The release of Mac OS X 10.1 brings some new features to iDisk, the iTools feature that provides Mac users with online data storage capabilities in capacities from 20MB to 1GB. The new features have been incorporated thanks to Apple’s support for WebDAV, a multiplatform networking protocol that works on various flavors of Windows and Linux. In fact, Apple noted that versions of Windows and Linux running a WebDAV client could access iDisks the same way Mac users can.
Previously, if you mounted your iDisk on your desktop but didn’t actively use it, Apple’s servers would log you off after a period of inactivity. That changes with iDisk under 10.1 — now you can have your iDisk mounted indefinitely.
Apple also said that iDisk is “friendly to firewalls.” By communicating the same way that a Web browser does, iDisk can operate without any problems behind corporate or personal firewall products — enabling iDisk to work in more secure environments.
Mac OS X 10.1 users can also access each others’ iDisk public folders more easily — choose Connect to Server from the Go menu, and you can now enter http://idisk.mac.com/username/Public.
iDisk caches file and folder information under 10.1 as well, so repeated trips to the same directories will be much faster. And by selecting Show Status Bar from the View menu, you can get info about your iDisk, like how much free space you have and what’s write-protected.