iPhone App of the Week – Dropbox

An article by Selena    View Comments

Selena Narayanasamy is extensively involved in all things technology, social media, blogging/writing, entrepreneurship and productivity related. When she’s not dabbling in any of the above mentioned things, you can find her drinking her life substance (coffee) and blogging on Search Engine Journal and her website, Esvienne. Follow her on Twitter- @esvienne and @selenavidya, and like her on Facebook.

Picture this. You’re at the office, working along happily on some documents. You figure that even though you haven’t finished writing, you can always work on it at home. You plan on attaching it to yourself in an email…

…but wait. If you’re anything like me, you probably forgot to send it to yourself. This poses a big problem- especially when it’s something that’s urgent for the next day.

So what has been saving my life these hectic workdays? A little somethin’ somethin’ called Dropbox. That’s why it’s the iPhone app of the week. So… what is Dropbox?

I discovered this a few weeks ago (even though it’s been around for a while) and it’s a file syncing system that you can use on both Windows and Mac OSX. The other sweet detail about this is that it also has mobile apps for Blackberry, iPhone, Android and the iPad. I can now be a workaholic from my iPhone and iPad. THANKS DROPBOX

The web interface, that syncs files with the app, is pretty sleek and simple. If you’re on the computer where you have Dropbox installed, you simply drag and drop a folder/file into it…and that’s that.

Now, when I start a document at work and stupidly forget to email it to myself, I can access Dropbox 80 billion different ways and completely save my butt.

So why does Dropbox increase your productivity? These are some awesome features that it has:

• Easy drag-n-drop feature for your computer application
• Offline access for the iPhone app
• Changes sync instantly
• Ability to work on the web app if you’re not on your personal computer

If you right click a folder in Dropbox, you’ll also notice that you have the ability to:

• Share file- even with non Dropbox users through public URL
• View previous versions of documents
• Share folders with other Dropbox users- it’ll appear in their own box

On a Mac, you even have an icon in the finder window because it treats it like its own personal drive. You’ll see in my screenshot that I actually have the iDisk icon for my Dropbox  icon. It’s actually not like that originally. If you want to do this (so it looks prettier) follow these steps. It’s pretty simple-

1. Right click Dropbox icon in your finder sidebar and hit “get info”
2. Right click your iDisk icon in the finder sidebar and hit “get info”
3. Click on the iDisk icon in the info window and hit Command C
4. Click on the icon for Dropbox in its info window and hit Command V

Voila! It’s not rocket science but it’s a neat tip that I figured I would share.

If you’re syncing with the iPhone app, you can access anything that you would normally be able to from your computer/web app, as well as “star” them so you can access them if your phone is offline. This comes in handy if you’re getting really awful reception and absolutely need to see a file.

They have a free version which allows you to hog 2GB of storage- as well as paid versions.

I highly recommend Dropbox because it’s made my life so much easier. Not to mention, saved my butt. THAT is why it’s iPhone app of the week!

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