Filed under: MobileMe
Mobile Me debuts large file sharing with iDisk
Apple yesterday announced a new addition to Mobile Me: The ability to share large files with others via iDisk. One of our readers had noticed an announcement about it way back on New Year's Day.
The service works much like YouSendIt, though rather than uploading a file, you point to an existing file on your iDisk. MobileMe then assigns a URL to that file, and offers to send an email to a recipient with the link. You can also assign an expiration date and password to the link.
MobileMe's sharing functionality is so far only available only through the iDisk web application, and not through the Finder. Tools like Dropbox and FileChute -- available on the desktop -- allow you to upload files and assign them a public link, but don't feature expiration dates or passwords (yet).
Apple offers a tutorial on how to use the new feature on its website.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Devon said 11:20AM on 2-13-2009
From what I remember, this was announced when MobileMe was announced.
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Adam said 11:28AM on 2-13-2009
yea it was announced with mobile me...but not implemented until now. There are a lot of things mobile me was promised to be able to do out of the box (work for one) which has been a complete failure
timholtz said 11:20AM on 2-13-2009
1Gb file size limit
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ricosuave said 11:29AM on 2-13-2009
It isn't ready. I just sent myself a pdf and it added some additional extension letters at the end making the file unreadable. I had to fix the extension back to pdf. We expect the end recipient to fix all our attachments we send? We don't do that with email.
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Johnny said 11:29AM on 2-13-2009
Wow, it took them this long for such a worthless and poorly implemented feature? I still think it is faster to place the file in your public iDisk folder and email the link. A better implementation would have been through Mail. They should have made an attachment option that would automatically upload the file to MobileMe and place the link in the email.
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Rich said 4:47PM on 2-13-2009
Now, THAT is a good idea! You also need to log in to MobileMe to do this. The functionality should also be added to the iDisk in The FInder.
Jayson said 11:41AM on 2-13-2009
You could already do this. Just put files in your sites folder and send people links. Big deal! web.me.com/your_user_name/whatever_the_file_name_is.whatever
I've been file sharing since day one.
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clay said 1:02PM on 2-13-2009
Try selling MobileMe to customers. It has some great features and integrates with the mac nicely, but its pricey for what you get. I use it for my multiple macs that sync, and iphone sync. A very hard product to sell and Apple expects a large attatchment rate. Lower it to $40.00 or so a year and you have a deal.
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Miguel Pineiro said 4:56PM on 2-15-2009
I have a Mobile me account (got with my new mac) but won't renew it after this week because it's too expensive. It needs to be lowered- Dropbox for only $10 month or $99 year is more appealing than only 20Gigs for your buck. :)
-Mig
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ad6am said 2:52PM on 2-13-2009
Worked great for me.
Two notes:
1. The sent email lists "undisclosed recipients" when you send it to more than one person (but not when you send it to just one). If you want to keep a record of who you share files with, share them individually or simply share it with yourself and then forward the email you received.
2. When you share .zip files, they download as such but are uncompressed automatically (at least on OSX 10.5.6) with no trace of the .zip file.
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Squid7085 said 2:55PM on 2-13-2009
I just saw this last night when I was uploading some files. Seems like something I might use at some point, nice to know what it is though.
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Jono said 3:17PM on 2-13-2009
This is perfect!
I've been trying to upload a file to iDisk since last August. It's just finished uploading, so now I can share it with people.
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Ian Kenefick said 6:43AM on 2-14-2009
iDisk is still too slow IMHO.
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Dave said 8:22PM on 2-13-2009
There are domain registrars that will provide a limited amount of free web space just by registering a domain name (~$6/year). You can do that exact same thing with that and, quite honestly, it won't screw up names, etc.
If you want a non-technical solution, use the free services of something like Box.net.
I -want- to like MobileMe, but the cost/value ratio just isn't there.
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daveoc64 said 10:49AM on 2-14-2009
About time!
It feels like July 2008 now...
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larry said 8:04PM on 2-14-2009
Too little...too late. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's already broken in a second Apple ID, tied it to Apple Support, iTunes, and other places and getting ready for the day my current MobileMe contract is over. It's worth something...just not $99/year.
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