One of the most demanding features on iPhone is to save document (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF, etc) on iPhone and view it on-the-go. I’m using a 8GB iPhone model. I always think of using it as a mobile harddisk that lets me carry & view my documents on-the-go. Even it comes to firmware 2.1, however, Apple does not provide any support for this feature.
In my earlier posts, I have mentioned about saving files on iPhone using SSH / Netatalk and several workarounds to view Doc/PDF on iPhone. 
These approaches are far from perfect and not so easy for everyone, particularly those without technical background. I have been waited for a more perfect solution to replace these interim ones. Finally, the solution is here: Air Sharing.
What’s Air Sharing
Air Sharing, which is a new application in AppStore, provides you a very easy way to connect your iPhone with your computer and transfer files between them. With Air Sharing enabled, your iPhone appears as a shared drive on your computer. So, you can transfer files from computer to iPhone by just drag & drop. But unlike Netatalk which works for Mac only, Air Sharing supports all major operating systems including Mac, Windows and Linux. On top of that, the most impressive feature is Air Sharing lets you view documents locally on iPhone.
Supported File Formats
- Microsoft Office Document including Word, Excel and Powerpoint
- Apple’s iWork Document including Pages, Number and Keynote
- HTML
- RTF (Rich Text Format)
- RTFD (TextEdit documents with embedded images)
- Plain text document with Unicode support
- Source code file (e.g. C/C++, Java, Javascript, XML, etc) with coloured syntax highlight
- Movie file (Format supported: H.264, MPEG-4, 3GPP)
- Audio file (Format supported: MP3 VBR, AAC, WAV, etc)
- Image file (Format supported: GIF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, etc)
How to use Air Sharing
- Launch Air Sharing and your iPhone is now ready for other computer’s connection. In Air Sharing, you should find a HTTP URL in the status bar at the bottom. This is the iPhone’s URL your computer will connect to.
- Start Finder on Mac. Click “Go” -> “Connect to Server…”. Type in your iPhone URL (e.g. http://10.0.1.197:8080)
- Wait for a few seconds. Your iPhone will be shown up in Finder as a shared device.
- And you can now just drag & drop files onto iPhone.
For Windows / Linux user, you can consult the help page of Air Sharing about how you can connect to the iPhone on your computer.
Viewing Document using Air Sharing
A picture tells a thousand of words. Check out the screenshots and see how you can view different documents via Air Sharing.
Note: All documents in Air Sharing can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
Looks great, right? But, there is a catch. You have to take your action now. According to Avatron Software Inc, Air Sharing will be selling at a price of US$6.99. For now, it’s running a promotion for two weeks only. You can download it for free on Apple’s AppStore. Don’t wait. I can say this is a must-have application on iPhone.
Drop me comment and share your experience on Air Sharing.
Update: A new version of Air Sharing has been released to improve Windows Vista connectivity. You can click here to check out the update.
