We've told you before about Google Chrome's slick new bookmark syncing feature, available in the Windows beta version of Chrome 4. It automatically keeps your bookmarks synced across multiple Chrome installations, using your Google Account. Well, this feature has landed in recent builds of Chromium for Mac (that's the open-source project Chrome is based on). To enable it, you'll first need to grab the latest version of Chromium.

Bookmark sync isn't on by default. To use it, you'll have to pop open your Terminal and do a little command-line magic. You'll want to right-click Chromium, show package contents, and then find Chromium inside the MacOS folder. Drag that to the Terminal, and then add the argument --enable-sync. Chromium should open, and you should see bookmarking syncing in your preferences.

Sign in with your Google account, and your bookmarks will be synced automatically to any other Chromium/Chrome browsers that you sign into. If you want to see where they're stored on the web, check a slightly strange location: a Chrome folder in your Google Docs account.

I know it seems like a lot of trouble to go through for bookmark syncing, but such is the peril of being on the bleeding edge of browser development. Bookmark syncing will very likely pop up officially in the Chrome Mac beta scheduled for early December.

It frustrates me that so many different services have a calendar function, and yet it's still a pain in the ass to make sure that my personal calendar is up to date. More often than not I find myself manually creating events using copy-and-paste, instead of the event being automatically created for me by whatever service I'm using.

If you happen to be a Facebook Events user, a utility called EventSync can help you keep your iCal calendar application on your Mac up to date with your Facebook events. It's smart enough to allow you to choose to sync all events, or only those that you have accepted (amongst other options). Development is active on the utility too, and Hawk Wings reports that version 2.0 will include the ability to display the flyers and images associated with the Facebook events.

EventSync is donationware for the Mac platform.

Canonical has decided -- in response to user requests -- to give paid users of its Ubuntu One online sync and storage tool a big, fat boost in drive space. One recently made its way into Karmic Koala -- which has just reached beta.

When beta testing began in May, it looked as though free accounts would get 2GB (the same as Dropbox) and premium users would receive 10GB. That may have been a tough sell, since the same $10 per month scores 50GB from Dropbox.

In response to beta tester feedback, however, Canonical has decided to pony up. Paid users of the service will now get 50GB.

I'll still give the edge to Dropbox since it's also available on Windows, Mac, and now the iPhone as well. On top of that, there's also the option of a 100GB account if you need extra elbow room. If you're only using Linux, can make do with 50GB, and want to support Canonical, however, Ubuntu One is a solid choice.

[via Works With U]

With more social networks turning into lifestreaming platforms, it makes sense that we're seeing Twitter integration for a growing number of social sites and services. MySpace is the latest big player to get Twitter syncing, with both one-way and two-way options. MySpace may be showing up a little late to this party, though, with services like Facebook and AIM already able to feed into Twitter.

You can plug your accounts in using OAuth, and your posts from MySpace will show "from MySpace," just like any other Twitter client. Syncing also works with the mobile versions of both sites. Twitter might win bigger than MySpace, here. All MySpace gets is an attempt to keep up with Facebook and other competitors who have already embraced Twitter, while Twitter gets more exposure with the younger demographic that some say it's had trouble attracting.

On today's This Week in Google, Gina Trapani presented a tip on how to synchronize your Google Calendar to iCal on a Mac. As it turns out, it is possible to subscribe to sub-calendars, but it's not immediately obvious how to do so. The same holds true on the iPhone.

If you've attempted to synchronize your Google Calendar to your iPhone only to be disappointed that it only allows you to synchronize one calendar, you'll be happy to discover that although it's somewhat hidden, there is a way to synchronize multiple calendars.

Once you configure your iPhone to synchronize with your Google account using your phone's Exchange functionality, you should have your contacts and primary calendar items synchronizing. To then choose what other calendars to display, use the instructions given on this page. They will instruct you to visit m.google.com/sync on your phone, which gives you the option to set some sync settings.

One big frustration with the iPhone's calendar is that though it displays multiple calendars in different colors, it doesn't give you any control over a given calendar's color. With some patience and fiddling, you can use the Google Sync settings described above to enable one calendar at at time and get them set to the color you want. If your primary calendar is the wrong color, it's harder to make it switch, but you can do it by disabling calendar synchronization entirely on the phone, then changing which calendars are synchronized via the Google Sync page, then re-enabling it. It takes trial and error, but with enough patience you can get things set up just as you want, as long as the colors you want consist of red, blue, orange, green, and/or purple.

It was a pretty big deal in the RSS world when NewsGator, the company behind two of the most popular desktop feed readers, decided to drop its web app and syncing services and sync with Google Reader instead. NewsGator's web version was scheduled to go dark August 31st, but fans of the service are getting a short reprieve.

The web reader will now shut down September 10th, instead. Why? Well, the new Google-friendly versions of NetNewsWire (Mac and iPhone) and FeedDemon (Windows) aren't quite ready for release yet.

While September 10 is the target date, NewsGator promised in an email not to turn off its web services until the desktop apps are ready. This gives NewsGator web users a little more time to run through the (pretty simple) transition instructions and get a Google Reader account set up. Make sure you don't waste that extra time and miss the opportunity to migrate your account and shared clippings to Google.

Snow Leopard, the next generation of Apple's OS X operating system, is ushering out a lot of old technology. It's the first version of OS X that won't run on a PowerPC processor, and now Apple has announced that it will no longer sync with Palm OS devices.

While this might look like a slap in the face to Palm after Apple blocked the Palm Pre from sneakily syncing with iTunes earlier this summer, it's probably unrelated and unsurprising.

Palm OS is being phased out, and the Pre doesn't run it - it uses WebOS - so this is hardly a move by Apple to hurt an iPhone competitor. In fact, Apple had to write a Palm syncing feature into its own iSync software because Palm stopped updating its sync app for the Mac.

If you're still using a Palm Centro or Treo, you might have to look for some third-party sync options, but this doesn't affect Pre users.

If you're willing to give Yahoo Calendar 2.0 Beta a try, you can now sync your Yahoo Calendar with the Calendar app on your iPhone. It doesn't require a separate app download or anything like that, just a quick and painless setup procedure. This is actual over-the-air syncing, with no need for plugging in and syncing with iCal on your desktop, and it helps Yahoo catch up to Google Calendar as a viable alternative for iPhone users.

Just go to "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" in your iPhone's settings, Go to "add account," "other," and then pick "CalDav account." Enter "yahoo" as the server, and put in your Yahoo username and password. Save and quit, and the next time you open your iPhone Calendar app, you should be prompted to pick which Yahoo calendar layer you want to use. Be aware that doing this upgrades you to Yahoo Calendar 2.0 Beta, and you can't downgrade again afterward.

(via Lifehacker)

Download Squad isn't the only blog that gets dubious screenshots sent in by anonymous tipsters. Just a couple of weeks after we got some purported screenshots of the Google Chrome OS, gadget blog Boy Genius Report received some unsourced images of Apple's upcoming iTunes 9. Highlights include the Facebook support that blogs have been buzzing about lately, and the ability to sync non-iPod devices.

The screenshots depict a Facebook menu that contains shared playlists, and then a user's Facebook activity stream with a shared item in it from "My iTunes." I'm not sure I wouldn't just block the My iTunes app on Facebook if I started seeing these - hell is other's people's terrible musical tastes, after all - but Apple would inevitably sell more music this way. It's like free advertising for the iTunes store!

There's also a screenshot of a Samsung device apparently syncing in iTunes. Maybe this could be for real, but after killing Palm Pre syncing with the 8.2.1 update, Apple doesn't seem to be two keen on third-party devices working with iTunes. On the other hand, maybe they want compatibility on their own terms, instead of through slightly shady mimicry of iPod device IDs.

What say you, Download Squad readers? Are these screenshots the real deal, or just clever fakes?

Less than a week ago, I spotted the early stages of bookmark sync in the Chromium nightly builds and source. Tonight, Google pushed the functionality in a new update to the dev channel for Google Chrome.

If you're running it already, just head to the wrench menu and click about. Once Chrome checks for and finds the update, install it and you're ready to sync. You'll still need to append --enable-sync to your shortcut for the option to appear when you restart. Once you sign in with your Google account, Chrome will keep syncing unless you go to your Personal Stuff options and tell it to take five.

Don't check your Google Bookmarks for your links. They'll actually be synced to a folder in your Google Docs unsurprisingly labeled Google Chrome.

Run a sync from a second (or third or seventeenth) computer and Chrome will prompt you to merge and sync or cancel. It's a nice step, since it gives you time to clean up your bookmarks before committing them to your Google docs store.

Since the Chrome dev page is still pushing v 3.0.198.1 for Linux, you won't be able to use sync just yet. The updated build is likely not far behind (if you've got it working in your distro, please tell us in the comments - I had no luck with Chrome or with Chromium via Launchpad).

For those of you who want to make the switch to the dev channel now to give sync a try, you can download it from this Google page or use the Chrome Channel Changer to switch the build the built-in updater checks.

If you're familiar with the excellent WriteRoom app for OS X, you might also love the iPhone version of the app. WriteRoom is a full-screen, distraction-free writing environment that whisks away the toolbars, icons, buttons and other attention-stealers so you can be alone with your writing work. The iPhone version does the same thing, and it also syncs automatically to Writeroom.ws, where it can be edited later on your iPhone or via a browser on your computer.

In the fullscreen writing environment of Writeroom.iPhone, you can change the text size using the zoom gesture. You can also share your document with another machine via WiFi. The iPhone app is 5 bucks, but a purchase will get you $5 off WriteRoom for Mac, or the organizational app TaskPaper. If you were planning on buying either one, you might as well grab the iPhone app while you're at it.

Not even two weeks after Apple's iTunes 8.2.1 update removed iTunes syncing capability from the Palm Pre, Palm has announced an update to webOS that adds several features and restores syncing. A few of the new features are business-oriented, including improved Exchange AccessSync support (remote wipe, PIN/password improvements, and better certificate handling). webOS 1.1 also includes "person reminders" that pop up a message when a person calls you, making sure you remember things you wanted to talk to them about.

Of course, the main thing that's going to be reported about the webOS update is the ongoing tussle between Apple and Palm over iTunes sync. Pre owners and Apple fanboys are now waiting to see when the other shoe will fall and Apple will disable syncing again. Just in case that happens, Pre owners might want to check out a third-party app that can handle syncing for the device.

In what will no doubt become another game of device authentication tennis, Palm webOS 1.1 fixes what iTunes 8.2.1 tore asunder: sync with the Pre. Yep, 1.1 is hot off the networks and ready for a hefty 87MB download. I like how Palm's notification states "We'll download it over the next couple of days when your device is idle and a high speed network is available." There's that background magic at work! Your move, Apple.

Oh, apparently there are bugfixes and fancy things like remote wipe and auto-lock added in this update. Like you care while syncing all those torrented episodes of The Office, right?

[via PreCentral and Engadget]