Create Your Own Personal Cloud - Without Using Dropbox or Pogoplug

Recently, I told you how to bypass an iTunes sync and download video straight to your iPad with Dropbox. I also wrote about how to create your own personal "Dropbox" with Pogoplug.

But a few days ago, I stumbled on an app quietly sitting in the App Store that allows you to stream, view or download just about any file on your desktop - without iTunes and without hardware of any kind.

Zumocast is an slick little app that you download onto your PC or Mac as well as your iPad or iPhone. This app is so quick and duh simple to set up that when you suddenly see the entire contents of your laptop or desktop staring back at you from your iPad or iPhone, it's pretty trippy. Especially when you consider you haven't had to convert or sync a thing.

Stream your heart out
The app is free and gives you access to every document, photo, video or piece of music residing on your PC or Mac. You can stream video and music to your heart's content and view, but not edit, all your non-media files.

The wrinkle comes in not with streaming videos, but with playing those you actually download to the iPad in fullscreen. That's where I found the software a bit buggy. Many times video that I tried to play fullscreen would be masked by the menu area to the side of the viewing area. On subsequent tries things worked as you'd expect. Playing video less than full screen was always fine.

I tried correcting this spotty performance by downloading various sizes of video files, but in the end it beat me. I had to go back to Dropbox's solid and flawless fullscreen performance on downloads.

Temporary blemish
But don't let this temporary blemish - which I expect will be corrected in the next version - turn you away from everything else Zumocast has to offer. Streaming video fullscreen worked fine for me as did music. And viewing all your desktop pics and documents from your iPad display is pretty clever.

While you're mulling that over, check out the first video I downloaded from my laptop to my iPad via Zumocast - a fun three-minute blast from LDS hip-hop violinist Lindsey Stirling. It kicks off classically and morphs into the Black-Eyed Peas. For a "throw-up" (graffiti tagger terminology for a quick piece of work) in an underground parkade it's pretty amazing stuff.

Catch more of Lindsey's tunes - plus her AGT performance - on YouTube.

Download Video Directly to iPad with Dropbox

Mar. 28, 2013 Note - The iCab Mobile app I refer to below has removed the YouTube download feature no doubt because of YT's TOS. No worries, though, because the free iBolt Downloader and Manager app will do the same for you, in much the same way. Works very nicely. Play with it for a while and you'll figure it out. If you get seriously stuck, drop me a comment and I'll be glad to help.

Dec. 31, 2012 Note - Thanks so much for clicking on this post. It's a couple of years old now, so I feel I owe it to you - and hundreds of others who view it every day - to tell you there's a much faster and cleaner way to download video directly to your iPad. The trick is a wonderful browser app called iCab Mobile. Use that browser to go to YouTube and search for the video you want. Once you find it, click play, let it run for a few seconds, then press and hold your finger on the video itself. You'll see a download button pop up. Hit that and your download starts automatically. When it finishes it will be much higher resolution that you'll ever get from the Dropbox method I describe below. You also have a choice to let that video reside within iCab Mobile or download it to your Camera Roll. If you need a few more instructions please see the reference to this browser in my post Cool stuff I learned over the summer on social media.

You can download video directly to your iPad over wi-fi or 3G without using iTunes. The trick is to first upload video to your Dropbox account on your desktop or laptop, then favorite it in the free Dropbox for iPad app.

The simple act of favouriting in Dropbox for iPad begins a download process you barely notice. Somehow your vid is saved directly to the iPad in no time flat.

So if you want to pull a YouTube video down to your iPad:

1. Go to Keepvid on your desktop and save your video as an mp4.
2. Upload to your Dropbox account.
3. Download the free Dropbox for iPad app.
4. Find your video on the iPad app and favorite it.

Voila, your video now resides on your iPad. No iTunes. No cable. Lovely.

The Thanksgiving video above was the first one I download with this method. It took five minutes to upload to Dropbox on my laptop over wi-fi, but almost nothing to download to my iPad after clicking star in Dropbox for iPad.

Still scratching my head over how fast this works.

Create Your Own 'Dropbox' with Pogoplug

I first heard about the Pogoplug in an interview with @CaliLewis and was left scratching my head as to why it would be one of two items she could not live without. After poking around a bit, I found out why.

This product lets you create your own cloud.

Plug your hard drive or USB-drive into one of the four slots, plug the ethernet cable from your router into the Pogoplug and voila, your very own Dropbox. No fees - and as much storage as your hard drive can handle.

Throw in the free Pogoplug iPhone app and you can stream your entire music or video collection - not to mention accessing your documents - through your phone or desktop.

Too good to be true? We'll see.

In Canada, London Drugs was selling them for $49 this week.

(You guessed it, I have no affiliation with PogoPlug or London Drugs, and you're right, the pitchman in the video is cheesy.)