Back to Mobile View

Skip to Content

Hacksugar: Send URLs from your PC to your iPhone

This morning, Beloved Leader Victor introduced me to my new favoritest hack for the iPhone ever -- if "ever" means "earlier this morning." It's a really good hack though.

What you do is this. In Safari or Firefox or whatever your favorite browser is, create a new bookmark, which I include here for your copying pleasure. This bookmark comes courtesy of Coldbeans software and what it does is converts the URL for your current page to a QRCode and displays it in a floating window.

Being basic Javascript, it runs across platforms and browsers. Essentially, you should be able to use it any modern browser.

Create a new bookmark, set the destination as the javascript I linked above, and name it something like QRCode. Then, when you come across a web page you want to share, select the bookmark and let it generate a QRCode.

From the iPhone side, use any of the millions of free QRCode clients to scan your computer. Instantly, the URL transfers, allowing you to copy it, view it, send it in email, etc.

Victor tells me he uses this to load up his iPhone with amusing YouTube Videos, but you probably have far more respectable reasons for transferring URLs.



Categories

iOS

This morning, Beloved Leader Victor introduced me to my new favoritest hack for the iPhone ever -- if "ever" means "earlier this...
 

Featured Comments

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

30 Comments

Filter by:
1 reply to Matthew Flint's comment
Michael

Nice! featuring in a separate post.

December 05 2011 at 11:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
patniemeyer

Create a Google doc and bookmark it on your phone and desktop. Done. It's the easiest way to move info from desktop to phone... updates nearly instantly and is accessible from all of your devices.

December 02 2011 at 7:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DAP56

Nice

December 02 2011 at 4:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vincent Colombo

I know people have mentioned several options for this functionality already, but I use Handoff on my iPhone and iPad. http://www.handoffapp.com. Besides just passing things to my phone/iPad, it's smart enough to recognize content as well, so if I handoff a Google maps page then handoff app will open the maps application. Same thing with YouTube and some other stuff. This QR code process just seems to add an extra, unnecessary step to me.

December 02 2011 at 3:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mgnmxl200

Or use the free app Ansible: http://www.ansibleapp.com/

December 02 2011 at 4:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
squishband

I use Mobileme, so any bookmark I create syncs with my phone, etc. I use it all the time, if i'm reading something at home and need to split, I just drag the link into the bookmarks bar and it's there when I get on the bus or whatever.

December 01 2011 at 7:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cazier

Since enough people aren't already posting their "this is how I do it" methods, I thought I'd add mine. I use the "Site to Phone" extension for Chrome (http://sitetophone.com/), though it exists for most other major browsers as well, and then click on the Site2Phone bookmark I saved on my homescreen. It's simple and easy!

December 01 2011 at 4:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Colin Castro

Seems kinda pointless when all you need to do is send a link to someone.

December 01 2011 at 2:10 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Colin Castro's comment
Victor Agreda Jr

The use case is this: less clicks. Yesterday I wanted to check my physical mail, but someone in chat sent me a link to a youtube video. Instead of creating an email to myself, I just launched the google app, snapped the code I made using a bookmarklet and I was ready to go.

There are plenty of others where you don't need to futz with email.

December 01 2011 at 2:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
pusta2

I use i-pusher app and browser extension. It does this seamlessly, without having to fire up the camera. Even allows you to send text from a web site to your phone

December 01 2011 at 1:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Timothy Hankins

This is a clever use of QR. But I can't help but think that if you're on a Mac, the absolute fastest way to get a URL from Mac to iOS is to add it you your reading list.

December 01 2011 at 1:32 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Timothy Hankins's comment
Victor Agreda Jr

Unless you are on a machine which you don't sync with your iPhone ;)

December 01 2011 at 2:21 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
Dario Bauer

I'd love to use the Reading list, but alas, I don't use Safari on my Mac

December 01 2011 at 8:39 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.