FileMagnet Is a Most Attractive App for File Transfer

by Michael Alexander December 10, 2008 App Score: 4.5/5

FileMagnet - Read and e-mail your documents on the go (AppStore Link)

User Reviews

FileMagnet - Read and e-mail your documents on the go
Developer: Magnetism Studios
Price: $4.99 Download on the App Store

FileMagnet from Magnetism Studios is a simple, yet elegant, iPhone app. Its primary function is to make it easy to shuttle files back and forth between your desktop and iPhone and it does that very well.

The first thing you do is ensure your iPhone and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network — it won't work otherwise. Next, install the FileMagnet app on your iPhone and the uploader client on your desktop — in Windows or Mac OS — which you get from Magentism Studios' Web site.

When I launched both apps, the client found the iPhone immediately (and I mean within a few seconds).

From there, it's as easy to drag files and folders from your desktop to your iPhone so you can take them with you to read later or transfer to another desktop on which you've also installed the client. From the iPhone, you can delete files (it does not delete files on the desktop, so no worries there) or upload them to your desktop.You can drop virtually any file onto your iPhone. However, you can only open and read file formats the iPhone supports: PDFs, Microsoft Office Docs, iWork, graphic files, movies, and audio files. That shouldn't come as a surprise.

You can choose to read your files in portrait and landscape mode. You also can scroll from one open file to the next.

FileMagnet has a tilt mode that I found gimmicky. It allows you to use the accelerometer to scroll pages from top and bottom. When you use this feature, it requires your tilting the iPhone toward or away from you at angles that make the text difficult to read. Happily, you can turn tilt mode off.

One drawback: You can view PDFs only one page at a time, which could be inconvenient with lengthy documents.

The desktop client crashed on me a couple of times on my laptop, which runs Vista. I'm inclined to blame the OS for that. It ran fine on my XP desktop.

FileMagnet is a great app. It comes with a complete set of instructions in PDF. Don't leave home without it.

Image Gallery: FileMagnet - Read and e-mail your documents on the go

Sergii

Did you compare it with AirSharing?
Michael Alexander

I bought Air Sharing before trying FileMagnet but I did not do a head-to-head comparison. The apps are similar and I didn't experience problems with either one. Both were easy to set up and use.

AS doesn't require a client app on your desktop or laptop as I recall. And I think it was easier to flip through PDFs, but don't hold me to it. It's a couple more bucks than FM, for whatever that's worth.

AS was free for a while, which no doubts accounts for its more glowing reviews than those of FileMagnet.

AppCraver reviewed AS and rated it highly: http://www.appcraver.com/air-sharing/
menom

I agree that FileMagnet is great

I use it to get my day's list of assignments onto the iPhone and I like the options for how to scroll through a long file

as well as the tilt option you mentioned there is a 'scrub bar' which only appears when you tap the screen which allows quicker scrolling through a long docs than the usual flick method and also has a page at a time 'button'

I've never had a crash on my old G4 Mac using the desktop client

all in all this app has made my life easier - and it supports the iPhone's data detectors - so a phone number in a doc is highlighted and just has to be tapped to initiate dialling - life saver for me with my jobs lists

really great app - agree with your 9/10 mark
svs

I cannot understand why everyone seems to be giving FileMagnet such a high rating?

It's got a slick interface and transfers more quickly than air sharing. However, there is one glaring flaw that everyone seems to gloss over. Any document over 3MB gets a constant, running out of memory error.

The developer's solution is to reboot your device!

This problem does not occur with Air Sharing.

If you seriously want to use your device for reading documents then I'm afraid that FileMagnet does NOT cut the mustard. The developers keep promising to fix this but in the six plus months I've had the programme have failed to do so.
Michael Alexander

Back when I looked at FileMagnet, there weren't many file transfer apps around, amd FileMag happened to be one of the less expensive ones. In that context, it did well.

However, since then, the options have increased quite a bit and it may be time for you to look at some others. WiFi Disk is $1.99 and certainly worth a look.

If you have memory problems, it may not be caused by FileMagnet but I haven't used it in quite some time.

To avoid having to reboot, you might want to check out Memory Free or Memory & System Info. Each are $0.99.. Both will free your available memory by clearing out digital junk left behind when you close apps.

To be clear: I'm not saying FileMagnet is not at fault, only that there are many alternatives available now worth considering, for less money.
svs

As I have a number of these programmes and FileMagnet is the only one with memory problems, I'm pretty sure the problem lies there. Also, they mention the problem on their website as a 'to do'.

I think a new review of what's available would be great.

One thing I've not been able to find much on in the reviews is whether the programme can reflow PDF's. PDF's are the bane of small devices. I don't know how people manage to read long documents side-scrolling as well as scrolling down. There are now many apps which give a long list of formats that they can read, however I believe reflow to be an important criteria that seems little mentioned and would be good to add to a review.