Briefcase v1.1 has hit the App Store. We've received a lot of great feedback in the three weeks since we launched Briefcase. The new versions of Briefcase and Briefcase Lite smooth out some of the rough edges and fine tune the workflow.

Note that for Briefcase Lite the new version is actually v1.1.1. My apologies to those affected by the document viewing bug in the first Briefcase Lite update. A change intended to extend document viewing capabilities in the full version of Briefcase had the side effect of restricting document viewing in Briefcase Lite. We pulled the update immediately and fixed the problem, but we know that some of you updated before we discovered the problem.

Along with the update to Briefcase, we would also like to announce our new demo video (we've been busy!). We weren't content to just drone on about Briefcase's features (although I do a bit of that). We decided to have a bit of fun and throw in some spies, cars, and top secret documents. You can watch just the spy short or you can watch the full length demo complete with lots of droning. We've also got a [YouTube version] of the spy movie for those who prefer it.

Back on the topic of the update, we have tried to respond to as many issues as possible while getting an update out in a timely fashion. We've upgraded the image viewer, cleaned up the connection UI and improved the workflow for those who don't store their passwords in Briefcase. Along with that, there have been numerous other fixes and tweaks. For a full list, see our change log.

For v1.0 of Briefcase, the image viewer was probably the weakest part of the software. For v1.1 we've done our best to turn it into one of Briefcase's strengths. The iPhone has a limit of one megapixel for image display. Briefcase did not obey that limit in v1.0, resulting in instability when viewing larger images. For v1.1 we've changed the full version of Briefcase to support the display of images of arbitrary size. Most iPhone apps handle this by scaling larger images down to one mega-pixel. In Briefcase we've pushed that up to two mega-pixels using image tiling. When you zoom in on large images in Briefcase, you'll see more detail. Images larger than two mega pixels are scaled down to 2 mega-pixels for display. I've tested with images up to 45 mega-pixels with no problems (you do have to be a bit patient, after all it's only an iPhone:-).

Please continue to send your feedback our way. In the mean time, we'll keep chugging away on the wish list we've already compiled.

Thanks for your support!

I finally got the last of the information that I needed from the US government today so that I could file for permission to export Briefcase. I need US government approval because Briefcase contains strong cryptography and Apple is distributing it from the US. Fortunately, completing the application is enough for me to begin export to many more countries.

Here's the full list: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

I should be able to export to any countries that are still missing in 30 days or less.

Thank you for your patience! Let me know how all of the translations in Briefcase hold up!

Apple has officially approved Briefcase and Briefcase Lite for distribution through iTunes. They approved it a little sooner than I had expected. Briefcase made a brief appearance in the App Store last night. I've decided to put sales on hold until Monday so that I can post the support section of the our web site. I want to make sure that all of the pieces are in place for a great user experience.

Please bear with me for a couple more days!

I would like to break the long silence on this blog by announcing that Briefcase has been submitted to the App Store! It was submitted on Sunday October 5th.

Due to a snafu with my interpretation of the fine print in the US encryption export regulations, Briefcase will launch initially in the US and Canada. I have already taken action to sort this out, with Apple's help, and I expect to have Briefcase available across most of the EU very soon after launch. In other parts of the world, there may be a delay of a month or so. I've had Briefcase translated into nine languages (not including English), so I'm committed to getting Briefcase distributed as widely as possible as soon as possible. I will write more about the encryption saga in a future post.

It's been a long haul since Briefcase was announced back at WWDC. It looks a bit different now and packs a lot more code -- and some new features like iPhone-to-iPhone file transfers.

I missed my initial target release of September by a few days. It's been a busy time. We've got "Briefcase the Movie" in post production (no seriously, cars, spies, the whole 9 yards...oh yeah, and a demo of Briefcase:-) and I helped author, a mystery for teens called Motive Games that's being considered by a publishers here in Canada.

While Briefcase bears some resemblance to existing applications, I think that there is a fundamental difference in the philosophy behind Briefcase. My goal is to make the process of moving files between a Mac and an iPhone as streamlined and simple as possible. Period. (The smooth iPhone-to-iPhone transfers are gravy)

That design goal led me to the conclusion that it was more important for Briefcase to be a network client than to be a network server. The reason is simple. Since iPhone applications cannot run in the background, a server application on the iPhone would have to be run before you could access the files from your computer. This means that you must be operating both your iPhone and your computer at the same time. If the iPhone application is a client, then all you need is the iPhone. You don't even need to be in same room as the computer (or even the same continent if you have good networking mojo). If I'm rushing out the door in a hurry, I want to be able to grab a file off of my Mac with one hand while pulling on my jacket with the other.

There is a reason why I keep talking specifically about Macs and not other platforms of note. Having made the choice to focus on making a good network client, you've got to figure out who the server is. With Windows, that is a problem. The built-in file services are proprietary and the primary Open Source solution (samba) is GPL'd. Without installing 3rd party software on each Windows machine, you are sunk.

I looked at the options and decided that the iPhone market is big enough to support a file transfer application that focuses on the Mac user. It helps that I'm a long time Mac developer and the Mac is my happy place. The advantage of focusing on the Mac platform was that I could smooth out the workflow to the point where it's almost effortless.

In the end, I chose SSH to transfer files between the iPhone and the Mac. It's an industry standard that provides great file transfer capabilities, and as a bonus, you can do some interesting things with commands over the same SSH connection (eg Briefcase can add files to iTunes or set your desktop background).

Relying on SSH also means that Briefcase will work with Linux. Although local connections aren't quite as smooth, unless you do a little setup. You can even run an SSH server on your Windows machine if you want to take the time.

I should note that there are some merits to using the iPhone as a file server. I will likely look at adding a WebDav server to Briefcase somewhere down the line. There are times when that workflow makes sense, but for now the focus is to make sure Briefcase is a good SSH client.

I'll wrap up this post as it has run a little long. I'm excited to be releasing Briefcase into the wild soon. I've put a lot of care and effort into this product and I hope it serves you well!

It has been only been two weeks since WWDC, but somehow it seems longer. Despite that, it has been a challenge finding a few moments to cobble together a blog entry.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the interest in Briefcase for iPhone following WWDC. There is now a story at BusinessWeek that mentions Briefcase.

WWDC week is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. This year's event was a bit more crowded, but Apple did a fine job of managing the throngs of people. The iPhone was definitely in the spotlight this year with the new version of OS X being shuffled off to a later presentation after the keynote. Overall, I think Apple did their usual top-notch job of presenting a consistent and compelling story with respect to developing for the iPhone platform.

Welcome to the blog of Mike Taylor at Hey Mac Software. You can follow this blog for updates on Briefcase for iPhone.

My first piece of big news is that Briefcase has been profiled by MacWorld.com. You can read the story here.

Stay tuned for updates.