In addition to that, the web registration form is difficult to handle in small mobile devices; it is acceptable in tablets but you do have to zoom in when viewed from a phone. To face both problems we are adding in-application registration and login. We already added it in the Android mobile application and it will also be fixed in version 1.3.2 of the iOS application as soon as it gets approved by Apple.

Try it out and please report problems or send suggestions for further improvements.

I read a lot. I read eBooks, paper books, (technical) reports, magazines, on-line content, research papers, comics, brochures, I sometimes even read barbecue sauce bottle labels. I can’t do much with labels (other that shoot them with my iphone camera) but nearly all of the e-content I receive or generate in PDF and office formats I upload to MyNetworkFolders for later reading and/or archiving. I usually throw the file in a very “shallow” folder tree in my account, tag it with appropriate tags (more than one) and let MyNetworkFolders index it. I then retrieve it through search on tags and keywords. This anarchic organisation some times gets really messy, so I do keep specific first level folders for three specific categories (e.g. eBooks, Business, SW) and the uber-generic ‘Incoming’. Enough said on my flawlessly efficient document archiving skills; let me focus on consuming content: enter GoodReader. Since I like reading on my iPad, these are the two ways I pull content into my GoodReader:

• webDAV. GoodReader fully supports webDAV so I’ve set up my MyNetworkFolders account as a remote server. When I need a file not already stored on my mobile device, I just connect to the server and download all I need (more than one file in parallel). I mostly use my iPad for consuming content, but in cases when a new document ended up first in GoodReader, I use the ‘upload’ option to also push it and archive it to my central MyNetworkFolders document repository.
• via the MyNetworkFolders iOS client. I have been trying this method with alpha and beta revisions of the recently released version 1.3 during the last two months. I usually open the client app to locate files in my account for either sharing to colleagues, sending them via e-mail or downloading them for local reading. In the last case, I just click on ‘Open In GoodReader’ and enjoy reading the downloaded content in the best way possible on my iPad (instead of struggling around with the default Safari view). I choose this path when I’m not sure were my file is and I use our search function to locate it. In all other cases I just pull the file through webDAV.

So how do you connect your GoodReader copy to MyNetworkFolders? Easy:

1. Click on the “Connect to Servers” tab
2. Click on the “Add” button
3. In the “Create New Connection” dialog click on “Any WebDAV Server”
4. Fill-in the server details. URL is https://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav/
5. Click ‘Save’
6. You’re done. At any time click on the server to connect, browse and download / upload files.

GoodReader also has a remote server sync feature which I haven’t tried yet since I do not synchronize everything between the my document repository and my mobile device. However, this is the next feature I intend to try and I’ll get back with more information. Till then, happy mobile reading.

What’s new in version 1.3 (released March 9, 2011) :

Redesigned UI for the iPad: Use te extra screen space, especially in the landscape orientation. Added separate panels for file/folder list and content viewing, as well as a bottom panel for ‘add to favorites’, ‘e-mail’, ‘next-previous version’. Also, did various UI optimizations for all devices.

Performance optimizations: Apply meta-data and file caching for improved responsiveness and less network use, use server updated API semantics resulting in less network traffic, optimized widgets, etc.

Favorites mechanism – Offline operation: You may add a downloaded file to local ‘favorites’. The app will pin down all download files marked as favorites and you may always access them even if no network connection is available. In addition to favorites, all downloaded files are cached for a small time period. This allows offline access to cached files and improves responsiveness since unchanged content (the app checks with the server) will not be downloaded again. So, download and pin your files to the device in the airport and read them on board.

“Open in”: The app will display (in the view panel) the contents of any file supported by Safari, like PDF, office files, images, etc. In version 1.3 you may also choose to open a downloaded file on your favorite viewer / editing application. As a side effect, you now can view any file not supported by Safari, provided you have installed an iOS application that has registered itself in the operating system as a viewer for the specific file type. For example, you may open PDFs and other documents in GoodReader, your cbr/cbz comics in Stanza, videos in mobile VLC, etc.

Print: iOS AirPrint and various other iOS 4 features support.

Text Notes: Create and upload text notes. Edit any text file.

Bug fixes and usability improvements (Thanks for the bug reports!)

Please, keep sending us bug reports and feature requests and help us improve the iOS client app further!

Windows 7

1. Open ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Map Network Drive’:

2. In the pop-up dialog select a drive letter and enter https://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav in the “Folder” field, then click “Finish”. If you check “Reconnect at logon”, windows will try to mount your folder each time you log in.

3. Enter your username & password and click “OK”. If you registered via openID, Yahoo, facebook, etc. you need to enter the username & password that you defined during registration specifically for webDAV access.

Thats it! You will view your personal file space as a webDAV folder in My Computer.

Windows Vista

1. Like in Windows 7, open up ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Map Network Drive’:

2. In the pop-up dialog select a drive letter and enter https://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav in the “Folder” field, then click “Finish”. If you check “Reconnect at logon”, windows will try to mount your folder each time you log in.

3. Enter your username & password and click “OK”. If you registered via openID, Yahoo, facebook, etc. you need to enter the username & password that you defined during registration specifically for webDAV access.

Thats it! You will view your personal file space as a webDAV folder in My Computer.

Windows XP

1. Like in Windows 7 & Vista, open up ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Map Network Drive’:

2. In the pop-up dialog select a drive letter and enter http://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav in the “Folder” field, then click “Finish”. If you check “Reconnect at logon”, windows will try to mount your folder each time you log in.

3. In the authentication dialog that pops-up enter your username & password and click “OK”. If you registered via openID, Yahoo, facebook, etc. you need to enter the username & password that you defined during registration specifically for webDAV access.

Thats it! You will view your personal file space as a webDAV folder in My Computer.

MacOS

1. Launch Finder and select “Connect to Server” from the “Go” menu.

2. In the pop-up dialog enter https://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav in the “Folder” field, then click “Finish”.

3. In the authentication dialog that pops-up enter your username & password and click “OK”. If you registered via openID, Yahoo, facebook, etc. you need to enter the username & password that you defined during registration specifically for webDAV access.

Thats it! Your file space is mounted and a new mount appears on your desktop.

Linux

1. You need to have davfs2 installed. The way to do it is similar in most Linux distributions; e.g. in Ubuntu you can add the davfs2 package with the Synaptic Package Manager or with this command:

sudo apt-get install davfs2

2. Mount the webDAV folder with this command (syntax may differ slightly in different distributions):

sudo mount https://mynetworkfolders.com/webdav -t davfs /your_mount_point

3. The system will request your credentials, enter your username & password. If you registered via openID, Yahoo, facebook, etc. you need to enter the username & password that you defined during registration specifically for webDAV access.

Thats it! Your personal file space will appear as a folder under the mount point you defined in the ‘mount’ command.

Note: The WebDAV protocol is not very efficient over the Internet. Expect lower performance compared to the web client, desktop client and direct API access. We plan to support more efficient means for integrating your folders into your desktop.

We started with great enthusiasm and tons of cool ideas more than a year ago, and this is the first step of this very exciting trip that intends to change the way we store, handle and organize our personal content online. This very first version that you can try out today, offers the core infrastructure that can be used:

• as an online personal space for keeping your files always accessible, organized in folders, tagged and searchable.
• as a platform for sharing content with friends in closed groups
• as the means for sending large files to friends that don’t need to be users of the service
• as a cloud-based personal back-up solution
• as a file storage platform for your applications (via the API)

Stay with us as we steadily add new and cool features like mobile clients, integration with social networks & other online services, support for group accounts, full-blown encrypted backup/sync, seamless desktop integration and much much more.

But don’t just look around; do post your comments, suggestions and this killer-useful feature that you absolutely need!

Assuming this trend is indeed inescapable, one can’t help but wonder: what are the applications that have not migrated to the cloud, yet? What kind of things would I like to do online, seamlessly, from every device I own? What are the barriers that make our current online experience less powerful than the desktop one?

One thing that we noticed was missing from the online desktop, was the… desktop! Yes, my spreadsheets are online. Sure, my pictures are online. Yes, I can upload arbitrary files in various storage services. But, I couldn’t find a way to use a familiar file manager interface to work with my data in the cloud, as I do on my computer. This was the need we decided to fulfill with MyNetworkFolders.

MyNetworkFolders attempts to provide an answer to the question: how would my desktop look in the cloud? And even though we are nowhere near done yet, the results so far are exciting and very promising.

MyNetworkFolders offers a familiar file manager interface for my cloud storage needs, with advanced functionality and ease of use. Documents can be viewed, modified, searched or sent to the trash. They can be shared with other users or among the members of a group using flexible ACLs, or even be publicly accessible from the whole internet. They can be versioned for tracking changes more effectively. The service can be accessed from a variety of ways, including a web browser, a desktop client, a WebDAV network share or (really soon) a mobile phone. But most importantly, there is no vendor lock-in. There is a REST-like API available, battle-tested from all the above client implementations, giving everyone the opportunity to access his data in his own particular way. Or even get them out of our service altogether.

Oh, and one other thing. It’s all based on open-source software. The core infrastructure, the various clients we have built, even API helpers in various programming languages, are all available for anyone and everyone to see, use and modify. Or maybe used to setup and run YourNetworkFolders, if you feel really ambitious.

If however you just want a true on-line desktop environment, with unparalleled flexibility, and maybe also see how far the cloud desktop rabbit-hole goes, then come along. It’s going to be an exciting ride.