Updated: The basic approach below is now true for everyone using DropBox. You can also get more space various other ways (see dropbox.com/getspace)
I’ve got a handful of cloud tools that I use all the time. One is DropBox. While it’s nice to use to share files with others, it does something that nothing else really does: it lets me get at the same documents on everything I have. I’ve got access to all the PDFs, simple note files and other odds and ends that programs on my laptop and apps on my phone and tablet can work with. On the laptop, it’s a simple folder. A lot of apps on mobile devices now support DropBox. It’s a very simple example of working anywhere with any device. Which device is on is gone. Best of all, they’ve give you 2.2G of space for free. Well, best of all until you realize how useful it is. I’ve just reach that magic almost-full mark but I’ve discovered they’ve got a way to get more space for free.
They’re beta-testing the ability to upload pictures (just plug-in your camera/phone/whatever and it offers to load them into your dropbox. Nifty. And they’re paying you to test it by giving you free space.
How to Do it
First, Download the test version of DropBox. This is a beta version so it wouldn’t hurt to make a copy of your DropBox folders somewhere before you install the test version.
You’ll need to upload at least 500MB of pictures. You can use ones on your camera or a thumbdrive.
If you’re using a camera, just divide the mega-pixels into the 500 to get a rough estimate. Many recent cameras and phones are at least 4 MegaPixels so we’re talking about 125 pictures, maybe 150 or 200 to allow for image compression by the camera.
Of you use a thumbdrive. Plug one into a Mac or PC and add a folder to it called DCIM. Copy folders of images into that folder. Then eject it and reinsert it. Drop Box will recognize your thumbdrive as a digital camera.
In both cases, your dropbox account gets 500M of free space.
How far can I go and other stories
First off a credit. I found out about this through redmondpie.com. DropBox has an offical article (How do I get free space for using Camera Upload?) that covers doing this with Android and iPhone apps as well as a list of simple issues some people have run into.
It also looks you can do this repeatedly. I succeed the first time and then wrote this blog post. I’ve uploaded twice and I now have 3.2G (instead of the default 2.2G) of space on my account. I’ll keep going as long as they keep giving me free space 😉
Supposedly, you can currently do this multiple times for a total of either 3G or 5G of free space. The two articles differ on that point.
And, just think, that free 5G costs about $20 a year. Together, if enough people read this blog post, we can save the equivalent of the GDP of a very small town!