One of the most interesting apps that I found in the MacHeist bundle, was PhoneView. To be able to access your, or anyone else’s, entire iPhone without any configuration was a dream come true. The question of course, is whether it works as advertised. Before you say anything, it does.

The Features

PhoneView lets you access almost everything on your iPhone besides third party apps.

• Disk access to store files and folders. Jailbreakers can access more areas of the file system.
• Access to contacts, including importing them to your address book.
• Access to Notes, including creating new notes, editing existing ones, and sending off using Mail.
• Call records of dialled, missed, and received calls including duration, phone number, and the date.
• SMS history that can be viewed by person, or all at once. Even archive SMS data on your Mac.
• iPod access including podcasts, ringtones, and videos. You can directly preview media, or import into iTunes.
• Access to Photos including from the Camera and the Photo Library. Directly add to iPhoto.
• No access to anything Safari. Would have liked to be able to access Safari History.

I would have shown a more useful screenshot, but it’s all private data!

Viewing your iPhone

The best part of the app is that there’s no configuration at all. You just dock your iPhone and it’s shown on your screen. The user interface is pleasant and easy to use. Just clicking into any of the items loads it up in the main window. Viewing SMS history is like looking through some kind of chat records. Using the disk access you can turn your iPhone into a fast external storage device.

My only complaint is that some of the UI is not very ‘standard’. For instance, the font size in the lists is way too large. There are other places where they could have improved upon the user interface. The problem is we’re spoilt by awesome interface designers on the Mac, so if something is not perfect, it feels wrong.

Sum and Substance

PhoneView is a brilliant Mac application. I’m not sure how often one would use this app, but for what it’s worth, it performs well. I’ve used this on my iPhone 1G as well as a 3G with no problems. My only issue is that the personal license allows you to install it on only two computers instead of as many Macs as you own. A single license costs $20, although if you act quickly you can make good use of the MacHeist bundle. Download a limited demo to see how it works on your Mac.