At a Glance
Price:
- Basic – 2gb: Free
- Pro 50 – 50gb: $9.99/month or $99.00/year
- Pro 100 – 100gb: $19.99/month or $199.00/year
Supports
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
Pros:
- Free 2GB.
- Web interface to upload and access files.
- Multi Platform Support – Mac, Windows, Linux Compatible
- Allows sharing of files.
- Easy to use
- Offers a mobile application for iPhone and Android.
Cons:
- No Blackberry application available.
- Mobile applications limited in functionality.
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Full Review
I have been using Dropbox for roughly a year to sync files between my laptop and my main desktop and I have to say that the beauty of Dropbox is how simple it is. Install it on the computers you want to sync files with and simply drag and drop the files and folders you want to sync between computers. Simplicity is a good thing, why make something complicated if it does not have to be.
After you download and install Dropbox on your computer you can create an account. To sync files between another computer simply download and install the appropriate version of Dropbox for that computer. For example I sync files between my Ubuntu Linux laptop and my Windows desktop. Once you have created your account with Dropbox, simply login to the same account on all the computers you want to sync. After the software is installed you will have a new folder on your computer called Dropbox. All the folders and files that are copied to that folder are synced to all the other computers. Those files are also available over the Internet using the Dropbox web interface.
Dropbox also makes it easy to allow public access to some of your files. Inside of your Dropbox folder there is a subfolder called Public. Any folder or file inside of the Public folder is exactly that, public and accessible to the world. Have a large document you need to send to a client or coworker. You can add it to the Public folder, copy the publicly accessible link and have them download the document. You could even host a simple website hosted entirely in your Drobox Public folder. For example I created a simple HTML file to show this review.
You can also share folders and files with people that are not inside of the public folder. You can create a shared folder and invite others users to collaborate with you on its contents. This makes Dropbox perfect for businesses allowing employees to work on the same documents from where ever they are.
Dropbox does have an iPhone and Android application available but use to access your files from your smartphone. Sync and upload functionality varies depending on the platform. The mobile web interface is accessible from many mobile devices. Mobile access makes it very easy to upload via the web the latest photo you have taken on your phone that you want to keep safe or any other document that you want to make sure you do not lose.
If you find you email files to yourself on a regular basis, carry a USB drive around, like to share photos with your friends and family and want to have access to your most important files from anywhere then Dropbox is a fantastic service and one you should check out. It will make the syncing of files between your computers so easy you will not know how you lived without Dropbox.
3 Comments
Dropbox now has iphone support.
greetings
“Dropbox does not have an iPhone or other mobile application that you can use to sync and upload files with, but the web interface is accessible from many mobile devices.”
Correct. I have adjusted the information. Thanks.
I’ve found Dropbox to be a handy tool for creating a file upload system on a website, and for text files- but it has a nasty bug with OS X files that are in package format (breaks them into their individual components- try the latest Quicken file format for example).
As with any application built on top of Amazon’s S3 storage platform, one must remember that S3 is not a filesystem. Products like Dropbox and JungleDisk that attempt to make S3 appear to be a filesystem will suffer from performance handicaps and problems like the one I have described above. One open source alternative that is gaining steam is iFolder- developed by Novell years ago and in it’s second year as an Open Source project.