Get your personal ‘Dropbox’ service with new Asus routers

MANILA, Philippines — If the 2GB of storage space provided by popular cloud service Dropbox is too small for your mobile needs, why not create your own personal cloud instead? With the recently launched AiCloud service that comes with new routers from Asus, you can do exactly that.

Now you don’t have to pressure your friends to sign up with Dropbox to get that additional cloud storage you need through referrals. Just purchase any of Asus’s new RT-AC66U, RT-N66U, or RT-N16 routers, hook up your own hard drive at the back of the panel, and you can easily access your files wherever you may be via the Internet.

Cloud storage services are a dime a dozen these days, what with the skyrocketing popularity of Dropbox and the recent launch of Google Drive, which easily gives users 5GB of storage for any file at Google’s own servers.

But Asus’s AiCloud service is actually a suite of three cloud products that users can easily use with their newly purchased WiFi routers, explained Kristian Villuga, product manager for routers at Asus Philippines.

These three cloud options are: Cloud Disk, Smart Access, and Smart Sync. Cloud Disk turns a pair of router and USB drive into a network-attached storage, accessible to anyone with access to the wireless connection; Smart Access, meanwhile, lets users view and use their files even outside the wireless connection and via the Internet; Smart Sync, on the other hand, ensures that all files uploaded via various cloud storage services such as Asus WebStorage are synchronized on the user’s phone or computer.

All three services are accessible through smartphones via a proprietary AiCloud application that can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or at the Google Play Store.

Aside from featuring the new cloud storage service, the latest addition to Asus’s line of routers, the RT-AC66U, is said to be the most high-end model in the market, delivering data rates of up to 1.3Gbps, unrivaled by any consumer-grade wireless routers available today.


Below are the technical specifications of the RT-AC66U:

ASUS RT-AC66U Wireless Router
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/u
450+1300Mbps data rate
2.4Ghz, 5.1~ 5.8Ghz
64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise
1x WAN, 4x LAN, 2x USB2.0

If having your own “Dropbox” service seems like a good deal to you, prepare to fork up P11,990 for Asus’s new router — definitely a steep price to pay to be able to gain access to such perks.

source: interaksyon.com

Dropbox Hits 100 Million Users

Dropbox now has 100 million users.

Drew Houston, the company’s founder and CEO, took to the Dropbox blog to announce the milestone, touting how far the cloud storage company has come in the five years since he came up with the idea for the company because “I forgot my USB stick at home.”

Since then, Dropbox has raised $250 million in venture funding and is said to be valued at around $4 billion. Dropbox has also faced some pretty stiff competition in recent years, from startups like Box and SugarSync, as well as from tech titans like Apple, Microsoft and Google, all of which have launched their own cloud storage features.

Even with all that competition, Dropbox has continued to grow its user base. Houston, for his part, has scoffed at the competition, telling The New York Times in a recent interview that “Those companies are busy trying to build something we had four years ago.”

source: mashable.com