Save and view certain files on the iPhone using data URLs

Jul 27, '07 07:30:01AM

Contributed by: jamiew

Its hard to get arbitrary files onto the iPhone. No disk mode, iPhoto scales down big images, and forwarding yourself files and trying to read PDFs or word docs in iPhone's Mail app is a pain.

The freeware Filemark Maker is a small droplet app that aids in encoding data URLs, aka filemarks, which store the actual bytestream of the file inside a bookmark -- meaning you can sync your favorite eBooks or hi-res photos (like subway maps) to your shiny new iPhone and read them in style, even offline. Simply drop a file on Filemark Maker, bookmark the generated link, and then sync it to your phone.

Caveats:

The app is written in Perl and compiled into a droplet using Platypus. Source available on the site.

[robg adds: By way of full disclosure, jamiew is one of the Filemark Maker coauthors. However, given that it's a free open-source app, and it seems to work really well, I felt it worth sharing. Note that if you want to store files on your iPhone, you might want to try iPhoneDrive, which lets your iPhone work in a sort of "disk mode" like that of the iPod. I haven't tested the app myself yet.]

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