Turn your iPhone into a Web server
A new iPhone app called "ServersMan@iPhone" turns the iPhone into a full-blown Web server. The name is said to be a tribute to Sony's "WalkMan."
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 app was developed by a Tokyo-based venture company called FreeBit and is currently only available in the Japanese App Store but is coming to the U.S. App Store in March according to the report.
While an app like this could be used for transferring files to and from the iPhone (think: USB mass storage device/flash drive) there are several apps that already do this quite nicely (my favorite is Briefcase (iTunes, $5).
A couple of web servers (Apache, lighttpd) are available for jailbroken iPhones but this appears to be the first iPhone Web server officially allowed into the App Store.
The killer application for this technology would be "a truly decentralized social web of people trading data and human information in ad hoc ways over open protocols" or, as a commenter said, "Goodbye Facebook: hello community." If everyone with an iPhone suddenly becomes a walking Web server (and Wi-Fi router) the possibility of a true mesh network comes one step closer to reality.
Can you think of a creative use for an iPhone-based Web server?
Tip: Read, Write, Web