Mobile Downloading and Syncing With Dropbox: A Tutorial
We now spend more time than ever browsing the web on smartphones and tablets. With the emergence of high-quality mobile broadband deals, we have more speed and higher data allowances than ever before.
The fourth generation of mobile broadband now means that we have potentially over 100 Mb per second speeds on download. If you live in a city centre and are on a 4G mobile broadband contract, you will have already noticed the terrific speed you can achieve.
Even the people in the suburbs are already noticing top broadband speeds on their mobile phones, MiFi devices, and tablet Sim cards. It is only a matter of time before we spend a greater proportion of our lives on the Internet on our phones than we do on our laptops.
Found Something You Like?
From time to time we will be browsing through the web and will find a file or picture that we like. We may want to grab it in order to easily use it, or read it later. The problem is, we may want to access it later on a different device, and this can become fiddly.
Dropbox Limitations
If you have Dropbox on your smart phone or tablet, it may be hard to know how to share that file that you want. If you want to be able to access the file in any Dropbox account in the future here is an easy way to do it.
The Tutorial
The first step in the process is to grab the Dolphin browser. You can get it for Android phones or tablets, and it is accessible through the Google Play Store. Ensure that you have the latest version of the browser.
Grabbing the Add-On
The add-on that you will be using is the Dropbox for Dolphin add-on. Again you can download this from the Google Play Store. Alternatively, you can pick it up on the Dolphin browser website itself.
It is a free add-on, and is a trusted and safe piece of software.
Having downloaded and installed the add-on you have to configure the settings in order for it to work with your Dropbox account. The outcome of this setup will be a new folder installed within your Dropbox account.
Interacting With the Browser
You can access the add-on from the Dolphin browser top menu, or by swiping the menu from the right. The add-on should be located at the top of your list of options. By tapping on the add-on link you will be able to open it.
Adjusting Settings
You can then adjust the settings so that you can automatically download all files from the browser to Dropbox. When you choose to take something down from the web on your smartphone or tablet, it will be placed in the smart phone or tablet Dropbox folder that you have created. This will mean it will be immediately accessible across all your devices with your Dropbox account installed.
Watch Out For Mobile Data
Although the mobile data allowances that we get these days are much better than they were in the past, the speeds of broadband and the size of files mean that you have to be careful with your allowance.
It is quite possible to unwittingly download some huge files and consume a large portion of your monthly data without even feeling like you have spent much time online.
It’s a good idea to monitor your data usage, especially when you start doing higher data intensive activities on your phones and tablets. If you are downloading videos and audio files, this is particularly pertinent.
You can either monitor your data usage through the built-in data tools that are on your android devices, or you can download a special app in order to monitor your Internet consumption. There are loads of applications available through the Google Play Store that will do this, just select the one that is highly rated.
Speak To Your Provider
If the world of the web on your smartphone and tablet is a new place to you, you might be quite excited. However, you will want to ensure that you don’t end up with massive bills at the end of the month, or run out of data halfway through.
Many of us see little point in talking to our mobile broadband or smart phone provider. The reality is that you may be able to get additional data allowance for relatively small additional cost. Data costs are coming down, and providers are becoming more competitive. If you took a 4G connection with Everything Everywhere some months ago, it is likely that comparable monthly fees on new deals today will get you twice the data.
You may have to concede and pay a little bit extra, but the additional data you receive can be extremely good value.
Why Would You Want To Download Files?
File downloads online are completed for many different reasons. You may want to download a web page in order to read it later. You may want to download pictures from your social media platforms, or from the profiles of other people. You may even want to download some music from Myspace or YouTube.
Bear in mind that there are many tools that are designed to complete tasks on different platforms. For example, downloading from YouTube is easy with the many applications available. Applications, such as Pocket, enable you to save information for later viewing. Check out the different options available for the specific task that you want to do.
Final Word
The Dropbox for Dolphin add-on is a really cool extension that enables you to synchronise browser downloads across different devices. If you spend a lot of time trying to move files, backing them up and organising pictures across your various devices, Dropbox is a great tool to take a lot of the hassle away. With this add-on installed, your mobile browsing and downloading results can seamlessly integrate across all of your platforms.
It is a cracking extension if you spend a lot of time downloading files on your phone.
