11 ways to sync your data with an iPhone
Can your data appear in two places at once? With a little sleight of hand and the help of some smart apps, you can access your calendar, your files, and even your Mac's desktop from just about anywhere.
Control your Mac
You need to start a backup but you're miles away from your Mac? Much as you can control another Mac using Leopard's Screen Sharing feature, you can control a Mac from your iPhone. The means for doing so is a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) client such as ReadPixel's $7 RemoteTap ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ). A VNC client places a tiny version of a Mac's display on the iPhone's screen, which you can control by dragging and tapping.
Because your remote Mac is doing the work, you can also use your VNC client to send yourself documents or view files that otherwise would not display on the iPhone. Just open the file remotely on your Mac and use the stretch gesture to enlarge and view it.
Access your files from afar
(Image Caption: FarFinder lets you browse your Mac's folders via the Web.) If you don't need to control your Mac, but you do want to be able to grab files from it, Flying Mac's $35 FarFinder is a better alternative to a VNC client. FarFinder lets you use a Web browser (a free iPhone application awaits Apple approval) to navigate your Mac in a Finder-like view-far easier than trying to fit your Mac's entire screen on your iPhone's tiny display. You can e-mail files to yourself, or in some cases even view files (images and PDFs, for example) in the browser. But keep in mind that your computer has to be turned on for this to work.
Send files to your iPhone
Before you head off to that important business meeting, you want to make sure you have the company's latest sales figures and competitive analysis at your fingertips. In the days before the App Store existed, there wasn't an easy way to stash files on your iPhone and view them. Now you have several options.
To move files from your Mac to your iPhone over a local wireless network, try Magnetism Studios' $5 FileMagnet ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice ). FileMagnet will also let you view iPhone-compatible files-though you can't edit them. Keep in mind that for these files to be viewable on the iPhone, their names must have the appropriate extension-.jpg or .doc, for example.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
On Twitter now
iphone
Powered by Twitter
Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly
claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century
pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?
jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith
mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
iPhone transfer
Nice article, I'd also like to recommend this iPhone transfer, it can copy files from/to iPhone. It's a nice iTunes alternative.I really like this article,
I really like this article, as a mac user,i usually find a problem to sync my data, sometimes get troubled.Right now, i can easily use this tod file converter for .dv, and enjoy my favorite video on my iphone.Nice article!