Google Play and Google Drive

I stumbled across an article on Lifehacker that led me to another article on Lifehacker (I swear, it's like a maze, and at some point, you will wind up on something that references binder clips....) that dumped me on a page that was talking about Google Play.  I had probably seen it at some point when it was introduced, but I didn't really pay much attention to it, since it is aimed at Android users (and I'm not one) and tablet folk (not me, either, yet).  As usual when one reads something on LH, though, the "duh moment" occurred, and I began to see a whole other universe of uses for Google Play.

So far, I've looked at a couple of streaming music services, and they're fine.  Spotify is fairly nifty, and Pandora is okay.  In fact, I owe Pandora for a couple of artists I really like.  I enjoy it for discovering new folks.  Spotify, if I were looking to pay people for a service (which I'm not.  I'm poor like that, see?) would be great on my iPhone.  I only use the streaming stuff on my iPhone more or less.  (Well, and Pandora through my Roku, but that's a different conversation.)

What I've always dreamed of is having all my music on my iPhone.  I change music moods constantly, and I have very diverse listening tastes.  My library isn't as big as some people's I know, but it isn't exactly tiny, either. That's a crapload of GB on an iPhone that won't hold all that and my pictures and my apps and my...  You get it.  Enter the everlovin' Cloud.

I am, even as we speak, uploading all my music to Google's cloud through Play.  It is going to take about fifty years, probably since my connection on this DSL is CRAP, but it will get there.  I already have access to more music online than I do on my phone.  Granted, there are restrictions (a live internet connection), but when I have it, I have all my music and my playlists everywhere.  It makes good sense for me to use Google for this, too, because although I am not an Android user, I am a hardcore Google user everywhere else.   This is a very good thing.

I added the gmusic app from the iTunes app store (since Apple and Google can't play nice together and required a third party) and this was really the only missing piece.  There is a native web interface from Google, but without the gmusic app, Google Play won't play in the background, and getting to playlists, etc., is a bit clunky.  The only complaint I've had so far with any of it is that my iHome dock seemed weirded out by it in a way that it never is by iTunes.  This is a very, very minor thing, and, I think, a compatibility issue with the gmusic app, not with Google Play itself since I ran them both on the sleep timer and it turned off the native web interface fine but couldn't kill the app...  O_o  Lesson learned there.

Added to all this wonderfulness is that I have Google Drive now.  It's basically just Dropbox by Google, but because it's by Google, it seamlessly integrates with everything else by them I use (which is everything) making my life worlds easier.  I love them. This is it.  This is the dream come true.  All my stuff everywhere without having to carry around a huge laptop of doom.  I don't have all my documents in my Google Drive folder, but I keep the ones that are important and needed there.

The feeling of knowing that I can pull them up on my phone and send them to whomever or share them with others through Google Docs while I'm sitting in a waiting room somewhere or in a meeting instead of having to wait until later (or in my case, possibly forget...damn you, Topamax) is extremely comforting.  When John Q. Student has a crisis (and can't get into the Docs locker) and needs PowerPoint  or handout X to resolve it, I can tap, send, and we can all be a little happier.  This is a good thing.

I know there are people out there who hate Google.  Well, that's okay.  To each his own.  They are making my life a whole lot easier, and I'm grateful to them for it.  If other people want other solutions, fine.  Spiffy.  Corking.  The only thing I guess I have to say is from the Rolling Stones then..."Hey, you, get off of my Cloud...."  Because you know what?  Right now, it's working fine for me.