Multi-platform file transfer with Dukto on Nokia Belle

Typically, sending files from PC to phone – or vice versa – requires a USB cable, or an email account that acts as the middleman, passing data back and forth. Dukto is a multi-platform, file transfer app that works on your Nokia Belle smartphone and enables you to pass information to and from your computers, via Wi-Fi.
For Dukto to work, you need to have the app installed on more than one device, due to the primary function of the app – to transfer files to another device.

With the app installed onto your Nokia Belle smartphone, and a version installed on your computer(s) – Windows XP or later, Mac OS X 10.6.x or later and Linux Ubuntu and Fedora – you’re ready to share files across all the devices as there’s nothing at all to configure. To download Dukto onto your computer, head over to the Dukto website to find the suitable version.

In order to share files, your phone(s) or computer(s) must all be linked into the same network. If at home, the chances are that you’ve only got the one network, the wireless one you connect to to access the Internet. However, you don’t need an internet connection to use the app. Even if your Internet has failed – like it often does in my home – your devices are still connected to one another, through the network.

With Dukto running on your phone and on your computer at the same time, you’ll see that the app automatically finds other devices on the network. This saves searching for IP addresses of other machines – although there’s the option for that if you prefer.

The app on both your phone and the computer has been designed to be identical to maintain a level of consistency throughout the transferring experience. The developer of Dukto (Emanuele Colombo) has chosen the Windows Phone style UI for the app, which invites you to flick left and right to access other parts of the app.

Sending files is easy. Tapping on the destination device in the app brings into view some options: send some text, send text from clipboard, send some files, and send a folder. Now, I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get the send some text option to work on my Nokia 701. I’m not sure if it’s a problem with my phone, or the app, but I’m hoping this is looked at from the developer. However, all the other options worked perfectly.

Let’s say I’ve got a photo on my phone that I want to send to my computer, pressing the send some files option will open up the phone’s file manager, and you can look for it there. Once you’ve selected the image, the app on the computer will spring to life and receive the file in super-quick time. Again, one criticism here is that I’d like a preview option of the file I want to send on the phone before I send it. Sometimes, selecting a file by filename alone isn’t the easiest way to browse files, for me.

Nonetheless, the sharing experience is a good one and it’s quick.

If you want to send something from your computer to your phone, you can select your phone from the app on your computer screen. Alternatively, a nice drag and drop feature means that you can also drag a file or folder into the app and have it automatically send to your phone.

Overall, this is a great app that’s very useful if you regularly want or need to send files from your phone to your computer – or vice versa.

Download Dukto from Nokia Store today, for free. It’s available on most Nokia Belle smartphones, including the Nokia 701, Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia 808 PureView.