iPhone file swapping: How Apple could blow Android beam out of the water

You’ve got files on your phone and files on your computer, and increasingly the two are becoming equally capable of not only displaying these files, but allowing you to edit them. Problem is, it’s never that easy to send one to the other. In fact, it’s a right rigmarole sometimes. That’s where Ishac Bertran’s ingenious concept comes in. You wanna watch this: it’s the future of computing.

Bertran’s discovered a problem. “Our devices are well connected virtually, through services like DropBox or iCloud,” he says. “Those offer wireless synchronization for data, but the devices that contain this data still miss a tangible connection. I thought that a representation of a physical connection would facilitate a more intuitive interaction based on traditional mental models from the physical world.”

What that means is, it’s easy to send files about, but it doesn’t feel easy because you can’t see anything actually move. As simple as it sounds, seeing something start in one place and end up on another in a fluid transition puts our minds at rest. And that’s where Bertran’s concept for ‘spatially aware devices’ comes in.

WP7 concept shows Android Beam killer

The idea is blindingly simple: hold your iPhone up to the side of your MacBook, and the two devices will recognise a connection. A connecting ring appears for you to drag and drop files into. It’d obviously take a MacBook with a touchscreen to work, alongside some sort of NFC tech, but other than that it’s incredibly smart, and very simple.

Have a watch of the video below and let us know: does this wipe the floor with what Google’s don with Android Beam?

Posted in: Gadget News