By 
Are you willing to trust Kim Dotcom again? This is a question we ask ourselves today as Mega is released to the public. MegaUpload’s revival brings a completely new philosophy in mind. In comes Mega, a cloud storage service that has turned into a tornado within the first hours of after its launch.
Competitive pricing and privacy have turned Kim’s legacy upside down – from a defeated empire in technology to a rising behemoth. Could it be Google Drive, Dropbox and the like have something to worry about? Well, let’s look at the prices first.
Mega Cloud Storage Pricing Options
We won’t go into too much detail about this, but Mega’s prices destroy the competition. Google Drive’s 2 TB plan goes for $99.99, 5 times the price Dotcom is offering. In comparison, Dropbox’ price for the 500 GB plan costs $49.99 a month. Again, 5 times more expensive than Mega. And by the way, there are no file size limitations.
Sure, there are no apps or computer programs yet, but this product is in its beta stage. Hundreds of thousands of users have signed up in just a few hours. Servers are overloaded. There is definitely a demand for Mega, and all of those apps and features will be coming soon, guys.
There is simply no competition here. No other major cloud storage service offers such prices, or 50 GB of storage for free subscribers. But there is much more you guys are probably worried about. Kim Dotcom’s reputation is to follow him, probably to his grave.
While it is true MegaUpload turned out to be a complete disaster, both for the company and its users, its resurrection is coming in with a completely different mindset. Based on what we can see (please take into account we are no lawyers), there is no reason why Mega should be more illegal than Google Drive, Dropbox or Box.
All files are encrypted during the uploading process and they can only be shared via a link (sounds familiar?). Files will be readily available only to those you give access to. Mega is, in essence, pretty much another cloud storage service. Except with killer prices.
Mega simply gives you the space. It is yours. If copyrighted materials are somehow pirated, responsibility will fall under the host (but even that is hard to come by, as files are encrypted). This one is really looking to be a winner.
Anybody can now sign up and beta test Mega for free at mega.co.nz/#start. But we would like to know how you guys feel about this. Do you trust Kim Dotcom with your files after what happened a year ago? Do you think this is a great way for Kim Dotcom to take his empire back? Let us know!
[polldaddy poll=6841265]
[Source: Mega Via: ChromeSpot]
SkyDrive for most stuff, Mega for the rest. GDrive when I do collabo with people who use that.
That sounds like a really good plan! I just have to wonder how competitive Mega will get when it comes to all the features.
I don’t think I’m ready to trust Mega with any files containing sensitive information. But 50GB is plenty to back up some photos and videos.
…And ALL of our Android ROMs. =.P
Bandwidth seems a bit low, imho
I use DropBox’s 50GB, but mostly because I was able to “hack” my way into getting it free for 2 years via a SGS3 build.prop edit. If I wasn’t able to get the 50G for free, or if DropBox doesn’t upgrade everyone else to 50G for free, permanently, by the time the 2-year “promo period” ends (summer 2014), then I’ll definitely check out the competition.
Also, I’m in love with the DropBox-only “DropSync” app (thanks Chavez!), so, the competition should also have good sync support
No, after losing some data with them last time, all trust is now gone.
I’m more than happy now with a combination of GDrive and Dropbox
It will DEFINITELY happen again. Do you think law enforcement aren’t going to try to shut him down again and again????
Yes, but only if they manage to stabilize their site. It’s been slow all day, then down for the past few hours. Hard to use the service if you can’t access it.
Woo Stargate, sorry just had to mention it, big Stargate Fan
Indeed.
I have 50 gigs with Box.net
5 or 50? And how did you get 50?
They had a promotion for 50GB for free if you downloaded their app. I got it as well. But they have a rather small maximum file size.
50 gb box , 50 gb mediafire, 25 gb skydrive, 5 gb drive , 2 gb dropbox lol
And upload file size limit is 250MB. Useless.
I have the 50 gigs Box.net as well but with their pitiful file size limit, I have not used it yet.
Never trust a dude using a fake name in public. Sorry, you’re not THAT cool. Lesser, never trust a dude with two first names.
Kim Dotcom isn’t a fake name (it was legally changed in 2005).
you dont trust him but you trust google….
…no file size limitations?
Perhaps if I have need to store and stream a large video file. But for day-to-day, the 8 GB I have with dropbox is sufficient, failing that I have 50 GB from Box.
I question the long term viability of this new endeavor though. I wouldn’t put anything of value on it any time soon.
I’m surprised there isn’t a single mention of their privacy policy… which essentially says they’ll happily hand over your data to pretty much anyone. Sure, your data is encrypted, but you’re IP address / personal details aren’t. I guess it’s still to be seen what good this information will be with all the data encrypted.
Anyway, Mega is a great concept, but it’s no where near complete. I know mobile and desktop apps are also on their way, but to be honest those are what defines this kind of service and shouldn’t have been left out of launch.
Now, if they find a way to merge Truecrypt and the cloud (without the hack-ish Dropbox way), then this may be interesting. They’re on the right track, but it will really come down to OS integration and support. I hate how the Google Drive app works, especially with no way to throttle the upload. It’s just not integrated well enough in my opinion, so let’s see if Mega can do better.
Ideally, this should be completely seamless. On desktop operating systems it should use a virtual hard drive or similar, and on mobile devices it would need to be almost as integrated as the SD Card (at least as much as possible given API limitations on mobile operating systems). It should also use as little bandwidth as possible by “patching” files instead of re-uploading them entirely, which may be more difficult with encrypted data. Data should also be compressed before it’s uploaded as much as possible to conserve bandwidth.
Maybe I’m asking too much, but I’m tired of “Cloud Sync” and not “Cloud Drive”. If Mega can deliver on that then I’ll strongly consider them despite their ridiculous privacy policy.
Um… Why should I care that my IP address is visible? I don’t get why you pointed that out. What do you plan on getting from my IP address? My ISP? LoL!!
I guess I get your other stuff. I was hoping you could explain “Personal details”, because I don’t consider my ISP “personal details”. Hmm… =.?
Sorry, I should of cited sources. TorrentFreak goes in to further details about it at http://goo.gl/LA9em
However, a recent update removed the part I was mostly concerned about that stated:
“We can use any information we have about you as a customer relating to your creditworthiness and give that information to any other person for credit assessment and debt collection purposes.”
Specifically the “any other person” part, but since it’s been removed it’s not as big of a deal.
Thanks nonetheless.
Because your isp knows what ip is used where and when, and they have to keep that information for a certain period of time.
“they’ll happily hand over your data to pretty much anyone. Sure, your data is encrypted, but you’re IP address / personal details aren’t. I guess it’s still to be seen what good this information will be with all the data encrypted.”
isn’t that the standard for almost every website? this is so that law enforcement agencies can demand info (when they have the right legal papers) on people uploading stuff like copyrighted and child pornographic content.
Wait!! I don’t get it. What happened a year ago? I know MegaUpload got taken down, but I’m still not too sure as to “why”. Was it because they were 4% of the entire internet and most of the stuff there apparently was pirated? I don’t get how it was any different than any one of these other sites.
Anyways, 50GB free will allow me to put ALL my Android stuff there. I could put both my Dropbox and Drive data there. =.P
Same thing as happened with some other sites… Pirating. Hollywood got involved, which means money got involved, which means government got involved. Not saying what he (Kim Dotcom) was doing was right, but the overreaction was a bit much, imo.
The old company paid people to be pirates.
I’d rather go with Google or another more reliable site, the justice department is already prepping their lawyers for this new site so no thanks. Good competition though, hope it lowers prices in the overall market.
I back MY data on MY OWN external HDD so its always WITH ME and no one else. I honestly dont’ see what the big deal is about cloud storage anyway
Agreed. I have a 120gb hard drive just for backups.
External HDD is great until you had a theft, fire or your kid drops it.
I keep it with me always, I keep it with me always, and I don’t have kids(I am in high school myself).
Well, smart IT ppl will tell you it is always best to have an offsite storage. Also, you’re gonna have a tough time sharing your files with a HDD in your pocket.
E-mail, and for too-large files, Thunderbird automatically uploads big files to Ubuntu One when you send them, so that the person receiving the message gets a link.
I use cloud for some stuff, thumb drives for others and backup on an external HDD.
I do not put any sensitive/important info in cloud storage… that’s just asking for trouble.
Yes, exactly. There is no reason why an encrypted hard drive is less safe than an untrustworthy company.
You keep an external HDD with you, 24 hrs a day? You take it to work, carry it around, take it to school, sit with it in every class, take it to the bar? Sounds like an even BETTER way to lose it than the aforementioned theft/fire/breakage.
Again, in high school. I just leave it in my backpack. It’s a small thing, and really rugged. Works very well.
Until someone steals your backpack, or you just leave it behind somewhere. I hope you have nothing really personal, or encrypt it all.
I definitely have it encrypted up the wazoo. And I have very little that I would care about anyone finding.
Thats why my external HDD is stored in a fire/water proof safe. I also don’t have kids, I don’t share files with people, my work doesn’t require me to share computer files. Try again?
Proper backup policy should be at least 1 on-site and 1 off-site backup. Nobody sticks to that (Not even me), cloud storage is an easy way to get off-site backups done easily.
Except for people like me who have hundreds of gigs of VERY personal data is
1. Horrendously slow to backup even on a fast web connection
2. I trust no one/company with my personal data using a cloud system.
All hard drives fail, eventually. They really aren’t for long term backup. Without a plan to regularly replace it, you’ll be screwed sooner or later.
Yes. For approximately $100, I bought a 120gb hard drive three, four years ago(maybe more). It still works perfectly. You try doing that with cloud storage, it’ll cost you $50 dollars A YEAR with Google Drive, and hard drives are much cheaper today.
On the issue of failing, though, I have drives from ten, twenty years ago that still work perfectly(the first is 20gb in an iBook G3, the second is 500mb in a Performa 631). Obviously they didn’t stand the test of time for the space, but their longevity has been proven.
I will support almost anyone who is willing to stick it to the MAN. The enemy of THE enemy is my friend!
No, they’re just another enemy.
Crash plan is still better priced.
I use Bitcasa. They just released apps for Android, iPhone, and either Blackberry or WinMo. They offer unlimited storage for free and the mobile and desktop apps are great for uploading and syncing stuff.
What does anybody else think of Bitcasa?
Seems nice, although they say it’s free for a limited time, then it’s 10gb free and 10$ a month for unlimited, which would still be excellent
I’ve looked and looked to try and find this information online since I started using it. Where did you find it?
I created an account in Mega and after i tried to upload some files it stopped working for me, every time I try to login, my browser crashes. even tried another computer. Hope this bug is removed soon, but for now i stay with dropbox and amazon clouddrive.
I think bitcasa has the most potential at this point (free in beta, unlimited for $10/month after). I use Google drive and dropbox right now because of features and reliability.
We’ll see it depends on the apps, I mostly use cloud storage with my smartphone, so until their is a android app, I’m not interested. The transfer limits should assuage any problems with piracy, people aren’t going to be sharing these files with everyone if they are limited to a few or several TB’s. I know that sounds like a lot, but to pirates it’s nothing.
The guy is a crook, I don’t trust him with my data.
http://www.facebook.com/megacloudstorage be the first to like it on facebook…. :)
Mega will own the rest. As long as they keep the illegal links down.
Why would anyone in their right mind upload ANYTHING to an extremely high-risk site like The New Megaupload?
The “new” site is nothing more than any of the countless other sites that offer “free storage” or “paid storage.” You gain nothing.
But you take a huge risk in using Megaupload because I’m sure many legal agencies are going to be watching megaupload far, far more than other similar sites.
Why risk losing all your files AGAIN and AGAIN at Megaupload???? Once is enough.
(As of today, the site is already down due to poor planning and not enough servers.)
I use Adrive.com and they give 50GB free. No apps for it but it is free!!
I use Tonido and just run my own personal cloud.
Mega will fail if it doesn’t quickly integrate with services and Apps. I use Dropbox because of how Dropbox works and there are various apps I have that integrate directly with it. Google Drive I use for work purposes (creating/storing documents, etc). When I get a new Win 8 PC I’ll probably give SkyDrive a shot since it likely integrates deeply with the OS. What does mega have? A lot of space? That’s about as useful as a Google TV without content.
About the only thing Mega has going for it is it’s ridiculously low prices and limitless upload size. We’ll see how it plays out. I have nothing against Mega or Kim so, best of luck to the service but they will have to do more to “crush” the competition than what they have so far. That said, it think the current model will be just fine.
mega + google drive document editing = Awesome
The key is ultimately can they afford to keep such prices long term?
One main advantage of Mega is that it isn’t located in the United States. The government in that country has no respect for privacy and has been spying on content since before they attacked themselves with anthrax to get the US Patriot Act through in 24 hours when 95% of legislators had no opportunity to read it…..making their illegal spying legal.
Mega offers at least some hope of privacy.
The way the US justice system has been degraded in recent years (torture that isn’t torture, illegal search and seizure, operating Guantanamo outside the Constitution using powers that ONLY come FROM the Constitution, bogus charges against innocent people…etc…etc…etc..) you just can’t trust the US to operate in a fair and just way any more, if you ever could. Best they know nothing…or as little as possible.
For this reason alone, Mega is the winner. Their competitors are all exposed to US spying.or Chinese spying or Russian spying or Israeli spying.