Despite the tumultuous legal headache that the government is imposing following MegaUpload’s shut down, Kim Dotcom hasn’t hidden from public eye. We know that he’s been keeping himself busy with MegaBox, the music streaming site which many are anticipating. Then there’s Mega, a file storage platform that resembles the damned file sharing platform MegaUpload and Dotcom’s second chance at resurrecting a file hosting site in the former site’s likeness.
Given that anything to do with Kim Dotcom has controversy written all over it, a painless launch would be a miracle. Even before Mega’s launch, Dotcom’s Me.ga domain was shut down by the government of Gabon. Lately he’s been running over hurdles when MediaWorks, a media company out in New Zealand responsible for placing Mega’s radio spots on its stations, was pressured to pull the plug on the ad spots. Regardless, Mega is definitely a “go.” Dotcom tweeted, “24 hours until #Mega! One more day! Are you ready?”
Dotcom called for API developers back in August to tinker around with an early-stage Mega and took to Twitter to proclaim “one-click-encryption of ALL your data transfers, on the fly, easy to use, free of charge.” And he’s been brazen about curtailing any chances and reasons that the FBI could come after him. This time around, the servers are hosted outside of the United States, and Mega uses its users’ browsers instead of software, which means that users will be liable for their own actions instead of Mega being faulted. If you recall, to use MegaUpload you had to install MegaManager on all of your devices.
Based on early looks at the platform, which TechCrunch (who took the screen shot above) and other outlets have been granted, the platform and user experience appears to be straight forward and familiar for those who use Dropbox, Box, or even Drive.
The Contacts feature isn’t functional yet, but we can get a good sense of the file sharing capabilities of the platform. You didn’t think Dotcom was leaving his file-sharing roots behind did you? What we can deduce is that you’ll be able to keep in touch with users through an in-app messaging platform, and we get the sense that file-sharing between contacts will be an included service. We’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for the grand debut to dig deeper into Mega’s features.
Mega won’t be just a file storage and sharing utility. Through its investor, Instra, which is a domain registry site, domain hosting, and domain names are features that will be included in the Mega package. And you can test out Mega with 50 GB of free storage – the only storage service that comes close to that is MediaFire, with its own free 50 GB offer. If you’re looking for an upgrade, there are three tiers to choose from. The first is 500 GB of storage and 1TB of bandwidth for € 9.99 ($13.29), and the second step up offer 2TB of storage for 4 TB bandwidth for € 19.99 ($26.59). What Mega calls Pro III is a € 29.99 ($39.90) monthly package for 4 TB and 8 TB of bandwidth.
Until Mega launches to the world tomorrow, this first look is just a snippet of what you should be expecting.
