Amazon Cloud Drive desktop app now syncs files across computers

By Meghan McDonough April 1, 2013

Today, Amazon announced it’s upgrading its Cloud Drive service with a File Sync app for both Macs and PCs to make it even more useful. If you’re like us and a user of multiple cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive, or Amazon Cloud Drive, then listen up. Amazon’s Cloud Drive now creates a folder on your desktop and instantly syncs all the files you put in it. If you have the Cloud Drive desktop app on multiple devices, it’ll sync your files across all of them.

Sound familiar? It should. This is how Dropbox has worked from the beginning. Like Dropbox, Amazon’s Cloud Drive has a resident file folder on your PC or Mac that syncs with a website and your other devices. Amazon does offer a more generous 5GB of free storage to get you started compared to Dropbox’s 2GB, plus Cloud Drive will sync with music you’ve previously purchased from Amazon’s music service without counting it against your storage total. If 5GB isn’t enough, Amazon offers yearly plans starting at $10 for 20GB of cloud storage. Amazon’s Cloud Drive service also includes its Cloud Player, which stores 250 songs for streaming for free. There’s also an upgrade for 250,000 songs for $25 a year.

If you’re a Kindle Fire owner, Amazon’s Cloud Drive service may be even more attractive to you. Documents saved to your desktop Cloud Drive folder will be automatically synced to the Docs library on the Kindle Fire. Likewise, photos saved in Cloud Drive folder will appear on the Fire, and, if you’re an Android user, in the Cloud Drive Photos app. Speaking of Android, if you use Amazon’s cloud photo app, any pictures you take will be automatically uploaded and synced to your desktop folder. To us, this is the most useful feature; but if experience has taught us anything, it’s that those five free gigabytes can fill up with photos very quickly.

Amazon’s Cloud Drive desktop app is available today for Mac and PC. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Web
Amazon

Meghan McDonough

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Meghan J. McDonough is a Chicago-based purveyor of consumer technology and music. She previously wrote for LAPTOP Magazine…

Computing

Best Acer laptop deals: From Chromebooks to gaming laptops

Acer Nitro V

If you're looking to pick up a new laptop, then you may want to consider the Acer lineup, especially considering it's one of the best laptop brands when it comes to budget-oriented computers. That even includes gaming laptops. Even better, you can find a lot of great deals on Acer's laptops, meaning that the already budget-friendly laptops become even cheaper, which is why we've gone out to find our favorite deals and list them for you below. That said, if you can't find what you're looking for below, be sure to check out some of these other great laptop deals as well.
Aspire 1 -- $200, was $300

If you need something very basic just to get online and do some general productivity and day-to-day stuff, then the Acer Aspire 1 is a good budget option. It has a 15.6-inch screen with an FHD resolution, which is nice to see at this price point, and the screen bevels are actually relatively thin for a budget-oriented product. Of course, it does come with a lower-end Intel Celeron N4500 and only 4GB of RAM, which means Windows 11 is in the reduced S mode, but the lower spec does mean the price can stay really low too.

Computing

7 best Chromebooks for 2024: the best for every budget

Chromebooks might have a hard time competing with Windows laptops and MacBooks, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place. We've reviewed hundreds of laptops over the years, testing for important qualities like performance, battery life, and display quality — and we've found that Chromebooks consistently excel at performance and reliability.

You can find Chromebooks from Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and many other branss, and we've dug through them to put together this roundup of the best Chromebooks on the market. They're incredibly accessible devices, and for the right person, a Chromebook can be the best laptop in terms of value.

Computing

The best 17-inch laptop deals from HP, LG, Razer, and more

An HP Omen 17 laptop on a desk.

Long ago, 17-inch laptops were quite rare, and the only times you'd find them was on the best gaming laptops, and that usually meant you were buying a very expensive Alienware laptop. Luckily, a lot has changed since then, and there are a plethora of pretty solid 17-inch laptops for you to pick from, whether you want something budget-friendly or one of the best laptops on the market. Not only that, but pretty much all the best laptop brands have 17-inch laptop options, so if you want to stay within a specific ecosystem or brand, then you can easily do that.

To that end, we've gone out and found some of our favorite 17-inch laptop deals out there, but if you still can't find what you're looking for here, be sure to check out these other great laptop deals as well.
HP 17.3-inch laptop — $329, was $550