FileTransfer
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Cloud file sharing on the iPhone, four ways
Among the crowded field of cloud sharing and file synchronization services, there are plenty of interesting options (we've been partial to Dropbox around here, but check around for more), but when you add 'must work well with iPhone' to the requirements list, the choices narrow a bit. I've been testing out two business-focused options in Readdle Docs and box.net, and two other iPhone-friendly options (ZumoDrive and Drop.io) have just poked above the horizon.Readdle Docs may be on the pricey side for the App Store at $9.99US, but there's a lot of functionality bundled into that ten bucks. In addition to turning your iPhone or iPod touch into a WebDAV file server -- accessible easily and securely in the Finder, Windows Explorer, or via clients like Transmit -- Readdle lets you access hosted storage on your MobileMe account or other WebDAV services.Once you get the files onto your device, it's easy to view all iPhone-friendly formats, or forward documents and images by email. I'm particularly fond of the full-screen PDF and PPT viewers in the app. Of course, it's no Documents to Go, but it's a good start (and for those waiting eagerly for D2G to arrive on the iPhone, word from DataViz is that the app is on track for a Q2 release). Update: DistortedLoop points to veteran Palm developer QuickOffice and the $9.99 Mobile Files Pro product, which offers iDisk connectivity and also allows editing of Excel files. I hadn't heard of it before and we'll definitely be checking it out for a future review.While you can use Readdle with iDisk or any WebDAV-enabled storage service, you also get a bonus account on the Readdle servers with 512 MB of storage (yes, not much, but it's handy). Upgrades to the Readdle storage start at $5/month for 2 GB. On the other hand, if you need the cloud access but not the onboard server, you can save $2 and get Readdle's OneDisk product for $7.99. Per Michael's question in the comments, the Readdle team does have OneDisk working with JungleDisk and Amazon S3, and it should work in the same fashion with Docs.Though box.net is focused on enterprise users, it's plenty functional for personal use; with a free 1GB storage account that permits 5 collaboration folders and files up to 25 MB in size, you've got some room to maneuver (paid plans start at $7.95/mo). The companion iPhone app, also free, lets you upload images from your photo library or camera, view a list of recently modified files, and open up any of your files for viewing (unfortunately the new box.net webdoc format reads in as raw HTML, which is a drag). You can also forward sharing links to your colleagues directly from the iPhone app, which can be extremely helpful in the midst of a collaborative project.The box.net app is more streamlined than Readdle Docs, but offers a lot less of the bidirectional functionality, and the viewer isn't fullscreen or landscape enabled; it also doesn't appear to cache large documents locally as Readdle does, and it's crashed on me once or twice while downloading large PDFs. Still, if you're already using box.net or you don't have a WebDAV-enabled storage option for use with Readdle, it's a fine app to try.Details of the two new kids on the block, in the 2nd half of the post.
Bluetooth transfers come to jailbroken iPhones
No, no -- Bluetooth transfers haven't come to the iPhone natively (um, Apple, are you taking this hint to heart?), but for those courageous enough to jailbreak their handset, you can enjoy the same spoils enjoyed by RAZR owners. It seems the final release has yet to be made public (it's coming to the iSpazio Repository in short order), but if you're ready to get your hopes up, a demonstration video is just after the break.[Via Boy Genius Report]
First Look: Fliq Tasks
Mark/Space has added another member to their rapidly growing family of iPhone file transfer applications. The new baby in the family is Fliq Tasks, which joins Fliq for Mac and Windows, Fliq Notes, and Fliq for iPhone. As with Fliq for iPhone and Fliq Notes, Fliq Tasks is available in the App Store for free (click opens iTunes). Mark/Space is providing their iPhone applications for free, while charging for the Mac and Windows "host" software. Fliq for Mac and Fliq for Windows are available for US$19.95 (US$49.95 for a 3-pack) each. If you want to transfer files between iPhones over a Wi-Fi network, all you need are the free iPhone apps. When you add the functionality of transferring information to and from your Mac or PC, you'll have to purchase the desktop applications.Fliq Tasks is a full-featured task manager with big, clear, and easy-to-use interface similar to that found in Fliq Notes. Tasks can be listed by name, date due, category, and priority. You can add categories to better match them to your requirements, and there's a simple setting to hide completed tasks. Using the soon-to-be-released Fliq 1.1 for Mac or Windows, you'll be able to send or receive tasks from your iPhone to your big computer.Current Fliq users should be sure to give Fliq Tasks a try, and the price is definitely right. Check out the mini-gallery below for more screenshots. %Gallery-43213%
TUAW Faceoff: Mark/Space Fliq for Mac vs. Mobile DropCopy
A few months ago, Mark/Space delivered Fliq for iPhone, a free utility for sending contacts and photos to other iPhones and iPod touches that are also running Fliq. Later, they shipped Fliq for Mac, a US$19.95 application goes beyond the capabilities of the iPhone app by providing an easy way to move photos, contacts and notes from your Mac to any Mac or iPhone on your Wi-Fi network.There are several free or low-cost utilities that perform similar tasks, most particularly 10base-t interactive's DropCopy and Mobile DropCopy. The latter is a new iPhone app that, like Fiiq and Fliq for Mac, facilitates transfer of non-DRM data between iPhones and Macs. Since news of both of these apps appeared in my inbox on the same day, I decided that a faceoff was in order. So how do these apps compare, or am I comparing Apples and oranges? I think you'll find that they're similar in operation, but different in what they mean to accomplish.Read on to see how they fare in a TUAW faceoff!
FileChute to the rescue for sending large files
FileChute from Yellow Mug Software has been kicking around for awhile, but has been pretty much under the radar for most people. Some of our readers mentioned it when we reviewed YouSendIt last January. FileChute is powerful because it can send any size file, as long as you have space on your iDisk, FTP site, or WebDAV web server. Using FileChute is a really simple operation. Just drag a large file (or a small one) to a target on the application and it uploads that file, allowing you to specify if you want to zip it and provide a short URL. FileChute will automatically create an email with the URL in it, ready to send to anyone. I take a lot of astronomical images, and they won't fit in an email at their native size. So when I want to share the high quality versions, onto FileChute they go and the person I send them to only has to click on a URL to download the file, or see it displayed in a browser, depending on what type of file you have sent. You can send applications, movie files, anything really. Before Leopard came out Apple was making some noise about providing a similar feature in Mobile Me, but it never appeared, and in the messy launch of Mobile Me I think it was forgotten. Recently, Yellow Mug added an iPhone and iPod touch version of the application, and it can see your files stored on the web server of your choice, and initiate a file transfer just as if you were sitting at your desktop or laptop mac. It's free for FileChute owners. Sure, there are lots of ways to transfer files, but this application makes it drop dead easy. I find myself using it several times a week. It's the kind of thing that should be built into the Mac OS, but you can have the feature now for less than 20 bucks.
Social networking for iPhone: Fliq your friends
Longtime Mac developer Mark/Space, Inc. has just announced their first app for iPhone, and it's free.Fliq (click opens iTunes) runs on the iPhone and iPod touch and is billed as a "real-time social networking app between friends in close proximity." If you and your friends are on the same Wi-Fi network, and if the free Fliq app is running on all of your iPhone or iPod touch devices, you can send contacts and photos to each other. Upon launching Fliq, a list of nearby devices also running Fliq is displayed (see screenshot). After selecting who to Fliq information to, a screen prompts you to send your pre-selected "business card", another contact, or a photo to the other iPhone.In practice, Fliq works very well. My wife and I were able to send photos and contact information back and forth with no issues. I'd like to see Bluetooth transfer capabilities built in for those situations where there's no nearby Wi-Fi network.The Fliq Web page notes that Fliq will soon have the ability to transfer contacts and photos to a Mac or Windows PC.In the interest of full disclosure, blogger Steve Sande has done consulting work for Mark/Space in the past, although not for this product.
First Look: Briefcase for iPhone
Briefcase is the latest in a flood of apps for the iPhone that let you transfer files to and from a PC or Mac, then view them on the iPhone. After using a beta for several weeks, my personal opinion is that Briefcase is the easiest of the bunch to use. So far, it's also the only app of this type to allow Wi-Fi file transfer between iPhones.Several competing applications require running special software on the host computer, Briefcase doesn't. Mac users just turn on File Sharing in System Preferences and make sure that the iPhone and Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network. A list of machines appears on the iPhone, you tap on one to connect, and once the user of the computer allows you to have access, you can browse the directories of the machine you're connected to. WIndows and Linux machines simply need to support remote login via SSH. You can also make remote connections to machines if you know the IP address and SSH port number.When Briefcase arrives in the App Store soon, it will cost US$4.99. A free version, Briefcase Lite, just lacks the ability to zap files to other iPhones. We'll write a full review soon. Until then, enjoy the gallery. %Gallery-32944%
First Look: FileMagnet
FileMagnet (mentioned briefly by Dave in his iPhone apps I actually use post yesterday) is a low-cost wireless file transfer tool for iPhone and iPod Touch. It requires you to install a companion desktop application, also called FileMagnet, which acts as the conduit for file transfer. Usage is simple enough: drag files you wish to copy into the desktop app's window. Then open FileMagnet on the iPhone, and as long as the two machines are on the same WiFi network, they will find each other over Bonjour, and wirelessly connect. Then your files are smoothly and wirelessly transferred over. Transfer will also happen every time you sync the device, if the desktop app happens to be running. FileMagnet is a handy place for reference materials, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs and images, that you're likely to need to carry at all times. It handles entire folders full of files, too. There are a few problems right now, all of which are addressed on the official FileMagnet FAQ, mostly with a promise that they'll be fixed soon: FileMagnet cannot display iWork files (yet) The desktop app requires Leopard (but a Tiger version is on the way) You can't email files, or indeed do anything with them except view them (an email feature is coming) Like a lot of iPhone and iPod touch apps, it's in its early days. Some features are lacking, or not as perfectly functional as you might like. But the developers are aware of the limitations and working on fixes and new features, and personally I think it's a decent value application with bright prospects for future development. I'll be watching out for updates with interest. FileMagnet is $4.99, and available through the App Store. UPDATE: Joshua Keay from Magnetism Studios has been in touch to say that that FileMagnet supports Tiger right now. He added that support for rotation and more file types is on the way in the next build, which will be a free update.
Pyro 1.6: Campfire client gains search, drag and drop file transfer enhancements and more
It's been over a year since we first mentioned Pyro, the powerful Mac OS X client for 37signals' Campfire web-based chat service for groups and businesses. While I personally didn't pick up a copy back then since I wasn't a Campfire user, I'm not entirely familiar with every change that has come since April '06. Still, even the most recent list of changes warrants Pyro another mention, especially since I'm looking at using Campfire for a few uses and projects. In addition to already offering a dashboard and central location for all your Campfire chats and displaying message status alerts in the Dock icon, check out what's new in Pyro 1.6: Any file type can be dragged onto Pyro to share in a Campfire chat Pyro will automatically zip a folder or .APP Dragging an image from a web browser will insert a URL for that image instead of uploading it Campfire's new sidebar search field now works in Pyro Support for the new WebKit installed by Safari 3 beta (mentioned on the Pyro development blog) and of course, bug fixes As Campfire's example uses page details, there are a lot of great scenarios for such a slick web app, and Pyro looks like the perfect tool to bring together the coolness of Campfire with the power of Mac OS X. Surprisingly, Pyro is still offered free, and even though Campfire primarily focuses on business users by offering a few paid accounts, it too has a free account with which you can register and tinker around to see if Campfire is right for your use.
Mac 101: Transfer files with iChat
%Gallery-3118% Why pay almost twenty bucks for file transfer programs like Anzan when iChat provides essentially the same technology for free? This gallery shows you how to use iChat to send files to your buddies. Just drag a file into the text entry field in your chat window and press return. iChat notifies your buddy that you're trying to send a file. If your buddy accepts the file, the transfer begins. By making sure that your buddy gives the okay, iChat adds a layer of security to the system. No one will force you to receive data you do not want or do not trust.
BoxCloud: dead simple file sharing
Billing themselves as "dead simple file sharing for design and media professionals," BoxCloud seems to have a good thing going here. If you deal with a lot of clients and customers who simply aren't hip to FTP or other ways of transferring large files, BoxCloud offers a pretty simple, nay - dead simple - alternative. Featuring software clients for both Windows and Mac OS X (though when Download Squad found them last year they apparently offered a Linux client too), all you need is someone's email address to share a file of any size with them. Your lucky recipient, be they a client, friend, family member or co-worker, will receive an email with a link to download the file from your BoxCloud page. But herein lies the twist: BoxCloud doesn't host the file, so you aren't charged for space - your computer must be running BoxCloud's client, be on, and connected to the internet in order to share the file (i.e. - you host it). Their service plan then simply charges you for monthly bandwidth, not storage space, and plans start at 1GB/month for free, moving on up to 20GB for $9/month.Sure, anyone who's domain + hosting savvy will scoff at this service, but anyone looking for brainless and painless file sharing might appreciate BoxCloud's simplicity. If you're interested, take their tour for more info on how simple sharing can be.
iDropper - FTP made simple
iDropper takes an interesting approach to file transfer software by allowing you to easily create cross-platform 'droplets' for drag-and-drop transfer to a server and directory you specify. These droplets can them be shared with friends, clients or anyone else across Mac OS X and Windows who needs to send you files but couldn't tell you what FTP stands for.Three editions of iDropper are offered: iDropper Personal ($39) offers all the basic FTP and droplet functionality, while iDropper Professional ($125) allows businesses to brand their droplets and receive email notifications. iDropper Enterprise ($295) adds web page and web script notifications for the most serious of file transferring businesses.A comparison chart of iDropper's features is listed here, and I should also point out that these prices are apparently introductory discounts. After January 31st, 2007 they will rise to their respectively regular prices of $49, $195 and $395. Trial downloads are offered here.
