In response to the suggestion to export as .shp or .csv, I'm wondering if in some cases it work better if you add the service from you arcgis online account to ArcGIS 10.1 for desktop. This is an option when viewing your content and you click the triangle link of the published service. Once the service is in ArcGIS you can use the export to geodatabase. I was hoping this method would preserve the attachments but I can't seem to get those out. I am hoping they improve the interchangeability of the ArcGIS online and Collector since it is presumed that many collecting data in the field with the Collector app will want to export/import that data complete with the attachments into their GIS. I just found an even easier way to do this from within ArcGIS online. From table of contents you rtclick the layer and choose analysis, one of the options is extract data. This still however striped out the attachments. I also looked at the downloaded map which you can download as a .sd file, inside there is a geodatabase which strangely enough appears to be the original upload, minus any attachments or the added features. I hope there is some answers on how to get data that is developed, updated and had attachments made using ArcGIS online/collector/or even explorer extracted in a format that preserves this data for use in ArcGIS desktop.