Air Sharing for iPhone Becomes a Free Download

[jasonR]

According to the folks at Avatron Software, “Air Sharing is the easiest way to take your documents with you and view them on the go”. Air Sharing generally costs seven bucks, but the generous company is now offering its application for free, for two full weeks.

Once you install and fire up Air Sharing, you'll arrive at a basic folder list screen showing what you've got, with options to "Edit" those folders—though all you can really do is delete them from here—and three icons at the bottom of the screen. Also down there is the WebDAV address for your iPhone/iPod touch. If you're itching to get going, you could simply type that into your browser and get a basic download-only view of your files. Click on the WiFi-looking symbol, however, and you'll get a screen showing your "Bonjour" address, which doesn't change from session to session like your IP and gives you additional features on some systems. It's mostly a Mac thing, but it's also installed in Windows when you install iTunes.

Air Sharing comes with the options you'd hope/expect for a portable device. You can turn on no-password-needed, totally informal transfer if you don't bring your device into public that often, or lock it down and have it fade out after a certain amount of time of inactivity. Combining password protection with Bonjour's same-address-always availability could be a good way to split the difference.

Adding your Air Sharing storage in Windows Vista takes a few clicks, but once it's set up, you won't have to head back. Open up your "Computer" window from the Start Menu or desktop, then right-click in an empty space and choose "Add a Network Location." Click through the initial screen, choose "Choose a custom network location" if it prompts you. I've got iTunes and Bonjour installed, so I entered that address and hit Next. You'll be asked to name the connection, and then it shows up in the "Network Location" listing in your "Computer" menu.

Air Sharing requires an iPhone or iPod touch running firmware 2.0 or later (currently at 2.0.2) and is available for free download (through 8 – 22 August).

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