Accessing data using your phone

To access the data in your computer on your phone without the help of a Web browser, you will have to install a server software on your home PC and configure it for remote file access.

Tonido, a free app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7, works well over Wi-Fi and on 3G. All you have to do is download the free desktop server software, for Windows, MAC OS X or Linux; link it to your home computer from your phone, and you are ready to stream music, access and download files from your computer, and upload photos/videos taken from your phone.

Dropbox Enhanced

Dropbox is another free service that lets you carry your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. You can use Dropbox for more than just storing files online. If you wish to access music files stored on Dropbox, you can use DropTunes to access and stream them. You can even automate a file transfer or conversion by using the Dropbox Automator from Wappwolf; however, you need to permit access to your Dropbox account. Once this is done, you have to set up an “action” for file conversion or transfer. The Automator will then convert the file into required format and store it in the same folder or transfer it to the location mentioned.

There are plenty of cloud storage options available in the market and creating a user account on the vendor sites will get you hundreds of gigabytes of online cloud storage, free!