Chicago (IL) - MobileMe, Apple's paid suite of online services, has finally gotten the file sharing feature that was removed just hours after MobileMe launched. Despite difficulties, Apple advertised file sharing on the MobileMe description page and has now finally brought the feature into full view. It lets MobileMe users share any file in their iDisk with other users by sending them a special link via email. Shared files can be password-protected and users can set the number of days the download link is viable. What's best, people don't have to be MobileMe users to share the files.





Apple had MobileMe's file sharing service running for just eleven hours last July following the launch, and was quickly removed in the wake of broader service problems that hit users those first few days. Since then, Apple has insisted file sharing would re-appear -- also indicated by the "coming soon" note on the iDisk description. Still, it would take the company six full months to deliver the file sharing. The feature was finally deployed this past weekend and should be now enabled for all MobileMe users.



"We're pleased to announce that you can now use your MobileMe iDisk to share files with others simply and easily," Apple said. "Instead of attaching a large document to an email and hoping it's not too big to be received, you can place the file in your iDisk and use the new Share File command in the iDisk web app. It lets you send your friends, family, or colleagues a link they can click to download the file directly. You can password protect the link if you choose to and even set how long it will be available."



File sharing feature can currently only be accessed by visiting your iDisk MobileMe web interface. The MobileMe preference pane in OS X (or MobileMe control panel for Windows) cannot be used to access this feature. As shown in the tutorial video, sharing involves selecting a desired file in your iDisk via MobileMe on the web, and clicking the new "Sharing Options..." feature in the rightmost column. A dialog appears where you can start typing the MobileMe contact names you wish to share the file with, or email addresses to share the file with people not in your MobileMe address book. You can also set the desired expiration date in days, weeks and months, and password-protect access to the shared file.



When you click Share, the contacts will receive an email message linking to the shared file they can then download to their computer. This feature makes emailing large attachments easy by storing the content outside of the email, bypassing caps usually set by email providers (for instance, Gmail allows maximum 20 MB in attachment size per email message). Using MobileMe file sharing, users can upload a file (up to 1GB) to their iDisk and "send" it to others with file sharing feature.



As much as Apple should be credited for finally bringing file sharing on MobileMe into view, users should be warned that the feature appears somewhat rough around the edges. For instance, if you move or rename the shared file, it will no longer be shared. The web interface does not highlight contacts with whom you've shared the file beyond a sharing icon that merely indicates that the file is shared "with somebody". You can stop sharing the file at any given moment, but you can't revoke access to the shared file to individual contacts. Still, even the basic features provide a satisfactory way of sharing large files and will finally put all this gigabytes of unused storage on iDisk to some use.





Public folder: A limited file sharing



Although some of our tech-savvy readers felt that our analysis piece titled "Apple's $99 MobileMe vs. Microsoft's free My Phone" incorrectly stated that MobileMe lacks file sharing, recent appearance of this feature has set the record straight. That is not to say that those readers were off mark altogether, though. MobileMe did allow a limited file sharing from day one, through the so-called public folder found at the http://public.me.com/USERNAME address.



Knowing someone's MobileMe username enables one to mount a person's public folder in Finder or access it via the web interface at the aforementioned URL. The account holder can set his public folder to be either read-only or read-write, the latter allowing others to upload, download and delete individual files like a normal disk. If the account holder wants to restrict access to his public folder to only select users, he can password-protect his public folder and email the password to select users.





Public folder vs file sharing



The public folder feature is a far cry from the iDisk file sharing that Apple promised -- although we acknowledge it can be considered as a limited file sharing. The biggest difference between public folders and the newly unveiled iDisk file sharing is that the latter allows users to share any file stored in any folder in their iDisk, as opposed to sharing only the files in iDisk's Public folder.



Another important difference is the scope: Although password-protected public folder restricts access to only select users who are given the password, they can still access the entire content of the public folder, whereas file sharing feature allows the account holder to share a single file with select users, and without them being able to see or affect the contents of any iDisk directories or files, other than the shared file.



Also, file sharing feature allows you to further restrict access by setting the expiration date for emailed sharing link and password-protect access to the shared file.







SHARING THE FILE

File sharing is only accessible via the MobileMe web interface. You can choose MobileMe contacts you want to share the file with, or type in email addresses. Sharing options are restricted to setting the number of days the download link is available and password-protecting the shared file.







RECEIVING THE SHARED FILE

When you click "Share," all recipients will be emailed a message that contains the download link.







PASSWORD-PROTECTING THE SHARED FILE

If you have chosen to password-protect a file, recipients will see this dialog when they try to download the file via the email link. Don't forget to include the actual password in the message body (or send it through other means).