April 26, 2010 44 Comments

First iPad Annoyance-File Sharing

ipad file sharing Okay, I just hit my first annoyance with the iPad: file sharing. I was really excited to load the iPad version of Keynote (Apple’s answer to PowerPoint), and felt like I was going to really enjoy presenting via my iPad. It then dawned on me that I don’t have Skitch for selective screen capture (heck, does iPad have *any* screen capture – **update: you do it the same way you do on an iPhone: hold down the button and the other button- you know what I mean), but I found a way around that, as I can sync my “Skitch” folder of said captures via the photo syncing.

But then it dawned on me that I didn’t know how to share my slide decks between my laptop and my iPad. So, my first thought was the clunky “mail it to myself,” but gmail doesn’t seem to want to mail .key files. My second thought was to shove them through Box.net, but I had a similar hitch there. So then I thought, “I’ll just make it a zip. Everything will mail a zip.” Um, how does an iPad unzip, and where would the file actually go?

So, I did what I always do. I asked Twitter. Immediately, I got the answer, “It’s in iTunes under the Apps tab.”

What?

So, I go into iTunes, and there it is. Wayyyyy down the screen, below where anyone would think to look, and get this: I can only sync three types of files this way.

Apple, This is Messy

I want file portability. I want PDF files. I want to stick whatever I want via a pipe. I want to mount the iPad like a drive and use it. Grrr.

Okay. That’s out of my system. Moving on.

This is the second in my series of posts about the iPad. Here’s my first take.

Related posts:

  1. iPad – First Take
  2. Personal Branding Audio File
  3. Tiny Annoyance in Posterous
  4. Use Social Sharing To Extend Your Message
  5. Sharing Knowledge

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  • http://www.cullenpresents.com Cullen

    iPad screen capture is done by pressing Home + Lock buttons at the same time. This should save the full screen image in your Photos. If you want to crop it you'll need to use PS Mobile or something like that.

  • http://www.olpms.com/ Online Payroll Services

    I agree with you. Imho ipod is much better than ipad. If I got the option to purchase ipad or ipod, I will definitely go with ipod.

  • http://www.delomni.com Michael Gaines

    Yes, Apple needs a “Document” space, similar to book, music, movies, and pictures. Heck, I don't care if they limit the file types, but doc, pdf, txt, xls, ppt, and others should be able to be shoved in there.

  • encaf1

    Small amount of hope: you can do a screen capture on an iPhone/iPod Touch by simultaneously pressing the Home and Lock buttons. The screen cap goes into the local photo store, which I presume (!) that you can access with the iPad apps.

    I don't have an iPad yet (dammit! give Canada iPads!) but I believe that I've heard that this works.

    But yeah.. The rest of your woes are the growing pains of a new device. I hope that they will get better, once/if Apple realizes that controlling the use of the device too much makes the device less useful..

  • http://www.esrati.com David Esrati

    Chris- it should e-mail the keynote file- but you have to click on it in the ipad- and then it somehow magically downloads to the iPad.
    You can do screen caps from the iPad- press top and home button same time. Saves to photos.
    The big problem is Keynote on the iPad isn't even being called Keynote Light-
    all your fonts- transitions- will be wonkerjawed.
    Plus- no presentation remote- no preview of what you have up- or next-
    it's LAME. I'm disgusted with Apple.
    Glad to have pointed you in the right direction on the sharing- it took me a bit to find it too-
    thought I'd have a tab called “Documents” in iTunes… which would seem OBVIOUS.

  • http://wayne-sutton.com Wayne Sutton

    Chris, trust me I know what you mean about the iPad. I recommend buying GoodReader for the iPad it allows you download/view pdfs and more. Also Instapaper and Evernote apps. I think there's a few apps where you can mount your iPad as a drive too (AirShare). Good luck with your iPad. I love mine and it has replaced my moleskine and more.

  • http://twitter.com/davidgeere Dave Geere

    Home + lock buttons should take a screen dump and put it in your photos folder.

    For temp file sharing try either Google Docs or DropBox as they have a great iPhone native client that should work well on iPad too. Instant (ish) sync of files located in dropbox folder between devices and desktops.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Gotcha. Thanks. : )

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Wow! That last line stuns me. : )

  • http://www.davidsfinch.com David Finch

    Chris, I'll second Wayne's advice. GoodReader works great to download and view pdfs. I converted a ppt deck to a pdf on my Macbook Pro and then mounted the iPad. Then it was just drag and drop.

  • elearn

    Have you tried the Air Sharing app? It's cool on the iPhone, letting me mount it like a drive.

  • http://www.dreampod.com Kevin

    Love your blog layout, Chris! Sorry to hear about your iPad gripes

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Downloaded it a moment before you left this comment. : )

  • Bobby

    Dude-dropbox.com?

  • http://firephil.org zachishi

    Goodreader is the app that will fix this. Lets you import and save from pretty much any service and any file type and for .99 how can you go wrong.

  • Frank

    “I want to stick whatever I want via a pipe.”

    Then you shouldn't be using Apple products or at the least an iPad.

  • http://www.gurubob.co/ Robert Somerville

    Apple are going to have to produce a cloud based document solution…iWork could be it but it needs a lot more development.

    I'm using Google docs in combination with the Memeo Connect App. Seems to be working well at least for getting documents onto the iPad. Getting documents out remains more difficult than it should be.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    iWork is poopy so far. I'm not enjoying it. I hope it gets a little love.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    You got me there, Frank. That's a really good way to look at the problem.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Got it. : )

  • michaeldurwin

    Ho Chris,
    The good news is that once you close your finished presentation it gives you the choice to export, share via email, or share through iWork. When you choose the option to email it allows you to send Keynote files, which Google doesn't like or PDFs. The bad news is that Keynote doesn't tell you how big the exported file is. I just finished one that too big to email. I'll have to share it with myself to send around. There are no options for PDF compression to reduce file size and no wifi or Bluetooth printing option.

    I think you'll. Find that iPad has it's share of annoyances, mostly due to business model decisions by Apple. But once you find workarounds you'll be happy with it. I also got the Marvel Comic app and was thrilled to see my first edition Wolverine issue was available. Now I can keep the original in plastic.

  • http://www.r4cards.co.nz/ m3 card

    Wow looks so good Chris!Doe this support all types of files ?
    I m thinking to buy an iPad but little bit confused about some of its features.

  • http://toddrjordan.com/thebroadbrush tojosan

    Dropbox.
    Works well across all systems.
    There's an app for that.

    That said, yeah, wth right? Syncing should allowed cross-application. I'd envision saved games, files, etc, all automatically are syncing to the 'computer'.

  • sue_anne

    When I heard that the iPad wasn't coming with any USB ports, I knew that it probably wasn't going to be for me yet. I'm not an Apple fanatic and have been mostly PC-based for years.

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  • http://www.franklinmcmahon.com Franklin McMahon

    I also recommend Air Sharing HD, there are many apps for doing this. Also GoodReader gets a lot of downloads because of its price, but I like ReaddleDocs for iPad…great app.

  • http://www.memorybits.co.uk/ memory card reader

    My second thought was to force them to Box.net, but I had a similar problem there.

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    That said, yeah, wth right? Syncing should allowed cross-application. I'd envision saved games, files, etc, all automatically are syncing to the 'computer'.

  • Kevin Taylor

    Have you thought about usin Drop Box for some of your file sharing? Works for me

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  • http://twitter.com/bferguson79 Brian Ferguson

    You probably figured something out by now, but you might want to try GoodReader. I use it to connect to Google Docs, I think dropbox, and my WebDAV server. In your case for file sharing you could setup your computer as a web server or maybe FTP and pass files back and forth that way. Still not exactly what you or the rest of us are after, but it fills the need, kinda.

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    I m thinking to buy an iPad but little bit confused about some of its features.

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