Introduction Gemini, Google's most elegant AI, is set to transform industries with its advanced technology and user-friendly solutions. Google's commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI is evident in the development of the Gemini ecosystem. This advanced AI system is designed to handle complex tasks with precision and efficiency, making it a game-changer in the world of artificial intelligence. Businesses across different sectors are leveraging the power of Gemini to streamline operations, improve decision-making processes, and drive growth. By harnessing Google's most capable AI through the Gemini ecosystem, organizations can unlock new opportunities for innovation and stay ahead in today's competitive landscape. As Google continues to refine and expand the capabilities of Gemini, we can expect even more groundbreaking applications that will shape the future of AI technology. The possibilities are endless with Google's most capable AI leading the way towards a s...
MEGA is a secure cloud storage service. The MEGA chrome extension is used by 1.3 M users at the moment. The service seems to have been developed with the aim of providing the users a safe and secure storage solution with end-to-end encryption. The encryption is not done on the server-side. On MEGA, you can easily share your folders with your contacts for real-time collaboration. The service is based on the solid foundations of privacy. Instead of following "security by policy", MEGA follows "security by design" to ensure privacy. What does that mean? The "security by policy" means the service provider has access to your data but they promise that they will not disclose or misuse it. You have no way to check out whether the service provider is actually keeping the promise or disclosing your data to unauthorized parties behind your back. On the contrary, "security by design" means the service provider cannot access user data without the user's knowledge. It is often observed that when cryptography is employed to ensure privacy, it is at the expense of usability. Solutions which use cryptography have extremely convoluted user flows. Bad user experience slowly sends those solutions to obscurity or at most keeps them limited to experts. MEGA seems to have achieved that rare balance between security and usability. You don't need to be an expert in cryptography to start using MEGA.
The installation of the MEGA chrome extension does not take much time. Upon installation, all MEGA URLs will be redirected to the extension. You will be welcomed with the MEGA sign. If you hover over it, you will be prompted to select files to upload to MEGA. You can also drag and drop files anywhere on the page to upload them. For the first time, MEGA will show you the Terms of Service. After agreeing the ToS, the upload will be added to the transfers queue and a temporary session will be started by the extension if you are not logged in. When in a temporary session, MEGA calls it an ephemeral session, your data will be lost when it gets expired. You need to get a real account to preserve your data. During registration, MEGA advises you to choose a very strong password. That's not new. Every online service provider advises entering very strong passwords during registration. What is new is, in order to ensure maximum protection, MEGA does not provide a password recovery feature. This means if you forget your password, which is also the master encryption key, you will not be able to access your data. This is a really unique feature. MEGA also advises using the chrome extension for registration, as when from the extension, the registration page is loaded from your computer but when from the site, the registration page is served from the server. After email verification, you will be prompted to reenter your MEGA password. After submitting the password, encryption key pair generation, and plan selection, you will see your files. The MEGA dashboard will provide you all the important information at a glance, storage information, transfer information, and data overview. MEGA provides 50 GB of free storage. Affordable membership packages are available too.
While the MEGA chrome extension and the underlying service is pretty decent from the functionality perspective, the MEGA team should spend some time on the user interface, which looks desperately in need of an upgrade. It is not clear why the MEGA team has not upgraded the user interface. The organization of the user interface elements is boring and will repel most of the users. Having said that, the effort MEGA has exhibited deserves admiration. We can hope that MEGA will improve with time.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The installation of the MEGA chrome extension does not take much time. Upon installation, all MEGA URLs will be redirected to the extension. You will be welcomed with the MEGA sign. If you hover over it, you will be prompted to select files to upload to MEGA. You can also drag and drop files anywhere on the page to upload them. For the first time, MEGA will show you the Terms of Service. After agreeing the ToS, the upload will be added to the transfers queue and a temporary session will be started by the extension if you are not logged in. When in a temporary session, MEGA calls it an ephemeral session, your data will be lost when it gets expired. You need to get a real account to preserve your data. During registration, MEGA advises you to choose a very strong password. That's not new. Every online service provider advises entering very strong passwords during registration. What is new is, in order to ensure maximum protection, MEGA does not provide a password recovery feature. This means if you forget your password, which is also the master encryption key, you will not be able to access your data. This is a really unique feature. MEGA also advises using the chrome extension for registration, as when from the extension, the registration page is loaded from your computer but when from the site, the registration page is served from the server. After email verification, you will be prompted to reenter your MEGA password. After submitting the password, encryption key pair generation, and plan selection, you will see your files. The MEGA dashboard will provide you all the important information at a glance, storage information, transfer information, and data overview. MEGA provides 50 GB of free storage. Affordable membership packages are available too.
While the MEGA chrome extension and the underlying service is pretty decent from the functionality perspective, the MEGA team should spend some time on the user interface, which looks desperately in need of an upgrade. It is not clear why the MEGA team has not upgraded the user interface. The organization of the user interface elements is boring and will repel most of the users. Having said that, the effort MEGA has exhibited deserves admiration. We can hope that MEGA will improve with time.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Image credit: Lisa Fotios, pexels.com