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  • Cloud Backup Services: Which One is Right for You?

    Cloud Backup Services: Which One is Right for You?

    Nothing quite compares to the feeling of losing all of your files. All the pictures, documents, movies, games and other digital materials you had saved are just gone. How can you make sure your files are backed up and safe?

    Using the Cloud, you can have peace of mind and security for your files. Here’s how.

    Could Backup Services

    What is Cloud Backup?

    A Cloud backup service is a service that periodically scans your computer’s files and uploads them to the Cloud. The Cloud is the colloquial term for the interconnected system of off-site storage servers used by various network companies. Namely, Cloud storage is decentralized storage for your files that is kept online.

    Cloud backup services are typically paid services that you subscribe to, not dissimilar from renting a storage unit in the real world. You’re essentially paying a company to hang on to digital copies of all of your files. This is a great system if you have a number of files that you want to keep backed up in case of emergency.

    Examples

    A number of companies offer these types of services. AT&T, Carbonite, Rubrik, Oracle and more offer you to access their cloud backup systems. These services are all similar: they let you back up and store your files off-site. Businesses often prefer to use these types of services, as they protect against hacking, sabotage, break-ins and fires destroying important files.

    For residential use, these cloud backups are awesome if you travel a lot or use laptops primarily. For busy people who are often on the go, automated cloud backups are a life-saver. You don’t have to even think about them: your files are just backed up. If you lose your laptop or it gets destroyed, you’re covered. Well, you need a new laptop, but, you know.

    Alternatives

    Cloud backups aren’t your only option, though. You can also opt to back up your files manually on an external storage drive. This requires you to actually sit down and manually make copies of the files to the external drive, though, so it’s not as “clean” as automated cloud backups.

    However, for those who want backups without having to pay a fee for cloud services, this is a good option. As long as you remember to back-up your files once per month or so, you’ll have a pretty good backlog of your own files. Then, if your files get lost, you can simply re-upload them from your external drive.


  • Live Life in 4K with These Ultra Resolution Monitors!

    Live Life in 4K with These Ultra Resolution Monitors!

    While 4K technology has been available for some time now, it is becoming more and more affordable. More video games, streaming services and computer programs are taking advantage of the crystal-clear resolution, and we have our picks for best 4K monitors, all in one place for you to review! Check it out!

    BenQ PD3200U 32″ 4K Designer Monitor

    This monitor from BenQ has a very interesting feature: dual upstream USB ports, allowing for two computers to be hooked into one monitor and controlled from the same keyboard and mouse. For those who want a 4K picture experience with excellent color and crispness and the convenience of cooirdinating a dual-computer set-up, this BenQ monitor is a great choice. This one also has the added benefit of not requiring scaling, meaning that most third-party apps won’t give you any trouble, and its tremendous 32″ size makes for a gorgeous viewing experience! The only downside to this one is the price: it goes for a fairly steep $800.

    Dell P2715Q

    As far as older model monitors go, this Dell is a great choice for 4K viewing. Thanks to Dell’s awesome three-year warranty, you don’t need to worry about dead pixels ruining your viewing experience, and this monitor has a fantastic viewing experience at that. Excellent color quality pairs with its DisplayPort input’s 60 Hz 4K picture to make for a fantastic picture quality. This monitor has multiple USB 3 ports and a very adjustable, user-friendly stand for ergonomic viewing angles. For a reasonable $430, this Dell is a great choice. The only downsides are its relative age and large bezels, which somewhat cut into the otherwise stellar picture.

    Dell P2415Q

    For those who want a great-looking 4K image but have less desk space to dedicate to a monitor, this 24″ Dell is a great choice. This monitor is essentially just a smaller P2715Q, with comparable colors and black values, and all the same bells and whistles as its larger sibling. It also sports a USB 3 hub and is under the same excellent 3-year warranty and has a very adjustable stand. This one runs around $350, making it a significantly lower price point than the P2715Q. Much like its sibling, however, this monitor has large, unsightly bezels that cut into the image, but this is a small gripe. The P2415Q is certainly the greatest 24″ 4K monitor on the market, and if you’re looking for a smaller 4K experience, this is right for you!

    LG 27UD68P-B

    Our favorite 4K monitor, this LG impresses at every level. For $400 this is a fantastic value, sporting user-friendly menus and amazing picture. The color accuracy and black values of this display are some of the best on the market, and there is no better monitor for the price. LG has always been known for quality displays, and this is no exception to that reputation. This monitor also supports the new FreeSync technology, an adaptive scaling technique that pairs with compatible AMD graphics cards to minimize graphical tearing. If you’re looking for the very best in 4K monitors for a very reason


  • Biggest Mistakes People Make When Buying Laptops

    Biggest Mistakes People Make When Buying Laptops

    If you’re shopping for a laptop for your kids going back to school, or just looking for something to help you with productivity, there’s a lot to choose from. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for laptops on the lower end to distance themselves from competition in the form of tablets and even smartphones. As such, tons of weird gimmicks have started showing up on laptops across the entire market, and they can be hard to sift through.

    When you’re shopping for a new laptop, there are a few basic mistakes you’ll want to take care to avoid. Whether they’re experienced tech junkies or relative newcomers, here are the basic mistakes that people make when they’re shopping for a new laptop.

    Paying too Much

    Some of the higher-end laptops you’ll find are downright amazing. However, that doesn’t mean that every expensive laptop is a good deal. If a laptop feels like it’s straining your budget for you to fit it into your purchases, it’s likely rocking some features that are completely unnecessary. Don’t get suckered in to paying a huge upcharge for a 4K display, 4TB of memory and 12GB of RAM when the laptop is going to be used for taking notes and watching YouTube videos.

    Along this same line of reasoning, make sure you know what display resolution you’re comfortable with. If you want to use a laptop for lots of Netflix streaming, video games and photo editing, you might want to opt for the full 4K resolution. However, if you’re buying for a student so they can write research papers and check their email, then you might go for a 720p screen that costs less than half the price.

    Undershooting Your Needs

    On the flip side, if you buy a laptop entirely based on “oh, this is the cheapest one I could find!” then you’re likely going to get what you pay for. If your laptop barely has any storage or RAM, then you’ll find it quickly running out of usefulness for you. Likewise, if you need a lot of applications running at once but opt for a dual-core processor over a quad-core processor, just because the dual-core was cheaper, you’ve only short-changed yourself.

    When you’re buying a laptop, have a good idea of your needs. When you know what you need, then it’s easier to set your price point. If you undershoot what you need, then you’ll have issues on you hands that you won’t be able to fix until you just buy the laptop you should have bought in the first place. Likewise, if you overshoot and buy something hilariously overpowered for what you need, then you’ve wasted a ton of money on bells and whistles that aren’t helping you.

    Not Trying it Out

    Would you ever buy a car without test driving it, or a home without touring it? If you would, then, congratulations on your huge piles of disposable cash. However, people with normal budgets try things before buying them, and your laptop should be no exception. The prevalence of online buying has made this a bit less common in recent years, but this is a disturbing trend. It’s important that you try out any complex piece of technology before you buy it.

    The feel of the keyboard, the speed of the processors and the appearance of the resolution are all important things to see in person. Even minor touches, like the shape and weight of the laptop, are hard to gauge just by looking at stats and dimensions on a cold web page. Little things like the sensitivity of the touch pad or the lack of certain features might not jump off the page at you, but would be immediately apparent if you tried the device in-person.


  • Discover The Best Laptop Deals of the Holiday Season on Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and More!

    Discover The Best Laptop Deals of the Holiday Season on Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and More!

    If you’re shopping for a laptop during Black Friday or Cyber Monday for your kids going back to school, or just looking for something to help you with productivity, there’s a lot to choose from. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for laptops on the lower end to distance themselves from competition in the form of tablets and even smartphones.

    Most of the year, it’s tough to find a worthwhile deal on a laptop. If you’re in the market for an upgrade, or are buying your first laptop, Black Friday is when all of the retailers and manufacturers mark down most, if not all, of their inventory to the best prices of the year. Regardless of whether you have your eye on a Windows 10 laptop or a MacBook, there will be plenty of both sorts on sale soon (and in some cases, right now).

    Apple

    Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro is already $100 off at Best Buy, starting at $2,299 for My Best Buy members (Best Buy’s program is free to join and only requires an e-mail address to set up) instead of $2,399. This deal applies to all configurations.

    The latest MacBook Air will be $200 off beginning on Thanksgiving, starting at $899.99 for the base model with 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i5 dual-core processor. This model is available in several colors, and unlike the previous generation, this one has a True Tone display that can automatically match the screen’s color temperature to the ambient lighting in the room. Best Buy members can save $100 on this product now, but you’ll get a better discount if you wait just a little longer.

    Microsoft

    At the Microsoft Store, the brand-new Surface Pro 7 (Intel Core i5-1035G4 with a base clock speed of 1.1GHz, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage) will be bundled with a black Type Cover (usually sold separately) and sold for $799 starting on Friday, November 22nd. This model is currently priced at $899 for the tablet alone, and since the Type Cover is all but necessary, it’s a great deal given how recently this product was released. You should know that Best Buy will also offer this deal, but on Black Friday.

    Also at the Microsoft Store, the low-end option (Core i3-1005G1 with a 1.2GHz base clock speed, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage) is getting a $150 markdown starting on November 28th. Instead of $749, it will cost $599, and will include a Type Cover. This same deal will also happen at Best Buy on Black Friday.

    Dell

    Dell’s XPS 13 (13-inch 1080p display, Intel Core i7-8565U with a 1.8GHz base clock speed, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM) currently costs $1,049 (usually $1,299). At Costco, Dell’s latest XPS 13 laptop (4K display, 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10710U with a 1.1GHz base clock speed, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD storage) will be $1,399 starting on Thanksgiving Day. The webcam is located at the top of the display on both of these laptops, and they each feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports. The XPS 13 is currently our top pick for best laptop, so you should check either of these models out if you’re in the market for a compact, very capable machine.

    Dell’s 2-in-1 version of the XPS 13 laptop is $1,449 right now. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio display (pictured at the top of this post), which offers a little bit more screen real estate for getting things done. It also has Intel’s new 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 with a base clock speed of 1.3GHz, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The updated specs, plus the ability to twist the screen around will cost you a premium, but might be worth it for your needs. My colleague Dan Seifert said that this model is “even better than the standard XPS 13” in his review.


  • Biggest Mistakes People Make When Buying Laptops

    Biggest Mistakes People Make When Buying Laptops

    If you’re shopping for a laptop for your kids going back to school, or just looking for something to help you with productivity, there’s a lot to choose from. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for laptops on the lower end to distance themselves from competition in the form of tablets and even smartphones. As such, tons of weird gimmicks have started showing up on laptops across the entire market, and they can be hard to sift through.

    When you’re shopping for a new laptop, there are a few basic mistakes you’ll want to take care to avoid. Whether they’re experienced tech junkies or relative newcomers, here are the basic mistakes that people make when they’re shopping for a new laptop.

    Paying too Much

    Some of the higher-end laptops you’ll find are downright amazing. However, that doesn’t mean that every expensive laptop is a good deal. If a laptop feels like it’s straining your budget for you to fit it into your purchases, it’s likely rocking some features that are completely unnecessary. Don’t get suckered in to paying a huge upcharge for a 4K display, 4TB of memory and 12GB of RAM when the laptop is going to be used for taking notes and watching YouTube videos.

    Along this same line of reasoning, make sure you know what display resolution you’re comfortable with. If you want to use a laptop for lots of Netflix streaming, video games and photo editing, you might want to opt for the full 4K resolution. However, if you’re buying for a student so they can write research papers and check their email, then you might go for a 720p screen that costs less than half the price.

    Undershooting Your Needs

    On the flip side, if you buy a laptop entirely based on “oh, this is the cheapest one I could find!” then you’re likely going to get what you pay for. If your laptop barely has any storage or RAM, then you’ll find it quickly running out of usefulness for you. Likewise, if you need a lot of applications running at once but opt for a dual-core processor over a quad-core processor, just because the dual-core was cheaper, you’ve only short-changed yourself.

    When you’re buying a laptop, have a good idea of your needs. When you know what you need, then it’s easier to set your price point. If you undershoot what you need, then you’ll have issues on you hands that you won’t be able to fix until you just buy the laptop you should have bought in the first place. Likewise, if you overshoot and buy something hilariously overpowered for what you need, then you’ve wasted a ton of money on bells and whistles that aren’t helping you.

    Not Trying it Out

    Would you ever buy a car without test driving it, or a home without touring it? If you would, then, congratulations on your huge piles of disposable cash. However, people with normal budgets try things before buying them, and your laptop should be no exception. The prevalence of online buying has made this a bit less common in recent years, but this is a disturbing trend. It’s important that you try out any complex piece of technology before you buy it.

    The feel of the keyboard, the speed of the processors and the appearance of the resolution are all important things to see in person. Even minor touches, like the shape and weight of the laptop, are hard to gauge just by looking at stats and dimensions on a cold web page. Little things like the sensitivity of the touch pad or the lack of certain features might not jump off the page at you, but would be immediately apparent if you tried the device in-person.


  • Best Deals on Laptops

    Best Deals on Laptops

    Having a nice smartphone is cool, and a good tablet can be great for entertainment uses around the house. When it comes to productivity and getting things done, however, what you really need is a full-fledged laptop. As long as you’re not looking to go too far into the gaming side of things, which will quickly increase the price, you can get a good laptop for school or work for under $500. Let’s take a look at some of the best deals on laptops.

    We’re looking at these laptops based on a number of factors. The primary factor, of course, is price: only laptops under $500 can make this list. The secondary factor is overall usefulness: since laptops compete in price with tablets, we’re concerned primarily with laptops that can help you with your productivity for tasks like typing or creating presentations.

    Acer Aspire E 15

    Far from the prettiest or lightest laptop on the market, the Acer Aspire E 15 is a squat and industrial-looking laptop that you can pick up for under $400. The $360 configuration sports a low-end dual-core i3-8130U and a below-average 6GB of RAM. It offers a sizable 1TB hard drive, though, and the price is notably lower than many competing Windows laptops. The Aspire E 15 is an interesting little laptop for a number of other reasons, though.

    Coming in at 5.3 pounds, the Aspire E is also surprisingly weighty. That said, the design is rugged and likely to last you for a while. If you’re still working with physical media, the laptop includes a DVD drive and even a burner for encoding your own info. Interestingly, this laptop also supports memory expansion: you can open it up and add more physical memory and storage space.

    HP 15

    The very simple and straightforward naming convention of the HP 15 matches up with its very plain and almost dorky design. The 15 is a very inexpensive laptop, coming in for the low price of around $400, though it’s not winning any beauty contests. It sports big bezels, rounded corners and a bulky, blocky design that’s reminiscent of something a child might use. That said, it’s got the goods for someone looking for an inexpensive laptop.

    The HP 15 runs full Windows, which is unique for a laptop of this price range. Many laptops under $500 are Chromebooks, which run on Google’s low power consumption, budget-friendly Chrome OS. If you need a laptop for productivity, such as typing in Word or making PowerPoint Presentations, then the HP 15 is a great inexpensive option. It’s worth noting that it only supports the older, weaker 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, so it might be worth skipping this one if you don’t use ethernet connections often.

    Dell Inspiron 15 5000

    Another 15-inch Windows laptop, the Inspiron 1500 can often be found on sale for just under $500. If you need a good compromise between low price and high power, this is the laptop for you. It offers up 8GB of RAM, allowing you to multitask and handle beefier requirements like photo editing. The CPU is an i5-8250U, making it a good mid-range CPU that can handle most task.

    Interestingly, the display here is a true HD display. This means that you get the best of both worlds: the price of a budget laptop with the features of a higher-end device. For the cherry on top, this laptop sports a 256GB solid state drive. Solid state drives have some notable advantages over hard disk drives: notably, they load information much more quickly, and they also have no moving parts, making them safer to travel with and likely to last longer.

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  • Best Billing and Invoice Software for Small Businesses

    Best Billing and Invoice Software for Small Businesses

    Whether your business has ten employees or a hundred, you need invoicing and billing software. After all, keeping up with who gets money, and how much, is critical to operating your business daily. As such, you need the best billing and invoice software you can get. Today we’re taking a look at some of the best software on the market for your small business so you can get down to business.

    While there’s no one right answer for your business, these are some of the most popular and highly-rated software solutions out there. Your business deserves to succeed, so give it the best chance to by getting the best invoicing software!

    What is Billing and Invoice Software?

    For those who are just starting a small business and might not know, invoicing software is incredibly important to the daily operations of your business. Primarily, this software is for accounting and other financial operations. It can be as simple as something that allows single-entries of data points to more advanced, double-entry applications with more robust features.

    Depending on your business, you might be better served by a simpler software solution that allows you to quickly input and organize data and information. However, your business might be complex enough that it’s more important you have a more thorough and robust software suite available, with functionality such as double-checking your numbers and automating tasks.

    Quickbooks

    One of the most well-known and easily-recognized names in the realm of accounting software, you’ve likely seen commercials from or heard about Quickbooks. That name recognition comes honest: Quickbooks is one of the best software suites for accounting tasks, offering ample features for businesses without overwhelming users with options.

    The user interface is clean, easy-to-navigate and impressive. Task automation is easy and resources to help you find ways to solve problems with Quickbooks are plentiful. One of the best things about choosing a major name like Quickbooks is that most people are already familiar with the software, so your accounting employees will likely have no trouble using it or figuring out how to troubleshoot the software.

    Freshbooks

    Freshbooks, the similarly-named competition to Quickbooks, is another great option for small businesses. While not as recognizable or well-known as Quickbooks, Freshbooks offers a great platform for your accounting needs and is a bit less expensive than Quickbooks. The trade-off, however, is that less people will be familiar with the software, so your accounting employees may need more in-depth training with it.

    Freshbooks is a cloud-based accounting solution, so you can rest assured knowing your books are backed up offsite. Even if your computers go down or somehow you lose your hard drives, you won’t lose all of your accounting information. Automation solutions are as robust as Quickbooks; the only real step down from the competition is that Freshbooks is a bit more complex to learn and use.

    Sage 50cloud

    Another excellent accounting suite you can use for billing and invoicing is Sage 50cloud. Sage’s software solution is, as the name suggests, another cloud-based accounting option. This means that your books will be backed up in the cloud and can be recovered in case you lose your files or hard drive. This keeps incidents like fires or burglaries from being total wipeouts of your data.

    Sage 50cloud is also notable for its user interface. It’s a breeze to set up automated tasks, like payroll or recurring bills and invoices. Organizing invoices and expenditures is easy, and information is presented in a readable and easy-to-parse context. Exporting and importing data is a snap, and you don’t have to worry about minor clerical errors: the software double-checks behind you to make sure everything adds up.


  • Artificial Intelligence: Fact vs Fiction

    Artificial Intelligence: Fact vs Fiction

    One of the most misunderstood terms in computer science is “artificial intelligence”. While many people are familiar with the term artificial intelligence, or its shortened form, AI, they might have a picture of AI in their mind that doesn’t reflect the reality. Sci-fi movies paint a picture of an AI as simply a human-like intelligence that lives in a computer. That’s not entirely accurately.

    Today we’re looking a bit more closely at real artificial intelligence initiatives, how they differ from pop culture depictions of AI, and some of the ethical and philosophical questions raised by artificial intelligence technology.

    What is Artificial Intelligence?

    In simple terms, artificial intelligence refers to intelligence being displayed by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In the popular conception of an artificial intelligence, the term refers to machines that can mimic natural intelligence features such as problem solving, learning and innovation.

    Within the scientific community, there is an ongoing effect known as the “AI effect.” This observation states that any functionality once thought to be “artificial intelligence” that becomes achievable by current-day machines is no longer dubbed AI. For instance, tasks such as understanding human speech, playing games like chess and Go and decrypting written language were all once reserved for “artificial intelligence,” though they are now common computer programs.

    In short, as Tesler’s Theorem jokes, “AI is whatever hasn’t been done yet.”

    Types of AI

    There are three main types of artificial intelligence. These include analytical, human-inspired and, finally, humanized AI. Analytical AI is the simplest, and encompasses things like learning, problem-solving and understanding representations of the world around them. Human-inspired AI are more complex and would involve the understanding and emulation of human emotion. Essentially, these would be “emotionally intelligent” AI.

    Finally, humanized AI would most closely resemble the sci-fi incarnation of a human-like intelligence that can think, reason, emote and feel in all the same ways as a human being. Humanized AI, in theory, would be fully self-aware, cognizant, and, essential, would have all of the elements that make natural intelligence aware of their place in the world. This form of AI carries serious philosophical and ethical implications.

    Ethics and Philosophy

    Humanized AI raises a serious question: is a sufficiently intelligent computer program, one that shows evidence of self-awareness, a person? Should society extend human rights and legal protections to artificial intelligences? How should we react should the artificial intelligence prove hostile, or hold values contrary to those of its creator?

    Even deeper than these questions, there are serious philosophical questions about the nature of consciousness. We know we are conscious, or, at least, each individual can know that they are conscious. However, it’s difficult to distinguish a sufficiently well-programmed piece of software from a truly self-aware machine intelligence. How can we know that the program in question is actually experiencing consciousness, not just emulating the signifiers of consciousness we programmed into it?

    Reality vs Expectation

    The difference in the reality of artificial intelligence and the expectations of them have led to a number of miscommunications between researchers and their funding. Companies and universities funding AI research often expect fully-aware, sentient AI to leap fully-formed from the researchers’ computers, while the researchers are simply making iterative probes into the nature of machine learning and intelligence.

    In the short-term, it’s unclear if any of the software we currently have could be defined as “artificial intelligence,” due to the AI effect reclassifying innovations as simple machine processes, not intelligence. In the long-term, we will have a number of decisions to make regarding the future of artificial intelligence, how we as a species deal with machine intelligence, and what rights we extend to apparently self-aware programs.


  • Budget Gaming Laptops: Get the Most for Your Money

    Budget Gaming Laptops: Get the Most for Your Money

    Anyone who has ever considered getting into PC gaming might have been immediately scared off by a few things. The first thing, of course, is just how complex it can be to build you own gaming rig. The second thing is just how expensive it can be to purchase a pre-made gaming computer.

    In order to help you avoid both of these issues, today we’ve got a few of the best budget gaming laptops on the market rounded up for you. Here’s how you can get into PC gaming on a budget and without having to learn how to build your own system!

    Budget Gaming Laptops

    Dell G-5 15

    The G-series of Dell gaming laptops might not be as flashy as their Alienware subsidiary, but they’re rock-solid and well-worth the price. For an intro price of $800 for the G-5’s base model, you get a solid  4GB GTX 1050 graphics card.

    Such a card is more than capable to tackle most modern AAA titles. However, if you want some more power, you can upgrade to the 6GB GTX 1060 if you’re willing to pay $1,000. For those looking for something notably more powerful, a cool $1,200 gets you the RTX 2060, a much newer and very powerful graphics card.

    Acer Predator Helios 300

    This slick-looking gaming laptop is more than just a flashy case. This brand-new budget gaming laptop will hit stores later in April, and it’s rocking some seriously cool hardware under the hood for its $1,000 price tag.

    Inside the sleek case, you’ll find a 6GB Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU, Intel Core i7-8750H CPU, and a 144Hz refresh rate 15.6-inch HD IPS display. It also sports 16GB of system RAM, making it a multitasking beast. This is all bolstered by the 256GB NVMe SSD, a blazing-fast storage solution with a surprising amount of storage.

    Lenovo Legion Y7000

    Lenovo’s Legion line of gaming laptops are all available for a sub-$1,000 price tag, and the differences between them are pretty nitty-gritty. The mean-looking Y7000 is our favorite on its silver-and-angry aesthetic alone.

    Regardless of your aesthetic sensibilities, these are some stellar laptops and you can’t go wrong with any of them. From the Y7000 to the Y530 to the Y730, you need only find a price point and specs you like in the mix to make these laptops well worth the low asking price.

  • Cloud Backup Services: Which One is Right for You?

    Cloud Backup Services: Which One is Right for You?

    Nothing quite compares to the feeling of losing all of your files. All the pictures, documents, movies, games and other digital materials you had saved are just gone. How can you make sure your files are backed up and safe?

    Using the Cloud, you can have peace of mind and security for your files. Here’s how.

    Could Backup Services

    What is Cloud Backup?

    A Cloud backup service is a service that periodically scans your computer’s files and uploads them to the Cloud. The Cloud is the colloquial term for the interconnected system of off-site storage servers used by various network companies. Namely, Cloud storage is decentralized storage for your files that is kept online.

    Cloud backup services are typically paid services that you subscribe to, not dissimilar from renting a storage unit in the real world. You’re essentially paying a company to hang on to digital copies of all of your files. This is a great system if you have a number of files that you want to keep backed up in case of emergency.

    Examples

    A number of companies offer these types of services. AT&T, Carbonite, Rubrik, Oracle and more offer you to access their cloud backup systems. These services are all similar: they let you back up and store your files off-site. Businesses often prefer to use these types of services, as they protect against hacking, sabotage, break-ins and fires destroying important files.

    For residential use, these cloud backups are awesome if you travel a lot or use laptops primarily. For busy people who are often on the go, automated cloud backups are a life-saver. You don’t have to even think about them: your files are just backed up. If you lose your laptop or it gets destroyed, you’re covered. Well, you need a new laptop, but, you know.

    Alternatives

    Cloud backups aren’t your only option, though. You can also opt to back up your files manually on an external storage drive. This requires you to actually sit down and manually make copies of the files to the external drive, though, so it’s not as “clean” as automated cloud backups.

    However, for those who want backups without having to pay a fee for cloud services, this is a good option. As long as you remember to back-up your files once per month or so, you’ll have a pretty good backlog of your own files. Then, if your files get lost, you can simply re-upload them from your external drive.