DropBox has been moving up in the world in the last few months, due in no small part to excellent support of mobile platforms like Android. Today the cloud storage service announced a beta program for users of its Android app. Testers will get access to a newer, faster and more feature-rich version of the DropBox app – but that’s not all. If you need a carrot even without the stick, beta testers will receive up to 5 gigabytes of extra cloud storage connected to your account, for use on any operating system, including DropBox’s more robust desktop programs.

The system is a little convoluted, so follow along. Install the beta app from this link via the standard non-Market method. Upload at least one photo, and you get an extra 500 megabytes connected to your DropBox account. Upload another 500MB of of photos, and you get another 500MB of storage, all the way up to 5GB of total extra space. Normally users are limited to uploading 180MB daily, but DropBox is dropping limits for the beta trial period, so throw in as much as you want. Those of you who are on a limited data plan may want to use a home or work WiFi network, though.

The additional storage is generous to be sure, but it doesn’t hold a candle to DropBox’s competitor, Box.net. If you own a Sony XPERIA or LG Android phone, you can install the Box.net app to instantly get upgraded to a whopping 50GB of free storage space. Those of you rocking Android-modded HP TouchPads should boot back in to WebOS and download the Box.net app too, as it grants the same extras.

[via Phandroid]