Mar 12
Even as online storage options proliferate, Dropbox has managed to stay ahead of the pack thanks to better features. Well now Dropbox’s desktop client is getting a prettier Version 2.0 overhaul to match its excellence. More »
Mar 04
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston made an appearance at Mobile World Congress last week to talk about cloud storage, and he ended up discussing the various cloud services that manufacturers have been offering, saying that all of these exclusive cloud services lock users into using the service on just a small number of devices, usually those that are from the same company offering the cloud storage.
Houston mostly spoke in general terms, but he specifically called out Apple’s iCloud service and said that iCloud users can only share files across iOS devices and not over Android devices. In other words, a lot of cloud storage services that companies and manufacturers roll out are not cross-platform compatible.
Houston says that “you shouldn’t have to care about the logo on the back of your phone or computer, it should just work with everything you have.” He certainly has a point there, and it’s that kind of limitation that Dropbox wants “to help remove for people.” Dropbox is compatible on almost all platforms, and you can share files across different mobile operating systems without any trouble.
Of course, Dropbox has scored partnerships with Samsung and HTC in the past, noting that these companies are the smart ones by not rolling out their own proprietary cloud service, but rather using Dropbox, which is more widely used anyway, with other 100 million users and over one billion files being uploaded every day across 500 million mobile devices.
[via Macworld]
Dropbox CEO slams Apple’s iCloud over closed ecosystem is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 02
Many Dropbox users are reporting that they’re being bombarded by spam e-mails. This led users to believe that Dropbox was once again hacked, like last year when hundreds of users were receiving spam emails to email accounts only used for their Dropbox account. A spokesman from Dropbox has stated that it’s not the same this time around, and assured users that its service wasn’t hacked.
Many users took to Dropbox’s support forums and stated that many of their Dropbox-exclusive e-mail accounts were compromised. They are receiving phishing e-mails from fake LinkedIn and PayPal e-mail addresses, as well as “offers” from casinos and gambling sites. The PayPal phishing e-mails are more frightening because they appear very similar to real PayPal transaction e-mails, and to the unaware user, could result in their computers being infected by malware.
Dropbox states that this attack may have been a long, postponed effect from its previous security compromise last July. The attacks doesn’t seem as widespread as they were last year, but then again, more affected users can come forward and post their own reports soon.
If you believe you’re one of the affected users, Dropbox encourages you to forward the spam emails to their support e-mail address. A spokesperson for Dropbox stated, “If you’ve received spam to an email account you only use for Dropbox, please send the message (including full headers) to support-security@dropbox.com to help our ongoing investigation.” It is also suggested that you change your e-mail password as well as your Dropbox password.
[via Dropbox]
Dropbox users bombarded by spam e-mails is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 28
Evernote has smashed past the two million active UK users mark, the cloud-based note-taking company has confirmed, doubling its footprint in the country within the space of a year. Perhaps more interestingly, the UK is supposedly Evernote’s biggest Evernote Business market in Europe, too. Nonetheless, the UK market base is still just a fraction of Evernote’s total userbase.
Overall, Evernote has more than 50m users worldwide, growing by 80,000 or so a day. The UK contributes around 3,000 to that daily figure, the company says.
Launched back in 2008 as a way to synchronize digital notes across multiple devices, Evernote has since expanded with native apps for iOS, Android, and other phone/tablet OSes, plus the ability to search text even when it’s included in a photo. The company has also inked deals with others to expand its footprint, including integrating Evernote into Samsung’s Galaxy Note series, and into Livescribe’s Sky WiFi smartpen.
In both devices, Evernote is used as a sync hub, with Livescribe going one step further and building an HTML5 sharing system that allows handwritten notes stored in Evernote to be reviewed by others complete with real-time audio. There’s more on that in our Sky smartpen review.
Meanwhile, Evernote hasn’t let up on Apple integration, even though the iPad lacks a proper stylus. Having acquired Penultimate, an app for handwritten notes on the iPad, it made it a free download and baked in search for cursive text.
Evernote hits 2m UK users as business tools accelerate is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 23
It looks like Microsoft has had its fair share of problems this week. Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based computer platform, suffered from outages yesterday beginning at 4:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Though people could assume that it’s because of the recent cyber attack Microsoft experienced, it unfortunately is just a case of a minor oversight. According to Microsoft, the outage that affected Azure was due to something as minor as an expired SSL certificate.
Someone accidentally forgot to renew the SSL Certificate for the service, which expires one year after it’s renewal date, and thus caused outages throughout the entire Azure cloud-system. Over 52 different Azure services were offline or suffering from poor performance due to the SSL certificate expiring, which also shed some light on a similar outage that Azure faced back in August of 2012. The outage back then was caused by a similar system configuration mistake and left many users in Western Europe without access to the service.
Alongside the outages of Windows Azure, many users have also reported that they had issues with their Xbox’s Music and Videos services. Users were unable to stream, download, or purchase products from the Zune Marketplace. While the Zune Marketplace is also based on a cloud-platform, Microsoft stated that the issues with Zune have no relation to the Azure outages.
Microsoft has restored the Azure cloud-platform today, but are still currently undergoing some tests. While users may have access to their information, Microsoft issues a warning saying that within the next 24 hours, they might see some disruptions to their service. Hopefully these outage issues don’t become an annual thing with Microsoft Azure.
[via Microsoft]
Expired SSL certificate causes Microsoft Azure outages is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 16
Mega now accepts Bitcoin as payment, also hints at e-mail, chat, voice expansion
Posted in: Today's ChiliKim Dotcom has just announced through Twitter that Mega, his successor to Megaupload, will now be accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cloud storage services. You can purchase your Mega service with Bitcoin through Mega’s newest reseller, Bitvoucher. Bitcoin is a P2P digital currency that allows you to instantly make a payment to anyone, anywhere in the world. It does not operate under a central authority, such as banks or the government, but instead is operated by only the Bitcoin network. This allows everyone to be able to use its services, and it also allows users to make payments that cannot be traced by the government.
You have 6 options to choose from when buying the Mega services through Bitvoucher. There are 3 monthly options, ranging from 500GB for 0.5150 Bitcoin to 4TB for 1.5462 Bitcoin. There are also 3 yearly options, with 500GB for 5.1551 Bitcoin (which comes out to about 0.4296 Bitcoin per month) to 4TB for 15.4663 Bitcoin (about 1.2889 Bitcoin per month).
Dotcom also tweeted that Mega plans on offering secure e-mail, chat & voice, video, and “mobile” services. He talks about how services such as Gmail, iCloud, and Skype are based in the U.S., making them not private enough. The data contained in this services can be viewed by the U.S. government if they demand access to them. His tweet regarding the issue says, “Fact: Gmail, iCloud, Skype, etc. have to provide (by law) secret & untraceable NSA backdoors to all your data. #GetOutNow.”
Dotcom says that Mega is all about privacy and that they are “The Privacy Company”. It wants no roots with the U.S. government and wants to offer users a safe and private place for them to share data. Mega has come a long way, reaching over 3 million users in only 4 weeks. It’s definitely gone a long way in a short amount of time, and it’d be interesting to see where it’s headed next. Are you using the Mega cloud-storage service?
[via Dotcom]
Mega now accepts Bitcoin as payment, also hints at e-mail, chat, voice expansion is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 12
Dropbox has been all about the everyday consumer, but if you’re needing a little more power out of your cloud storage, the company has what’s called Dropbox for Teams, in which small businesses can share a pool of cloud storage in order to collaborate on projects and such. However, Dropbox has introduced a new admin console that takes things to a whole new level.
The new admin console is ultimately centered around two ideas: visibility and control. The new features offer improvements in both of these categories. For visibility, you can view recent activity, web sessions, linked devices, and third party apps for each member on the team. You can also get an overall activity chart for everyone on the team, and even download and print out handy reports of usage.
As for control, Dropbox now lets admins set sharing controls at the account level, meaning that you can determine which files are to be kept within the company, or let users decided what gets shared. You can also require that everyone enable two-step verification, just in case you want added security to your work, and there are options to remove users from the group in case they leave the company, and even send out password reset emails to users.
Essentially, Dropbox is making it easier for IT admins to manage the team and the company’s files in an easy-to-use control panel. Plus, Dropbox never has any confusing settings, and always strives for user-friendliness, so while it’s always good to have a knowledgable IT admin on staff, pretty anyone could run the admin console if need be.
Dropbox focusing more on IT with new admin console is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 12
Feb 08
Cloud storage service Box always seems to be giving away free cloud storage left and right, and today is no exception. New users can sign up for an account and receive 50GB of space for free. This seems to be a “Dell Exclusive Offer,” but we’re seeing no restrictions here, meaning that it doesn’t look like you have to own a Dell computer in order to take advantage of the free space.
It could be that Dell is simply sponsoring the promotion, but given that it’s an “Exclusive Offer,” we can’t see where the exclusivity lies. Either way, if you’re not already signed up for a Box account, this is your chance to get 50GB of cloud storage space for free. They’ve given away 50GB free before, but that’s the highest that the company has gone with its promotions.
Box is about the only cloud storage provider that gives you a ton of space for free right away. Dropbox gives you 2GB after signing up, and you can earn more with referrals, but that can take some work. Box is really the only simple cloud solution that can be considered a viable backup resource.
Here’s the catch, though. Box only allows, at the most, 250MB files, so you might as well forget about backing up home videos. However, Box offers paid accounts that get rid a lot of the limitations that you’ll come across. Plus, 50GB for free may not seem useful now, but who knows when you’ll need it. Either way, it’s handy to have just in case.
Box offering 50GB free for new members is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 08
While Microsoft’s SkyDrive may still be considered an infant in the cloud service race, the company is poised to continually improve the service with new features, and they even announced that SkyDrive has reached the one-billion document mark, proving that the service is constantly growing and catching up in popularity.
To celebrate the milestone, Microsoft introduced the ability for users to share and edit Office documents with users without a Microsoft account. Previously, only Microsoft account holders could share documents with one another, but the company has made it possible for outside users to edit documents and apply the changes anonymously.
Microsoft says the new feature is actually from requests from many users who were begging the company to include more lax sharing options. Students were actually the largest from the group who requested the feature, saying that they were wanting to share documents with other users that didn’t have Microsoft accounts.
Microsoft says that people who you share a document with can now just go from clicking the link sent to them from a collaborator to editing the document in a snap without any hassle. Of course, Google Drive has had this kind of feature for a while now, but it’s nice that other cloud office suites are taking advantage of it as well.
Microsoft boasts one billion SkyDrive documents, improves sharing features is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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