Wowzers! I just discovered a very cool find for my iPhone. It’s the Carbonite iPhone app which allows me to access the online files that Carbonite has backed up from my desktop. If you’re anything like me, your iPhone is a constant companion and never more than an arms length away.
The good: it allows users to browse, view and share backed up files on the move at anytime.
The bad: you cannot edit anything. I can live with that. But what I could do was email the file to myself and edit it on the iPhone with the document editing app I have (DocsToGo), then email the edited file to someone, so at least that’s something.
It doesn’t support viewing all file types, so while I was able to listen to an MP3 audio, I wasn’t able to watch a video of any type or size. Not even a MOV video, even though I read somewhere that you can. Again, not a deal breaker for me.
So far that I see, it supports viewing of image files, all Office docs such as .doc, .docx, etc., txt files, pdf’s, presentations, spreadsheets, and probably several others. I was able to view a php file even after the app said it might not be able to display the file. I told it to “Try anyway” and it opened.
The ability to easily email any one of those files right from this app is AWESOME and makes this app completely worth downloading. Even if it could not open a file, the ability to email it was still available. I tried this with a zipped file and with a small video and it worked like a charm. A very cool feature!
Did I mention it’s free?
This could be the deciding factor for those who are trying to decide between Carbonite and other similar online backup solutions.
As long as you have one or more computers being backed up by Carbonite, you’ll be able to access the majority of those files. It keeps the folder structure in place, too. So if you’re like me (someone with a bazillion files in a multiple folders for organization), you’ll see your file folders all nice and orderly via the Carbonite iPhone app. This makes it easy to locate the file.
The Carbonite blog mentions the ability to access cached files offline or even without Wi-Fi or 3G connection, but I didn’t try that out. Sound nifty, though.
I don’t do much traveling, but I imagine this would be a crazy-awesome tool for people on the go.
See? I told you it was cool. 🙂
Rob Carson says
Hi Andrea, I haven’t purchased an iphone, but my new contract is almost up so I think I might take a look at one. Thanks for the info!
AndreaKalli says
Carbonite also has apps for other mobile phones, too. Blackberry for sure, working on an Android app.
sarah says
The first is to market the iPhone applications by yourself and the second with the help of a marketing company.However,if you are opting for the first option,there are few important things that you have to consider.