[Review] Dropbox: Share Your Files Anywhere

[Anthony Bouchard]

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!

[Kevin8677]

I use it all the time. It's a great app

[KraXik]

I've been meaning to sign up for a while now so might as well been do it now. Does anyone want to invite me to get the extra allowance?

[blinden76]

I use it to share all my Hipstamatic pics with my family. Great simple app.

[Zokunei]

You wrote this article so people would sign up and you'd get more more storage.

[chriskaraokeman]

I have just been to the app store, and a lot of people are complaining about the apps lack of sorting by date uploaded.
This sounds like a major drawback, so will leave it for now.

[D to the M]

Can't upload anything but music or videos. Want full drop again!

[KraXik]

Cool iFile supports it!

[aligee97]

I've been meaning to sign up for a while now so might as well been do it now. Does anyone want to invite me to get the extra allowance?

Sure!
Use this link to sign up
http://db.tt/5yGngKK
Thanks

[earnur]

If You want, You can register through my link http://db.tt/9CDCbMc
We get both 250MB additional space

[KraXik]

Sure!
Use this link to sign up
http://db.tt/5yGngKK
Thanks

Thanks but Anthony beat you!

[Anthony Bouchard]

I forgot to mention that anyone with an '.edu' email address gets 500MB extra instead of the traditional 250MB.

[requieminadream]

Just a heads up, if you register your dropbox with a .edu address at http://www.dropbox.com/edu you get twice as much space per invite, so 500 MB as opposed to 250 MB.

And it's retroactive so if you've earned 5 GB of invite space before today, after you register you'll automatically get an extra 5.

Your max invite level gets raised to 19 GB. I should know, I maxed mine out last week. It's pretty damn sweet.

[Dranon]

Ok Dropbox is good BUT BOX.net is better! You can get up to 50g FREE if you sign up with a touchpad! Just borrow somebodys and sign up THe 50g is free across ALL devices. So then log in with your idevice or computer and change the password! Heck I ll sign you up on mine if you want just pm me! ALSO windows Hotmail has 25g for free with a Hotmail account also free and they just came out with an app for idevices! Drop-box is good but you can get lots more free storage with these other 2 services!! Should of could have mentioned these in the review....

[s0ulp1xel]

I like http://cl.ly/ the cloud app better.

It has a nice UI design!!!

Simple fast and free!!!

[requieminadream]

Ok Dropbox is good BUT BOX.net is better! You can get up to 50g FREE if you sign up with a touchpad! Just borrow somebodys and sign up THe 50g is free across ALL devices. So then log in with your idevice or computer and change the password! Heck I ll sign you up on mine if you want just pm me! ALSO windows Hotmail has 25g for free with a Hotmail account also free and they just came out with an app for idevices! Drop-box is good but you can get lots more free storage with these other 2 services!! Should of could have mentioned these in the review....

Oh I have the Box.net free 50GB. I have barely used it because it doesn't have a desktop client. Making it absolutely un-seamless. Sure free space online is good, but Dropbox is about convenience, speed, and reliability.

I want a folder on my work computer to sync to a folder on my home computer to sync to my laptop, my iPad and my iPhone.

Box.net doesn't offer that.

[Kaospassageraren]

On cydia you have fulldrop and that allows you to upload and download stuff from your device aswell...Very good app!!

Its à dropbox app btw:P

[BenderRodriguez]

DropCopy is free and is basically the same thing

[truncj]

Ok Dropbox is good BUT BOX.net is better! You can get up to 50g FREE if you sign up with a touchpad!

I have the free 50gb from box.net, but in actuallity, there's nothing as good as dropbox even with the lesser free space. Box.net has no syncing client for mac and therefore ruins the integration that is accomplished by dropbox.

[Striknine]

You can use box.net with your desktop. Just install gladinet and it will give you a folder on your desktop to access a bunch of different cloud storage accounts. I signed up for 20 of the 50gb accounts on box.net so I essentially have a terabyte of cloud storage. Just sign up for a bunch of gmail accounts (yourname01,02,03, [email protected]) and use them on box to get more space. I use each account for different file types. Nice!