Every once in a while, a product comes along that is life moving. I’m not talking about products that are only just cool, like my newly deceased Zune HD. FYI, leaving any device on top of your car usually doesn’t end well. Yes, I will be replacing it because it’s the best media player I’ve used--even over the Ipod. The Ipod is superior in many aspects, but not in the music and video quality department. And don’t even get me going on the Zune pass, which is sooo cool!
Okay, back on topic. There are many products that are cool, and then there are those that are love at first sight, life moving, no going back once you’ve tried them. Like a large LCD/plasma HDTV. Once you’ve owned one, life isn’t worth living without it. So what product am I excited about? It’s called Sugarsync.
Sugarsync is software that syncs data between multiple computers and phones. It will sync your documents, music, photos, and most any data between all the computers and phones you want. Not so different then some other products, like Mesh and Dropbox. However, those products fall under the just “cool” category. They are cool products, but come short of that life moving status. I can give them up without really missing them. Like Dropbox, Sugarsync has two gigs of free space, Mesh comes with five gigs. If you want more storage, then you have to pay.
Here’s what separates the men from the boys, the simply cool from the life moving. Mesh only syncs between pc’s and Mac’s. No smart phones. Supposedly Windows Mobile support is coming, but they’ve promised that for a year, and it’s still in Beta. Mesh is really only good for five gigs of free online backup space. I’ve had problems syncing two machines, and wouldn’t recommend it. My affair with Dropbox was short lived. It will sync between Mac’s, Pc’s, and Iphones. Dropbox’s cool feature is document revisions. If you make a change to a document, it will keep past revisions, just in case you want to refer back to a previous version.
Sugarsync, however, can do document revisions and it will sync between Mac, PC, Iphone, Windows Mobile, Android, and Blackberry. Yep, you read that right, all of them. You can share files with friends, and there is facebook integration. You can even stream your music collection from your pc to your phone, and you can access your files from any computer with and internet connection. There is one drawback with Windows Mobile, it will only sync documents one way. Meaning, you can get your word documents on your phone, but if you try to edit them, Sugarsync won’t sync the changes back. You’ll have to do that manually.
The Android side of my phone doesn’t have the same one way sync issue, but like the Iphone there is no native editing of Word Documents. I believe you can purchase documents to go for both Iphone and Google Android that will add that ability, but without a slide out physical key board, why bother?
I’m always looking for products that make writing easier. I’m living under the delusion that if I buy enough technology, my second book will write itself. B’lue tells me there is no substitute for just sitting down and writing, but I’m not convinced.
Use this link to sign up and receive an additional 250 megs of storage. https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=e5i53teghcz3c
