When I wiped my iPhone and upgrade to 2.0 software while away from my desktop computer I realized I had no remote access to any of my contacts, tasks, or calendar appointments. They were just trapped on my home PC and awaiting the iTunes fairy to cast its magical sync spell. But now that I ‘m more grown up (or I guess my iPhone is more grown up “ it ‘s already 2.0!) I didn ‘t really want to rely on the idea of magical wired synchronization and I started looking for a different solution.
I found MobileMe and an MS Exchange far too expensive for my needs, so all I can say is thank god for Lifehacker :). A little while back they told us all about a service called Mail2Web which is a free exchange server service that can sync all your PIM information, but the problem they had with it was a lack of Outlook synchronization. You ‘re basically stuck going to their website to access your info on the desktop, and the desktop access isn ‘t really for me. It ‘s got a lot of ads on it and I found the interface a little bit too cluttered. Anything else out there?
Once I had started my search I started to look for anything out there, whether it be on Cydia or the Apps Store or on the web. ZenBe looked like a great candidate because its iPhone application sports a very slick, simple look at tasks. Tasks are also very easy to create and sync online with your ZenBe account. The setback here is that ZenBe is a new service that ‘s still developing some of its major mobile features and so e-mail, calendar events, and contacts aren ‘t able to sync with the iPhone yet. ZenBe looks really, really impressive with its UI, Facebook and twitter sync, and the ability to add other accounts to the address. I might check it out again later out of curiousity, but I need a working solution today. I ‘m impatient!
I finally solved my tasks problem when I stumbled upon Remember the Milk. I know this cloud app had been around for a while, but it was useless to me before because I had no data plan to support it. I have one now and use RTM in conjunction with ToDo ($9.99 at Apps Store) to keep tasks in line on both my desktop and iPhone. ToDo will sync with RTM, which I find is a much better client on the desktop than on mobile Safari. The big bonus here is that RTM has a Gmail and GCalendar plugin, which ties very nicely into my other current solution
Nuevasync (again via Lifehacker)! This free Exchange service now syncs my contacts and calendar events to my Google account, so I can basically do all of my PIM and e-mailing from within the gigantic Google cloud. You set Nuevasync up just like you do an Exchange server (which you can only have one of) and so syncing to iTunes shows that Outlook is no longer needed because of Exchange. Sah-weet!
Anyone else got stories about their wireless syncing escapades?
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