It’s hard not to be a fan of Dropbox – the popular cloud-based data storage service has a simple and intuitive user interface, and integrates seamlessly into both Windows and Apple operation systems.

It just works – and it’s free (for 2GB of space, at least).

Many users are surprised, though, by how quickly they bump up against that 2GB storage limit.  That’s because Dropbox charges not by the amount of data stored, but by the amount of access to that data.  In other words, if I have a 100 MB folder of vacation photos I want share with three other people, Dropbox counts that same data four times over (each new share is counted against each member’s limits as if it were new freshly uploaded data).  Additionally, each member of a shared folder can in turn share that folder to any number of other people who can then each share it to any number of other people… well, you get the idea.

Not surprisingly, Dropbox really wants you to share your folders:

Start accepting enough other users’ invitations to shared folders, though, and you’ll see your data count grow pretty quickly.  In fact, you could soon require a premium account for additional storage, which Dropbox will be happy to sell you.  Of course, a user could counter this ‘data creep’ simply by managing her account a bit and leaving (and/or unsharing) folders after all those vacation photos have been exchanged and downloaded, but Dropbox doesn’t make it easy:

• The option to leave and/or unshare a folder is simply not available on the contextual menu installed by the local Dropbox app (which is how most users access the service).
• Up on the Dropbox website, leaving/unsharing folders isn’t available on a folder’s contextual dropdown menus, either (although “Invite to folder” heads the list of options offered).
• The website’s top-level “Sharing” tab (see above) offers an “Invite others” option, but no direct option for leaving/unsharing folders.
• While the website also offers a 2nd-level tab called “Share a folder” (see above), there’s no direct option for leaving/unsharing folders.

Leaving or unsharing a Dropbox folder is possible, but only from the website’s Shared Folder “Members” list.  Since everything else about the service is otherwise so well-designed, the single (and non-intuitive) location of this one option is curious.

But hey.  Dropbox gives away 2 GB of storage for free – can you blame them for not making it easy for users to avoid having to purchase a premium account as their data count accumulates?

Probably not.  After all, business-side concerns can often tend to make the human-technology interface less open and forthright than one would ideally hope for – it would be naive to assume otherwise.  I’m reminded of a recent New Yorker article in which an ex-AOL exec estimates that 60% of the company’s profits come from ill-informed users unaware they don’t need an AOL subscription in addition to their cable or DSL subscriptions to get onto the internet – or the news that the FCC is considering ‘anti-overage’ regulations requiring  mobile carriers to actively notify customers as they approach their monthly usage limits.

As newfangled as all these consumer technologies are, it could be that some old fashioned ideas – such as “Let the Buyer Beware” – still apply.

“First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin” - Leonard Cohen

If the recent inundation of billboards promoting the Chrome browser on the streets of my adopted city is any indication, it appears someone at Google is familiar with the song and is following a similar plan – have you noticed any sudden increase in advertising for Chrome in your neighborhood too?

Chrome is over two years old, though – why the promotional push now?

In terms of profitability, Google remains essentially a one-trick pony – and although search-driven contextual advertising is one pretty nifty trick (and one that Google’s pretty good at), the company has had less than a Midas touch when it comes to following that success up in other markets (think Buzz, Wave, or Google TV).

YouTube?  The site was acquired for $1.65 billion US four years ago and has yet to turn a profit.

Android?  Every day, another estimated 200,000 Android phones come online – yet each activation contributes no direct revenue to Google whatsoever.  The Android platform was developed as free open source software, solely to support Google’s core contextual advertising business by allowing the company to control as much of the search experience on mobile devices as possible.

It turns out these are all merely ancillary ventures – Google’s big-picture ‘second act’, the technology with the potential to dwarf even their search-driven advertising business, is cloud-based computing.  In support of that goal, as loyal subjects of Google we’ve been treated to not only a spate of free internet applications over the past few years (Gmail, Google Docs, et al), but also to the Chrome browser – the subject of the billboard blitz  Berlin currently finds itself in the midst of.

The important thing to understand about the Chrome browser is that it was never intended as merely a competitor to IE/Firefox/Safari – rather, it’s nothing less than the first iteration in the development of the Chrome operating system, upon which Google’s future cloud-based computing paradigm will be based (in Google’s version of the future, the browser is the operating system).  In that context, it’s a bit surprising that Chrome hasn’t already been promoted more heavily than it has – after all, the company enjoys unparalleled direct access to internet eyeballs (that is, until Facebook decides to build a browser).

Despite the relatively soft sell, though, the Chrome application has still managed to creep to a respectable 10% – 14% browser market share (depending on who you ask) – just in time for the Chrome operating system to make its debut on selected devices later this year.

In the meantime, if the streets and U-bahn stations of Berlin are any indication, it appears Google is ramping up the promotion of their Chrome browser (and not incidentally, the Chrome brand) in anticipation of their cloud-based OS – and  they’re not above using decidedly old-school media such as billboards to do it.

Personal computing is changing.  The post-desktop OS will either be based on an ‘App Store’ model (Apple’s just launched an iOS-style App Store for their Mac computers) or a thin client, cloud-based model – such as Google’s Chrome OS.

With the advent of multiple tablet options, 2011 is shaping up to be a battle between the two.  What you have to like about Google is that with both Chrome and Android, they have a viable horse in both races.

P.S. Not surprisingly, Chrome is increasingly in the news these days:

• Chrome cancels native support for the H.264 video codec
• Google retains Chrome product head VP despite Twitter poaching attempt
• Google pays record amount for Chrome bug discovery

A few weeks ago I wrote about the short fat pipe I now have in my living room.  It’s great: while internet television solutions all continue to suffer from a lack of premium content, much of that programming is currently freely available via any web browser – and my little $99 device does a decent job of getting it all from my PC over to my TV – wirelessly.

Granted, this short fat pipe solution of mine is nothing more than an interim measure.  The technology needed to make  internet video directly accessible from the television is here, but its going to be a while before the business-side folks reach consensus on how to best navigate The End Of  Television As We Know It.  Meanwhile, products are being released in fits and starts: just recently, poor reviews of Google TV (mostly centered around this very same content issue) have forced Google to ask their hardware partners to delay the launch of any devices while they regroup.

Filling the void are the various PC-to-TV ‘short fat pipe’ solutions covered in my previous post, along with more recent arrivals such as the very clever SnapStick.  Although not for sale yet, this device shows promise.  Rather than have to push bandwidth-heavy HDMI from the computer to the television, the SnapStick device will sit next to the television and connect via HDMI over a cable or be embedded within your next TV or Blu-ray player.   Merely another set-top box, you say?  Not really – rather than building an yet another dedicated internet video platform from the ground up only to have it rejected by the still gun-shy content owners (i.e. Google, Apple, and Boxee), SnapStick had the insight to realize that the web browser model is the only game in town for the time being.  The other cool thing about Snapstick is that rather than have a complicated ‘computeresque’ remote (like the Sony and Logitech Google TV products), you install an app on your smart phone and use the phone’s native web browser to navigate to content: once you find a video you’d like to watch, just flick your phone at the SnapStick device, and Snapstick will stream the content and repackage it for your television.  Take that, Flash-unfriendly Apple…

Too good to be true?  Maybe – if the hulus of the world can sniff Boxee HTTP requests and deny them access despite Boxee’s best repeated attempts to ‘sneak in’ by appearing to the outside world like any other Mozilla browser, I’m not sure why the same fate doesn’t await SnapStick.

This blog is written by a German living in New York and an American living in Berlin – a uniquely reciprocal situation, and one that we haven’t explored much yet.  True, we’ve each written about our respective summer vacations (here and here) – but maybe a more relevant way to explore our transatlantic perspective here at digitalmissive would be to compare and contrast the two big upcoming consumer electronics trade shows: CES in Las Vegas, and CEBIT in Hannover.

So that’s what we’re gonna do:  later this month, look for a few words from Andreas after he returns from CES in Las Vegas – and in March, I’ll chime in with my impressions of CEBIT from Hannover.

I think I’ve gotten the short end of the stick, weather-wise…

Yup! It’s that time of the year again. I am headed for Las Vegas, to scan the halls of the #1 annual electronics bonanza – CES – short for Consumer Electronics Show.

Probably the key highlight for this year’s show – more electronics OEMs find religion in portable mobility. As far as exhibitors’ new devices announcements go, the excitement is virtually palpable.

Especially with 4G connectivity helping to better connect them all.

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