Dropbox Automator does exactly what it promises to do: It takes files in your Dropbox and does things to them, automatically. Point it at a folder and it'll check every few seconds for anything new. Then, when you add a file, it acts.
Photos can be sent to Facebook, or have special effects added to them. Documents can be converted to PDFs, and files can be zipped, encrypted or even moved to another Dropbox folder. And there are plenty more actions to choose from.
Dropbox is pretty great, and there are lots of local ways to act on new files locally. I use an app called Hazel to watch for new BitTorrent files in a certain folder an then open them for me. But this only works if the computer is switched on.
Dropbox Automator will perform its tasks for you on its servers, so you can, say, save a file to Dropbox from your iPhone and have it turned into a PDF, ready to open in iBooks. Slick, right?
The service is really a glue which sticks together many existing web services. The PDF conversion, for example, is done by conv2pdf.com, and image effects are added at Photofunia.
The only reservation I have is that the service has full read and write access to all your Dropbox files, so check first to make sure you're happy with that. Otherwise, the service is free, and works well. Developer can also add their services to Dropbox Automator.
Dropbox Automator signup page [Dropbox Automator. Thanks, Juergen]
