If you’re unfamiliar with “DropBox”, it’s the 21st century version of the “Briefcase” that came with Windows 95. You can place files in one folder in Windows explorer or the Finder and DropBox’s service will automatically sync your files to any other computer that you have their software setup on as well as DropBox’s website. Now, you can access your DropBox from your iPad and iPhone-class devices with the DropBox app in the App Store.

If you already make use of DropBox, getting the free iPad/iPhone application for the service is a no-brainer. If you aren’t already using DropBox, you can get an account with 2GB of storage for free, or get 50GB of storage for $9.95 per month or 100GB of storage for $19.99 per month.

The application serves two main purposes. First, it lets you view all of the files that you currently have on your DropBox. The device can render most file formats including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF as well as various image, audio and video formats. The rendering of some file formats, such as PowerPoint slides or Excel, can be a bit slow since the service renders the documents in the cloud and then sends them to your computer, but it’s still pretty functional.

The other core piece of functionality that DropBox for the iPad offers is that it can export files to other applications, such as Good Reader and Pages. You can then edit the file in the application that you send the file to. Unfortunately, you can’t currently edit a document in Page and send it back to your DropBox. However, it’s possible that an enterprising developer will write an editing application that allows users to accept files from and send files back to DropBox.

Since the iPad is limited to 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of storage, DropBox does not create a copy of your files on your iPad like it does in the desktop versions of the client. Instead, files are stored on the cloud and downloaded to your iPad when you access them. If you want to have a file from your DropBox even when you’re not connected to the internet, you can “favorite” a file and a copy will be stored on your iPad.