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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,290
30,373


Ecamm Network has released a Mac OS X application called iPhoneDrive which allows you to store arbitrary files onto your iPhone. The purpose appears to be a way to emulate "drive mode" with the iPhone, allowing you to use your iPhone as an expensive USB flash drive.

The software provides no access to other files on the iPhone, so you can't copy photos, music, movies that have previously been synced with iTunes.

The system requirements include Mac OS X 10.4.10 and iTunes v7.3 and costs $9.95 for the full version. A free week long demo is provided.



Article Link
 

Telp

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2007
3,075
25
wow, $10, as if..IMHO that's just a ripoff and will just continue using my Sony 2 GB flash drive.
 

BostonMerlin

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2007
17
0
wow.. tuff crowd. ten bucks is nothing if transfering data is important to you.. esp since you have no other option (with the iPhone) right now. sooner or later apple will add that functionality.. but this company (person) took the time to build it.. ten bucks is reasonable.
 

Genghis Khan

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2007
1,202
0
Melbourne, Australia
i think not...something that should've been there in the first place, not going to pay for it

'if' iPhone ever gets to oz, i'll pirate that $10 software (if i want/need it at that time)
 

boss1

macrumors 6502a
Jan 8, 2007
978
36
$10 bucks is very reasonable. These people don't work for Apple. They're not obligated to include this functionality in the intro of the iPhone because they don't work for them :p .

They're trying to make a buck on a functionality that they took the time to create.


That said I'm not buying it unless you can access the stored files from the phone. Anyone if this software allows that? Otherwise it's pretty useless for me to put files on the phone. I have plenty of removable storage devices already.
 

uNext

macrumors 6502
Aug 21, 2006
358
2
LOL talk about double standard
some of you can spend 600 bucks on a phone
but complain about a $9.95 app?

You probably fall into the same group of
people that complain when gas prices go up .10cents
but invest 10k plus on gadgets throughout
the year lol
 

jwa276

macrumors regular
Aug 7, 2005
119
0
Los Angeles, CA
If this would actually mount a drive on the desktop like an iPod it would be worth paying for. If I have to use a third party file browser interface and run a separate application to accomplish the task? No thanks.

Glad to see they got it working, but the only way I'm going to pay money for a feature like that is if it's fully integrated into the OS. I would so use this if it were free, though.

Keep those iPhone features coming!! :)
 

Nicky G

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2002
1,146
1,282
Baltimore
i think not...something that should've been there in the first place, not going to pay for it

'if' iPhone ever gets to oz, i'll pirate that $10 software (if i want/need it at that time)

You, sir, are cheap. It would be fitting if someone rips you off someday, say, steals your iPod. Do you also pilfer candy bars from the convenience store? Grow up.
 

bob_hearn

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2004
115
3
Vancouver, BC
But how does it work?

Wow, what a mature crowd. How about instead we try to figure out how such a product could work? Or am I missing something obvious?
 

loudestnoise

macrumors 6502
May 31, 2005
321
0
Nashville, TN
wow.. tuff crowd. ten bucks is nothing if transfering data is important to you.. esp since you have no other option (with the iPhone) right now. sooner or later apple will add that functionality.. but this company (person) took the time to build it.. ten bucks is reasonable.

I'm not complaining about the $10 price tag associated with the software, but really, if Apple wants me to use iPhone as a drive they will let me. Apple knows best you know.
 

iVoid

macrumors 65816
Jan 9, 2007
1,145
190
I think the distaste for spending the $10 is that it's really something that Apple should have included from the start.

For a USB flash device not to have a disk mode is very annoying. I wonder if it's because it has to be formated as HFS+ and that would leave the Windoze users unable to use it as a usb disk, so Apple decided to omit the disk mode entirely.

Although I have a feeling it's Jobs' control freak personality driving this lack of disk mode. :) :D
 

PBG4 Dude

macrumors 601
Jul 6, 2007
4,256
4,467
Wow, what a mature crowd. How about instead we try to figure out how such a product could work? Or am I missing something obvious?

I'd like to know as well. The effort put into engineering this solution would be worth $10 to me if I needed this functionality.
 

bmb012

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2006
414
0
You've never wanted to have a few files on you no matter where you are?

If you always have a pen drive in your pocket anyway... :rolleyes:
 

joshuajestelle

macrumors regular
Mar 3, 2003
116
0
San Francisco, CA
I think the distaste for spending the $10 is that it's really something that Apple should have included from the start.

I would understand the distaste if it was Apple charging you $10 to use it for file storage, but at $10 I'd be thanking the developers who have enabled this for a very reasonable price.

I agree however, it is only marginally useful unless the files could be accessed via the iPhone.

For the time being, I'll keep emailing myself files I want to view on my iPhone.

Genghis Khan said:
i'll pirate that $10 software

If there software is useful to you, please buy it. These guys seem like a relatively small scale software developing company and if you like, and use, their software you should pay them for it.

Cheers,
Josh
 

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
I'm not complaining about the $10 price tag associated with the software, but really, if Apple wants me to use iPhone as a drive they will let me. Apple knows best you know.

LOL!

Maybe Apple thinks its best if users don't use their favourite ring tones? That sort of thing?!

I'm guessing, at this stage, disc access was disabled to stop the hacking of the iPhone.
 

llarson

macrumors member
Jul 1, 2007
91
0
The problem is...

To make it work I believe the computer you link the iPHONE to via USB has to have the HOST program too.

If I am right you still can't have files to carry around on your iPHONE as a back up or be able to dump files to the iPHONE like a USB memory stick.

UPDATE
Ecamm confirmed my post.

"Hi Larson,

You'll need the iPhoneDrive app installed on each Mac that needs access to the iPhone's files.

Thanks,
Glen"​
 

severe

macrumors 6502a
May 23, 2007
750
121
To make it work I believe the computer you link the iPHONE to via USB has to have the HOST program too.

If I am right you still can't have files to carry around on your iPHONE as a back up or be able to dump files to the iPHONE like a USB memory stick.

There lies the issue, for me. If the program needs to be installed on the host computer for upload and download, that's a problem.

There's also the issue of the USB cable. I'm not too familiar with the abilities of flash drives. Are there any that work via Bluetooth? Carrying around a cable could be a little inconvenient. However, I'd imagine this Bluetooth option being a bit slow.

Edit: Blah... that news isn't good. I was hoping I could use it for work and clients.
 

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Jul 3, 2005
2,136
473
UK/US
I'm not fond of the iPhone but this isn't that big a deal, is it? $10 is barely anything. Granted, the iPhone should have such an ability anyway, but still, $10 doesn't seem so bad. :)
 

metanoia

macrumors member
Jan 11, 2006
57
0
Interesting... I bet they are leveraging the work of the folks hard at work over at FiveForty trying to hack the iPhone... and they're writing GPL'ed code (as far as I know). Makes this tool suspect...
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I have the sneaking suspicion that this thread is a mix of people being ironic, and people not getting the irony :D

Anyone who makes a shareware app can charge what they like, and if you don't like the price then you don't get the fruits of their labor.

$10 is worth it to me to not have to carry a separate multi-GB device around.

But I'm sure Apple will enable this on iPhones long before I buy one :)
 

Squonk

macrumors 65816
Mar 15, 2005
1,370
14
I'm all for one less device to carry around (flash drive). But my usage of this would be from the work PC to the home Mac. This makes me think that the iPhone should have the drive mode like iPods and be done with it. Then the free iTunes at work will work for me. All I'd need to do is have another usb<=>iPod/iPhone dock cable at work.

Either way, another $9.99 wouldn't bother me to pay, but since this is available for iPods, why not the iPhone.
 
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