If that report is accurate, you’ll be looking at the Google Toolbar, Foxmarks or another alternative. :(

James, one restriction with google browser sync is that you can’t access the data on the web directly. You can only sync between the computer and the server, or to another machine that also has browser sync installed.

Foxmarks or sync2it bookmark sync at least allow you to access your bookmarks from another machine where you may not want to sync all you data, but just want that one link. Also a lot of companies may not allow individuals to install Firefox or if they do any and all extensions they want. So Google browser sync is not there yet completely.

I tend to use all three as each has some good points and some drawbacks.

Google Sync – syncs all data including bookmarks, passwords, cookies, tabs, etc. But no direct access to the data without installing the extension.

Foxmarks – Very nice bookmark sync with full access to the bookmarks through its website so that you can access and modify your data without having to sync it.

Sync2it – The same a Foxmarks, but also offers sync across all the major browsers such as IE, opera, Safari, etc. Drawback is that you have to pay for the full version, as the free versioni’s a bit limited.

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.

Mike,

Pocket Informant is coming for the iphone. That should do it.

Gordon

James, I think you are right in that it will likely involve some type of daemon/service/tray app running in Windows and will sync with Outlook in the same way that iTunes syncs with Outlook when you plug in your iPhone. No ActiveSync involved. This analysis seems consistent with the fact that MobileMe has the same syncing capabilities on Windows as iTunes, and probably uses the same software libraries.

Mike, Google Browser Sync for Firefox. I’ve mentioned that dozens of times!

>>>I’m sure I will be testing it as soon as I get the iPhone 3G. :)

*Cane a-hootin’ and a-hollerin’*

We’ll wean you off that HTC Advantage at some point, Kendrick!

So far, the only part of MM that intrigues me is the bookmark sync option. But there must be things available that can do that right now, huh? Too bad I don’t know of them. hint, hint.

The PIM stuff doesn’t yet interest me. I’d have to see what 3rd-party PIMs come out for the iPhone and see if they will work with MM too. Any bets on that?

I’m sure I will be testing it as soon as I get the iPhone 3G. :)

You are going to still test this for us right? I am curious to see how you feel about it after you use it for a few weeks….just b/c you have a solution in place already shouldn’t stop you from trying out some new tech :)

The funny thing is that Microsoft have all this in Hotmail and a few of there other web services (foldershare, etc.) but they’ve never really joined the dots and over the years they’ve gradually restricted access to Hotmail in Outlook Express.

The new Windows Live Mail client (which competes with Windows Mail strangely) gives you Exchange-like access to your mail and contacts but for some bizarre reason not your Hotmail calendar. Also, they don’t bother to market it.

If they could get their Live strategy together they’d have a killer combination but at the moment it’s a bit of a disaster. Hopefully MM will force them to take another look at what they’re doing here and finally get everything working seemlessly together. It would also be nice if they could provide a free service without forcing people onto the web to view ads because that would really bring people back to Hotmail.

Ian, you are correct and annually is what I meant. It’s been corrected, thanks.

That $49 extra for an additional 20GB is per year, not per month. Which, of course, makes it much more reasonable :) I’m actually tempted to spend the extra $99 and get a total of 60Gb.

i am looking forward to having mobile me push me (my data) around ;)
and i just wrote a poem all about it – http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/pushing-around-mobileme/

Nitin: you make a good point with regards to ‘you can do it with other stuff’. That’s why I switched away from .Mac; I didn’t use some features, and ended up with a lot more flexibility for a lot less money by signing up with a dedicated web host. (A ‘shared’ web host.. but I mean they’re dedicated to web hosting, as opposed to .Mac’s odd place in the market.)

One thing that having a combination of Gmail for calendars (which syncs.. okay) and my webhost for private web hosting etc is that I’m accomplishing all these tasks through different places.

MobileMe is aiming to provide *one* place to get several different services, which I think is the good point.

Techie people like those who read jkotr are probably going to roll their own here, but someone who’s less techie isn’t going to want to use 5 different services, they’ll want to just put stuff in their iCal / Outlook and have it go onto their iPhone and be done with it, and *hopefully* MobileMe will do that.

I might give the 60 day trial a whirl and see just how cool it is.

(One thing MobileMe may allow is syncing.. some programs already sync via .Mac, and perhaps Apple is going to make that the official way to ‘sync’ with an iPhone?)

I’ve cobbled together a system of mostly free services. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, del.icio.us and Evernote. Once out of beta Evernote will no longer be free. All of these services are available from OS X, Windows and my iPhone. I don’t use Google Docs much because there’s no way to work with and store Google Docs conveniently offline like with Evernote.

I am using the gmail client on my mobile (Blackberry Pearl 8100) and the free gcal mobile sync to keep my blackberry calendar in sync with my google calendar. If Google would come out with a contact sync app, then I would have no need for MM. I sync my data to share with my wife, so the contact sync, while not required, would be nice. Especially since I have the habit of swaping devices frequently.

The real question/comment I have is, Will MM work on the Nokia Internet Tablets?