Air Sharing: It turns my $399 phone into a $20 flash drive!

Air Sharing really requires two reviews. You see, when I first installed the app, it was free (as are all my apps--I'm a cheap bastard). Being a relatively non tech-savvy guy (compared to those iPhone geeks surrounding me), I was a little worried about the idea of "network" sharing via wireless internet, IP numbers, and so on. It took me forever to get my wireless router working at home, so anything beyond point and click scares the shit out of me.

But maybe I am getting ahead of myself.

Air Sharing is an app that allows users to connect their PC and their iPhone to the same network and literally "share" documents. This can be anything from pictures to music, videos, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc. The result is that the app turns your phone into a wireless portable hard drive that can be filled up with all kinds of useless documentation that you are sure you will need, but will most likely never look at again. It's actually pretty useful, and when a USB device isn't handy, I've used it quite a few times.

It also helps with backing up documents or storing that reference document you need at your side constantly.

But back to my tech-illiteracy. When downloading this app, the prospect of connecting wirelessly via a network was a bit frightening. In actuality, however, the process is made very simple. The app constantly displays an IP address, and when you connect your Mac or PC to this address (Mac in my case), the phone shows up as a folder. Drag, drop, repeat. It's as easy as that.

An added bonus is the app's viewer. I've stored spreadsheets, documents, non-iTunes ready sound, PDFs and a few other things on the phone, and it does a pretty decent job of displaying them correctly. One issue, however, is lag time in opening the docs. To be neurotically safe, I used my phone to back up a novel I was working on. Wanting to check something one day while waiting for a table at a restaurant, I opened the (rather large) file on my phone. A few minutes later, I was still waiting for the app to process the 400-page-long document. It did eventually open, and I could browse fairly easily (though slowly), but potential users should know that large files are best stored, not perused, in the app.

Now for the second of our two reviews...

Is it worth the $6.99 that is being charged through the iTunes store? Hell no! If you have a laptop and portable USB drive, you will use these much more often. So unless you are a tech savvy guy who can find a use for this app other than straight storage (I'm sure there are many, what with the networking capabilities), I'd suggest sticking to the low-tech solution of using your good old computer and thumb drive.

Of course, when I downloaded this app it was in a free trial period. Go me.

Comments

[squarerhino]

FIRST!

You spread the jelly, I'll make the sandwich.

[Zwaloo]

FIR...

DAMN IT!

[Brendan Dergen]

I wholeheartedly agree. Air Sharing is just a fancy flash drive! Well, a $4.99 flash drive, at the moment, $6.99 after Avatron's holiday sale. Well, a $4.99 flash drive that lets you view files. And wirelessly serve a web site to a boardroom full of people. And store web archives to take with you on a plane. And back up automatically when you plug in your iPhone. And ... hey wait a minute, that's more than a flash drive does, isn't it! Hey maybe the author of this article is a freaking idiot!

Just sayin'.

[HAL9000]

"So unless you are a tech savvy guy who can find a use for this app other than straight storage (I’m sure there are many, what with the networking capabilities)..., "

You, Mr. Brendan, are obviously this person. As such I congratulate you.

Word to your Mother and other such things.

[j]

I carry my phone everywhere. AirShare doesn't do anything a flash drive does, except that it's already in my pocket so I don't have to load up on more gadgets. You could say that the iPhone's ipod functionality is useless because an iPod does the same thing too.

[Burcgie]

I'm using ReaddleDocs instead. I like it more.

[James]

This Air sharing app is worth price.