Get Your Cloud Sync On

Posted by | 06/18/2010 | 25 Comments

Syncing data from device to device via the Cloud is certainly one of the hot mobile topics these days. There are quite a few services available, some free, some not so free, some that charge by the amount of data you wish to store, etc.. Given that I bounce from device to device, having my data available on multiple platforms is a must for me. DropBox is the primary service I use at the moment, along with SugarSync. Why do I have two accounts? Well, who knows when one will go belly up or get bought by another company, and I like to be redundant. I also use PogoPlug for my own personal cloud for files (music, videos) that I don’t always need access to, as well as key files that I’m working with at the moment.

There are a range of services from a range of companies big and small, and while most do the job, something eventually leads us to choose one or the other.

So, I’m curious and am putting out a roll call. Sound of in the comments and let us know what syncing services you use for your data. Tell us your reasons and how the service works for you. Tell us what you’d like to see happen differently.

Category: Mobile

About the Author (Author Profile)

Warner Crocker is a professional theatre director, producer and playwright and also a Tablet PC enthusiast. He is also a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs. Send email to Warner.
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  • Mike

    It’s not really a straight file-sync app, per se.
    However, the paid version of Evernote has a good deal of capability and might work for lots of people.
    It is on a lot of platforms and gets active development as well.

    It is too bad they share with 3rd parties based upon notebook though and not labels. That would be quite a change in their infrastructure I think – but ever so much more flexible.

  • http://www.flashgordonphotography.com.au Gordon Cahill

    This is interesting to me because I’m only just beginning to investigate the cloud as a valid synching source. Until now I’ve relied on the fact that I’ve always carried a device that had a USB port and so my data has always been stored on externals and then just plugged into whatever computer I’ve had on me. My weapon of choice has been my P1620 for some time. With a 120GB drive upgrade and a 1TB portable, who needs a cloud?

    Now I have the “large fruit tablet thingy” in my arsenal I’m being forced to change this mindset. I have a paid evernote acccount but you can’t open documents from it on the iPad for editing. But I’ve long used it to view emails/notes/documents on my iPhone so I will continue to keep using it for that purpose. Plus I can email “ink” notes to it from Penultimate that will be OCR’d. I also have a mobileme account that I use to sync my calendars/mail/contacts and that’s now what I’m going to use for my “cloud storage” as I can get access to it from all my devices and I can easily edit documents etc from the iPad as well as my other devices. While I do use vast amounts of data for work (photographer) I don’t need a lot for when I’m travelling and if I do edit on the road I’m going to want a faster device with a bigger screen and more storage, so I’ll use a laptop.

    But I’d be very interested why adding, say a Dropbox, account would be better than what I’m using now. I know I’m paying for mine but I also already have them so it’s costing me no more than before. Is there any other reason to not use something like a Mobileme/Evernote combo as your cloud service provider?

    Gordon

    • Mike

      Just thought I’d note that in one of the recent evernote podcasts they addressed the topic of opening different types of documents on different platforms.
      They said that typically it would completely depend on that platforms ability to handle the note.
      In other words – if I have that correct – then any type of document you have in an evernote note, you should be able to open on your ipad. That is, if you have an app on the ipad for that type of document.

  • Jerry

    Currently using both Dropbox and SugarSync for most of my files. I like Evernote a lot (only one I pay for), but it’s really not suited for continuously editing documents.

    I like the Microsoft offerings and also use SkyDrive and Office Live. Tried Live Sync, but it won’t work with network drives at my hospital so it doesn’t do me a lot of good.

    Was using Live Mesh initially, but ran into some problems with lost documents across platforms and some really buggy behavior like days going by before certain files arrived on my other machines. I’m looking forward to the merge of Live Mesh and SkyDrive; the 25GB makes it very appealing.

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