Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, P2P, Social Software, Web
Share unlimited media files for free with Libox
by Dolores Parker Oct 29th 2009 at 10:00AM
Libox got my attention with free and unlimited - as in unlimited - media sharing. It's a new beta desktop application that allows you to share all your photos, videos and music with your friends and contacts. Unlike other social media sharing sites, whose free accounts are 1 GB or 100 photos/files, Libox is unlimited.
A colleague and I gave the app a trial run today and we liked it. After downloading and installing (7.9 MB Mac and Windows) the beta, Libox prompts you to import your files from your computer. The UI is clean, minimalist and intuitive. After importing your media files from your computer, you can share them by email with your friends and groups. Your friends will also have to install the app to open the files you send.
Libox allows you to sync your media files with all the computers in your house. There is also a web app where you can access your media in your browser, however, it is in alpha and can only be used on your local computer and if it is not behind a firewall.
To accomplish all this, Libox uses a combination of P2P networking, cloud and grid computing. It does not store your media or metadata on their servers and when you share media with your friends, Libox creates a "private secure network" on those specific files with those specific friends. The files are received in their original format, no compression, resizing or degradation.
Many questions abound, like how will this service make money? Once out of beta, will it be a paid service? What about the private secure networks? How private and how secure? The web access in alpha - how will that work? What are the compatible file formats? Any plans to add other file types like EPS or Docs? Does Libox work with Linux? Tell us more about the company and mission. Is their plan complete world domination? Is Libox too good to be true?
Stay tuned. Hopefully, we'll get these answers and more if you leave your questions in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Craig B. said 10:56AM on 10-29-2009
What? Nobody felt like doing some research?
There's a company out of Sweden that has offered software that does this same thing for years now, only they don't try and offer up some nebulous "Unlimited" quantity that will be buried down in the terms of use somewhere.
Look up a program called Wuala, Not only have they actually given a 45 minute presentation at Google explaining how their p2p file storage and sharing system works, but they've also shown how they secure their files /and/ how they make sure that you won't lose data.
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Dolores Parker said 12:08PM on 10-29-2009
Thanks for the info on Wuala - it looks slick and professional.
They provide online backup and storage of your media, and give you 1 GB for free. Libox, on the other hand, makes a point of noting they don't store media or metadata on their servers and they provide unlimited sharing.
mah said 1:32PM on 10-29-2009
What? You didn't feel like doing research so you are projecting instead?
Not only has Wuala only been providing their service for 1 year and not "years", their main focus is online storage, something not even offered by Libox. Wuala seems decent if you are completely naive (45 minute presentation notwithstanding) and have no problem storing your data on someone else's computer.
Oh, and Wuala is Swiss, owned now by a French company. Idiot.
TheNorba said 12:26PM on 10-29-2009
Very interesting service: excellent post! :)
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erez pilosof said 1:14PM on 10-29-2009
Libox will remain free service. we're building a fully distributed platform.
all communications are highly secure.
we built the entire UI in HTML/Javascript so we have same UI on all platforms. in two month time we'll fully open our web view even behind a firewall.
you can add any kind of file but we don't automatically import documents, we 're adding built-in document viewer and then we'll support document viewing and editing.
our mission is to make file management, roaming, and sharing a seamless unlimited task.
currently we're working on a iPhone/Android Libox. but we see demand for linux so I guess we'll add linux support, we done most of the work with our mac version.
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hazard said 10:45PM on 10-29-2009
LOL .. saying this service will "Share unlimited media files for free" is like a tourism ad saying "come to our city you can have all the air you can breath" .. shameless attention seeking Dolores ;)
Will be interesting to see if this or Opera Unite will get any traction.
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