We review iPen Drive, an iPhone app that turns your device into a mass storage drive with a built-in billboard
Do you recall the days when the hottest techie buzz word was 'plug and play'? Apple has pulled quite a technological coup by establishing the word 'app' as the new meme to replace 'software' or 'program,' but plug and play proves just how fickle our meme-Eric memories really are.
Just jamming something into a USB socket wasn't enough. Drivers were required before you could do away with your floppy drive and enjoy digital storage up to - and including - a whopping 8MB. But even those drivers were as flakey as a box of corn flakes, so the sudden convenience of stuffing a USB drive into a computer and having immediate access to its space was a real revolution.
So how come we can't do that with our epic-sized iPhone storage? And it's not just the iPhone. Plug and play has gone right out of the window these days, with all these awesome new devices demanding we install 'app store' software to get anywhere near them.
Which finally brings us to iPen Drive. This app is one of many that tries to restore the convenience of easy and open mass storage access. Apple doesn't make it easy on the app, but at least you can load up on whatever type of file you might want to carry and keep them in your pocket.
IPen Drive uses the file sharing system built into iTunes to transfer your data back and forth betwixt iOS device and computer. This method isn't the empty Windows folder we'd like to see, but that's not the app's fault.
Once connected to your computer via USB cable, and with iTunes running, you can drop your files into the iPhone's memory through the 'Apps' tab quickly and simply.
Well, that 'simply' should probably be qualified by 'excluding the iTunes installation and faff.'
The real difficulty isn't so much in loading your files into iPen Drive, which you're likely to do at home where you can install whatever Apple-based software albatross you want, but the fact you've got to also have iTunes at the other end to get your gear back off the iPhone. Potentially, this isn't such a simple matter if it's a friend's, work or public computer.
While this app might work pretty smoothly around the limitations set up by Apple, it's overly aggressive in it's in-app advertising. Your finger can barely move on the screen without coming near - or opening - an ad.
Before you even get to the launch menu iPen Drive is offering buttons to take you out of the app to go and look at other purchases from the same developer. Placeholders fill the screen for iAds, and the 'email' button, which we'd hoped would allow you to send files directly out of the app without iTunes, is nothing more than an opportunity to help spread the spam.
Pages are dedicated to other apps you can buy, and upgrades are offered to reduce this corporate clutter, for a price.
Ultimately, what ought to be an easy and effective use the iPhone's copious storage space becomes too much of an ad-filled chore to bother with. The app itself can only be blamed for part of its problems, as Apple has made it as difficult as possible for this type of operation to exist, but bombarding you with sales hardly helps its cause.
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