Drop it like it's hot!

This next post is about a great little piece of software that my brother told me about. It's called Dropbox.

This sweet little piece of software allows you to safely store up to 2 gigs of files for free! I was tired of taking my flash drive back and forth to school each day, and was looking for a way to sync files on my home computer with my school computer. I also wanted a service that would backup my files in case I ever lost my flash drive or it burned out. Dropbox ended up being that software.

When you go to the website you are asked to download their software. The installation is quick and easy. You can pick where to install the software, and I choose to install to the desktop so I can always see it and access it easily.

After the software installs, all you have to then do is add an email and password for the account. Then all you have to do is use the Dropbox folder just like you would any other disc or folder on your computer.

When you save to the Dropbox folder you will see a tiny little blue sync icon. That means that your computer is sending a backup copy of the file to the Dropbox online server. 

You can install Dropbox on as many computers as you want. The only difference is that when you install the software on a new computer, you say you already have an account, and that new computer will link to your online files and download copies to your new computer. Anything you then save on either computer is automatically synced with any other computers under the original account.

There are also iPhone and Android apps of Dropbox. I have it installed on my Droid 2, and can access all the files on my phone, even PowerPoints. I can then do some limited editing with the Quickoffice app on my phone, and then save the changes to my account.

2 gigs for free is great! They also have a referral program that allows you to invite people to join Dropbox, and when your invitee registers their email address you get 250 mb for free. They at first had a limit of up to 3 gigs, but they just upgraded it to allow you to get up to 8 gigs for free!