Paper is Dropbox’s new vision for how teams can work together

Six months ago, Dropbox quietly announced a collaborative note-taking tool called Notes and launched it in an invite-only beta test. But starting today, the product is being officially branded as Dropbox Paper and the beta test is expanding significantly. You’ll still need an invite, but the company gave us a preview of what’s probably the biggest addition to Dropbox in years. It’s far too early to tell if Paper will be able to keep up with entrenched tools from Google, Microsoft and many others — but there are definitely some interesting features here that make it worth keeping an eye on.

For now, Paper is web-only app that you can access through your Dropbox account, though the company says it’ll have a mobile app ready to go when the product comes out of beta. At first glance, Paper’s UI is reminiscent of the scores of minimalist, lightweight text editing apps that have come out in the past few years, such as IA Writer. But while IA Writer and its ilk are designed for solo composition, Paper is all about working together. As in Google Docs, multiple users can edit a document at the same time. Each will be designated by a colored cursor, and the user’s full name is displayed in the margins, crediting their contributions to the file.

From a text perspective, Paper is quite basic; there’s only one font and three sizes available. You can do your basic bold, italics, underline and strikethrough formatting and format text into a block quote, but that’s about it. Dropbox specifically said that the purpose of Paper was to keep the focus on sharing ideas rather than formatting. In particular, Dropbox made it so that you can use its app to share pretty much anything, regardless of what tools you might be using.

“Work today is really fragmented,” says product manager Matteus Pan. “It happens across multiple content types be it images, code, tables, even tasks.” And that clutter extends to the tools being used. “I might be working on PowerPoint, someone else may be writing code, another in Google Docs — teams have really wanted a single surface to bring all of those ideas into a single place.” At first glance, Paper does a pretty good job of bringing a bunch of different content and tools together.

Project managers can add to-do lists, complete with checkboxes and @ mentions to the member of your team who needs to take care of the associated task. If coding is more your game, you can start typing lines of code right into Paper and it’ll automatically format it appropriately. Beyond text, any file you store in your Dropbox can quickly be added to Paper — if you grab the sharing URL of the file and paste it into Paper, the program automatically formats a preview for you. That way, you can peek at an Excel or Powerpoint file right in line with the rest of your Paper document, or click to see it in full or save to your Dropbox. Google Docs files are even supported here — It’s the first time Dropbox has really integrated with Docs and Drive, itself a competitor to Dropbox’s main business.

Paper can display just about any kind of file you throw at it.

Single photos can be dragged and dropped right into Paper, and you can create some mini-galleries, with two or three smaller images lined up. Everything is draggable, so you can reorder things quickly; you can also left or right align images and type text around them. For extra drama, you can blow an image up to a full-bleed, widescreen photo that takes up the entire browser window. If you need to add some multimedia, just dropping a YouTube link into the document will convert it to the full video player, and you can embed audio files and playlists from Spotify or SoundCloud as well. Naturally, you can comment on everything added to a Paper document,and Dropbox even jumped on the stickers bandwagon — so if a giant skeleton thumbs-up is the only way you can properly express your approval, you’re covered here.

There are a few ways to keep track of the various documents you create in Paper. There’s a quick shortcut to save documents that you want to access easily into a favorites sidebar, and when you create a new document, you’ll be prompted to put it in a folder. Since Paper is primarily a collaboration tool, new folders (and the documents in them) will be shared with your work team by default, though you can also create private ones for documents that you want to keep to yourself. There’s a pretty robust search feature that lets you both peer into the content of your documents or search names to find all the documents that a particular person in your organization shared with you. Lastly, there’s a “following” feed that lets you see chronological activity on documents you own and are shared on.

There’s no doubt that Paper is one of the more fully-realized and useful new products Dropbox has introduced in a while, particularly since Mailbox and Carousel have received few updates over the past year or so. But Paper is also entering a field crowded with big names like Google and Microsoft (and Dropbox has even spent lots of time partnering with Microsoft as of late). When asked what differentiated it from the rest of the field, Pan pointed to Paper’s focus on building documents that let users work and share multiple content types regardless of what’s used to create them.

He cited Paper as a way to collaborate that keeps things from getting overly “messy” in terms of both clean design and organization. The last differentiator is organization and helping teams find their work quicker. “Creation and collaboration are only half the problem,” he said, “the other half is how information is organized and retrieved across an entire company.”

Simply having a good product philosophy doesn’t mean people will adopt it, which is why Dropbox is being slow and deliberate with Paper’s rollout. The team has been gathering feedback from its customers for months and intends to keep doing so as the beta expands. Indeed, Dropbox’s focus on its business customers gives it a large base of people to test the product with and get feedback. And organizations that are already paying for Dropbox may be more likely to give Paper a try, either in beta or when the product is fully finished.

Dropbox’s next big product, or another project that falls by the wayside?

The timing of that launch is still up in the air — right now the focus is on getting Paper from “thousands of users to thousands of businesses and teams,” Pan says. With all that feedback, Paper will likely continue to change before its official release, but the lack of a concrete timeline has to be at least somewhat concerning when you look at what has happened with some other major Dropbox initiatives — the Mailbox for Mac app was introduced with fanfare over a year and a half ago, and it still remains in beta.

But Paper plays a lot more to the company’s strengths than anything it has introduced in a long time. Collaboration, sharing and organization are all things the company has worked hard at with its core product for a long time. In that regard, Paper seems like a natural outgrowth of what it has done so far. Dropbox used to be all about organizing files — but the move to mobile and the increasing power of web apps means that traditional file icons in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder are less relevant than they used to be. Instead of organizing your company’s data in files stored in your Dropbox, the company just wants you to do it all in Paper instead.

Ultimate Hacking Keyboard splits in half, is fully programmable

If you want to go a step beyond mechanical keyboards, you’ll inevitably end up looking at the wild variety of ergonomic options. Now we have a new challenger: The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard by the Hungarian startup Ultimate Gadget Laboratories. It’s a mechanical keyboard that can be split apart for better ergonomic placement on your desk, and, true to its name, it also lets you completely remap the keys as you see fit. The company even included mouse support within the keyboard (which also lets you mimic touch gestures on smartphones and tablets). The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is launching today on Crowd Supply with a funding goal of $200,000, and it’ll start at around $200. It’s slated to begin shipping in the second half of 2016. Slideshow-330012

Laszlo Monda, the founder and lead developer of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard project, says he focused on making the device portable when it’s in one piece. In a brief hands on time with a prototype unit, it didn’t feel as heavy as most mechanical keyboards, and it’s also compact enough to fit into most bags. The actual keys felt pretty great too, with just the amount of feedback you’d expect from a solid mechanical keyboard. Monda notes that the keys will be durable enough to last 50 million presses. You’ll also be able to choose from a variety of different mechanical switch options once the keyboard starts shipping.

The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard feels just as sturdy split apart, as it does when it’s joined together. Its metallic connectors give it a particularly satisfying click when it comes together. Both halves are connected by a standard telephone cord along the top of the keyboard — you can also switch that out with a longer cable if you need any more room.

While I didn’t get to spend any time with the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard’s configuration application, Monda describes it as something that will let you create application-specific key layouts, complete with fully customizable layouts. For the most part, the keyboard is targeted at people who just want to be more productive. It’s not exactly something meant for gamers, since it doesn’t have a dedicated row of function keys (they’re alternate options for the top number keys). That could make it tough to play games that rely heavily on function keys (though it’ll be just fine for most shooters).

https://player.vimeo.com/video/142388086

Source: Ultimate Hacking Keyboard

[Deal] Learn everything you need to know about Linux with these bundles

Some people are aware of what’s available outside the world of Windows or Mac, while others have no clue. Then there are those who know about the other software versions like Linux, but have no way to get into building a Linux PC or anything like that.

Today, we are giving everyone a way to get experienced with Linux, while having a tiny Linux PC to work with. The first deal is for the VoCore: MiniLinux Computer, which is the smallest Linux PC available today. The VoCore has everything you’ll need to get up and running, including an ethernet and USB port, and an on-board Wi-Fi adapter.

• Works on open-source hardware
• Provides up to 20 GPIO lines
• Runs OpenWRT Linux
• Includes an on-board Wi-Fi adapter so you don’t need an external one
• Easily connects to peripheral devices
• Small size enables it to act as an embedded system
• Extends Ethernet & USB interfaces w/ the Dock
• Operates as a fully functional 2.4GHz Wi-Firouter
• Acts as a general purpose low-power COM for IoT applications
• Includes full hardware design & full-source code
• Integrates a 802.11n MAC, baseband, radio, FEM & 5-port 10/100Mbps Ethernet switch

With the VoCore there is no need to tinker around with the BiOS for your current computer, and worry about messing something up. Normally priced at $45, you can grab the VoCore for only $39.

The second deal, that goes with the VoCore, is for a set of courses designed to get you fully involved with Linux. With five different courses to learn from, you’ll be fully enveloped in Linux in no time.

• Learn Linus in 5 Days
• Learning Ubuntu Linux Server
• Learn to Run Linux Servers from Scratch
• Learn to Run Linux Servers Part 2
• Pentester Certification Course

These five courses will give you all the necessary knowledge you’ll need to understand how Linux and/or Ubuntu works. Plus, with the Pentester Certification Course, you will become certified in Linux by Igneus Technologies, which can help you in the IT field.

Normally priced at $502, you can get all five courses for 90% off, at $49. This is a great deal to teach yourself about the ins and outs of Linux. Bundle this with the VoCore Linux PC, and you have everything you need to get your own Linux server up and running.

You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals page. Backed by StackCommerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!

AndroidGuys Deals: VoCore Linux Mini-PC; Linux Learner Bundle

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