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iPhone owners who store files online through Mozy can now access those files remotely courtesy of the company’s new iPhone app.
Lance Whitney/CNET
Released last week for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, the mobile version of Mozy allows users of the service to retrieve and view their online files directly on their mobile devices. Before you can use Mozy on the iPhone, you need to set up a Mozy account and then install the client software on your computer from where you back up your files. Once that’s done, you can access any of those files on your mobile device.
Opening the app shows you the names of any computers you’ve backed up. You tap on a computer to view your files.
Mozy mimics the folder structure of your hard drive, which means you have to drill down folder by folder until you locate the file you want. I found that process to be clumsy and would have preferred an option to see all of my backed-up files in one screen or at least get a tree view where I could more quickly navigate to specific files. There’s also an option to search for a file by name, but you can only search specific folders rather than your entire backup set, another aspect I found limiting.
Once you do get to the files you need, Mozy offers a variety of options.
You can view or play different types of files. I tried opening Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, photos, and certain types of videos (QuickTime) and music (MP3 and iTunes m4a files), and they all came up nicely. By default, the photos show up in a slightly lower resolution format, but Mozy gives you an option to download a high-resolution version. The app also supports both portrait and landscape mode for easier viewing of certain files.
You can e-mail documents, photos, and other files and even post a photo directly to Facebook. To provide an extra layer of security, Mozy also lets you set up a pass code to open the app.
Overall, Mozy for the iPhone is a good start. I’d like to see it offer a better way to access and search for files, but otherwise it’s a handy tool.
