We recently told you about the 4 best sites to get 10GB worth of free storage, so why not add another service to the mix. quanp is a brand new file sharing solution, open to US residents only for the time being, not only gives you 10GB of free web storage space, it also places no limits on your bandwidth. You can share up to 30 files of up to 500MB in size with anyone you want in one go simply by sharing a URL with them.
There are many different ways you can use the service – either through the site itself, through the free iPhone app, or with the Windows-compatible client. All users can benefit from the Adobe Air desktop widgets for uploading new files to your quanp account, and for viewing slideshows of your photos.
Logging in for the first time will take you to your home page which displays your latest uploaded files. From here you can create new folders or ‘places,’ upload, copy, move, tag and delete files.
You can also share specific files or places with other users. Once invited to view them, users can leave comments on your files. The web interface is searchable, and also displays the percentage that you have used of your 10GB free web storage space limit. There are several layout options, consisting of various sized thumbnails, and accompanying text or captions with each file.
When you invite other quanp users to access a Place, you can limit the extent of their permissions – allowing them to either view and/or edit the files. Of course, in order to access these files, they have to sign up for a free account.
If you need to share files with someone who doesn’t have a quanp account, you can send a link to them, by selecting the file, clicking on ‘Send file’, and filling in their email address and a message. The link will expire after 7 days of sending the email, and each file can be downloaded a maximum of 5 times by each user.
Using the desktop client, compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, you are able to do everything you would from the website, and more. The Windows client requires Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
You can upload files one by one to specific places, add tags, and a description.
Or you can configure auto-uploading from specific folders on your computer, making it easy to keep certain files or folders constantly backed up.
You can view your files either in a 3D format, as thumbnails or as a detailed list.
You can create new places, drag and drop files to share with other users, search your files, and keep track of your file sending history.
One of quanp’s best features has to be the Adobe Air drag and drop widget. After installing and launching the widget, you can choose to keep it on top of all other windows. To upload a file, simply navigate to the file of your choice and drag and drop it onto the widget.
The first time, you will be prompted to enter your log-in details, after which you will be prompted to choose the location to upload the file to, and you can choose to add tags and a description. You can cancel the upload by right-clicking the widget, and can upload multiple files simultaneously either by selecting several files, or even just dragging an entire folder onto the widget.
There are also several themes for you to choose from, to suit your taste.
A second Adobe Air application that quanp offers is the slideshow app. Using this app, you can display slideshow of all your photos, or just the latest photos, uploaded to your account.
Lastly, the recently launched iPhone/iPad app [iTunes link] allows you to view and share all the files saved in your quanp account.
An interesting addition to the quanp app is the ability to send files to other iPhone or iPod touch users using bluetooth. Using the app, you can upload photos from your iPhone directly to your quanp account, choosing the location. You can also record and upload voice memos.
And as if all of that wasn’t incentive enough, in celebration of the launch of their iPhone app, check out quanp’s Twitter account for details on how to win an iPad and a couple of iPhone cases in their sweepstakes.
Have you tried out quanp for your own free web storage space? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Tagged: adobe AIR • iPhone Apps • photo sharing
