1. Messaging – users can send private splits to each other using a real-time chat/IM experience
2. Complete your own split – a user can complete his own splits without having to wait for other members to participate in a split the user has started

You can read more about it on our blog. The new version is available for free for iPhone and Android.

The idea of both services is the same – once you install their app for PC or Mac, you get a folder on your computer that is always synced to the cloud. Any folder or file that you move into that folder gets automatically synced to the cloud. This allows you to backup files, sync files between computers (your personal & home computer for example), between your computer & smartphone and also share files with others which is extremely useful when working as a team and having a need to constantly share files with each other without the hassle of emailing files as attachment.

Dropbox has been around for a while, it has millions of users and has created a fantastic service that I have been using for several years. So how can Copy succeed in such a competitive space? The answer is very simple – Copy is giving away plenty of free storage space for new signups – 15GB (vs. 2GB you get in Dropbox). In addition, for anyone that you refer to the service, both of you will earn an extra 5 GBs for completed referrals and there is no limit to the number of people you can refer.

Interested? Click this link to signup & get 20GB free space – 15GB plus 5GB since I will be your referrer.

After you are done signing up, make sure to:

1. Verify your email address
2. Download and install the Copy app (for PC/Mac)

Only after completing these two steps you wil get the 5GB bonus.

By the way, you can also signup as a regular user without a referrer and not get any bonus.

Although the services are very similar, there are still some pros and cons for Copy compared to Dropbox.

Pros:
- Free account size: 15GB vs. 2GB in the case of Dropbox. Initially Copy started with 5GB but as soon as Google announced that Google Drive free space will be 15GB, Copy rushed to match it.
- Referral program: Copy gives 5GB for both you and the friend you refer with no limit. Dropbox however, gives 500MB to you but nothing to your friend and it limits the bonus amount to 16GB (32 friends).
- Fair Storage for all – instead of counting data in shared folders against all members’ individual storage quotas so everyone pays for the same data over and over, Copy allows users to “split the bill” and control which files count against their storage capacity.
- Sharing a folder over the internet is more secured. In dropbox, when you share a link, you have no control if the link is being emailed to someone else. With copy, you can enter a specific user’s Copy username (an email address) and that would restrict access to the shared folder.
- Beautiful web interface that is much easier for viewing files on the web
- For mobile designers Copy is better for viewing a screenshot on an iPad. The image quality is better since Copy does not compress it like Dropbox and it also displays the screenshot in full view (without the iPad’s status bar)
- Quicker sharing – you can share a link to a file from the app rather than being redirected to the website and sharing from there like Dropbox does
- Caching – Copy allows caching of whole folders on mobile devices
- Copy allows easy access to old versions of a file straight from a file’s contextual menu

Cons:
- There is no live preview of video files in the web interface

Bottom line – Copy has done a fantastic job in launching a well designed, feature reach product that supports all platforms (Win, Mac, Linux) and Smartphones (iOS, Android). I’ve been using it for several weeks not and have not experienced any glitches or outages. Highly recommended!

Click here to signup for free and get your 20GB free space.

Originally posted on Life Mashup 2.0
 

interview of Jay Meydad CEO of Pixplit by orangecorporate

We are trying to get my startup, Pixplit, nominated for a Crunchies ’12 Award. Simply follow each one of these 5 links and once the page loads click on the “Nominate” button:

• Best Collaborative Consumption Service: http://is.gd/Hu2uda
• Best Mobile App: http://is.gd/Mnu1s3
• Best Design: http://is.gd/VWiekf
• Best International Startup:http://is.gd/O2IqaF
• Best Time Sink: http://is.gd/44wWGQ

 Voting is open till December 6th & it is possible to vote for us every day. A lot of exciting things are coming up soon for Pixplit. We hope to add a Crunchie to that list and with your help it will be possible.

Thank You!

Our cozy office will be open to visitors and we will provide a peek into the life of a young startup who’s just launched its product, won 1st place at the StartTWS conference and is on the journey to hit a gazillion more milestones.

We are at 15 Rotschiled Bldv, Tel Aviv (map).

For exact hours please see #22 on this list

Be our guests.

Pixplit is the world’s first creative collaboration network. Using Pixplit friends & members of the Pixplit community can create images and photo collages, in a single frame, together with others. Each split has 2,3 or 4 parts, and each part gets populated with a photo a member of the community takes. Together, the group of people creates a collage and be part of a visual dialog (no words needed) that is crossing borders, backgrounds and language barriers.

What you see below is a gallery of  a few sample splits created by members of the community. There are a gazillion more live on the service and you could be a creator too. Simply download Pixplit for free (available for iPhone now, Android coming soon), connect using your Facebook account and start collaborating with others. It is fun, artistic, creative and surprising. You will enjoy it.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Here is a quick guide to help you do that:
1. Download RMTPDump for Mac OSX 10.7 (other versions can be found here).

2. Extract the rtmpdump binary file from the zip and move it into the /Applications folder

3. Next you will need to find the exact URL of the stream to download. An easy way to find it is by looking for a Share/”Embed” option near the video you are watching. Copy and Paste the entire embed code block into a text editor and search for “rmtp”. Once you find it, copy the entire file path to the clipboard/text file. For example: rtmp://cp100692.edgefcs.net/ondemand/mp4:hd/0712/1207121820_final_eifo_hayeled_768Kbps_360p.mp4

4. Now open a Terminal and run the following command:

/Applications/rtmpdump -r "<PATH TO STREAM FILE>" -W "http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/players/player-4.6-licensed.swf" -o <OUTPUT FILENAME>.flv

For example – here’s how I grabbed a concert of the Eifo Hayeled rock band:
/Applications/rtmpdump -r "rtmp://cp100692.edgefcs.net/ondemand/mp4:hd/0712/1207121820_final_eifo_hayeled_768Kbps_360p.mp4" -W "http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/players/player-4.6-licensed.swf" -o ./Eifo_Hayeled_2012_Reunion.flv


The process should take a few minutes depending on the size of the stream file and your internet connection speed.

5. Finally, you will find a local copy of the stream as an .flv file that can be played using VLC

Back in 2009 Berry Sakharoff & Rea Mochiach released a unique album called “Adumei Hasefatot” (you can listen to the full album here). In this album they collected & composted a few of Shlomo Ebn Gavirol‘s poems. 

Last night the two of them, together with a large band of 8 additional super talended musicians, performed the entire album live. It was one of these unique and rare shows that you feel fortunate to be part of and here’s a taste of it.

Originally posted on Life Mashup 2.0