AirDroid gets more cloudy

Want wireless control over your Android? AirDroid is the easiest way to hook your computer to your phone or tablet over WiFi. You can pingpong files back and forth, backup your apps, play with your contacts and messages, browse your pictures, play your movies and music, and much more.

Among other things, AirDroid has a task killer to nuke misbehaving apps, which is also a quick way into your app settings.

The latest update adds a bunch of cloud features.

The new AirDroid does C2DM (cloud to device messaging), which lets you kick AirDroid awake through the web browser on your computer without even touching your phone. You can do so over your own WiFi network, but you can also do it over AirDroids servers. This can save the day if you forget your phone or tablet at home and you urgently need to grab a contact, message, or file from it while on the go.

It's also an easy way to turn an old phone or tablet into a file server.

Now that AirDroid can kick your Android out of bed from the cloud its maker grabbed the opportunity to add some anti-theft features. You can locate your device and wipe it from a distance, just like with all anti-theft apps. And you can make AirDroid snap pictures to catch the thief. Its remote camera option has other uses too. For example, it's an easy way to keep an eye on the baby room. Too bad you can't control AirDroid by SMS (yet), because this would make its remote control options even more accessible.

I wonder what's next. If AirDroid can make your phone talk with a web browser, it can also make it talk with AirDroid on other phones. This opens up lots of possibilities. For example, messaging and VoIP could hitch a ride on AirDroids new cloud connections. Or AirDroid could double as a P2P network. Let's see what the next update brings.

• AirDroid (Google Play)