Flash Drives Are So 2009

One of my favourite new tools/apps from 2010 has to be Dropbox. This web-based service has completely nullified my need for a flash drive and I have not felt the need to carry once since I started using Dropbox for peace of mind.

Not only does this service provide a secure backup system for your important documents and files using Amazon S3 storage, but all data is transferred using a secure connection and encrypted with AES-256. Any changes you make to files you store in Dropbox are automatically synced to the cloud via the Dropbox web service and to any other computers you have linked to your Dropbox account. For extra peace of mind, previous versions of your files are kept on Dropbox so that you can revert to previous file versions, or recover accidentally deleted files.

For us South African users concerned about bandwidth, Dropbox is particularly useful; not only will syncing default to 75% of your connection speed so as to not impede your regular browsing, but Dropbox will also only sync the part of the file that has been changed and sync local copies of files for devices connected to the same LAN.

And for when you’re not a near a computer, Dropbox has apps available for Blackberry, Android, iPhone and iPad which makes all your important data virtually ubiquitous. If that wasn’t enough to convince you, you are also very easily able to share files/folders with others. I could easily copy my concert photos to a Dropbox folder and then share that folder with friends who would have instant access to my photos.

Dropbox is a Freemium service which provides new users with 2GB of free space, which is definitely sufficient for most people’s important documents/files. However, you may purchase 50GB for $10/month or 100GB for $20/month. If you sign up using the following link, however, you’ll get an extra 500MB gratis: http://db.tt/J4MBhcH

Check out the following video for an overview of Dropbox: