Turn Your iPhone Into a Web Server 158
miller60 writes "A Japanese company called Freebit has released ServersMan, an app that turns the iPhone into a web server. It debuted in Japan in February, has now been launched in the US, and is being touted as a 'Personal Data Center.' Freebit also has a video with additional information on server-enabling your iPhone. 'Once the app is installed, PCs on the internet can access the iPhone to upload or download files through a browser or they can use the webDAV protocol. If the PC and the iPhone are on the same network, the PC can connect directly. If they are on separate networks, then FreeBit's VPN software will engage the connection.'"
These have been around for a while (Score:5, Informative)
I've used an app that does this for a while now. It's called Data Case and provides WebDAV and FTP access. There's a bunch of other ones on the app store as well. I fail to see how this is news.
Re:Hah, you wish (Score:3, Informative)
I dont know about you, but atleast here in scandinavia unlimited 5mbit 3g costs 30euros/month.
Now, power usage might be a different thing, but it doesnt matter either if you have it wired (like I did when I used it for normal web browsing and gaming etc)
This already exists, and it's called Air Sharing (Score:5, Informative)
It's called "Air Sharing", and its new big brother, "Air Sharing Pro".
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312686749&mt=8 [apple.com]
Highly recommended; well worth the $5.
Been there, done that, didn't get a T-shirt.
Stupid iPhone Apps from the Future (Score:5, Informative)
Automobile Oil Temperature Monitor (includes supply of flexible, heat-resistant oil-tight enclosures)
App for monitoring money under matress (includes jumbo external battery pack)
Tire pressure monitoring and reporting app (you'll need at least 4 iPhones + contracts; includes generous supply of foam rubber padding; includes plug-in pressure transducer)
I thought japan hated the iphone (Score:2, Informative)
Very common, not noteworthy at all (Score:3, Informative)
There are lots of web servers for the iPhone. Lots of audio recording applications use a web server to allow you to transfer recordings off the iPhone. I'd suspect there are other categories of applications that also provide a web server.
Not sure you'd want to us the iPhone as a general purpose web server though. That seems dumb.
Nokia has it for ages (Score:3, Informative)
While people arguing if it will be banned today or tomorrow, Nokia offers such web server for Symbian phones for years now with features making sense.
http://mymobilesite.net/screenshots/ [mymobilesite.net]
It is Apache/Phyton and several other technologies combined. In fact, it is also a great multi platform phone remote same time for local usage. They solved the NAT/Web robots problem very interesting way too, a real server routes and filters the calls to the phone subdomain so Google doesn't come to your phone as a robot.
The features of it (check screenshots) makes sense, it is not something like 'my toaster runs web server'.
Re:How long until... (Score:3, Informative)
http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/terms-dsl-data.html#useserv [att.net]
AT&T's DSL service agreement, section 10; be Fair subsction b.: You may not use your Service connection to host a DEDICATED INTERNET server site. (emphasis mine).
The AT&T iPhone agreement however states: "Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation . . .downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, redirecting television signals for viewing on Personal Computers, web broadcasting, and/or for the OPERATION OF SERVERS, telemetry devices.... " (emphasis mine).
In the case of DSL, you CAN run a server, just not a dedicated internet server site. A Remote access server, personal FTP server, even a web or file server you run occasionally, even "most of the time" can not be considered a dedicated server. Knowing that, on Wifi, within your home, you could run a server on the iPhone, which by sheer definition can not be "dedicated" as any call, or the use of another app would cause the server to go down. You can use the iPhone as a server since it is behind your personal DSL service.
However, being a server you can not use it on AT&Ts open 3G network without violating the iPhone TOS. It will be interesting to see if this app will be enough of a drain on AT&T for them to target its use, or to see if they'll persue Apple to pull if from the store.
I usa a nifty program called Dicenomicon. One of it's features is to run a web server so you can program dice algorithms through your PC and upload new programs, images, and more to the phone's app. I noted it not only presents a WiFi IP address, but also a blueTooth and 3G address as well. I can not connect to the 3G address in any way I have tried. i don't know if this app also behaves the same.
Re:Hah, you wish (Score:3, Informative)
O2's definition of "unlimited" for cellphone plans is 300MB per month. They are the iPhone network in the UK.