Apple’s MobileMe News page has posted two updates today, one on recent MobileMe service improvements, including direct access to Find my iPhone, and the other on iDisk public folder updates.
First up, the service improvements:
As part of an update to the MobileMe web applications, you can now access Find My iPhone directly from the MobileMe toolbar. This support article contains information about this and other service improvements.
Second, iDisk:
Your iDisk Public folder, a place where you can share files with friends, now matches the look of me.com and supports drag and drop for moving files between folders. You can manage your Public folder preferences at me.com including allowing visitors to upload, move, and delete files, and setting a password to protect your Public folder. To edit preferences simply click the Action button (gear icon) in the iDisk web application and select Preferences. You can then upload or move files to your Public folder at me.com, and your friends can access them by visiting http://public.me.com/[YourMemberName].
Just downloaded the new Apple MobileMe iDisk app [Free - iTunes link] to your iPhone or iPod touch and eager to know it better? Apple wants to show you how, literally. MobileMe News covers Apple’s latest App Store app, and Apple.com has a video tutorial available to get you started.
For example, it explains that documents get downloaded to your iPhone, and recent documents remain stored for offline viewing. Nice.
If you pick up any other tricks, or have any pro tips for iDisk on iPhone, let us know in the comments!
Apple has released MobileMe iDisk [Free - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch. Announced during WWDC 2009 back in June, with nary a peep — though lots of questions and conjecture — heard since then, MobileMe iDisk showing up in the App Store today should be the kind of surprise that no longer comes as one.
Using the app, similar to how 3rd party solutions worked previously, you can log into MobileMe, see the contents of your iDisk, view any supported file formats (the typical jpg, png, Microsoft Office, iWork, and audio/video files), swipe to delete, and otherwise move through the file system.
When you tap on a file, you can also choose to share it or trash it. Sharing opens up an Email Link window where you can forward on access information via email. Shared files show up with a green Shared label and icon in list view there after. (Expired shared items show up with orange labels and grayed-out icons.)
Like Remote (and unlike Keynote Remote and Texas Hold’em), Apple’s fourth App Store entry is free. If you try it out, let us know how it works for you. If you already use a 3rd party iDisk utility, let us know how it compares.
Screenshots after the break!
[Thanks to AppAdvice for the tip!]
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According to a tech note, which recently appeared then disappeared from Apple’s website (but can be seen at TUAW), our wait for the iDisk iPhone app may soon be over.
Surely you remember a little iDisk app that Apple promised to all of it’s MobileMe customers back around WWDC 2009? The biggest feature, at least to us here at TiPb, being file sharing. Need to email a large file that is stored on your iDisk but you are away from your computer? No problem, just send it to whomever you’d like via iDisk for iPhone. Not too shabby.
Granted the above linked note does not mention anything in the way of functionality or release date, it is a sign that this app should appear in the very near future. Or we all can at least hope that is the case.
How many of you MobileMe customers out there have been craving to get your hands on this one?
[Via TUAW]
Hey, it’s started to work with Push Notification apps, so who can blame us for taking a second bite at the Dear Apple. So…
Where’s that free iDisk App at? You remember, the one on your What’s New in MobileMe website:
The free iDisk app, available from the App Store in iTunes, lets you view your iDisk files right on your iPhone. Popular file types, such as Microsoft Office and iWork ’09 documents and presentations, PDFs, and more, are viewable in landscape or portrait. Just tap the file to access it and use pinch gestures to zoom in and out. And any file you’ve viewed recently doesn’t need to be reloaded. So if you start reading a document in the cab to the airport, you can quickly resume reading it on the plane.
One of the great features of iDisk is file sharing. Files that are too big to email can be shared easily by accessing your iDisk online at me.com. Now you can enjoy that same convenience using your iPhone and the iDisk app. Just tap the Share button, choose your recipients, and iDisk sends them an email with a link to download your file. You can limit the number of days a shared file is available and set a password to protect it. And you don’t even need to download a file first to share it.
Apple, you tease! It’s labeled “Coming Soon”, fair enough, but any hints on how soon “soon” is?
As part of the WWDC keynote today, Apple announced new features for their MobileMe service as it pertains to the iPhone:
- Find my iPhone shows map location
- Find alerts sends text or sound to advise of lost iPhone or help find it
Remote wipe lets you clear data from a lost iPhone, or restore it via login or iTunes
Mobile iDisk App gives access to viewable files right on your iPhone
- File sharing lets you send links to files via email with access control
- Access public folders lets you share files on your friends’ iDisks
Like iPhone 3.0, the MobileMe updates will be available June 17.
[Thanks Cody for the tip!]
When Phil Schiller first demonstrated MobileMe at WWDC 2008, one of the features we instantly wanted immediately was the drop-dead simple method for sharing large files via iDisk and email. But the MobileMe launch came and went (and broke down, and went back up), with nary a large file shared between anyone. Until now.
Maybe it’s the pressure of Google’s new, free sync service or Microsoft’s My Phone, or maybe Apple’s engineers finally got it rock-solid. All we know is we’re going to send us some big blobs of data starting today. Apple’s MobileMe News has the details:
We’re pleased to announce that you can now use your MobileMe iDisk to share files with others simply and easily. Instead of attaching a large document to an email and hoping it’s not too big to be received, you can place the file in your iDisk and use the new Share File command in the iDisk web app. It lets you send your friends, family, or colleagues a link they can click to download the file directly. You can password protect the link if you choose to and even set how long it will be available.
They’ve even posted a tutorial! So, is this too little, too late for anyone? Or does it suddenly make MobileMe’s yearly fee a bit of a better deal?
While TiPb is still waiting on Mobile iChat (SchillerNote Macworld bullet-point perhaps?), at least MobileMe isn’t taking time off for the holidays. In addition to an update for their browser-side PIM services, fresh rumors abound of iWork — Apple’s word processing Pages, presentation making Keynote, and spread sheeting Numbers — going WebApps (think Google Docs with buttery Apple-crafted UI). Ars Technica says:
“Magic” could refer to a few things, but my best guess is that it will be a new iWork component or application that will allow some kind of online sharing, collaboration, or application access. It’s possible that Apple will indeed introduce iWork web application at the Macworld Expo, but if that’s the case then I think they’ll be offered as part of the existing suite, or as an add-on component, rather than as groundbreaking overhaul.
What seems more certain, and certainly handy, is this catch by TUAW:
Soon a new feature in iDisk will make it simple to share files too big for email. iDisk will automatically send a message with a simple link. The recipient will just click the link to download the file.
Official iDisk integration for the iPhone would be a nifty holiday treat as well. OS 2.3 please?
While the holy grail for grabbing files on the iPhone would probably still be Apple-made iDisk support (as rumored), there are other options out there. Microsoft’s Live Mesh is supposedly going to be the very definition of cross-platform once they mange to get all of their clients done — but file access for the iPhone is pretty much limited to the browser right now.
Add one more “Securely sync your files to a 3rd party server and then get them on your iPhone” option to the mix: Sugarsync. They have clients for Mac, PC, Windows Mobile (though that one isn’t great), Symbian, and now: a Sugarsync client for the iPhone (App store link).
Although Sugarsync would like to say that their iPhone client supports pushing files to the iPhone, that’s not quite the case. Your files are pushed from sync’ed folders to Sugarsync’s cloud, waiting for you when you want to access them from your iPhone. Good enough, we say, since local file system access on the iPhone is still not really available.
Basically the only limitation here is the iPhone: it can view but not edit and it can only view a relatively small set of files, but that whole local file system bit. One nice bit: you can share any file on your Sugarsync cloud.
The service is $25 a year for 10 gigs, so it might be a viable option for those of you rocking a few computers and an iPhone yet hate MobileMe. For those of us who are shelling out for MobileMe already, it would be nice to think iPhone iDisk access won’t be too long in coming.
We always see (almost entirely incorrect) ‘outlines’ of keynotes in the runup to any Apple event, now we’re getting them before the runup starts. It’s a pretty safe be that Apple will be doing something in late September or October, they always try to have new iPod announcements before the holiday season. So go grab your salt shaker, pour out a few grains (actually, you might want to use them all), and take a gander at what Anonymous has told to expect in a “late September event,” after the break.
Our take on the list you’re about to read: real iPhone file access would be a godsend and it’s a natural next step for the platform. iTunes Unlimited Music Subscriptions have been oft-rumored but given how strident Jobs has been about people wanting to own music instead of subscribe to it, we’re still doubters. Then again, he did say the same thing about mobile video right before the iPod got video support. Basically, there’s nothing there that we really think is a lock.
Here’s a better question: what do you think Apple has in store for us this coming holiday season?
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