2. Extract the zip file. Open the backup.php with a text editor and edit your database and Dropbox credential.

Optionally, you can create a backup folder in your Dropbox and insert the name of the folder to the backup.php. Your database will then be backed up to this folder.

3. Save and close the file. Upload the whole backup folder to your server. Note the uploaded location relative to the server root.

4. If you are using cPanel for your web hosting, log into it and go to the cron job section.

5. Create a new cron job. You can set the time and frequency to backup the database. Under the command field, copy and paste the following command:

/usr/bin/php -q /path-to-backup-folder/backup/backup.php

Change the “path-to-backup-folder” to the location (relative to the server root) where you upload the backup folder.

6. Save the cron job.

That’s it. Now, your server will backup your database and upload it to your Dropbox account.

Note: This is a generic method for backing up any database on a Linux server. However, if you are using WordPress, there are plugins that you can use to back up your database to Dropbox. One thing to note: if you have a big database, using the plugin to backup your database will use a lot of system resources and and might slow down (or even crash) your WordPress site if your server is not up to par.

Image credit: Backup word on white keyboard by Big Stock Photo.

Setup

Dropbox Automator has a simple interface which allows you to set rules to be applied to files that you place in your Dropbox folder. To begin with, however, you need to grant the software access to your Dropbox account. Considering the large number of security breaches that have taken place in 2011, I was a little wary about providing access. My solution was simply to create a new Dropbox account for testing this neat little app.

Use

After granting the app access to your Dropbox account, using it couldn’t be more straightforward. You assign a folder for the set of rules you wish to apply, and then assign the rules for that folder. You can stack rules too, so that it will, for example, convert and e-mail a file.

One thing to be careful of is not to create two rulesets for the same folder that act on the same filetypes. If you do this, you risk creating a never-ending loop. I found this out last night when I did just that and ended up with over 400 e-mails in my inbox for the same two files! What should have happened is that once one ruleset was completed, it was supposed to move the two files to a subdirectory called “processed”. I have a feeling, however, that these files were locked by the other automation process and as a result could not be moved.

Round-up

These shortcomings aside, Dropbox Automator is a powerful tool that has the potential to save you a large amount of time and make your life easier. For example, I do some of my invoicing in Microsoft Word, for customisation purposes. When I have finalised an invoice, I can put it in the Dropbox Automator folder and it will get converted to PDF and emailed to my inbox so all I need to do is forward the attachment on to the end client. This saves me selecting “save to PDF”, and browsing to the attached file in my web browser, and waiting for the file to upload. It’s not a huge amount of time, but if you group all the times I’ve done that together, it probably adds up to a lot.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you have any use for such automation features, I recommend giving it a try. Please post feedback below if you do.

Dropbox Automator

Best of Social Networking

1. Instagram

Instagram brings creativity to any iPhone user and any iPhone photo. With just a pick of a filter, you can turn a mundane photo into something akin to artwork. The social media integration also allows other individuals to appreciate your photos.

2. Facebook

Facebook for iPhone wasn’t the best application out there in its early days. However, the later part of 2011 was great for the application. The new interface makes the application a lot cleaner, and the sidebar provides for quicker access to profiles.

3. Google+

The Google+ application took a while in 2011 to reach iOS users. The Android users beat iPhone users to the punch on this one. But for many users, it was worth the wait. The Google+ application offers the full site in an iPhone friendly interface. I personally only have to go on the desktop when uploading large files.

4. Twitter

Twitter for iPhone wasn’t its best in its early users, but the social media website seemed to have hit a growth spurt during the later part of 2011. The new application now has a revamped interface known as Twitter Fly. The interface offers a simpler, better organized Twitter experience.

Best of Photography

1. Camera+

The native iPhone camera application is seen as too basic for many individual’s taste. Aside from some light editing, including enhancement, cropping, and redeye editing, you don’t have much to work with. Camera+ offers great editing features, filters, borders, and more. It’s the only camera application I need.

2. iMovie

If you have an iPhone 4S, then you most likely haven’t been taking as much advantage of the 1080p lying in your pocket than you should. The iMovie application brings on board video editing, allowing you to share amazing video to YouTube and social networking websites in a snap.

3. Postagram

Postagram offers a great complement to our other favorite application for 2011, Instagram. Postagram allows you to physically enjoy some of your Instagram photos for only 99 cents each. The photos, printed on high quality paper, are a perfect vacation memento or a wonderful, personal holiday gift.

4. Adobe Photoshop Express

This free application offers great minor tweaks and improvements to already great photos. In other words, it may not be the application for the heavy photographer, but the average iPhone user will greatly appreciate it. Features like cropping and black and white offers the final touch to great photos.

Best of Games

1. Angry Birds

This two year old iPhone application has morphed into an App Store classic. This is why the whole Angry Birds series (Classic, Seasons, Rio etc), as one of the best iPhone game apps. It’s the game that some newly popular games base off of.

2. Temple Run

Temple Run is the highly addictive game that I thought was a great hit from the start. The objective is to go through an obstacle course, jumping over road cracks and more. Temple Run is now one of the top games on the app store, so if you haven’t heard of it, you don’t know what you’re missing out on!

3. Charadium

The loners in your life would find some company with the Charadium application. This game allows you to guess the word based on the drawn image of others you play with online. When the word is guessed, you get a point. It’s a great time passer.

4. Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump’s main objective is to draw the course that your character takes as it passes by various other hurtles. This is all while trying not to miss your step and fall to your death. Doodle Jump also has support for online multiplayer.

Best of Travel

1. FlightTrack Pro

This is one of my favorite travel applications out there. FlightTrack Pro offers a great hub for all of your travel information for your next trip. You have the ability to get any updates on your next flight, have airline emails forwarded here, and know when there are delays through push notifications.

2. Packing Pro

Who ever enjoys packing must not be avid travellers, because packing is one of the most put off activities in the whole travel trip. Have you ever considered having a packing assistant? Packing Pro is that application. The application gives you sample lists for what to pack, based on your upcoming trip so you can never forget anything.

3. UberCab

When you are leaving dinner with friends or arriving in your vacation spot, have you ever wanted to say “Let me call my driver”? UberCab allows you to do this. The application allows you to call a personal driver who can bring you from point A to point B in style at affordable prices.

4. TripColor

Capture your travel memories with Trip Color. The simple application allows you to share travel photos, text, and more by using templates made according to your travel theme. This keeps family and friends in the loop, without it being stressful.

Best of Productivity

1. Dropbox

Dropbox allows you to have your online life, in the cloud. Simply upload files onto the application, and they are easily accessable on the Dropbox website on your desktop. This is the top, free, iCloud alternative for any user.

2. Vlingo

For the iPhone 4 and 3GS users out there without Siri, this is the next best thing for getting stuff done through the voice. Vlingo allows you to send text and email messages, use maps, update your status, call, and do web searches with your voice. Is it better than Siri? Some may say no, but it’s the best alternative out there.

3. Remember the Milk

This is one of my favorite to-do applications available on the app store. It focuses on the content, not just the design, providing you with a productive application. In addition, with a small work around, you can even hook it up with Siri!

4. eTodo

What Remember the Milk lacks in design is what eTodo makes up for. The application categories your tasks into three easy to understand categories, providing you with the ability to know what to focus on.

Best of 2011…

Flipboard for iPhone

Flipboard is the chosen best application for 2011. The application just became available for iPhone a few weeks ago, but it’s a hit in our books. The application allows you to consume everything important to you online, in just one application. Your Twitter feed, Instagram, and favorite news sources are all available in one area. The interface uses the photos from these posts, providing for a classic magazine look. Best of all, this application is free!

Is your favorite apps in the list around? If not, share with us in the comments.

Image credit: BigStockPhoto

One of the more interesting and useful third-party applications for Dropbox is DropPages. It turns Dropbox into a simple web server, letting you publish static web pages quickly and easily. You don’t even have to buy a domain or pay for hosting.

Here’s a look at how to get up and running with DropPages.

What You’ll Need

Obviously, you’ll need a Dropbox account. It’s free, and you get plenty of storage. Especially if you only use your Dropbox account for serving your web pages.

You’ll also need some files called themes. These provide the framework for your web site, and you can download them here. There are only three themes available, but they’re not bad looking.

That said, you can fine tune or create your own theme. How? Well, the themes are formatted with Markdown, a lightweight markup language that’s similar to Textile (which was covered by Make Tech Easier). Once you learn a bit of Markdown, you can customize your theme.

Once you have all of that, you’re ready to go.

Getting Set Up

Log into Dropbox and create a new folder. Click the New Folder button, and then type a name for the folder in the space that appears.

The name of the folder must contain .droppages.com – for example, scottnesbitt.droppages.com. This will be the URL to your web site. When you’re done, click the Create button.

From there, click the Share a Folder button in Dropbox. In the window that opens, click I’d like to share an existing folder and then click the Next button.

Click the folder that you created earlier, and then click the Next button.

In the next window, type server1@droppages.com in the Invite collaborators to this folder field. Doing this shares the file with the DropPages server and turns Dropbox (or, at least, that shared folder) into a basic but workable web server. When you’re done, click the Share folder button.

The request needs to be manually approved by Dave McDermid, the developer of DropPages. That approval can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days.

Finally, remember that theme file you downloaded earlier? Extract it into your DropPages folder. Once your share request has been approved, your site will look something like this when you (or someone else) goes to the URL:

Final Thoughts

DropPages isn’t high-octane Web publishing. But it’s not meant to be that. If you want to quickly put up a Web page or site, even just for a short while, the combination of DropPages and Dropbox is a great solution. Especially if your needs are simple and you don’t want to fool around with buying a domain, dealing with hosting, and coding web pages.

Download and install Wuala on your computer. On the first run, it will prompt you to create an account (or sign in to your existing account if you have one).

Once you are logged in, you will see your dashboard with several folders (Document, Music, Photos, Videos). Unlike Dropbox, Wuala does not integrate with your filesystem. Instead, it mounts itself as a drive in your system.

You can get it to sync with any folder in your computer. To do so, click on the “New -> Sync” option and select the local folder that you want to sync.

It also works the other way – syncing your Wuala document to your local computer. You just have to select the folder and go to “File -> Synchronize with this computer“.

There are several sharing options in Wuala. By default, all your files and folders are marked as Private. No one, other than you, can view your files. You can, however, change the file permission to Share or Public. For Share option, you can share your files with your contacts, either via email or web link. For Public option, the file/folder is publicly available for everyone.

Wuala Preferences

The Preferences section of Wuala is pretty comprehensive, covering everything from your account detail, connection speed, cache size, filesystem integration, notification and many more options.

Trading of local storage in exchange for online storage

When you sign up for a free account, you will receive 1Gb of storage space. To many of us, this is too little. If you need a lot of online storage space, and at the same time, you have plenty of free space in your local hard drive, you can trade your local space in exchange for online space.

It works like this: you need to first specify the amount of hard disk space you are willing to trade (say 100GB). Depending on the amount of time you are online (for example, you are connected to Wuala 70% of the time), you will be given a free online storage space equivalent to the product of the hard drive space you are trading and the time you spent online. In this case, you will have access to 70Gb (70% * 100Gb) of online storage space.

Alternatively, you can refer your friends to use Wuala and earn up to 3Gb of storage space. Lastly, there is always the premium plans that allow you to buy storage space for a annual fee.

Conclusion

Wuala comes with plenty of features and it is really an enjoyment to use it. Personally, I like its security feature and the ability to choose the folders that you want to sync. The only gripe is the 1Gb storage space. Most online storage services offer 2Gb (some offer up to 5Gb) for their free account. Upon comparison, Wuala’s 1Gb storage space is really pathetic and unattractive. With competitors like SpiderOak and Ubuntu One, this could really make a lot of differences.

Wuala is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android.

Why is this important to you? A mistake made by the Dropbox team few days back had left the Dropbox’s main door open for 4 hours. During this period, anyone can log into any account and access all the files in that account without any passwords. While this affects only 1% of its users (which amounts to about 250,000, and that is not a small number), if you are one of those whose accounts have been compromised and you have confidential files in your Dropbox, you better watch out for the bad things that might happen to you.

Since you never know when such incident will happen again, it is best to encrypt your files before you sync them to the cloud so there is a second level of defense when your account has been compromised.

1. SecretSync

SecretSync is a file-by-file encryption solution for Windows and Linux. Once installed, you will find a new “SecretSync” folder in your user directory. Any files that you place in this folder will be encrypted and sync to Dropox.

The installation and usage of SecretSync for Windows is pretty straightforward. You simply download, install and run it. it will then guide you through the encryption process.

For Linux, the usage is purely command-line based.

1. You have to first download the deb file and install it in your system.

2. Open a terminal and type

secretsync

This will run the installer and download the necessary files from SecretSync site. It will also run you through the setting up process.

After the installation, type

secretsync start

to start the SecretSync service. You should see a new SecretSync folder in your Home directory. Any files you place in this folder will be encrypted and synced to Dropbox.

Note: The latest version of SecretSync will add itself to the autostart item automatically. The following step is meant for the older version.

To get SecretSync to autostart everytime you login, go to “System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications” and create a new startup item.

SecretSync

2. Encfs

Encfs is a better solution than SecretSync because it stores the encryption keys on your local machine and it can work in Linux (natively), Windows (via BoxCryptor) and Mac (via MacFuse), which is great if you use Dropbox on more than one operating system.

In Ubuntu, open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install encfs
sudo addgroup <your username> fuse

To create an encrypted folder, type the command:

encfs ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private

The above command instructs encfs to create an encrypted hidden folder (with name .encrypted) in Dropbox and mount it in the Private Folder in your Home directory.

When it prompts you for the configuration option, press “p” follow by Enter.

Next, it will ask you to enter your password. Be very careful with what you type since it won’t appear in the screen.

That’s it. Whatever files you place in the Private folder will be encrypted and synced with Dropbox.

To get the encrypted folder to automount everytime you log in, you can use gnome-encfs.

1. Download gnome-encfs here (or grab the source here) to your Home folder.

2. Type the following command:

sudo install ~/gnome-encfs /usr/local/bin
gnome-encfs -a ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private

GUI for Encfs

In Linux, Cryptkeeper is an application that provides a graphical interface for encfs. It doesn’t come with the full configuration option for encfs, but if you need an easy way to get started quickly, this will be very useful.

In Ubuntu,

sudo apt-get install cryptkeeper

Cryptkeeper works as a system tray applet. If you are using Unity, use the following command to get it to work:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['Cryptkeeper']"
setsid unity

BoxCryptor

BoxCryptor is not really a GUI for encfs, but its encryption method is compatible with encfs. If you have created an encrypted folder in Linux, you can use BoxCryptor in Windows to mount the same encrypted folder.

3. TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is another powerful and cross-platform compatible encryption tool that you can use. We have mentioned it here and here, so we won’t go through it again.

One disadvantage of TrueCrypt is that you have to create a fixed size virtual container before you can use it. In addition, you can only get it to sync after you have unmounted it. This means that you won’t be able to sync your files in real time. Other than that, if you need a true cross-platform solution, then TrueCrypt is definitely the one for you.

That’s it. Which method do you use to secure your files in Dropbox?

That’s all well and good if you’re chained to a desktop PC or laptop. But what happens if you frequently go mobile? Well, if you have an Android-powered phone and a Dropbox account, then you can turn to Todo.txt Touch.

Getting It and Getting Going

On your phone, go to the Android Market app and search for todo.txt touch. Then, tap the one search result. You’ll have to buy Todo.txt Touch; there’s no trial version. The app will set you back $2.00.

Once it’s installed, launch Todo.txt Touch.

The first thing you’ll need to do is link the app to your Dropbox account. When prompted, enter your Dropbox login information.

The app automatically saves your task list in a folder called todo in Dropbox. If you want to change the folder, tap the Menu button on your phone, and then tap Settings. On the Settings screen, tap File location and then type the name of another folder.

What If You Already Use Todo.txt on the Desktop?

That’s not a problem. First, make sure that you’re syncing the folder on Dropbox that Todo.txt Touch writes to with your computer. That should happen automatically. Then, move the file todo.txt into that Dropbox folder. You’ll also have to edit the file todo.cfg on your computer to point to the Dropbox folder. You can find instructions explaining how to do that here.

When you sync your task list with Todo.txt Touch, you’ll always be up to date.

Adding and Managing Tasks

Tap the Add button on the top right of the Todo.txt Touch screen. In the window that pops up, enter what you have to do and then tap Add.

Todo.txt uses a number of concepts from Getting Things Done (a popular method for personal organization). One of those concepts is contexts. A context is a thing, place, or person that you need to complete a task. All contexts have an @ sign in front of them For example, @Work denotes a task that you need to do in relation to your work. To include a context when adding a task, type @Context followed by the task.

You can also assign priorities to your tasks. To do that, tap a task on the main screen, and then tap Prioritize. On the Select priority screen, tap one of the priorities — ranging from A (most important) to E (least important).

If you need to modify or delete a task, just tap it. On the screen that opens, do one of the following:

• Tap Update to open the editing screen. From there, modify the task and then tap the Update button.
• Tap Delete. When prompted, tap the Delete button to get rid of the task.

Finishing Up

You have all of those tasks in your list. Obviously, you’re going to work your way through them. What do you do when you’re done? Tap the task that you’ve finished, and then tap Complete on the screen that opens. The task is crossed out in your list.

Once you’ve done marked a task as complete, remember to synchronize it in Dropbox. To do that, tap the Synchronize button on the top right of the Todo.txt Touch screen. On the screen that opens, tap Upload.

If you use Todo.txt and an Android phone, then Todo.txt Touch is a great way to make your task list even more portable. You get all the features you’re used to in Todo.txt but in a nice and easy-to-use graphical package.

Photo credit: Purple Slog

When it comes to accessing our Dropbox folder, there are many ways to do it. You can install the Dropbox desktop client on all your computers, open the browser and access the web version of Dropbox, or if you are on the move and own an Android, iPhone or Blackberry, you can download the app and access it on the move. If none of the above work for you, one last way is to carry your Dropbox on your USB drive and bring it everywhere you go.

DropboxPortableAHK is a Dropbox portable app. It is based on the AutoHotKey script and allows you to place your Dropbox folder in a USB drive and sync it anywhere, everywhere.

Note: DropboxPortableAHK only works in Windows.

1. Download DropboxPortableAHK (~0.5MB, zip file)

2. Unzip the zip file. Plug in your USB drive and move the “DropboxPortableAHK” folder (the folder that you have just unzipped) to the USB drive.

3. Open the DropboxPortableAHK folder and double click the “DropboxPortableAHK.exe” file to run it.

4. It will prompt you to download the Dropbox daemon. Click Ok to proceed. If you are interested, you can also get it to download the beta version of Dropbox.

5. After the download finished, the configuration window will appear. From here, you can set your Dropbox folder and configure the app to update automatically.

6. Lastly, it will walk you through the Dropbox setup process. If your USB drive comes with limited capacity (say 2GB or less), it is best for you to select “Selective Sync” and select only the important folders to sync.

That’s it. Once the sync is completed, you can bring your Dropbox everywhere in your USB drive. Anytime you need to sync your files, simply plug in your USB drive and double click the DropboxPortableAHK.exe file to run it.

DropboxPortableAHK is not affiliated with Dropbox.com, but it is still easy to install and use. If you really need to bring your Dropbox on your USB drive, this is the best solution.

When you open a file from your Dropbox folder in Android, the file will be downloaded to your SD card and you can then view/edit the file with a file manager. However, after you have made changes to the file, the Dropbox app does not automatically sync it back to the server. The only solution is to manually upload the file. This is definitely not a good solution.

A good solution to overcome this is to use DropSpace, another app to do the stuff that Dropbox suppose to do, but didn’t. DropSpace allows you to create a link between a folder in your SD card and a sub-directory in Dropbox. Once the link is created, it will auto sync the files from/to your Dropbox.

Download DropSpace from the market (it’s free)

Connect your Dropbox account to DropSpace.

Tap the “Manage Sync List” button to set up the sync.

Navigate to the directory on your SD card that you want to link and long tap on it to add to the sync list.

Next, it will show your Dropbox folder and you can do the same thing (long tap on the folder) to complete the sync configuration.

Lastly, go back to its main screen and tap the “Sync Now” to start the sync.

By default, you have to manually tap the “Sync Now” button everytime you want it to perform a sync. However, you can set it as a service and get it to run at a regular interval. You can also configure whether to remove the remote files when the local files are deleted.

Syncing notes to Dropbox

If all you want is to create notes on your Android phone and have them synced to your Dropbox, Epistle is one such app that allows you to do so. With Epistle, you can create simple notes and it will automatically synced to the Epistle folder in Dropbox. I have found this to be extremely handy, especially when I need to jot down some ideas while on the move.

Epistle also supports two-way sync. That means, if you create a text file on your desktop and drop it into the Dropbox Epistle folder, it will show up in your Android phone as well.

Until the Dropbox team implements the synchronization feature in their mobile apps, we will have to make use of the above mentioned apps to get things done. They might not be the most feature-complete app, but they get the jobs done.

What you say, Dropbox? Will you ever implement the synchronization feature to your mobile app? We are waiting…

By doing a little reading and some planning ahead, I have come up with a few ways to use Dropbox while I am mobile. Below are a few tips to use your Dropbox for Android more efficiently while on the go.

1. Share a folder or link

This is probably the main use for me. It is really easy to share files via email or other methods. During certain times of the year, I am emailing the same set of forms to different people all the time. I keep all of the files in a folder in my Dropbox. When someone calls or emails me, I can send them the forms in a zip file.

Open Dropbox for Android and navigate to the folder you want to share.

Press and hold on the folder name. In the pop-up window, you will see Open or Share a link. In this case, select Share a link.

The share menu will appear asking how you want to share the link. Choose your method and send.

Fill in the recipient’s address or phone number. When the recipient clicks the link, they will initiate a download of the files in that folder in a .ZIP format.

2. Save or share app APKs

If you download applications from places other than the Android Market, you will likely have the APK file on your SD card or computer. Well, if you make a folder for these files in your Dropbox, you can uninstall the applications you do not use all of the time. When you need the application again, download it from your Dropbox folder.

In the same manner, if you want to share an application, you can send a link to a friend so they can download the APK file and install the application.

3. Basic text reader and picture viewer

A nice feature of Dropbox for Android is you can open certain files without downloading them to your SD card or Android phone. If you have a picture stored, you can open it within Dropbox. The same is true with a .txt file like you would use in Notepad.

4. Resume and portfolio

Another really handy thing to be able to do is share your resume at a moment’s notice. If you are looking for a job or freelance work, you need to respond to opportunities as soon as you see them. If you see a bookkeeping gig on Craigslist, you can shoot them a resume right away.

If you are a designer or photographer, you can quickly email a folder with all of the information such as a resume, sample pictures, references, links or anything else you’d like to send.

There are many other uses, what it comes down to is access and sharing. Be creative and I’m sure there are lots of ways you can find to use Dropbox for Android to make you more efficient.

Tell us your tips for being efficient while using your Android.

If you want more general tips on using Dropbox, here are a couple previous articles Part 1 and Part 2.

1. Dropbox Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are useful when you want to quickly navigate through the Dropbox file browser. In fact they even allow you to perform a few actions that are normally not available.

To activate the keyboard shortcuts, first head to your Account options page by clicking on the link at the top of the Dropbox file browser page.

Next, select the Account Settings tab.

On the “Account Settings” page ensure that the “Enable file browser keyboard shortcuts” option is checked.

Now you will have access to the following keyboard shortcuts while you browse your files:

• a: Select all or no files
• n: Deselect all files
• c: Copy selected files
• m: Move selected files
• u: Move up a directory
• p: Select deleted files
• i: Invert selected files
• /: Search
• d: Show/hide deleted files
• esc: Hide popup
• ?: Show keyboard shortcuts
• k: Highlight previous file
• j: Highlight next file
• space: Select highlighted file
• o: View highlighted file

2. Find Your IP Address

If you use Dropbox on multiple computers then you will be able to see all their IP addresses using Dropbox.

To do this, simply head over to the “Account” options page and select “My Computers“.

The “My Computers” page will show you a list of all the computers that are connected to your Dropbox account or that have previously been connected. From this page you can “Rename” or “Unlink” those devices.

To view the IP address of a particular device, simply mouse-over the blue “i” icon.

Another useful function of this feature is that it shows you where your laptop or other Dropbox enabled device is located if you happen to lose it (the only caveat is that this can be highly inaccurate since you only see the IP address).

3. Upload Files and Images Automatically (Chrome extension)

The beauty of Dropbox is that you can sync, upload and access your files from most internet capable devices. Hence, it is a useful repository for all your scraps of information. For example, if you find a nice image on the web, instead of manually saving it to a local hard drive it can be infinitely more useful if it is uploaded to your Dropbox account.

To do this, install the Chrome extension Cloud Save.

Once installed, you can use the context menu to save all kinds of files directly to your Dropbox.

The first time you do so, you will be prompted to connect Cloud Save with your Dropbox account.

[NB: Cloud Save is a minimally tested third-party service. MTE does not take any responsibility for any harm that may befall your computer or data]

When saving files, you can save files to your Dropbox account by right-clicking and selecting Dropbox.

Chrome will generate a prompt to notify you that your file has been uploaded.

You can then view your uploaded file in the main My Dropbox folder.

You will note that the file does not have an extension. This can be a problem opening the file later on. To save the file with an extension, select Cloud Save -> Save As… -> Dropbox.

On the next prompt, save the file with the appropriate extension.

Now you can open the file without hunting for the appropriate application to view it with.

4. Use Dropbox to listen to music

Dropbox allows you to upload all sorts of files, including music tracks. It even has a nifty minimalist music player that allows you to stream tracks one at a time. However, if you want to listen to a whole album or playlist you are better off using DropTunes.

First, head over to the DropTunes website and login with your Dropbox e-mail and password.

[NB: DropTunes is a minimally tested third-party service. MTE does not take any responsibility for any harm that may befall your computer or data]

Once you have logged in, you will see the main DropTunes interface, with a list of all your Dropbox files and folders. Select the folder with your music in it.

Providing all your music has synced with your Dropbox account, you should see your files appear in a list.

Simply select Play and all the listed files will play in order.

The Flash version of DropTunes works on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and IE8+, but it only plays mp3 files. The HTML5 version plays a greater number of files but only on selected browsers: mp3 and m4a file play on Chrome and Safari, ogg files play on Chrome, Firefox and Opera, and wav files play on Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera. You can switch between the Flash and HTML5 versions by clicking on the link at the top of the page.

Bonus: Dropbox in your own language

This is not really a trick or a tip, but we thought it would be useful to point out that Dropbox is now available in French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

Note: It should be mentioned that in order to use these powerful features, you must have a rooted Android device. If you have not done any modification to your phones before, most probably your phones are not rooted.

Go to the Android market and initiate a search for Titanium Backup (or go to the web-based market here). Doing this will yield a search page that displays the actual application as well as the donate version license. Although the free version can be had, the paid-for version truly displays the applications full brilliance and potential. Download both applications and install them as you would any other app from the market.

Open the Titanium Backup application and select the “problems?” option. The application will then do a variety of system checks to ensure that its capabilities will not be prevented from functioning in any way. Once you receive the green light from the application, you will be free to make any backups that you see fit.

One feature that is especially handy is the Dropbox sync feature. In order to enable this, hit the menu button and select Preferences. Select “Enable Dropbox” from the menu. Directly beneath this option, select Dropbox settings to enter the appropriate credentials. After this you will be allowed to sync all apps directly to your Dropbox account. This feature is especially useful should your SD card fail for one reason or another.

In order to initiate backups, select the Backup/Restore option located at the very top of the application’s screen. After selecting this icon, all of your available apps will be displayed in a list. Press on an application entry and you will be presented with a series of options for backing up that particular application. Also remember that you can perform batch operations, allowing you to backup multiple applications at once. To do so, hit the Menu button and select Batch. This will allow you to perform multiple backups.

A final feature to be aware of is the ability to schedule backups.for your applications. Selecting schedules at the top right hand of the screen will allow you to create schedule recurring backups.

To summarize, Titanium Backup truly provides a powerful set of backup features for the Android power user. Not only does it perform its job intelligently, it also provides secure backups of all of your paid-for applications. Use and abuse your Android with total peace of mind.

But Dropbox’s biggest strength is also its weakness. While the simple concept of synchronizing everything inside one Dropbox folder is the factor that keeps it above its competitors, this simplicity also means that it’s (almost) impossible to synchronize everything else outside that folder.

Meet Symlink

If you are a Mac user who doesn’t like the idea of moving everything to Dropbox folder for the sake of synchronizing the content, there’s another way to achieve that. Basically, what we do is utilizing “symbolic link” (symlink) to create a reference to a folder and then place the symlink inside Dropbox folder. Anything that happens to the folder will be mirrored by the symlink and vice versa. So, symlink is a perfect solution to the problem of synchronizing outside folder to Dropbox.

You could create symlink via command line in Terminal, but common computer users are “allergic” to command line. So here are two free and simple tools that you can use to create symlink without having to touch any command line.

1. SymbolicLinker

SymbolicLinker is a tiny contextual menu plugin (for Puma through Leopard users) and software service (for Snow Leopard & later users) that, once installed, allows any user to create symbolic links to files inside the Finder. SymbolicLinker does this by adding a contextual menu item to the Finder that generates symbolic links to the selected files.

To use SymbolicLinker, download the compressed installer file. There are two important files there: SymbolicLinker.service for Snow Leopard (and later) users, and SymbolicLinker.plugin for Leopard (and previous version of Mac OS X) users. There’s also the installation instructions that will give you all the details.

The usage is also simple. Create a symlink of a folder (either by right clicking or by using Service), then place the symlink inside your Dropbox folder.

2. MacDropAny

MacDropAny is a tool built specifically to create symlink for Dropbox. The first time you open the application, it will ask you to choose which folder that you want to sync via Dropbox.

Then the next step is choosing where in the Dropbox folder do you want to put the symlink. This option gives you the ability to organize those symlinks into a specific folder inside Dropbox. You could name the folder “External links” or something else according to your preferences.

The last step is to assign name to the Symlink. To avoid confusion, it’s advisable to name the symlink similar to the original folder.

MacDropAny will offer you to open the newly made symlink.

Testing Time

Then it’s time to test the result. I dragged a text file into the symlink inside Dropbox folder.

The text file appears on the original folder that I placed in the Desktop. Then I made changes into the text and saved. I checked the synchronized text on another computer, and it was updated. So the conclusion: the system works fine.

Words of warning though, it’s not advisable to sync folders with too many items inside – something like the Applications and Pictures folders – since Dropbox tends to behave erroneously when it tries to sync too many files. Read more about this in the Known Issues page.

This two tools are the simplest solution that I could find to synchronized folders outside Dropbox. If you have other alternatives, please share them using the comment below.

1. Dropbox

Needless to say, our favorite app – Dropbox tops the list. The free account comes with a 2GB space, but you can gain extra storage space (up to 8GB) by referring friends to use the service, or to get connected via any social means. The good thing about Dropbox is that it is available in among all platforms so you can easily drop a file in any of the computer and access it immediately in your mobile phone.

In the Android app, it doesn’t download and sync all the files like it does on the computer. It only shows a list of the files you have in the cloud and download the necessary file only when you need it. Similarly, you can upload files from the Dropbox app. One caveat though, it does not automatically sync the files/folders that you placed in the Dropbox folder.

One additional feature of the Dropbox app is that you can create files (Picture, Video, Audio, Text file, Folder) from your phone. This means that you can quickly take a photo and sync it to the Dropbox folder.

Market link

2. Zumo Drive

If you are unwilling to shell out money for online storage, then ZumoDrive will not be very attractive to you. The free account of ZumoDrive comes only with 1GB of storage space. (Update: Zumodrive comes with 2GB of free storage space as well.) Nevertheless, ZumoDrive does have several tricks up its sleeves. First of all, ZumoDrive supports multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android and Palm Pre. This make managing your files much easier. Secondly, it comes with an inbuilt music player so you can play/stream your music directly from your ZumoDrive account. It saves you space in your SD card and allows you to listen to your music at the same time. Cool.

Market link

3. SugarSync

SugarSync offers 5GB for its free account, so it is a waste if you don’t sign up for it. Regular SugarSync will find the Android version familiar, as it comes with the usual Magic Briefcase and all connected devices.

When it first launches, it will scan your photo gallery and prompt you to backup all your photos to SugarSync. Unless you select “Yes” or “Never”, you will receive the prompt everytime you run the SugarSync app. Selecting “Yes” wil upload your photos in the background.

In my opinion, SugarSync is functionally similar to Dropbox, except that it provides 5GB of free storage space (3GB more than Dropbox). Both of them support multiple platforms, but Dropbox has the slight advantage with Linux support, while SugarSync don’t.

Market link

4. Box.net

If you are looking for a no-frill app with simple interface, then Box.net is the one for you. The Android version of Box.net is just a simple implementation of its web interface. After you have login to the app, you can access or upload files to your web folder.

Similar to the Dropbox app, you can create media content from within the app. Tap on “Menu -> Create” and you can choose to create either audio, video, or image file. Selecting the audio content will launch a voice recorder while the video content will activate your camera in video mode.

The free version comes with 5GB of storage space.

Market link

5. Sorami

Of all the cloud based storage services, Microsoft’s Skydrive is the most general, giving you a whopping 25GB free storage space. The bad thing is, it is purely web based and doesn’t offer any tool for its users to access it from the desktop (or phone). Sorami is an implementation of Skydrive by third party developer. It allows you to access your Skydrive folder and download/upload files to it. This app is still in beta, so there are many unpolished areas, such as slow uploading, doesn’t support simultaneous upload of multiple files etc. Nevertheless, this is your only choice if you are an active Skydrive user.

Market link

Just the above apps can give you an extra 38GB of storage space. What other ways do you use to gain extra storage space for your mobile device?

Enable Unknown Sources

Before attempting a manual installation of apps using the .apk files, you must first allow your phone to install from “Unknown Sources” (i.e. non-Market apps).

To do this, navigate to Menu -> Settings -> Applications and check the box marked “Unknown Sources“.

1. Installing app Using The Conventional Method

Step 1: Install File Manager

Android does not natively come with any method of browsing the data on your SD card, so you will need to install a file manager from a market. There are a large variety of file managers available on Android, but my personal favourite is ASTRO File Manager.

Step 2: Copy .apk file to SD card

Once you have ASTRO File Manager installed, connect your Android device to your PC using your USB cable. Mount the SD card and copy over the .apk file you would like to install.

Step 3: Install .apk

On your Android device, navigate to the .apk file using ASTRO File Manager and select it.

This will open a dialog box allowing you to install the app. Select “Open App Manager“.

On the next two pages, select “Install” and “Install” again to install the .apk.

Your new app is now installed.

2. Installing app using Dropbox

Dropbox is really a versatile app and is a waste if we don’t fully utilize it. The method is simple. In your computer, download the apk file to your Dropbox folder. Let it finish syncing. In your phone, open the Dropbox app, navigate to the folder where you keep the apk file, click on it. Dropbox will then download the apk file. The usual installation follows.

3. Installing app Using the Online Apk Installer

The online apk installer is a web app created by a helpful XDA-Developers forum member htc-hd2, with the aim to make manual installation of an .apk file much easier. It is useful if you want to share an apk file with a friend.

Step 1: Upload File

First, navigate to www.apkinstall.com.

Here you will see a black “Browse Files…” button. Select this and choose the apk file on your PC.

The apk file will remain active on the website for 15 minutes.

Step 2: Scan QR Code

Once you have uploaded the file, a QR code will appear on the website.

You must scan this QR code with a Barcode Scanner. The website suggests using Barcode Scanner, however I personally prefer using Google Goggles.

Once the QR code has scanned, you can click on the link to download the .apk file straight to your device.

Step 3: Install .apk

After the .apk file has downloaded to your Android device you can install it by simply clicking on it and navigating through the installation pages.

Conclusion

Most users will probably be comfortable using the conventional method of installing Android apps. However, if you have a less tech-savvy friend who you want to share an apk with, you can always remotely upload it and send them the QR code to scan using their phone. This way they will not have to fiddle around with copying the apk to their phone and opening it using a file manager.

Let us know in the comments if you have been able to use this tool.

Credit: XDA-Developers

Kfilebox (formerly Kdropbox) is an easy-to-use utility that automatically downloads the latest Dropbox daemon and integrates Dropox with your KDE system.

Note: If you have previously installed Dropbox in Kubuntu, rename the .dropbox-dist folder to .dropbox-dist-backup in order for Kilfebox to download the latest version of the Dropbox daemon.

To install Kfilebox in Kubuntu:

1. Go to the project’s Sourceforge website

2. Click the latest version (currently Kfilebox-0.4.5)

3. Click Ubuntu 10.04 (even if you have 10.10)

4. Choose i386 (32 bit) or amd64 (64 bit), depending on your hardware

5. When it finishes downloading, click on the deb file to install and enter your password when prompted.

6. When the installation completes, find “Kfilebox” in your menu or press Alt-F2 and type kfilebox

*Kfilebox will then automatically start downloading the Dropbox daemon

7. When prompted check the appropriate button to tell Kfilebox whether you already have a Dropbox account or need to get a new one.

Once you finish the configuration, you can set Kfilebox to start when you login and tell it which folder to use for synchronization. For more information about Kfilebox, visit the project website.

In Windows/Mac, you just have to download the respective software and uninstall it in your system (Be sure to uninstall the older version first). In Ubuntu, if you have installed Dropbox via PPA or deb file, you will find that it your Dropbox does not get updated with the system upgrade.

1. To upgrade your Dropbox account to 1.0, first shutdown the current Dropbox service. You should be able to do it by clicking the Dropbox icon at the panel and select “Quit Dropbox”.

2. Next, open your Nautilus File Manager and go to the Home folder. Press “Ctrl +h” to display hidden files. Scroll down the list until you see the .dropbox-dist. Rename the folder as .dropbox-dist-backup.

3. Lastly, go to “Applications -> Internet -> Dropbox“. It will now prompt you to install the proprietary daemon. Click Ok to proceed. Once the download is completed, you will be running version 1.0 of Dropbox.

To configure the selective sync, click on the Dropbox icon at the top panel and select “Preferences”. Go to the “Advanced” tab. You should see the “Selective Sync” button. Click on it and you will be able to choose the folders to sync.

If you are new to Dropbox and haven’t tried it yet, we suggest you read our earlier article on how to make the most out of Dropbox.

Dropbox gives 2 gigabytes of free space to all users which is sufficient if you want to sync only a few folders between multiple computers. However, the 2 GB limit is not enough if you want to sync or backup a large collection of music albums, MP3′s, video files etc.

In this article, we will learn some tricks to increase Dropbox storage space and how you can use referral sign-ups to get up to 8GB of Dropbox storage space, all for free.

Get 250 MB Dropbox Storage Upgrade By Completing the Dropbox Tour

Not many users know that Dropbox gives a free 250 MB storage upgrade to all users if you just complete the Dropbox tour by logging in to your Dropbox account. There is no need to wait for the referral sign-ups to complete, all you have to do is log into your Dropbox account and carry out the following steps:

1. Go to the “Get Started” tab and complete the steps of the introductory Dropbox tour.

2. Install the Dropbox client on your computer, you can skip this if the client is already installed on any one of your systems.

3. Put some files in your “My Dropbox” Folder.

4. Share a folder with your friends or colleagues.

5. Invite some friends to try out Dropbox for free.

When you have completed all of the above steps, you will get a bonus 250 MB of added storage space in your Dropbox account.

To check whether the bonus storage space has been added or not, simply go to dropbox.com/account and check the amount of space allotted to you.

Get 768 MB of Free Dropbox Space By Connecting Your Social Networking Accounts

Dropbox has recently introduced a social sharing concept where you get a whooping 768 MB of added Dropbox space by simply connecting your social networking account’s with Dropbox. It works like this – for every completed action you get 128 MB of added space, you can always choose to complete only specific actions or choose to complete all of them.

Here are the steps that needs to be done:

1. Login to your Dropbox account and go to Dropbox.com/free.

2. There are 6 actions available, completing each of the action will earn you 128 MB of free storage space. These actions are:

• Connect your Twitter account with Dropbox – 128 MB
• Connect your Facebook account with Dropbox – 128 MB
• Follow @Dropbox on Twitter – 128 MB
• Give some feedback why you love Dropbox – 128 MB
• Post the feedback message to your Facebook profile – 128 MB
• Post the feedback message as a tweet to your Twitter profile – 128 MB

When you are done connecting all your social account’s with Dropbox and have sent the small feedback message, your account will be upgraded with 768 MB of added Dropbox space. Great !

Earn up to 8GB of Dropbox Space By Referring Friends

Dropbox has a nice referral scheme which lets you earn up to 8GB of added Dropbox space by referring anyone to sign up for Dropbox. It works like this – you grab the referring link from your account’s referral section at dropbox.com/referrals. Then you can send this link to your friends and followers via email, IM or post the link on social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and so on.

When your friends click the referring link and sign up for Dropbox, both you and your friend get a 250 MB storage bonus. This is a win-win situation for both parties and you should use your referring link to invite more friends to sign up for Dropbox.

The best thing regarding Dropbox referrals is that you can invite your email contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL email address and send automatic email invites directly from your Dropbox account. There is no need to copy paste the referring link in every email message.

Do you know any other way to earn some free Dropbox space ? Share your tips in the comments section.

Note: Please do not include any Dropbox referral link in the comments. They will be deleted immediately.

Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration has written a simple VBS script that allows files uploaded to Dropbox to automatically print.

To set-up the remote printing function you must do the following

1. Install Dropbox

2. Download the zip file

3. Double-click the eprint.vbs file. A sub-folder (PrintQueue) will be created inside your main Dropbox folder.

Now any file that is placed inside the PrintQueue folder will automatically be printed. There is no need to run any additional commands or navigate any dialog boxes.

I have tested this with a variety of files, including txt, doc, xls, and jpg and they all print without any problems. Of course if you require any specific formatting you will have to manually do this before uploading the file into the PrintQueue folder.

The PrintQueue folder can be used with other computers (that have Dropbox) or with smartphones that have the Dropbox application installed. For example, I installed the Android Dropbox application and uploaded a txt file from my phone into the PrintQueue folder. This file immediately printed out.

* the vbs script is for Windows only.

via: Digital Inspiration

Image credit: MShades

Dropbox has recently updated its Android app and I thought it was a good time to review the app.

1. Set-Up

After installing and launching the app you will land on the start page. Here you can choose to login or set-up a new account.

2. Basic Usage

Once you have logged in you will be presented with the list of folders that are in your Dropbox account.

Browsing these folders is just like browsing the folders in the Dropbox folder in your home computer or through the web browser. You can click on any folder to browse the files inside.

For example, I clicked on the “Photos” folder to browse the pictures I had uploaded onto Dropbox.

The name and size of the files are prominently displayed. However, considering this was the “Photos” folder I expected there to be a gallery view to easily browse the image thumbnails, such as the one that is accessible on the web interface of Dropbox.

Nevertheless, browsing and downloading the files is very easy. To download a file, long click on a file until the context menu appears and from there select “Download”.

Additionally, you can “Open” the file which basically launches an app to try and read the file (this does not work with most files, such as .docx files), you can share the file (see below) or you can delete the file.

A short click on the file gives you similar options.

3. Upload a file

Dropbox’s real power is its ability to easily sync different files across different devices. The Dropbox Android app makes this easy with the ability to “Upload” any file you want. Simply hold down the menu button until the options menu appears.

Here, simply select the “Upload” button. This will give you a list of file-types you would like to upload.

Select a file-type and you can browse your phone’s memory to find the appropriate file and have it upload to your Dropbox account.

4. Create a File

If you don’t already have a file to upload, you can create your own. Simply click on menu and “New”. From the create menu you can create various media files (pictures, video and audio), a basic text file or a folder.

The media options automatically launch your camera or camcorder app, while the “Text file” option gives you the option to launch a native text creation application or the Dropbox specific one.

The “DB Text Editor” is a fairly basic text creation tool, with only the ability to create and edit a text file.

Once you are happy with the text file you can save it, by clicking on menu and “Save file”.

You will then be given the option to create a name for your file.

The file will immediately sync with your Dropbox account and appear on your computer and the Dropbox web interface.

5. Sharing Options

Lastly, it is possible to share a link of your files and folders by long clicking a file or folder and selecting “Share a link”.

There are a number of sharing options available here.

6. Settings

The settings menu has a few limited options.

The main option is the ability to enable file-status icons, which can show whether a file in your Dropbox folder has been downloaded onto your phone.

Pros:

• Ability to access all your files on Dropbox
• Can easily create and share public links of any folders
• Can delete any file from your Dropbox account
• Ability to create media and text files

Cons:

• No way to sync files to your mobile device (can only download individual files)
• No gallery for images in the “Photos” folder
• Inability to download folders

Bottom Line

The Dropbox app for the Android mobile platform is a solid start for an app that prides itself on its ability to do seamless syncing. However, the addition of a few more essential features would make this the ultimate app to have.