syncing

Apple's MobileMe problems are now well-documented, most recently by Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal. So much promise...so little delivery. A great idea that could be a great product, if it just worked. (I am a longtime Apple .Mac customer and am certainly not happy to see the service prove so incorrigible.)

So, what's the alternative? As you might imagine, open source provides a compelling answer.

Funambol has been offering its open-source "MobileMe" service for a wide variety of devices, not just the iPhone. In fact, Funambol now supports over 1.5 billion devices … Read more

I wrote earlier about how great the new Apple ActiveSync integration works. To a point, that's true. My calendar and contacts have been syncing flawlessly on my iPhone.

But email? Well....

Half the time that I click on an email it bumps me back to my home screen (and resets email so that the server needs to push it back to the phone). I have no idea what is going on, but I've re-created my IMAP account until Apple figures out the problems.

I'm a huge Apple fan. Today, however, I couldn't be more disappointed. I … Read more

Oh, my. I just set up Zimbra on my iPhone 2.0 software with ActiveSync. Verdict? Angels are descending to bless the experience.

It will sound silly, because Windows + Blackberry has had this functionality for eons, but it was such a wonderful thing to be able to accept appointments on my phone, have everything automatically synched with my Zimbra server, etc. It's not, in other words, a giant leap forward for email and collaboration, but it's a major win for Zimbra.

Thank you, Zimbra. Thank you, Microsoft (ActiveSync). I've joined the 21st Century. :-)

By average people we mean, mean people. As we have learned that mean and average are indubitably the same thing. However, we also learned on today's show that men are from Redmond and women are from Cupertino. That and a lot of news that actually isn't about the iPhone. Though we covered that to. Listen now: Download today's podcast

iPhone 2.0 software available for download http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987221-93.html http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/10/iphone-2-0-firmware-5a347-available-early/

Apple launches new iTunes with App Store http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987100-93.html

It’s … Read more

Are you a .Mac subscriber who's been using the built-in bookmark syncing app? Come Sunday that service will no longer exist as part of the MobileMe transition, so if you want to do one last sync you've got to get it done this weekend.

Shortly after the MobileMe announcement last month Apple sent out an e-mail to current .Mac subscribers detailing this change. Friday, the company extended the transfer deadline to July 6, along with providing a how-to guide to make sure you've got everything synced up one last time. You can get full instructions on how to do the sync here. … Read more

For most of us, checking into work on your vacation isn't any fun, but if it's a matter of no vacation or a tampered one, we'll help you find the most efficient ways to do your duty, so you can get back to doing...well, anything else. For the rest of you who are prone to nervous behavoiral ticks if you're away from your work for too long, these tools will equip you with a mini mobile office for your own brand of paradise.

Recently in a blog about hard drives with built-in disaster protection, I mentioned that off-site backup could be time-consuming and inconvenient. I wasn't entirely right.

The name is Datto and it's the realization of an idea of a network-attached storage (NAS) device that automatically syncs its entire content to a remote server so that you have an off-site backup copy in case of disaster.

Datto's NAS devices come in two sizes: 100GB and 500GB, which cost $399 and $500, respectively. However, that's just for the devices; you'll have to also pay an annual fee for … Read more

LG may claim to have the world's greenest LCD, but it might be tough to determine how much energy it actually conserves unless you can decipher the savings in your monthly utility bill. A new monitor from NEC, on the other hand, is outfitted with its very own carbon footprint meter to keep track of its ecological performance.

At first glance the MultiSync EA191M looks like a standard 19-inch LCD with a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution, according to Tech Digest, but it has an "eco mode" that limits maximum brightness to 60 percent. NEC says … Read more

At the grand opening for the San Francisco Ford-Mercury-Lincoln dealership, we got a close look at the new Ford Flex. This big wagon offers retro styling, something that made the new Ford Mustang so popular. But the Flex doesn't share the same kind of heritage, making its success less of a sure thing. The Flex goes on sale this summer.

Click here for photos of the 2009 Ford Flex.