Air Sharing provides an elegant solution to advanced remote filesystem access on your iPad. The folks at Avatron Software were able to include a killer “Sharing” feature to this app, that allows for drag and drop file copying from your computer to your iPad. Wirelessly. Not cool enough for you? You can also download and save files directly to your iPad for offline use. The application can be locked with a passcode, that’s required upon opening the app in order to access your files. Air Sharing also supports printing, again, wirelessly. All in all a pretty amazing application, and available for $9.99 in the App Store.
—OVERVIEW OF FEATURES—
COMPATIBILITY
Mac OS X 10.4+ (Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard), Windows (XP, Vista, 7), Linux, or any web browser
Printing requires Mac OS X or Linux on network
Computer-to-iPad connection requires Wi-Fi network
Free desktop software (Core FTP) required for connecting to Windows
Create a wireless hard disk
View documents
Many file formats supported
Email documents
Connect to your computer
Mount remote file servers
View and download email attachments
Perform advanced file operations
Print documents
Share files with other users
—FEATURE DETAILS—
CREATE A WIRELESS HARD DISK
Mount your iPad as a wireless drive on a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer (on the same Wi-Fi network), or connect from any web browser
Drag-drop files between your computer and Air Sharing HD
Host a powerful web server with WebDAV (just like the iDisk)
No special software required on your computer (except on Windows XP, which requires free NetDrive app)
Security: local passcode, remote access password, optional Public folder
VIEW DOCUMENTS
Scrollbar for fast access in large documents
Folder popup for jumping back to previously viewed folders
Advanced auto-detection of text-file character encoding, using linguistic analysis
Advanced PDF features:
— Table of Contents
— page thumbnails
— Search
Very large images
Slide show
Bookmarks
Music player with Playlist interface
MANY FILE FORMATS SUPPORTED
iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
Microsoft Office
Safari web archive
HTML web page
PDF (even password-protected and large documents)
Adobe Illustrator (saved as PDF Compatible)
RTF and RTFD
Plain text (many character encodings)
Source code, with color-coded formatting
Movies, Audio, and Images
CONNECT TO YOUR COMPUTER
Mac OS X: just turn on Remote Login
Linux: enable SSH
Windows: download free Core FTP desktop app
Mac OS X found automatically via Bonjour
MOUNT REMOTE FILE SERVERS
Presets for MobileMe iDisk, FilesAnywhere (WebAdvanced), icloud, MyDisk.se, other WebDAV servers
Secure HTTPS when available
Select MobileMe iDisks from your Contacts
Dropbox
FTP and Secure FTP
SSH (SFTP)
Automatic local cache
VIEW AND DOWNLOAD EMAIL ATTACHMENTS
Presets for Gmail, MobileMe, AOL, Yahoo! Mail Plus, and Hotmail
POP3 and IMAP access for other mail servers
PERFORM FILE OPERATIONS
Move, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Rename, Select All, Delete, New Folder
Copy Link (creates a link shortcut to the selected file)
Zip and Unzip (supports password-protected archives)
Browse zip archives without unzipping
Print (via Mac OS X 10.5+ or Linux with Printer Sharing)
Email attachments
Save and Get images to and from Photos
Download from URL (copy link from Safari, paste into Air Sharing HD)
PRINT DOCUMENTS
No special desktop software required; just turn on Printer Sharing (requires Mac OS X or Linux)
Prints most viewable formats
SHARE FILES WITH OTHER USERS
Auto-detects Air Sharing on other devices
