Dropbox: Though in invite-only beta at the moment (yes, Carrot is pretty l33t these days), the service is fully functional and fully amazing. Your best bet is to watch the video on their homepage (if it is moved by the time you read this, here’s the direct link to the video file)… but I’ll just add a brief overview and some notes. The service is seemingly the end all answer to the problem of tracking versions of files, across different machines and operating systems. We have a handful of designers working on any given project, and while we do our best to strategically and intuitively name/date design files, it’s never a sure thing. One project may be on 5 different machines, and figuring out the most recent version during the post-launch cleanup is messy. Dropbox allows us to now sync every designer’s design folders together. If I am out of the office on a retreat into the wilderness and hardly internet accessible, no problem! Sean will have the last file I was working on because it was automatically synced, via dropbox, to our shared design folder… the instant I saved it at the end of the day.

There are of course a slew of features in addition to the blessed file sync. You can generate URLs for instant sharing of files (one of my favorite Jing features), choose to share or keep private any folder you are syncing… and you can even manage the files online, if you are away from your sync’d machines. There is likely more splendor than I have even realized yet, so do yourself a favor and take a closer look. First indications are that this will be the next big thing for organizations like ours, and we are certainly willing to pay for a subscription fee when it goes to full release

If you need a beta invite, shoot me an email.

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