While you're waiting for the first official Ubuntu phone to appear, you have an Android device to use in the meantime. Although the process of downloading data from your smartphone is easy, it usually requires a suitable USB cable and working with the Android filesystem.

Without a cable, you will find it awkward getting to the smartphone data, but the AirDroid app can help. This free app allows you to sync your phone files with your computer over the local network. And, because you can access the data through the browser, the app even works over external networks, independent of your operating system, provided your phone can log on to the network.

Ready for Take-Off

In the test, I used a Samsung Galaxy S running CyanogenMod 10, which corresponds to Android version 4.1. The screenshot function isn't available if you use the preinstalled Android, however, because it requires root privileges.

To install AirDroid, go to Google Play. When it's loaded, you can start the app, which usually requires authentication with the wireless LAN from your phone. A UMTS option is also available, and syncing over the Internet works but is less secure.

Clicking the Secure button to open an https:// connection can have a negative effect on your transmission rate. Either way, once the phone detects the network, it will display an IP address and password that you use to set up the transmission.

Preparing the Browser

To begin, open a browser and enter the IP address and port number to access the smartphone over the network. You'll then get a web access address, such as http://web.airdroid.com (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Once you start the AirDroid app with your smartphone and PC on the same network, you can access the phone with your browser.

Over an unsecured connection, a small window then appears for you to enter the password from your phone. Simply enter it in uppercase to open the AirDroid dashboard.

You can activate options such as setting the language; and, for a secure connection via https://, you can click the option under the password entry box. Instructions on how to get the corresponding certificate appear; with Firefox, you get a certificate warning.

Click the I Understand the Risks link and click Add Exception . Enable the option Permanently store this exception if desired, then click Confirm Security Exception (Figure 2). If the password works, the AirDroid dashboard should appear (Figure 3).

Figure 3: The AirDroid dashboard lets you download multimedia content, edit contacts, and take screenshots.

Figure 2: For a secure https:// connection to AirDroid over Firefox, you need a certificate.

Photos, Videos, and Music

The AirDroid dashboard provides a range of functions – some of which didn't always work flawlessly. For example, with Ubuntu 12.10, if you click Photos in the Firefox browser, you'll be able to view your camera shots. To download them all, a click on Select All and then Download should create a .zip archive that you can save on your desktop. In my tests, however, the function failed, and I couldn't get a file of even 1MB to work. Clicking a single photo icon worked, but that can be a hassle with a large photo collection.

Alternatively, you can click Files in the dashboard and search on the phone's SD card for the DCIM folder, where you'll usually find all stored photos. When I marked them with Ctrl+A and downloaded them into the .zip file, I was able to get all of the photos.

Theoretically, you can play videos right from the AirDroid file manager, although Ubuntu will reply with an error because it can't find the corresponding codec. (See the "Multimedia Apps" article in the Discovery Guide to see which video codecs you need to install on Ubuntu.) In this case, it helps to download the video by hovering over it and opening it locally. Playing music, on the other hand, is flawless. Click the Music folder on the dashboard and a little icon appears next to each item that you can click to play or download. A convenient feature lets you click the little gear symbol and set the music as your ringtone. You can't set up a playlist, but that's not really the point of the app.

Apps, Screenshots, and Communication

To operate CyanogenMod on your phone without the Google apps, you'll need the corresponding APK package for each app. Before you convert over, access the apps with AirDroid, click Apps on the dashboard, select the apps you need, and download them. If you already have the APK packages, you can just install them. Using Contacts , Call Logs , and Messages you can get to your address book, call logs, and sent and received IMs. Not only can you send IMs directly from the browser, you also can edit existing entries. Although it would be nice at this point to be able to export the data (e.g., for backups), other specialized backup solutions exist for the purpose.

Finally, AirDroid includes a screenshot feature, but it requires superuser privileges. Click the Screenshot icon to open a window on your smartphone, navigate to the screen you want to capture, and capture it in the browser (Figure 3). A blinking icon confirms that you need superuser privileges.

Of additional interest is the URL bar to the right of the window. You can use it to call up a website on your smartphone, although no real use case for it comes to mind. The telephone widget in the upper right provides a statistic about the total number of files on your phone – that is, the number of message, photo, app, and other files.

Conclusion

Although you can get to your phone data with a USB cable, AirDroid is more convenient. It provides easy navigation without having to dig through folders in Nautilus. Even on external networks, AirDroid proves to exchange data quickly or display photos on the larger screen, without bothering with complicated configuration.