Google Reader is unarguably an extremely popular RSS news reader with a very good mobile interface for the iPhone. But as good as the mobile interface is, for me well done native applications will always beat an in-browser experience. A good iPhone app that synchronizes with Google Reader already exists by the name of Byline ($4.99, iTunes link), but a new one has just been released that is worth your attention.

I used Byline for a few months before finally tiring of not having the ability to unsubscribe from feeds that I'd lost interest in. In fact, I switched to NetNewsWire (free, iTunes link) on the Newsgator platform for just that reason. But this new RSS reader has come along with not only the ability to synchronize with Google Reader, but also the ability to manage my Google Reader subscriptions right on my iPhone. This new (to me, anyway) app is called Feeds ($2.99, iTunes link).

After testing TuneRanger over the past few days and not getting very good results, yesterday I had a chance to test Sonzea's Syncopation, which was recommended by several TUAW readers.

Like TuneRanger, Syncopation works by synchronizing multiple iTunes libraries. Unlike TuneRanger, Syncopation is a Universal Binary Mac-only product. Syncopation has a free 30-day demo which you can install on one computer. For access to all program features you must buy the full license for $24.95. This allows you to synchronize up to 5 Macs.

The initial install was simple, and I had it up and running quickly -- until I discovered I was quickly running out of space on my Mac Mini. Normally, the mini uses an external drive for the iTunes library given that space on the core drive is limited. I wrote to the developer who responded quickly.

For the past year when it comes to the iPhone, us Canadians have had to watch enviously as our American neighbors got to have all the fun. Well, no more! As of today I have joined the ranks of the enlightened -- at least, my wallet has been "lightened".

I am, like many of you, a software junkie. As such, one of things I am really excited about is the App Store. Imagine my surprise today when I tried to access it from my gleaming new device, only to run into an error message when I attempted to download my first app. The error stated "Your account is only valid for purchases in the Canadian iTunes Store." Huh?

My first thought was, "this darn thing has GPS on it, doesn't it know I'm in Canada?" So I went looking in the international settings on the phone, and sure enough the region format was set to United States. I dutifully changed it to Canada and tried again, to be met again with the same error.

At this point I should mention that I had, up until this point, not synchronized my iPhone with iTunes. I had not planned to, since my MacBook Pro is currently down for the count with a dead video card, and it will be a week before the Apple Store has one in stock to repair my machine.

Frustrated by my inability to download apps, I finally threw caution to the wind and synchronized my new iPhone with a newly downloaded copy of iTunes on the Windows desktop I am relegated to using while waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Unfortunately, I still had no luck.

Then it occurred to me to log into the iTunes Store in iTunes using my account. It was at this stage that iTunes informed me that I was viewing the wrong store, and transferred me over to the Canadian iTunes Store. One more synchronization of the iPhone was needed to transfer my iTunes Store credentials into the phone, and I was finally able to waste untold hours downloading applications.

I imagine this tip will apply to almost nobody, but here's hoping that if there's someone else out there that is so dazzled by the iPhone that they are unable to think coherently, as I was, that they will find in this post the help and understanding that they so desperately need. Or something like that.

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?

I have an admission to make: I change browsers on a fairly regular basis (normally, I'm found swapping between Camino and Safari in short succession as I struggle to find a nirvana between the two of them). But what to do with my favourites? Some people I know like to keep browser favourites separate, but I can't stand that. If anything, I've yearned to be able to simply use the same bookmarks (and keyboard shortcuts for Bookmark-bar items) on all the browsers I possibly can.

That's where Bookit comes in handy. There's three options: Manage, Migrate or Restore. You can manually edit bookmarks, and compare them to a 'master' set (in my case, Camino); Migrate will allow you to take a browser's bookmarks, and completely over-write existing bookmarks on any other browser (or overwrite a synchronised copy of your Bookit bookmarks on .Mac), while Restore will allow you to retrieve a previous configuration. With only Safari able to synchronise bookmarks via .Mac, the ability to do so with Camino and Firefox is a welcome relief for those of use who don't (always) use the default OS X browser.

I've used Bookit on three of my Macs around the home and office, with the application working perfectly in bringing my bookmarks across to all of them. Given that the application costs just $12, if you're working with multiple browsers, favourites and machines, I'd highly recommend Bookit.

This one is ostensibly for developers, but if you ever rock a revision control system or get excited about a little late-night diff-and-merge for whatever reason, your life may have just gotten easier. Changes is an app designed to simplify project synchronization and differencing for groups or individuals working locally or remotely. It provides a GUI and an impressive list of features for an initial release, including MacFuse support, Subversion and other SCM integration, a TextMate bundle and a command line utility.

Yes, it bears a resemblance to FileMerge, but Changes offers features and options well beyond Apple's aging utility. Because it uses existing systems (chdiff) and provides a plugin SDK, it's both easy to implement and extensible. The command line utility and F-Script support provide additional options for incorporating Changes into your existing workflow. I appreciated the familiar interface and was impressed by how simple it was to integrate Changes into my existing TextMate/Subversion workflow with a few keystrokes.

Changes, which is a Leopard-only release, is currently in beta and is available for immediate download. As of today, the download requires registering for a beta key but the developer has let us know that an upcoming build will switch to a simple time-locked beta. If you dig the software you can get a pre-release discount on a full license, receiving $10 off the $39.95 release price, but the offer is only good until the end of the beta period. And, less importantly, I made it through the whole post without a Bowie reference. Phew.

Update: The new build mentioned above has been released and no longer requires registering for a beta key. An email address is still required for download, but it's less hassle now.

I picked up a license for Econ Technologies' ChronoSync a little while ago, as I didn't want an app like SuperDuper which simply backs up an entire machine. ChronoSync offers a ton of options for fine-tuning your backup operations and synchronizing a machine with a backup folder or even another Mac, scheduling backups / synchronizations and even backing up to optical media. ChronoSync also has special options for performing operations like syncing Home folders between Macs, and even backing up to an iPod. Long story short: if you're looking for a highly flexible backup solution, I definitely recommend ChronoSync.

The one catch with ChronoSync can be summarized with a twist on an old phrase: with great power sometimes comes great confusion. ChronoSync has a slight learning curve due to all its flexibility, but thankfully, 43Folders just pointed out a great ChronoSync Tips page with backup scenarios for a number of different users. Listed on the page are a dozen sets of instructions with screenshots for setting up operations like synchronizing/backing up iPhoto, synchronizing to a disk image or another Mac and even using the Document Scheduler to automate as many different backup and synchronization operations as you can dream up. For anyone trying to wrap their head around what ChronoSync can actually do for their backup and synchronization sanity, this is a great one-stop case study page that should convince any potential customers to take the dive.

FoldersSynchronizer, the backup and sync utility from softtoBe, has been updated to version 3.6, with the addition of Universal Binary status. This is one of the first backup utilities I ever found - I subsequently bought a license way back in the day and it's always done the trick for me since.

I've never seen it appear on any 'best utilities' lists, but its extensive feature set seems to match most of the other similar apps I've seen. Users can back up an entire Mac OS X volume and make it bootable. In addition, FoldersSynchronizer has extensive support for multiple backup sessions and configurations, synchronizing directories as well as backing up, setting backup timers, automounting volumes, filtering files and much more.

A demo of FoldersSynchronizer is available, while a full license will cost $40.