iPad file sharing... how will this work exactly?

[vini-vidi-vici]

A very interesting discussion on how the iPad will share files:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/01/29/apple-reinventing-file-access-wireless-sharing-for-ipad/

It's not clear to me from this if sharing documents across apps will be allowed. I would assume that within iWork, one could share elements of files (via cut/paste if nothing else), or full files, so a Keynote presentation can include something from Numbers... but that's not clear. In in the intro video, I saw an image of a giraffe being moved around inside a Pages document. So, where did the giraffe come from? Where was it created? and how does one paste that in?

I'm just trying to understand how much of the "start-to-finish" of a document you can do with "just the iPad", vs. needing a traditional computer.

Along those lines, would it be possible to some more more advanced formatting of e-mails (i.e. html elements, multiple inline images, etc.) on the iPad? or just text? Maybe you could format something in pages, then e-mail it as an html e-mail?

Anyone have some additional insights to provide on these lines?

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Along those lines, would it be possible to some more more advanced formatting of e-mails (i.e. html elements, multiple inline images, etc.) on the iPad? or just text? Maybe you could format something in pages, then e-mail it as an html e-mail?

You can already send out HTML via email, by copy/pasting from an HTML source on the iPhone. And you can also already send multiple images as well.

 

[vini-vidi-vici]

You can already send out HTML via email, by copy/pasting from an HTML source on the iPhone. And you can also already send multiple images as well.

But, that's pretty rudimentary... it requires that you already have some html page formatted close to what you want.

What I want to know is starting with a blank page, exactly how creative can you really get with the iPad, without having to pull content from a traditional desktop or other source? And how might you be able to use the file sharing system to help you do this?

I don't expect the iPad to replace a desktop, but I'm trying to understand where its limits are.

 

[t0mat0]

But, that's pretty rudimentary... it requires that you already have some html page formatted close to what you want.

What I want to know is starting with a blank page, exactly how creative can you really get with the iPad, without having to pull content from a traditional desktop or other source? And how might you be able to use the file sharing system to help you do this?

I don't expect the iPad to replace a desktop, but I'm trying to understand where its limits are.

Best bet might be to try one. Short of that -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraserspeirs/sets/72157623224262135/

I'd imagine the creativity limit is more with the apps needing more capabilities and the user per se -

Heck - iWork has Magic Move - which says something. We await details of file sharing - we haven't heard everything about the iPad (they're still sorting deals post announcement for a start). If we saw 3.2 and its releasing with 4.0 then we've got even more to look forward to.

 

[anthonymoody]

One of the HIGs for the iPad SDK talks about the file system, and how it should be transparent to the user. it doesn't specifically call out whether files can be shared b/t apps, only that the overall experience should be invisible to the user, and thus apparently distinct from what we think of as a computer-based file system.

It's (broad) questions like this that make me increasingly convinced that we'll get another announcement b/t now and shipping. It might be "big" as in OS4, new iPhone, multi-tasking, file system big. Or it might be "small" as in "let's flesh out 3.2 a little bit more for you shall we?"

Based on history we have lots of reason to believe that a new iPhone will ship late June with an announcement a little prior, so it's not like what I'm speculating is going out very far on a limb

Oh, also, vini-vidi-vici - you know I'm firmly in the "iPad going to replace my laptop" camp So of course I'm rooting for these types of questions to be answered in a more-powerful-than-not kind of way.

 

[t0mat0]

One of the HIGs for the iPad SDK talks about the file system, and how it should be transparent to the user. it doesn't specifically call out whether files can be shared b/t apps, only that the overall experience should be invisible to the user, and thus apparently distinct from what we think of as a computer-based file system.

It's (broad) questions like this that make me increasingly convinced that we'll get another announcement b/t now and shipping. It might be "big" as in OS4, new iPhone, multi-tasking, file system big. Or it might be "small" as in "let's flesh out 3.2 a little bit more for you shall we?"

Based on history we have lots of reason to believe that a new iPhone will ship late June with an announcement a little prior, so it's not like what I'm speculating is going out very far on a limb

Oh, also, vini-vidi-vici - you know I'm firmly in the "iPad going to replace my laptop" camp So of course I'm rooting for these types of questions to be answered in a more-powerful-than-not kind of way.

An OS update/SDK update for iPhone and iPad develeop


Announced iPhone January 9, 2007. Gets 3rd party web apps.
June 2007 - release
October 17 2007 - Steve Jobs' open letter announcing SDK will come
March 6 2008 SDK Officially announced, SDK made available immediately.
Launch of apps was embargoed till the firmware update, released July 11 2008


The iPhone 3G likely to ship June-Julyish, so the iPad will be out months before hand. Apple could
- release iPad with 3.2
- Update about OS 4.0 and SDK
- Set embargoed date as iPhone release date. Then the iPad and iPhone both get an OS update at the same time?

 

[Chris Grande]

I'm not sure how it will work exactly, but there is a global setting for "File Sharing"

 

[anthonymoody]

I'm not sure how it will work exactly, but there is a global setting for "File Sharing"

Holy crap-ola. NICE SPOT! I've looked at that shot myself and not picked up on that. WOW.

 

[EssentialParado]

Is there anything stopping the simplest solution being copy & paste / drag & drop as the interface to move files between apps?

For example, if we take that giraffe image in iWork. Let's say we're browsing the web, or our iPhoto library to find that image — It's nice, but we want to remove the background, so we copy (aka 'grab') the image and switch into a Photoshop-like app. Here we can paste it as a new document and edit out the background. Then we can copy the final image again, quit the photoshop app, and move into iWork where we can paste it and resize it accordingly.

^ Off the top of my head I can't think of any problems with that method replacing the clunky desktop method of: Import file -> Save As -> Import File -> Save As -> Import file.

Of course, copy paste is still not hugely elegant in terms of an intuitive interface.

 

[mrklaw]

they could do something like the ilife media browser. Abstracted from the 'real' file system, but presented in a controlled way to the end user.

 

[anthonymoody]

My only worry about proposed solutions like that ^^^ is what happens with text files and text-only PDFs. Unless they're presented at say 2-3 per screen it's going to very hard to know what they are without opening them. I guess it's as much about presentation as anything else, and thinking about it I'm sure "they could figure something out."

My concern is that 99% of the documents I deal with are text. And once you start talking about "lots" of files some of these types of systems sort of break down.

 

[t0mat0]

http://www.cultofmac.com/microsofts-my-documents-folder-makes-triumphant-return-on-ipad/29590

has

Guess we'll know more from the betas as they update.