TechCrunch Disrupt alumni Bitcasa has spent the last five months or so growing out of its beta launch, picking up new users and listening to feedback. Today, however, the waiting ends as Bitcasa is launching version 2.0 of its desktop, iOS and Android apps.
In case you’re having trouble following along, Bitcasa is a software service that essentially gives you infinite storage on your computer. It does this by only saving information that is unique to you, and only saving one version of all the content that is redundant. Because of this, Bitcasa actually gets faster the more people use it.
“We are shifting into a new phase,” said co-founder and CEO Tony Gauda. “With version 1.0, we just wanted to get it out there and see how it did. Version 2.0 finally adds that polish.”
To start, version 2.0 offers a brand new UI on both of the mobile apps, with an emphasis on the ability to surface your intended content. After all, if you never have to delete anything, it could become a real pain to try and search for something.
This is accomplished through smart search, which lets you search by name or date on every page (a feature that is coming soon to Android), as well as easy access to recent files. (You can even switch between recently viewed or recently added.)
The team has also worked to improve security by adding a pin code to the app, alongside the client-side encryption that comes standard with a Bitcasa experience. Plus, users can now purchase Infinite Storage plans ($10/month or $99/year) within the apps.
“One of our greatest challenges is that we’re seeing a huge uptick in growth, but internationally, even though we had a 100 percent English product,” said Gauda. However, that all changes today with the introduction of Bitcasa in English GB, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Chinese (simplified), Japanese and Korean.
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Last but certainly not least, Bitcasa is now letting users upload and manage files within the browser. According to Gauda, he wants Bitcasa to be anywhere there is a hard drive or Flash.
The service has grown rapidly since launching out of beta, with 18 petabytes of data stored in March to now hold over 30 petabytes of data.