The Cloud, The Cloud, it’s all a big scary thing with the accounts and the big fat hairy i which means Apple and maybe you don’t have Appley products and maybe you do and maybe you have an iPhone but you have a PC or maybe you have an iPad but a Droid or maybe you have a PC and Droid and a Nexus tablet period and you think you’re left out but NO!

THE CLOUD IS FOR EVERYBODY!

Well, almost everybody.

Because really, as long as you’ve been on Yahoo or Gmail or some such, you’ve been in The Cloud.

The Cloud is remotely stored data that you can access. That’s all it is. Like you’re email.

So get ahold of yourself, sister. We’re looking at two FREE Cloud-servers accessible from any device that you can log into.

GOOGLE DRIVE

This used to be Google Docs, and honey, it is so simple.  First, get a Gmail account. Then download this app on your iOS devices. Sign in and you’ll get a window like this:

• Touch the “+” sign in the upper right corner to create new documents, spreadsheets, folders, upload pictures or videos from your iPhone.
• To access documents already in your Google Drive Cloud, touch My Drive. If there are particular ones you want to get to faster, without scrolling through all your folders, star them.

Anywhere you can log in to Google, you can log in to Google Drive. It’s right on the Google page.

Oh look. I seem to have added a file from my iPhone recently.

Let us see what it is.

Another productive morning.

BONUS beauty: You can share a document with others and it will show up in THEIR Google Drive accounts. AND you can limit what they can do to the document: either eyes only, allow comments, or full permission to edit. Nice.

Google Drive gives your 5GB of free Cloud space, easily accessible from any device.

EVERNOTE

Here’s the thing. Evernote does a whole lot freakin’ more than Google Drive. Which also makes it a whole lot more complicated.  The basics:

Evernote is “notes” organized into “notebooks.”

.

These “notes” can be text, pictures, audio recordings OR clips from the internet or other apps, which I am NOT even getting into today. Next time, mes amies.

I know, it doesn’t sound that complicated. THAT’S BECAUSE I DIDN’T MAKE IT SOUND THAT COMPLICATED. There’s all this:

With the tagging and the searching and the sorting and the locationizing, and there’s a spiffy feature there on the top right, that boils down to a scanner.

Notebooks can be shared with THE PUBLIC, or only with CHOSEN ONES, but if you want to give editing privileges, you have to pay for the Premium App.

There is a 60MB for month limit, 25MB is the largest file download allowable. HOWEVER. There is no limit to the amount you may keep in your Evernote Cloud.

To access your account from anywhere, just go to evernote.com and log in.

These are just two of many ways to get afloat in The Cloud for free. So really, there’s no excuse to get caught without the notes your need to get an article or chapter finished.

Please. Help me think of a new excuse for not getting chapter 38 finished.

So while I’m road tripping…

Let’s look at a couple of car travel apps for writers:

On the move. Need wi-fi. But where to find it?

Free Wi-Fi Finder

Finds free wi-fi near you, and  filter by location type.

Work+

This app looks for wi-fi around you that meets your specifications, down to the noise level you prefer.

Stuck in a car on your cross-country book tour. Need fuel, sustenance and lodging. Should you stop here or stick it out thirty more miles?

 iExit Interstate Exit Guide

WELL SISTER GIRL OR SONNY BOY WE’VE GOT JUST THE APP YOU NEED. Tells you what specific eateries, motels and gassery establishments are available at each exit that stretches before you, for miles and miles and miles and…you get the picture.

Inspired by my own personal journey, the kitschy, the cool…

 Road Trip 66

Get your kicks with over 1800 diners, relics and roadside attractions. If that’s not novel fodder, I don’t know what is.

We’re writers, yes indeed. But sometimes ideas come when we’re driving, changing diapers or tossing and turning.

GENIUS STRIKES

Gad, that’s a lot of ings.

The point: sometimes it’s faster to talk out ideas than scribble them down.  And what tool do you have in your pocket, in your purse, on your nightstand or tucked in your bra?

I’m talking about your iPhone.

Here are some apps you might find useful:

VOICE MEMOS

Comes on the iPhone. Record, then email or send in a text message. There ya go. No bells nor whistles. This is helpful for a sentence or two pertaining to something you’re working on right now.

TINYVOX PRO

Record long, rambling reveries–up to 90 minutes. Label the files, which look like retro-cassettes. Then email as mp3s. Excellent for stream-of-consciousness meetings with your characters, setting description. You might use this app to record interviews of background sources or even ambient sounds.

SUPER NOTE: VOICE RECORDER AND NOTES

This app allows you to type in a lengthy description of what the recording is about if it’s not self-explanatory, but your computer will need QuickTime to play the file.

DRAGON DICTATION

Oh, baby, here’s the magic. Dragon Dictation TRANSCRIBES YOUR ORAL SPEECH FOR YOU. You talk and this app writes it down. Speak deliberately and succinctly, don’t let others use your app. The more you use it, evidently the more the little dragon gets used to your accent quirks. I swear, that’s what they say. When you’re done you can check for accuracy and touch up any mistakes, either by re-recording the individual words or correcting them by keyboard.

Send your missives to email, text or clipboard, where you can paste them to any other app, like Evernote, Pages or Meernotes.

If you want your notes to be print-worthy, it’s possible to drop in punctuation and formatting as you speak.

Dragon Dictation will insert periods where you normally end sentences, but if you want to make sure, you can say “PERIOD”.  You can also insert “COMMA”  “QUESTION MARK” “EXCLAMATION POINT” “OPEN QUOTE”, etc.

Say “CAP” before the word you want capitalized, if you want caplock, say “ALL CAPS ON” speak the words you want capitalized, then say, “ALL CAPS OFF”.

“NEW LINE” starts a new line and “NEW PARAGRAPH” starts…

well, you get it.