It can be frustrating at the best of times that you cannot simply copy files to and from your iPhone. The closest we have at present is the DCIM folder which computers treat as a digital camera but you still can’t add files to this from a computer. Third party apps can access this data (which is why apps can easily make use of your photos and videos) but that is about it.

The Beta SDK for iPhone OS 3.2 is currently only for the iPad but there’s nothing to suggest that it won’t be made available to the iPhone either in a 3.2 update or a 4.0 update. OS 3.2 provides a shared storage folder for files to be easily shared between apps and synced to a desktop (much like photos are currently handled but hopefully with write permissions from a desktop!).

Why do we care about this? Well there are quite a few apps where data can only be added via a specific WiFi link from a desktop app, or by downloading from a server. Simply adding your own update files to the iPhone would allow app developers greater options for including user data – such as Points of Interest for SatNav apps like Sygic or CoPilot, CD/DVD ownership details for a database app such as CLZ Music or CLZ Movies or even user created levels for games from an online community. Whilst admittedly probably only a small number of users will have no WiFi access in their homes something like this would massively improve the situation

The other obvious benefit from this is that it could be used as a portable disk – connect the iPhone via USB, copy some files to the folder directly on your computer without the need for iTunes and then connect to another computer such as at your office or a friends, and you would have access to these files.

It’s something worth keeping an eye on…