Dropbox

I have three primary computers that I use daily, my shitty XP notebook at work and my 12″ PowerBook and iMac at home. It has always been a struggle trying to keep files that I use current and accessible across all computers. I’ve used FTP, USB drives and even e-mail in an attempt to preempt what files I want to have access to later on another machine. That is up until a few days ago when I found Dropbox.

Dropbox is a very smart little application that takes the pain and effort out of synchronizing files between multiple computers (both PC and Mac with Linux coming in the future).

Currently in beta, Dropbox gives users 2GB of space online to store your files, music, photos, whatever you want. The Dropbox application is installed on each computer you want to have access to your Dropbox and you’re ready to go. By dropping your files into the Dropbox folder they are automatically uploaded online for safe keeping.

Using multiple computers with Dropbox is a synch as everything is taken care of in the background with your computer checking for updates and downloading any new files or changes made automatically. The guys at Dropbox have also considered your network usage with Dropbox only ever using 70% of your bandwidth so your web browsing etc will never be disrupted. Thanks guys!

Where Dropbox shines is how it manages changes to your files. Unlike editing files locally where once you have made a change to and saved a file it is difficult to revert back to an earlier revision. Dropbox will keep online each revision of said file allowing you to see when and who made the last changes. If for some reason you wish to go back to an earlier version it’s as simple as logging onto the Dropbox web interface and restoring the version of file that you’re after.

All in all for a product that is still in beta I have had no problems at all with it and have been very impressed with the current features and look forward to see what develops in the future.

If you would like to check it out and need an invite please leave a comment and hopefully an invite will find it’s way to you.