Dropbox has become a staple of many Mac users’ workflows; combine that with the company’s conservative autoupdate strategy, and you can bet that folks will be flocking to the cloud-storage service’s website to download Dropbox 2.0.
The biggest change in version 2.0 of Dropbox is a brand new style for the app’s drop down menu. Rather than the somewhat static menu of updates past, Dropbox now features a live timeline of updates to your Dropbox, including sharing requests from other users. Think of it as a mini Notification Center, just for your Dropbox: You can quickly see what files have been updated and when. Click on any of the files, and you’ll be taken right to it in your Dropbox folder; you can even accept or decline sharing requests from the menu itself.
In addition to being notified of changes to your Dropbox, the menu offers quick access to sharing any of those files with others—just hover over the item in question and click the Share button that appears. You’ll be taken to the Dropbox webpage for the file, where you can share the file with others via email, Twitter, or Facebook, or simply generate a link.
There are other, more minor changes to the software as well. For example, a bug that enabled discrete graphics chips on Mac laptops has been fixed, and there’s now support for Brazilian Portuguese.
Dropbox has been facing increased pressure from competitors, mainly those backed by larger companies: Apple’s iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft SkyDrive, for example. In addition, smaller firms have been taking shot at what’s often considered the de facto cloud-storage service.
At the South by Southwest Interactive conference last week, an anonymous Dump Dropbox campaign was waged via guerrilla marketing—some suspect that rival cloud-storage service Dump Truck was behind the campaign, though its parent company Golden Frog has not claimed responsibility.
Dropbox 2.0 is a free update for OS X 10.6 or later and Windows XP or later; the company says it will be releasing updates to its Android and iOS mobile apps later on Tuesday to bring more sharing prominent notifications.
Author: Dan Moren, Contributor
Dan has been writing about all things Apple since 2006, when he first started contributing to the MacUser blog. A former Macworld senior editor, he's now a freelance tech journalist, a prolific podcaster, and the author of several books; his latest is the supernatural detective novel All Souls Lost.