How to store external files to your iPhone

As you know, storing files to your iPhone is not a feature provided by iTunes, the obvious work around is to e-mail your self a file and view it on-line, however it would be nice to read a Word document or Excel Sheet while you are seated on your plane's seat offline since you have no access to the internet.

I tried several apps that give you that ability, Air Sharing is a product that comes in two versions, I started with the basic version and then upgraded. In fact you can move a file from your desktop and then view it on your iPhone.

However, I came across a much better solution, the best part is that is free. Go to DropBox and sign up for an account. DropBox is a free service that allows you to install a small application on your desktop, then you can drop files on the DropBox area of your disk.

The interesting part is that they have a free iPhone App, you download it, sign to you account and then you can view the same files, you uploaded from your desktop. The best part is that from the iPhone App, you can then make a local copy which you can view any time offline.

I've used it succesfully with Microsoft Word, Excel, PDFs and even Zipped files. Very cool!

Will