file sharing - The Graphic Mac

Six great Dropbox alternatives

Internet
21 May, 2013

Dropbox alternatives

You have Dropbox, right? C’mon, who hasn’t at least tried it? For those who haven’t, Dropbox is a simple way to sync files from one computer to others, and share files with family, friends, and co-workers.

Dropbox has cemented itself as a staple of any multi-Mac user’s toolbox. It works near flawlessly, and couldn’t be easier to use. But there are plenty of alternatives out there that offer similar services, if not exactly the same ones.

Here are a few that I’ve tried and really like. Most offer paid upgrades for more storage and features, but all are free to use if your syncing and storage needs are light.

Copy

Copy is named quite ironically, because it’s a virtual copy of Dropbox as far as how it works. A folder is created in your Home folder your Mac and everything you put in it gets synced through the cloud with your other Macs (or PCs). The Copy web app is nicer to work with than Dropbox’s website, IMO. I love the features Copy offers, like the ability to easily set up shared folders, notifications, and bandwidth restrictions for uploads and downloads.

Copy starts you off with 15GB of storage. Like Dropbox, Copy offers a referral bonus program which gives you 5GB of bonus storage for every friend who signs up with your personal link. Your friend also gets an extra 5GB when they sign up. So if you use the link above to sign up, you should get 20GB of storage right from the start. Pretty sweet! Copy is already fairly popular, and integration with other websites and iOS apps is popping up every day. The iOS app is really, really nice, too!

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30 Mac OS X apps and utilities I love: Part 3

Mac & OS X
10 Jan, 2011

Over the years I’ve installed a lot of commercial software, shareware and freeware on my Macs. I love trying new apps. That being said, most of what I install gets used once or twice, then discarded. Last week I published 10 of my favorite apps in Part 1, and another 10 in Part 2. Today I conclude the series with 10 more apps that I love to use.

The applications listed below contains a few “old timers” and several Johnny-Come-Lately apps that have found a permanent home on my Mac.

Snapz Pro X

The last few years has seen several fancy-pants screen capture utilities come to market. They all look spectacular, but I’ve stayed with Snapz Pro X because it offers the perfect balance of features at a reasonable price. Snapz Pro X offers everything you would expect in a screen capture utility, with the added ability to capture video and audio of your Mac’s screen (a feature I love to use when a web site attempts to prevent downloading of audio or video!). When it comes to static image capture of your screen, Snapz Pro can capture your entire screen, specific windows, or user definable portions of your screen with a keyboard shortcut, and save it in a number of formats. It also gives you the ability to keep the cursor visible, keep or remove drop shadows, add watermarks, and much more. Snapz Pro X with video capture capability costs you $69 and is well worth it if you do a lot of screen captures.
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Deliver: Automated file delivery with email notifications and more

Mac & OS X
27 Dec, 2010

With the amount of ways you can send a file over the Internet nowadays, it would be nice to have one application for your Mac that can handle most all the popular methods. Deliver attempts to do just that with nearly a dozen delivery methods, and more.

Deliver, from Zevrix Solutions, is a file delivery solution for remote and local destinations with automatic e-mail delivery notifications, compression, lo-res PDF previews and other professional and time-saving features. The delivery notifications are based on powerful variable templates and contain detailed info about the item and its location.

Send files to remote and local destinations with Deliver

Deliver supports the following formats, along with file compression:

FTP
SFTP
AFP
SMB
WebDav
Amazon S3
MobileMe
Local Disk
Email

Deliver offers a few more nice additions, including automated low-res PDF creation for emailing single PDF files, customizable email templates, and a detailed delivery history.

Deliver is available for $19.95, and a demo is available. Zevrix is also offering a beta version of Deliver Express, a Hot Folder version of the full Deliver app.

AirDropper makes file requests and transfers with Dropbox users easier

Internet
30 Aug, 2010

In the world of file transfers, nothing is easier, more convenient, and more reliable than Dropbox. That is of course, unless the person you want to share files with doesn’t have a Dropbox account; then it’s a little more tricky – especially if the person on the other end isn’t quite as tech savvy as you are.

One of the reasons I love other services like YouSendIt is that it makes sharing your file easier by allowing you to upload your file, then email the link to the file for someone to download. The problem is that the service isn’t nearly as convenient as Dropbox beyond that single feature.

AirDropper for Dropbox makes file requests & sharing easy

Enter AirDropper, a web-based service that connects with your Dropbox account to make transferring files as easy as sending an email. As the image above illustrates, AirDropper works seamlessly with Dropbox to accomplish the task of requesting and sharing your files. First you connect AirDropper to your Dropbox account. Then you fill out our request form with a description of the file you want and how you want to send the request, whether by email or by using a secure upload link. Once the person you’re requesting the file from visits our secure page and uploads the file, we immediately put the file in a subfolder called “AirDropper” within your Dropbox.

Here, File File offers access to your home Mac from your iPhone

Mac & OS X
26 Jul, 2010

Ever need a file while you’re out and about? Here, File File (HFF) is an iPhone/Mac pair of apps that allows you to access all of the files on your home Mac(s), wherever you go.

DropBox is fantastic, but you have to remember to put files in the DropBox folder. With HFF, you can access your Mac at home with your iPhone when you’re on the road. All your files are accessible as long as your computer is turned on, with no fuss on your part.

Here, File File requires a router that supports NAT-PMP or UPnP (you can set up port forwarding on your Mac if you don’t have a supported router).

If you’re wondering if the app is any good, consider the fact that Apple used the App in one of their iPhone commercials. Don’t need much more endorsement than that!

20 great free online file storage services

Internet
5 May, 2008

Please Digg this if you find it useful. A few years ago, I posted a long list of free online file sharing services. If you haven’t used a sharing service to transport large files from one computer/location to another, you’re missing out. It’s a whole lot cheaper, and most times, faster than burning CDs or lugging around an external hard drive. It’s also a little more secure than just tossing your document onto a “who knows how reliable” USB keydrive. Rather than post an exhaustive list of services, I decided this time to focus on 20 of the better services I’ve come across. I have tried every one on this list and found the experience satisfactory to excellent. As for me, I prefer two of these. MediaFire is fast and reliable. With its rather low 100MB file size limit, you might be turned off. But the simple site layout, speed and reliability, make MediaFire a gem. They make it as simple as it can possibly get to share your files. I also like the fact that they’ve been around for a long time. For files that are larger than 100MB (and that I don’t want to bother splitting up), I use File Dropper. It’s another simple to use site that I’ve had great luck with. Though the speed isn’t quite as good as MediaFire, it’s still better than most I’ve tried. And the large file size limit makes it perfect for transferring large video files when a DVD burner isn’t available. Keep in mind that the File Size Limit listed for each service is NOT the total storage space allotted, it’s just the limit of each individual file you can upload. Most services offer anywhere between 2GB to unlimited. Also keep in mind that free online storage services rely on advertising to pay the bills. When the ad clicks dry up, the service goes away. Many of these sites, such as MediaFire, have been in business for a long time. But many of the sites on my original list didn’t last long. The moral of the story, don’t rely on these “free” sites for important backups. They’re for temporary storage and transfer use only. Megashares File Size Limit: 10GB* (with Custom Uploader, 1.5GB without) Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited* (see FAQ for explanation) URL: http://www.megashares.com File Dropper File Size Limit: 5GB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Forever (deleted only if there is no download activity) URL: http://www.filedropper.com TransferBigFiles File Size Limit: 1GB Download Limit: 20 Downloads File Life: 5 Days* (see FAQ for more details) URL: http://www.transferbigfiles.com SnapDrive File Size Limit: 500MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited URL: http://www.snapdrive.net/ Driveway File Size Limit: 500MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 90 Days (deleted only if there is no download activity in 90 days) URL: http://www.driveway.com zUpload File Size Limit: 500MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days) URL: http://www.zupload.com Spread-It File Size Limit: 500MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 14 Days URL: http://www.spread-it.com SendSpace File Size Limit: 300MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 9 days) URL: http://www.sendspace.com RapidUpload File Size Limit: 300MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days) URL: http://www.rapidupload.com FileFactory File Size Limit: 300MB Download Limit: Unknown* (per user download limit per 24 hours) File Life: Unknown URL: http://www.filefactory.com MegaUpload File Size Limit: 250MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 90 days) URL: http://www.megaupload.com divShare File Size Limit: 200MB Download Limit: 50GB per month File Life: Unlimited URL: http://www.divshare.com Media Fire File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited URL: http://www.mediafire.com MiHD File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited (deleted 30 days after last download) URL: http://mihd.net/ Easy Share File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited (deleted 30 days after last download) URL: http://www.easy-share.com 4Shared File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited (deleted 30 days after last download) URL: http://www.4shared.com QuickSharIt File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: Unlimited* (see FAQ for more details) URL: http://www.quickshareit.com/ Uploading File Size Limit: 100MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days) URL: http://www.uploading.com Bigupload File Size Limit: 50MB Download Limit: Unlimited File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days) URL: http://www.bigupload.com FileDen File Size Limit: 50MB Download Limit: 5GB per month File Life: Unknown URL: http://www.fileden.com Please Digg this if you found it useful.

Free online file storage and file sending

Internet
1 Oct, 2006

A while back, I posted an article about YouSendIt, a free e-mail-based file sending service. If you’ve ever had to send large files and don’t have access to FTP, or the person you’re sending to doesn’t, this type of service is a fantastic resource. Today, I have a list of 50 similar services that are absolutely free and require no e-mail registration to use. Included in the list are file size limits, download limits and the amount of time the file remains on the server for download. Some of these services will no doubt have updated or changed their services. If you know of any changes, or have additional services listed, please send me an email with the contact form, or use the comments section below the list to notify everyone.

Bigupload
File Size Limit: 300MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.bigupload.com

Content-Type
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 7 Days after last download
URL: URL: http://www.content-type.com

CyberUpload
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 7 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 7 days)
URL: http://www.cyberupload.com

FileFactory
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 15 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 15 days)
URL: http://www.filefactory.com

MegaShares
File Size Limit: 1.5GB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 25 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 25 days)
URL: http://www.megashares.com

mooload
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.mooload.com

RapidUpload
File Size Limit: 300MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.rapidupload.com

RapidShare
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.rapidshare.de

SendSpace
File Size Limit: 1.2GB
Download Limit: download bandwidth limit of 100GB
File Life: 14 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 14 days)
URL: http://www.sendspace.com

SendOver
File Size Limit: 2GB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 7 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 7 days)
URL: http://www.sendover.com

Spread-It
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 14 Days
URL: http://www.spread-it.com

Snaggys
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: 999 Downloads
File Life: 15 Days
URL: http://www.snaggys.com

TransferBigFiles
File Size Limit: 1GB
Download Limit: 20 Downloads
File Life: 5 Days
URL: http://www.transferbigfiles.com

Uploading
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.uploading.com

YouSendIt
File Size Limit: 1GB
Download Limit: 25 Downloads
File Life: 7 Days
URL: http://www.yousendit.com

zUpload
File Size Limit: 500MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.zupload.com

myShareBox
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.mysharebox.com

ShareBigFile
File Size Limit: 300MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 21 Days
URL: http://www.sharebigfile.com

MegaUpload
File Size Limit: 250MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.megaupload.com

UpDownloadServer
File Size Limit: 250MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: Unlimited
URL: http://www.updownloadserver.de

MyTempDir
File Size Limit: 40MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 21 Days
URL: http://www.mytempdir.com

Send File
File Size Limit: 40MB
Download Limit: 10 Downloads
File Life: 10 Days
URL: http://www.send-file.co.uk

XtraFile
File Size Limit: 250MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 15 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 15 days)
URL: http://www.xtrafile.com

bonpoo
File Size Limit: 250MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 10 Days
URL: http://www.bonpoo.com

FileCache
File Size Limit: 250MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 31 Days
URL: http://www.filecache.de/upload

Supload
File Size Limit: 200MB
Download Limit: 30 Downloads
File Life: 7 Days
URL: http://supload.com/sendfile

TheUpload
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days
URL: http://www.theupload.com

zSHARE
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 10 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 10 days)
URL: http://zshare.net

Upload.Sc
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.upload.sc

Store and Serve
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://storeandserve.com

BIGfileupload
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: Unlimited
URL: http://bigfileupload.com

QuickDump
File Size Limit: 100MB
Download Limit: download bandwidth limit of 500MB per hour
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://quickdump.com

Easy-Sharing
File Size Limit: 75MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days
URL: http://www.easy-sharing.com

Turbo Upload
File Size Limit: 70MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.turboupload.com

SaveFile
File Size Limit: 60MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 14 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 14 days)
URL: http://www.savefile.com

FileHD
File Size Limit: 60MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.filehd.com

RapidSharing
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 60 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 60 days)
URL: http://www.rapidsharing.com

UploadSend
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.uploadsend.com

UploadFront
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.uploadfront.com

FreeUploader
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.freeuploader.com

Momoshare
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 15 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 15 days)
URL: http://www.momoshare.com

FriendlyShare
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.friendlyshare.de

orb-z
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: 200 Downloads
File Life: 15 Days
URL: http://www.orb-z.com

UploadHut
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days
URL: http://www.uploadhut.com

SupaShare
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 14 Days
URL: http://www.supashare.com

FileHost
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.filehost.ro

ushareit
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.ushareit.com

SceneWorld
File Size Limit: 50MB
Download Limit: 1000 Downloads
File Life: 50 Days
URL: http://www.sceneworld.net/up

UltraShare
File Size Limit: 30MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.ultrashare.net

UploadTemple
File Size Limit: 30MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 21 Days
URL: http://www.uploadtemple.com

SendMeFile
File Size Limit: 30MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 14 Days
URL: http://www.sendmefile.com

Upload2
File Size Limit: 25MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 1 Year
URL: http://upload2.net

UploadTown
File Size Limit: 20MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 30 days)
URL: http://www.uploadtown.com

11MBIT.in
File Size Limit: 20MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://a1.11mbit.in

Refrozen
File Size Limit: 20MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://www.refrozen.com

KeepMyFile
File Size Limit: 15MB
Download Limit: Unknown
File Life: Unknown
URL: http://keepmyfile.com

Hyperupload
File Size Limit: 10MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: Unlimited
URL: http://www.hyperupload.com

WebFileHost
File Size Limit: 10MB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 30 Days
URL: http://www.webfilehost.com

SendOver
File Size Limit: 2GB
Download Limit: Unlimited
File Life: 7 Days (Deleted only if there is no download activity in 7 days)
URL: http://www.sendover.com

FileFactory
File Size Limit: 1.5GB
Download Limit: 25 Downloads
File Life: 7 Days
URL: http://www.filefactory.com