The more I add applications to the iPhone, I have to ask myself if there is anything this Cupertino-born handset can't do. With the newest introduction of File Magic, from SplashData, I can now leverage available storage space on the iPhone to synchronize any kind of documents, videos, music or graphics, through the power of drag and drop, or even wireless syncing. Even after trying out dozens of different apps, I still find myself getting excited about seeing the iPhone learn new tricks - even if it's the relatively simple task of getting data from my computer to the phone and letting me view it directly.
File Magic On the Desktop Syncs With iPhone
File Magic 2.0 comes in two parts - a free desktop application, and the iPhone app, available on the iTunes Store for $4.99. And the combination lets you escape out of iTunes as the file manager, and add all sorts of Microsoft Office document types, including .doc, .ppt and .xls, as well as .pdf files, impossible through iTunes. These files can even be opened in the iPhone app itself, which makes for a cheap eBook reader, should you want to go that route.
File Magic Connects Your Desktop to Your iPhone
Back when I had a first generation Handspring Visor Deluxe, the "in" thing was to beam your data, your applications or your documents to another user by infrared. Surprisingly, the iPhone hasn't let you do such a thing (even when Microsoft Zune made a big deal out of it... to little success). File Magic not only lets you share files from iPhone to iPhone, but you can e-mail the files to anybody in your address book, and yes, send files wirelessly from your PC or Mac.
As You Add Documents, You Can Browse Or View Them
I have gotten so used to my iPhone being connected to my laptop via USB that I was actually surprised to see how fluid it was to drop a new file on the desktop File Magic application, and see my iPhone start to receive it across the room. Given I get e-mail and Web updates on the iPhone wirelessly, that shouldn't have been a shock, but I'd accepted the "you must transfer files by USB" standard of late.
In my testing, I transfered over Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, graphics files and folders containing images and documents. I transfered over a 32 megabyte .mov movie, and then watched it in perfect clarity on the phone.
It's like having a little desktop to go. My iPhone, so far, has largely been limited to running file data from Apple's iLife suite of apps. Photos, Movies, Music, and E-mail all are standard. But Word, Excel and PDF are now just as available thanks to File Magic, which is pretty darn cool.
You can find out more about File Magic on their site. The product is available for both Mac and Windows for the iPhone and iPod Touch.