Air Sharing HD Review
Featured in our recent Apps of the Week (June 1st, 2010 – June 7th, 2010), Air Sharing HD allows you to copy files to and from the iPad over a wireless network, and even mount (or map) its internal storage as a drive on a PC or Mac over Wi-Fi. With its built-in file viewer, it allows users to view files on the iPad once transferred, not to mention that it supports many file formats too.
Features:-
- Create a wireless hard disk
- View documents
- Many file formats supported
- Email documents
- Connect to your computer
- Mount remote file servers
- View and download email attachments
- Perform advanced file operations
- Print documents
- Share files with other users
Review
One of the first things I thought about when I first got my iPad was how can I store and access my files whenever I need them, without bringing along a USB cable everywhere I go. Air Sharing HD bridges that gap by allowing me to create and wirelessly mount my iPad on a PC, Mac, or even Linux and use it as network drive; thus allowing normal file operations on the iPad such as: copy, move, delete and edit files. Not forgetting, it also supports many file formats such as:-
- iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
- Microsoft Office
- Safari web archive
- HTML web page
- PDF (even password-protected and large documents)
- Adobe Illustrator (saved as PDF Compatible)
- RTF and RTFD
- Plain text (many character encodings)
- Source code, with color-coded formatting
- Movies, Audio, and Images
Transferring files are relatively easy. To do this, you can either point the web browser on your computer to the Bonjour or IP address, or map the iPad as a drive. However, bear in mind that you can only do this when the PC, Mac or Linux is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the iPad. Transfers are relatively fast, but as always, the speed will depend on the type of wireless network you are on. I tried uploading a 1.5GB file and it only took me about 10 minutes on a 54 Mbps Wi-Fi network.
Files copied to Air Sharing HD are contained within its own section of the iPad’s internal storage. Sadly (and here’s where those Apple’s restrictions come in), Air Sharing HD isn’t a file manager in the traditional sense; you cannot, for example, view the iPad’s entire file structure. What you get is a file viewer with the files and folders that’s within Air Sharing only. New folders can be created, files can be moved or copied from location to location (within the app), files and folders can be renamed, etc.
I tried mounting my iPad using Air Sharing HD on a Windows 7 PC. It was a very easy one time process to create the network hard drive on both. Air Sharing HD does this by creating its own server through Wi-Fi and giving you an address on your local network. The result is great: I can copy my files to the iPad and access them on the go. Best of all, I can do this on any PC, Mac or Linux as long as they are on the same Wi-Fi network!
Mailing files to and from the iPad to an email can also be done easily. Air Sharing HD has presets for GMail, MobileMe, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, POP3 and IMAP4.
My main use of this app is to store huge amounts of files and documents on iPad for later use such as Microsoft Word & Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, etc. Air Sharing HD offers the ability to open files from within the app and it has a robust and powerful file viewer which I read PDF’s from on daily basis. It also allows me to email or share any files. There’s also the ‘Open In’ feature, which allows me to direct files within Air Sharing HD to open in compatible programs, such as opening a .DOC files in Pages.
Air Sharing HD also supports document printing and there are no special desktop software required; just turn on Printer Sharing (requires Mac OS X or Linux) and off you go! It is stated in the website that Air Sharing HD is capable of printing most viewable formats. However, I did not get a chance to test this feature as I do not own a Mac or Linux.
With the latest update, Air Sharing HD now supports Dropbox. Being able to send and retrieve files via Dropbox is really nice. If you have not heard of Dropbox, Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc., which uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. Check out a demonstration video here.
Overall
Overall, Air Sharing HD is a very convenient way to transfer, view, mail and print files to and from the iPad. The setup was a very easy one time process, which creates the network hard drive on both PC, Mac or Linux and iPad. While it is relatively expensive at $9.99, it’s worth each cent as you are now able to use your iPad as a portable wireless drive. I would definitely recommend this app to all iPad users. A MUST HAVE!
Air Sharing HD for iPad is currently available from iTunes App Store at $9.99.
I was given a registered version of Air Sharing HD for iPad in order to do this review.
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Reviewed On: iPad (Wi-Fi) with iPhone OS 3.2
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