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These days we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to online file storage/sharing solutions. There’s something to suit every user’s needs, from a photographer sharing an occasional image online (CloudApp) to the design studio sending across large files to their printing facility (YouSendIt), to the startup company road warrior who needs all his files in sync wherever he goes (Dropbox). It’s great that we have so many options but it’s also overwhelming at times.

Fluxiom aims to be the choice for professionals who need to store large files of a variety of types, be able to find and organize them easily, and quickly share them. It also allows users to receive files securely and makes sure they’re all in order. Is it right for you? Let’s take a peek and find out.

Overview

Fluxiom has been around for a few years now but has been updated over time to meet users’ changing needs. The first thing you’ll notice about Fluxiom is that it works mainly as a webapp and is far more suited as a file sharing solution than an online backup tool. With its detailed thumbnail view, desktop-like file handling experience and professional sharing options, it’s great for users who need to show their work to clients and collaborate with co-workers. They offer top-notch storage for your data in high-end data centers with redundant and off-site backups so your files are in good hands. Plus, uploads and downloads are quite fast.

Fluxiom's informative homepage

The app relies greatly on tags – you’ll need to tag your files in order to filter and share them. Other features include a dropbox to securely receive files, RSS feeds and multiple users on some plans.

Getting started

You can choose from five different plans when you sign up, including a 100 MB free-for-life plan. The plans differ in capacity (10 GB – 1 TB). Basic, Pro and Infinity plans allow you to create as many users as you like, while the 10 GB Solo plan is good for one user only. Registration is painless and you can try a free 30-day trial of any of the plans on offer.

You can upload files of any size and file type. Uploading on the webapp restricts you to one file at a time. If you want to upload more than one file you’ll have to zip them all up and then upload the zip file – which isn’t very user-friendly. As an alternative, the site offers simple desktop uploader software for Mac and PC, which allow quick and easy drag-and-drop upload of multiple files. These allow you to add and queue files for upload. The Mac app looks fine but the Windows app UI could use a bit of polish.

Fluxiom's uploaders for Windows and Mac

Getting your flux on

The fun begins once your files (called assets) are uploaded. The webapp will show thumbnails of each asset with their extensions so you know what each of them is at a glance. There’s a bar at the bottom for actions and a bar at the top for accessing the app’s sections, file search, and file filters (by type, status or tag). This interface is similar to a desktop file manager – move the slider to change the size of thumbnails, Ctrl/Cmd+Click or Shift+Click to select multiple assets.

The Assets View on Fluxiom

Besides thumbnails, you can also preview over 100 file types including Microsoft Office, Adobe CS, and video file types; image previews even feature EXIF data. However, there are some limitations here which are rather strange: You can’t preview MP3 files; with Word (DOCX), Powerpoint (PPTX) and PDFs, you can preview only the first page/slide.

A DOCX file preview on Fluxiom

The main strength of Fluxiom is to allow you to recognize, organize, find and share your files. The first thing you should do with your assets is tag them. The tags system feels a bit like Gmail‘s Labels feature. The menu bar on top features all your tags as filter buttons – clicking on any of them brings up the assets with that tag while hiding the rest.

Adding tags is a bit cumbersome – you’ve to first switch to the Manage Tabs screen by clicking the button on the right in the top menubar, then add tags, switch back to the Assets view, select assets and then assign the tag to them. One would expect this basic process to be easier. Furthermore, this process is mandatory if you want to share files.

Tagging files is cumbersome on Fluxiom

Sharing is achieved by creating Stages, which are mini-sites where you can share multiple files with friends, family or clients. To create a stage, you’ll need to have all the assets you want on it tagged with the same tag (e.g. website files june 2011). This means you can’t put assets with completely separate tags (e.g. website images and website layouts) on the same stage – you’ll have to add a common tag to all assets you intend to put on a stage. Again, not as simple or intuitive as I’d have liked. If you still choose to use stages, though, you’ll find a nice touch in that they are automatically updated when you add files to that tag. You can invite users (Fluxiom will send out an email) when you create a stage, and even add more users anytime later, or revoke their access whenever you need to.

Creating a Stage to share files on Fluxiom

Fluxiom also provides you with a dropbox where people to whom you give the link can upload files you can review and accept. This works well enough. There’s also customizable branding, wherein you can change the logo, account name and gradient above the top menubar for when visitors view your stages. Lastly, there’s a good search engine that can also search within files.

Conclusion

Fluxiom has some strengths as an online storage/sharing app but feels way too clunky for me to consider using seriously. I appreciate the approach they’ve taken to cater to professional users but it should have been easier to use and far more flexible. Mandatory tagging, single-tag stage sharing and single-page document previews feel archaic. I also found myself having to think through steps just to carry out simple functions like tagging.

There are several great alternatives out there: Huddle, while more focused on collaboration, keeps file sharing professional while making it easy to get things done; Box offers many of the same features with a simpler, friendlier interface. Even though I appreciate some of its features, I wouldn’t be thrilled about having to use Fluxiom. There’s a great app in there somewhere but at present, it’s in hiding. If you’d still like to check it out, take the free plan or the 30-day free trial for a spin.

Tomorrow, Google’s new Chromebooks will be released on Amazon and retailers around the nation. After years of speculation about a Google OS, the online giant has finally entered the mainstream OS wars against the likes of Apple and Microsoft. Only Google’s Chrome OS is much more limited than Windows and OS X. It runs the Chrome browser, and nothing else.

For many things, Chromebooks may be perfectly fine. With all the great web apps available today, many of us spend most of our days in the browser anyhow. But there’s a reason the iOS and Mac App Store are selling more software than ever: native apps are usually still more feature-full and speedy. Plus, there are still times when our internet goes down or we’re out of signal range.

Still, having a secondary computer that boots almost instantly and gives a great browsing experience is very compelling. That’s one of the biggest reasons tablets like the iPad and ones running Google’s own Android are increasingly popular as a secondary computer. Google’s put themselves in the odd position of competing against themselves with Android Honeycomb and Chrome OS.

So, are you ready to take the leap to using only a browser, or will you be sticking with your Mac or PC for now? Or are you going to turn your laptop or netbook into a Chromebook with the third-party versions such as Chrome OS Flow?

I’m a web developer who’s not much for prototyping, at least not using some online tool. I’ve changed up my process a lot, but the only thing that’s still frustrating is the sketches phase. Sometimes I’ll dive right into code and start mocking up using just HTML and CSS. Other times I boot up Photoshop and create a series of mock-ups from nice, organized layers. If I need feedback, I’ll upload the screenshots into a project manager and ask people to comment.

This admittedly is not a very good way to do it. Then I heard about inVision, a fantastic prototyping tool that allows you to create user experiences and get feedback. We’ve recently seen a Quick Look post about it, and several lucky readers got free subscriptions to it in our recent giveaway. For everyone else, keep reading to learn more about InVision.

InVision: Beautiful Online Prototypes

inVision is a prototyping web app that allows you to upload screenshots and create an experience out of them. You can easily let others interact with the screenshots to get a feel for how they’d interact with the real application, before you put down any code. On top of that, the users can place comments anywhere on the screen, which you can then view, as well as check off as completed.

inVision Homepage

Creating Projects

First thing’s first: You need an account to use inVision. Luckily, you can try it out for free as they have a free 1 project account. They’ve also made it incredibly quick to signup and try it out. Simply add your info, and you can immediately jump in and get started prototyping without verifying or activating your account. If you like it and realize you’ll need more than one project, they have several upgrades available. The plan prices aren’t bad, especially if inVision helps you become more efficient.

Pricing Plan

Once you create an account and sign in, inVision has a nice 5 minute video tutorial that you can watch to show just how easy the app is to use. And actually, everything you need to know is in that video – it’s very helpful! The only annoying part is that the video plays every time you log in, and it doesn’t seem there’s a way to stop that from happening.

Once you get to your dashboard, you’ll have 2 sample projects, including the project featured in the video tutorial. There is also a nice big button you use to create new projects.

Dashboard

Just click the big plus sign, name the project, and boom- you now have a way to create a nice, interactive prototype. Clicking on the new project will take you to that project’s dashboard, where you can upload screenshots and create an experience.

Remember: you actually create the screenshots in Photoshop or your favorite image editor, or take screenshots of an HTML/CSS mock-up in your browser. You’re simply uploading images.

To upload, simply drag and drop all of the screens into the project’s dashboard and inVision will automatically add them to the project and name them, based on the file name. You can also rename those screens by clicking on the name.

Project Dashboard

Once all of  the screens are uploaded, the fun starts. Click on one of your screens to begin the prototyping process. The first thing you’ll notice is a help screen that gives you a nice little tour. These screens show up the first time you use a feature. Unlike the main video, you’ll only see each help screen once.

One of the Help Screens

After checking out the help screen, you will move on to the screen where you’ll build the experience. Make sure to switch from “Experience” to “Build” mode in the bottom right, and start selecting areas to make clickable. To do this, drag your mouse over an area and then select one of the other screens. When the user clicks that area, he or she will be taken to the proper screen.

Build Mode

One of the coolest features of inVision is the ability to make templates. Create a template using the drop down box at the top. Then, when you create a clickable area you can choose to add it to the template. Apply that template to another screen, and those clickable areas are automatically added. This can allow you to create experiences quickly and easily, which means you’ll be able to send it out for feedback faster.

Getting Feedback from Users

This is likely the real reason we create a prototype in the first place – to garner feedback from users. Luckily, inVision makes it very easy for us to do this.

Share Screen

inVision will provide you with a link to share with whoever you’d like. No login is required , though if you are concerned about security, you have the ability to create a secure link, as well as password protect the project so only those who know the password can offer feedback.

The interface is very easy to use. Just click on the screen anywhere you want to add a comment, and your comment will show up right there. When you leave your first comment, inVision will ask for a name and an email so the developer knows who the comment is coming from. You can also view comments from others to see what they’ve said, or turn off comments to see the clean design.

User Feedback

Being able to comment on specific spots of a design is pretty great because the user can select the exact area he or she is talking about instead of trying to describe it in an email or project manager. While everything on the screen might be obvious for this quick example I created, in more complex designs, it’s sometimes tough to describe the area in words. This eliminates that confusion.

You can also view a list of all the comments on the screen very easily. While in Comment mode (next to Build while editing a screen), click on the Comments tab on the left. You’ll then see a list of all of the comments with the ability to mark them complete. This serves as an excellent to do list on a project. Once you mark a comment complete, it’s removed from the screen, but you can still see it in this list.

All Comments for a Screen

On top of that, you can view all of the comments on a project, organized by screen. Just click on “All Project Comments” from a screen’s comment list.

You can also get to the list from the project’s dashboard. Simply click, “Comments” in the top right and you’ll be taken to the list of comments.

Comment List

You can see who made the comment and on what date (sorted newest first), what the comment is, and you have the ability to mark it complete. The only difference here is that when you mark a comment complete, it’s removed from the list completely. It would be nice if instead you could view a list of completed comments, or remove comments from the main list. For now, though, remember to only check off comments you don’t need anymore!

Finally, you can also subscribe to a project (My Account->Notifications), so that you get an email everyone someone leaves a comment on a project. Beware though- this could get pretty annoying if you have a lot of screens or a lot of people giving feedback (or both).

Other Features

On top of the two major features- creating experiences and getting feedback, I wanted to point out two other things I noticed when using the app. The first is the ability to add collaborators. This is incredibly helpful if you have more than one designer for the app. People you add as collaborators will be able to add, edit, and delete screens, attend to comments, and do everything that you can do as the project owner for that particular project. This way, your core team can contribute to the actual design, while getting feedback from anyone you’d like!

Add Collaborators

The second thing worth mentioning is the mobile experience. I noticed some areas of inVision being flash based, which prompted me to see how it worked on my iPad. InVision will default to a mobile version, where you can only view the screens. However, you’re also given the option to view the desktop version, which worked a lot better than expected. It’s not flawless, but if you’re in a pinch and need to use your iPad to change something, you’ll probably be able to pull it off.

Conclusion

InVision is a really nice, feature rich way to create prototypes and get feedback in a simple, organized, time-saving way. On top of that, the comments create a nice to do list for improving your user interface (UI). The ability to add contributors makes it a true project manager, and the fact that users don’t have log in makes it dead simple for them. While there are a few things I would change, overall, this is a really great app. I definitely recommend it!

It seems that we now live in a world which is completely obsessed with Facebook. Everywhere we go and everything we do seems to have something to do with the social networking site, and it has spawned hundreds of new creations, from feature-length films (The Social Network) and new English words (‘I’ll Facebook you tonight, yeh?’) to even a baby’s name (yes, it’s true).

Why is this? In less than 10 years, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was transformed from a nerdy, fencing-obsessed psychology and computer science student to the world’s youngest billionaire, with a net wealth of somewhere around $14 billion (however this figure is debatable). And all for creating something that you and I could have thought up of in 5 minutes, a way to keep in touch with what your friends are doing online. The phrase ‘easy money’ springs to mind here. Why did Facebook, of all the ways to communicate online, win the social networking game before we even knew what a social network was?

Where it all started

Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook whilst he was still at university.

I have been on Facebook since about 2006. I was bullied into signing up to it by some mates whilst at sixth-form at school (equivalent to eleventh or twelfth grade), and because I was young and obsessed with any new trend, I signed up straight away. Before that, social networking hadn’t really taken off and indeed, most people didn’t know what the word meant. There was the odd person who had Bebo but everyone else kept in touch either via the old-fashioned way of talking, texting or via MSN, which everyone seemed to have.

Despite the decline in MSN (Windows Live) Messenger, it still boasts over 330 million active users

But why Facebook?

When everyone started to hear about Facebook, it took off straight away and both Bebo and MySpace accounts gathered dust as people flocked to the new platform. It seemed like something cool and new, and to ignorant teenagers such as myself at the time, it was a big eye-opener.

The advantages of Facebook were numerous. Its interface was very easy to use (even back then) in comparison to MySpace (which was, and still is to a certain extent, very cluttered), and it seemed like everything was in one place. You had one place to upload your photos, one place to chat with your friends and one place to play games. Why would you need to visit other sites to do this?

Facebook also seemed the place that everyone was at. Everyone who you knew was on it. You can use it to rekindle existing friendships and/or relationships (delete as appropriate) or simply find out more information about a person. At our school, a relationship wasn’t “official” until it was on Facebook and it seemed the starting point for most conversations (‘Did you see X’s Facebook status last night?’). It brought people together, which was Zuckerberg’s original aim, and it did it in a way that was unique and pioneering. It also directly typified the network effect: once everyone else was on it, you felt like you had to be on it, too.

Many people can relate to Facebook and it is something you (almost) have complete control over. You can control who looks at your page, what photos your friends see and what information about you is shared publicly across the web. Facebook’s privacy policy has been criticized for being too long and bureaucratic (it is longer than those of all other major social networks and even the US Constitution) but this tight content control gives many people peace of mind.

Facebook's privacy settings have been criticized for being too long and complicated

The network to emulate

Facebook’s expansion strategy has continued, which has meant it has pretty much completely devoured all other social networks. It now has 600 million users, 9% of the world population, which is quite a miraculous feat to say the least. Facebook is the most visited website in the world, second only to Google, and has succeeded a near 70% market penetration in North America, with areas such as Europe and the Middle East not far behind.

Other social networking sites have had to radically up their game to stay in competition with Facebook. They have had to exploit gaps in the market or find certain niches to keep their active user numbers up. Look at Habbo, for example, where you can create a little avatar and wander around a “hotel” in order to meet other people.

Facebook has now become a platform which other social networking sites seem to emulate. Well, if you can’t fight them, join them. StudiVZ, sometimes known as the “German Facebook” is a prime example of this so-called “emulation”, and was even sued by Facebook back in 2008 for copying its design and layout.

A profile page in StudiVZ (not the real Mark Zuckerberg!). Note the similarities to the (old) design of Facebook

This too shall pass?

Facebook is a driving force and influences the lives of some 600 million people. However, there may be signs that this force is starting to fade. In December 2009, surveys showed that Facebook was losing its most valuable demographic, the 18-24 year olds. The growth of other popular social networks, such as Twitter, show that Facebook’s days as a major social network may be limited somewhat.

But one thing is certain: Mark Zuckerberg’s creation will mark him down as one of the Net’s most influential people, and he will renowned for creating a platform which changed the way we run our lives and socialize with people. Entertainment Weekly couldn’t have put it more finely:

How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers’ birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?

The answer to this question has yet to be found.