The iPhone Becomes a Web Server
When those Apple advertisements tout "there's an app for just about anything," they aren't kidding. The latest example? A new iPhone application which just debuted in Japan's App Store transforms the handheld into a full-blown web server. Called "ServersMan@iPhone", the application allows your iPhone to appear just like any other web server on the internet.
The new application was developed by a Japanese operation called FreeBit, a Tokyo-based venture company known for providing its network platform to many VNO/ISPs (virtual network operator/Internet service providers).
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.
The name "ServersMan" is said to be inspired by Sony's "WalkMan," and its no coincidence that FreeBit has invited Sony's former CEO Nobuyuki Idei to be a business advisor for the company.
At the moment, the ServersMan@iPhone is only available in the Japanese App Store, but an English version is coming in March. A port for Windows Mobile devices is also under development.
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The ability to do this changes everything. This isn't about accessing files etc, although that's a great first step. If every node on the Internet can be its own server, imagine a truly decentralized social web of people trading data and human information in ad hoc ways over open protocols.
Goodbye Facebook: hello community.
Nice! Though it's worth noting that a couple of web servers (Apache, lighttpd) have been available for jailbroken iPhones for quite a while. One of the earliest, geekiest things I played with when I first got my iPhone. :)
Posted by: Steve
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February 9, 2009 6:26 AM
OMG, my own portable web server! That's absolutely brilliant. Now all I need is a QuickTime Streaming Service to feed the live web cam to the world and you guys can watch me do groceries. :)
Although not a full-blown web server, there are a number of apps that have been available for a while that do all the WebDAV stuff. Now, if they can create an iAMP stack (iPhone, Apache, MySQL, PHP), I'm onboard.
Posted by: Jason Huebel
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February 9, 2009 6:35 AM
'IAMP' stack...I like it! Everyone can serve up their personal blog from the comfort of their own pocket. :)
Posted by: Steve
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February 9, 2009 6:37 AM
Actually, I just checked and PHP and SQLite are already available, so you could theoretically do an 'IASP' stack I suppose...
Posted by: Steve
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February 9, 2009 6:39 AM
SQLite is just fine with me. It's probably a better choice for the iPhone anyway, since it's much lighter weight and doesn't have a daemon that runs all the time.
Posted by: Jason Huebel
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February 9, 2009 6:40 AM
I have no idea how I will use this but I think I must have it for nerd appeal
Posted by: David Knight
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February 9, 2009 6:41 AM
I had a web server running on my Sony Ericsson P800 phone about 5 years ago. Nothing new, I'm afraid.
Why not sqlite instead of mysql, BTW, I believe all ipods and Iphone already have it ?
Posted by: Jayavasanthan J
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February 9, 2009 6:49 AM
Well, I think if this is going to become a "full scale web server" client for the iPhone the 3G would certainly be a little bit slower (great!), I am interested in the comment made on the RWW article by a guy called Richard (http://tr.im/ff4v), is this true???
Posted by: Josh Chandler
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February 9, 2009 6:54 AM
This is very interesting indeed. Wrapping my head around this but with a tiny web server - each phone could become a publishing center where users wouldn't need to send photos, videos or messages to other places. People would just come to them.
It would give people an easy way to keep all of their data in one central location:
http://www.notronwest.com/blog/2007/01/19/i-want-it-all-back/
good bye battery life...guess we really do need that replaceable battery, huh Apple?
A perfect example of a technology that gets geeks excited but in reality is completely useless.
Nokia S60 phones have been able to do this for years: http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/mobile-web-server/.
UIQ phones and Windows Mobile phones have their own web servers too (Windows Mobile apparently has multiple implementations to choose from.)
@Josh Chandler: yes it's true. Google for "symbian web server" and you'll find plenty of references. I can't remember the name of the app I used and it seems to have been superceded by a whole load of alternatives since then. It was mostly only useful as a local web server on the phone, because this was before phones had Wifi or 3G. But it worked.
this is very cool, and portends great and innovative things to come. if everyone is a walking web server, and (hopefully soon) these things can act as wifi routers too, we will truly be onto a mesh network that could do amazing things.
actually, is there any reason that the phones could operate in a P2P fashion now? if so why or why not?
i'd love to understand a little more about the potentials of this...
That's great little web app, nothing new but it's new to EyePhone users :)
I have developer doing same thing for G1 , weird that idea came about 2 months ago to my mind.
Anyways great post.
CEO Livecrunch.
I think someone put a web server on an Apple Newton, so I can't say that 'putting a web server on a really small device' is a completely original thought. And to push it to the extreme, check out the gumstix platform: http://www.gumstix.com/
Posted by: Phil Glockner
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February 9, 2009 9:54 AM
the iPhone has become a computer basically, a small one
Posted by: Snakeyes11
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February 9, 2009 10:37 AM
That's cool but I can't fanthom how it work. I mean if you have internet access on your phone you must have an ip - but surely it's not dedicated. And when your on the internet with your phone it's probably a dynamic ip so you'd have to do some constant updating of ip to the dns/domain meaning that you'd also have a TTL of like 5 seconds or 1 minute.
Boggles the mind on whether this works. Someone do it and post a demo I want to try it clientside.
@Television Spy: Did you miss the part about connecting via VPN when the client is on a separate network? Bam! Public IP.
Umm, is this supposed to be big news? Has anyone heard of Apache? The Apache web server software has been around for a long time and can be installed on the iPhone. Why re-invent the wheel? But the iPhone does have to be jailbroken in order to install Apache.
@Snakeyes11 - O_o
Missed the boat on the “computer” thing... Now if you said something like "Whow! The iPhone Becomes a Web Server!" That's cooking with propane.
Although I do admire the iphone, I dont think this is anything special. Windows Mobile phones has many web servers you can run on it. Infact windows mobile has everything. Can you use your iPhone as an access point yet?
Iphone is too small to have a true webserver.
@beej, I actually do believe there is a way to use your iphone as an access point, Ive only heard about it but from what i remember you just have to reconfigure your computer to connect to the iphone somehow, and then you can use the edge or 3G network off the iphone as an internet connection
@Metalkid - How "big" does a device have to be to have a web server?
I can run a web server on a watch sized device that can support full http requests, display flash, etc...
Wow, I think you may be onto something here
RT
www.anonymity-tools.us.tc
This isn't quite news... There have been web servers for the iPhone for ages, starting with the jailbreak, and even a few sharing apps in the app store similar to this one. In fact, on the 1.1.x devices, PHP was available in the repositories, allowing for an IAP stack, but not quite IAMP. It may be available in Cydia as well, but I haven't tried.
Wait,
If you ever jailbreak the iPhone, there is some thing called "Apache", and it works. Use SSH/SFTP to upload your pages. I donno if they have PHP or Tomcat for iphone :)/
Errr this isn't totally new. Airshare also uses a webserver to allow file transfers.
Sarah. Dude. This is not news.
For five bucks you can buy Air Sharing right now in the U.S. There's no need to sit around waiting for this app to be translated into unreadable Japinglish (sorry FreeBit that was a low blow but seriously, this is the economic season to Buy American, baby). Air Sharing's been out since last fall. It hosts a full web server with WebDAV extensions. No jailbreak required. There are literally DOZENS of other web servers on the App Store as well. They're in the Productivity category.
How
Adding to Brendan's comment, there isn't just AirSharing, there are probably a half-dozen different apps in the app store that let you upload and download files from the iPhone over HTTP.
Most or all of them are focused on doing it over WiFi though.
I'll keep my client device as a client device, thanks, and leave serving to the servers. I don't want all those hackers out there to be able to initiate a connection to my phone - I don't have the time or expertise to keep it hardened.
wow, i love this kind of app. I will be waiting for the english version...
Really distributive approach.
One point is that it is only for iPhone device. So how to answer universality of the service.
I am wondering if Smart Card Web Server technology (i.e: web Server in Telecom SIM card) could be a complementary approach to reach every subscriber.
Newton handhelds have been serving web pages like this for a decade. My Newton 2100 is wireless and serving web pages at http://newtonserver.no-ip.com and there are more here: http://misato.chuma.org:3680/
not to be a downer, but is it really practical? I've been looking at gumstix (as mentioned above) for a while. I think portable personal server for developing on the go would be cool, or even just opening the doors for you to write simple programs (html) that you could access locally, but with a live server, what if you get dugg or slashdotted, even while you're having a phone call? and with WiFi, 3G etc why would you want an unplugged webserver in your pocket that might run out of juice at any time. Wouldn't it make more sense to leave the serving to the server and be the client on your device?
I'm sure that with 3G you're already carrying a homing device in your pocket, so maybe no effect in that sense. I could imagine some security issues where you may be able to be found based on your IP if someone was clever enough, or if someone sent a ton of packets to your server and DOS'd your phone..
i need to read more science fiction!
I wonder if it appends "Sent from my iphone" to every page that it seves up. ;-)
you mean "served from my iphone"! lol
whats the point
Well its possible.
You probably need a plugin for a dynamic ip service.
Like dyndns.com!
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www.ejtsystems.com
Posted by: http://www.ejtsystems.com/author/etorvinen/
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February 14, 2009 7:25 AM
Please please please tell me where you got Apache (the exact URL). I can’t find it in any of the Community sources under installer.app or under any of the repositories under Cydia. I have used Google on my PC but …
Also, if you know where I can Perl for the iTouch …
what the hell, someone send me the real link, i have a locked iphone it needs to be activated. I used simpleiphoneunlock.net My iPhone is now unlocked now!
Cracking idea - I'll definitely get one! What's the point? Where do I start!
Frank
Cool stuff but most cell operators use private IPv4 addresses so unless you tunnel all your visitors via VPN it will not work. It would be better if they supported IPv6 so that the operators could give everbody a unique IP address.
/JB
So this is like http://www.mobilewikiserver.com but those folks enable web serving using wiki syntax, blogging, twitter client, style sheets etc.
I'm blogging the experience of setting up ServersMan's CyberDuck on my iPhone here: http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/turn-your-iphone-into-a-webserver-with-serversman/
Just thought I'd let you know - I've now got one and would recommend 110%!
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