For anyone out there using Mobile Me as a personal or a professional file share server, this article is for you!
Apple just strengthened their Mobile Me software package with the release of a FREE iDisk app for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Users can now access files and documents stored on their iDisks, and also share these files with others right from their handheld devices.
Once you’ve got it installed, you can go into Settings and enable “Show Extensions.” I find this to be a helpful way of distinguishing between differently formatted files that may have similar names. (See below). Be sure to keep “Show System Folders” off, or else, you’ll be encumbered by all of the system-based folders which you can’t (and shouldn’t) be messing with unless you know what you’re doing.
My favorite part of the file sharing feature is that you can quickly view which files you’ve shared with others, and if you need to, you can easily unshare those files, with a single tap. This feature alone makes iDisk a much better way to share files with clients or vendors than your typical FTP system.
When you grant someone FTP access to your server, they gain permanent access to a certain folder full of files, until you decide to revoke their access. With this system, you can give a client or a vendor access to the files they require, and you can set an access expiration, which will revoke their access to selected files after a period of time, or you can revoke their access to a particular file while leaving them able to access others. The control is yours.
Below is how the iDisk app displays a file which has been “Shared.” Note the green text in the description field, and the green icon to the right, similar to the icon Apple uses in iCal to denote calendars which have been published to a shared server.
To stop sharing a particular file, or to send out a new link to the file in an email from your iPhone or iPod Touch, simply tap on that green icon. (see below.)
When you send out a link via email, the recipient will receive an email containing a download link. (See below)
You can also password protect files before you share them, for added security. Not all files can be viewed on your iPhone or iPod touch. Viewable file types include Microsoft Office, .pdf documents, Apple iWork documents, .mp3 and .m4a files, and Quicktime movies, to name a few. Flash video files are still unviewable on the iPhone.
I’ve been playing with this app for the past hour or so, and find it to be a very useful addition to my Mobile Me and iPhone experience.
You can download this app directly from the iTunes App Store from your iPhone or iPod Touch, or you can click on this link HERE and download from iTunes on your Mac and then sync it over to your handheld device later on.
Here’s a list of features provided by Apple:
- View files on your iDisk
- Access Public folders
- Easily share files from your iPhone
- Quickly access recently viewed files (this feature is also very cool)
- View iPhone – supported file types – including iWork, Office, PDF, Quicktime and more. (Files larger than 20MB may not be viewable.)
REQUIREMENTS:
- MobileMe subscription
- iPhone or iPod Touch
- iPhone OS 3.0
Thanks for reading!
~ Chris
