Microsoft has thrown open the doors to its Live Mesh file synchronization service. Now anyone can sign into the service using a Windows Live ID. You no longer need to sign up for an account and sit on a waiting list.
Live Mesh, which launched as a technical preview in April, allows users to synchronize files across multiple computers. All of your synchronized files will also be available via the web for easy access even if you're not near one of your computers. The service is still in beta, but now it's a public beta.
The Live Mesh interface also features a nifty news category that presents you with recent updates to your folders and files. If you add music to the shared music folder on your home PC, you can read about it on your work PC or on the web.
Eventually Microsoft plans to roll out Live Mesh clients for Mac and mobile devices, but right now Live Mesh works only with Windows XP and Vista.
There are plenty of Windows applications out there that will let you synchronize files across multiple folders. But there are a few things that set Allway Sync apart. First up, you can install Allway Sync on a flash drive to carry with you and use on multiple PCs. Second, Allway Sync is free for personal use and you're only required to pay for a license if you're a heavy user of if you feel like it. No one will ever make you pay, but the software is totally worth buying.
The latest version also adds support for synchronizing files with an FTP server or Amazon S3 storage. This makes Allway Sync a great little tool for backing up your files to offsite storage. The only problem is that there's no built-in scheduler. You have to initiate each sync job manually. If you're lazy and prefer automated backups, you might be better off with a utility like Jungle Disk. But the advantage of performing manual backups is that Allway Sync provides detailed information about each new, changed, or questionable file.
If you're like us, your hard drive is anything but tidy. That's because us power users can't be bothered to keep things organized - there are just too many awesome things out there to download, extract, and forget about because half of them turn out to be garbage.
FlexTK for Windows helps make short work of cleaning up after yourself, offering a full complement of file management tools in one handy package. Folder sync, duplicate file search, temp file cleanup, storage utilization, search, and an advanced organization module are all included. Navigation is handled beautifully in an explorer-like manner, tweaked by the addition of breadcrumbs and a "bookmarks" pane that allows you to quickly link your favorite locations.
Microsoft has announced plans to buy MobiComp, a Portuguese software company that develops applications for storing cellphone data online.
MobiComp's products allow you to perform over the air backups of your contacts, calendar, and other mobile data. The company's MobileKeeper Sharing & Communities software also lets you share and download content from social networks including Flickr and Hi5.
The acquisition is described as Microsoft's largest investment in Portugal. Nobody's saying exactly what Microsoft is planning to do with MobiComp's technology, but we'd say it's a safe bet that you could eventually see some sort of data backup/synchronization software for Windows Mobile devices, perhaps as part of the Windows Live suite of web-based services.
Google may have decided to cease development of the Google Browser Sync plugin for Firefox, but that doesn't mean the utility will never see another update. Because rather than simply boxing up the source code and packing it away, Google decided to release the source code publicly under the BSD license.
Google Browser Sync is a utility that lets you synchronize your Firefox bookmarks, preferences, and cookies across multiple computers.
Now anyone can check out the source from the Google Code project page. While nobody's done anything really cool yet like make a version of Google Browser Sync that works with Firefox 3, it may just be a matter of time.
One thing that's particularly interesting is the fact that Ars Technica reports Google posted the source code online on June 13, the same day that Lifehacker confirmed the death of the official project. It's not clear which came first, the chicken or the egg. But either way, we're not complaining. If Google isn't going to continue developing this useful utility, then we're just glad that someone else may be able to pick up the torch.
Apple is launching a new service called MobileMe that will provide push mail, contacts, and calendar data. In practical terms, that means you can synchronize your personal data across multiple computers and devices. And the service works with both Windows and OS X.
In other words, you can synchronize your Mac, PC, and iPhone. The service works with Mac's Mail.app, iCal, and Address book. On Windows, the service syncs with Outlook. In addition to PIM data, you can use MobileMe to syncrhonize photos from your iPhone.
Apple's Phil Schiller demonstrated the new service at WWDC this morning, showing you email gets pushed to all devices in a matter of seconds. There are also web based versions of the applications that look like desktop apps, including a photo application that looks like iPhoto.
The service will replace .Mac, and current .Mac users will automatically be upgraded to MobileMe. For new customers, the service will cost $99 per year for 20GB of online storage. There's a 60 day free trial available as well. MobileMe isn't live yet, but will be available at Me.com soon.
Glide has launched an updated version of its web-based "operating system." Like its predecessors, Glide OS 3.0 provides users with a desktop-like space within a browser window. You can use Glide's web-based applications to create Word documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You can also play music, manage photos and videos, and send and receive email. In other words, you can do many of the same things you'd do with a desktop operating system, but in a web browser.
What sets Glide apart from many of its competitors is that Glide offers a suite of tools that let you synchronize your files with a Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris machine. There's also Glide Sync software for a number of mobile phone models. Free account holders get up to 5GB of web space, and if you need more, you can shell out a few bucks a month for additional storage.
One of the new features in Glide OS 3 is a Glide Group tool that adds social networking features. You can communicate with other Glide users by sending messages or sharing media files.
Syncplicity is a new service that lets you synchronize files between two or more computers. The desktop client is extraordinarily easy to setup and configure, and it synchronizes new and changed files pretty much immediately as long as you're connected to the internet. Syncplicity also saves a copy of each file to its server so you can access your files from any computer with a web browser.
So far, it all sounds a lot like SugarSync, right? Well, there are a few differences. Syncplicity is Windows only at the moment (although a Mac client is coming later this year), and has no support for mobile devices. But Syncplicity does have one nifty trick up its sleeve: integration with online services like Google Docs and Facebook. So users can automatically synchronize Office documents or Facebook photos.
Syncplicity is free while in beta, but because the service offers users unlimited online storage, the company will eventually start charging a fee. According to WebWare, we can expect prices to be in the $20/month range.
Office suites like Google Docs and Zoho Office have been busy adding offline access to let you access and edit spreadsheets, text, and presentation documents in a web browser whether you're connected to the internet or not. But paying ThinkFree customers have had this ability since last year.
That's because ThinkFree offers two products: an online, web-based office suite and a Microsoft Office-compatible suite for the desktop. Users can synchronize data between the web service and their desktops. But up until this week, users had to pay $50 for access to the desktop software. Now, as expected, ThinkFree has launched a free version of its desktop software.
Now, here's the interesting thing. You don't even need to sign up for an account to download the desktop software. So if you have no need for an online office suit, synchronization, or 1GB of free online storage space for your office documents, you can just treat ThinkFree Office as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, or whatever you've been using. But you will need to sign up for an account since ThinkFree will only save files if you have an account. Files will also automatically be saved to a ThinkFree folder for synchronizing with the web service. If you don't want to synchronize your files with the server, just never login again.
The applications can open and save documents in a variety of formats including Office 97 - 2007, PDF, RTF, and CSV. ThinkFree Write, Calc, and Show also do a great job of opening documents we've created using other applications, recognizing features like notes in our spreadsheets that other free tools like Gnumeric miss.
Sharpcast's SugarSync provides one of the most complete solutions we've seen for keeping your files synchronized across computers, mobile devices, and the web. The service was free while in beta, but we were a bit turned off by the pricing, once it was announced, with prices ranging from $50 a year for 10GB of storage space to $500 for 250GB. At a time when many companies are offering 5GB or more of online storage space for free, that seemed like a bit much, even when you take the synchronization service into account.
Fortunately, Sharpcast allowed beta testers to sign up for 50% off. And now the company has extended that offer to all customers. So now you can sign up for as little as $25 per year or pay as much as $250 per year, depending on your needs. That seems a bit more reasonable.
File synchronization service SugarSync emerges from private beta on Thursday, March 20th. SugarSync lets you synchronize files between multiple computers and portable devices, with clients for Mac, PC, and Windows Mobile devices as well as a web-based interface. We gave away a few hundred invites when the service launched in private beta last month.
If you were one of the folks who signed up for the service, you can save some dough if you decide to sign up for the full service. Under SugarSync's new pricing plan, users can store up to 10GGB of data online for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. But users who sign up now get 50% off of that price for the first year. And if you're currently a beta tester, you can get the 50% off rate for 2 years.
Users who need a bit more space can also sign up for accounts with up to 250GB of storage for introductory prices of $25 per month or $250 per year. There are also a variety of options available between the 10GB and 250GB levels.
While there's no shortage of online file storage and synchronization services these days, Dropbox has to be one of the simplest solutions we've seen. Here's how it works: You install the Dropbox client on your desktop, and then every time you drag a file into your My Dropbox folder it's automatically uploaded to the web service. You can then view your file, share the link with others, or keep it synchronized with multiple computers. There's even a version tracking history. If you edit or delete a file, My Dropbox will let you undelete it or will show you previous versions.
Beta testers can store up to 5GB online, and there's no file size limit. Once it launches, Dropbox will offer free and premium services, with free account holders getting somewhere around 1GB of storage space while paid subscribers will be able to get more space. Users who are in on the beta will get to keep their larger accounts once Dropbox exits beta.
There are Mac and Windows clients available right now, with a Linux version coming... eventually. You can sign up for a beta invitation at the Dropbox home page.
Microsoft has released a major update to its FolderShare file synchronization tool. FolderShare essentially lets users synchronize files and directories between multiple computers. There are clients for Mac and PC, so you can even keep documents synchronized if you're in a mixed marriage.
In a blog post, the FolderShare team point out some of the highlights of the new release:
New website for easier library and computer management
Improved performance on Windows Vista
Better setup and imporved system tray
Backend improvements keep FolderShare running more reliably
If you've got more than one computer and you've never tried FolderShare, you should really check it out. While you could set up shared network folders on your computer the old fashioned way and then use a tool like SyncBackSE to synchronize files, FolderShare makes the whole process a lot simpler.
The API will enable trusted 3rd party sites to access your Google contact information without asking you to provide your login information. So next time Facebook, Plaxo, or another service wants to import your Gmail, Google Calendar, or Google Talk contacts you might not have to give up your email password. Likewise, 3rd party software and web sites will be able to export contact lists to Google. And developers could write software that will keep your Google contacts synchronized with your desktop or mobile personal information manager.
In other words, if someone has some free time on their hands, they can write an application that will allow you to synchronize your Outlook and Google contacts. You know, like the application we were kind of hoping Google would release along with Google Calendar Sync yesterday.
Google today released a piece of software that may just be the holy grail of calendar synchronization. Well, if you use Windows and Outlook, anyway. Google Calendar Sync is a utility that automatically synchronizes your Outlook and Google Calendar appointments.
You can configure Google Calendar Sync for 2 way sync, meaning that any time you update either calendar, the changes will be copied to the other. Or you can choose a 1-way sync which will only copy changes made from one calendar to the other and not vice versa.
What's really exciting about Google Calendar Sync is it gives you a way to synchronize your calendar across multiple devices easily. Just install Google Calendar Sync on multiple computers and now when you update your laptop calendar it will automatically sync with Google Calendar, which will automatically sync with your desktop PC, which will sync with your Windows Mobile PDA. Pretty cool, huh?
Google Calendar Sync is hardly the first tool for synchronizing Outlook and Google Calendar, but it's free and it performs automatic synchronization at regularly scheduled interviews while most other programs cost money and/or require you to activate them manually.
Now if Google would just release a version that works with Thunderbird (with the Lightning extension) and iCal.
