, I asked myself what I would really be giving up. The only answer I could come up with was the marvelous Evernote client, which is not distributed in a Linux version. While the Web interface retains allmost all of the functionality of the client, it of course by definition lacks the convenience of a local copy of your Evernote database. With a little research, however, I am happy to announce that I am now running the latest Evernote 3.1.0.1225 in Ubuntu 9.04 using Wine. Wine is a Linux program that allows you to install and run many Windows programs in Linux. You can see that a couple of graphical components are a little wonky (the black boxes around the toolbar icons), but overall the functionality is intact. In fact, I took the above screen shot with Evernote. My database, over 1GB, synchronized without a hitch. And the automatic update feature even works properly as well. All in all, I'm extremely pleased.

Installing Wine in Ubuntu is very simple. Go to Applications > Add/Remove and type "wine" in the search box. Click the check box, click "Apply," and the program will install. To install Evernote, just download the installer file and double-click it. A launcher icon should appear on the desktop, and Evernote will also appear in Applications > Wine > Programs.

I found that at first, the text in the Evernote List View was not displaying. This was remedied with the simple registry fix below:

I may even try running some other Windows programs in Wine at some point. Maybe. But there are so many excellent native Linux apps, I may not need to.

I installed Dropbox in Ubuntu 9.04 so I could access my files in the cloud. The process was kind of a hassle, because of a few details which were not well-documented. There are a couple of approaches you can take. You can download the .deb package and then double-click it to install. This works, but you won't get automatic updates through Synaptic. I decided to add the 3rd-party Software Source and Key, so that I can get automatic updates. The procedure goes like so: open System > Administration > Software Sources, go to the Third-Party Software tab, click Add, then paste in:

deb http://linux.getdropbox.com/ubuntu jaunty main

then do the same thing with

deb-src http://linux.getdropbox.com/ubuntu jaunty main

Exit the window. Don't worry about the warning message. Then go to Terminal and paste

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 3565780E
 then hit Enter. This will import the keys to authenticate the PPA. Then type 
apt-get update 
and hit Enter, this will refresh the package list. Next, type 
sudo apt-get install nautilus-dropbox
 and hit Enter. This will actually install the application. After it's installed, type
dropbox start -i

to start Dropbox. You may have to logout then back in first. I have found that the Dropbox app does not automatically start on startup, so instead of opening the Terminal every time, I created app launcher by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Create Launcher." Enter the command above and you are good to go.

I liked some things about Fedora 11, but ultimately I ditched it. The blue color theme did not appeal to me, and I was having no luck enabling dual-monitor support. So I decided to have another go with Ubuntu 9.04 using Unetbootin. In a previous post, I said that the Live CD on a USB flash drive option didn't work. Well, turns out I was wrong. I just didn't follow the correct procedure. What you need to do is run Unetbootin, select Ubuntu 9.04 > Live CD and make sure you have your flash drive specified as the target. Then go do something else for awhile as Unetbootin downloads the ISO, unpacks it and writes it to your flash drive. You'll need at least a 1GB flash drive for this to work. Then when Unetbootin asks if you want to reboot, say yes if you are already on the machine you wish to install Ubuntu on, otherwise exit. Plug your drive into the target machine, boot up and select boot options from the BIOS menu. Make sure USB is at the top of the list.

Installing Ubuntu from the Live CD is a smooth, simple process; much easier than installing Windows. I picked the entire disk option, chose a login name and password, and let the installer do its thing. Booting into Ubuntu went smoothly, but initially graphics support was limited to just the screen of the U810 and not the external monitor. I followed this procedure to enable dual-monitor support. This time, I did a little more research on the Import Key step. Turns out that I did this wrong before. I saved the HTML page as a file, but really you should only save the key text as a file. No file extension is required and any name will do. I left a comment about it on the tutorial page.

So now I have dual-monitor support with the full monitor resolution. Sweet! I have set up my printer drivers as well. My printer is a Dell 3110cn which I purchased specifically because it supports Linux. Some printers, especially budget ones, don't support Linux. So make sure it supports Windows, Mac, and/or Linux before you buy a printer, then you will avoid disappointment.

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself at the moment!