Some of the most popular questions I get over at AskTheAdmin involve being caught out without a backup. Normally when we talk about backups you immediately think about the PC or the laptop, but nowadays PDA’s, especially Windows driven ones, are becoming more and more important in the workplace and in our everyday lives.
It’s also inevitable, especially under any build of Windows, that you chance losing your data. Notwithstanding the inherent faults in Windows, having all your life’s info in a device that can be dropped, stepped on, kicked, flung accidentally while speaking in an animated fashion (git her done), melted, forgotten and otherwise mistreated can be very precarious.
I’ve had my iPhone 2.0 for just shy of two months now and I feel comfortable in telling you that I think it’s the best phone/PDA/pocket computer that I have ever owned. However, there are some things about it that irritate me and I feel that Apple missed the mark on.
After I tell you what I don’t like, I’ll tell some things that I really do like about it! Feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree!
Number 1 – No ability to cut and paste or copy and paste!
Windows Mobile 6 is my mobile OS of choice (sorry Blackberry fans, I really hate the closed-source nature of the Blackberry!). I keep all of my contacts synced to it via ActiveSync and basically keep my life organized with it. Via Twitter I heard someone talking about My Mobiler… so I had to check it out, and I was pleasantly surprised!
So why would one want to control their Windows Mobile phone from their desktop?
| For those in the US who are fans of college basketball, March Madness has arrived! Just in time, a how-to guide on allowing you to view those games (or anything else) remotely on your cell phone, at work, or anywhere else where you have an internet connection, a web browser and a media player. Total media domination is at hand! |
Want to have identical browser settings on every one of your PCs ? How about keeping documents on your office and home PCs synchronized? For these and several other ways to sync your data read further. Enjoy!
1. Google Browser Sync - Sync Browser Bookmarks, History, Settings, etc. between diff. PCs
Google Browser Sync is a Firefox extension from Google that can auto synchronize your browser bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across multiple computers. It even lets you restore open browser tabs and windows across different machines so you can always pickup from where you left. It’s completely automated, all you need to do is to install it on all computers that you use on a regular basis.
2. SyncToy - Synchronize Files Between PC and USB Thumbdrive
We have covered ways to backup emails, wordpress blogs, Firefox settings, computer files …. all but mobile phones. So it’s time to introduce some services to backup your mobile phone, i.e. contacts list, calendar entries, text mesages, browser bookmarks, phone settings, notes etc. As usual, all listed services are free or come with a dececnt free account option.
(1) Mobical - Simple and straightforward over-the-air mobile backup and restore service to automatically backup mobile address book, calendar, settings, bookmarks and notes online. Mobical supports pretty much all modern handsets and can be accessed from any web-enabled device. You can edit contacts, add appointments, and save notes online and it will sync added changes with your handset. Similarly, all on-phone edits will be synced with the web copy. Simple and convenient.
Do you fancy yourself a world traveler? Do you like to use the Trains, Subways, Tubes or the umm… Metro, when you are in a strange place? If you do and you hate asking for directions, then this post is for you! I have been using a little free program called MetrO, for about 5 years now… That’s right 5 long years ago all the way back on my first Ipaq… But I digress.
Métro is a free worldwide public transport guide that always sits on your PDA (Palm, PocketPC, Smartphone…). It is a small database application that allows you to download different cities metro information. And it is totally search-able.
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