Apple Thoughts: Review: Box.net for the iPhone

Product Category: iPhone App
Developer: Box.net
Where to Buy: iTunes App Store
Price: Free
System Requirements: iPhone/iPod Touch
Specifications: Box.net requires about 200k for installation, and needs some free memory for downloading files.

Pros:

• Allows you to view supported file types on the iPhone/iPod Touch;
• Intuitive interface;
• You can share files from the app with people in your contact list.

Cons:

• Many bugs and easy to crash;
• No way to share with people not in your contacts list;
• Lack of landscape mode makes reading some documents difficult.
  

Summary: Box.net's iPhone application is a good idea, but the implementation needs a little work.

Next Best Thing to Syncing

Figure 1: A PDF file from my box.net account rendered on the iPhone.

One of my chief complaints about the iPhone is the inability to sync documents to it. I often resort to emailing myself documents that I know I'll need to access away from home. Box.net provides a better way. Box.net is an online storage site. They provide 1 gigabyte accounts for free. I'm not going to review their storage service here, but the iPhone application they wrote that integrates with their site.

The app works by syncing with your box.net account over Edge, 3G, or WiFi. For files over about 500k, Edge is slow enough to make the application useless, but it's very responsive under WiFi and the 3G network. The application mostly works as advertised. It allows you to access files that are store on your Box.net account on your iphone, as long as the iPhone supports that filetype. That means that you can view pictures, read word documents and PDFs, and listen to MP3s and AACs that are stored in your account. You can't edit the files, but it's a great way to get necessary documents to your iPhone in a field situation.

The application was easy to use. You enter your email address and password and the app displays a list of your files. Touch a filename, and that file will download and render on the screen. You can use the iPhone pinch to resize files. You can even upload pictures from the iPhone to your Box.net account. If it can't render a file, you'll get a message saying “This File Cannot Be Displayed”.