Switched to Apple / Mac

Dropbox – iDisk that doesn't suck

December 30th, 2008

In January of 2006 I purchased and setup .Mac (now MobileMe) and wrote a post about the value proposition of .Mac. I continued to use it until earlier this year when the value just wasn’t there anymore. I was only really using the iDisk and syncing features and the syncing had become so unreliable that the price greatly outweighed the few benefits I was getting. The iDisk was slow and a bit unreliable as well so I did not renew my .Mac account this year.

It is a bit sad as MobileMe still has a LOT of potential. Unfortunately, potential and every day use do not go hand in hand. So I was without syncing and was using this site’s storage to FTP files to share across my Macs. That is until I found:

Dropbox is everything you would want iDisk to be and more. It’s fast, powerful, simple to use, and as the Dropbox sites says “Works like you do”. The first thing you do is go to http://www.getdropbox.com

• download Terror by Night

and download the Dropbox application. Setup a Dropbox account (free for 2 Gigs) and you’re in business. It really is that simple. Dropbox creates a special folder on your system and anything you drop to this folder gets synced to your Dropbox. It is encrypted with AES-256 so prying eyes are out of luck. Your Dropbox is always available on your Mac even when you are not connected to the internet and its contents are available to your from any web browser when you are away.

But wait, there’s more…

Download and install Dropbox on a second Mac and you have instant syncing at your fingertips. For example, I recently moved my 1Password, TextExpander, and LittleSnapper

data files to my Dropbox. I did the same thing on the laptop and any changes I make to data on either Mac gets propagated to the the Dropbox and other Mac. This happens nearly instantaneously with no scheduled syncs needed.

Even more… Did I mention Dropbox kicks ass?

Dropbox even does version histories so if you accidentally delete a file on your Dropbox you can use its “virtual time machine” via the web interface to restore them as needed. You can also set up public folders to share with your friends and family or share files to everyone.

Dropbox is so fast and simple you’ll be scratching your head wondering why Apple’s offering is so bad in comparison. “It just works!” is 100% correct. I highly recommend it. If you need more than 2 gigabytes of storage you can upgrade to 50 gigabytes of storage for $9.99 a month.

I don’t usually write posts that sounds like commercials but Dropbox is that exciting. Try it and find out for yourself.

Entry Filed under: Macintosh