SA_Lo Posted January 29, 2013 Posted January 29, 2013 Hello everyone! Chopin says you all are pretty savvy people, and that's exactly who I'm looking for! :D So please allow me to introduce myself and tell you what an great guy Chopin is (actually, you probably already know that last part): :nod: My name is Lori and I am the Outreach Communications Specialist for StoAmigo, a personal cloud management system. We recently opened a public beta test of our product and we're giving free 5 GB StoAmigo accounts to everyone who is willing to take StoAmigo for a spin. All I ask in exchange is for any feedback you have about the system: what you like, don’t like, what you think works or doesn’t work, new ideas, etc. The account is yours to keep. You've probably heard of cloud computing before, maybe even have an account somewhere else... *ahem* BUT two of the things we're excited about at StoAmigo are our streaming quality and capabilities for music and video. Who better to offer opinions on those features than music aficionados? So even you're visiting the forum as a guest, you're welcome to give StoAmigo a try. Anyone who wants to sign up for the beta (and a free 5GB cloud storage account) can contact me at lori@stoamigo.com and I’ll send you a personal beta access code. Please mention "Young Composers" in the subject line of the email. You can also visit www.stoamigo.com if you want to find out more about us. I want to publicly thank Chopin for allowing me the opportunity to reach out to you today. I truly appreciate it. Hope to hear from you soon, and thank you in advance! Lori Quote
jrcramer Posted January 30, 2013 Posted January 30, 2013 hi, I am interested. but can you describe how your services differ from say dropbox (ahem) or soundcloud (ahem). comparison to other services is welcome to, but I mention these, because the first is well established, and the second is very suitable for 'music aficionados' ;) Jaap (linux user) Quote
SA_Lo Posted January 31, 2013 Author Posted January 31, 2013 Hello Jaap and Buckaroo! Thanks so much for being willing to help! As I mentioned, our product is in beta mode so user feedback is extremely important. Who knows? You could have the “big idea” that makes all the difference for us! While StoAmigo, SoundCloud and Dropbox all offer storage space, the choice really boils down to what the user is looking for. We are quite different from SoundCloud; our platform isn’t focused strictly on audio and audio needs. StoAmigo also accommodates other forms of digital media such as videos, documents and photographs. By comparison, we’re actually more similar to DropBox. There are several key items that set StoAmigo apart. Among them: Our unique permission settings allow you to maintain control of your digital media at all times – even after your files have been opened. You can mark a file “Private” so it’s only viewable from within a StoAmigo account, block download capabilities and remove share permissions whenever you like. Media stored in StoAmigo is streamed directly from the cloud; our system doesn’t create duplicate copies of your files that will take up additional space. StoAmigo lets you create lists of single- or multimedia files and stream directly from the cloud. Imagine building a playlist of 100 of your favorite songs, without having to create 100 additional files! StoAmigo will soon be offering a personal cloud device (PCD) that provides you an even greater measure of privacy. The PCD has all of StoAmigo’s features in your very own portable unit, perfect for times when you want to share something (such as a first listen to that latest composition) without it leaving your immediate possession. I invite you to visit www.stoamigo.com/the-stoamigo-difference/ for more information on how StoAmigo stacks up to other cloud management systems. Buckaroo, I've sent your beta code; Jaap, contact me at lori@stoamigo.com and I'll get you started as well. Looking forward to hearing your feedback about the platform! Quote
Morivou Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 I am also interested in this! I would gladly offer feedback. :) I've sent my email! Quote
SA_Lo Posted February 2, 2013 Author Posted February 2, 2013 PlusVideos load surpisingly quickly. The uncompressed one I tested loaded fast and played pretty smoothly while the compressed performed better. Rotation is a nice touch. Great for presentations. Didn't notice any performance hit using that feature. Doc preview is good. I'm all about speed over pretty. I like how uploading operates in a separate minimisable instance, allowing you to manage other files at the same time. Drag and dropping is sweet. List sharing is good, when it works. Sometimes the window just flashes blue when I double click on the target list. Search is fast and effective. Doesn't go beyond filename to something like indexing, though. I like the simplicity of it all. Straightforward. No stats, clunky browsing, memory intensive integrated players and other fancy bullshit. Minus Upload speed is a little below average. Simultaneous uploading would be nice. Individually the speed is average. I think most people would consider speed the most important factor in choosing a cloud storage solution be it free or not. Default folders don't work as automatic organisers. You can put images in My Video for example. The filetype icon however mitigates that somewhat. No text wrapping in txt preview. Massive oversight. Pdf preview is unusable for anything else other than to preview. It loads one page at a time at a crawl. Image preview is a little slow. I tested only low resolution jpgs. Ability to hide name from shared links would be nice. Question. How private is our storage? Are the administrators able to gain access into it and download things? Hi there Buckaroo! So excited to see such in-depth feedback! We appreciate it more than you know and are glad you found so many of StoAmigo’s features to your liking. Since we’re in beta mode and are constantly looking for ways to improve our platform and the overall user experience, feedback such as yours is needed and helpful. Regarding your question on privacy, this is something we take very seriously. We are continuing to take steps to ensure your information and media always remain private. This is accomplished via a variety of methods including data encryption, access controls, and security audit/review. As for those who want full control and total privacy, we’ll be releasing a personal cloud device soon called CloudLocker. It gives you 300 GB of instant cloud space on a device that you can quickly and easily hook up to your home network, and adding additional storage space to the device is simple. What’s most important is that all your precious photos, music, videos and documents can be kept securely at home. You’ll still be able to share your stuff with others through our unique permission settings; these allow you to maintain control of your digital media, change permissions or retract your share at any time. Speaking of a “personal cloud,” this is one true personal cloud. :D Thanks again Buckaroo for the feedback. We’re certainly glad you joined us! Quote
SA_Lo Posted February 2, 2013 Author Posted February 2, 2013 Hello everyone! THANK YOU to everyone who has signed up to test StoAmigo so far! We're glad to have you on board. The beta is still open to forum members and guests, and you are welcome to invite friends and family members to do so as well. :nod: Please contact me at lori@stoamigo.com for your personal beta access code, and mention "Young Composers" in the subject line. Quote
SA_Lo Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 Good morning all! Just wanted to ease the minds of some of you who may have been unnerved by Buckaroo's detailed review of StoAmigo. :relief: You do not have to be a computer guru to participate in the beta test; as a matter of fact, our goal is to make StoAmigo so user friendly that anyone can use and enjoy it. That's why it's important for us to get feedback from people with various levels of technology knowledge and experience. In addition, don't worry about not knowing what to do once you've logged into StoAmigo. I have a short and sweet list of test items that we want users to accomplish within the program; I will send it to you after you sign up. Lastly, it's not necessary for you to post your feedback here; feel free to send it to me directly at lori@stoamigo.com . I hope that answers your questions! If not, just let me know. Take care! Quote
SA_Lo Posted February 7, 2013 Author Posted February 7, 2013 Interesting news everyone! Check out StoAmigo’s Android application, STILL with 5GB of free storage space! Here’s the link to our spot in Google Play Store: http://bit.ly/Wyl1iT We’re still in beta so if you have any critical feedback, please do not post it in Google Play Store. We'd appreciate the opportunity to know about it and address it directly first. Feel free to contact me at lori@stoamigo.com or here in the forum. If you’re so blown away by the app that it leaves you speechless and you don’t have any feedback, that’s fine too! Enjoy! :nod: Quote
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