Getting pictures from Facebook to your Android phone via the "Box" app

I've said in the past that one of the things I dislike about Android is that a lot of simple things really aren't as straight forward as they should be. Whilst I love the overall system I hate how tricky it makes things that really shouldn't be difficult and one of the most complex things is using the Facebook app to "save pictures" of your friends. You'd have thought just holding the picture would give you the option but sadly not, instead you need to use another app such as "Box".

Firstly you need to open your friends profile, here we are using the facebook profile of boxing website "Ringnews 24". From the person's profile you need to click "Photos" from the bottom of the screen and then find the specific photograph that you want to
use. For our example we are using the Ringnews24 image of David Haye that the site uses for it's Facebook picture.

When you have opened the picture you need to press the phone's "Menu" button which will see you given 6 options at the bottom of the screen. From those options you need to select "Share" from the bottom left hand corner. After clicking on "Share" you will

see a list of all the sharing apps on your phone, from the list you will need to select "Box" (obviously to use the "Box" app you will need to already have installed on your phone before getting to this stage).

After clicking on "Box" from the list of share apps you will be taken to the Box app "Upload screen" (which should look like the image on the right). The file name by default will contain "facebook", though you can feel free to rename the file in the usual way when using the "Box" app and when you are happy with the name you have to click "Upload".

After uploading the file to "Box" you will then need to download the file (which we wrote a guide on yesterday) to your phone before you can see it in your gallery.

Trust me I know this is an incredibly long winded way to save the pictures from facebook onto your phone, sadly however their doesn't seem to be a more logical one unless you log in to your facebook account via your browser and save the picture the way we explained in this guide.

What is "Cloud" storage?

Yesterday we had a number of article put up about the excellent "Box" app that is available on a number of mobile phones. "Box" and "Dropbox" are both forms of "Cloud storage" which for those who aren't too technologically advanced is the future of storage and the next step on from needing physical storage systems such as USB memory sticks.

In the past if you wanted to work on a document in 2 places you either had to send your the file as an e-mail or you had to have it on some form of physical storage (such as Floppy Disk, CD Rom's, DVD's and USB memory drives) with Cloud however there is now no need for a physical version of the documents to have the file wherever you are. Cloud storage systems instead see you storing the document "in the cloud" or online in a personal online storage system that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. You can access your own storage space anywhere simply by logging into your own account much like you would with your e-mail account and as a result the files are very easy to access.

Cloud storage was originally used primarily by business customer who had staff working both at home and in the office however as the services have become more affordable and easier to use they've started to be used by more and more personal customers who would like to access their files where ever they are. Thanks to apps like "Box" and "Dropbox" we can now have our files anywhere we want due to the fact they are Cloud storage systems.

Just as a little example, I could have my free "Box" account (5GB) filled with my music tracks from my home computer down here in Manchester. I could then visit my cousin in Glasgow and using his computer have access to my entire 5GB of music and play it on his computer or at my mother's in London. I could also access it via my smartphone on the Train and again play the songs as I move.

The Cloud systems also have other features however and those features allow us to get even more from the services. One of the key uses is to allow you to share your things with friends, for example you can share home videos or party pictures with friends over Cloud by having open/public folders. You can also take a file from a friends public folder, read it and correct the spelling mistakes before saving the corrected version for them to print off.

In simple terms "Cloud storage" is the future ...that's here today.

How to upload multiple files to "Box" on the Android mobile app

We've had a good play around with "Box" today having already shown you how to upload single files and downloading files from the "Box" service. Sometimes however you want to do a job lot and upload a handful of files at once so this guide shows just how to put multiple files onto "Box" at once using your phone.

The first stage is opening the folder that you would like to upload from. For our example we will be selecting a number of music files though as long as you know where the files are you can upload pretty much anything you want from images to PDF's, from videos to spreadsheets. When you have opened the folder you will need to press the "menu" button so you get a screen like the one in the image on the left.

At the menu screen you will need to select the "Share" option which will open up a list of all your "Share" apps which will include some of the stuff listed in the image to the right. From these options you need to select "Box" (which of course you will have to have downloaded before starting this). After selecting "Box" you will be taken back to the folder you were previously in, this time however each of the files will have a tick box next to it. To select a file you need to mark tick box next to it.

When you've selected all the files you want to send you need to click "OK" in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and you will then see a new screen with a list of the files you selected to upload. This new screen is part of the "Box" app and looks very similar to the screen you will have seen if you have already uploaded a single file via the Box app before.
As with the single file upload screen you can re-name files at this point and cancel the uploads. When you are satisfied with everything you need to press "Upload" at the bottom of the screen and then wait whilst Box does it's job.

Note-

Whilst this this guide does show you the key stages of uploading a number of files on "Box" you are still limited by Box's own limitations so if you find yourself unable to upload certain files check the size of the files you are uploading. With out paying for a subscription service your uploads are limited to being no more than 25MB at a time.

How to download a file from the "Box" mobile app

In a recent article we showed you how to UPLOAD files using the new "Box" app that is available on Android, Blackberry and iOS. Now we're just being logical here (trust me it's rare) and we're going to show you how to download files from your box account to use on your mobile device.

Firstly you need to log into the "Box" app and you'll see a list of your files like in the image to the left here. From here you should be able to see everything you've uploaded to your box account via one method or another (such as using a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile device).

Now we actually have 2 separate (but equally simple) methods of saving the files. The first method sees you finding the file you want to use and then holding your finger (or the select button) on the file this will open up a small menu like the one shown in this image. From here you will need to select the "Save for offline" option and then you'll see the phone download the file.





For the second option you need to just "press" on the file you want to download and then you'll see a screen like the one on the left here. Again from this screen you need to select "Save for offline" and the file will download.

To find the file if you want to explore your phone you will need to go to "My File" then navigate to the /sdcard/Box folder and click on the e-mail account you used. Thankfully for "Music" (as we've used in our example here with the fantastic folk track "Riots" by "Miss Fudgey") you'll find it on the top of your "Recently added" list.

How to upload a file to "Box" on your mobile phone

Recently we've been wanting to test out some of the "cloud" services which allow you to store and share various files in "the cloud". We decided that as "Box" offers 5GB of free storage that we'd try their service (instead of Dropbox which offers "just" 2GB of storage).

First we we had to make an account with Box who emailed us and within minutes we had 5GB of cloud storage it was brilliant. After logging we were greeted to a few PDF
which we never actually read (though we are assuming they are guides for things just like this).

The upload files you need to login and then press the phone's "menu" button which will load up a small menu on the the screen with 6 options. From those options you need to select "Upload" from the top right corner. After pressing 
"Upload" you will see options as to which type of file you want to upload, when you've selected the type of file your phone will help you find the files by letting you open up a relevant app. For example clicking "Photo" will let you use the "Gallery" app to select a picture.

When you've selected the file you want to store you'll see a screen with your file and the files details (like this image on the right). If you've selected the correct file you need to select the "Upload" option from the bottom of the screen (if it's the wrong file you accidentally clicked then just press "Cancel"). Also on this screen you're able to rename the file (by pressing the files name).

After pressing "Upload" you will see the screen change to one like the image on the left here with the file added to the top of the list and a blue mark on it. The blue mark will move across the file as the upload takes place and when it's done you will be able to access it anywhere in the world (as long as you can get online).

To access your box account on a computer you need to go to www.box.com and login. Whilst originally this was used by business with people wanting to access work files whilst not in the office, you can now access this sort of service as a personal user and it allows you to store files up to 25MB in size for free (which can be upgraded if you want to pay a monthly fee). If you find yourself wanting to upload multiple files at once, you may wish to read our guide on doing that.

Currently "Box" have apps available for Android, iOS and Blackberry, though I'd assume that a Windows version will be released in the foreseeable future.

Whats in the box: Samsung Galaxy S2

When you get a new phone you want to know what you are actually getting. What else comes in the box along with the device? Some old Sony Ericsson's for example came with a USB memory card reader for the phones memory card (though I'm not sure which phone it actually was, I think it was the K700i as we certainly had one floating around the house).

With the Samsung Galaxy S2 what we find in the box is the handset, the battery, as well as a mains charger, a USB Mini cable, the manual, hands free kit and replacement heads for the hands free earphones. By it's self the boxed stuff isn't amazing in quantity and personally I'd say it misses out on a memory card (though the phones huge internal memory of 16GB means that this isn't as big a loss as it could have been with other phones) though what you do get is incredibly high quality. Also if you order your phone with Vodafone you currently get a Pirates of the Caribbean box set containing the first 3 films in the smash hit franchise, a lovely added bonus thanks to Vodafone.

Whilst I will have a proper review done in the coming weeks after a real play with the phone, what I've already found out from using it is that the handset is simply amazing. The phone is fast, it's responsive, it's clear, the camera is simply brilliant, the video recording ability is wonderful and although I had reservations about the TouchWiz interface it's been nothing short of a pure delight to use. Whilst the boxed stuff does perhaps lack one or two things you will really need to go some to fill the internal memory before you get the chance to get yourself a memory card and due to the wonderful Kies air system the phone uses there isn't an excuse to leave too much lingering on the phone.

After just a few days of playing with it I've yet to find a single flaw with the phone and at the rate we're going I'm merely becoming more and more impressed. This really is a dream handset.