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!
