Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Luckily, a few sites have emerged whose entire purpose is to connect cloud services for you,
automating the cloud so that useful things happen in one service when something happens
in another.
Let me give you some concrete examples of how multiple cloud services can be connected
and automated:
• Add something to the Reminders app (in OS X or iOS) and it's copied to an
Evernote checklist.
• When someone tags you in a Facebook photo, download that photo to your
Dropbox.
• Post an Instagram photo and have it automatically sent to Twitter too.
• Save all your incoming email attachments to your OneDrive.
• Send a thank-you note by email whenever someone endorses you on LinkedIn.
Got the idea? Let's look at three sites that let you do those sorts of things.
Tip:
I wrote this little (not so little) topic called
Take Control of the Cloud
,
which
undertakes the ambitious task of making sense of the cloud. If you find the many
competing and overlapping cloud services overwhelming, this topic will help you sort
out what you need.
IFTTT
IFTTT
(for If This, Then That) is the best-known and most popular site in this category. The
name describes the concept: you create two-part “recipes” that say: If
this
happens (in one
cloud service), then
do that
(in a second service). These formulations are a bit like email
rules, except that there's always exactly one condition and one action—simple.
What services can you connect? Why, there are well over 100 of them, which IFTTT refers
to as “channels,” covering almost every major cloud storage platform (Box, Dropbox, Google
Drive, OneDrive…), social network (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare…), and photo
site (Flickr, Instagram, 500px…), plus iOS data (contacts, location, notifications, photos,
reminders), email, blog platforms, news sites, and even things like the date, time, and
weather. The list is growing all the time.
IFTTT is free. After signing up for an account, you activate whichever channels you're
interested in by signing in to the relevant accounts. Then you can choose from any of tens of
thousands of pre-built recipes, or concoct your own as follows:
