A practical alternative to printing

Posted in: blog by Jack on 17 June 2009

Just because we’re in the business of supplying printer consumables doesn’t mean we think everyone should print out everything they need to transfer from one computer to another, or every picture on their camera. Even remanufactured consumables cost money, and saving money is something we are all interested in these days.

Many of us have several computers we use everyday, one at work, another at home and maybe a laptop we use on the road. There are times when I have a document or picture on my work computer I’d like to transfer to my home computer or have available to me when I’m out using my laptop. In the past I might have emailed that document or picture to myself, or even uploaded it to my webspace so I could download it when I needed it. These methods work, but they also require work. There’s a simpler way I’ve been testing and am pleased to recommend.

Dropbox is a web-based application that makes transferring any file as easy as dragging-and-dropping it from one folder to another. Dropbox works equally well in Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

When you install the desktop portion of the Dropbox application you’ll have a tray icon that, when clicked, opens a window on your desktop similar to a Windows Explorer interface. To save a file, folder or picture simply drag it from its location on your computer to a folder in the Dropbox window. Dropbox will synchronize itself on the server side, so that when you open the application on another computer all your files are there. You can also log into your Dropbox account from any computer. This makes it easy to share files with family and co-workers.

Best of all Dropbox is free for storage of up to 2 GB. Need more space? You can get a 50 GB account for $9.99 per month or $99.00 per year, and 100 GB for $19.99 per month or $199.00 per year.

I highly recommend Dropbox to anyone who frequently works from different computers or people who need a dead simple way to share files and images with others (and don’t mind giving out their account name and password).

Check it out for yourself at GetDropbox.com.

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