"With competition from other corporations including Apple???s iCloud, is it still the best choice for students?"
Apple's iCloud isn't really competition for Dropbox. They serve different purposes and a lot of people who are using iCloud are also using Dropbox because they are so different.
Dropbox has announced version 2.0 of its Android application.
The free service allows you to store photographs, documents and video, and then share them quickly and easily. It’s an incredibly useful app for moving files between computers or keeping a backup copy of them in the cloud.
The Android app has now received a complete overhaul, with 2.0’s release including extensive new features and redesign.
(Source: Flickr)
Some of the new and improved features include:
- Favorites: To make sure you always have access to that particular file, you can now ’star’ it for rapid offline access.
- Bulk upload: You can now upload multiple photos and videos.
- ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ support: Optimized for the newest and tastiest Android release yet.
- Single-tap access to actions: File and folder actions can now be implemented with a single tap.
- File re-naming: As simple as it sounds, this feature is now finally available within Dropbox.
- Extras: This release also includes numerous bug fixes and stability improvements.
If you are a student, then you can enjoy up to 500MB of space for each person you invite to Dropbox. In order to take advantage of this feature, remember to use your university or college email address.
Dropbox currently offers 2GB of space to free users, or you can upgrade to a ‘Pro’ account with up to 100GB of space. Dropbox Pro users will have their referral rates doubled, which measures up to a massive 1GB for students who join the referral scheme.
Students often use Dropbox, and it’s easy to see why.
Not only does the app allow great portability of your files without the risk of losing your USB or having to drag your laptop across campus, you can access your files both from the app and from the Dropbox website itself.
Everybody likes to receive free things, and the account space should be enough for you to keep copies of all your college notes without any problems. It’s also good for collaborative projects between classmates.
There is some competition from iCloud, the ‘recommended’ storage facility for Apple devices. iCloud is known to possess more features than Dropbox, although this latest update may begin to level the playing field. Where Apple’s competitive product is known to be more feature-rich, it is not necessarily true competition for Dropbox as a storage suite.
If you are also one of the iOS/Android fence-sitters, then the cross-browser compatibility of Dropbox is certainly a luring prospect.
The iCloud’s photo storage stays in the servers for 30 days, and their music system will count songs that don’t have a store counterpart against your quota. Now, before the Apple fans bring out their pitchforks, I’m not saying it doesn’t have its uses. It is feature rich, but Dropbox offers certain basic options that iCloud does not.
When it comes to sharing capabilities, Dropbox wins hands down, which makes it the better option for students or those that don’t rely on Apple products.
Those that became disillusioned with Dropbox due to the lag in updating features and bugs may have already turned to iCloud, but when it comes to flexible options, more storage and now a finally updated app, Dropbox is still the better option for students to take.
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