When Apple announced the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade in June, they also promised an upcoming app providing access to files stored on a MobileMe iDisk directly from an iPhone. MobileMe is Apple’s premium subscription-based cloud storage and synchronization service.
While there have been several other third-party apps that provided similar functionality, I’ve been less than impressed with them and have been looking forward to Apple’s official offering.
On Monday, Apple finally released the official iDisk app to customers, and while it does offer the ability to view, delete, and share files from within the app, I’m disappointed that there’s still no way to actually edit files stored on my iDisk.
When you first launched the app, you entered your MobileMe username and password, and are then presented a listing of top-level folders in your iDisk. Along the bottom of the app, there are four tabs/icons for “iDisk” (the default standard listing shown in the image above), “Recent” (a list of recently viewed or shared files), “Shared Files” (a list of all shared files on the iDisk), and “Public Folders” (a listing of all files in the public folders).
Navigating into a folder will show all the files, and known file types will be shown with an recognizable icon. From my testing, the iDisk app is able to view iWork ’08 and ’09 files, Microsoft Office files, and standard text and pdf files. Apple mentions that large files (over 20MB) may not be displayed due to memory constraints on the iPhone. I don’t have any file iWork or Office files that large, so I didn’t validate that point.
When you tap directly on the file’s name, the file will be displayed in a full-page preview. Multiple pages can be viewed by scrolling up or down. Double-tapping zooms in closer so you can read the text, or you can use the standard pinch-zoom and panning functions. Along the bottom of the document are icons to Share and Delete the file. Tapping Share pulls up a new email message ready to address to a contact with a link to the file already included in the message body. You can add a personal note, define an expiration date for the link, and add a password if desired.
If you tap on the Information icon on the top-right corner of the document, or if you tap on the details arrow while in the folder list-view, you can view information about the file, including the document type, size, and modified dates.
While I find the ability to view and share files (and to a lesser degree the ability to delete files) useful since I do have an occasional need to access a document when I’m away from my computer, what I think would be even more useful is the ability to edit these files.
I can understand that providing editing capabilities on complex spreadsheets and documents may be more than a free app can provide, but my feeling is that I’ve already shelled out $100 for a year of MobileMe service, and having some sort of editing capability, be it simple text-only, should have been included. For the high cost of the service, it seems like Apple should really be stepping up and making MobileMe a killer productivity service aimed at mobile professionals.
Apple, if you’re listening, I encourage you to add this functionality in an updated version of the iDisk app. Soon!
You can download the MobileMe iDisk app from the iTunes App Store for free (link), but you must have a paid MobileMe account to use it.
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TAGS: idisk, iWork, mobile me, mobileme
