iPhone® Fully Loaded, Third Edition

Chapter 20. Putting Terabytes Worth of Files on Your iPhone

The Skim

Why Pushing Files is a Great Idea

I write about and review technology for a living. When I refer to "the box of smartphones in my office," I literally mean a box filled with smartphones. When a new phone arrives for review and I can't find space for it in the box, I send some of the older loaners back to their manufacturers.

So when I say that I think the iPhone is the best phone out there, that opinion is backed by a certain amount of experience.

And when I say that there's one feature found on even the cheapest smartphone that I sorely, sometimes desperately miss ... well, that's kind of a big deal, too.

It's such a bloody simple feature: a memory card slot. Or failing that, a simple USB connection that mounts the phone's storage on my desktop like any other USB device.

Those things are an open invitation to put a piece of data on the phone and use it. On a Windows Mobile or RIM BlackBerry or Google Android smartphone, there's nothing stopping you from putting a file on the device. Drag a file from your desktop on to the phone's icon on your desktop and presto: a copy of a vital report, or just a movie to watch on your flight to Denver, is on your device.

On the iPhone, iTunes alone has the authority to install a file that can be seen by the whole system. Which is annoying enough even if it's a video or a music file. ...