Dropbox is an application that lets you share files on the go and see them anywhere.
Dropbox is awesome. If you ever wanted to get pictures from your iPhone to your computer quickly, Dropbox would be one way to do that without a USB Sync cable. Photo Stream just doesn't seem like the best way to do this because Apple doesn't give you the option to delete photos from your iCloud Photo Stream individually. Dropbox gives you that option. They also give you the option to share more than photos, but also documents, videos, or any other kind of file that you have lingering on your iDevice that you want to get on another device or machine.
Dropbox is like a virtual USB drive and you can take it anywhere and use it on any machine as long as you have an account with them. If you don't have an account with them, you can sign up here for a free account which will accompany you with 2GB of free storage. From that link you can also watch an introductory video that explains what Dropbox is. Additionally, if you invite friends, family, or co-workers to use Dropbox and they join, Dropbox will give you a free 250MB free storage per person that joins (maximum of 8GB promotional storage). In the end, you can have a maximum of 10GB of free storage which is twice the amount of storage that Apple will give to you for free.
After you have made your account and downloaded the Application on your computer and your iDevice, you are ready to start using Dropbox. If you launch the iOS application (which you can download for free here – or iPad version here) you will be prompted to sign in and you will be able to see your online Dropbox folder. Your Dropbox folder is your folder in the cloud. Everything that you put into that folder will be accessible by any computer that is linked to that folder. You can unlink and link computers to your Dropbox folder at any times easily and freely. Here is what the application looks like on iOS:
Aside from iOS, you can also use this application on any computer (Linux, Mac, and Windows). The download is free and all you need to do is sign in with the ID and password that you made earlier in this thread. When you install Dropbox on your computer you will be asked which folder you want to dedicate to Dropbox and it will give you the option to choose. I put it in my home folder so that it appears with all of my other main directory folders. There will be a green check mark when the folder has successfully connected with Dropbox's servers:
Additionally, when you install it, you will find that a new icon is placed in your menu bar which gives you more control over your Dropbox folder on the fly. The icon will be colored by default but you can choose to make it black and white so that it matches the rest of the default Mac menu bar icons. You can manage your Dropbox on public computers by simply logging onto Dropbox from a Web Browser without even installing any Dropbox software on it:
So when it comes down to the niddy griddy, Dropbox gives you a lot of flexibility when you need to get files going from one place to another. It's great for school backups and it's great for a replacement for iCloud Photo Stream. I give Dropbox a 5/5 in satisfaction and I know many of you will too. Some jailbreak tweaks come with full Dropbox compatibility such as Safari Upload Enabler and AnyAttach by Nikias Bassen. These tweaks are great for file management on the iOS system.
Will you be downloading and trying the free Dropbox application on your computer? Share in the comments below!
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