Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is Dropbox still the best for cloud storage?

Cubytus said:
I am not aware of hubiC encryption of customers' data, but we know the French State still occasionally spies on private data (though nowhere near the full-on scale of the NSA). I'd suggest you ask them if data-at-rest is encrypted, as well as data-in-transit. Coming from what may be the largest private hosting company that makes its money from selling actual service, I tend to consider them more trustworthy than Google.
Click to expand...

Regardless of my opinions on government spying and the NSA, I personally don't encrypt to protect myself from the government for a couple of reasons. First, I'm a government contractor (not LE or Intelligence), so I voluntarily submit to their watching what I do at work. Second, if the NSA or FBI wants to get my data, they're going to get it somehow. Since they already know a lot about me (that I voluntarily submitted), so there's not a lot of point in hiding my computer activity. (That doesn't mean that I condone the warrant-less spying).

The reason I encrypt my data is for personal security/ identity theft. I have secure passwords, tax returns and other potentially sensitive personal information that an identity thief could go after. Layers of encryption (1Password database, secure disk images, local & cloud encryption & SSL) are ways I try protect myself from that. Almost all of these features are automatic, or require very few steps to set up.
 
jdechko said:
Regardless of my opinions on government spying and the NSA, I personally don't encrypt to protect myself from the government for a couple of reasons. First, I'm a government contractor (not LE or Intelligence), so I voluntarily submit to their watching what I do at work. Second, if the NSA or FBI wants to get my data, they're going to get it somehow.
Click to expand...
Sure, but there's no reason not to make the warrant-less and unconstitutional search of non-work-related-data as hard as possible for them. Your job is one thing, your life is another.

If I were to go to the US with a computer, I'd use a completely empty machine (against arbitrary searches) and download my data through a log-less VPN set up in a free country. Of course it would be virtually impossible to be completely stealthy unless you don't use any electronic device at all.

The reason I encrypt my data is for personal security/ identity theft. I have secure passwords, tax returns and other potentially sensitive personal information that an identity thief could go after. Layers of encryption (1Password database, secure disk images, local & cloud encryption & SSL) are ways I try protect myself from that. Almost all of these features are automatic, or require very few steps to set up.
Click to expand...
I tended not to trust 1Password because it's closed source. And knowing what gov't actually does (including weakening default encryption algorithms for easier cracking, far worse than I imagined), there's simply no password manager I trust. Sadly I guess you can't have both provable, secure setup AND ease of use.
 
Well, with the Google Drive price drop, Google just killed their competition. I mean, seriously, $1.99/month for 100GB? DropBox needs to get their pricing changed or they're gonna loose a lot of Windows/Mac customers.
 
SolarShane said:
Well, with the Google Drive price drop, Google just killed their competition. I mean, seriously, $1.99/month for 100GB? DropBox needs to get their pricing changed or they're gonna loose a lot of Windows/Mac customers.
Click to expand...
How reliable is Google Drive on a Mac? How well does it preserve file metadata? How correct is its syncing?

I found GD to be not particularly reliable, and slow, when I tested it last year. Also, due to the astoundingly stupid design of the GD website, you can't delete more than a few files at a time. If you try to recursively delete a directory you will almost always get a "too many files to delete" error. If you have hundreds of files to get rid of, it will take you hours deleting them ~20 at a time because of this idiocy.

It will be interesting to see if Amazon S3 responds to Google's shot across the bow. Their prices have remained substantially the same for years.
 
SolarShane said:
Well, with the Google Drive price drop, Google just killed their competition. I mean, seriously, $1.99/month for 100GB? DropBox needs to get their pricing changed or they're gonna loose a lot of Windows/Mac customers.
Click to expand...

Like, I said, they can't. They rely too much on Amazon S3 servers. Google's new pricing even undercuts Google's own pricing.
 
Cubytus said:
Indeed I was. The only Lion machine at home is a Core 2 Duo, which, according to these articles, isn't used for cryptography operations. I bet it's moot as I'm running SL.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, well in that case I guess don't use that old version of FileVault. I also remember hearing bad things about the disk images it uses getting corrupted.
 
Robisan said:
Your move Dropbox.
Click to expand...

randian said:
S3's price drop is now woefully inadequate. $85/TB vs $10/TB for Google?
Click to expand...

SolarShane said:
Well, with the Google Drive price drop, Google just killed their competition. I mean, seriously, $1.99/month for 100GB? DropBox needs to get their pricing changed or they're gonna loose a lot of Windows/Mac customers.
Click to expand...
Dropbox has yet to move, but what about 10TB for 15$?

Plus, they won't prey upon your stored data.

Razeus said:
Like, I said, they can't. They rely too much on Amazon S3 servers.
Click to expand...
All-custom-developped infrastructure, massively standardized internally is how OVH can achieve such low prices.

Google Drive's price is indeed woefully inadequate :)
 
randian said:
Bandwidth limits? That's how Amazon Glacier gets its low prices.

I also can't tell how complete and correct their metadata support is.
Click to expand...
10Mbps on uploads AFAIK, i.e. far more than the typical home connection.
Metadata support issues have never been raised, so I guess it's OK.
 
MisterMe said:
I have a couple of paid storage services and a number of free ones. My Dropbox account provides 3.75 GB storage free of charge. Unlike the other services, I actually use Dropbox. It just works. Not only does it just work, it is saving me money. I no longer use USB thumb drives to transport and synchronize files between home and work. Whatever is in my Dropbox folder is automatically synchronized among my Macs, Windows computers, iPhones, iPads, and my [free] account on Dropbox's server.
Click to expand...

Not sure why you have to boldface Dropbox, but you missed one.
 
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/30/ho...stuff-without-actually-looking-at-your-stuff/

Bj8QXDqCQAA6VDt.png
 
tried AT&T Locker, 5GB and Slow as heck, I had that and Dropbox running side by side, I fell asleep waiting for AT&T Locker.
 
I use iCloud and Google Drive. Both work fine for my needs and give me more than enough storage. Syncing works well between all my Apple devices.
 
iCloud. I really enjoy being able to add something to the grocery list from whichever device is closest, knowing that when I get to the store they will all be on my iPhone.

A.
(feel free to substitute 'grocery list' for anything supported by iCloud - I enjoy not having to think about syncing anymore)
 
Last edited:
Combo of Dropbox and Copy.

I went to fiverr and got 1 GB of storage at Copy for $10, so I use that for storing mostly pictures and some other files.

I use Dropbox for files particularly for collaboration with others.

I have 50 GB at Box, and storage at Google Drive, but don't really use those that much.
 
Google drive. I have a apps account and get 25GB for my main account and 15GB per user. If I need more space I create more users and link the space through folder sharing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back