RHFtech™ Write on Tech » sync

PhotoSync – Sync photos from your iPhone to everything without wires

Richard Frisch — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:36:30 +0000

It’s a trite but true saying that, “The best camera is the one you have with you.”

If you have an iPhone 4 you have a very good point-and-shoot camera and a pretty good camcorder, to boot. Getting the photos and videos off your iPhone and onto your iPad or computers, Mac or Windows, is a cumbersome process unless you buy the PhotoSync app for $1.99 in the iTunes Store.

Buy it once and you can install it on all your iOS devices—iPhone, iPad, iPod touch—running iOS 4.2 or greater. The PhotoSync people also have free computer clients for both Mac and Windows.

Did I mention that it works with Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, FTP, Picasa, and SmugMug too? It does.

Setting up PhotoSync requires you to install the app on your iOS device(s). You should also download, install and start the computer application, too. If you use any of the services mentioned above, like Dropbox, Facebook or Flickr, you should configure the iPhone/iPad app to authorize connection to those services.

Using it is simple.

Start the app on your iPhone or iPad.
Select the photos you want to sync to the other device or service.
Click the Sync button.
Select what you want to sync: new items, selected items, all, or receive items.
Select the destination category: computer, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Dropbox…
Select the specific destination.
You are done!

Apple’s iOS 5, due this fall, will add some of this functionality when paired with iCloud, also due this fall, and Mac OS X Lion (10.7). But that Apple trio won’t work with Windows and there are time and quantity limits on iCloud’s camera roll that PhotoSync doesn’t suffer from. And PhotoSync is here now. The price is right and the app is worth it.

Enable Dropbox LAN sync

Richard Frisch — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:27:18 +0000

Do you use Dropbox? It is a great synchronization service. Maybe the best one available today. It is simple to install. Once installed it becomes invisible, just doing its job.

It can synchronize your files to all your computers whether they are connected via the Internet or a local area network (LAN). Dropbox has a free 2GB service and larger storage spaces available for a monthly fee.

It is usually lightning fast. Close a file on one computer and moments later it is duplicated on all your other machines and on your account on the Dropbox server.

Dropbox recently added the ability to sync locally via your LAN rather than via their server. This should be enabled on all your Dropbox computers. If you are not running the latest version of the software stop the service on your computer, download and install the latest version from their home page.

Once you have the latest software installed and running, right-click on the Windows system tray icon or the Mac menu bar icon and select Preferences…. Then make certain that the Enable LAN sync checkbox is checked. It probably is, but it is better to be certain rather than assume this. Do this for each of your computers.

Dropbox goes mobile

Richard Frisch — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:30:17 +0000

Dropbox is a great service, remarkably useful in today’s connected world. I received this note from Dropbox yesterday:

DropBox – file synchronization done well

Richard Frisch — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:33:25 +0000

DropBox is a file service that lets you keep files synchronized effortlessly on multiple computers, locally or remotely.

It works extremely well. It works with Windows, Macs and Linux operating systems. You can even access your files from a remote computer by signing into your account via a web browser, such as Internet Explorer, and downloading the files.

DropBox offers a free account with 2GB of storage and a paid account, $99/year or $9.99/month, with 50GB of storage.

I highly recommend it. If you want to check it out click here.

Full disclosure: I will get additional space added to my free account for referrals.

Synchronicity, technology's holy grail

Richard Frisch — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:32:11 +0000

There are many ways to sync pieces of our data stores. Yet there is no simple, universal way to sync all of it. Data stores include files, calendar, email, contacts, photos, music, video, etc. You might expect a solution from Microsoft, Google or Apple. None exists.

We live in a time of technological wonder. Our machines do so much now and yet continue to evolve into ever more feature rich platforms. The proliferation of useful Internet connected devices creates a problem in efficiently managing information location. We store information in multiple places. We have documents, presentations, and spreadsheets in the office. We have photos, music and recorded video at home. We have music, audiobooks, on our smartphone or MP3 player. We have email, contacts and calendars that we want available wherever we are. Have you ever needed an email address or file that you have stored at another location? This is quite maddening in today’s fast-paced world.

Synchronicity is defined as, “the relation that exists when things occur at the same time”. I use the term more broadly to refer to the complete synchronization of information, having it available when, where and how you want it, on whatever device you using at the moment. For example, you are listening to an audio book in the car on your iPod when you pull in to the garage. When you are sitting in front of a computer, you should be able to resume the audio book at the same place you left off in the car without needing the iPod. Synchronicity means that the spreadsheet you worked on in the office is available to you at home or on vacation without having to think about bringing it with you. It means that the place where you left off reading a book on your Kindle shows up when you open the eBook reader on your smartphone so you do not have to hunt for your place. It means that you can go from one video display device to another, play the same content, and never lose your place.

Synchronization is a form of backup. It differs from true backup in that synchronization mirrors information stores rather than archiving them. If we add, change or delete a file or bit of information in a synchronized setup those changes are mirrored at all locations. With backup, you have older copies and copies of deleted files.

I have tried many sync applications. The granddaddy of syncing is the Microsoft Exchange email service (MAPI) which keeps all your computers’ email looking the same. IMAP provides the same capability for non-Exchange environments. Google provides several tools for syncing. Their email, calendar, contacts and Google Docs are online so any connected computer will be in sync. If you want to go offline and sync later, they provide other tools. They provide the free Google Calendar Sync to pass calendar information between Microsoft Outlook, the Google online calendar, and your smartphone, BlackBerry or iPhone. Microsoft provides the free Windows Live Sync and Windows Live Mesh for synchronizing files. They are developing new services to integrate with the Live Mesh Desktop that will sync more of your digital life in the future. Apple has its $99 per year MobileMe service. It has at times been called MobileMess because they are still trying to figure this out. Amazon’s eBook reader, the Kindle, syncs with another Kindle or an iPhone/iPod Touch running their Kindle app. It lets you effortlessly move from one eBook device to another while maintaining your place and your bookmarks. Xmarks.com (formerly Foxmarks) and Delicious.com let you sync and share your browser bookmarks. These are all partial sync solutions at best.

I imagine someday this stuff will happen automatically for all of our personal information, our files, bookmarks, favorites, media, etc. I do not imagine that will happen any time soon.