I still believe that Google’s Chrome OS devices are great for the right type of user, even with their limited use cases. After all, if you need a native software application of any kind, Chrome OS isn’t going to cut it. I work all day in a browser though, so my Chromebook is ideal for what I do. Even so, I don’t like the limited support for cloud services in the Chrome OS File Manager: You only get to access your Google Drive. Or do you?
Turns out there’s a service called CloudHQ that can help. It’s a pay service — with a limited, free trial — that synchronizes data between various cloud storage services. That means you can keep data in sync between Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Basecamp, SugarSync, Box and Microsoft SkyDrive. Since Google Drive is already natively supported on Chromebook, CloudHQ is the missing link to pull in Dropbox data to a Chromebook.
The Pocketables blog pointed out the directions for this solution and I’m strongly considering it, save for one thing: CloudHQ costs a minimum of $ 49 a year.
I have to figure out if having direct Dropbox access in my Chrome OS File Manager is worth that cost. The other option is how I use Dropbox today: Access it on the web and download files as needed on to my Chromebook.
For those interested in using CloudHQ to add Dropbox — or any of the other supported cloud services — to a Chromebook, it’s a simple process. After setting up the CloudHQ account, just create a Dropbox folder on your Google Drive and sync that folder with your Dropbox account using CloudHQ.
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