Dropbox vs Google drive vs Box and report on Evernote

With the increasingly faster internet connections and the larger amount of data that everyone needs or wants to control due to more photos, or videos, or files in general, many online cloud based programs have appeared in order to solve this problem of sharing the files. Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Box have taken a control over this service on the Internet by offering their users free storage space on the cloud and easy sharing with other users, a characteristic that was being sought by many people in order to create and edit teamwork projects more easily. 

In this post I am going to compare these three services, with their advantages and disadvantages, and at the end give a personal opinion as to which one is the best in my opinion. Here is the comparison table.

  

	Dropbox	Google Drive	Box
What it offers	- Cloud-based file storage with the ability to share information with other users via email or sharing the link - Soon will allow integrated authentication with Active Directory. -A mobile application for Android, IOS and Windows Phone 8.	- Cloud-based file storage built into the Google universe, which has a lot of application which complement Google Drive. - Integrated with Google Apps -A mobile application for Android, IOS and Windows Phone 8.	- Cloud-based collaboration suite, in many ways more similar to Dropbox than to Google Drive. -A mobile application for Android, IOS and Windows Phone 8.
Best Qualities and Characteristics	- 2 GB free personal storage. - Simplicity of interface, it is very easy to use - Ease of sign-up and installation (just need to download the program into the computer or use it online) - The name Dropbox has become nearly synonymous with cloud file storage and sharing due to its increasingly popularity. It was probably the program that initiated this cloud file storage revolution.	- Free 5 GB personal storage. - Online readers for rendering many types of files in your browser; You can see who sees your documents and is easy to edit with other people. - Online Editors for Office documents such as Powerpoint or Word. - Integration with other Google offerings like Gmail, which makes communications swifter and easier.	- 10GB for free - Designed for business, but can also be used for personal use. - Good set of collaboration tools which everyone can use. - Similar in many ways to SharePoint, thus people will have an idea of how to use it.
Limitations	- Designed as a consumer/personal solution, therefore it is not as good for business or teamwork projects. - Not a collaboration solution because people cannot edit the documents online. - No corporate control of document sharing or retention in personal accounts, thus you can share the document, but it cannot be edited by other people. - No auditing, legal discovery in personal accounts. - No full text search.	- Designed as a consumer/personal solution - Online editing is not full fidelity and documents may not look the way you expect on the desktop after editing, therefore it takes a lot of time to edit the document until it looks the way you want it to look - No corporate control of document sharing or retention in personal accounts. Same as in Dropbox. - No auditing, legal discovery in personal accounts. As well as in Dropbox.	- Expensive, 10$ a month for a total storage space of 100 GB - Separate set of collaboration tools to learn and manage if you are used to Microsoft Office or SharePoint
Cautions to have due to risk	- Dropbox has gone viral giving users extra storage for signing up their friends. With so many people using Dropbox with their friends today, your corporate files are most likely up here without any controls unless you have implemented another solution for your users. This is why your information is not controlled very much, so it is easier for other people to see you personal files, something very dangerous nowadays.	- Google's user agreement states that they have the right to scan all your content and sell information about you to anyone. They also reserve the right to create derivative works based on files or documents you put in Google Drive. For this reason, you do not know to whom google is selling your information, and this increases the sense of insecurity.	- Box is an all-or-nothing solution. If you have sensitive data, you cannot host it on premise and integrate it into your corporate Box environment - When implementing any corporate collaboration solution, you should plan before you deploy. -However it is to be said that it has become more secure with the latest updates.

After comparing these three services, I personally choose Google Drive. Personally it is, out of these three services, the one I use the most. For example, I have created the comparison table presented above using Google Drive. I choose it because it allows you a great amount of storage space, 15GB, for free, as well as being a simple interface. It also has the options of creating documents or presentations that are extremely similar to those of Microsoft Office, thus it is very easy to use since most people are used to these programs. As well, and probably the characteristic that I most like, is that you can choose who can edit the document, thus it is very easy to work as a group, as well as it is easy to share the document with other people. As well, its direct connection with other Google application makes the process of sharing and creating documents swifter and easier. And this is why I choose Google Drive overall.

As well I am also going to talk about an increasingly used program, Evernote, that is used for exactly what its name refers to, taking notes. It was founded by Stepan Pachikov and launched in 2008, reaching 11 million users by 2011. 

It is a suite of software designed for notetaking and archiving. In Evernote a note can be text, a full webpage, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. What Evernote allows you to do is to have notes with attachments, and to organize these notes by putting them into different folders that can be tagged and then exported as a notebook. Evernote is available in a paid version or more restricted free version.

The notes done in Evernote can be either saved on the local machine if you have the downloaded program for your respective device (It has programs for almost every platform, from Android to IOS to Windows Phone) or if you have an internet connection, take the files from the cloud storage that Evernote has. 

The data you can enter in the notes, as mentioned before, is not limited only to typed notes since Evernote supports image capture from cameras on supported devices and the recording of voice notes, that on the case of having to take a really long note, can become really handy. As well, for devices with a touchscreen, it has handwriting recognition. As well, where suitable hardware is available, Evernote can automatically add geolocation tags to notes. There is also an integration with twitter, for those who use this social network.

Finally, there is the option of having a free or a premium account. The free online service has monthly usage limitations (60 MB/months as of 2013) and displays a "usage" meter. A premium service is also available at $5 per month or $45 per year for 1,024 MB/month usage as of 2013. As well as the larger per-month upload limit, the premium service features faster word recognition in images, greater security, and text searching within PDF files. Another advantage of the premium service is more options in the sharing process.

As time approaches for me to go to college, I have started thinking about what technology I will need at university, and thus, this could be a great graduation present. I have decided that from today's technology, there are three main types of devices that are dominating the entire market: laptops, tablets and smartphones. In my case, I have always been an Apple fan and bought most of my products from them, thus I am going to create a comparison between their three most famous products (MacBook, iPad and iPhone) in order to decided which one will be more useful for university.

	Macbook	iPad	iPhone
Power	In terms of power, a laptop will always be more powerful than a table or phone. With more storage space, more ram memory and speed, a laptop is useful if you have to program of use powerful applications for design for example.	iPads have gotten to be more powerful over the last few year. Their storage space is not bad, up to 64 gb, but may not be enough for certain activities such as film editing. However, they are more powerful than iPhones.	Similar in power to an iPad, its storage space can be exactly the same as that of the tablet, but the difference is that an iPad can handle more programs and more powerful programs than an iPhone can.
Portability	If size matters, then a Macbook will always lose. It is much heavier and bigger than an iPad or iPhone, so if power is not an issue for you, then I would not recommend a laptop.	iPad is the second on this list in terms of portability. Even if it has gotten lighter and lighter, it cannot compete against the 114 grams of the iPhone. However, its weight compared to its huge screen is very tentative, with the option that there is an iPad mini, which is smaller and can be carried practically anywhere.	The iPhone is by all means the most portable of the 3. Its 114 grams and 4 inch screen can be carried without you noticing in your pocket. For that reason, if the size of the screen does not matter, an iPhone is perfect for you.
Battery	In terms of battery, it would be the second in my list. With up to 9 hours of battery life, or that is what Apple says, it can be used throughout a whole day without having to charge it, and use it even more if wifi is not required for the task.	The recent models of iPad are estimated to last around 10 hours, but my personal experience confirms that the battery can last way more than 10 hours, and that gives a plus to the iPad in this aspect.	By far, iPhone has the least battery life. It is said to last 8 hours. However, the 3G or 4G network makes the battery last for approximately 4 hours if used constantly, thus having to charge the phone every day, something that is not good.
Multi-tasking	By far, a laptop is the best device of the three to multitask. You can have as many open application as your RAM permits, which makes it very easy to change from one application to another.	Multitasking in the iPad and iPhone is exactly the same, so I am going to join both in this aspect. Multitasking has become better in this devices, however one has to leave the application to then go on to the next one, which can get to be really slow if working with many open applications at the same time.	Same as the second column for iPad.
Other features	Some other features I am going to include are the camera and the data connection. Laptops to start with have only the frontal camera, which by all means is not comparable in quality with iPads or iPhones. Second, it cannot have data connection, and by this I mean 3G or 4G, thus you depend on a wifi network if you want to surf the web.	The iPad has a wonderful camera,  although I have to say that at the beginning it was quite poor. It has now a camera of 8 megapixels that takes fascinating photos as well as HD videos. In addition, it has the option of adding a Sim card, thus having the possibility of having a data plan and internet everywhere you go.	The iPhone has without doubt the best camera of the 3, with incredible resolution photos as well as HD videos that can be seen crystal clear. As it is obvious, it has 3G and 4G, and even in the USA LTE, which is said to go way faster than any wifi connection, thus having a huge advantage over the laptop in this aspect.
Price	All of these devices, being from Apple, are quite expensive, but some more than the others. For example, a Mac laptop, starts at $999 for the Macbook Air and $1299 for the Macbook Pro.	The price for the new iPad air starts at $499 for the 16 GB model, and in the case of the iPad mini, from $399 its 16 GB model.	The new iPhone 5s has a starting price of $649 unlocked for its 16 GB model, but of course the telephone companies make different offers in which the phone itself may be less expensive.

Although this list gives you a basic idea of what the features of each device are, it is a combination of different factors that will make you decide one from the other. In my case, I am going to study engineering, therefore I am going to do a lot of programming and managing a lot of different powerful application. For that reason, I would probably buy a powerful laptop in order to program (something that you cannot do in table of phones or at least that I know of) and manage all the programs I am going to need with the laptops' excellent multitasking feature, something that tablets and phones still lack. For this reason, a laptop is my choice, plus the fact that its battery is getting better and better and may last a long time without a wifi connection (which is not always necessary) and its large screen, which for programming is once again vital in order to see the characters clearly.