Our Verdict
Storing medium like photograph , music , and video on your iPhone is a grab : after all that ’s what the equipment was plan for . But when it comes to carrying around other type of documents , or files that are n’t in your iTunes or iPhoto library , the iPhone fall woefully brusque . you could always send PDFs , Microsoft Word written document , and Excel spreadsheets to yourself , but since the Mail app lacks a lookup function , detect the one message with the file you need often means picking through retentive leaning of Es - ring armor .
A trio of worthwhile programs have sprung up to make full this nothingness , allowing you to store and see documents of your choice on the iPhone or iPod touch . It ’s rigorously a “ look , do n’t touch social function , ” though , since the iPhone ’s software program does not yet let editing of these document .
While each program takes a somewhat unlike approach to getting files on your phone , all have their own durability and weaknesses calculate on what your intended economic consumption are . All three software require that your mobile gimmick and calculator be on the same Wi - Fi internet so as to transplant Indian file and all three have close to similar performance , both in transferring and see files , except in the compositor’s case observe below .
I Call Your Name: Olive Toast’s Files lets you filter your files based on name.
I Call Your Name : Olive Toast ’s Files permit you trickle your files based on name .
Olive Toast Software’sFilesstruck me as the most iPhone - like of the covering I essay . It run by running a WebDAV server that you may connect to from either Windows or OS X ; once connected , you may copy files to it like any other remote server .
The status of the WebDAV server is denote in Files by the color of a circle icon in the bottom left corner of the interface . ( Green means on , reddish off , and orange no Wi - Fi connection observe . ) . Tapping the picture lets you easily start or stop the waiter . The app ’s preference , approachable via the power train icon in the top left , lets you set a username and password to prevent others from get at your files , or enable guest admission if you require others to be capable to overtake your document around .
Multi-Purpose: With DataCase, you can create multiple volumes each with their own permissions.
data file has a act of built - in feature that make it a press stud to apply . For example , there ’s a magnifying spyglass icon that you’re able to knock to lend up a Filter field : Type in a string , and it ’ll automatically show you only file whose name matches the characters you entered .
When you ’re viewing file , a handy toolbar at the bottom of the screenland allows you to jump to the beginning or end of a papers and also gives you access to one of Files ’s other handy features : bookmarker . you may add inner bookmark to long documents and then jump to them later ; Files will also remember where you left off recital in a multi - page Indian file and start at that point if you give the file later .
My only gripe with the toolbar at the bottom of the screen is that it disappears automatically after a moment . It ’s convenient when you ’re scrolling through a file , but I ’d rather have the option to conceal or show it with a single pat like many other applications manipulation .
Support Center: Of the three apps, FileMagnet supports viewing the most types of files.
When you ’re regard a impression , the Files toolbar also has a button that ’s labeled “ Add to iPhoto ” , but that ’s a little shoddy . While the app seemingly tries to add the photo to your phone ’s Camera Roll , it did n’t work in my tests . The image show up in the thumbnail of the Camera Roll in the Photos app , but not in the Camera Roll itself .
Files handles many of the types of document you may look at in Mail , like Word docs , PDFs , images , audio and video , even Safari WebArchives — however , it falls down when it amount down to catch iWork written document , showing them instead as folder . grant to the documentation , you may run around this by compressing the files into .ZIP archives . In my tests that worked for Pages and Keynote file , but not for Numbers documents .
In type you ’re worried about getting carried aside , Files set aside you to set a disk quota demarcation line . Unfortunately , Files only tells you how much space is being taken up by all the data file in a give folder when you ’re inside that leaflet ; outside of the leaflet , it only tells you how many items are in that brochure — not the total sizing — making it tough to keep track of where all your gravid files are enshroud .
DataCase , by Veiosoft , is very alike to Files , but sports some even more advanced features for power users . Instead of using a WebDAV waiter , DataCase lets you transfer file cabinet over the web via a variety of technologies , such as OS X ’s native AFP , HTTP , or FTP . That make it comfortable to connect from either your Mac or your PC .
But in most cases you wo n’t need to fire up a client , since bake - in bread and butter for Apple ’s Bonjour applied science mean that you do n’t have to drop costly time inputting a waiter address : when you plunge DataCase , your iPhone will show up in the Finder just like another figurer on your internet .
Upon launching , DataCase ’s sieve provide you with a ready to hand donut - forge graphical record that breaks down how much content is being used by different types of single file you ’re storing in DataCase ; it also provides a text breakdown below the chart ( it does n’t , however , excogitate how much space your iTunes - synced media files are using , for example ) . And not only does DataCase let you take in files in landscape preference , you’re able to also toss the telephone to voyage DataCase ’s user interface lengthwise as well — helpful if you have long file cabinet names .
Multi - Purpose : With DataCase , you could make multiple volumes each with their own permissions .
DataCase allows you to make multiple bulk , each with their own read and write license , which is ready to hand for mightiness user , but has the potential to jumble beginners — for example , there ’s no way to replicate a filing cabinet from one volume to another on the phone itself and there ’s no fashion to search all your volumes . By default , one book is set up as a Drop Box that other users can put files in but not say , and another is set up as a Shared Files volume that all users can compose and read to .
I found DataCase ’s port to be the least intuitive of the three ; for exercise , from the chief screen the only alternative , is to wiretap the folder image in the donut hole , which is n’t apparently a button . And while a Filter button let you choose to see only a certain type of file ( audio , video , pictures , and so on ) , it does n’t cater the same name - searching capability that Files has . Plus , due to the elusive nature of the UI when you ’re percolate , it ’s wanton to forget that you ’re hiding some of your single file .
When in data file viewing mode , DataCase adds toolbar controls that get you leap out to the beginning or closing of a written document or Sir Frederick Handley Page up and down . However , of three apps test , DataCase had the least support for different data file type . I would oft found myself confronted by an wrongdoing saying that the take text file could not be displayed . I also break away into an issue where any endeavor to transfer files would crash the platform , but reinstalling the app seems to have fixed those problems .
The last entry in this trio of utilities is the least expensive of the three , Magnetism Studios’FileMagnet . Unlike DataCase and Files , FileMagnet foregoes the use of the networking protocol built into most operating systems for a spare background - based applications programme call FileMagnet Uploader , which you ’ll have to download fromthe company ’s WWW situation . ( The first clock time you launch FileMagnet on the iPhone , the app will prompt you to do so . )
The most obvious downside of this approach is that it imply you could only transfer file with a Mac ( the background software system is not yet compatible with Windows , although the developers are planning to add that funcionality shortly ) and that you ’ll ask to have FileMagnet Uploader on any computer with which you want to channelize files .
But a background - base app program does confab certain benefits . For one matter , you’re able to queue up file to transfer by and by by dredge them into FileMagnet Uploader : the files will set out to upload as before long as you open FileMagnet on your iPhone . And file transferred to FileMagnet keep a representative thumbnail — Files and DataCase both show only generic icons — so it ’s light to graze a booklet of images and find the one you ’re calculate for , even if they have inscrutable names . unluckily , FileMagnet does not have the search or filtering capabilities of either of its competitors .
Support Center : Of the three apps , FileMagnet supports take in the most types of Indian file .
FileMagnet also has the respectable filetype compatibility of all three apps , reading not only Microsoft Office file , but iWork document as well . It was the only one of the three apps I tested to expose an RTF text file with styled text . ( Files displayed it as plain text and DataCase would not display it all . ) The only file that caused FileMagnet to jib that Files and DataCase could take was a WAV file . I also run into a recur warning notice that FileMagnet was run low on store when judge to view large images , but Magnetism Studios articulate this will be get in a forthcoming update .
At the end of the mean solar day , which of these applications you adjudicate to apply will bet largely on what sort of function you plan to get out of them . If you spend a lot of clip transferring files to and from Windows machines , then Files and DataCase will make your life a little easier . If the ability to view as many different types of filing cabinet as possible on your iPhone is your priority , then FileMagnet has the others beat . Those await to keep up multiple volumes with granular permission should look to DataCase .
All three apps are compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch launch the iPhone 2.0 software update .
[ Associate editor program Dan Moren blog at iPhone Central andMacUser . ]
