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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?

AsiaOne reported that iPhone 3G could debut in Singapore within the next two months. If my math still serves me right, it will be mid September when SingTel launches the phone.

Few points I picked up from the article:

- Depending on the subscription plan and length, iPhone 3G could cost you nothing upfront. Beware of the potentially expensive subscription plan though. Equivalent prices around Asia are about S$104 in Australia or S$86 in Hong Kong, so expect similar prices to get iPhone 3G for free.

- Starhub and M1 will launch iPhone 3G later after SingTel has taken their customers who move to SingTel because they want iPhone 3G so badly.

- By selling iPhone at $0, a lot of consumers will snap the phone without a second though, only to realise later that they need to pay $100 a month subscription plan.

I still have my contract with Starhub until November 2008, so until then, I’m not in market for a new phone.

So, will you or will you not join the queue to get iPhone 3G when it comes out in Singapore?

As of the writing of this post, almost 20 hours since the Download Day started, there has been almost 6.5 million downloads of Mozilla Firefox 3.

Singapore has contributed a mere 22,692 downloads, of which I contributed three. I installed one in office, one in desktop PC, and one in my Macbook. Let’s see how many they can get in the remaining 4+ hours.

Have you downloaded Firefox 3?

Mozilla Firefox 3 will be released tomorrow (Wednesday 1.00 AM SGP time), and they are gathering as much support as they can to set the new Guiness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.

If you have been using Firefox 2 all the while, or still using any other browsers, join in the download from tomorrow morning. The window is open for 24 hours, so you’ll have plenty of time.

I’ve been using Firefox 3 for a couple of months both in Windows and Mac, and undoubtedly it’s the best browsers out there. Performance is good, the awesome location bar is awesome, ah….. just download it tomorrow and try it out.

As any other weekend, it started on Friday night, I went for Kung Fu Panda movie, which I highly recommend you to watch. It’s hilarious. On Saturday morning, I went for Heryanto (Nyile) and Christine (Santos) wedding until around 2PM, then I headed straight to PC Show at Suntec. I accompanied a friend to get a highly discounted new, just-released HTC Touch Diamond. Retail price is $1,098, but Singtel is selling at $498 for 2-years contract. By the time we reached there about 2.45PM, everywhere in Singtel booth, they put up this sign that read: “HTC Touch Diamond Out of Stock. Contact us for reservation details“. No choice, my friend had to reserve a set which Singtel will only have it ready by Thursday earliest.

For me, I managed to buy a pretty decent $5 laptop sleeve case for my Macbook, as well as an in-ear headphone in Sony MDR-EX32LP for $38.

Few hours later, we arrived back at NBC for young adults fellowship, and after that, we dropped by CK Tang for a while before went to watch The Incredible Hulk. The movie was pretty slow, and there wasn’t enough action to thrill us, the viewers. Only three smiles from me for Hulk

I didn’t even realised I was sitting at the same seat number in Lido and GV for different movies on different day, cool coincidence eh?

Today, a friend from Australia came, so I’ll meet her with Dian at Vivo City for lunch, before heading to church for cell group and Sunday service. Hopefully I’ll still have energy to spare to accompany my colleague to Newton Life Church for Mandarin Sunday service. Now I need The Incredible strength

Now, if we think that is tiring, imagine our pastor, Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong, who cares so much for us, that he, at the age of 67, will have session for teens at Cibubur from 5 AM today, then preached in Indonesian language at Jakarta at 7 AM, followed by 9.30 AM sermon in Mandarin, then fly to Singapore for Indonesian language sermon at 5 PM (which usually ends about 7.15PM), then continued to Newton Life Church to preach at 7.30 PM. Early Monday morning, he’ll fly back to Jakarta to teach those teens again in Cibubur, and rushed for an afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur, and continuing his usual journey to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and back to Jakarta on weekend. Phewwwww….. Now, that’s tiring !! If it is not for God and His truth and all of us, no one in the world would ever done that.

Anyone going to PC Show 2008 this time round?

On top of my wish list are:

1. In-ear earphone (after I gave mine to my brother). Considering either Sony MDR-EX32LP @ $38 or Creative EP-630 @ $36. Non PC-Show prices are $42 and $45 respectively.

2. A new digital camera to bring for my trip in September. Using 3.2MP camera phone for a trip just doesn’t cut it. Considering Canon IXUS 860IS. The promotion in PC Show is $599 with 2×4GB SD card.
I asked other shops. Cathay Photo selling @ $560 with 1×4GB SD card, while Alan Photo selling @ $535 with 1×4GB SD card. INK was suggesting to get a dSLR like Canon 1000D, or at least a Canon PowerShot G9, but feels quite big and bulky to me. I may delay this purchase until sometime nearer to September, hopefully the prices will come down a fair bit in a couple of months time.

All deals come with the usual Canon gifts like camera bag, and if paid by UOB credit card, can get an extra battery (worth $68). Alan Photo person mentioned there will be an additional 2% if I paid by UOB credit card, but considering I can get an extra battery for $10, it’s worth it.

Anyone ever used any of the items I’m considering? Sony earphones? Creative earphones? Canon Powershot cameras? Canon IXUS cameras? What do you think?

Finally.

http://home.singtel.com/iphone/