Technology
Dropbox releases its own password manager and a stable file vault.
Dropbox releases a range of new features today, all of them security-based, including the first-spots password manager, a 'vault' in your documents files for birth certification purposes, and a new way of backing up your computer on your Dropbox account.
The password manager, known as Dropbox Passwords, helps you to store your passwords in one location as you want using your Dropbox account credentiales, with a dedicated password management program such as 1Password or LastPass.
Dropbox Password is released last year following the acquisition by Dropbox of the Valt password manager.
One reason why a company has developed its native password management feature is that it noted that password management is "one of the most common uses today for Dropbox," says Timothy Young, product leader of Droppbox, in an interview with The Verge.
Not only do people use Dropbox to store or handle their passwords — not in plain text, hopefully? But it also synchronizes their current Dropbox password manager, Young said.
Dropbox also releases Dropbox Safe, a secure place for storing confidential documents in your Dropbox account.
You can secure your vault using a six digit PIN, and Dropbox says that when uploading, downloading and saving files on Dropbox servers, they will be encrypted. And in an emergency, you will have to share selectively access to your Dropbox Vault without opening the entire account, as the company requires.
Dropbox also provides a new feature to back up files from your Mac or Computer to Dropbox automatically. If you want, Young says to The Verge, you can choose which folders the Dropbox backed up.
Dropbox Passwords and Vault are currently available in beta on Dropbox Plus for all mobile users starting at $11.99 a month. According the service, all other users of Dropbox Plus will be granted access in the next few weeks to the betas of both products. Dropbox reports that today Dropbox Basic, Professional and Plus users can find the computer backup feature in beta.
In fact, Dropbox made HelloSign an automatic function in Dropbox that ensures that, without leaving Dropbox, you can send , receive and subscribe documents. Dropbox acquired HelloSign last year, and the integration followed.
Dropbox states that in the coming weeks "a subset of users" will be available on private beta and next month.
Dropbox also releases the so called Dropbox App Center in order to further help you locate applications from third parties that work with Dropbox.
When you were to find such applications before, you had to dig into your account settings, and the purpose of the App Center is to provide users with a central place that can locate software and integrations. The Dropbox App Center today in beta with over 40 of its partners is available for "a subset of users." According to Dropbox, "Broader accessibility" comes later this year.
Finally, the Dropbox Family is a family plan which allows six individuals to be subject to a single billing plan. In the next few weeks and later this year, the Dropbox family will roll out for the Dropbox Plus users.
