News

posted on 01 August 2008 07:28

DataCase software from Veiosoft turns an iPhone into an external flash drive for Macs and PCs with drag-and-drop access for Mac users.

The software, now in beta, runs on Apple's fabled iPhone and adds functionality turning it into the equivalent of an external hard drive holding up to 16 separate volumes. The Apple File Protocol (AFP) is supported such that when the DataCase-enabled iPhone is in WiFi range of a Mac it is seen as an external hard drive. The Mac's Finder application, exquivalent to Windows Explorer, can then open and establish folders on the iPhone and a user can drag-and-drop files to/from it.

DataCase has viewer software so that files such as Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, Word documents, PDFs and images can be viewed on the iPhone screen although not edited.

Life for Windows and Linux PC users is less good although the connectivity is still there. The HTTP and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) functions are suppirted but there is no drag and drop capability. A web browser on a PC can open file storage on the iPhone and see folder contents. Files can be transferred from PC to iPhone via FTP. The Veiosoft website doesn't specifically say if the DataCase viewing software on the Iphone can display transferred Windows or Linux files and what restrictions there might be.

The DataCase software is in a restricted beta test and it's possible that, in the future, Windows and Linux PC users will get drag-and-drop access to a DataCase iPhone. For now they're better off with a USB thumb drive.

The application will supposedly cost $6.99 as an iPhone application from the iTunes App Store. It was meant to be available on 28th July but it is not there yet. Veiosoft is based in Austin, Texas. Check out a YouTube video here.

This idea of turning a wireless-connected personal digital assistant (PDA) aka smart-phone into an external hard drive is a very neat one and, no doubt, will spread quite rapidly.

^{[Martin Edwards, news writer.]}