filesync
Latest
Dropbox's iOS app will scan the scraps of paper cluttering your office
Dropbox makes no bones about the shift the company has undergone in the past few years. Rather than focusing on end-user products (like the now-defunct Carousel photo app and Mailbox email app), Dropbox now wants to be the glue that allows people to collaborate and work together across various file formats, devices and operating systems. That's not to say that millions of people aren't using it to store and sync their files, but the company's real mission is to develop a platform that helps businesses and teams seamlessly get work done. (That's where the money is, after all.) To that end, Dropbox is releasing one of the biggest updates to its core product in quite some time. Most of those changes are designed to make it easier to work collaboratively, but the first and perhaps most important update should be useful to just about anyone: The iOS Dropbox app now has an intelligent document scanner built right in. It's not the sexiest feature, but if you've ever taken a photo of various hand-drawn notes, ideas or any scrap of paper you wanted to save digitally, it'll be quite useful.
Dropbox will soon show all your cloud-based files right in the desktop
If you're one of the 500 million people who've used Dropbox at some point over the last few years, you know what you're getting in to. It's a reliable way to back up all the files on your computer, sync them across multiple devices and share them with friends, family or coworkers. It's fast, it works and Dropbox has added a decent set of collaboration features over the years (like its strong Microsoft Office integration) -- but by and large, its core "sync and share" features have remained largely the same. But today at the Dropbox Open event in London, the company is previewing an intriguing new feature called Project Infinite. In a nutshell, it looks to close the divide between our ever-increasing cloud storage vaults like Dropbox and the corresponding decrease in hard drive sizes.
BitTorrent working on file-sync app: sounds like Dropbox, calls itself Sync
BitTorrent has announced that it's working on its very own file-synchronization app -- and it's already looking for a limited number of test subjects for its pre-Alpha stage. So far, the premise is to offer identical copies of your files on all machines, all sounding pretty similar to how you use iCloud, Skydrive or Dropbox, although there would be no cloud-caching. According to GigaOM, files will be protected by 256-bit encryption, with native test apps for Mac, Windows and Linux (alongside NAS integration) already in testing. There's no mobile version just yet, but BitTorrent has stated that it's "committed to mobile across the board," and, well, it's still pre-Alpha. If you're up for trying another file sync service, the company is recruiting willing participants over at the source.
Dropbox simplifies sharing with file viewer and folder links
Dropbox is one of those tools that makes our lives a lot easier around the Engadget compound and our various satellite lairs. So, it only makes sense that we'd get a little excited when the company updates and improves the file syncing service. Now, sharing is a bit simpler, with the ability to generate a public link for any file or folder and have it open in a web-based viewer. This can be accomplished both from the website and on the desktop by right clicking and selecting get link. Those using the beta version of the Dropbox desktop client have enjoyed some of these features for sometime, but now the full suite of file viewing and folder sharing options are standard issue for all. Check out the PR after the break.
Google Drive SDK, Gmail integration hinted at in Google Docs source code
Still wondering if Mountain View's Google Drive service will launch as a Google Docs rebranding? The folks at the Google Operating System blog have some code you might want to peek at, then. Apparently the Docs' source code mentions an SDK connected to the upcoming Google Drive, opening the door for third party app support. The code hints at deeper Gmail integration too, "Say goodbye to email attachments and hello to real time collaboration," it says, "Drag anything shared with you to My Drive for easy access." If Drive turns out to be more than a hefty Docs update, at the very least it seems clear that the new service will play nice with El Goog's other web apps -- after all, isn't that what that consolidated privacy policy is supposed to be about?
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.
Google Drive could finally be ready for launch, may just be rebranded Docs
GDrive, GDisk, Google Drive - whatever they're calling it these days - is coming. At least according to our friends over at TechCrunch. The service has not just been a rumor, but an actual product since 2007. Sadly though, it never made it past the dogfooding stage. The internal cloud storage tool for Googlers has been highly anticipated, but in 2010 it seemed like the final nail was put in its coffin when Docs was turned into a makeshift replacement with the ability to store any file. Well, Google Drive still exists, and speculation is that Google Docs will eventually be rebranded as Drive and relaunched with non-Docs file storage moved to the forefront. What's more, it's rumored that there will be a desktop syncing component, similar to Dropbox. Of course, the image above (from a Google-sponsored presentation) and recently discovered mentions of Drive.Google.com in Chromium don't necessarily mean anything. But, if Google actually plans on taking this Chrome OS thing seriously, Drive seems like a natural companion service. For now though, we're just going to have wait patiently to see what, if anything, comes of these latest rumblings.
