![]() You can be out in the field not connected to a network, change a document in your iDisk, the minute you’re connected whether you walk to an AirPort base station or hook back up to a terrestrial net, boom-that document and its change will automatically sync with. In addition to this, it really works when you have untethered portables. If I have three computers here, each with their own iDisk, I can leave a copy of the same document in the iDisk of each one, open up the document in one of those iDisks, change it and close it, and it’ll automatically sync back through. It’s a great way to back stuff up, but in addition to that it really shines when you have more than one computer. So you can just leave stuff in your iDisk, and this is pretty cool. You can leave a document in your iDisk, open it up, modify it, close it, and the minute you close it, it will sync back up to. You don’t put stuff in your iDisk to send it up to. So what it really means is your iDisk becomes basically a local folder that syncs. Mac-in both directions-and it does it in the background. ![]() And what that means is that stuff that’s in your iDisk will automatically sync with our servers on. Well, that’s all changing in Panther, because in Panther we’re automatically syncing the files. And iDisk has been a place where you can manually upload files to the. The hundreds of thousands of people that signed up for. “We’ve enhanced iDisk significantly for Panther. Steve Jobs himself announced major changes to iDisk in Mac OS 10.3 Panther at the 2003 WWDC Keynote. Needless to say, Apple felt they could do better. The sensible thing was to just download the file from your iDisk to your hard drive, work on it, and then copy it back when you were done, and that was no different than FTP. And this was considered super fast, at the time-not compared to the immediate access of your local hard disk, of course, but trust me, dial-up was much, much worse. So a one-character change meant at least a sixteen-second upload, during which your app would sit there, unresponsive. A cable modem back then could upload at maybe 512 kilobits per second-and yes, that's kilo bits, not kilobytes. Today, "ooh we had to upload a full meg of text every time" doesn't sound like any sort of problem, but remember: iDisk came out in 2000. ![]() Your Mac would re-upload the entire one meg file every time you saved it to an iDisk, even if you only changed a single character. Let’s say you have a one megabyte text file. Yet despite this easy-breezy user interface, the actual user experience of iDisk left a lot to be desired. Applications could open or save files to an iDisk like any other disk drive. Mac users could mount an iDisk on their desktop and copy files to Apple servers with just the classic drag and drop. Of course, remote file sync wasn’t a new concept to me-I’d used Apple’s iDisk for years, which was one of many precursors to Dropbox. This utility was a direct hit to my heart. I could shuttle documents back and forth from work without relying on a crusty old FTP server. A public folder and right-click sharing shortcuts made it easy to share images, files, and folders with anyone at any time. It was love at first sync, because Dropbox did exactly what it said on the tin: seamlessly synchronize files and folders across computers with speed and security. Minutes later I registered an account, installed the app, and tossed some files into my newly minted Dropbox folder. It was June 2nd, 2010, when my coworker Stephen strolled into my cubicle and said “Hey, I started using this Dropbox thing, you should check it out.” Stephen has a habit of understatement, so from him that's high praise. I still remember the day-well, my inbox remembers the day. That’s my story with Dropbox, the app that keeps all your stuff in sync. The developer grows distant, the app eats up all your RAM, and you wonder if it’s still worth the money-or your love. The developer is responsive, the app is snappy, and you’re happy to toss in a few bucks to support a good product. Before you know it that utility’s solved a problem you never knew you had, and worked its way into your heart and your login items. It’s for a hot new utility that all the tech tastemakers are talking about. One day you’re implementing your carefully crafted workflow when a friend or colleague DMs you a link. You never know when you’ll fall in love with a piece of software.
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