Comments on: Apple iPhone 3GS Review: Bad for Business?

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:35:07 +0000

For those who questioned just how poorly the iPhone is designed as a business tool, apparently it is Apple that has refused to allow USB sync and crippled the iPhone! Incredible! As stated in the article, you can’t just dock your iPhone and watch it all sync. For every application you must (a) turn on WiFi, (b) connect the iPhone to the desktop application for each application to enter “pairing mode”, and then (c) perform a sync. Insane and a colossal time waster. Here’s the proof directly from the DataViz site, which provides documents to go and the explanation of why the iPhone is the only phone you can’t sync documents to while docked.

Question: Can I synchronize Documents To Go for iPhone through a USB cable?

Answer: No, this is not possible because Apple does not make USB synchronization available to third party applications. In the current iPhone OS, a third party application cannot access files outside of its own location on the device. This location is known as the application’s “sandbox”. Unfortunately, application sandboxes are not visible on a desktop when the device is mounted via USB. The iPhone OS keeps the application sandbox area hidden and only accessible by the application on the device. For Documents To Go, this means that files must be transferred via WiFi since using a network connection is the only supported means of accessing our sandbox from a desktop.

We understand that WiFi connections can be problematic for some users and we are currently researching alternatives.

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For those of you wondering, Documents to Go just recently crashed on my iPhone. All the documents I had in the Docs to Go sandbox were lost, unavailable to any other application on the phone. On Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Palm devices, your documents are stored in the general memory and accessible to any application on the device.

By: thelawprofessor

thelawprofessor — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:10:42 +0000

Actually, I know my iPhone rather well. What you need to do is read a little more carefully. Most iPhone fans love their phones and think that jailbreaking is a right and option. It isn’t. It voids your warranty. If you want to do that, go right ahead but that will not be an option in an overwhelming number of businesses. I cannot imagine any company buying 500 iPhones so that they can void their warranty immediately. As I said, the iPhone only becomes a truly useful and efficient business tool if you jailbreak the device – but this isn’t an option for business users, perhaps only for individuals with a small business.

By: Frank Scherer

Frank Scherer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:44:21 +0000

That is the most useful review of the iPhone I have ever read. I have bookmarked it and will email to my friends who are undecided. I am no longer on the fence. Thank you.

By: Jeli

Jeli — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:56:19 +0000

You really don’t know how to use your iPhone do you?

You recommend jailbreaking but dont know how to use the file manager apps out there or even better iFinder, etc.

The first thing any jailbreaker should do is install the Safari addon pack and enable file downloading.

Just sounds like you don’t like Apple and used this as an excuse to complain.

Sounds like what you were looking for was a laptop. I hear Apple sells a few.