I'll admit that it seems strange to use Microsoft's Live Mesh on a Mac, but with Apple's MobileMe getting spotty reviews, some Mac users prefer to look for alternative ways to sync. Until now, Snow Leopard users who rely on Live Mesh were out of luck, but a new version of the Live Mesh client supports OS X 10.6. If you're still on Leopard, you don't need to update to the new release, but Snow Leopard users will have to reinstall Live Mesh to get it working again.

Remembering that Live Mesh is available on the Mac - and seeing the new iPhone app from another syncing service, Dropbox - got me thinking about whether you can use Live Mesh on an iPhone. It turns out that the answer is yes, although there's unfortunately no app for that, yet. If you're sharing files through Live Mesh, you can get to them on an iPhone via the web interface. Although Apple fans tend to balk at using anything from Microsoft, this might be one case where it's viable.

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.

Foxmarks is a Firefox plugin that syncing bookmarks between different computers. This is really handy if you're looking for a way to make sure you have the same set of bookmarks at home, at work and on the road. But what if you don't want all of your bookmarks everywhere you go? They've got that covered, too, with a new profile feature.

With profiles, you can pick and choose which bookmarks you want, and where you want them. That way, you can keep those -- ahem -- private bookmarks at home. Syncing still works like normal, so your bookmarks aren't going anywhere, and you can add them or delete them from profiles at any time. You can also keep a mobile profile, so the mobile-optimized sites you use are close at hand on my.foxmarks.com.

[via Cybernet]

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.

Don't you hate it when a company goes and updates its software only to leave you with fewer features?

One of the main complaints people have had about ActiveSync 4.x is that Microsoft took away the ability to synchronize your Windows Mobile device with your computer over WiFi. If you want WiFi syncing, you have to go back to ActiveSync 3.8 or ealier.

Microsoft has long maintained that they removed WiFi sync for security reasons, but that's pretty much all they were willing to say. Users were dubious because you can still sync over WiFi if you're syncing with an Exchange Server.

Well Mike Calligaro has posted a detailed explanation on the Windows Mobile Team Blog. And here's the deal: Microsoft had taken absolutely no steps to protect your data when syncing over WiFi.

Essentially ActiveSync was designed for connecting your PC and your PDA over a serial connection. Later, USB support was added. And eventually when Microsoft saw hardware manufacturers making CompactFlash Ethernet cards they enabled Ethernet connections. And then they added WiFi syncing using the same protocol as Ethernet.

The problem is they didn't account for viruses or security in any way. There's no encryption. When you're connecting two devices via a cable, that's fine. But when you're connecting over WiFi, you're sending all over your personal information out over an unsecured network. And Calligaro says ActiveSync doesn't do a very good job of making sure the correct device is connected. That means if someone observed you syncing your PDA to your computer, they could theoretically trick your PC into thinking it should connect to their device.

So they eliminated WiFi syncing. At some point, it may return, but only after Microsoft builds a layer of encryption into ActiveSync. Encryption is already part of Microsoft Exchange Server, which is why you can still sync to a server over WiFi. Calligaro says there's no telling when The Windows Mobile Team will get around to WiFi sync.

[Via Brighthand]