Dropbox gets improvements, iPhone app, LAN Sync

Dropbox – the awesome storage, synchronization, and sharing application – is getting some much-requested changes.  In an email to current users, the Dropbox Team announced that it will be making changes to the service’s undo history, introducing a new feature called “LAN Sync,” and making numerous performance improvements.   The team also announced the forthcoming of an iPhone app.

Changes to Undo History

One of the features that has earned Dropbox so many fans is the automatic backup of any files the user deletes.  In the case that the user needs a deleted file later, whether it was deleted on purpose or by accident, Dropbox safeguards any deleted files automatically.  Moreover, the service saves old file versions in case the user needs to go back to them later – which is a long description for versioning.  Dropbox describes the features as being an ‘undo” for all files and folders.  Today, Dropbox keeps these deleted files and old file versions (something the team has termed “undo history)  forever.  For many users, this has resulted in wasted space and clutter, so beginning August 1, the new policy will be to keep 30 days of undo history.  If the users would like to retain the ability to have unlimited undo history, they would need to upgrade to a paid account.

iPhone App

Perhaps the biggest news out of this announcement is that a free iPhone app will be the first foray Dropbox makes into the mobile phone app space.  The app will allow on-the-go access to Dropbox as well as the ability to view files, save them to the phone (how would that work?), and “even take photos that sync instantly to your Dropbox!”  As a web-based service, having an iPhone app is a given, and it will be a welcome addition to what already is an amazing service.

Performance Improvements and LAN Sync

The Dropbox team is hard at work finishing up a new version of the Dropbox desktop software that “features numerous performance improvements.”  The new version of the software will also include the long-awaited “LAN sync” feature.  LAN Sync “knows when Dropboxes are on the same network and will automatically exchanges files directly between computers instead of downloading them from our servers.”  This should make sharing files (especially large ones) in an office environment much faster than the current implementation, which uploads all files to the cloud first, then synchronizes them across all other devices.

Competition

These are all welcome changes to what already is a great service with a very clean user interface.  Dropbox continues to be a leader in the file storage, synchronization, and sharing space, which consists of SugarSync, MobileMe, Windows Live Mesh, among others.  Dropbox leads these services in flexibility (being the service that works across all three major desktop computing platforms), user interface design, ease of use, as well as the ability to share files and collaborate with co-workers and friends.  It’s the service that makes all those tasks very easy and does them the best – in my (humble) opinion.  The closest competitor to DropBox is SugarSync, which offers similar features but lacks the dead-simple ability for quick collaboration.  It will be interesting to see the upcoming Dropbox iPhone app in action, and we’ll write a review as soon as we get our hands on it.  The Dropbox Team should also aim to release clients for other mobile platforms, namely Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia, as well as Palm’s WebOS (whenever that becomes possible).

Needed Improvement: there is only one

One major aspect of the Dropbox service that needs to be rethought, in my opinion, is the set-up process for synchronizing folders.  Currently, Dropbox synchronizes the contents of one folder that is created during the installation process.  This folder is located by default in the User > Documents directory.  Folders outside that one folder don’t get synchronized.  So if the user wants to sync all contents in his Mac’s home directory (or his User folder in Windows), he doesn’t have the ability to do so, short of placing the entire contents of the home/User folder into the Dropbox folder, which is illogical and can reek havoc on the system.  My recommendation to fix this issue: leave the default Dropbox folder the way it currently works, but also include an interface that would allow the user to select other folders to synchronize.  This is something SugarSync does very well with its SugarSync Manager (see screen shots below).  This is, however, the only aspect of Dropbox that needs rethinking.

About Dropbox

Dropbox is a product of Evenflow, Inc. and has received seed funding from Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital.  The service is free with a 2GB of storage limit, with paid plans available that upgrade the storage to 50GB or 100GB.  Dropbox synchronization uses AES-256 encryption and has no limit to file size for files added via the Dropbox desktop application, but files transferred through the web interface are capped at 250MB.  Dropbox uses Amazon’s S3 storage system to store files.

Posted in Apps, Cloud Computing, Software, Synchronization, Web apps