Do More – a Lot More, with Dropbox

Most of us use Dropbox to quickly and easily send files to family members or our work colleagues to collaborate on projects. It sure beats using email as an FTP server.

Its simplicity has made it one of the most popular online services in recent years. But what makes Dropbox even more powerful are the third-party apps available that extend its usage. For instance, some online bookstores deliver purchases right to your connected Dropbox account giving you access to your books on all your devices: phone, tablet, desktop, etc. The bookstores use an app to connect to your Dropbox folder and deliver the goods.

Dropbox is also continually adding new features.

Many in my family don't use Facebook, so sharing timely pictures can be a challenge (in other words, extra work!). I've started using Dropbox's picture sharing features to email links to photo albums to family members. Often my pictures are sent as soon as I've taken them. The recipients aren't required to have a Dropbox account to view my photos. Dropbox creates a unique, private link. Unless someone has that link, they won't be able to see my shared photos.

This feature comes in handy in sharing pictures directly from my phone to those who don't use social media. I use the Dropbox app on my Android phone to select which pictures I want to send and select email as the method of sharing. My email receipts receive a link to a page that displays all the pictures I selected.

In two seconds I've shared a photo album of new pictures without using social media, no uploading of image files to a computer and no need to ask anyone to sign up for yet another online photo sharing service. Photo sharing with no hassles or strings attached.

If you use Dropbox and need more space, check out this article: How to Get More Free Space from Dropbox

Here's a look at a few more Dropbox apps that extend its capabilities:

Email Files Directly To Your Dropbox

Send To Dropbox is a free service that gives you a special email address. Send any attachments to your designated email address and they are automatically saved to Dropbox.
The files are stored in new folder aptly named "Attachments" which is under the Apps folder in your Dropbox. You can set up subfolders based on the email subject or date (options pictured above) for better organization.

I find this one handy when people send me attachments I need to save, especially when away from the office. If I can forward an email attachment for saving and move an email out of my inbox from my phone when waiting for an oil change, it's less for me to do when I'm back at the office.

http://sendtodropbox.com

Dropbox Automator

This app can perform a number of automated tasks based on what you save in your Dropbox. Here is the current feature list

• Covert to PDF


• PDF to TXT


• Upload to Google Drive


• Send to your Kindle


• Upload to Slideshare


• Sign PDF (electronic signature)


• Convert eBook


• Upload to Facebook


• Upload to Flickr


• Upload to Google+


• Convert image

I'm sure you're wondering how it works. This setup video may shed some light:



http://wappwolf.com/dropboxautomator

DropVox

DropVox is a cool iOS app that records audio and saves it on your Dropbox. If you've used personal voice recorders in the past to capture ideas, reminders, then you understand how useful this is. I like to use voice recorders when traveling, especially after important meetings. I can summarize the meeting and my thoughts while en route, and when I arrive home I have a complete reference to use for action items or follow up.

The beauty of DropVox is that recordings are already on my desktop when I get home thanks to the Dropbox sync. Also, having recording available across all devices is very handy. I may get an idea and have the impulse to listen to a recording and take notes on my iPad while sitting in my garden. I can do so without having to move files around and losing a step. In the past, such inspiration would be snuffed out after realizing a file I want to use is on my desktop, then having to get up, go to my office, fire it up the computer, copy files and return to where I was. That's why I appreciate tools like DropVox.

Unfortunately, this app is only available for iOS devices at this time:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropvox-record-voice-memos/id416288287?mt=8

DropItTo.Me

Dropbox has sending to those who don't have an account covered, but what about receiving files? DropItToMe allows anyone to upload file to your Dropbox, even if they don't have a Dropbox account.

Once you sign up for DropItToMe, you're assigned a custom link made from your username, http://www.dropitto.me/username. You also need to choose a special password that will allow others to upload using your link.

Just give anyone your custom link and the upload password and they are free to send files to your Dropbox. DropItToMe is free but there is a limit of 75MB on file uploads.

http://www.dropitto.me

Run Multiple Dropbox Accounts At Once

Dropbox doesn't allow anyone to use more than one account simultaneously. If they did, you could get more free space by signing up for additional accounts. However, there are legitimate reasons to access more than one account at the same time. For example, I support clients who have corporate Dropbox accounts. Often I need to create shared folders to store content that requires more space than my personal account will support.

I usually just use the web interface to deal with this issue, which is not very convenient. There are a couple tools available that can help deal with this problem. There's one is for Windows and another for Macs:

• Windows: DropboxPortableAHK allows you to run multiple versions of a portable Dropbox app that can link to another account: http://nionsoftware.com/dbpahk/instructions


• Mac: Dropbox Encore can run a second instance of Dropbox on a single Mac OS X account: http://www.joyofmacs.com/software/dropboxencore/

Getting these to work properly may take some tweaking. Read up on the instructions and make sure you're up for the install before downloading.

IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) is one of my favorite automation services. It can automate some of the tasks already mentioned in this article: saving email attachments to Dropbox, converting and sending files, saving social media photos.

The power of IFTTT is the number of services (called "channels") it supports.

So what can IFTTT do with Dropbox? Look at the all the channels above and use your imagination!

When you connect two or more channels and define how they interact, it's called a "recipe." To get you going on what you can do with IFTTT and Dropbox, here are some sample recipes submitted by users:

https://ifttt.com/recipes/search?q=dropbox

With any cloud service, be careful what you store, especially if you connect some of these apps. Don't rely on cloud services to store important files and limit your sharing to non-sensitive information. It may not be wise not to trust it for business or backing up critical information. That said, Dropbox is still a convenient, timesaving, productivity tool that you can take advantage of.

Dropbox Admits Breach After Weeks Of Silence

Details review an employee logon was breached at Dropbox.

Dropbox is a great product and one that so many people have on their computers and mobile devices. They make it so easy to use and have versions for just about every computer and mobile device. And they are far ahead of all the others in this market in support different devices. So, it was a surprise when we started to hear about spam emails being sent to Dropbox customers, some with email addresses which are not used anywhere else. Then the concerns about a security breach of the company started coming out.

We reported on the hiring of security experts after the spam emails were being reported by many users in Europe. It was less than a week later where Dropbox reported they have not found any intrusions into systems which was supposed to put people at ease. In reality, it seem to cause far more concerns for those who were vocal about having private emails receiving spam.

For some, they had created an email specifically to be used for logging on to Dropbox and no where else. So, when they started receiving spam emails, the first thought was that Dropbox had been hacked. And that was a very reasonable conclusion. So, we finally have Dropbox reporting on what they found. They are admiting they were hacked. They point the finger at usernames and passwords stolen from other sites resulted in "some users accounts" being accessed by the hackers.

A much bigger revelation is that one of those stolen passwords from another site was used to gain access to the account of a Dropbox employee. And it was that logon which contained a marketing spreadsheet which contained a pretty good size list of names and email addresses. We had speculated that the user names came possibly from a single employee who was trying to make some money from selling them. We were off base on that, but pretty close that it involved a single employee.

We have been talking for several months about the need to have strong passwords in place because the skills of hackers are getting more sophisticated. The other item we have talked about is to not use the same logon and password across multiple sites. If one site gets hacked, they are going to try to use what they have gathered on many other sites to see if they can get in. And that is exactly what has happened in this situation. You need to reevaluate your passwords and strategies

Exactly what this will mean for Dropbox and how the public views them is an unknown. Given all the sites which have been hacked over the last year, everyone needs to step up their efforts to protect themselves. While Dropbox was hacked last month, it may be one of their competitors which will be hacked next month. It seems that hackers are going all out to try and gain access to companies to get logons and passwords. That has become the new reality for everyone. So your best defense is a strong password which is not duplicated across other sites.

Dropbox Brings In Security Experts After Security Breach

Forensic examination at Dropbox being conducted because of security breach.

The news this week has Dropbox hiring security experts because spam emails were sent to and received by some Dropbox users. That does not sound like it is all that different from what we all get everyday. But in this case, the email addresses receiving these were reserved exclusively for use at Dropbox and no where else by some. That would mean that someone was able to gain access to a list of Dropbox user's email addresses. And that is a huge breach being reported. This is another problem in the cloud and one that should make everyone a little more concerned about just how secure the cloud actually is.

At the moment, we do not know the specifics of what actually resulted from the security breach and how much information was compromised. The reports of the breach and spam emails has many talking this week about the cloud and security. The sharp rise in spam emails to addresses being used only for Dropbox is causing concern among many. Dropbox is reassuring everyone that there has been no breach of data which is being stored by them.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to accept that as they still have not determined how someone might have been able to gain access to the list of email addresses. And this has been going on for close to 2 days as they investigate exactly how someone was able to gain access and get email addresses. The bigger concern of gaining access to data or accounts has not been specifically stated as not having happened. At this point, many are very concerned about the security of their account.

This comes about a year after another breach in security at Dropbox. In that situation, Dropbox had made a software change which essentially removed the need for a password. All you needed to know was a valid email address and you were in. While that one only last 4 hours, it does highlight just how easy it is for something to go wrong.

Dropbox is used all over the world and some are saying it is being used inside some locations where privacy and security are very important. As an example, Apple and NASA are listed as having Dropbox being used by employees to move data around. And it is that usage which does have the potential to open computers up if someone were to completely breach the internals at Dropbox and figure out how to do far more damage. It is an unknown as to what the potential for this kind of thing is. And yet, we are being told that the data is secure.

The cloud has turned into this huge entity which we all rely on everyday without really realizing it. From your mobile device that is doing backups into the cloud to the large volume of web sites and business operating on the cloud. Our reliance on the cloud has created a situation where everything is now more centralized than ever before. If someone is able to breach the security at a cloud location, they have much more information to grab then before when things were widely distributed.

We can hope that Dropbox is able to specifically identify exactly what was taken, how it was done and then plug the hole in security which allowed it to happen. They have a very limited time window to complete this activity before users of Dropbox begin to become very concerned. And it is the security of their data in the cloud that they are and should be most concerned about.

Cloud Storage Competition Between Dropbox and Google Drive

Dropbox doubling storage for Pro accounts at no addition charge.

Who ever said that competition is a good thing had it exactly right. And for consumers of Dropbox and their cloud storage, you are getting a benefit. Specifically, those who pay for the Pro service are getting an increase in storage with no additional charge. That increase is double the space. So, if you are paying for Pro 50 which gives you 50 GB of storage, you will get bumped up to 100 GB of cloud storage. If you are paying for Pro 100 which gives you 100 GB of storage, you will get bumped up to 200 GB of cloud storage. And the best news of all is that the prices will not increase for you. All of this is increasing today.

Dropbox is a very popular service which many people use. It is the first one that people think of for cloud storage. That is because they work across more devices than anyone else and that gives them an edge. But recently, Google has released their Google Drive product which is cloud storage as well. In comparison, with Dropbox you get 2 GB of free cloud storage which you can increase by referrals up to 18 GB. Not bad. By contrast, you get 5 GB of free storage with Google Drive and you do not need to do any referrals. The beginning space gives the advantage to Google Drive.

We know that Dropbox is facing some stiff competition from Google Drive. That may explain the latest changes they have made to their paid cloud storage versus the free cloud storage. Google Drive offers 25 GB at $2.49 per month and 100 GB at $4.99 per month. In comparison to this, the prices for Dropbox yesterday were 50 GB at $9.99 and 100 GB at $19.99. It would seem that Google Drive is a better deal.

With the increases in space, it is now 100 GB for $9.99 and 200 GB for $19.99. While Google Drive may seem like a better deal, they do not cover all the devices that Dropbox currently does. And Dropbox has made their process on a computer extremely simple to use. That is the reason that it is so popular. What should you consider? It is personal choice and for some, that means using both. If you are a small business owner, you are going to have to use both products to meet the needs of your clients.

We are probably going to see more competition, but with Dropbox offering free storage for a limited time on some new smart phones and tablets from Samsung and others, they have the advantage over Google right now. And that may not change anytime soon. Sure the coming Google Nexus tablet may offer some free storage for a limited time, but they do not have all the business relationships which Dropbox does. And it is specifically what gives Dropbox a huge advantage in the cloud storage market.

Looks for continuing competition where you, the consumer, come out the winner.

Dropbox Extends Free 50 GB Storage To Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

With Samsung partnership, another new Galaxy product gets free space.

 
Since Google Drive has come to market, it seems that Dropbox has been working overtime to maintain their market leadership. Their cloud sharing software is run on more platforms than others providers of like products, but the market has been getting crowded of late. As a result, Dropbox is finding it more difficult to maintain their market lead. Now comes word they are offering up to 50 GB of free space when you purchase the new Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet. This comes on the heels of them offering 50 GB of storage for 2 years with the purchase of the Galaxy S3. That news brought a lot of interest as a result.

It would appear that offering free space is how Dropbox is going to maintain their presence in the market. This latest offering for the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet is only for a period of 1 year and not the 2 years offered for the Galaxy S3. It is still a great deal as you are saving the normal charges of $9.99 per month or the annual fee of $99. Either way, you are saving a lot of money and if you look at it as a savings off the price of the coming tablet, it makes it even more of a bargain. This free storage fits in with the needs of moving information around and is becoming very popular.

For Dropbox, this is a great move and where they are expanding, they remain in the news as people report on it. As with any storage, there is a tendency to fill up the space and a majority of people are likely to continue using it after the 1 year period is up and pay for the privilege. That is a great way to grow the business. And by associating the free space with new products, they are getting more free advertising.

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet is going to be out this weekend and along with that comes some great pricing at $399.99. To put that into perspective, the current Apple iPad sells for $499 for a similar WiFi only version with 16 GB. Throwing in the savings for the free cloud storage from Dropbox and it makes this an even better deal. You should see this online this weekend at Best Buy, Walmart, Office Depot and others. Office Depot is showing the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 on pre-order for the $399.99 price with the free 50 GB of Dropbox storage for the first year.

As shown below from the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 features page, the promotion of the free offer is being prominently shown on the site. This recent deal may also be extending to the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 tablet as there are reports of people getting the up to 50 GB of free storage as well. On some forums, it is being reported that when you install the Dropbox app on the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, you then get the expansion of your storage to 50 GB. Not everyone is indicating success in expanding their total storage.

For now, the Samsung and Dropbox relationship looks like it will benefit those purchasing the selected products from Samsung with the free space. So it raises the question of whether the offer for free storage is going to cause people to take more of a look at the associated Samsung products?

Dropbox Offering 50 GB Of Free Storage For 2 Years

Dropbox providing space as promotion with Samsung Galaxy S3 phone

 
Dropbox has been seeing competition over the past year and the most recent in that competition is Google and their Google Drive which offers up 5 GB of free space for the free account. Dropbox only offers 2 GB as part of the free space and then you have to do other activities to increase that space. They make you jump through some hoops to grow your space with the most recent efforts involving your pictures. All of this may now have to change with Google entering the game in a David and Goliath story. When Google enters a market, they have an impact to the market and impact smaller sized companies quite often. But that is not always the case with Google taking over and the Dropbox story may be another situation where Google does not grab a large market share.

Dropbox has teamed up with Samsung to provide you with 50 GB of free storage space. That sounds like a fantastic deal as compared to the normal 2 GB which they offer when you sign up. Obviously there are rules and regulations associated with this, but they are worth considering. There is a limited amount of time for the 50 GB of storage and it is 2 years. After that, you would have to pay for the continued usage of that space which is current $99 per year (or $9.99 per month) for the Pro 50 package. This is a great marketing idea from Dropbox as once you have the space used, you are more than likely to continue using it after the 2 year free period. But, there is still one more catch to the rules and regulations.


You have to purchase the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone which was announced this week. The 2 year subscription comes bundled with the purchase of this recently announced smart phone as a way to promote it. The joint offering is an excellent way to promote both product offerings. Samsung sold over 20 million of their Galaxy S II smart phone in February after being launched last April. The expectations for the Galaxy S3 are even higher and with the Dropbox deal, they are adding to the movement for this device. There are many other features which will have higher sales and it is expected to be available this summer.

The idea of cloud storage has been growing for smart phones as you can store things on your local computer and then have them available on other devices including your smart phone. Apple raised the idea up with iCloud last year and the iPhone 4S and it looked to be a big hit. Samsung has followed up on the cloud storage, but rather than create their own service, they took a smarter route and partnered with a well know provider in Dropbox. This is a much better route to take and opens things up for consumers in a way that Apple's iCloud cannot do.

Dropbox has the distinction of providing their Dropbox functionality on far more devices than the competition and sets them ahead of all the others out their providing cloud storage. With the growing importance of pictures for social media and the improving picture taking capabilities of smart phones, adding Dropbox makes sense. You can take pictures with the coming Galaxy S3 and put them in your Dropbox folder on the phone and immediately have them available on your desktop computer in the Dropbox folder. This is a big deal and is only going to grow much larger this year.

While you may not be interested in purchasing the Galaxy S3 and getting the 50 GB of free storage, the idea of higher end smart phones having free cloud storage through providers like Dropbox is hopefully going to become the standard with all new phones this year.

Do you believe all smart phones should come with bundled cloud storage?

DropBox Facing Competition From Google Drive

Giant Google enters cloud storage against popular Dropbox.

 
Dropbox has been the big name when it comes to cloud storage of information which can be shared among a variety of devices. It is the name that most people think of when asked about file sharing in the cloud. They have seen a lot of growth and because of that growth, it creates interest in the market space from other players, some of whom are very big. In the 1990's, any small company who developed a product which ran under Windows had to pay attention to what Microsoft was doing. If their product became too popular, Microsoft would often create a competing product which had devastating affects on the company. Dropbox has held their own very nicely against the likes of Amazon (Cloud Drive), Windows (SkyDrive) and others in the market. Dropbox is the leaders in this market segment and has shown their capabilities as a great file sharing product.

Enter Google Drive
Google has been rumored to be working on a competing product and today it is big news. It is not exactly ready for prime time as going to the Google Drive page shows "Your Google Drive is not ready yet". This looks much the same as when they started off with Google+ by attempting to generate excitement by limiting the number of people who could connect initially. Not exactly the best way to launch a product. This sounds much like a David and Goliath story where Google is seen as the Goliath as they are huge and anything they release has an impact on the market. Just how well Dropbox can defend themselves as David remains to be seen. Google Drive could be a big product.

That does not mean they will be successful, just they will make a splash. Google+ is a perfect example as many thought they would have radical growth and have a major impact on Facebook. It would appear the same may happen here. Sure, Google has a lot going for their product with all the other integrated products they have such as Google Docs. That may be the one weak point for Dropbox as Google enters the market. But that could be a weak point for Google as their bundled services are difficult to unbundle.

Dropbox is known for their maximum compatibility across a large number of platforms and devices. Others in the market and now Google Drive do not offer that compatibility and is a big strength for Dropbox. Whether Google Drive will achieve the ability to operate across a broad spectrum of devices is unknown.


Dropbox Standard
Dropbox has become the standard for what cloud storage should be when using it as a file sharing environment. That is not going to change and in light of Apple's iCloud, they have done well in maintaining their presences. With Google Drive coming out, we expect Dropbox to maintain their leadership role in the marketplace.

For some, pricing is always an issue and the various pricing models have a variety of options across the various products. The entry point is what often makes the most difference. Google Drive gives you 5 GB free while Dropbox gives you 2 GB of free storage. The big question is what product are most people more likely to start with. Given the Dropbox method of getting more disk space when you get your friends to join Dropbox, gives them an edge over their competitors, including Google. It is the market mass which will help them continue with this latest competitor entering the market place.

Google Drive could become a huge product, but it is too early to know just how much of an impact they might make. For now, Dropbox remains the market leader and probably will for the foreseeable future.