I pay for multiple services. In fact, I pay for services I forget to use. One of the nice things about getting a new credit card is that it invalidates my old card and I am contacted by these online services again. Sometimes, I pay again and sometimes I end my association what that service.
One complaint I have about many online services is that the gap between the free account and the least expensive paid account is too great. This may be a personal matter and based on my personal technology environment. The services I have committed to for one reason or another limit my interest in other services. I have purchased a Chromebook Pixel and this comes with 1 terabyte of online Google storage for three years (the computer was expensive). I also pay $60 a year for the online backup service Carbonite and use this with my home computer. Between these two options, I have a lot of online storage capability. I pay for Evernote, Amazon, iTunes Match, TroveBox and Flickr. These are specialized services, but again I can store music and images in several locations. What price do I think would interest me for the additional storage and unique capabilities? I am thinking about $25 (the price I now pay for Flickr).
My concern here is with DropBox and Box. Both are great services. My original preference was for DropBox, but I am becoming more an impressed with Box. I originally thought of DropBox as kind of flash drive in the cloud. I could put files there and get them again from a different machine in a different location. I think my original interest was sparked by the opportunity to save content I created on the iPad to DropBox and then access this content from another device. The opportunity to get content into and out of the iPad was and is still kind of an issue.
It seems to me that Box has done a lot to catch up with DropBox. I can use either service to access or upload files from any of my computers. Both show up as folders when I reveal the file structure from my Desktop (Macintosh). I can drag files to either folder and the files then are available online (when given a short time to synch). I can open either folder to find files I have stored.
The option to store share files to and from the iPad has also been more equivalent (the example below shows the options from Notability).
Box already allows expansion via both internal (from the same company) and external (3rd party) apps. This is an interesting feature and is similar to the way a browser can be supplemented with plugins or extensions. I sometimes use Box Edit. This internal app allows Box open in a browser to connect to Microsoft applications (Word, PowerPoint) on your desktop or Google docs. The content created is stored within Box. I wonder sometimes how valuable this is – you need the Microsoft software or the account for it to work so you could first create the content and then move it to Box yourself. I guess the app saves you some time.
Box promises new advances. I am currently on the list to evaluate the beta version of Box Notes. This collaborative service seems to be roughly equivalent to the collaborative potential available within Google docs.
As I have suggested many times, it is valuable for users to have multiple developers competing for their attention and money. This competition drives innovation. My personal circumstances aside, Box is impressive and worth your exploration.
You must be logged in to post a comment.