Dropbox receives a major storage and functionally update, is this enough to overlook the services glaring issues? Twitch.tv is now bigger than CNN & Red Hat sees a major executive abruptly leave.

Plus the new improvements to BitTorrent Sync & more!

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Dropbox Beefs Up Its Pro Feature Set, Now Offering 1TB Of Storage For $10/Month

Many Dropbox users start out as Basic users, but the company increasingly has been trying to get customers to upgrade and pay for storage. In 2011, the company launched Dropbox for Business, which has seen a fair amount of success in the years since. Dropbox says that it’s used within 4 million companies and 97 percent of Fortune 500 businesses, although not all of those companies are paying customers.

Until today, those so-called “prosumers” were paying $10 a month for 100 GB of storage, but they had a feature set that was pretty similar to the company’s Basic offering.

Dropbox is looking to offer Pro users a lot more storage and a lot more features than their Basic brethren, which it hopes will give a lot more people a reason to upgrade.

Dropbox Pro now offers 10x the storage that users previously got, boosting available capacity for each of its users to 1 TB for $10 a month. By doing so, Dropbox is matching pricing for Google Drive, which lowered its prices for a TB of storage earlier in the spring.

Another feature that is now available to Pro users is the ability to remotely wipe files from your Dropbox folder if your laptop happens to get lost or stolen. By doing so, any Dropbox files or folders that were connected to that device will no longer be accessible the next time that the computer, phone, or other device comes online. And if the device is recovered, users can easily reconnect it to their account.

Dropbox previously offered 200 GB for $20 a month and 500 GB for $50 a month, but with the increase in storage to 1 TB, it’s decided to drop those tiers. As a result, in the short term it could make slightly less money from users who paid a premium for their storage plans.

However, the company could easily make up the difference by increasing the number of Pro users who sign up.

BitTorrent Sync Gets New Interface, Links for Sharing

Version 1.4 is designed to fundamentally change the way users interact with the app by simplifying the sharing process. In that vein, Sync for Windows and OS X have a redesigned user interface to make it easier for sharing via a new workflow and customizable folder list for folders.

You can now right-click on a folder, select “Share with BitTorrent Sync” and then choose either Email (a preformatted message will show up and you’ll need to input the email addresses), Copy (the link will be put in your clipboard), or QR code (for mobile scanning).

The sender can set a given link to expire after a number of days or after a certain number of times it is used, and can also require confirmation to ensure that only the receiver can sync the data in question (this is on by default but can be turned off for less important transfers). If the receiver doesn’t have Sync version 1.4, the webpage will prompt them to install it.

Twitch is now bigger than CNN, MSNBC, and MTV during prime time | The Verge

The New York Times had a great data-driven article this morning about just how big Twitch has become. One year ago the video game live-streaming platform wasn’t even equal to HLN in size. Fast-forward to this summer and Twitch is bigger during prime-time hours than CNN, E!, or MSNBC, with occasional spikes that put it above MTV as well.

Right now Twitch has about 715,000 concurrent viewers during prime time, but will quickly eclipse that if its growth continues apace.

Samsung’s Gear S smartwatch doesn’t need a phone to get online or make calls

The Gear S (not Solo) has a twist: there’s a 3G modem inside.

That means that even when outside the range of a Bluetooth-connected phone or WiFi, it can still send and receive messages or make calls.

It has a 2-inch AMOLED screen plus a dual-core 1GHz CPU inside along with GPS, heart rate and motion sensors, all powered by a 300mAh battery Samsung says can last up to two days.

It runs Tizen instead of Android Wear.

In the run up to IFA next week Samsung is also introducing the Gear Circle headset.

The Gear Circle has a magnetic clasp so it fits around your neck while not in use, a touch sensor and battery with up to 11 hours of talk time.

Pairs with a phone over Bluetooth, letting users hear notifications, use voice commands or listen to music through the earbuds.

Both devices will go on sale in October, although there’s no word on a price for either.

Red Hat CTO unexpectedly quits, amid rumors of executive ‘friction’

No-one among the rank and file at Red Hat seem to have seen this coming. In a move the Linux giant’s staffers said was “shocking” and a “punch in the gut,” long-time Red Hat chief technology officer Brian Stevens has resigned.

In a short press release, the company announced: “Brian Stevens will step down as CTO.”

Stevens, whose Red Hat page was taken down minutes after the news was released, had been with Red Hat since 2001. Before that he had been the CTO at Mission Critical Linux, and a senior architect at Digital Equipment Company (DEC), where he worked on Digital’s Unix operating system, Digital Unix. Today it lives on as HP’s Tru64. In technical circles, he’s perhaps best known for his work on the X Window System

Some Red Hat employees speculated that Stevens may have left because friction between Stevens and Cormier.

Paul Cormier is Red Hat’s president of products and technologies.

They observed that CTO office had been moved out from underneath Cormier’s control some time back. However, no one said that was any kind of current feud that might have lead to this move.

Others suggested that perhaps Steven wanted to move up to a CEO slot and that would never happen within the company.

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