drop.io posts

drop.io rolling out as default Yahoo! Mail 'large attachment' provider

by Paul O'Brien Sep 10th 2009

Commencing noon EST today, online collaboration provider drop.io becomes Yahoo Mail's default 'Attach Large Files' provider. If you're wondering where you've heard drop.io mentioned before, drop.the company was recently featured on Time's list of the 50 best web apps of 2009.

Built on top of drop.io's open API, the change is a significant boost for the drop.io service, which up until now has provided users with free storage in the form of unlimited blocks of 100MB, as well as offering a premium service for enhanced features.

It's not clear at this time whether Yahoo! Mail attachments will also be limited to 100MB nor the extent of the integration between Yahoo! Mail and drop.io, but rest assured I'll update this post as more details surface.

Tags: attachments, drop.io, mail, online storage, OnlineStorage, yahoo

Filed under: Internet, Productivity

Drop.io launches Present.io public beta

by Christina Warren May 14th 2009

I'm a big fan of drop.io, the real-time sharing and collaborating tool. Today, drop.io is launching the public beta for present.io, which aims to make web-based presentations really easy. This is a great compliment to existing drop.io services, conference.io and phone.io.

The service is really easy to use. You create a drop (or add a presentation to an existing drop), upload the files you want to share, and then distribute the URL to your participants. Once your presentation starts, only the administrator can control what displayed or how media is played back, but if real-time chat is enabled, everyone can join in and comment.

Using the free conference line that's included with every drop, participants can call in and talk to one another, or listen in to the audio portion of a presentation.

I played around with present.io myself, basically recreating the demo in the present.io video and I was pretty impressed. For a service that doesn't require any external software downloads, or really any logins or sign-ups, it's a great way to do lightweight presentations.

This won't replace services like Adobe's Acrobat Connect or Microsoft's LiveMeeting for users who need to do screensharing or advanced whiteboarding, but if you just want to share a presentation or some documents, this is a great hassle-free way to do it.

Tags: conference, drop.io, present.io, presentation, web-conferencing, web-presentations

Filed under: Audio, Business, Podcasting, Productivity, Web services

Phone.io: free conference calls, voicemail and podcasting from Drop.io

by Jay Hathaway Apr 1st 2009

Phony-o? It sounds like an April Fools' Day joke, but it's not. The drop.io team is actually releasing new services at an amazing rate, and the latest is a conference calling, voicemail recording, podcast ready app called Phone.io. It works like any other Drop.io drop, in that you can set it up in a couple of clicks by just naming it and giving it a password.

Your phone.io drop has phone numbers you can use for voicemails or conference calls, and you can save the records as mp3s. Where phone.io really gets cool is in the number of ways you can share your stuff in very few steps. You can embed your audio in other sites, download it, or push it out to RSS or iTunes. If you're into social networks, you can also share it via Facebook or Twitter, and of course, you can share the Drop.io drop itself. Phone.io scores points for both features and ease of use, and it's definitely worth a look if you need to deal with over-the-phone audio.

Tags: audio, conference-call, drop.io, phone, phone.io, podcast, recording, voicemail

Filed under: Web services, web 2.0, Web

Drop.io launches Conference.io real-time collaboration in 2 clicks

by Brad Linder Mar 24th 2009

Last week file sharing service drop.io launched a new real-time feature that allow users to chat with one another at a drop site. Today the company is fleshing out the real-time features by adding support for free conference calls. This means you can set up a virtual space for a conference at a moment's notice, chat with participants, talk on the phone, record or listen to voicemails, and share files all from one location.

Here's how it works. Just hop on over to conference.io and name your chat room. If you want to add any files you can do it here, but you don't have to. Click the drop it button and you're good to go. You can set an administrator password for the room, but again you don't have to.

Conference.io isn't the first service available that lets you set up a web-based chat room in a matter of seconds. But it's the first one that I'm aware of that also supports file uploads, embedding images in chat, and telephone conference calling.

Tags: chat-room, collaboration, conference.io, drop.io

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Podcasting, web 2.0

Playlist.io: store music in the cloud with Drop.io

by Jay Hathaway Mar 10th 2009

Drop.io is known for having one of the best, most simple file storage interfaces out there. They've already expanded into file sending (usend.io) and tweeting (tweet.io), and music playlists are the next thing on the hit list. Enter playlist.io. It gives you 102mb of space to upload audio files into a playlist that you can play or redownload from anywhere.

Once your music is uploaded, you can customize the look of your playlist, or subscribe to it in RSS. Possibly the coolest feature is Dropcast, which lets you subscribe to your playlist as a podcast in iTunes. Forget turning Playlist.io into the next Megaupload or Rapidshare, though. It's not searchable, and they have a one-click takedown policy.

Tags: cloud, drop.io, music, playlist, playlist.io, storage

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Drop.io Firefox extension enables drag and drop uploading

by Brad Linder Aug 13th 2008

Online file sharing service Drop.io already provides one of the easiest ways to share documents and media files. Now the company is making things even easier with a Firefox addon that lets you drag and drop files to your browser.

Here's how it works. You install the somewhat cleverly titled Drag & Drop.io extension and create a drop point by visiting Drop.io. Then you can just drag any files from your desktop to your web browser and watch while they're uploaded and in some cases converted for easy online access.

Too busy to actually create a drop point manually? Just drag your files over the little red check box in your status bar. The plugin will automatically create a drop point and open it up for you. So you can be browsing your favorite web site (like, say Download Squad?) and uploading files at the same time, without bothering to visit the Drop.io web page first.

The plugin is cross-platform and works with Firefox for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Tags: addon, drag-and-drop, drop.io, firefox, firefox-plugin

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Send free faxes online with Drop.io

by Brad Linder May 2nd 2008

We rarely run into situations where we absolutely have to send a fax these days. Most of the time, a PDF will do. But if you need to send a document to someone whose only means of communication with the outside world is a fax machine, you can still sign and send the contract necessary to help that nice Nigerian fellow's funds out of the bank account they're stuck in.

Drop.io is a file sharing service that we've covered in the past. The service provides you with a unique URL that you can share with friends and colleagues so that anyone can upload and share documents. Drop.io recently added the ability to send uploaded documents via fax. You can send Word, Excel, and PDF files to any fax number. The only limitation is that files cannot be more than 20 pages long, which is a vast improvement over other free online fax services like FaxZero, which will charge $1.99 per page for any document longer than three pages.

Best of all, you don't even need to sign up for a drop.io account to send a fax. Just visit the main page, upload your document, and click send on the subsequent page.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Tags: drop.io, fax, faxzero

Filed under: Audio, Web services

Record and share voice messages on the web with Drop.io

by Brad Linder Jan 15th 2008

Online file storage/sharing site Drop.io has added a new feature that makes it even easier to share messages with a group of friends or colleagues. Last month we told you how you could use Drop.io to set up a temporary web site for sharing office documents and multimedia files with other users. Now the service has launched Drop.io voice, which lets you record and share voice messages.

Here's how it works. Every new Drop.io page is assigned a phone number (or rather, a number and an extension). When you call that number from your phone you can record a message. The file is saved as an MP3. If your site is password protected only people you invite will have access, so you could just use this as a voice memo service for grocery lists. Or you could call in to make a crappy recording of a concert if that's what you wand to do.

Drop.io free accounts are limited to 100MB, which means you can theoretically record about 400 minutes of low quality audio, although why you'd want to do that is beyond us.

[via Techcrunch]

Tags: Drop.io, Drop.io-voice

Filed under: Internet, Web services

Share files with Drop.io

by Brad Linder Dec 14th 2007

YouSendIt, MailBigFile, and Driveway are great if you need to share a file that's too large to fit in an email attachment. But what if you want to share a bunch of files with a group of people? Sure, you could just keep sending out emails with that link, but wouldn't it be nice if you could set up a temporary web page where people could download files or view pictures, watch videos, or listen to audio online?

Drop.io does just that. You don't need to register or even enter an email address to create a Drop.io page. Just enter a name for your page (7 character or longer), and start uploading files. Generally, Drop.io seems to prefer videos, images, audio, and documents. We tried uploading an executable file and it promptly disappeared.

The site includes a Flash player that will let you access media online or you can click a download link to save files. The user who creates a Drop.io page can choose whether other users can edit the page or just view it. You can also select how long files will be available for, from 1 day to 1 year.

[via AppScout

Tags: drop.io, file-sharing, sharing

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