Wuala: The Best Alternative to Dropbox?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/#!5798179/wuala-is-a-powerful-cross+platform-file-syncer-with-lots-of-tricks-for-extra-free-space' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/#!5798179/wua...xtra-free-space</a><br /><br /></div><p><object width="600" height="360" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/dUBSHiKquBM&amp;feature=player_embedded#at=17&amp;ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dUBSHiKquBM&amp;feature=player_embedded#at=17&amp;ap=&fmt=18" /></object></p><p>If you're looking to get more bang for your buck than what Dropbox offers, <a href="http://www.wuala.com/" target="_blank">Wuala</a> might be worth checking out: their prices are cheaper, they have more "in-between" pricing in terms of storage, and they cover the Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android platforms. Perhaps the coolest thing they've done though is allow you to offer Wuala the use of your hard drive; if you give them 100 GB of space on a your always-on computer (that's an important part), you'll get 70 GB of storage on their servers. Given how cheap local storage is, that seems like a good deal to me! I'm a very happy Dropbox user, but I find myself tempted by this...how about you?</p>

[mckinleytabor]

This cloud based storage systems are nice and all, but what give DropBox such an advantage over Wuala (and even MobileMe's iDisk) is that so many third party apps support the DropBox Cloud API. This means that if someone switches out DropBox there is at present no real viable alternative until App writers start to incorporate other services...

But even this is not a viable solution because there will ALWAYS be a better cloud storage service. If not by pricing, then speed, customer service, or security.

Apple people primary use cloud based storage in three ways:
1. To provide a convenient omnipresent method to access data between various devices (i.e. Desktop to iPhone to MacBook)
2. they use cloud storage on an iOS device to share data between programs (Document from an editor to email, etc)
3. Small measure of offsite backup

From an iOS standpoint, reasons 1 and 2 only there because Apple has an institutional phobia of letting users move their data conveniently. It is ridiculous that a user must connect his or her iPad to a computer via USB to move pictures or iWork docs onto it. Likewise the inability to move a file downloaded in one app to another app for editing and finally a third app for sending it back out is absurd.

The only long term solution is for Apple to create a common API call that would allow Apps to open and save files from one or more shared storage areas. (Think of it like the "Open and Save" dialog window common in all desktop apps.) Then from System Preferences the user could define these one or more share storage areas. One area could be a segmented space on the devices itself. Another area could be a commerical cloud storage provider like DropBox, Wuala or iDisk. A third area could be a folder on your Desktop or corporate server. This is perhaps the most secure solution as your data would never pass into third party hands and could be encrypted when transferred over the general internet.

I can understand that Apple wants the general computer population to stop thinking in terms of files, folders, and directory paths. It is quite honestly an inefficient and outdate model for thinking about data. However, the desire for users to create and modify data with different programs will never go away.

There is infinite diversity in infinite combinations. (Trek reference woohoo!) Neither Apple nor any App writer can anticipate everything that people will want to do with data created or edited by their app. Rather than limiting users, or attempting to define all the ways data can be used, Apple should just embrace the ideal of letting programs freely share data files. Likewise give users a common way to define their own cloud base storage so we can keep the convenance of moving data on the go, pick the cloud storage that suits us best, and free App writers from having to cobble together vendor specific solutions.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Me? I can't get past the name. I'll stick to Dropbox for that reason alone. :P

[Jason Dunn]

From an iOS standpoint, reasons 1 and 2 only there because Apple has an institutional phobia of letting users move their data conveniently. It is ridiculous that a user must connect his or her iPad to a computer via USB to move pictures or iWork docs onto it. Likewise the inability to move a file downloaded in one app to another app for editing and finally a third app for sending it back out is absurd.

100% agreed. The more I use my iPad the more I realize how fundamentally screwed up this is. :rolleyes:

[Stinger]

This cloud based storage systems are nice and all, but what give DropBox such an advantage over Wuala (and even MobileMe's iDisk) is that so many third party apps support the DropBox Cloud API.

+1. One of the primary reasons why I pay $9.99 a month to DropBox is because so many of the apps that I use on my iPad support it.