There has been lots of initiatives lately from computing giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, and lots of other smaller companies to let us move our computing and files online. Google Docs was probably one of the first one to allow us to move our documents online. From then, more has followed suit, including Microsoft with Office Workspace Live. Since then, with so many online services, Friendster, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, more and more people has been having their “life” in Internet, to the point that computers are pretty pointless nowadays without Internet connection.
Another “killer app” that is coming up in the horizon is syncing capabilities across devices. Most of us owns few devices, home PC, office PC, maybe laptop, and mobile phone. The problem most of us face (or at least I face) was to sync simple things like calendars, tasks, emails, to bigger items like documents and files across all those devices.
Until recently, this has been a chore. Even syncing calendar items from Google Calendar to my mobile phone was pretty troublesome. With Google Calendar Sync, that sync Google Calendar with Outlook, which then I use Nokia PC Suite to sync between Outlook and my Nokia E90, at least I have some solution that works for Calendar.
How about files and documents? So far, I have been putting my documents that I want to access anywhere in Google Docs, but there are many other documents that remains in my home PC, and thus inaccessible from anywhere else.
Microsoft has some solutions, that are frankly still quite disjointed. Skydrive is a free 5GB online storage that allows you to store pretty much anything. You can create folders, upload files, share folders, etc.
Think of it as your free online storage. I know some people who uses their Gmail as their online storage, but c’mon, Gmail is email, not a proper online storage. I use Skydrive lately to share and send some big files, and the files will still be there indefinitely, unlike YouSendIt. The problem with Skydrive? I need to remember to upload my recently edited documents into Skydrive, or else what I have in Skydrive and what I have in my desktop will be different.
Second product is Foldershare.
So far, I have used Foldershare to sync documents between my home PC and my Macbook. I can edit any documents in my Macbook while I’m watching TV in the living room, knowing when I switch to my desktop in the study room, the latest file will be there. No need for primitive way of copying to thumbdrive from one machine and putting it to another machine. So far, so good. One limitation though, both devices need to be on in order for sync to happen.
The latest one to enter the fray was Live Mesh.
The idea is simple. You select some folders that you would like to sync with other devices (up to 5GB limit), and that’s it. Live Mesh client will upload all your documents to be sync-ed to Live Desktop, and then sync those files with all other devices that you may have added to the circle. Unlike Foldershare that is only one-to-one, Live Mesh can be many-to-many, including PC, Mac, and mobile phones. Also, using Live Mesh, your files are available online, so you don’t need to have your machine turned on 24×7. As an added bonus, Live Mesh works with Windows Remote Desktop, so let’s say you’re overseas, and so happen need to access your machine at home miles away, you can go to Live Mesh, and view your other machine’s desktop like you’re sitting in front of it. I read an article recently about a guy made us of Live Mesh to share photos from South Africa to his wife back in US. Paul also love Live Mesh.
Now, you may think why on earth are there so many similar products from Microsoft to accomplish similar thing? I wonder too, and how I wished they’d merge all these into one big solution that has everything. That would have been a winner.
Put it simply, if anyone can create a solution that allows us to have our calendars, tasks, to-do-list, emails, latest version of documents, MP3s, photos, and any other files, anywhere in the world, on any device, PC, Mac, mobile phone, PDA, iPhone, and dare I say, for free, that will be Awesome.
Has anyone of you used any of the online services above?
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Comment by Tg — July 20, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
Hi Hendrik!
I’m in marketing Communications at YouSendIt and stumbled upon your blog from my google alerts. You’ve compiled a great list of products here and I’m glad you’re keeping the conversation going! We’re always keeping an eye out for feedback and ideas on how to improve- so feel free to let us know!
Have you looked at http://www.gotomypc.com? I’ve never used it, but keep hearing about it on the Jim Rome radio show. ; ) Sounds like it might be the solution you need.
We do offer long term storage on our paid accounts (Starting around 10 bucks a month), but again- that’s not your entire PC and calendar, etc…
If you’d like to try one of the paid YouSendIt accounts, I can hook you and your readers up with a special promotion code for a 1 month trial. Let me know if you’re interested.
All the best,
Robyn
Comment by Robyn — July 21, 2008 @ 12:35 am
On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage …
Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC’s will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.
Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.
Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:
http://www.BackupReview.info
This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
Comment by Jennifer — July 21, 2008 @ 2:00 am
Hi Robyn,
After the CEO of Smugmug a couple of months back, you were the second person from a company whose product that I’ve actually used, who commented on my blog, so thanks for that. I’m always glad when “faceless” companies in the net actually shows their “face”
I personally feel YouSendIt was great from many years back. YouSendIt to send large files was like Google to search. It’s the service to go to when people want to send large files, and that’s great. However, I do feel YouSendIt need to add more features to distinct yourself from other solutions, and frankly, if Skydrive (and later Live Mesh) allows me to share files, permanently, for free, I will likely switch as there’s no compelling reason to stay with YouSendIt. I do have an account in YouSendIt, btw
As for GoToMyPC, yeah, I heard it from years ago, but I never tried it due to pricing. If Live Mesh eventually allows me to have Remote Desktop to all my machines for free, why should I pay close to $20 a month for access to only one machine? I just doesn’t make sense. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Thanks again Robyn.
Comment by hendrikch — July 21, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
@Jennifer: Hi Jen, thanks for the info. I’ll check it out.
Any recommendation out of so many online backup out there?
Comment by hendrikch — August 3, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
Hi Hendrik,
Hope you are having fun on your travels. I ran into your blog while searching for info about the various Microsoft storage/sync services. I was trying to post a response, but it kept saying “discarded”. So here is my response…I hope you can post it on your blog if you have time:
Hi Hendrik
Great summary of these disparate yet related services. I worked for MS for several years and I think the reason MS has so many disjointed offerings is that no one really is a “master of ceremonies” in the way Steve Jobs rules Apple with an iron fist. It really is a company with too many VPs, too many Directors, and too many General Managers to have a coherent strategy. Now, they’ve bucked this trend before (see: Xbox), but there are still too many examples of these approaches that each get customers 80% of what they need and overlap about 75% but none get us completely there.
Now that these things are out there, I believe everything will coalesce around Live Mesh (I really have no idea since I’m no longer a Microsoftie) which will integrate foldershare & skydrive.
Here’s my dream service:
– No file count limits (foldershare limits you to 10,000 files)
– No file size limits (I think one or more of the services limit you to 2GB)
– “Smart” live desktop that watches what I use on the PC and uploads those files and things that seem related. For example: if I listen to a song a lot, it would find all of the playlists that song is in and upload the songs “near” that one in the playlists (or the entire playlist if it is small enough).
– Unified sharing center. “Share this folder with…” one email addy, one email domain, multiple addies, everyone, facebook friends, etc. Also a really nice UI for those that choose to browse photos on live mesh rather than other services.
– “Super Sync” – “Mirror this folder structure to…” facebook, myspace, flickr, windows live, smugmug, photobucket, kodak, etc. AND keep them in sync (e.g. if I upload something to flickr, notice this and mirror everywhere else.)
– Remote Desktop of course (Live mesh has this, but I use logmein still)
– Browse other machines without sync (Foldershare has this)
– Full, unlimited backup in the cloud for $5/month (I use Mozy for this now).
So I would do pricing like this:
Free unlimited syncing (foldershare)
Free remote desktop (logmein)
$5/month unlimited backup (mozy)
$5/month unlimited sharing(sky drive)/super sync/unified sharing center
So you see, we’re about 80% of the way there on each of the services…just need to snap together the bits of each together into one big service. I’m actually in the processing of writing my own super sync service for all platforms that will keep my gazillions of photos and home videos sync’d to flickr and other services (since flickr is blocked in China and my wife’s family is there and needs to use other services to access our photos).
Thanks,
Tommy
http://www.dodoskido.com
Comment by hendrikch — November 14, 2008 @ 12:24 am
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Pingback by 2010 blogging in review « hendrikch.com – Hendrik Christian Blog on Daily Life — January 2, 2011 @ 9:36 pm
Now I know who the barniy one is, Ill keep looking for your posts.
Comment by Prue — May 3, 2011 @ 9:30 am
How to buy a computer…
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