Dropbox is a promising new tool for online storage, file sync, and sharing. The cross-platform system plug-in gives you a shared drop box where you can dump files and access them from multiple computers just like you would on the home machine. It also keeps track of any changes to the files, which can be rolled back to previous versions that have been archived on the service's cloud storage.
I gave it a brief spin this afternoon on one computer and it works as advertised. I had no problem dumping a bunch of files, then accessing them through the Web interface. The photo album feature has been especially well implemented, as the system will automatically group together a folder of photos and categorize them into albums using the metadata. There are other nice touches too, such as visual notifiers to let you know when a file is syncing up with the server, as well as Growl system messages on the Mac version to let you know when a change is made to your drop box.
If a file needs recovery you can send it back to its rightful folder right from the Web.
(Credit: CNET Networks)If you're away from your home machine you can still access all your files through the Web interface. There's also a file uploader that lets you add files up to 25MB if you want to save a file from a guest computer without having to install any software.
The service is in private beta with plans to open up later this year. We've got a little less than 100 invites to give away to Webware readers. Just sign up and enter "Webware" as the invite code. (Update: Invites are now gone. We're working on getting some more). Beta accounts offer up 5GB of storage with no limitations on how many computers you can have linked up. When the service opens up later this year, the free accounts will be limited at 1GB, so get 'em while they're hot. Another screen of the interface after the break.
Related: Tubes (now dead), Apple's .Mac 'Back to my Mac' service, SyncToy, Foldershare, BeInSync, SugarSync.
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Steekr is a new online storage service with automated backup software for both Windows and Mac. Users get a gigabyte to store whatever they want. Steekr is a sibling product to SteekUp, parent company Agematis' business-centric backup service that gives customers 100GB with a paid subscription. The new service is designed for casual users who want to automate file backups or move large files between locations without optical media.
The software installation is needed only for people who want to automate file backups. If you want to stick to the Web, you can still back up anything you want with a small drag and drop zone for files. Both versions of the backup application are pretty lightweight, with the Windows version coming in at just under 5MB.
I found the software interface to be a little counterintuitive, with no drag-and-drop functionality. For both the Windows and Mac version, you must dig through nested folders within a file explorer and check or uncheck the files and folders you want to sync up or transfer. This can get cumbersome, especially with 10 or more files.
Steekr has some neat features, like a media player that will show off your pictures and music files as a slide show. You can build your own playlist and skip to various files on the fly. What's missing is the capability to embed content like you can with Box.net's widget, and share your files on blogs or social networking sites. The interface is kind of widget-like, so I'm assuming they're adding that functionality later.
Steekr is a solid effort, but online storage is a very competitive space. Services like Xdrive are either giving away more storage (5GB for Xdrive), or offering tighter integration with other services (like Omnidrive and Zoho). If Steekr wants to stand out, it's either going to have to make files a little easier to manage, or bump up the storage.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
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