Share links between Mac and iOS with Dropbox trickery

It's beginning to look like the holy grail for any Mac user that also totes around an iPhone or iPod touch -- being able to open URLs remotely so that one can view them later from the comfort of their big, delicious Mac screen. Thanks to MacStories and their readers, we now have a workaround that fits the bill quite nicely.

There are a number of apps and services that let one send links to the iPhone easily, but no one seems to have truly mastered sending links the other way. For that, you'll need a Dropbox account, some knowledge of Folder Actions on OS X and at least one cup of coffee. In the end, you'll be using Dropbox as a middleman between your iOS devices and your Mac, which monitors the Dropbox folders for URLs using Folder Actions.

The point is, this is a very doable and very effective workaround for the time being. I'm still waiting for a single service that will streamline the way we send content between desktop Macs and their touch-based brethren, but I'm never one to turn down a fun afternoon of desktop tweaking.

You can find the full set of instructions over at MacStories.

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Source: http://www.macstories.net/tutorials/how-to-send-any-webpage-…

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It's beginning to look like the holy grail for any Mac user that also totes around an iPhone or iPod touch -- being able to open URLs...

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Alan

@mac_fanatic

The article title says "Share links between Mac and iOS with Dropbox trickery".

Anyway, my method works both ways, but in MobileSafari you just send the page url via mail instead of using a bookmarklet.

February 15 2011 at 3:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

B3ND3R

Maybe I'm missing something, but why not use CloudApp on the desktop and Cloudette on the iOS device(s)?

Added bonus of seeing how much traffic your link gets if you share it with users other than yourself.

That's what I do, but again maybe I am missing something...

February 15 2011 at 9:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Marcos

Uh, this is a security nightmare. With zero authentication, you just provided a way for people to remotely execute anything on your Mac. Anything, not just open Amy URLs.

February 15 2011 at 8:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

toypaj

I use Prowl on my iPhone and iPad:

http://www.prowlapp.com/

with the 2Prowl plugin for Safari on all my Macs.

http://www.prowlapp.com/apps.php

super easy and it pushes it to both iPhone and iPad at the same time.

Very handy.

February 15 2011 at 2:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mattyactor

I love pastebot...

February 14 2011 at 10:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Evan Gusz

This is an awesome feature of MobileMe. Your bookmarks will stay in sync over all of your devices. Bookmark it on my iPad and it's bookmarked at home and on my iPhone. Every once in a while I have to clean out my bookmarks but that's not really a problem.

February 14 2011 at 10:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Evan Gusz's comment

Chris

Exactly. :)

February 15 2011 at 4:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nasilvera

I use evernote the clipping chrome and safari extension is quick and you can open the ios app and the link is there

February 14 2011 at 9:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Skippy

Doesn't ReadItLater do this.

February 14 2011 at 9:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott F

I just use Instapaper.

February 14 2011 at 8:27 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

BigB

I've found the app Atomic Browser on IOS to be awesome, it can download files straight to your drop box and from there you can have your mac watch the dropbox folders.

I use it to download torrents remotely. one step, download link and it goes to a folder in dropbox that Transmission on my mac is watching and it automatically adds it.

February 14 2011 at 8:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply