If you upgrade to V2.0 firmware, just connect your iPhone to the USB3.0 port of the TAINER using USB cable. Then TAINER ask you what kind of device connected. 1) Phone/Card reader 2) External SSD 3) Network. Selecting ‘Phone/Card reader’ will detect you your iPhone and you can backup DCIM folder of your iPhone.
Actually there are two way you can connect TAINER to your iPhone.
1) TAINER as an external drive of your iPhone.
A. Connect your iPhone to the USB type-C port(right side of the TAINER. Just above wheel button) of TAINER through USB cable. Then TAINER ask you if this is computer connection or smart phone connection. Select ‘Smart phone’ connection. Then TAINER run with its own battery power and does not draw power from your phone. Work as a self powered external storage for your smart phone.
2) TAINER backup your phone incrementally
A. Connect your iPhone to the USB 3.0 type-A port(located bottom side) of the TAINER. Then TAINER detect your iPhone and ask you if you going to backup DCIM folder of your Phone. You can set ‘Video only / Photo only / all’ or “recent 1 day / recent 1 week / all” options. And TAINER copy incrementally.
So for your question “Can the tainer backup photos from the iphone? Can the iphone use the tainer as extra storage device?”, the answer is TAINER can do both depends on which USB port you connected to. Note that it is NOT wireless. You need to connect TAINER and your iPhone through USB cable just like you do when you backup your phone data to the computer.