New Dropbox build touts screenshot auto saves and 'Move to Dropbox' feature

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  • Reply 21 of 30
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Splash-reverse View Post



    Why do you need Apple to do everything? If a third party can do it better and let them be. Free up Apple resources as well not to have to do everything. Remember iCloud is just an enhancement to the OS and not a standalone feature.


     


    I completely agree. In my considered opinion, Dropbox has begun to suffer from featuritis. At its base, Dropbox is a godsend. The ability to transparently share files among all of your devices as simply as saving a file on one device is absolutely huge. I had been using a USB jump drive for this purpose. However, it is more than a notion to use a jump drive with an iPhone.


     


    It was with no small amount of horror that I watched Dropbox 2.1.x literally eat my files on two computers running MacOS X 10.4.11. Dropbox 2.0.x and older versions do not have this issue. Luckily, my files did not disappear from the Dropbox server.


     


    When software transitions from "just works" to "be careful," it has gone a feature too far. I hope that the good people at Dropbox do not screw-up what has quickly become essential software for me. 

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  • Reply 22 of 30
    jlanddjlandd Posts: 873member
    I keep trying most every cloud service that is introduced and I use several for their free amounts, but none have dethroned DropBox as what I actually use, including iCloud, for go-to documents, recent backups and sharing files. It's a clean interface that works. I only needed a few not-smooth moments with iCloud to have me not using it except as another cloned device backup. I just don't have the patience anymore for things that aren't well laid out and work with confidence.

    Apple makes my OS and hardware of choice but their net functions (including their own site) are still, after all these years, subpar.
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  • Reply 23 of 30
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    mr. me wrote: »
    It was with no small amount of horror that I watched Dropbox 2.1.x literally eat my files on two computers running MacOS X 10.4.11. Dropbox 2.0.x and older versions do not have this issue. Luckily, my files did not disappear from the Dropbox server.

    Even if they did get deleted from the server Dropbox saves all deleted files and files before each delta update for up to 30 days for free accounts and indefinitely for paid accounts.

    In fact, it's so hard to delete a file or to reverse a mistake that I use for every important file I have. This includes but is not limited to my Xcode projects.The ability to switch from my MBP to my iMac at will with zero effort and have the same projects on each (assuming both machines are connected to the network) removes a great deal of complexity and effort on my part. And I can even use the aforementioned Dropbox feature to grab older files I changed if I forget to create a snapshot in Xcode. This is probably the biggest surprise I have with Apple because they at least offer this TextEdit and other apps via iCloud.
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  • Reply 24 of 30
    geekdadgeekdad Posts: 1,131member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post

     

    I sync a lot of Android phones with other phones to transfer data between various models.

     

    It's a headache.

     

    Contacts and SMS sync when USB debug is enabled in developer mode, pictures and other stuff need mass storage mode, switching between these is hit and miss at best depending on model and manufacturer.

     

    Samsung went so far as to hide developer options in the S4, you have to go into settings, across to the more tab, down to about phone and tap on Build number seven times, back out of that, go back a tab and then you can find it.

     

    lol...they really hid the developer options on the S4.....
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  • Reply 25 of 30
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,411member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Splash-reverse View Post



    Why do you need Apple to do everything? If a third party can do it better and let them be. Free up Apple resources as well not to have to do everything. Remember iCloud is just an enhancement to the OS and not a standalone feature.


    They're big enough and sophisticated enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, I'd guess.


     


    If not, I'd rather that they got the Cloud right, instead of wasting time on cute-sy, nice-to-have (not must-have) stuff like iRadio.


     


    Add: For example, I can't get iTunes Match to update my playlists in the past couple of months. I've given up using it since it's become a complete waste of time to manage.

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  • Reply 26 of 30
    djames4242djames4242 Posts: 654member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by freediverx View Post


    Dropbox's support for mobile devices is pathetic and frustrating. They need to pay some attention to this area pronto, as there's plenty of other options out there today.



     


    It is? Frankly, considering the limitations Apple places on third-party iOS applications, I think Dropbox integration is pretty darn good. Am I frustrated that I can't save my Pages documents directly to Dropbox without having to open both apps? Sure I am. That's not the fault of Dropbox. That's Apple.

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  • Reply 27 of 30
    djames4242djames4242 Posts: 654member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post


    It was with no small amount of horror that I watched Dropbox 2.1.x literally eat my files on two computers running MacOS X 10.4.11. Dropbox 2.0.x and older versions do not have this issue. Luckily, my files did not disappear from the Dropbox server.



     


    I've only seen something like this happen once. My primary MacBook Pro has two drives (a SSD and the HD that came with it). The SSD was upgraded to 10.8 while the HD still had 10.6. I had a need to boot back into SL to run something under Rosetta and it had an older version of my Dropbox folder than hadn't been synced in nearly a year. When I logged in and Dropbox decided to catch up, it for some reason decided to sync its version of the folder and deleted everything that had been added since the last time it was used.


     


    As someone else mentioned earlier, Dropbox keeps 30 days of history (unless you pay to keep unlimited revisioning) so it was a simple matter of restoring all the affected directories using the web interface. I then promptly disabled Dropbox on the old boot partition so it wouldn't happen again :)

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  • Reply 28 of 30
    erannerann Posts: 38member


    @ hagar.  Fully agree. The mystery is why Apple abandoned iDisk functionality. It had almost everything I expect from a cloud system and (mostly) implemented in a neat way. DB is nice, too, but I still miss iDisk.

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  • Reply 29 of 30
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    erann wrote: »
    Fully agree. The mystery is why Apple abandoned iDisk functionality. It had almost everything I expect from a cloud system and (mostly) implemented in a neat way. DB is nice, too, but I still miss iDisk.

    iDisk was awful for users.

    Examples:
    • If you uploaded a 1GB movie and it crapped out or you closed your Mac notebook at 900MB the whole thing was lost. With Dropbox that doesn't' happen.
    • If you have a 100MB Excel/Numbers document that you copy to iDisk if you change anything it has to reload the whole file to sync with the server. With Dropbox it does delta changes.
    • If you accidentally delete a file from iDisk you have to re-upload it again. With Dropbox you can simply undelete.
    • If you accidentally save a change in a file in iDisk you have to re-upload it again. With Dropbox you can simply restore the previous file (just like with Time Machine.
    • Worst of all, if you have sensitive data to be stored on iDisk you need to first use use Disk Utility to create an encrypted Disk Image (or some other app) so that it's not sent or received in cleartext. With Dropbox it's 256-bit AES encryption from start to finish.

    Now, you can say you don't care about these features or that you know fully well that these don't exist and you accept these limitations, but it's irresponsible for any company to offer a service to consumers that they expect to be relatively secure and safe. And frankly it's long over due. Are you aware that even with MobileMe Mail that only your web login used SSL but all your content was sent as in clear text via HTTP? Not acceptable!
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  • Reply 30 of 30
    erannerann Posts: 38member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    iDisk was awful for users.

    ...


    I admit that iDisk wasn't perfect though it was pretty good for my use case. The thing beyond my comprehension is why Apple didn't port all the functionality of iDisk to iCloud. The code existed already anyway.


     


    I do use DB, yet I would like to have the functionality from Apple. I have been using Macs for 24 yeras (and computers for 42 years). When I was younger and more adventurous I loaded my Mac full of all kind of useful (and useless) functionality from any vendor. However, there were always nasty incompatibility issues which consumed plenty of my time. Then I Iearned that the more I have software from Apple, the less I have trouble and the more I save time.


     


    Note: Its not that I am afraid of computers. I have majored in Computer Science (compilers, OSs, etc) and I have programmed computers directly from the front panel at bit level. Those were golden days but they are over and today computers are only tools for me and I want my tools run with minimal trouble.

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