Apple : Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone

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Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone Posted: How to manage your files with your iPhone Your smartphone is your true mobile companion. It has more computing power than it took to put a man on the moon. It's an always-connected PC, sitting in your pocket; yesterday's dreams made real. And, as such, your smartphone is the perfect device for dealing with your precious documents and files. No other hardware has the power of internet connectivity, push notifications, compatibility with our PC operating systems, and most importantly, is omnipresent in everyone's lives, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. Despite the smartphone's power to put files and documents at our fingertips, it can be surprisingly difficult to access them. One particular offender is iOS, which, despite being the operating system behinds the world's most popular handset, the iPhone, is totally inept when dealing with files. We should point out that we're concentrating on iOS in this article, merely because it's the most restricted of the smartphone operating systems. Many of our tips will also apply to Android and BlackBerry handsets too. Grab the Dropbox app for Android and you'll be able to do many of the things we describe here. Back to iOS, then. It hides its file system, it's unable to read files placed onto its memory using a USB connection, there's no microSD port for moving files physically, and Safari will plainly refuse to use web versions of online file systems such as Dropbox. It's like the anti-computer. Even if you're able to access them - perhaps by connecting a camera connection kit to an iPad and inserting an SD card - iOS has little provision for reading files natively, so that essential Word document will be about as much use to you as an animated GIF of a gurning Jeremy Clarkson. Luckily, what can't be done natively on the iPhone can mostly be achieved though the use of apps. You can extend your phone's functionality to add features, and when it comes to going mobile with your files, there are plenty of methods to choose from. Dropbox One of the first names that come to mind when dealing with file storage and distribution is Dropbox. And rightly so. This online cloud storage service has rocketed in popularity over the last couple of years due to its excellent connectivity options, fast speeds and intuitive interface. One of the best things about Dropbox is that it's multi-platform - you might already use it on PC or Mac through a desktop app or through the browser portal, which lets you to access the files you're storing from anywhere. However, fewer people are aware of the rather excellent iOS version of the Dropbox app, which really puts you in control of your stored documents. If you're ever away from your PC, on the move or simply need to access an important file quickly, your smartphone can come to the rescue. You can download the Dropbox app for iOS from the App Store free of charge. Once it's installed, tap it to open and you'll be asked if you're a Dropbox user. If you've used the service before, just add your details to access your files. If this is your first time using it, click 'I'm new to Dropbox'. There's a short signup process, which is kept to a minimum, then you're taken to your storage area. Once you're logged into the app you can view any file that's been uploaded to your Dropbox and stored in the cloud from any system; this means your files can cross between Android handsets, PCs, email accounts, the lot. There's also the option to view files, which is one of the few ways you can actually read documents that have been sent to your iPhone, given its usual stoic refusal to view anything other than PDFs and images. Dropbox is able to natively display a host of image types, a variety of text documents and a string of other common file types besides. Unfortunately you can't make changes or amendments to the documents, and they will only open in a read-only mode. Share and share alike You can, however, redistribute files, which can be a godsend when you're on the move. If a colleague or family member has ever called you to ask for a file while you're enjoying a day off, it can often mean an irritating journey to your PC to send it. Retrieving the file on Dropbox makes the process much easier. Open any file, even if it's in an unreadable format, and press the icon at the bottom left that looks like two linked chains. Choose 'Email link' and a new message containing a hyperlink will open using the iPhone's default mail programme. Send that to the recipient and they can download the file without any hassle, leaving you to get on with your day. One weakness of using Dropbox on your iPhone is that there's little scope for uploading to the app. You can add files, but with iOS's limited file support you can only deal with your photos. Thankfully, there's another way. Other apps that let you interact with your files can connect with Dropbox, letting you save your files in a central location. A great example of this is the email app provided with iOS. Scroll to the bottom of an email containing an attachment and tap it. When it loads, press the forward arrow in the top right corner. Choose 'Open in' and select 'Dropbox' from the list. The app prompts you to pick a location for it to be saved in before it's uploaded to the cloud. Dropbox presents one of the simplest ways to control your files using your iPhone, and there's not a lot that it can't do. However, mobile workers who use a host of FTP connections may find there's a lack of options on offer, and could be put off by the need to use the desktop application. Locked down corporate systems won't let you install the app either, which means it's a case of using the clunky web interface, which is never a good thing. However, an iOS app called Air Sharing does offer a neat alternative. Air Sharing and DiskAid Air Sharing While Dropbox is a fantastic way to access files when you're away from your PC, it doesn't put you in full control. If you're looking to really work remotely, try the Air Sharing app, which is available for £1.49 from the App Store. This features a host of functions that give you the power to turn your iPhone from a basic file reader into a powerful server. In short, Air Sharing lets you use your iOS device as a portable hard drive, with your files stored wherever you go. You can access them via your phone, PC, Mac or via a web portal which offers 10GB of storage. You can even mount your iOS device onto your desktop as if it were a portable hard drive, which is particularly useful if you have a large capacity device; it may not matter to you if the phone itself can read the files if you're always carrying the equivalent of a large USB drive in your pocket. The key benefit of Air Sharing over other types of mobile storage is that instead of storing your data in the cloud, it uses the physical memory on your iPhone. This means you can use up to 10GB of storage, rather than the measly 2GB provided with the free version of Dropbox. It also means that you have a backup if you need a file when you're offline, and you may even get better speed running over Wi-Fi than you would over USB. To get started, download the Air Sharing app from the App Store. There's a Pro version that costs £3.99 and has many more features, and you can upgrade at any time. Mounting your iPhone as a physical drive on your PC is easy. First you need to connect your iPhone to your home network, then open the Air Share app and press the wireless icon at the bottom of the home screen. This will open a small menu that contains important information about your account. Put your iPhone to one side and turn to your PC. In Windows 7, click the Start menu and right-click 'Computer'. Choose 'Map network drive' from the list, then enter the IP address listed in your Air Sharing app into the 'Folder' field. Click 'OK' and a Windows Explorer window will open showing all of the files contained in your Air Sharing inbox. You can also do the same on a Mac, if you're using one. Begin by right-clicking on the Finder icon in your dock, then choose Connect to Server. Use the same IP address as you would on PC in order to have the storage location mounted for seamless connection between Mac and iPhone. The support provided by Air Sharing is also fantastic, and includes some difficult formats. There's iWork, Microsoft Office, HTML, RTF, PDF, movies, audio, and even source code, including C++. That could prove invaluable if you're a programmer. If you're a mobile worker, Air Sharing has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Unlike Dropbox, it supports a wealth of FTP file sharing protocols, Home Pipe, MobileMe, and Dropbox itself, which gives you plenty of options. You don't have to settle for FTP links to get more from Air Sharing; if you have Bonjour installed on your PC or Mac, you can connect using your web browser. This address doesn't change from session to session; just find it in Air Sharing's connections menu once and you'll always know exactly how to connect to your phone. View your files on your PC Air Sharing is a powerful tool, but it's possible to supplement or even replace it with a different, more hardcore application. DiskAid is a PC app that lets you explore the contents of your iPhone like any other drive. You can download a 14-day trial, after which you can pay $9.95 to upgrade to the full program. Once the trial is installed, it will prompt you to connect your iOS device, which must be unlocked the first time so DiskAid can recognise it. You will then get a basic file tree view, which lists all your installed apps as well as general storage. This is the bit of iOS that Apple tries its best to hide from public view - the file system itself. We're of the mind that Apple isn't trying to be deliberately awkward, though; Steve Jobs' philosophy, even back when he and Steve Wozniak were designing the original Apple home computers, was that they should be simple enough for anyone to use. There was even an argument in those early days; Woz had to fight hard for the Apple II's expansion slots. Reminiscing aside, you can use the DiskAid app to transfer files to and from your iPhone's memory. Unfortunately it's not a straightforward case of dragging and dropping - the tools are located at the top of the DiskAid window. Click one of these to locate the file and the destination, and DiskAid will take care of transferring it to your memory. This does introduce one large issue: you'll need a machine with DiskAid installed to move files around on an iOS device, so it's not a universal solution. If you're using Air Sharing, you can also find these files by choosing the app from the list located near the bottom. Click on the name to display a new folder containing all of your remote files. You can transfer these to your PC by clicking them and choosing 'Transfer to PC'. Just set the destination and your file will be copied across. There are a few other file management solutions worth mentioning here. If you're looking to grab files straight from the internet and store them on your device, you could do worse than trying Downloads, a £1.50 app that especially suits MP3s, given that it has its own built in player. Or, if you're looking to improve iOS compatibility with media files, try something like VLC Streamer, which plays back videos of all types, streaming them over your network. Or why not try Screens, which lets you see and control your PC's desktop directly from your phone? It's pricey at £14, but worth the investment. If you're really looking to take control of your files then iOS is far from perfect, but the huge range of apps on offer means you don't have to rely on USB sticks and clunky cloud web interfaces. We heartily recommend anyone to try Dropbox, and the app is a great extension of a superb web service. Alternatively, Air Sharing is a fantastic service, especially if you go for the pro version.

In Depth: 13 weird and wonderful niche Linux distros Posted: 13 niche Linux distros Here are 13 of the best, oddest and most useful distributions that Linux has to offer, and why on Earth you'd want to use them. Red Star OS One distro that's never going to trouble the top of the Distrowatch rankings chart is Red Star OS. This is the Linux distribution that was developed/is being developed as the officially sanctioned operating system of North Korea, apparently at the behest of Kim Jong-Il, the country's leader. It's based on the familiar KDE 3.x, but with added touches including the Woodpecker antivirus software and the Pyongyang Fortress firewall. Familiar apps have been renamed too: there's a notebook app called My Comrade, and Firefox is called My Country (perhaps fittingly, as North Korea has its own internet). We searched for 'Democracy' in the default search engine, but nothing came up… MuLinux The classically educated might be able to guess that this is a small distro, possibly in the same vein as Puppy or Damn Small Linux. You'd have difficulty, however, comprehending just how small it is. MuLinux requires 20MB hard disk space and 4MB RAM, and will run on an Intel 80386 processor or later. That's the same Intel 80386 processor that was released in 1985, meaning Mu will breathe life into even ancient hardware. Mu is no match for a modern system in terms of productivity, having been finished in 1998-99, but if you have a 25-year-old machine that you want to rescue from the scrapheap, it's the distro for you. Ubuntu Satanic Edition Ubuntu spin-offs are ten-a-penny, but we have to recognise that the makers of Ubuntu SE have gone beyond the ordinary in their quest to please The Dark One. The dark theme and collection of background images is the most obvious modification, and the sound effects and startup jingle have also been customised. Ubuntu's fondness for alliteration is still there (the last three releases have been Lucifer's Legion, Microsoft Massacre and Necrophilic Necromancer), but the version numbers have been modified to 666.8, 666.9 and 666.10 respectively. Oh, and it doesn't have live CDs; they're "undead". Endearingly bonkers. GoboLinux One for the techies, this: the thing that marks GoboLinux out from the rest is its filesystem layout. Most Linux distributions use an archaic non-arrangement wherein an application's files are scattered around your hard drive in several different folders. GoboLinux adopts an OS X-like approach (which Apple took from RISC OS), and stores all files associated with an application in a single folder in /Programs. GNewSense If you like software freedom, you'll love GNewSense. It's based on Ubuntu, but has had all non-free software removed, including those tricky non-free driver files that are loaded into the Linux kernel (known as binary blobs). Unfortunately, many of these blobs are drivers for wireless networking cards, so GNewSense may not be the best distro for laptops. On the plus side, it has removed or renamed software that doesn't fit the Free Software Foundation's definition of freedom (Firefox, for example, is renamed as Burning Dog), and it doesn't provide any links to non-free repositories, making it even more free than Debian. Until we get the Hurd to replace the Linux kernel and create Gnu/Hurd, GNewSense (and Trisquel, a similar project based on Debian with a much cooler logo) is the closest we'll get to completely free. Sabily/Ubuntu Christian Edition Formerly known as Ubuntu Islamic Remix, Sabily is Ubuntu with extra Islam. The theme is Islamic green, the Applications menu has been expanded to include a selection of Quran study/prayer-time software, and the DansGuardian web filtering tool has been given an easy-to-use front end in the shape of Webstrict. Ubuntu Christian Edition is, perhaps not surprisingly, the equivalent for Christians, and features religious study tools as well as improved web filtering (Ubuntu CE's DansGuardian UI is what inspired the developers of Sabily to include their own). We also have to tip our hat to Jewbuntu, simply for having such an inspired name. Yellow Dog Originally released in the late 90s for Apple computers using the PowerPC chip architecture, Yellow Dog found its niche among people who wanted an even more different way to think differently. All was good, but then Apple abandoned PowerPC in favour of Intel chips, which it's still using today. This left Yellow Dog out in the cold, but after a change of ownership it re-invented itself as an OS for high-performance multicore computing - most notably as the OS used on PlayStations hooked up to form cheap supercomputing grids. Mikebuntu We blow our own trumpet so rarely round here that we'd almost forgotten where we put it, but it's worth shouting about the work that disc monkey Mike Saunders puts into the DVD for TechRadar's sister title, Linux Format, every month. Mike packs the distro on the free DVD with extra PDFs, extra software, extra desktop environments and heaps more extra options. We love you, Mike. Gentoo We love the freedom that we have to modify and recompile source code according to our needs, but very few of us actually do this, because it's easier to just download a Deb or RPM file. The lazy majority would not like Gentoo - or Linux For Masochists, as it's sometimes known - for the simple fact that you have to compile it yourself. That's not just the apps - it's the whole thing, including the kernel and all the other bits of your current distro that most people take for granted. The point of this is that if your Linux distro is compiled for your exact hardware, it should be possible to wring every last drop of performance from your kit. You just need to make sure that you have a large supply of coffee to hand before you attempt to install it. And yes, we know that there are versions of Gentoo in existence that are easier to use, but they're not really Gentoo now, are they? Scientific Linux There still exists among our Windows-using cousins the risible idea that Linux isn't good enough to take over on the desktop; that the continued dominance of Microsoft on the desktop is inevitable, because Linux is not up to the job technically. This can easily be refuted: the cleverest people on the planet - the scientists searching for clues about the beginning of the universe - use Scientific Linux at the CERN laboratories. It's based on Red Hat, and anyone can download and install it on their machine. You don't even need a PhD in theoretical physics. Parted Magic We're sure that nobody runs this as their full-time operating system (if you do, get in touch and tell us why), so although it's technically a distro, it's best thought of as a specialist tool. Parted Magic is a live distro that comes with all the tools you need to fix broken partitions. If something won't boot, this is what you use to fix it, and that goes for both Linux and Windows machines. As a troubleshooting aid, it's indispensable. Bodhi Linux Before Unity, Gnome 3 and KDE 4 came along and showed the world what it was missing, the Linux desktop was a staid place, enlivened only by the ongoing flame wars between KDE and Gnome users. This is odd, because as long ago as 1997 we had a far glitzier alternative: Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a window manager, and is beautiful without distracting you from the task in hand or forcing you to adopt your way of working to it. And the best way to get it is to install Bodhi Linux, which is why it's on this list. Umpteen Ubuntu remixes It's often said that there's too much choice in Linuxland, but the truth is actually that there's too much duplication. Each of the distros featured in this list fulfils a need, and brings something new to the party. But there are many, many more that don't. If you're thinking of remixing your favourite distro to give it an Xfce or LXD E desktop, don't: because someone will already have done it; and we don't need any more dead wood clogging up the internet.

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