Because of this I made this little app you see on the video that enables you to share the files directly from your phone to your laptop. I have been using it for a while now for personal use and it works really well!
The app was recently made available to everyone. You can try it out for free via https://ubidrop.com
Happy to answer any questions you might have.
If you ever need to transfer lots of files (for example while making backups), my recommendation is to use an FTP server app on your phone and then download the files on your PC (explorer.exe has native FTP support but use can use Filezilla or a different FTP client too).
I totally disagree, one of my biggest frustrations with iOS is how awful it is to share files between the it and desktop. Android phones are generally USB mass storage devices, I can just plug it in via USB and it becomes an attached storage drive on any OS. Apple made the decision that it wouldn't use a standard like that, so i need to install iTunes (wtf?!), and that only works on platforms that iTunes supports.
I have no idea why you think FTP is faster than wired transfer. That sounds awful.
How so? On Windows and Linux I just plug it in and it shows up in my file browser. Mac is the only one that is difficult.
Sharing files from an iPhone to a computer on the other hand...
Vendor lock-in has its upsides!
Select a file, tap on "share", tap on "bluetooth", choose a device, wait a few seconds, done.
1. How is it different from using KDE Connect (Android) -> Soduto (Mac)? What is it doing differently?
2. Can I use this app offline that is, without internet connection. If yes, then how?
3. I see that this is a paid app. Are you planning to add other features too? (Find my phone, browsing files remotely on my phone, incoming call notifications etc.)
1. Ubidrop focuses on getting the technical bits out of the way. The focus is sharing files without having to signin, exchange pin codes or do any sort of pairing.
2. The app works 100% offline. All files are transferred over your local network and nothing is shared over the Internet.
3. Right now I am focusing on nailing the file sharing experience. Not sure what I will focus on next. Those things change as the project evolves.
"not my problem" and "hey, what if I said we sell more units inside our ecology if we make this a walled garden" come to mind.
"App update is needed to send to that device".
Hmm what, so I'm not installing the latest APK?
The latest one is 1.10.0 and you can get it from https://www.ubidrop.com (until Google approves the play store one)
I spent a few months using Android and then went back to iPhone because it’s so hard to get Android OS working with MacOS. So many incompatible or non-smooth integrations between them.
Glad to see Ubidrop exist. I bet it will improve life of an Android user a lot.
Congrats on the launch. Dan
When I want to send a file, I just put it in Documents. Works over WiFi or internet. Bonus: the file is replicated on a server, so it's available and in an easy to find location.
