MobileMe Gains File Sharing
As well as a brand new front page Apple have updated their MobileMe service with a new file sharing utility that will especially useful for sharing files too large for email.
The file sharing service is very easy to use and comes with a number of advanced features that include time limited sharing. To share a file login to your iDisk via the www.me.com interface.
Locate the file you want to share and you will immediately spot the new ‘Share’ option.
Click the ‘Share File’ button and you will be greeted with the share options. Enter the email address of the person you want to share the file with. You can also enter an optional message.
The end user will receive an email with a link to the shared file, this email comes with the typical Apple styling. You will also now notice that the share information will now be added to the file in iDisk.
I have set the share duration for 1 day (as can be seen in the screen shot above).
With services such as Dropbox becoming more and more popular this is a welcome addition to the MobileMe service. Apple always seem to add a great update to the service just as my renewal come round again!
Click here for a Video Tutorial of how easy the service is to use.
I pay the Apple Tax every year, but think I’m done next time around. The service is flaky and has caused me more headache than good. For example, a sync issue erased my entire address book a year ago, my bookmarks will occasionally just stop syncing, and syncing Mail has never quite worked effectively.
I’ve slowly stopped using a lot of MobileMe services just because they don’t work as they should.
Even the MobileMe gallery, which I’ve been using for family photos for the past year isn’t worth the money considering the great user interface of Flickr.com.
The only service I will miss is Back to my Mac, which allows me to connect with my iMac at home while on the road without fail.
In short, it should be free as an added value of owning a Mac.
This year I bit the bullet and paid for the Family Pack MobileMe membership. As Patrick mentions there are services like Back to my Mac that are great, and the email, I suppose, functions well enough.
I’ve not *really* used iDisk much, partly because how clunky it is; It’s slow (based in the UK, this has been an issue for a long time) and doesn’t feel as slick nowadays as something along the lines of ‘DropBox’ that I’ve started using. This sits running in the background and copies any file I add or amend direct from my HD to the server and I can instantly access it from any of my Macs and even the PCs I use at work. It’s free too, but limited to 2GB, and to me it epitomises what the ‘cloud computing’ experience really should be – none of the above faffing around with selecting and uploading files, emailing, etc.
Now, if MobileMe switched to something like that….
@Brian, I agree that in the UK the service does seem problematic at times when using iDisk. I find syncing files over 25MB can cause real problems when working on two computers. Given this sharing feature is designed for such larger files I expect we will see better performance in this area.
Unfortunately, being in the US doesn’t help the situation very much. iDisk is as useless to me as it is to Brian. Services like Dropbox just highlight what iDisk could be but clearly isn’t.
I’ve been a .Mac user for a few years, the new services are an improvement but there’s a lot of competition for such services now (I’m another Dropbox fan).
I’ve used the new sharing service but does anyone know if it’s possible to share a folder, not just one file?
Dropbox doesn’t do this either unless both parties are Dropbox members.
You can have a public folder shared with a password but that feature have been there for a while and there is no time limit offered.
As far as I can see the featured described above just works on single files. I am finding it handy especially for larger files. If MobileMe sorted out server sided mail rules I’d love it heart and soul