Software:Dropbox Carousel

From HandWiki
Dropbox Carousel
Developer(s)Dropbox
Initial releaseApril 9, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-04-09)[1]
Operating systemAndroid, iOS, web
TypePhoto storage and sharing
Websitecarousel.dropbox.com

Dropbox Carousel was a photo and video[1] management app offered by Dropbox.[2] The third-party native app, available on Android and iOS,[3] allowed users to store, manage, and organize photos.[4] Photos were organized by date, time and event[5] and backed up on Dropbox.[1] It competed in this space against other online photo storage services such as Google's Google Photos, Apple's iCloud, and Yahoo's Flickr.[5] Chris Lee, Dropbox's head of product development for Carousel described the app as an add-on to Dropbox, a “dedicated experience for photos and videos” and a space for “reliving personal memories”.[5]

History

Mailbox founder, Gentry Underwood unveiled Carousel at a gathering in San Francisco on April 9, 2014.[1] Much of the features in Carousel come from Snapjoy, a photo start-up, that Dropbox acquired on December 19, 2012.[6] When Carousel was launched, it marked amongst many others, a series of acquisitions made by Dropbox to prep up before opening its stock for public offering.[1] The acquisitions would help demonstrate its expansive product offerings pitching potential profitability to investors.[1]

In December 2015, Dropbox announced that Carousel would be shut down and some Carousel features would be integrated into the primary Dropbox application. On March 31, 2016, Carousel was deactivated.[7]

Features

Carousel prompted users to free local storage once it had synced and backed-up local photos to the cloud.[3] Flashback was a feature (enabled by default) that showed past photos or videos taken the same day, a year, or some years back.[3] Flashback used an algorithm designed to identify human faces - resulting in greater likelihood of the user's picture or people in the user's close circle appearing.[3] A scrollable timeline, which was earlier a scroll wheel, at the bottom let the user scroll to photo(s) at a specific date with a finger swipe.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Casey, Newton (9 April 2014). "Dropbox unveils Carousel for organizing your photos and videos". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2014/4/9/5594288/dropbox-unveils-carousel-for-organizing-your-photos-and-videos-online. Retrieved 30 October 2015. 
  2. Molen, Brad (20 November 2014). "Dropbox Carousel comes to iPad and web today, Android tablets soon". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2014/11/20/dropbox-carousel-ipad-web/. Retrieved 20 October 2015. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lee, Nicole (December 9, 2014). "Dropbox's Carousel app now frees up phone storage for you". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2014/12/09/dropbox-carousel-free-up-space/. Retrieved October 28, 2015. 
  4. Raymundo, Oscar (16 October 2015). "iPhone 6s Live Photos turn dead-flat on Dropbox, Flickr and Google Photos". Macworld. http://www.macworld.com/article/2988551/ios/iphone-6s-live-photos-turn-dead-flat-on-dropbox-flickr-and-google-photos.html. Retrieved 25 October 2015. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Statt, Nick (October 20, 2015). "Google Photos hits 100 million monthly users after five months". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/20/9576713/google-photos-100-million-users. Retrieved October 28, 2015. 
  6. Sottek, T.C. (December 19, 2012). "Dropbox acquires Snapjoy, a photo aggregation and sharing service". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2012/12/19/3785296/dropbox-acquires-snapjoy-photo-aggregation-and-sharing-service. Retrieved October 30, 2015. 
  7. "Dropbox is shutting down its Mailbox and Carousel apps". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9862470/dropbox-shutting-down-mailbox-carousel-apps. 

External links