14 DAY TRIAL // File system apps for iPhone and iPad seem to get more powerful before the big release of iOS 8. Apple has announced that they will finally come out with a Cloud Drive App and that may be the reason other big players like Google and Dropbox are jumping on this market segment, as well.
Google makes the big step towards a real file manager on iOS. All their apps can now work offline. Docs, Sheets and the new Slides app come with offline editing built right in. You have to download the files to your device first and then you can work anywhere. The first time you connect to the Internet, the changes you just made will be automatically synced.
Another piece of news is related to the launch of the Slides app. This is the equivalent of PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote and it is developed by Google. The iOS app works both on iPhone and iPad and will help the user create new presentations or edit the ones saved in his account.
Slides also lets you share the presentations, work together with others at the same time, open, edit, and save Microsoft PowerPoint files. As we mentioned, the app works in offline mode as long as you have the file you need downloaded locally. Also, it doubles as a presentation device. You can just connect the iPhone or iPad to a projector and present your slides to a conference room full of people.
Dropbox for iOS has got a big update today as well. Besides the regular bug fixes, the new version 3.3 brings the power to search within Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents. The app also lets you see animated GIFs and it has smarter caching so it uses less data and disk space. The developers say the new version now knows how to open back where you were.
As mentioned, Apple will bring a new kind of app to iOS 8 - iCloud Drive. The users will see it on their Macs within Finder and on their iPhone and iPad's home page. iCloud drive will not have an offline mode in the first place, but Apple prides itself in developing a way to open the same file on the Computer when you are moving from your iPad.
All the changes will be instantly visible and if you do something in Keynote on your Mac, you can continue where you left off on iPhone or on the web.