Monday, August 10, 2009

New features coming to binfire.com-Release II




As you already know binfire.com is one of only few file hosting and collaboration sites providing free service to its users. We plan to make binfire.com the best file hosting and collaboration site on the Internet. To get there we need our users help in identifying current issues with the site and the future enhancements they would like to add. I would like to share with you new features which we have added to the site and will be available soon. These features will enhance the user experience and ease of use.
1-We have replaced File tab with Cloud Folder tab. In this tab you can select your own web folder, your groups’ folders and folders your contacts have shared with you for upload and download. Every member gets his / her own unlimited size web folder and one unlimited size group folder for collaboration.
To select any cloud folder (your own, group or shared), go to the cloud folder tab or share tab and use the drop down box on top right to choose your cloud folder. Remember when you login for the first time you only have your own web folder. To see group folders you either need to create your own group, or join a group that already exists. To see shared folders from friends, you need to add your friends as contact (they have to be a member of binfire.com too). When one of your friends marks a file as shared with his friends you will see his folder and all files he has shared!
2-Collaboration tab gives you a dashboard for managing collaboration tasks. In this tab you can create a collaboration group, join a group and manage your groups. Remember each group has its own folder with unlimited storage and unlimited number of users. The group owner can invite members, assign member’s access permissions (read / write or read only). Any member with read / write permission can lock a file while he or she is working on it. All file’s history and versions are available online.

3-In the new version you can upload multiple files from anywhere in the application or the file manager! In the file manager you can also upload folders using drag & drop. Please make sure you use the file manager. It is one of the most sophisticated file management tools available online. You can find it in the file tab. It is the control on top right.

4-Live chat –Now you can chat with your contacts who are online and also a member of binfire.com. We have created a simple but efficient chat interface to enable and enhance live collaboration and team work.
5-Live support- You can chat with a customer care representative during business hours (Eastern daylight time, USA) to resolve technical or business questions. In future this service will be available 24/7.
6- Flash video conversion—if you like your videos to be playable online, you need to use the File manager to upload your videos and convert them to Flash. The file manager asks if you want to convert the video to flash or keep it as its original format. If you say yes, the file is converted to flash and could be played on line.
7-Foreign character support- The name of your files or folders could be in any language you choose.

We rely on our users for support and help in identifying issues and enhancing binfire.com. We use open source and in the future we plan to make the API to binfire.com available to everybody so our users can add new applications to the site.
I would love to hear your comments, suggestions and questions.
David Robins
david@binfire.com