Dropbox for iOS update saves your snaps, gives you 3GB free

Dropbox for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has added automatic video and photo uploading, storing your snaps safely online.

The version 1.5 update, which is now available to download, has a feature that causes any snaps or footage you capture using your device to be automatically uploaded to your Dropbox account.

It's a feature that was already present on the Android version of the app, and provides peace of mind for anyone too lazy to physically back up all those thousands of pictures of your cat and videos of... your cat.

As an incentive to use the service (and possibly because Dropbox knows that most people have a huge number of photos clogging up their smart phones), Dropbox will give you up to 3GB of free extra space when you upload photos automatically, doling out the free storage in 500MB chunks.

I've used the app, and the automatic upload is easy to use -- it's just a virtual switch to flick in the settings tab, at which point you'll be asked if you want to upload snaps and clips from this point on, or whether you'd like to retroactively back up everything currently languishing on your phone.

There's one feature missing though, and that's the ability to stop videos from being automatically uploaded. If you're anything like me, you've got a tonne of photos you'd like to back up, but don't want enormous, less important video files hogging your storage.

Another downside is that, like the Google+ iOS app, you'll need to have Dropbox open in the background for it to back up your snaps automatically. Close down the app, and your snaps won't upload.

Are you a Dropbox fanatic? What do you use the service for? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.