Headline Feeds
Memory Stick, a data transfer application from Softalk, is available for US$1.99 at the App Store.
An iPhone puts up to 16 GB of storage in your pocket. An iPod touch offers as much as 32 GB. But you can't exactly use that space to store whatever data you want straight out of the box. Want to load it with photos? Fine, but they'll have to be properly formatted. Videos? Again, a format issue.
But what if you just want to dump a bunch of junk in the trunk? What if you just want to use the iPhone's space to store your data so you can transfer it to another computer, regardless of what kind of weird, off-the-wall formats that data is captured in?
An app called Memory Stick aims to do just that.
Not a Perfect Analogy
First off, this app doesn't make your iPod work just like a regular old USB thumb drive. If you plug your iPhone into your computer using a USB cable, a folder won't just suddenly appear on your desktop for easy-in, easy-out file movement. You have to bring it in through a WiFi network.
Connecting is fairly easy, and instructions for doing so are found within the app's setup utility. Once your iPhone and your computer are running on the same network, you just type in a specific numeric sequence into either Windows Explorer or Finder, depending on whether you're using a PC or a Mac. You can even connect by typing in a specific address on a Web browser. Once connected, your iPhone's storage space appears as a network-attached drive. Drag and drop files in and out, regardless of their format, and they're stored on the iPhone. If you connect through a Web browser, however, you don't get the easy drag-and-drop interface.
Memory Stick doesn't just store files; it also lets you view them -- if they're in the right formats. The app supports documents from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx, .csv), PowerPoint (.ppt), PDF (.pdf), iWork Pages (.pages), Safari Web Archives (.webarchive), Web pages (.htm, .html), text files (.txt, .cpp, .c, .m, .h), graphic files (.bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg) and video files (.mp4, .mov).
Cramming the Data
Anyone who needs a place to store and transfer documents of any sort, and view documents of the varieties mentioned above, should be able to get good use out of Memory Stick, but only if they have access to the WiFi networks covering all the computers they intend to share data with. Since this app doesn't make the iPhone behave exactly the same way as a USB thumb drive, specifically in the way it connects to a computer, it's not exactly a universal replacement.
In some ways, Memory Stick is a better way to store photos on your iPhone. Dumping in a large batch of photos through iTunes to use on the iPhone's native viewer sometimes means waiting for the program to format them all correctly. With Memory stick, they seemed to load faster, though you don't get that cool coverflow interface.
One problem I had in using Memory Stick concerned larger files, mainly videos. The loading process would often freeze up on me, even if the file was relatively small for a video (say, 2 MB). This might not be the app's fault -- could be the iPhone, could be my network, might even be my computer, though it's a fairly new and decently equipped system. Regardless of what's at fault, the experience was bumpy.
As a video viewer, Memory Stick's format support is limiting -- you can only view .mp4 and .mov files. If you want to view anything else, you'll have to first convert the file with a desktop application.
Bottom Line
If your iPhone isn't already filled to the brim with movies, music and apps, Memory Stick will let you stuff its memory with any type of data you can get your hands on for storage and transfer, and it'll even let you view certain types directly on the screen.
However, it doesn't allow you to stick your iPhone into any old USB socket and start moving files. You have to be on a password basis with the WiFi network.
The app brings a certain added convenience to the iPhone, but don't throw out that thumb drive on your keychain just yet.
Talkback: 
