How to use your iPhone for offline Document Storage
The iPhone is a pretty good device when it comes to reading web pages and such. One of the missing features with the web paradigm is that you need to be always connected to get content or access those web based application that is being developed with the iPhone UI.
I have found myself surfing the net in more situations where I would have not before, for example I might be checking the news during breakfast where as before I would read the newspaper. Since the device is less intrusive than bringing a laptop to the table it makes it so more convenient.
So on to the good stuff. Lets say you have a PDF or document that you would like to have off-line. Since the iPhone doesn't let you sync files to the flash and access them via some file browser you have to cheat.
Basically all you have to do is email the document to yourself.
Now the trick.
- You will need to synchronize the email with your iPhone (I am using IMAP and Exchange).
- Since the iPhone by default only syncs the first 50 emails (per folder) you might want to bump it up if you are saving many emails in your inbox.
- For me I created a folder in my inbox, documents, and store all these emails with attachments there.
- Finally after you see the email on your iPhone you need to do one more thing, click on the attachment so that it is downloaded from the server.
So now you can use the awesome panning an zooming utilities the iPhone provides with your frequently used documents!
For better performance, sync when you are on WIFI...
My train schedule (PDF) viewed offline on my iPhone:
