Supersize Me First Look! ZumoDrive stores data in magical clouds.

Apparently the internet is a series of tubes. And they all lead to a world of magic clouds where we can all store our gigabytes upon gigabytes of information.
Until ZumoDrive came along, none of us had access to these clouds. Now they are plugged in (via the tubes) to all our computing platforms. And, starting today, that includes the iPhone. The app is called Supersize Me. It will be available on the iTunes store starting today, and this is your first look.

I can see all the files I have stored in the air around me.
I can see I’m losing some of you with my technical jargon. What this all means to the layperson is that you can now create a ZumoDrive account, install a small application on your laptop, desktop, and iPhone, and then you can share unlimited amounts of information between them. None of the information lives on any specific drive. Instead, it is hosted on the internets via what Zumo calls “cloud storage.”
This idea isn’t new. What is new is Zumo’s great approach to usability. The “cloud space” shows up as a ZumoDrive that looks like any other drive on your computer, and files can be dragged to and from the ZumoDrive at will. A program running in the background uploads and downloads as you go, giving the impression of instantaneous transfer.
On the new iPhone app, this is taken one step further. The ZumoDrive is divided into a Music and a Photos folder, and the app actively mines these files and organizes your tunes via artist and album. Then it lists the files via an iPod-like interface and lets you stream from your magic internet clouds. The result is the ability to listen to your entire music library without having to physically copy files to your small-storage device.
The photos work the same way. I was determined to find a negative side to this app, though, so I put an iPhone ready video in a new folder I called Movies. When I clicked it, it took a while to cache (about 10 seconds), and then played perfectly on the phone.
Supersize Me also lets you view your PDF and Word documents.
Since everything is stored on the internet, it doesn’t take up any precious iPhone harddrive space.
There is a downside to this. Uploading and downloading files to the cloud can be slow, especially for movie and sound files. If you are uploading your music library from your computer to be accessed from your phone, I’d recommend setting the transfer to run overnight. I can also see this service getting very frustrating if you are doing lots of graphics or video heavy work. It is best for documents and some music.
On the phone side of things, though,I have no complaints. As long as you have a reliable wi-fi network it works fine. And it will work over 3G and edge, just slower.
I like apps like Air Sharing quite a bit, but Supersize Me has two huge advantages. First, there is no need to connect to a server in order to transfer files. Instead, files stream as-needed (which can be bad if you are without a good internet connection, I know). Second, the data mining of the music files really helps to turn the iPhone into an iPod that organizes all your music for easy access and playback.
Is it really like having unlimited, immediate storage? Of course not. The internet is not as fast as a harddrive, and there will invariably be waiting involved. But it is definitely the closest thing I’ve seen to that promise.
As with all good things, there is a cost involved. You can get one gigabyte of cloud storage free, but other plans start at $2.99 per month and go up from there.
The Supersize Me iPhone app will be $4.99, but Zecter is making it available for free for a limited time. If you’re on the fence about this one, I’d highly recommend trying it out with the one gigabyte account. That should be enough to tell you if you need magical cloud storage.
The future is…now. Woah.
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