iOS/Android: Bump is best known as an app that can quickly transfer contacts, photos, and other mobile content directly to another phone. The service launched a new feature today and updated its mobile apps to allow you to quickly transfer photos from your phone directly to your browser with a tap of the space bar.

The new feature is simple to use. With Bump installed on your phone head over to the Bump Photo page, select the photos you want to transfer to your computer, and then hit the space bar to send them. It's a nice timesaver if you need to quickly transfer photos to share with friends, get screenshots, or for any other purpose. Once the photos are online you can share them with a permanent link or just download them to your computer immediately so they'll disappear from Bump's servers. The update is free on Android and iOS right now.

Bump

FTP is a great way to transfer files to the cloud, and you have some pretty good choices of FTP clients on Linux. However, our favorite is the powerful, cross-platform FilezZilla.

FileZilla

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
Price: Free
Download Page

• A highly configurable interface that supports drag-and-drop for easy file transfer
• Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SFTP protocols
• Supports resume and transfer of large files over 4GB
• Tabs for opening multiple connections
• Simple bookmarking system for oft-used servers
• Configurable transfer speed limits
• Advanced search feature with filename filtering
• Directory comparison and sync
• A network configuration wizard
• Remote file editing
• Many more advanced features

FileZilla has just about any configuration option you can imagine. If you have to use FTP a lot, FileZilla will let you transfer your files in any way you see fit, as well as search through large servers to find just the file you're looking for. If you know what you're doing, you can even tweak a lot of the more advanced options to optimize the speed of your transfers. At the same time, it's pretty simple to use, at least for how powerful it is. It can be a bit intimidating at first to new users, but with a few clicks of the mouse, one can pare down the interface to something more manageable. If you need more than just the occasional file upload or download, FileZilla is a winner.

Like we said, FileZilla can be a bit intimidating for beginners, especially if you have to root around the preferences. If you only need basic FTP functions, you'd probably be happier with something simpler like gftp, or one of the FTP-enabled desktop file browsers. Also, FileZilla's interface, while configurable, isn't exactly the prettiest (okay, it's ugly as sin), and seems unnecessarily cluttered. It's not a huge issue, but again, if you don't need its advanced features, there's no reason to trudge through its interface when you have other choices.

If FileZilla isn't for you, the next client I'd actually recommend aren't standalone FTP clients at all—but desktop file managers, like Nautilus for GNOME and Konqueror for KDE. Both have some pretty solid FTP features built-in, and provide desktop integration that make dealing with FTP super easy. You deal with them almost exactly like you would with any other file on your computer; you can view them with your default programs, copy them anywhere, and so on. If you aren't a super heavy FTP user, this is a pretty awesome way to get those few files transferred.

If you want a dedicated FTP client but FileZilla is just a bit too much, you might like gtfp. It hasn't really had an update since 2008, but it works, and it's very, very simple to use. I still think the desktop integration of Nautilus and Konqueror makes them better for most users, but if you aren't using either of them as your file browser (say, on a low-powered LXDE system), gftp will get the job done.

FireFTP is actually not a separate program, but instead, a Firefox extension. It isn't quite as powerful as the others, but if you just want simple file uploading and downloading through the FTP protocol, it's a really convenient way to do it. Plus, it doesn't require installing another program onto your machine, which is pretty nice.

And, since we know some of you are crazy about the command line, you might also check out LFTP. It has a pretty long list of advanced features, so if you're in a situation where you don't have a GUI to work with—or if you just really really like the command line—it'll certainly do a good job.

There are other FTP clients out there, but chances are you'll be more than happy with one of the above. If you've got a favorite on the list (or even one that's not on the list), let us know why you love it in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

Android: If you've ever forgotten a USB cable and need a way to transfer data to your Android phone from your PC (or vice versa), Software Data Cable is a free app for Android that turns your phone into a networked storage device you can browse from your computer, no cables attached.

After installing Software Data Cable, the app allows you to connect to and browse your phone's files and folders from any computer on the same network. The app works best when your computer is on the same Wi-Fi network as your phone.Just drop the IP address of your phone in your browser, and you can see your phone's entire contents, complete with the option to move, copy, and delete files if you need to.

If all you want is to get a file from your desktop to your Android phone, you may already use Dropbox to do it quickly, and there's nothing wrong with that—it's faster than this. Software Data Cable is a better option for people who don't trust a cloud service with their data, don't subscribe to Dropbox or another file syncing service, or want the flexibility to manage their device from their computer—and, of course, forgot their data cable. It's free in the Android App Market.

Software Data Cable | Android App Market via PC Mag

Sometimes you come across a file you want to download but all you've got is your smartphone. Perhaps it's a standard file, perhaps it's a torrent. Whatever the case may be, it's relatively simple to get your smartphone to tell your home computer to get started on that download from afar. Here's how.

Remotely Download Web-Hosted Files

If you want to download a file to your computer that's hosted somewhere on the web, this is the method you want to use. All you need is an account with Dropbox (our favorite file-syncing tool) and a web browser on your smartphone. To download that file to your home computer from the comfort of your phone, just follow these steps (or watch the video to the left):

1. Grab the URL of the file you want to download on your smartphone.
2. Open any web browser on your smartphone and head over to urldroplet.com.
3. Enter the URL in URL Droplet's only text field and click the "Log In" button.
4. Log into your Dropbox account and grant access to URL Droplet.
5. When you're back on the main URL Droplet page, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and see if the file is listed as queued. If not, just add it again via URL Droplet's only text field and click the "Save" button.
6. It'll take a few minutes for the file to show up in your Dropbox, but when it does it'll be in the root folder and you can use it when you get back to any computer that's syncing your Dropbox folder.

Pretty easy! If you want to see a walkthrough, watch the video above.

Alternatively, if you want to do this with a native iPhone app, download Drop It ($1). For another option, your could set If This Then That to add, for example, emailed file URLs to your Dropbox (learn how to use it with our guide).

Remotely Download Torrents

There are a few ways to remotely download torrents, and we have a bunch of guides to help you do it. If you want to stick with the same basic method outlined above, you can send .torrent files remotely to your Dropbox folder. For a little more control, though, you might prefer just using uTorrent's mobile interface to remotely schedule torrents instead:

1. Grab a copy of uTorrent (if you don't have one already).
2. Open up uTorrent and edit its Preferences/Settings.
3. Go to the "Remote" tab and check the box next to "Enable uTorrent Remote".
4. Enter a unique computer name and a password. If your computer name is accepted and isn't in use by anyone else, you'll be asked to answer a new security question. Fill in your answer and press okay.
5. Go to remote.utorrent.com in your smartphone's web browser and log in with your computer's name and password.
6. Press the + button to add a new torrent via URL.

That's all there is to it! For a more detailed walkthrough, see our recent guide to monitoring your BitTorrent downloads from any computer or mobile device.

Remotely Download Files from Usenet

Using your smartphone to tell your home computer to remotely download files from Usenet is really easy to do. You just need the right app, SABnzbd+ running on that home computer, and the port SABnzbd+ runs on (8080 by default) forwarded to that computer via your router's admin software. Then you can use the relevant app for your smartphone to remotely schedule downloads. That's the process in a nutshell. Here's the step by step:

1. Presumably you've already got a Usenet account and set up SABnzbd+, but if not you need to do that.
2. Forward port 8080 (or whatever port you're using) to the IP address of the computer running SABnzbd+. If you don't know how to do this, read our port forwarding guide.
3. Now you need an app for your smartphone. If you're using an iPhone, download myNZB ($3). For Android, download, NZBAir ($5), sabdroidplus (Free), NZBDroid (Free, $1), or one of the many other options.
4. Once you've downloaded your NZB-adding app of choice, go into SABnzbd+ on your computer, grab your API key. You can find it by choosing Config -> General, then scrolling down the page to find the "API Key", and copy it. You can either do this directly on your phone or do it on your computer and send the API key to your phone via email (or whatever method you prefer).
5. Go into the settings on the app you chose and enter your SABnzbd+ credentials. This will generally include your username, password, and API key. On the iPhone, you'll find this in the myNZB settings in the Settings app—not in the myNZB app. On Android, the location will vary a little because we're not talking about a multiple apps, but you'll find the settings you're looking for by pressing the menu button on your device.

Now you're all set up! You can now use your SAB-compatible app to search for and schedule Usenet downloads with ease.

Got any other clever ways you start your home computer downloading files from afar? Let's hear about it in the comments.