74 10 - 23July 2019 Doyouagree?Letusknow [email protected]
Well, steprightover here andtakeout
one ofDropbox’s subscription plans,
fromthe bargain price of£5.99 per
month. Exceptthatprice didn’t last
long. Lastmonth, Dropboximposed
20 %price risesacrossthe board,
meaning the
cheapestsubscription
plannowcosts just
shy of£1 00 a year, or
£7.99 per month. If
you don’t wanttopay
a year’s subscription
inadvance,that’s
hiked upto£9.99 per
month or£120a year.
Tobefair toDropbox, it has increased
the amountofstorageavailableto
paid-forsubscribers. Plususers have
seentheir storagequota doublefrom
1TB to2TB, andthe service has rolled
out several newfeatures, including the
abilityto“rewind”yourentireDropbox
shouldransomwareencrypt all yourBarryCollinsfearshe’s beingstrong-armed
into payingfor a Dropbox subscription
Page 404
filesanddemandyou immediately
shuttle £5 00 toSergei inMoscowto
get themback.
ThatDropboxisbrilliant isnot in
question. I’veusedit for personal and
businessfilesfor years andI can count
onthe fingers of
one hand the
numberoftimes it’s
let medown. And
becauseI’ve
managed toharvest
chunksofextra
storageby
recommending
Dropboxtofriends
andbuyingcertain devices over the
years,I’venot hadtopay for it.
But nowI feellikeI’mbeing boxed in
byDropbox. The three-device limit will
eventuallybiteme(I currently haveit
installed onnofewer than 21 devices,
althougha goodchunk ofthemare
sitting unusedinmykit cupboard)
andDropboxissofirmlyintegrated
intomyworkandpersonallifethatI’d
struggletoget bywithout it. Almost
any app orproductivitysoftwareyou
can think ofintegrateswith Dropbox- nootherservice offersthe same
carefreefilesyncing.
Soatsomepoint soonI’mgoing tobe
faced with a choice. DoI pay upand
tethermyself toDropboxandits price
risesfor the foreseeablefuture? Orjump
shipbeforeI’mintoo deep? You might
reasonably arguethatI’vehada good
runona freeservice,andI shouldbe
preparedtopay for something that’s so
valuabletomybusiness. But there’s
something about being strong-armed
intosubscribing thatleaves a bad taste.
It’s nowhere nearasmalicious asthe
ransomwareit guardsagainst,but it’s
not entirelydissimilar, either: it’s got my
data, nowit wants mymoney.
Almost anyappyou
can thinkof integrateswith
Dropbox – nootherservice
offers thesamecarefree
filesyncingL
ike the20-goal-a-seasonstriker
whoturnsupinthemanager’s
office askingfor a newcontract,
Dropbox is good– andit knowsit.
That’s why it’s turningthescrewonfree
users,enforcingsignificantprice riseson
subscribersanddoingitslevel best to
turnthered inkonitsprofit-and-loss
sheettoblack.
The warning signsliterally started
appearing inMarch,whenfreeusers
suddenlyreceivedalerts thatthey
couldn’t install Dropboxonnewdevices
becausethe company had imposed a
strictthree-device limit. Any devices
you had linkedtoDropboxprior to
March would remainso,but if you
subsequently tried toadda newone,
you couldn’t justswapone ofthe old
devices out – you hadtoreducethe
numberofdevices onyouraccount to
two andthenaddthe newone.
Wantthe freedomtoinstall Dropbox
onasmany devices asyou likeagain?Illustration: AndrewTorrens