RIP: Cubby

Graybyrd · October 18, 2016, 4:10am

From “The Register UK” theregister.co.uk/2016/10/18 … y_closing/

The DropBox alternative, “Cubby” is being “folded in” to LogMeIn Pro, and being discontinued as a stand-a-lone service, according to the above Register article.

“In an effort to focus our current product portfolio, we took Cubby’s most used features (file storage and sharing) and built them into LogMeIn Pro to create a more complete way to connect to the content and devices you need, all in a single product experience,” says the email sent to users.

"Those willing to hand over the US$99 for the first year of LogMeIn Pro will get a whole terabyte of cloudy storage to play with. Subsequent years will revert to full price, currently $149. But there are perils for those who upgrade, as Citrix’s FAQ says some content won’t automatically migrate

“For those of you who don’t want to make the move Citrix apologises because its decision “… likely disrupts your daily workflow.” It therefore suggests you consider this video that explains how to get data from Cubby into Dropbox, via your desktop.”

It’s worth mentioning that LogMeIn acquired LastPass password service last year. So far, I’ve noticed no change in LastPass service or fees, but I am making immediate plans to find an alternative password manager. --GB

Hugh · October 18, 2016, 8:17am

Yes, not helpful. The key change for me is from “free” to “relatively expensively paid-for”. Is this an exception, or together with the changes at Evernote and elsewhere part of a bale of straws in the wind?

xiamenese · October 18, 2016, 9:00am

This is disastrous. It means an end to collaboration with my Chinese friend, as Dropbox is blocked there, and even if we were willing to pay the exorbitant cost, she would probably not be able to. I guess I’ll have to re-explore SpiderOak.

Mark

EDIT: “bale of straws in the wind”, Hugh? You need to add tha question of iCloud Drive as in JennK’s contribution in

https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/comparison-to-other-word-processors-and-writing-tools/68/1

nontroppo · October 18, 2016, 9:10am

Wow, disaster indeed for those of us dealing with the great Chinese firewall. As an aside, my current VPN does work well with Dropbox, but then that means each collaborator having to pay for a VPN to collaborate…

What other good free file sync services are left?

LogMeIn has a terrible customer satisfaction record, they seem to be a really terrible company. As another Lastpass user, I’m also holding my breath to see what they do to mess up an otherwise brilliant password management tool…

Hugh · October 18, 2016, 4:50pm

Indeed, yes. Cubby’s disappearance looks to me to be signalling the decline, if not the demise, of the “freemium” model of cloud services provision. (Long may it prevail for Dropbox.) I’ve been very happy to be subsidised by paying users. But never mind: maybe what the surprisingly extensive list in The Register of other closed-down cloud services (and maybe also the travails of Evernote) are signalling is that freemium is fine for start-up come-ons, but that paying users become progressively less willing over time to subsidise people like me. As far as iCloud Drive is concerned, its issues have confirmed my prejudice against signing up for version X.X.0 or X.X.1 of anything (except Scrivener, of course ).