Many of the team here at WebWorkerDaily are big fans of Dropbox, a file-sharing and syncing app. You can use it for doing many more things than just simple sharing of files. For example, Scott uses it to sync passwords between machines.
But did you know that you can use it to remotely control a PC? Akira is a lightweight Windows utility that — when used with Latte, its companion server — can send commands to a remote Windows PC via Dropbox. You can send commands to take care of many common admin tasks: run an application, open a file, terminate a process, take a screenshot, shut down the PC, etc. Lifehacker’s Kevin Purdy tried out the app and found that it worked well, although with noticeable lag. Given that it’s working using a file in Dropbox, that lag is probably to be expected.
Personally, I’m not sure I’d want to use Akira and Dropbox as opposed to the more established secure remote control methods, such as using VNC or one of the specialist remote control apps like LogMeIn (WWD review here), which would be less laggy and would give me fewer security concerns, but this is a neat demonstration of the novel things that can be achieved using Dropbox and a little ingenuity.
What novel things have you used Dropbox for?
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