Archive for: syncing
Everyone knew it would have to happen sooner or later — cloud capabilities and wireless syncing in iTunes. A close source of BGR’s tipped them off that in the near future — Possibly as soon as this fall! — iTunes would gain three, big new features.
- Streaming music to/from Apple servers
- Streaming music from your computer to/from your devices
- iTunes wireless syncing between devices
It’s all said to work pretty seamlessly without much user input. It is Apple after all. Ease and simplicity is the name of their game.
The most interesting piece of the rumor however resides in hardware. According to the source, “two new devices with video recording/camcorder capabilities” will drop this fall (or sooner) to help build buzz and highlight iTunes’ new features. Translation: New iPods this fall.
I was getting ready to drop a few bennies on a 64GB iPod Touch 3rd gen. But now I may just wait and hold out. Anyone else in the boat with me?
- February 10, 2010 8:19 am
Nothing is ever “perfect”, especially in the software world. There’s always a bug, a glitch, a security hole or some other failure in the code that lets bad things happen. Apple however, generally has a pretty good grip on such things on the iPhone platform. The iPhone 3.1.3 update on the other hand, isn’t one of their better moments. iPhone support forums across the web are voicing problems with battery life and how it’s displayed as well as issues with iTunes playlists. Being that the iTunes integration and battery functions are big parts of the overall experience, I would categorize these as pretty serious.
In regards to the battery problem, users are finding that the battery meter is jumping all over the place — up one minute, down the next, and then back up again. Shorter overall battery life is also being reported, though, that could be in some way related to the glitchy battery meter.
On the playlist front, it’s looking like there’s a small problem with smart playlists not syncing properly and forcing users to re-sync several times to get it working, if it works at all.
Hopefully we’ll hear or see something from Apple soon. Any iPhone users out there experiencing any of these issues?
iPhoneAlley
Before we really get your hopes up, we need to stress that this process isn’t exactly “download – click to install – enjoy”. But if you’re running any distro of Linux, I’m assuming your at least a fairly versed in getting down and dirty behind the scenes of the pretty UI into the heart of your machine. And that’s a good thing because that is exactly what it’s going to take to get this unholy union to kiss and make up. The image above is a nice graphical representation of what the installed software stack is going to look like when everything is firing on all cylinders. A rainbow for nerds! A quick highlight of what everything does:
- libusb-1.0: provides an advanced API to access USB devices under Linux, replacing the old libusb-0.1 API
- usbmuxd: coordinates application access to the device and talks the specific iPhone/iTouch USB protocol
- libiphone: implements the Apple-specific protocols that are tunneled through usbmuxd: it can launch services through lockdown, retrieve device info, send notifications, and access the filesystem via AFC.
- iFuse and gvfs-backend-afc: both provide access to AFC to regular Linux apps. iFuse does this by mounting via FUSE, while gvfs-backend-afc is obviously a backend for gVFS.
- libgpod: (the library that traditionally has managed music databases for iPods) is being extended to support the new SQLite format, the new hash, and also to talk to libiphone to properly put the device in to and out of sync mode.
- **Theoretically, actual music players such as Amarok and Rhythmbox will need none or very few modifications to work.
Still not sure what to do? If so, this may not be the thing for you to try as the full gist over at Marcansoft doesn’t get any easier. Still, if you’re a Linux user and an iPhone/iPod user looking for some iTunes sync love, you may just want to seclude yourself in a dark corner for an entire weekend and figure this grand hoop jumping thing out.
TiPB > Marcansoft
Now before you get all giddy and jump off the roof with glee, take a second and read carefully, the iPhone/3G is getting Wireless USB features. Wireless USB features will not be built into the phone’s hardware inside. Instead, a company on the forefront of wireless USB technology, Alereon, will be debuting a wireless USB accessory for iPhone/iPod Touch users that will help the freedom fighters cut yet another cord and get one step closer to true wireless freedom. With the new wireless accessory, iPhone/iPod Touch users will be able to take advantage of wireless syncing between any PC or Mac with the ability to transfer everything you could before over a wire now over thin air. One small added bonus comes in the form of slightly longer run time for your iDevice when the wireless USB accessory is plugged in as it has it’s own small battery that will also share the love. If you’re still equally as excited and can deal with a bit of added bulk on the outside of your iDevice, you may want to keep on eye on Alereon and see exactly what they have to offer.
Source: Techchee, Slippery Brick, Alereon
If you were a bit peeved by the iPhone and iPod Touches lack of syncing certain files such as notes and documents just to name a couple, Missing Sync was your saving grace. It allowed you to sync files that your Mac that you normally wouldn’t be able to borrow from your device. Though, with the first rendition you could only sync files on the mobile device to the Mac, and not the other way around. However, Missing Sync 2.0 now brings the ability for true two-way syncing as to make the most of your mobile life and allow you mobile and desktop devices to always be in sync. As far as iPhone/iPod Touch app compatibility goes, Fliq Notes 2.0 and Fliq Docs 2.0 are supported. If the 2.0 update is exactly what you’ve been waiting for, you’ll have to part with $40 for the added functionality. Previously registered pre-2.0 users will be able to get the upgrade for free. You down?
[Product Page]
Source: Macworld,
Even the most devout MobileMe users will be questioning their decision come time to renew their subscription. For $99 MobileMe isn’t cheap. But what it does, contact/calendar/bookmark/etc syncing is highly useful and invaluable. Sure their are services that can get you to sync an address book here, mail there, and a calendar off in the distance way over beyond that ridge, but MobileMe just did everything in one place and for me anyway, “Just worked”. However, a new old player has come into town. Google has made available today the ability to sync address books and calendars with your iPhone as well as phones that run Windows Mobile. Using Microsoft’s “Active Sync” Google is able to “push” all of your data *not including email* to just about any device. The changes will appear within “1-2 minutes”. Not instantly, but surely better than polling. Sadly, Google still hasn’t pushed push email to the iPhone and other mobile devices like it has for their G1 device. Once push gmail comes to the masses it’s good-bye MobileMe, hello Gmail. Although, I am so intertwined in MobileMe as it is my main email address. The countless services and sites I am tied to with that email address is daunting and remembering and switching all of them would be a painful laborious task to say the least. But I digress. Is this the icing on the cake for you? Will you switch now? Or, are you still waiting for the holy grail of push? Voice you opinions people!
Source: Alley Insider
- February 7, 2009 10:50 am
Microsoft is really trying hard these days to prove to people that they are innovative and cool. They have been hyping up “the cloud” lately as the next frontier. Everything will be done in the cloud according to them. Microsoft’s “My Phone” service is an online syncing service to use between your phone and a password protected site. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Engadget sprung the My Phone site early as Microsoft wasn’t planning to announce My Phone until MWC in 10 days…oops. Cats out of the bag. Guess you shouldn’t put secret up and coming product information up onto the internet where millions of people live. What’s odd is how the service works. Obviously this is a direct Moble Me competitor. However the way in which it “syncs” is downright weird. Instead of instant and continuous syncing like Mobile Me, My Phone will sync once a day between 11am and 5pm. That doesn’t make much sense. If you want to stay on top of something I’m sure important stuff comes up more than once a day, or “off hours”. In order to use My Phone you’ll currently need to have a Windows Mobile 6 or higher device, and of course get invited as it’s only an invite only beta right now. While in beta the service is free and offers 200MB of storage…a little short of Mobile Me’s 20GB, though considerable less than the $99 asking price. However, expect a price tag to emerge after the beta is over.
So will My Phone woo you away from Mobile Me and Apple land?
Source: Engadget Mobile, Moco News
