iDisk Mobile
Announced in June and released just a few weeks ago remote access to your iDisk is now available from your iPhone or iPod Touch. The application allows you to access your iDisk and even view most file formats directly on your phone.
I have been using the application over the last few weeks and have one or two occasions where it is saved me a fair few hours or work as I was able to access data directly in meetings and even during a phone call.
Firstly you should know it doesn’t actually sync your iDisk with your mobile device it accesses the area live so therefore you need to be connected to a data network for it to work. There is a slight delay as the file is downloaded before you can view it but we are talking seconds for smaller files such as spreadsheets etc.
iDisk Mobile also features MobileMe’s file sharing abilities. (Read how to share files directly from MobileMe) Files are listed with what could easily be mistaken for an RSS icon beside each filename. Click on this and mail loads with a link to the file, simply enter the user’s email address and the file will be shared for a set length of time. The default share duration is 1 month but this can be adjusted to 1 Day – 1 Year to never expire. For additional security a password can also be added to the share.
I love the concept of MobileMe especially if you work between two Macs or have an iPhone. I know we have harped on a little about how we would improve the service (server sided mail rules being the biggest wish). but the addition of easy remote file access and sharing makes MobileMe pretty hard to beat.
As you can see from our “Five Changes I’d Make to MobileMe” article last year a few of the improvements have already been implemented (we are not taking credit) this application for one and although you can’t yet sync notes to the cloud the ability to sync with Mail on the Mac is just as handy.
If we could just have server sided mail rules it would make MobileMe’s email service viable for the iPhone. The fact that spam that I am able to filter out on my desktop mail.app arrives on my Phone is particularly annoying. (Read our article on the concept). Lets hope it comes sometime soon, that said does the lack of mail rules put me off renewing my subscription every year ? Definitely not !
We would love to know what you think……
I have had .Mac and now Mobile me for several years and the syncing between my Mac at work, my Mac at home and my iPhone work great. I love finding a website and bookmarking it at home and having the bookmark ready for me if I use my iPhone or work Mac. Perhaps your location is part of the problem (no offense). I live in western Canada and the Mobile me service and iDisk work great. I love it and I do recommend it to people who want easy web creation and publishing (iWeb) sharing photo’s with friends (iPhoto) etc.
While you might be able to scrape together all these services from other web locations, you will never have the Integration to the iLife suite like Mobile me provides. Lastly, another thing to consider is when you upload you pictures, files or data to these “other” sites, you Really do not know if they do anything with them that they shouldn’t. I trust Apple to not use my pictures or data or to use that info to target advertisers in my direction.
