Why hasn't Dropbox extended its main service with something like this yet?
Incredibly simple apps like puu.sh and Skitch have taken off as separate apps and there has been a scattering of Dropbox-integrated third party tools, which I typically have to give away my Dropbox key to use. There's so much data on the web that is difficult to pull out of the cloud, and Dropbox is in the unique position of bridging these two realms.
Dropbox has a lock on the position of market leader in file storage, but they haven't built a platform. There was an article a few days ago which described how Dropbox is a feature, not a product, and the whole company would be put out of business if Apple/Microsoft/Google just rebuilt the functionality (a bit hyperbolic, but worth a thought). But I don't think there have been more than a few features since I started using Dropbox a few years ago, and it's not for a shortage of engineers.
So perhaps they are building more like a platform and releasing it when it's ready? Who knows.
Ripping content out of a youtube might be denied in some EULA so maybe Dropbox just doesn't want to get involved due to legal issues. In any case, Dropbox does one thing and does it well. Anything else is extra and I congratulate them for keeping their game together.
One of the reasons Dropbox is so popular is because of its drop-dead simplicity. I know more features are nice, but how many new features will detract from Dropbox's main business model - a stupid-simple syncing program? One? Ten?
I love the idea but I'm not wild about giving my Dropbox key (which has about as much sensitive valuable data as my email) to a random wild application.
Dropbox really need to allow users to lock down application API access to a specific path.
It's not entirely clear to me whether this tool transloads the video straight from YouTube to DropBox, or whether it travels (even temporarily) through your machine to do so?
I fear it's the latter, and that would basically mean you're using your bandwidth twice.
Can DropBox transload files from arbitrary URLs? Because then it should totally be possible.
"Downloading happens at the fastest possible speed, but without interfering with your Internet usage, so if you have a slow connection you'll be able to download Youtube videos and still use the Internet at optimal speed."
That can only be true if it's not using your connection (twice!) to do the download.
Hmm, wait. So couldn't I just download the video with an application like youtube-dl normally and save it within the Dropbox folder? Wouldn't that have the same effect? (Syncing with phone etc.)
Incredibly simple apps like puu.sh and Skitch have taken off as separate apps and there has been a scattering of Dropbox-integrated third party tools, which I typically have to give away my Dropbox key to use. There's so much data on the web that is difficult to pull out of the cloud, and Dropbox is in the unique position of bridging these two realms.
Dropbox has a lock on the position of market leader in file storage, but they haven't built a platform. There was an article a few days ago which described how Dropbox is a feature, not a product, and the whole company would be put out of business if Apple/Microsoft/Google just rebuilt the functionality (a bit hyperbolic, but worth a thought). But I don't think there have been more than a few features since I started using Dropbox a few years ago, and it's not for a shortage of engineers.