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First Look: FileMagnet

by Giles Turnbull Jul 23rd 2008 at 8:00AM

FileMagnet file transfer app for iPhoneFileMagnet (mentioned briefly by Dave in his iPhone apps I actually use post yesterday) is a low-cost wireless file transfer tool for iPhone and iPod Touch. It requires you to install a companion desktop application, also called FileMagnet, which acts as the conduit for file transfer.

Usage is simple enough: drag files you wish to copy into the desktop app's window. Then open FileMagnet on the iPhone, and as long as the two machines are on the same WiFi network, they will find each other over Bonjour, and wirelessly connect. Then your files are smoothly and wirelessly transferred over. Transfer will also happen every time you sync the device, if the desktop app happens to be running.

FileMagnet is a handy place for reference materials, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs and images, that you're likely to need to carry at all times. It handles entire folders full of files, too.

There are a few problems right now, all of which are addressed on the official FileMagnet FAQ, mostly with a promise that they'll be fixed soon:

  • FileMagnet cannot display iWork files (yet)
  • The desktop app requires Leopard (but a Tiger version is on the way)
  • You can't email files, or indeed do anything with them except view them (an email feature is coming)

Like a lot of iPhone and iPod touch apps, it's in its early days. Some features are lacking, or not as perfectly functional as you might like. But the developers are aware of the limitations and working on fixes and new features, and personally I think it's a decent value application with bright prospects for future development. I'll be watching out for updates with interest.

FileMagnet is $4.99, and available through the App Store.

UPDATE: Joshua Keay from Magnetism Studios has been in touch to say that that FileMagnet supports Tiger right now. He added that support for rotation and more file types is on the way in the next build, which will be a free update.

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FileMagnet (mentioned briefly by Dave in his iPhone apps I actually use post yesterday) is a low-cost wireless file transfer tool for...
 

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24 Comments

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Reuben

Does File Magnet allow you to transfer VMs to your mac? Is there any iPhone app that provides that capability?

July 24 2008 at 12:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
slimy33

ROTATION! God, yes!

July 23 2008 at 8:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
gez

this is definitely a great start.. and worth the price.

however, the pdf implementation absolutely needs some enhancements:

landscape view, so you dont have to both scroll down AND left to right.

page down/up. trying to get to page 20 and above by flicking gets old.

if its possible to remember view settings that would be great. if im on page 45 of a pdf and have to close out, getting back to page 45 is a chore


July 23 2008 at 3:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew

A demo video of the application can be found at:

http://magnetismstudios.com/files/filemagnet.mov

July 23 2008 at 3:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Matthew's comment
madamxmedia

Thanks for the link, it looks pretty good. FileCase is the other one everyone is waiting for, although having that desktop loader app might be convenient in some cases- you can drop stuff in there and queue up a bunch of files, even if you can't connect at that time.

July 23 2008 at 6:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joshua

Good news — the new version of FileMagnet is indeed compatible with both Tiger and Leopard. It's a free download right now from http://magnetismstudios.com/filemagnet/

Enjoy!

July 23 2008 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mario

I bought it and tried using it but it's very unstable on my iPhone and crashes constantly, probably due to the face that I'm trying to view large files. There is no easy navigation - no jump to page ... button so you have to scroll from page no 1.
It's also difficult to zoom on the text that spans the whole page.
As far as RTF and text files - I found that Stanza is great for that. It is basically an ebook reader, that let's you store ebooks on the phone, remembers the place in the text, you can do landscape, change text size, jump to page etc. It's a free app for now - they will be charging for that in the future. I highly recommend trying it.

July 23 2008 at 1:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephen Lang

Hey TUAWer's,

How is viewing text and RTF's with this app? Is there any way to adjust font size, or is it unnecessary?

Thanks!

July 23 2008 at 12:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

Any word on a 2.0 compatible DropCopy? I had that on my jailbroken 1.1.4. Combined with mobile finder it was a great way to work with files onthe iPhone.

July 23 2008 at 11:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
anson

Will reserve judgment until DataCase is released (soon, IIRC). Most importantly, that app does not require a Mac OS client. It's advertised as having landscape mode but also shares the limitation of not being able to view iWork documents. I guess we'll see which is the better app in a week or two...

July 23 2008 at 11:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

This is a great app for $5. I use it all the time to carry photos and documents to show people, to the airport to show officials or travel agents. It supports most standard formats. It's insanely simple to use too. Although it does lack a couple of features, I'm sure they are coming. Even without those useful features, the program has been worth every penny.

I also use the internet sharing through the airport to connect when I'm not near an internet connection but need to transfer files.

July 23 2008 at 11:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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