FileMagnet vs. DataCase

Poking around, I’ve found that there is another app similar to the DataCase one I reviewed  the other day.  It’s called FileMagnet, and it’s been out since the App Store launched half a month ago.  FileMagnet is produced by the New York based Magnetism Studios.

First Glance

Upon first look, FileMagnet has the same basic function as DataCase.  It can transfer files between an iPhone or iPod Touch running firmware 2.0 and a Mac if they’re on the same WiFi network (or if the computer is running its own local network) via the Bonjour technology.  Almost word for word from the DataCase app.

Supported?

You can view JPEG, GIF, TIF, PNG, HTML, RTF, RTFD, DOC, TXT, PDF, and iPhone compatible movies and audio files all on the device through the app.  Pinching, zooming, and scrolling are all available while viewing files on your iPhone.  However, iWork documents aren’t supported yet, and neither are M$ PowerPoint or Excel documents.  (Although the FileMagnet website purports that they will be in the next update which is “coming soon”).  You can, though, store ANY (read: all) type(s) of file on the device for retrieval later.

There’s no support for emailing files from FileMagnet though, nor is landscape viewing supported in this iteration. However, FileMagnet apparently also plans this for future updates, which will be free, according to their website.

The Killer(s)

Here’s the killer, though.  FileMagnet CAN NOT TRANSFER files to your WINDOWS COMPUTER.  That is, WINDOWS gets the shaft.  This is where, at least to me, DataCase looks better and better.  If I’m going to store the files on this device, use it like a super-functional flash drive, I’d like for it to be system-neutral.

Also, FileMagnet requires you to use a piece of their desktop software (a free download, but nonetheless, with Leopard’s superhuge application files to start with, I don’t want anything else cluttering up my hard drive.  To be fair, though, the actual download file is only 85% of a megabyte).  The beauty (I thought) of DataCase was that you could access your files via the Finder on your Mac or via a web browser on your PC.  This makes it very convenient, as all Macs have Finder and any PC that’s on a WiFi network should really have a web browser.

Conclusion

Being that is has only been a couple of weeks since the App Store has launched, I would be surprised if FileMagnet didn’t have it’s share of problems, but given that DataCase waited that same half a month to release their own app, I can see that it would have more features.  When comparing price, you’ll see that at $4.99 USD FileMagnet is cheaper than the DataCase’s $6.99 USD, but $2 for the compatibility with all platforms, I think it’d be worth it.  Although many of the issues with FileMagnet look to be fixed with the update, there’s no word on when that update may come, and they only say that they’re “researching” the multi-platform technology, I’d say it’s worth either the work-week wait and extra $2 for the functionality pretty quickly here.  However, if you’re a meiser and hate to spend even the extra penny, and you already live in a Mac-centric environment, go for FileMagnet right now.  (iTunes Link).  I’m going to wait for DataCase.

~ by joshuadlwilliams on July 23, 2008.