After a less than stellar debut last year, Apple is doing a better job of communication with MobileMe customers who need to decide if they want to stay on as paid users or try other options.

In an email to subscribers, Apple says it has been working hard on getting MobileMe up to spec. The email details these improvements:

• Easy File Sharing. It's especially nice to have the large file sharing turned on and working. It was supposed to be available months ago, and while one could quibble about how it is only available from the web client, at least it has been delivered
• Faster Syncing with Mac and PC. The speed of updates between computers and the iPhone have been increased. My own experience confirms that this is now working very well. Your mileage may vary, but most reports are positive
• Improved notifications and sync on iPhone. Apple says the reliability of new email notices and syncing of contacts and numbers with MobileMe have been improved. Apple suggests you run iPhone software version 2.2 or later for optimal notifications.
  
• Better web app performance. Apple wants customers to know that the web app is faster, particularly with regard to start time for Calendar and Contacts search. I can't confirm this. Loading my Calendar took more than a minute this morning using Safari 4 beta. Later in the day, it came up instantly. I don't see anything dramatically faster in searching for contacts. You may do better, or, perish the thought, worse.
  

Apple adds that they are constantly working to improve the service, and make it easier to use.

For more information keep on top of MobileMe news. Leave your comments on this story to help give us a picture how, or if, MobileMe has improved for you.

Two of Apple's rival mobile platforms announced news this week at the 2009 Mobile World Congress, with Windows Mobile 6.5 on the way, and a new Android-based handset from HTC.

Windows Mobile has updated its user interface to more closely resemble the iPhone's. I can imagine the brainstorming session:

Developer 1: "It needs to look, work, and feel like the iPhone, but -- you know -- not be."

Developer 2: "Instead of putting the icons on a rectangular grid, let's do a (one two three four five six) hexagonal one!"

Developer 1: "Brilliant! Book it. Done."

I kid, I kid. I'm sure it was more complicated than that. Anyway, Windows Mobile will also feature two new services, a "My Phone" synchronization service, and a new marketplace that will sell mobile applications from both phones and desktops. It's like I've heard this song before, but can't remember exactly where.

Also at the conference, HTC announced the Magic, a handset to run Google's Android operating system. Unlike the G1, the Magic will not have a slide-out keyboard. It will first be available to Vodafone customers in the UK, Germany and Spain, among other European carriers. Cult of Mac's Ed Sutherland suspects T-Mobile will carry the handset in the U.S. because it can handle the phone's transmission protocols.

Both the Windows Mobile and Android platforms also announced they'll support Flash (along with Symbian and Palm's new webOS) in 2010. And what of the iPhone? No dice: Adobe lobs the ball back in Apple's court, saying during the announcement, "We would love to see it on the iPhone, too, but it's Apple's decision on when and how they support any new technology. So we will continue to work on it."

[Via Hardmac, MDN, and IGM.]

That thudding sound you're hearing is the head-to-keyboard collision of everyone who, for the purposes of wireless PIM sync to an iPhone, renewed a MobileMe subscription last week. Google announced today that the beta Google Sync for Mobile capability, long a feature on the Blackberry, has now been extended to iPhones (via Microsoft's ActiveSync), and also to other devices that support the SyncML standard. You can sync your Google-side calendar and contacts to your device of choice, free, bidirectionally, starting today.

There are a few caveats with this beta, as one might expect: the main one is that you cannot use the sync capability if you already synchronize with an Exchange account, as there can be only one ActiveSync config on the iPhone or iPod touch at any time. Setting up sync with Google will also nuke your local contacts and calendar on the device, so back up before you proceed. Still, this represents a big step forward in the delicate dance of Google services in cooperation with Apple's mobile gear.

If you configure sync for your device, let us know how it goes! Early comments note that the lack of multiple calendar support is a showstopper -- if that applies to you, check out the NuevaSync option. Update: You can apparently sync up to five calendars to the phone, see here for details.

[via Engadget]

I haven't run the numbers thoroughly, but there's a team consensus here that iTunes library management and synchronization questions occupy high slots in the top 10 list of frequent questions to Ask TUAW and our tip line. With multiple machines, iPods/iPhones and massive libraries of media, keeping everything shipshape can be a real challenge.

Past posts have discussed several options for sharing and syncing, including products like Syncopation, myTuneSync, TuneRanger and Mojo -- and one item that keeps showing up in the list is SuperSync, mentioned by Mat here. It may not be the most attractive tool for the job, but reports are that it handles the task with aplomb (though it's a good idea to back up your library first).

SuperSync is discounted 50% today via MacZot, at $14.95 for a pair of licenses (allowing you to sync 2 machines); if library cleanup is on your holiday to-do list, it might be a good last-second purchase. We'll aim for a TUAW Faceoff on the various library sync and management tools early in the new year.

Although the plumbing has been in place since the summer, it's always nice to have an official announcement, and now we do: Google has gone on the record with its support for CalDAV syncing from iCal to Google Calendar. You can now gracefully sync your editable Google calendars with your (Leopard-only) iCal, keeping a local copy of those events in the cloud.

Granted, both BusySync (which adds Bonjour-based iCal synchronization between Macs) and SpanningSync (which includes Address Book --> Google contact sync) have been handling this task with aplomb for some time, and they offer something Google hasn't -- a nice GUI for picking your sync options. That too has been addressed: Google Code is hosting the Calaboration sync setup tool, a basic checklist of calendars to add to your iCal setup.

If you are syncing your iCal and gCal data via Google's support for CalDAV, let us know how it's going.

One of the most frequent questions we hear from readers on our Ask TUAW posts (and for our doting Aunt TUAW) is a simple one, with no simple answer: "How can I replace the synchronization features of MobileMe with a free service or a software package that doesn't cost me $99 a year?" We feel your pain.

For anyone looking to cut their cash outlay and maintain multi-Mac data sync, there are options for calendaring (BusySync, Google's CalDAV support) and some for address books (address-o-sync, or the free Google & Yahoo sync in Leopard's Address Book), and some products that handle both calendars and contacts (SpanningSync, Plaxo) -- but if you're in the mood for a free all-in-one approach, you may want to check out a promising beta service from a team of European developers: fruux.

Starting with address book sync in earlier versions, fruux has now progressed to include calendar, task and bookmark sync via Apple's built-in apps (Address Book, iCal & Safari) and a cloud service that stores the synchronized data. The system pref pane interface is no-frills and the product is definitely still a work in progress (there are prominent warnings to back up your data beforehand and frequently thereafter), so it may not suit your needs just yet -- but it's definitely one to watch. Future roadmap plans include an iPhone client and a web interface to your PIM data.

Thanks Dominik, Hagen & everyone who sent this in.

Mac sync software developer Mark/Space has announced the release of The Missing Sync for Symbian. Designed to sync Mac apps to Symbian S60 and UIQ smartphones, the new $39.95 product (electronic download) has a unique feature -- Proximity Syncing. When your Mac and Symbian phone are within Bluetooth range (about 30 feet / 10 meters), they automatically sync to insure that both are up-to-date.

The Missing Sync for Symbian syncs personal information such as contacts, calendar tasks, and events, and also uses proprietary Call Log and SMS applications to move the phone's call log and text messages to the Mac. Video, photo, music, and document files can also be synced.

If you think that the iPhone is the only smartphone on the market, it's important to realize that well over 100 million Symbian-based phones have been sold worldwide, with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola being the biggest vendors. As a result, the Missing Sync for Symbian is available in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote the help system for this application under contract to Mark/Space.

You got your iPhone. You got your computer. Your emails sync. Your contacts sync. Your calendars sync. Your music, your podcasts, your photos, all your stuff: it just syncs. This is good.

Your notes? They don't sync.

This. Is. Bad.

Not just bad, but actually driving me nuts. It drives me nuts because I can't believe there's a technical challenge to be overcome here. On the iPhone, you have your Notes app in which you write text notes. How hard can it be to sync them up with something on the computer to which the iPhone is attached?

A friend says to me: "Sync them where? With Stickies?" He has a point - there's no obvious, existing place for text notes to go, but again, that doesn't sound to me like something that need be a problem. Let's have a simple desktop app called, um, Notes, with which the iPhone version syncs. OK, even Stickies if we have to. All I want to do is easily reach my iPhone-jotted notes when I'm working on the Mac.

Yes, I know about the work-arounds. I could use a Drafts folder in an IMAP account. I could add notes to a contact. I could just email stuff back and forth to myself. But none of these fits in with the way I work already, all of them are work-arounds. We're talking about text notes here: there shouldn't be any need for work-arounds. I look forward to a simple solution appearing in the App Store soon.

That said, despite the horrible Marker Felt font, I quite like the Notes app. I just wish it would sync. Is that too much to ask?

Many commenters and bloggers hither and yon have noticed that MobileMe lacks "true push" capabilities, even though Apple uses the "push" buzzword extensively to describe MobileMe services.

A commenter in a MacRumors thread about the subject took screenshots from Apple's site, showing they had removed the phrase "Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously." In its place, Apple clarifies that changes from the iPhone and web apps are updated instantly on connected computers, but not vice versa.

Apple also notes in a Knowledge Base article that changes "made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe 'cloud' once every 15 minutes (or every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11)."

That, to me, doesn't sound like "push," it sounds like "sync." The term "push" still applies, however, to me.com email, as that shows up immediately (in my experience, at least.) Calendars and contacts, though, not so much, apparently.

[Via BetaNews.]

I know it's practically heresy to say so, but I don't have an iPhone, as much as I'd like one. Verizon service is just a better option for me right now. Synchronizing data between my Samsung SCH-u740 and my computer, though, is right up there with "getting a root canal" in terms of painlessness.

I was eager, thus, to try FoneLink from Nova Media, which promised a much more Mac-like user experience than the venerable (but ugly) BitPim.

FoneLink allows you to synchronize saved data between your phone and your Mac, including photos, video, music, contacts, and SMS messages. You can also create ringtones from unprotected audio files, and (with this new version) dial a number or send a text message from the Mac.

My hopes were dashed, sadly, as it doesn't support my phone. It does support many others, however, from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and SonyEricsson.

FoneLink 2.1.1 is available in English, French and German, is universal binary, and works with Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher. It's $33.57 for a single license, and multiple license discounts are available. Finally, you can download a free demo and give it a try.

Did last night's news of 10.5.3 boasting Google contact syncing with iPhone and iPod touch owners get you down? Well, LifeHacker hopes to lift your spirits as they tell you how to enable Google syncing in Address Book.app without ever syncing an iPhone or iPod touch.

The process requires you to edit some .plist files within Address Book.app. LifeHacker notes that the .plist entry only occurs when you sync some type of iPod first. So, you will need to do at least one sync for the entry to show up. Some of the comments seem to suggest that the .plist entry will change back to the original value once you sync an iPod a couple times. Even still, this is a cool hack.


[via LifeHacker]

If you love Things, you just got a whole lot more to love. The folks at Cultured Code have finally added iCal sync, and they've done a spectacular job with it (outdoing, in my opinion, OmniFocus' sync). In the preferences, you can sync just your "Today" tasks, or just your "Next Actions," or you can get crazy with it and assign calendars to different tags, projects or areas of responsibility. This allows for utterly amazing flexibility and an array of possibilities.

The major benefits of having Things synced with iCal all revolve around the tight integration that iCal and Leopard's To Dos have with the rest of OS X. Being able to refine what is actually synced means you have complete control over what you see on an iCal printout or even what you put on a public or shared calendar. To Dos can be delegated, emailed, linked, prioritized and more, and Things is picking up every external change I throw at it.

You can have a calendar that functions as an inbox and use whatever input method you like to get tasks there. The "@" symbol can be used to add tags as well. Moving a task from the inbox calendar to another calendar synchronized with Things will do exactly what you think it will ... move the task to the project or area of responsibility assigned to that calendar.

This also solves my other major problem with Things, no easy way to turn Mail.app messages into tasks. Now, with a right click to make a new To Do you can create a new task in Things that contains a link to the original message. Unfortunately, Mail.app's handling of To Dos is a little buggy in some cases, but that problem is easily taken care of by using MailTags to create the tasks.

The final reason I'm so excited about this new release is that Leopard To Dos are part of an API that all kinds of third-party programs can access, and can therefore integrate with Things now. Anxiety, Out of Mind, Today, MailTags and other little applications we've mentioned can all work in two directions with your task manager.

I'm a little obsessed with Charilaos Skiadas' GTDAlt bundle for TextMate right now (along with piles of Ruby code to extend it), but the new sync feature in Things made it extremely easy to pull my tasks in and take it for another spin. Having sworn off the "pretty" task managers and pledged my allegiance once again to all things plain text, I don't have the heart to change my system again quite yet ... but it's becoming obvious that when Things comes to fruition, it will be a force to be reckoned with. If this was holding you back (like it was me), it might be time to take a look. Things is going to be $49 after release, but you can still get in on it for $39 right now.

You'll have to jailbreak your iPhone using ZiPhone, and the actual steps involved seem fairly involved...but hey, if you're a Linux user, you're probably cool with both fairly involved technical tweaking and voiding warranties.

Go forth, brave adventurer.

SyncMan is a simple application for syncing your Mac's Address Book with your Gmail contacts, a feature long desired by Gmail and Google Calendar users who may have other sync tools already in place. While we have noted that a similar feature is forthcoming in the more broad-based iCal syncing tool Spanning Sync 2, SyncMan concentrates just on contacts and is available now.

SyncMan is €9.95 (~$15.32) and a demo is available.

[via Macintouch / Daring Fireball]

Just last week we noted that BusySync 2, which adds Google calendar syncing to the iCal sync app, is now shipping. Another 2.0 would seem to be around the corner, as a post on the SpanningSync blog shows a video demo of Address Book -> Google contact synchronization coming in the next version of the utility.

While Plaxo and other tools are lining up to take on the contact sync challenge -- most sync only in one direction right now, although with the Google contacts API in play that's going to change -- it's nice to see SpanningSync picking up the torch on contacts as the competition on calendaring heats up.

[via ars technica]