Yesterday, ecamm introduced iPhoneDrive, a utility that lets you use your iPhone disk to store arbitrary data files. I downloaded a copy and after a quick false start and a software update that addressed compatibility issues with my PowerPC G4, I was able to load files onto and recover them from my iPhone drive. Ecamm are the developers who brought us such Mac classics as iGlasses and iChatUSBCam.
Apple seems to have deliberately omitted hard drive storage from the iPhone (probably to protect the underlying OS X files from public scrutiny and hack-cidents). Hard drive storage is a valuable component of any portable media player since it allows you to bring files with you that you'd normally carry on a separate thumb drive.
To deliver your files from one computer to another, you will have to install iPhoneDrive on the receiving computer. I found that file transfer, both onto and off from the iPhone, went smoothly. It took about 5 minutes to transfer a 350 MB 45-minute episode of America's Next Top Model in each direction.
Unfortunately, being the first release, iPhoneDrive has a few flaws that should clear up in later versions. You cannot rename a file once it is on your drive. Also, although you can create a folder hierarchy, you cannot drag items into or out from folders.
I suspect this is just the first of what I hope will be many third party iPhone utilities. You can try out iPhoneDrive for 7 days without restriction. After, it will cost you ten bucks--not a huge price for a feature that many of us wish Apple had built into the iPhone in the first place.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-11-2007 @ 1:06PM
w00t said...
Unfortunately most of the value that comes with mounting the iPhone as a removable drive is lost when an external client is needed to transfer the data, especially when a Mac OS only app is required.
Now if it worked as a USB Mass Storage device it'd be supported by any OS that can read the file system and make use of USB storage devices, like the iPod :)
Until then, I'll still be packing thumb drives...
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7-11-2007 @ 1:12PM
Terence Pua said...
Are the transferred files viewable inside iPhone?
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7-11-2007 @ 1:13PM
Erica Sadun said...
Terence: Not as far as I've been able to tell. It seems to work just like the extra storage on iPods--it's on the iPhone but not accessible from the software (yet)
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7-11-2007 @ 1:25PM
Ken said...
Yes, Erica's right. We'll be adding more featues like renaming and moving files around on the device in the next update. We wanted to get v1.0 out the door ;)
-Ken
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7-11-2007 @ 1:53PM
eas said...
Cool.
Is credit going where credit is due? Was this built using code or knowledge from the people working on the iPhoneInterfaceTool? If so, a little credit would provide encouragement from their future endeavors. No credit at best makes them more secretive.
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7-11-2007 @ 2:05PM
Billy K said...
Sounds a bit sketchy. No offense intended - I realize the device is locked down and this is v1.0 after less than two weeks.
My hope is hacks like this will force Apple to address some issues sooner rather than later. Disk storage, the inability to drag n' drop songs in iTunes and ringtones are at the top of my "you've got to be kidding me" list.
P.S. Ten bucks will buy you a nice 2GB thumbdrive.
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7-11-2007 @ 2:10PM
Kai Cherry said...
Eas...that's a pretty big assumption you popped out there don't you think?
I mean, these guys hacked in extra iChat functionality blind...maybe you should give them a little credit? :)
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7-11-2007 @ 2:31PM
mayo said...
What's up with people that keep saying you can't drag'n'drop files from iTunes to iPhone? Forgot how you use your iPod? Turn on "manually manage music" and you can drag and drop all you want. You could never just drag'n'drop music files onto iPods either unless it was in manually managed mode. That's just how iTunes always worked. (With the exception of shuffles I guess, but iPhone is not shuffle)
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7-11-2007 @ 3:29PM
MacBookOwner said...
mayo, yeah, yeah..people are SO stupid...except for the part about the iPhone not having the "Manually Manage Music" selection in iTunes, I mean, which means you can't drag and drop music onto it :p You know, the fact that everyone who actually owns an iPhone has discovered by now?
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9-18-2007 @ 12:21PM
basscadet said...
huh? iPhone has no "arbitrary data file storage feature"? I thought this was so standard I didn't even bother checking it as a feature...
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