Filed under: Video, Open Source, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch
Found Footage: iPhone file transfer with style
iPhone developer Emanuele Vulcano pinged us with a note today telling us about a free file transfer app for the iPhone. Since most file transfer apps are a real yawner, I was dubious...until I watched the video.
What makes Mover (click opens iTunes) so cool is the way that it does the transfer. When you want to transfer an image or a contact card to another iPhone, you just launch the app on both devices, grab the image or card, point an arrow on one screen to match up with an arrow on another iPhone screen, then flick an icon representing the data you're sending. It moves off of your screen, and onto the other iPhone's screen, and the data is saved automatically. Very cool, and very iPhone-like!
Both iPhones need to be on the same WiFi network; there's no current way to do this over Bluetooth or a cellular network connection. Emanuele has made his code open source under the BSD license, so other developers are welcome to take a look at how he did this.
Check out Mover here (now with the correct embedding info):
What makes Mover (click opens iTunes) so cool is the way that it does the transfer. When you want to transfer an image or a contact card to another iPhone, you just launch the app on both devices, grab the image or card, point an arrow on one screen to match up with an arrow on another iPhone screen, then flick an icon representing the data you're sending. It moves off of your screen, and onto the other iPhone's screen, and the data is saved automatically. Very cool, and very iPhone-like!
Both iPhones need to be on the same WiFi network; there's no current way to do this over Bluetooth or a cellular network connection. Emanuele has made his code open source under the BSD license, so other developers are welcome to take a look at how he did this.
Check out Mover here (now with the correct embedding info):
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonah said 4:07PM on 5-03-2009
the video was removed
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Lucas said 4:13PM on 5-03-2009
Could you fix the video please!
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Louis said 4:17PM on 5-03-2009
Watch the video here: http://infinite-labs.net/mover/
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millenomi (∞labs) said 4:52PM on 5-03-2009
Sorry for the video mishap — YouTube really needs a "replace video" link or something (and if there is one and I didn't find it, then I'm twice sorry :( ).
The direct link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO9erFSSSPA for the video and http://infinite-labs.net/mover/ is there for more information about the app.
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iest said 6:07PM on 5-03-2009
A very cool little app. Just downloaded it.
Although I have no idea how well it works... all my friends are still living in the dark ages of mobile phones/devices.
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bill cant fart is ANGRY! said 6:17PM on 5-03-2009
FREAKING. AWESOME.
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Kevlar said 6:34PM on 5-03-2009
Here's the problem with iPhone "file transfer" apps:
There's no centralized storage.
I can "move" pictures and contacts all I want, but they're still limited to being used from within the "mover" app. (Maybe not contacts, but still).
The sandboxing of app data is terrific. It really is. But how about some centralized file store, with a built-in finder-like app for browsing and viewing the files. Then other apps could make moving and sharing this a breeze.
Apple could achieve this via super-locked down read & write file API, that would only provide limited access to this data. Maybe with max size limits, quotas, or a limit to the kinds of data that could be saved (like maybe only the files that can be read from e-mail attachments, maybe).
But think: Then we could actually store things on our phone!
We could then save files from e-mails, download certain file types from Safari, actually do something with the data we've received from other people using apps like mover.
TRANSFER FILES VIA BLUETOOTH!
Finally, we should be able to browse this data on any PC via a USB Mass Storage Device interface. That would be freaking amazing.
Oh, but I can dream... yes?
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thezonie said 6:59PM on 5-03-2009
It looked like the image was stored on the receiver's camera roll, so you should be able to access that from other apps on the iPhone.
But I agree with you for all other file types, yes.
Daniel said 7:26PM on 5-03-2009
Awesome, this even makes use of multi-touch. You can move around different photos/contacts independently at the same time. Awesome!
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Jason Martin said 7:31PM on 5-03-2009
I have to think that this will work over Bluetooth once 3.0 is released with P2P available as park of the 3.0 SDK. That would be much more usable than WiFi, IMO
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MacNeurotic said 8:09PM on 5-03-2009
This is one of those apps that makes a spectacular demo (especially for someone who doesn't have an iPhone). Does it make transferring data any easier or simple to use? Not really.
But it's still very impressive, visually. Might download it just as a show off app.
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FightTheFuture said 8:12PM on 5-03-2009
that video needs the song "I Like to Move It" by Reel 2 Real as a music bed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBnkJQWe0JQ
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xxdesmusxx said 9:04PM on 5-03-2009
Kind of funny that this is basically the same interface as Microsoft's Surface device.
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millenomi said 6:39AM on 5-04-2009
I was more inspired by BumpTop: http://bumptop.com/
SCOTT said 1:49AM on 5-04-2009
so how long do we know if it's going to be a free app?
could be a great addition to the great apps of 2009
great job...can't wait to try it
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millenomi said 6:38AM on 5-04-2009
There will always be a free version of the app. Otherwise, how could you get people to receive what you send? :)
robertchute said 10:59AM on 5-04-2009
Shouldn't this sort of capability be standard on the iPhone? I wish that Apple would push out some new innovations to the iPhone. While copy/paste, MMS are certainly much needed features, they should have been there with the 1.0 release not 3.0.
With the iPhone beginning to dominate the smart phone market Apple could further innovate what phones are capable of. Imagine an Apple technology to simply pick a file and then tap one phone against another and bam instant file transfer. Every other phone manufacture would jump at the chance to license that.
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Eddy120876 said 5:05PM on 5-04-2009
@robertchute
there is an app that does that is call "Bump" check it out on the itunes store :),but i do agree Apple should had done this from 1.0; but I can see why they waited so they can build up the anticipation and let App makers have the first crack at the OS before it goes public.
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mariaritsen said 12:06PM on 6-08-2009
hi! try to use iPod File transfer Software that allow you to save your video file from any types of corruptions.
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