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Insync: Wave 'Bye, Bye, Bye' to Dropbox
There's another cloud based storage service planning to knock DropBox from its perch, only this one's also got the benefit of an amusing name. Insync offers all the same online-file management and sharing facilities that you'll be familiar with, but the company's tooled up for a price war. It's using Google storage as a backbone, charging only $0.25 per GB/year rather than DropBox's $2.00 -- with the hope that people follow their wallets and the promise of deep integration into Mountain View's online services including being able to edit your documents online. (Although we're not sure what would happen if Google's long rumored GDrive suddenly appears.) After the break we've got a video by Marques Brownlee that tours the service which we assure you, is free of Joey Fatone.
Dropbox Automator triggers monotonous tasks with the uploading of a file
There are plenty of tools and apps out there that automate the essential computing tasks that face us every day. Some are time consuming others are simply monotonous -- but they must be done. Dropbox Automator combines time-saving task mastery with perhaps our favorite cloud storage solution. The service watches a designated folder for uploads, when a new file is added an action is triggered -- everything from converting documents, to resizing an image or tweeting a link. And that's just scratching the surface. There are already plenty of automation scripts in the fledgling service's repertoire and devs can add there own by creating a SOAP webservice. Hit up the source link to get started now.
Dropbox-for-Google Insync leaves beta, goes free and opens doors for business
Advertising itself as a cheaper Dropbox alternative with a better feature set, Insync has been in closed beta for the last 15 months. Now, they're finally ready to launch with a service that tightly integrates into Google Docs. It's "8x cheaper" than Dropbox, according to their marketing; in fact, the core service is now free, and customers who paid for the service during the beta period will be offered a refund or premium service credit. The only cost for basic membership is the cost of Google storage. Insync brings a number of novel features to the table, differentiating it from Dropbox's current service. For example, you can share individual files with more granularity -- not just as public links, but specifying read-write or read-only permissions. You can also revoke a sharing link, which isn't possible on Dropbox unless you move or delete the shared file. All your files live inside your Google Docs account, but that doesn't mean you're limited to the supported Google file types; any file can be synced over, as long as it's less than 10GB in size (assuming you have that much room in your storage allocation). You can nest sharing privileges so people have access to just part of a folder structure. You can also set re-sharing permissions, specifying whether those you share with can re-share that material or not. Share recipients are not charged against their storage quota. Insync supports multiple Google accounts and uses Google's storage system. Google starts with 1GB free storage, and then moves to 20GB for $5/year up to 16 TB for $4096/year. Dropbox's pricing rates includes 2GB free storage, and then jump to 50 GB paid storage at $10/month. Dropbox's 50 GB will cost you $120/year compared to Google's $20/year for 80 GB. That's $0.25 per GB per year for Google Docs versus $2 per GB per year for Dropbox. To use Insync, you sign in with your Google credentials and permit it to gain access to Google Docs. You then download and install the client software on your computer. From there, you launch, link the Google account to your machine, and you're ready to go. On OS X, all your Google Docs appear in a Finder window. In its current incarnation, Insync feels a lot like Dropbox, including its menu bar widget and small status indicators next to files (both Egnyte and Box.com use similar UI conventions for their respective cloud sync tools). If you're used to Dropbox, then you already know how to use Insync.
Dropbox 'experimenting' with photo and video import, enables instant transfer to the cloud
Dropbox is handing out yet another early peek at a fresh new tool for the early-adopting enthusiast crowd. The cloud-based storage service is introducing a feature that'll allow all your photo / video captured memories to be instantly transferred as soon as you plug in a device that houses your media, and you can have a raw look at the "experimental build" now. Before you do, though, Dropbox is warning you to take the dive at your own risk. There's no word on when the tool will hit the masses, but if you're willing to get past the notice, the source link will fill you in on all the necessary deets.
Dropbox is the top iPhone productivity app in TUAW Best of 2011 voting
Merry Christmas! Although today is officially a holiday and we're all spending time with our families and friends, the voting elves at TUAW have been working hard to continue the coverage of our TUAW Best of 2011 awards. Today's winner is an app and service that should be on everyone's iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC -- Dropbox. The Dropbox iPhone app (free) pulled in 38.6 percent of the votes from TUAW readers, topping Evernote (free), which came in second with 28.0 percent. Dropbox provides 2 GB of synced cloud storage to everyone at no cost, 50 GB at $99.99 per year, or 100 GB at $199.99 annually. There are team account options as well. Congratulations to the Dropbox team, and we look forward to more from this astoundingly good productivity app in the future.
Dropbox knows you're an early adopter, gives you a sneak peek of its new Android app
Dropbox knows it's not the only cloud storage option for Android, so the company is handing out an early Christmas present to get more green bots on board with its services: early access to its unreleased Android app. This new version, along with the usual debugging, adds a flood of fresh new features such as: bulk uploads, single-tap access to content and speedy offline entry to your favorites folder, just to mention a few. Fret not, newly minted Nexus owners, the cloud locker service isn't staying away from the creamery -- the application offers full ICS optimization, which is great news for all current and future adopters of the sugary OS. We know you love pre-released bits, so if you think you can handle it, the source link below has a download waiting for you. Update: Dropbox has released it to the Market, so just hit update to grab the latest version or check out the official blog for more details.
TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone productivity app
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone productivity app of 2011. Our readers provided a plethora of nominations in this category, but five apps really stood out. Springpad (free) captured the lion's share of the nominations for its easy to use interface, customizable notebooks, and ability to sync across platforms. A dark horse was ISMEStorage (US$4.99) a comprehensive cloud and local file manager that supports cloud services from Amazon S3 to Zimbra Briefcase and just about everything in between. The big guns weren't left out of the voting, though -- both Dropbox (free) and Evernote (free) were popular nominations for iPhone productivity apps. It was good to see OmniFocus for iPhone ($19.99) in the nominations, as it is a consistently popular and highly-rated productivity app. And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on Christmas Day, December 25. %Poll-72239%
Fuji Xerox launches $45 a month Dropbox clone
Fuji Xerox is launching a Dropbox-esque cloud service that lets colleagues send, receive, share and print documents with colleagues to tie in with its new range of multifunction printers. The Working Folder service will be able to use a virtual filing cabinet to access documents online or via dedicated Windows, Mac, Android and iOS apps. The service launches in Japan on December 12th and will cost business owners $45 a month to get 10 users access to 10GB of storage -- with the option to spend more if they feel the need to splash the cash.
Kodak's Document Print app means never visiting the girl from the Xerox place
Printing on the road usually leaves you at the mercy of your local Kinkos FedEx Office, but as long as you've got one of Kodak's cloud-print enabled Hero printers, you can avoid getting gouged. The company's just released an Android app that lets you print nearly everything, even webpages as long as they're accessed from the baked-in browser -- provided that you've left your home printer switched on. You can pull it down for free from the Android market from today and if you're interested, head on past the break for an unusually terse press release from the company.
Box.net befriends Android, will offer Sony Ericsson Xperia phones 50GB of free cloud storage (update: LG phones too)
How much cloud storage space do you need? 2GB? 5GB? Pah! Box.net scoffs at your puny storage needs, and plan to offer a substantial 50GB of free storage (again) for anyone packing a Sony Ericsson Android phone. While the plans have leaked ahead of schedule, the fine details haven't been hammered out just yet; the official blog tells us that the company's "working to provide this offer very soon to all Xperia customers." When the offer does go live, logging in to (or creating) a Box.net account on any Xperia handset will open the floodgates to 50 gigs of intangible internet storage fo' life. If this keeps up, it shouldn't be long till we're looking at gratis terabytes and are freed of our not-exactly-crippling USB stick addiction, right? Update: Sony Ericsson's not the only one getting gratis cloud storage -- LG owners can snag 50GB for life, too. PR's after the break.
Mac 101: Getting iWork files on your Mac onto iCloud
Here's another Mac 101 tip for novice Mac users. When I first heard about iCloud syncing iWork documents between Apple devices I became quite excited. Like many, I create iWork documents on my Mac and then access them on my iPad or iPhone on the move. Up until now, I've been using Dropbox to sync my files between my Mac and my iDevices. And though this works really well, the whole seamless, behind-the-scenes ease of iCloud really appeals to me. Since iCloud debuted alongside iOS 5, I've been really pleased with how well this works. That is, between my iPad, iPhone and accessing my docs through a web browser. However, where I've struggled to see the seamless beauty of iCloud is when syncing my iWork docs created on my Mac to the cloud. I thought I hadn't flipped a preference switch in Pages or in my iCloud settings, but after having a complete read through of Apple's description of what iCloud does when syncing iWork docs between your devices, I realized there is no automatic syncing of iWork docs between a Mac and iCloud -- iWork docs need to be saved to iCloud manually. To do this is not all that complicated. And while there are a few different ways, the simplest is as follows. Have your iCloud account open in a web browser. Click on iWork and then Pages (if you want to upload a Pages document, for example). With all your Pages docs visible, simply drag the Pages document from your Mac onto your web browser, where all your documents are. You will be asked if you'd like to upload the document to iCloud. That's it. While this is convenient, it's not as convenient as saving a document on your iPad and seeing it automatically appear on your iPhone. It's likely this kind of implementation will come to the Mac in the future, but for now I'm sticking with Dropbox.
Daily Mac App: WriteRoom
It seems every writer, coder or GTD aficionado has a favorite plain text editor on the Mac these days. For everyone who starts each day with a screenful of untitled TextEdit windows full of different short notes (that would describe my dear spouse, for the record) there's a TextMate guru, an Elements fan, a Scrivener loyalist. It's a golden age for the .txt file. One of the strongest contenders in the "distraction free writing" category is Hog Bay Software's WriteRoom, which comes in both Mac and iOS flavors. The Mac version saw an update to version 3.0 on Halloween, adding a NaNoWriMo-essential feature: dynamic word counts. Each file now shows a running count, and with a new session tracking engine you can easily track your output to a .csv spreadsheet file. The new build also adds themed display options, better handling of long documents and Lion-friendly Versions and full screen mode support, in addition to the "classic" blackout approach that hides other active apps. You might not need the full anti-ADHD power of a single-window UI for your writing, so WriteRoom works just fine with traditional document windows. WriteRoom for Mac is $9.99 whether you pick it up in the Mac App Store or directly from the Hog Bay site. Those who bought it within the last year are entitled to a free upgrade; older licenses (including those received in a previous MacHeist software bundle) are entitled to a half-off discount; you can upgrade for $4.99. Note that WriteRoom 3.0 is 10.7-only, so if you're still on Snow Leopard you'll want to stick with the older versions. The iOS version of WriteRoom, which of course cooperates nicely with its Mac cousin via Dropbox sync, is available on the iOS App Store for $4.99; it's a superset of Hog Bay's ad-supported PlainText app, with more visual control and other advanced features (disabling autocorrect, extended keyboards, etc.). One compatibility note: the iOS version does not edit .rtf rich text files, but the Mac version can. If you intend to work on your magnum opus from your iPad, stick with basic plain text files. For myself, I haven't quite found the perfect iPad writing app yet. I love Elements' scratchpad for side notes, while I crave the research power, inboard browser and speedy Markdown formatting of Writing Kit -- but the unchangeable paper background gives me itchy eyes. WriteRoom iOS is among the most comfortable and aesthetically pleasant editors I've tried, though, and for narrative work without a lot of links or Markdown syntax, it's a winner.
Pogoplug Cloud offers 5GB of free mobile storage, a home for your Beatles collection
Is that 2GB of free storage from Dropbox just not enough to house all of your mobile music habits? Don't fret, as Pogoplug Cloud now offers 5GB of secure space for all your storage, sharing and streaming needs. The service offers Dropbox-esque folder sharing and automatic uploads for all those vacation pictures without time lost to manual syncing. If that's not enough extra space for your coveted Jericho episodes (and the Season 3 comics), you can spring from the 50GB and 100GB paid plans at $9.95 and $19.95 per month. You'll also be able to post your cloud activity, should you so desire, to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ via native smartphone apps. All of the aforementioned services are available now via the coverage link below -- after you install the free Android or iOS app, of course.
Logitech Alert Video Security System gets Dropbox support, lets you park 100GB of footage in the cloud
We liked Logitech's Alert Video Security System when we took it for a week-long spin last year, which at that point allowed remote access to live HD camera footage, and video stored on your PC. But a new partnership with Dropbox adds cloud storage to the equation, letting you boot video directly to the web to supplement the PC- and microSD-based options already in place. Packages are available today, and come with 2GB of storage for free, 50GB for $10 per month or 100GB for $20 per month -- Logitech isn't exactly giving away the service, but when you consider that a bare-bones Alert system costs $300, those virtual add-ons sound a bit more reasonable. Jump past the break for the full rundown from Logitech, and get ready to beef up those passwords -- having your email account hacked is one thing, but you certainly don't want anyone watching you at home, in real-time or the past.
Dropbox for Teams offers businesses copious amounts of sharable storage
Dropbox is an indispensable part of many a computer users' arsenal, including several here at Engadget. But, the company hasn't had a viable option for businesses who would have an obvious use for a tool that allows you to easily sync files between PCs, share them amongst users and always have backups in the cloud. The boys and girls at the Y Combinator startup know that there's lots of money to be made in the enterprise space and that's why they've unveiled Dropbox for Teams. The general experience is the same, but rather than individually managed chunks of storage, teams share one large repository, starting at 1TB for five users. The base plan costs $795 a year and additional users, which also includes 200GB of storage, can be tacked on for $125 annually. The business offering also includes special tools for administrators to add or delete users and dedicated phone support. Check out the full PR after the break.
Mobile Miscellany: week of October 24, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of October 24, 2011: Fan of white phones? Here ya go: the BlackBerry Bold 9900, Curve 9360 and Torch 9810 can be pre-ordered on Phones4U. If white doesn't do it for you, the Curve 9300 will be available in pink. [Stuff] HTC has announced its partnership with Dropbox, which means you can get 5GB of available storage on any of the company's Android devices. [Twitter] A few customers on Verizon's family plans have noticed a peculiar addition to the company's #DATA service; when the text showing the data usage arrives, it now mentions "shared," which may be an indication that Big Red's on its way to offering shared data plans in the near future. [Droid-Life] Rumors have flown for some time about LG's attempt at reviving the Prada series by introducing the K2 (aka the P940), and now we're finally starting to see images of the Android device leak out. Apparently, it'll be less than 9mm thin, offer an 8MP camera, 1.3MP front-facing cam, 21Mbps HSPA+ and have a 4.3-inch display with 1,000 nits of brightness. [PhoneArena via UnwiredView] Research in Motion announced BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365, which extends Microsoft Exchange Online to the BlackBerry lineup. It's geared toward midsized businesses and enterprises. Head to the source for the details. [Microsoft-News]
Doxie Go portable scanner creates searchable PDFs without a PC, syncs to almost anything
As far as scanners go, Doxie makes some of the more interesting products on the market. There's one problem though... the bright trail of hot pint hearts splashed across the front. Thankfully, the upcoming Doxie Go dons a more conservative shell that will look just as at home in a CEO's office as it would in a 16-year-old girl's bedroom. The Go is a portable scanner with built-in memory for up to 6,000 pages, and you can even add on more storage through the USB port or SD slot. All scans are automatically fed through OCR software and turned into searchable PDFs. To get the scans on your PC you actually sync the Doxie Go to your Mac or Windows machine. You can also sync with your iPhone, iPad or send your documents straight to Dropbox, Evernote or Google Docs from the Doxie 2.0 desktop app. You can pre-order the Go now for $199 and it'll start shipping in late November. Check out the gallery below and PR after the break. %Gallery-136890%
Forbes: Apple tried to buy Dropbox
When we began hearing about Apple's iCloud, a lot of the TUAW staffers thought the same thing -- why doesn't Apple just buy Dropbox? After all, it works the way that a lot of Apple fans think cloud storage should intuitively work. Well, a story by Forbes staffer Victoria Barret spills the beans on a story we never knew about until now: Apple did try to buy Dropbox in late 2009. There's a great story that will be in the November 7 issue of Forbes talking about the startup story of the latest Silicon Valley success, and how in December 2009 Steve Jobs invited Dropbox co-founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi to a meeting in Cupertino. Jobs made a pitch to buy the company, which Houston promptly nixed. Jobs then "told them he was going after their market," while Houston "peppered him with questions." We all know the outcome, with iCloud having gone live this last week as a would-be competitor to Dropbox. But Dropbox has done rather well, with 50 million users, one new user signing up each second, and revenues expected to hit $240 million for the year despite the fact that 96% of users don't pay a thing for the service. The company was recently valued at $4 billion, and raised $250 million in capital to grow Dropbox into an Internet powerhouse. Houston's not too worried about the competition from iCloud and Google's rumored Drive product. The company recently signed an agreement with HTC to add Dropbox as the default cloud storage service for its Android phones, is planning on signing up six more phone firms soon, and is looking at working with PC and TV makers next. We'll see what happens over the next few years with Dropbox, and whether or not Houston's decision to turn down Jobs in 2009 was a smart move or regrettable choice. Check out the video below for a taste of the Forbes article on Dropbox and the Apple connection.
Box rides on iCloud's coattails, offers 50GB of free cloud storage to iOS users
No, your eyes don't deceive you -- Box is offering 50GBs of free storage inside its cloud for iOS users -- just like it did for TouchPad owners back in June. Anyone who downloads the latest version of Box's app for iPad and iPhone will receive their massive lot for data storage after registering a personal account (existing accounts can join in on the fun as well). To make better use of that extra space, Box will also be bumping upload capacity from 25MB to 100MB per file and baking in AirPlay support. Look, Box is obviously skitching on iCloud's tail, but it sure seems like a crazy good deal considering that space is yours "forever." The promotion will last for 50 days, officially starting at 12AM on October 14th -- although, we're already seeing the update on our end. Full details in the source link.
Daily Mac App: Clarify
We're unabashed fans of the folks at Blue Mango Learning Systems; in fact, we did a video introduction to their flagship product, ScreenSteps, after we met with them at Macworld Expo 2008. ScreenSteps has saved countless hours of effort in quickly developing software documentation, but the Blue Mango team realized that it may be overkill for streamlined communications aimed at reducing the frequency of roundtrip email exchanges. That's the origin story of the new Clarify, a simplified take on screenshot-driven document creation that's meant to help everyone deliver clear and easy-to-understand instructions with a minimum of effort. The app is about as simple as can be: take a screenshot or series of screenshots as you walk through your process, then document them with as little or as much detail as you need. You can export to PDF with a single click, save your instructions to Dropbox for third-party review, or upload to the free Clarify-It web service. If you're already a ScreenSteps user, you'll be pretty comfortable with Clarify. It adds a few niceties (a menu-bar screenshot tool, highlight and border controls) while dispensing with the document library and workgroup editing features. It also drops the automatic capture of clipboard screenshots, which I regret; that's one of my favorite ScreenSteps tricks. Still, the Clarify UI is nice and clean, and it's easy to create solid documents in very short order. You can copy and paste your instructions as RTF for use with Word, Evernote or other destinations. If you need to include real-world images (versus screenshots) in your instructions -- say, to help rental tenants find climate controls or light switches in an apartment -- drag the pictures from the Finder, iPhoto or Aperture right into your Clarify document. Clarify is available as a 14-day trial and can be purchased direct or via the Mac App Store. Normal pricing is $29.99 for a single-platform license (Mac or PC), $39.99 for both platforms; however, through October 19 there's a $10 discount offer available. It's true, you could certainly make similar screenshot-driven instructions with Word or Pages, but if you spend any substantial fraction of your time describing tasks step-by-step you can save yourself aggravation and effort by giving Clarify a shot. If you think you need the power of ScreenSteps instead, the base license is $39.95.
