The beta can be downloaded from the software downloads page under the specific product and OS areas.  Please submit any feedback via our support forum here: http://support.jungledisk.com/forums/192792-jungle-disk-3-1-beta-forum

Here are the major changes to the first 3.1 beta:

Initially, customers indicated that they wanted to store ‘shared’ files separately from their ‘private’ files, however, we received a lot of feedback after the beta launched that it was critical to have the ability to share files on existing online disks.  So, to minimize confusion and simplify things,  we’re dropping the concept of public vs. private online disks.  Customers can still create unique online disks for the purpose of isolating shared data from private data if they choose, it’s just not a requirement for file sharing any longer.

Now that customers can share files on existing online disks, we’re able to support three simple and convenient ways to share files.  First, a share can be created via web access by right-clicking on any file and choosing the ‘Share’ option.  Second, a file can also be shared by right-clicking on any file within a Jungle Disk Network Drive, eliminating the need to log in to web access.

Lastly, the feature we are REALLY excited about…sharing files that are not stored on Jungle Disk!  After choosing a default ‘target’ online disk in the configuration, local files can be shared by right-clicking on ANY file on the computer and selecting the ‘Share with Jungle Disk’ option.  Behind the scenes, Jungle Disk will first upload the file to a default location on the selected online disk and then generate a sharing URL.  Way cool!

We wanted to support a lot of flexibility and control over how customers share their files so we created a ‘Share Management’ page to manage share URL expiration dates, maximum number of downloads, and a few other parameters.  For the beta, only a few of these features are exposed but we will be sure to have all of the options available for the final release.

(1)  For the Workgroup Edition product, master account holders will determine if an assigned online disk will permit public file sharing.  Therefore, any sub-account that has access to an online disk with file sharing enabled will be able to share files on and via that disk.

(2)  A system restart may be required for some customers in order to share via right-clicking within the OS.

(3)  If you have a Personal Amazon S3 account you will need to enable web access to use file sharing by providing your Amazon S3 account credentials here: https://www.jungledisk.com/secure/account/awsaccounts.aspx

(4)  Public file sharing is not intended to be a CDN service, so all individual file shares are limited to a maximum of 50 downloads.  We will review and evaluate this limit at the end of beta 2.

(5)  As with the all of the other features of the Jungle Disk products, customers are responsible for any applicable bandwidth fees for downloaded files.  Since customers have a choice of two locations when creating an online disk, Rackspace Cloud Files or Amazon S3,  please consider using Cloud Files as there are no charges for bandwidth with that storage option!

Today, we at Rackspace launched an ambitious project called OpenStack that aims to make this new world a reality.

I want to lay out the thinking that got us here and why we think this moment will change computing forever.

“The cloud” at its most fundamental level is all about a massive supply increase in computing power.  The PC era was all about putting a computer on every desk.  The cloud era goes a step further, putting the power of supercomputing at the literal fingertips of every individual at anytime.   Whether it’s enabling a youth soccer coach to schedule practice across the online calendars of 18 families, or helping a scientist fold proteins to design new cancer drugs, or encouraging a frontline employee to instantly and cheaply test a new marketing campaign, the exponential growth in computing power and applications is changing every corner of our economy and society.  And, this era is truly just beginning.  We have seen only a tiny fraction of the potential gains that arise from cheap, ubiquitous computing power.

As this landscape has evolved, some have dismissed cloud computing as just a return to the mainframe era. This view is fundamentally wrong.  Mainframes were available to only the smartest employees at the richest companies.  The cloud is accessible to all, and usable by anyone, at low cost.  Its ubiquity is the source of its power.

However, there is one area where mainframe concepts are intruding into the cloud – the vertically integrated technology stack.  As hardware and software merge into services, the danger of locked down proprietary software stacks are emerging in the cloud space.  The cloud world changes everything, and that is not good to many entrenched interests of the old guard.  Core technologies from operating systems to hypervisors to databases are being used to tie cloud customers into an integrated view of the world.

If the web has taught us anything, it is that open systems, portability, and choice drive innovation.  The open Linux system brought us a mountain of software and tools to help accomplish almost any task.  And, each component, whether a database or a widget could be moved in and out freely based on the job getting done.

We at Rackspace have long talked about an “open” cloud.  And as a service provider built on our Fanatical Support difference, we have never had an interest in creating technical walls around our service.  But, given that no standards tools have emerged to build massively scalable clouds, we too have had to build custom software that creates some level of wall around our cloud offerings.  For months we have debated how to drive greater standards and increase the velocity of cloud technologies in general.  We finally converged on the obvious answer:  open source our cloud technology.

Today, we announced a new open source project that includes those core technologies: OpenStack.  And, we are not alone.  As we looked at all the projects that already existed to drive standards we saw that other efforts were underway that complemented what we have done.  We saw a ton of promise in the Nebula computing project built by NASA and are making it a core part of the project.   Taking the contributions of Rackspace and NASA as a starting point, OpenStack forms a powerful foundation of technologies including, a scalable compute provisioning engine – OpenStack Compute – and a fully distributed storage engine – OpenStack Object Storage.

The community, which we plan to actively support and drive, is live today at openstack.org with code available for download.

Last week we assembled a strong group of cloud community leaders and developers to meet and review the architecture, engage on technology direction and contribute code.  The effort attracted more than 100 participants from 25 companies including hosting companies, telecom providers, hardware manufacturers, cloud ecosystem companies and beyond.  This enthusiasm and collaboration around OpenStack has laid the foundation for a vibrant and innovative approach to building the core software to power the future cloud world.

What do we expect OpenStack to mean for the cloud community?  Some pretty major things.  One, anyone will be able to run this cloud and do it anywhere.  Enterprises and governments will be able to build private clouds.  Service providers will have the same technology used by Rackspace and NASA to build new offers.  Choice and portability are inevitable in this world.  Two, the whole tech ecosystem can build around this foundation.  With wide adoption, there will be a market for new services all around this core engine.  From storage systems to monitoring tools to management systems, there is no end to what can be attached to the core project.  Three, the cloud will advance faster than ever.  Between just NASA and Rackspace, an army of developers are committed to the continued advancement of OpenStack.  With our emerging supporters in the project, we expect to dramatically expand that army.  Finally, a core set of standards will be freely available and totally open.  New technologies can be attached.  Better solutions will be driven into the product.  And, the use of this powerful technology will not tie you to the use of any other technologies.
For our customers, we think there are many benefits that flow from these community gains.  Not only will this help our offers develop faster and more transparently, but our customers can run private editions of our core systems in house or in our managed hosting operation.

We could not be more excited about the launch of this project and the enthusiasm around it.  As a company that has invested a great deal in the development of cloud technologies, we did not take the decision to open source lightly.  We think this decision will serve our interests and those of our customers.  While we at Rackspace hire top developers and engineers to make sure our technology is second to none, seeking a technology advantage has never been our approach.    We have our own vision about how to deploy this technology and serve customers – by giving them seamless access to scalable computing with the trusting partnership that comes through Fanatical Support.  But, there will be many approaches and winning formulas.  We think by welcoming those approaches and driving standards and more rapid innovation we will all win.

We hope you join us in this cause.  We know there are many parties who might want to join us in the effort, please reach out to us.

We look forward to updating you as we make progress.

When providing feedback for this beta, please do so via our support forum here: http://support.jungledisk.com/forums/192792-jungle-disk-3-1-beta-forum

Here are the highlights:

Public File Sharing (Only Supported in Desktop Edition for Beta)
The new public sharing feature gives you the option to create new online disks and make them “Public” in order share all the data on that POD (Public Online Disk) through a convenient URL.

When creating a new disk, just choose what type of access they would like – “Private” or “Public”.   Selecting the “Public” option will generate a random alphanumeric URL for that online disk, allowing you to share files with people that may not be Jungle Disk users.

We strongly recommend only storing data intended to be shared on your public disk and encourage you to be cognizant that bandwidth and storage charges generated by users accessing your public data may affect your monthly storage costs. To control some of these costs you may want to select Rackspace Cloud Files as your storage provider since bandwidth fees are not applicable.

** Please note:  (1) The beta is currently for Desktop Edition customers only, but will eventually be offered for Workgroup Edition customers as well.  (2)  We plan to offer additional functionality with the final release of this feature to allow users to capture and offer direct URL’s to specific files vs. an entire online disk.

Sub-Account Password Change via Client
This feature will offer Jungle Disk Workgroup and Jungle Disk Resellers the ability to enable password changes on at the sub-account level through the software client, giving added protection and control to the sub-account holder.

Multi-Server Search for Server Edition
Managing and configuring your servers just got easier!  We’ve added a search box to our Server Edition interface to find the server you need to access – much faster and more convenient than scrolling through a list of 500+ servers.

Live Demo – The Rackspace Cloud

Join us for an interactive webinar to learn more about The Rackspace® Cloud. We will walk you through the benefits of Cloud Hosting, talk to you about our cloud offerings, Cloud Servers™, Cloud Files™, and Cloud Sites™ and show you a short demo of just how easy it is to get started. And, at the end, we will leave time for you to ask any questions you may have.

Date & Times:

Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 1:00 PM Central Daylight Time.
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/w12t9wyk0ls2

Wed, Jul 7, 2010, 1:00 PM Central Daylight Time.
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/j5luszwdx5m8

Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 1:00 PM Central Daylight Time.
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/yfuv6gb30n9b

For those who were experiencing 3.07 headaches, Version 3.08 should fix you right up. We’ll plan to switch on those automatic updates next week — so Windows and Mac users who don’t wish to download now, can wait until the software prompts you.

Once again, a big “thank you” goes out to our customers for all of the great feedback!

For a complete list of changes, please review our release notes.

You can download the new version of your edition from our Download Center — and we plan to enable automatic updates early next week. Once we do, Windows and Mac customers can upgrade to the new version by selecting “Check for Updates” from Jungle Disk’s Help Menu.

This new feature offers the ability to define/create RSS feeds for any of the following usage reports:

•       All Users
•       Single User
•       Single Online Disk
•       All Online Disks

Currently, the feeds default to a week of information, however, we expect to expand the functionality in a future release.  To take a look at this new feature, please visit the usage reporting configuration page.

We apologize for the inconvenience.  Please feel free to refer to this blog for further updates and real-time status check during the upgrade.

Thank you for your patience and we will make every effort to keep the maintenance window as short as possible.

In response to our question “What do you want to access while on the go?” Paul tweeted “I’d probably use the JD app to access my PDF library of academic papers, and for easy xfer of iWork generated stuff.”  Paul’s tweet was selected in the last of two random drawings for a brand new Apple iPad on Friday, April 9^th.

Thanks to everyone who tweeted!   Hope you’re all enjoying the new Jungle Disk App!

In response to our question “What do you want to access while on the go?”  Dan tweeted “access to everything I have in one place but mostly music!@jungledisk #jungledisk”.  Dan’s tweet was selected in the first of two random drawings for a brand new Apple iPad.  The second drawing will take place this Friday, April 9^th, so keep tweeting and you might be the next lucky iPad winner!