Apps
Dropbox 3.0 Brings iOS 7 Changes and More
The big behemoth in 3rd party Cloud solutions, Dropbox, dropped a new version for iOS users that takes advantage of iOS 7 features and adds some new wrinkles. Dropbox 3.0 has been redesigned in both looks and under the hood for iOS 7. If you don’t mind all the white and the shiny new white icon I guess you could say that the visual presentation is quiet nice. It certainly fits in with the new iOS 7 aesthetic.
But where the changes really shine are under the hood. Dropbox 3.0 has added better sharing of documents, improvements in speed, better PDF handling, and improvements in how it handles video. The iPad version now features a toggle for easy access to full screen mode that will be a welcome addition. Depending on the type of content the right pane can either be expanded to full screen with a touch, or by selecting an icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
Select the icon to expand to full screen mode
The PDF handling is well done, in my early testing, giving you access to views that range from full screen to a scrollable list of pages within the PDF, to a title and chapter view if that information is included in the PDF. Tapping on the PDF in the right pane brings up a full screen version.
Titles and chapters in PDFs
Dropbox now takes advantage of AirDrop to let iOS 7 users easily share files and links between devices. (Assuming AirDrop works. As a service it’s still buggy.) Dropbox claims things have also sped up considerably, but I’m not noticing much of a difference generally, although I did notice that the automatic uploading of photos was faster. Again, in early testing.
Here is the change log for version 3.0 from iTunes:
- Beautiful new design for iOS 7
- Streamlined iPad experience: just tap on your files and photos to toggle fullscreen
- Improved sharing and exporting makes it easier than ever to send files to your favorite apps
- AirDrop support lets you send links and files in a snap
- Seamlessly save videos to your library
- Speed! Faster launch, photo loading, and video playback
- Vanquished our most common crashes
- Fixed bug that caused HTML to render as text
- Oodles of PDF viewing updates
All in all Dropbox 3.0 looks like a welcome update. If you have Dropbox installed you should be able to update through the App Store or through automatic updates if you have that turned on. Otherwise you can download Dropbox 3.0 in the App Store at this link. Dropbox 3.0 is free.
