Filed under: Software, MobileMe
Live Mesh now available for Mac OS X
[Editor's Note: Several comments objected to the comparison between Dropbox and Microsoft that implied Dropbox's reputation was less than ideal; we also heard directly from Dropbox founder Arash Ferdowsi on this point. The post has been edited to clarify the sense Cory intended -- while Dropbox's service is well-regarded and its backers are notable, some may feel comfortable with a more-established vendor for cloud storage. Our apologies to Dropbox and its users for the unintentional slight.]While many Mac users use MobileMe for file synchronization, there are the a few (*raises hand*) who think it's overpriced. Therefore, I have been looking for alternatives. Dropbox is nice, but I wanted more storage, and I wanted it from a
While there are plenty of anti-Microsoft Mac users, I tend to like some of their products (i.e. Microsoft Office). Their Live Mesh service just recently came to the Mac platform, and is well built. Once you create/sign-in with your Windows Live ID, you can add new devices for file synchronization, including Macs and PCs (phone support coming soon). To add a Mac to your Mesh account, you'll need to download a small application. This menu bar application will upload your specified folders to Mesh, and keep them in sync.
Two things about the Live Mesh service that I really like are: (1) You have the ability to sync up to 5 GBs of data. (2) You can access your files anywhere with the Mesh.com website. However, you'll be presented with a Windows Vista theme, which can be unfamiliar for some Mac users. Overall, I have really liked using this service, but there are a couple of complaints. While the desktop Mesh client is a menu bar application, the Dock icon remians visible -- I found this annoying. Also, the web service is somewhat buggy, and I had problems deleting some older files. However, if you're looking for a good, cheap solution to MobileMe file synchronization, then you might want to give Mesh a try.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
+. said 1:16PM on 11-26-2008
yeah, on further consideration, i'm just going to view the author's "Dropbox is not reputable" comment in light of this point. anyone who likes Office:Mac clearly isn't in a position to be recommending software to anyone, period.
FWIW, i like Office 2007 as well. in fact, i have a PC at my workplace that basically exists to run that program, because Office 2008 (the Mac version) is so totally unusable. even on my new MacBook.
+. said 12:36PM on 11-26-2008
how is Dropbox not a 'reputable company'?
(this is not criticism---i'm genuinely interested in hearing the reasoning, as i always thought they seemed above the level.)
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Mike said 1:07PM on 11-26-2008
Dropbox's back-end is running on Amazon S3, which is pretty darn reputable.
Also, Dropbox's clean, fast web interface is not buggy. They also have an iPhone-optimized version.
The client lives only in the menu bar, nothing to clutter up your Dock.
In short, Dropbox has none of the problems that Live Mesh suffers from. Unfortunately if you want the 50GB(!) storage option you will have to pay for it.
igor said 1:25PM on 11-26-2008
Not really sure what this author is talking about. Dropbox is funded by Sequoia Capital... the same people who funded Google, Yahoo, Youtube, Apple, etc.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(storage_provider)
tim said 1:30PM on 11-26-2008
Thank you! I have now installed fruux and it appears to be doing exactly what I wanted.
tim said 12:48PM on 11-26-2008
All I want is a way, like MobileMe, to sync my address book, calendars (WITH ALERTS!), and bookmarks.
I use BusySync, and now Google Cal syncs for me, but they don't sync the alerts. And I use IMAP, so I don't care about syncing email. And I don't really need push email.
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+. said 1:11PM on 11-26-2008
tim, have you looked at Fruux? http://www.fruux.com/
they do address book & cal sync *beautifully* from the little i've used them. not sure about alerts, but i'm pretty sure those are there as well. there's no online file storage, but if you have Dropbox or something for that, you shouldn't need it.
however, they are a new company, & thus i'm sure they don't pass Cory's definition of "reputable" (which, i note, still hasn't been elaborated on). i haven't had a single problem with Fruux, however, and being free--the price is right.
sean said 12:56PM on 11-26-2008
Why exactly is Dropbox not reputable? I would be very careful in a forum such as this in your statements without actual proof. If you meant 'popular', 'around for more than ten years', 'worth more than XX amount of money' that is one thing, but definitely not what 'reputable' or the implied lack of it on Dropbox's part.
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astrojuancab said 1:03PM on 11-26-2008
You failed to provide a link to this supposedly available service from Microsoft and you trashed "Dropbox" as not reputable. Frankly, I haven't seen non-competitive monopolistic behavior from Dropbox. I would say the dis-reputable one here is Microsoft. I'll try out Mesh Live when you provide a link, but be careful of your choice of words.
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+. said 1:19PM on 11-26-2008
damn, i totally hit reply on the wrong comment. my bad.
Odineye said 1:05PM on 11-26-2008
I'm curious as to how LiveMesh compares with FolderShare (also a M$ product). I use FolderShare to sync data between my laptop and desktop right now, and find it works quite nicely. I actually moved to Foldershare after having a bit of difficulty with stability on iDisk.
Has anyone had experience with both of these? Is there any reason to switch from one to the other?
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Odineye said 1:13PM on 11-26-2008
Okay - replying to myself here...
According to the FolderShare website:
"Windows Live Sync replacing FolderShare: What you need to know
Dear FolderShare user,
We're contacting you to let you know what's next for FolderShare, and to make you aware of some important changes.
In December, we plan to announce a product called Windows Live Sync. You can think of it as FolderShare 2.0..."
So I guess that answers that. I hope the transition goes well - I've been very happy with Foldershare.
Busty said 1:06PM on 11-26-2008
I still see "coming soon" under the Mac Icon.
Dropbox uses Amazon's S3, so, I think, the data is save (as save as it gets on a foreign server anyways), but I always experienced it as being awfully slow. I still use a USB stick.
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Tony said 3:07PM on 11-26-2008
Dropbox is quite fast. Also, your files actually *live* on your various computers. There's a copy, with the various list of changes, on S3, but you will still have your files if Dropbox or Amazon S3 suddenly disappear tomorrow...so in that sense, it's extremely safe. Plus, you have full access to your files when not connected to the Internet.
Rick Lobrecht said 1:08PM on 11-26-2008
I've been using Mesh on my Mac for a couple of weeks, and it works pretty well, but it is a file only sync service.
As for the reputable company comment, Microsoft has been around for decades, and isn't likely to go anywhere soon (although they might not be able to make money off Mesh, and it could be killed.) Dropbox is a small new company. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing business with that kind of company, but you just need to keep it in mind when making your choice.
I didn't like Dropbox's one folder only system.
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willie said 3:31PM on 11-26-2008
There is a little known feature that Mac OS X adds to DropBox without any effort on the DropBox folks' part. If you create a symlink (symbolic link, google it) DropBox will follow it and sync the files it points to. It requires some Terminal knowledge or a third-party app to set up, but if you want to sync multiple folders you can by setting up a symlink on both ends.
BryanEnders said 1:10PM on 11-26-2008
I'm not all that comfortable with a Dept. of Defense contractor handling my personal files. I don't care how "reputable" they may be.
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balls said 2:46PM on 11-26-2008
You're pretty naive if you don't believe the NSA has it's hooks in Apple, Google and Amazon.
As well as a non-brute force method to break AES/RSA encryption.
dZiTao said 1:11PM on 11-26-2008
I'm interested about the DropBox comment too. DropBox has been very stable for me through the beta period and since. You can get 2 GB of space for free and more for a price that seems very reasonable to me. Dropbox is backed by Amazon's S3 servers so it's distributed and very consistent. DropBox also keeps versions of files so that is something is deleted by accident it can be recovered. I don't know if Mesh has that but I have found it invaluable!! I guess it's obvious, I love DropBox!!
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Andy said 1:11PM on 11-26-2008
You can remove the icon from the dock with a plist edit =]
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