One thing that lacked was a removable disk option for the iPhone. Its absence was a means to deter hackers from gaining access to the core of the device so easily but all of that has changed. Erica Sadun reports that a developer going by the handle “Core” has implemented AFP for the iPhone, this opens up a world of possibilities.

AFP, if you are unfamiliar, is the AppleTalk Filing Protocol which has long been replaced by TCP/IP networking. AFP, even though obsoleted, still resides in OS X and is used to communicate with AppleShare file servers. Although it’s outdated, AFP has found a new home on the iPhone which will allow users to once again appreciate the would be defunct protocol.

Erica Sadun has posted a brief yet easy to follow guide on how to install AFP. However, if your iPhone has yet to be modified with third party hacks, you might need to install adittional Software. Before proceeding, you’ll have to set up an FTP connection to your iPhone. This can be done first by installing the BSD Subsystem and then OpenSSH (assuming you have already Jailbroken your iPhone).

Once set up, turn on WiFi and then jot down your IP address. Connect your iPhone via USB and launch your favorite FTP client. From there you’ll have to connect via SFTP to the IP address you noted earlier. When prompted, enter the user name as Root and password as either “alpine” or “dottie” but only one will work. You now have full read/write access over FTP.

From there, download “afpd.with.registered.users.tgz” from http://wickedpsyched.net/iphone/afp/” >Wickedpsyched.net. You’ll have to copy the uncompressed TAR file to “/opt/iphone”, chances are you’ll have to create this directory yourself in “/”.
Once transfered (you must have Term-vt100 installed) run the command “tar xvf name of the transfered file.tar”. The file will be installed but to activate it, you must run the command “/opt/iphone/afp/startserver.sh”. Once done, you can click, in Finder, Go>Connect To Server and “type afp://your IP address used to FTP in your iPhone” and you will have your iPhone mounted on your desktop!