DropBox Keeps Getting Better and Better

The big news is that DropBox has released version 1.0. The major new feature is Selective Sync. I also noticed Pause Syncing, but maybe that’s not new? To get the upgrade, download the new version and install by hand. (As Sarah pointed out in the comments, if DropBox is already running, be sure to quit before dragging the new one into Applications!). The update is not pushed. (If you’re new to DropBox, here’s an intro and a rundown of some of the things that I use it for: Use DropBox to keep Multiple Computers in Sync.)

Selective Sync—If you have a netbook or a computer with a tiny hard drive, syncing your entire Dropbox isn’t always a great idea. You also might not want certain files on your home computer to pop up on your work computer. Selective Sync solves these problems! You now can choose which folders get downloaded to which computers. This saves you time so you don’t have to sync stuff you don’t need.

I’m using selective sync for my windows docs that I only access in my windows virtual machine. Not only does it save disk space, but now it also won’t waste cycles syncing my rather large windows files to my macs.

And as if that wasn’t enough: Five Dropbox tips for Mac Unix nerds.

If you compile and install Unix utilities on your own instead of using MacPorts, Fink or Rudix, you will most often be asked where you want to install these utilities to…That’s when it occurred to me that instead of installing to /usr/local/, I could install to my $HOME/Dropbox/ and have the program “instantly” available on all of my computers. This has been as simple as using ./configure –prefix="$HOME/Dropbox/" and then doing make and make install as usual.

Check out all of the AstroBetter posts about DropBox: https://www.astrobetter.com/tag/dropbox/

Anybody else have any other clever DropBox tips?

DropBox (free)