Dropbox
My iPhone Homescreen
I’ve been a dropbox user for quite a while now. I signed up for an account the first day that I heard about it and I signed up for a paid account the moment that paid accounts became available. Safe to say I use it and love it. I found another great iPhone app yesterday that uses it, and I looked at my homescreen and realized that quite a few of my apps have dropbox integration these days, and that’s awesome. QuickShot – Easy way to take pictures and immediately upload them to dropbox. It can also upload multiple photos at a time from the camera roll. PlainText – primarily a note taker, it just very simply handles plain text files and keeps them sync’d. Dropbox – Access to any of my files. Trunk Notes – A great markdown notebook. Lately I’ve been keeping notes about the various games I’m in, in here, but I think it could be used for much more. DropList – This was the app I just picked up. It’s a pretty simple to-do application (of which I’ve tried many). This one is pretty unique in that it just keeps a very basic plain text file in dropbox, and puts a pretty face on it on the iPhone. Atomic Web (not shown) – A web browser that allows me to download files and upload them directly to dropbox. GoodReader for the iPad – not shown on the screenshot, because that’s my iPhone. GoodReader is a great tool for managing read-only documents. PDFs, word documents, etc. It’s a great way to keep gaming books and documents with me.
More audible credits come my way
Actually I got my new credits late Aug. but I just haven’t gotten around to picking up my new books for the month yet. It’s times like this when I really wish that my iPhone had the ability to download my audible.com purchases directly, but no, I have to go to my computer and sync. It would be nice if Apple would open up the ability to download files directly, or at least enter into limited partnerships to enable downloads for certain 3rd parties. I suppose when I finally get my new laptop (next year probably), I won’t have this issue becuase the system I sync with with generally be with me. Still, eliminating reasons to have to sync would be very nice.
While I’m griping I’ll add that the iPhone should also:
- Support syncing over wifi (e.g. I come home, get on my wireless network and sync up to my mac mini
- Support subscribing to podcasts within the iTunes app on the iPhone
- background support for audio applications (or the ability to queue files up withing the ipod application even if the file is stored in an exteral app like spotify or audiobooks or dropbox
- Approve the dropbox application goddamnit (does it really take 4 weeks of dead silence to approve and app?)
Computer tools I can’t live without
#1) Linux live distro (usb/cd): I don’t know how a windows installation can take up 5gb and still not have some of the most basic tools out there. Being able to boot a proper operating system on any machine is such a boon. One of my goals in the near future is to get a sizable usb key that I can boot vmware esxi on and just keep some OS images in it.
#2) Dropbox: Revisioned backups. None finer. Access to you documents wherever you have internet. Sync documents to as many systems as you want. Make very large files accessable to people you want. Continued development promises exciting new benefits and uses.
#3) SSH: Pretty much the most important program I use. It allows secure remote access to a computer including file transfer, connection tunneling, and shell access. Combined with VNC it makes for a nearly unstoppable remote access package.
#4) Portable Apps: If you must use a windows machine, and you’re not the administrator then portable apps are pratically required. A full suite of applications that are a standard part of my computing diet. You can put them on a usb key or just unzip them to a local folder for use on an unfamiliar system.
#5) VMware: More and more I’m finding reasons to virtualize my operating systems. The tools and abilities that VMware products provide make all aspects of multiple OS needs become almost non-existant. Combine with dropbox and/or a usb key for a killer go anywhere OS.
#6) Google Apps: I don’t think most people appreciate just how powerful the google app suite is. Email, documents, feed readers, storage space (if you know how), photos, wikisites, the list goes on. At some point soon I anticipate Google Voice will be released and become another one of those things I can’t live without.
#7) Firefox: I thought I’d go ahead and mention it. It’s a pretty damn important piece of software. It’s addon system makes it the most useful browser out there.