by App.net (ADN) is a relatively new online service that many people think of as just an alternative to Twitter: a place to post short messages and to read the messages of people you follow. But App.net also offers a number of other services, including group chat rooms and—my favorite—a place to store and share files.
Specifically, every paid App.net account starts out with 10GB of space, with a file-size limit of 100MB, while free accounts get 500MB of storage with a file-size limit of 10MB. Paid members can increase their total storage through new-member referrals. (Speaking of which, if you’re not using App.net yet, and you’d like to give it a try, you can get a free account using this link.)
App.net’s file storage is designed to be app-neutral—you can access and manage your storage from any app or service that uses the App.net File API, including Web apps and any App.net clients that support the feature. The most common use of this storage, so far, is for sharing files—photos, videos, PDFs, you name it—with other people. Many ADN clients include features for uploading files and then linking to them from within messages posted to the service, but you can use your ADN storage to share files anywhere: email, IM, and even on other social-media services such as Facebook or Twitter.
Swing in action
The easiest way to do this is by using a dedicated Mac app. I’ve tried several, and my current favorite is Orangutango’s $8 Swing 1.0.2 (Mac App Store link). If you’ve got a file you want to share, you just drag and drop it onto Swing’s systemwide menu icon. The menubar icon fades in and out during the upload. When the upload finishes, you hear a confirmation sound and see a Notification Center alert. Even better, the direct URL to that upload, for sharing the file with other people, is copied to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere.
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