Hey Mac Software (http://www.heymacsoftware.com) says its Briefcase
file transfer software for the iPhone is now available at both the US
and Canadian iPhone App Store. It’s expected to be available in
Apple’s European app stores later this week and in their Asian app
stores by the end of November.
The product offers iPhone to iPhone file transfer and requires no
cables, no client software, no switching back and forth between the
iPhone and Mac, no network set up, and no typing of an IP address.
Briefcase is priced at US$4.99 and is available in 10 languages.
Concurrent with the launch of Briefcase is the release of Briefcase
Lite, a free version of the software that gives users access to all
of the most common features and functionality of Briefcase.
Using Bonjour technology, Briefcase enables users to quickly locate,
connect to and browse local machines that have Remote Login enabled.
Remote machines with their own internet address can also be accessed;
both WiFi and 3G networks are supported. The app’s bookmark system
enables users to manually add bookmarks for remote machines and key
chain support means they can save passwords for computers they
commonly log-in to.
Once they’re connected, Briefcase enables users to select and
download files as well as entire directories and bundles (directories
that appear as files on a Mac). Downloads that are interrupted by the
user quitting Briefcase will be automatically resumed the next time
the software is running and the source Mac is available.
Downloaded files and directories are listed in alphabetical order
with an appropriate icon next to their name. Files downloaded from a
Mac running Leopard display a thumbnail of the file using Mac OS X
10.5’s QuickLook technology. Briefcase enables users to view
documents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Word, Excel, MP3, M4V, PDF files,
etc.) and images (TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP) stored on their
iPhone, while video and audio files can be opened using the iPhone
media viewer. Full screen viewing and viewing from all orientations
are supported in both the image and document viewers.
Briefcase also offers a number of features that make it easier for
users to read books and other large documents on their iPhone, says
Mike Taylor, president of Hey Mac Software. A document slider, for
example, lets Briefcase users quickly scroll through a large
document. The document viewer will remember the user’s last location
in a specific document (before closing the file) and the next time
the file is opened, go automatically to that location.
With Briefcase, users can securely upload stored files to one of the
most common areas of the Mac they are connected to — Downloads,
Desktop, Documents (or Movies or Pictures, depending on the file
type) — with a single tap. Other upload destinations can also be
chosen and saved; plus, users can perform their upload in conjunction
with an action: Open File, Add to iPhoto, Add to iTunes, etc. Power
users and system administrators can use Briefcase to install a simple
installer package, add Mac apps to the Applications directory, as
well as upload and mount disk image files on the Mac they are
connected to.
While uploading (or downloading) files/directories, the tab bar icon
for Activity displays a highly visible red badge with the number of
operations that are in progress at any given time, reminding the user
that uploads/downloads are in progress. The Activity view gives users
a list of current download/upload operations. It includes a progress
widget, that informs the user of the status of the operation, and a
Cancel button — available for each operation.
The free Briefcase Lite app offers most of the functionality of
Briefcase with a few notable exceptions. Briefcase Lite users can
connect to and browse machines on a local network only. Lite users
can’t download directories. With Briefcase Lite, users can’t upload
files to another iPhone. They can, however, receive files from other
iPhone users. With Briefcase Lite, applications and installer
packages can be uploaded to another machine, but users don’t have the
option to perform the related action (i.e., install).
