TechCrunch were amongst one of the exclusive people to take a look around Kim Dotcom’s new venture into Cloud Storage, Mega, before it is open to the public and gave a quick run down of what they saw. From what I can gather from their initial look at the site and the tiered pricing, it looks great and will defiantly make other Cloud Storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive take notice especially when it comes to users getting a bang for their buck.
Last Sunday Kim Dotcom released an image via Twitter that showed us that free users would be granted 50GB worth of free storage, along with a look at how users can manage their upload and download speeds and connections.
Now we can finally see what the actual pricing will be for paying users and the benefits that they can get.
There are three different types of Pro membership available to Mega users:
1. Pro 1
- 500GB Storage
- 1TB Bandwidth
- €9.99 per month (USD$13.20 approx)
2. Pro 1
- 2TB Storage
- 4TB Bandwidth
- €19.99 per month (USD$26.50 approx)
3. Pro 1
- 4TB Storage
- 8TB Bandwidth
- €29.99 per month (USD$40.00 approx)
Mega do however recommended that users use the site with Google Chrome due to it being the most advanced browser currently available.
“If you are planning on using MEGA frequently, there is currently no alternative to using the most advanced browser currently in existence – Google Chrome,”
Navigation wise, Mega seems to use a simple files-and-folder structure that resembles an email client. Speaking of email, Instra Corporation, the domain name registrar based in Australia and New Zealand who are providing billing, product and technical support for the company will also be offering email services and hosting support for customers.
There are a lot more features that have yet to be turned on, that users can enjoy including mobile access, word processing, calendar and spreadsheet functionality. The new Mega also encrypts and decrypts your data transparently in your browser, on the fly.
Have to say that from what I can see, Mega looks very impressive and the prices are fantastic for what you get compared to many other Cloud storage providers out there. Maybe a bit of serious competition will spur them to offer more to their current users, or risk losing them to Mega. I am looking forward to having a look around the site for myself when it opens to the public on January 20th.
Mega is the replacement Cloud storage service for Megaupload that was shut down by the FBI on 20th January 2012.
For more details regarding Mega services take a look at the TechCrunch article here.
