Did You Get Dropbox Yet?

I’m into a lot of different things and I’m often collaborating with a bunch of different people. This means that I’m sometimes on someone else’s computer or switching between the few that I own. There has been a service called Dropbox (previously covered on BW20) that has been instrumental in making sure I always have access to the files I need, while also allowing me to share my music and code with the public.

What Is It?

Dropbox is a service that syncs your files across multiple computers. It works on Mac, Linux, and Windows systems. It’s also free if 2GB is all the online storage you need, but there is currently a way to bump that up for free. We’ll talk about that later.

How Does It Work?

Once you’ve signed up for Dropbox and installed the software, you’ll have access to a special folder on your system called My Dropbox. Whatever you put into that folder is automatically uploaded to Dropbox and accessible to all systems that you’ve installed the software on.

For instance, I have a Mac in my studio and my laptop runs XP. Once I’ve “laced a track” and “locked the flow” in the studio, I convert it to MP3 and save it to my Dropbox. Since I have Dropbox on both computers, I can then get on my laptop and share my music with the world.

Not only do I have access to my files on any computer I install the software on, but I can also login to my Dropbox account and access my stuff through any web browser. I also have the option to save my files to the Public folder in my Dropbox, so that anyone can access them.

Why Do I Need It?

Have you ever been stuck on someone else’s computer and badly needed access to your own files? Needed an easy way to share a file with someone? Needed a place to host some files for the public? Lost your data because your computer crashed?

Dropbox is the solution to these issues and more. Simply save your files to a specific folder and they’re accessible wherever you need them. It’s simple and easy. Right now, Dropbox will give you an extra 250MB of storage space for referring your friends (up to a limit of 3GB above your free 2GB), so get your Dropbox ASAP.

What do you plan to use Dropbox for? Already have one? What do you do with it?