Where did file sharing go in iPhone 3.2 and will it come back for iPhone OS 4?
9to5Mac casts a spotlight on the file sharing feature shown off during Apple's iPad Announcement event back in January as part of iPhone 3.2 for iPad... and how it was mysteriously gone come launch day, April 3.
Given the current kluge that is getting files onto and off of the iPad file sharing seems like a fairly important feature to suddenly go missing.
You could flip a switch in the Settings and your iPad disk would show up on your Mac/PC's desktop as a drive. You could copy files from your desktop to iPad this way manually. This would have been a great feature for carrying around important PDFs and other documents. You could store important files on your iPad, not just ones that were going to be used in iWork.
Was the feature not working properly and, given the already slipping deadline for delivery, get pushed off to a future iPhone OS update? It doesn't seem to be in the iPhone OS 4 beta 1, but that doesn't mean it won't show up again in time for the final iPhone OS 4 release this summer.
Given the inclusion of iWork, however, and the ability of the iPad to handle a higher level of productivity it is strange and irksome to be waiting, especially after having been teased by the prospect.
Anyone else missing it?
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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I'm shocked because Apple is known for "secrets" and if Apple revealed such a feature that isn't available on the consumer iPad shows Apple is a bit careless. Apple are humans after all.
I hope this and printing support are added To 4.0 by June
I haven't downloaded them yet, but is it possible that the feature appears after a person has installed any of the iWork apps?!?
I'd be curious to know...
Nobody else has noticed it missing, but all the other iPad owners are using their iPads to sit on the sofa and surf while watching tv, or watch movies during a commute. File share? Isn't that work?
@drew I don't see it even with the iWork apps installed.
The iPad needs greater file sharing ability to be useful as a productivity device. I'd like to be able to use it at times to do work instead of lugging my laptop around.
I'm sure it will return at some point, but I don't see it making the next iPad OS upgrade.
I believe they changed it where individual running apps use some API to transfer files on and off the iPad instead of some general storage dump.
Are you kidding??? It's the thing that put me off getting an iPad until all the kinks in its basic UI has been ironed out. To use such a powerful device and not be able to freely import large number of files, to be later read/ edited in ANY of onboard apps (rather than just a single, dedicated one) would be an insult to my intelligence. So, no dice.
There's an app for that- WiFi HD, and it's free. However, it just acts as an external HD...
The file sharing is only for Application, if application wants to share the files, then it will show up application's Documents folder.
@Alli, you seem to be very concerned with what people use THEIR stuff for. Who cares why people use it. They spent THEIR money on it and can use it for whatever they see fit.
I know Steve Jobs is taking anti-rejection drugs for his new liver ("i-Liver"). He needs to start taking anti-rejection drugs for iPhone OS.
Brian, don't get defensive... Gosh....
Who's defensive? I just think its odd that people can be that concerned with what other people use their stuff for.
Notes sync all over again...
I really hope this isn't a lame attempt by Apple to cripple this feature in order to prevent MacBook cannibalization. I don't see how they can seriously sell iWork as a "productivity" suite (and yes, that word is all over their marketing, as well as terms like "powerful" and "desktop class") while making it so onerous and slow to transfer documents around.
@Nigel, so do I. The disappeared file-sharing and lack of any kind of system-wide/ global margin notes/ annotation capabilites —the most important aspect of textbooks in education— tells me that the iPad Mark I wasn't really ready for release, so they had to take out not-quite-perfect planned features in order to make the launch date.
File Sharing was never meant to be (or advertised as) a general place to store files. It was always application specific. Individual app may chose to share files with the Desktop. That feature is still there, as in iWork. The only thing that has changed is the desktop implementation. Rather than seeing a mounted disk on the desktop, they are accessed via iTunes. This was likely to reduce confusion. Using iTunes makes it clear which app you're putting the file in. Having individual folders on a disk may lead the user to the erroneous conclusion that a file could be dropped onto the iPad outside of any app. This feature is still in 3.2 and has been announced as being part of 4.0 as well.
@DCYorke You make a good point. It may have just been that. Can you provide a source for that information though. And especially, a source that states the feature is coming to OS 4.0?
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