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Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid test drive (video)
The Ford Fusion Energi joins the C-MAX Energi and Focus Electric as the company's third vehicle with a charging connector and access to California's HOV lanes. While it's a larger car than the C-MAX Energi, it weighs about the same and features pretty much the same plug-in hybrid powertrain with 195 net horsepower and three EV driving modes. It combines a 2-liter DOHC 16V Duratec (Atkinson cycle) engine and CVT with an AC synchronous motor powered by a 7.6kWh Lithium Ion battery. This pack takes about 2.5 hours to fill up with a 240V charging station and provides a range of 21 miles (100MPGe) at up to 85MPH in all-electric mode. Both autos share the same unfortunate battery protrusion in the trunk area, and while it's less of an issue in the Fusion sedan than the wagon-like C-MAX, it detracts from the overall package. The Fusion Energi also packs the company's latest and greatest tech, including MyFord Mobile, SmartGauge with EcoGuide, Eco Cruise and SYNC with MyFord Touch. Sure, that's pretty exciting, but how does it actually drive? Find out after the break.
MetroPCS widens Rich Communications Services to all North American carriers
There's been a degree of irony to MetroPCS' support for Rich Communication Services when it's been limited to the one carrier's network in the US -- where's that universal chat and sharing we were promised? The carrier plans to live up to those lofty expectations with word that its Jibe Mobile-developed Joyn service will talk to devices on any North American carrier that supports the spec. That currently doesn't equate to ubiquitous access when RCS isn't widespread, but it's a start. We'll just have to wait for the expanded service to deploy later this year, and for more hardware to hit the streets.
HTC brings Dashwire back, focuses on setting up new Android smartphones
When HTC dissolved Dashwire's original service just months after acquisition, many wrote off the smaller company; it all but disappeared from the limelight, even with its early cloud sync service still in action. Rather than relegate Dashwire to the oblivion traditionally associated with takeovers, though, HTC is staging a comeback. It's relaunching Dashwire to help carriers get customers up and running on a new smartphone, including contacts and a customized look. Details are short, but the revived service won't be HTC-exclusive: Dashwire will support "leading" Android device makers. While the company's return to form will depend on successful sales pitches at Mobile World Congress, it at least stands a chance of being more than just a footnote.
Contact sync problems, Contacts Cleaner and The Nuclear Option
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who have no problems with iCloud sync, and people who use iCloud sync. Well, OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I have had plenty of problems with iCloud sync well back into the MobileMe days. Most of the problems relate to syncing contact data. For some reason, iCloud periodically stops working in some non-obvious way. The way I usually discover this is when I realize that some device does not have some piece of information which was either added or changed on another device. Having dealt with this problem for several years, I am now accustomed to performing "The Nuclear Option" when it comes to fixing my contact database. The Nuclear Option is a backup of my contacts from every single device and from the iCloud web client, followed by a complete purge, reimportation and de-duplication pass. I cannot guarantee that it will work for you, but it has worked for me. Apple's Address Book / Contacts app creates backup files in its own format, but I prefer to export my contacts in the industry-standard vCard format to purge them of any lingering iCloud metadata. To export all of your contacts as a single vCard archive, you need to select them all before choosing File » Export » Export vCard... -- otherwise you will only export the currently selected contact. vCard exports should be very "portable"; you should be able to use them for importing into Google or other places if needed. On iCloud.com, the export menu item is found under the small gear icon at the lower-left corner of the page. Select all your contacts (you can use the Command-A shortcut for this purpose), then Export vCard. Please note: If you need to preserve group information, be sure to use the Contacts app's native format instead of vCard; export as "Contacts Archive..." instead. My step-by-step process does not preserve group information. I only use Smart Groups which I can easily recreate, so this is not an issue for me, but if you have extensive groups, this may not work for you. Here's the rundown: Export contacts from each Mac, iOS device and iCloud.com. Verify each export. (Tip: if you use QuickLook on a vCard file, it will show you how many contacts are in it.) Move of all those exported contacts somewhere really, really safe. Delete all contacts from iCloud.com. (Seriously, you verified those exports before, right?) Sync each device and make sure each Mac and iOS device has zero contacts. Disconnect your iMac from the network (unplug the Ethernet adapter and turn off Wi-Fi). Import all of the contact information gathered in step 1. (This won't produce as many duplicates as you'd expect.) Run Contacts Cleaner until it fixes all problems (which may require running the app several times). Export a copy of the cleaned-up data for safe-keeping. Look through all contacts to spot any obvious problems. Export all contacts from Contacts.app to a vCard named something like "All-Contacts–2012–02–18.vcf" and keep it somewhere safe. Re-connect iMac to the network and let it sync back to iCloud and related devices. I have only two complaints, both of them relatively minor. The first is that the app gets confused by SMS "short codes" and a few non-USA phone numbers that I have in my address book. It's easy enough to ignore them, but after a while it would be nice to be able to say "No, really, this number is OK, forever." Secondly, iCloud managed to replicate the "Spouse" field in my vCard about 100 times and Contacts Cleaner doesn't look for duplicate data in those fields. It would be nice to be able to turn on some sort of a "deep-cleaning" mode which would tell Contacts Cleaner to search all fields for duplicate data. By the way, if you need an app for exporting your contacts from an iOS device, I recommend My Contacts Backup Pro which I reviewed earlier.
Livescribe 'helper' adds USB Evernote sync, removes some of the point
What? Yes, it's almost as puzzling as it sounds, but Livescribe is demonstrating its pragmatic approach to problem solving. In our review of the WiFi Smartpen, we maligned the sometimes flakey Evernote synchronisation process. Now you can sidestep the convenient (when it worked) wireless sync, and instead plug your WiFi pen into a nearby PC, download some software, and manually upload those hard earned audio snippets and doodles. While this method scribbles out one of the more useful features of a wireless pen, it does mean you'll never lose your notes. Like the important memo about the product rebranding.
SugarSync 2.0 completed, offers drag-and-drop sharing and a new Android app
SugarSync 2.0 has been in the oven for awhile, having gone into beta last year, but it's now fully baked. The finished version offers the promised extra-simple sharing and syncing, with drag-and-drop transfers to the cloud, contacts and Dropbox-style public links. A virtual drive and cloud search simply things, too. Both desktop and web apps get more of a consistent look, and the Android app has been given its promised overhaul both for the new features as well as to offer uploads and syncing from an SD card. Android, Mac and Windows users can update at their leisure; iOS users will have to wait a few weeks, although both new and old versions can coexist until everyone is on the same page.
Evernote intros Penultimate 4 for iPad, explores synced and searchable handwriting
Evernote acquired the Penultimate app for iPad last year with the conspicuous goal of making handwritten notes as easy to synchronize as to-do lists and snippets from the web. After several months of silence, the newly reworked Penultimate 4 is the result. The drawing tool now treats Evernote not just as a sharing option, but an integral part of its being. While it's possible to skip the sign-in, those who link their account get both cross-platform access to their work as well as cloud-based searches of their more legible writing. There's likewise a simpler interface with more realistic pen input. Truth be told, however, we suspect that many of Penultimate 4's would-be adopters will just care that the app is now free -- as of today, the biggest cost is that of an optional Evernote Premium account. As long as they're using an iPad running iOS 6, note takers yearning for the flexibility of a pad and paper in an era of cloud syncing and tablets can give Penultimate a try at the source link.
BlackBerry Link now up for grabs to sync your BB10 device and computer
If you've managed to score a BlackBerry 10 device already (meaning you're likely speaking the Queen's English), you'll be able to sync it up with your desktop as soon as you can cable them together. BlackBerry Link, the new name for Blackberry Desktop software, is now available for download everywhere (including the US) to backup and sync content like pictures, audio and video. Legacy handsets running version 7.1 of the OS or earlier will still require the previous Desktop app, but Playbook tablets running BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 will also work with the latest version. Hit the source to grab it, and don't forget add another revision to your RIM BlackBerry vocabulary.
BitTorrent working on file-sync app: sounds like Dropbox, calls itself Sync
BitTorrent has announced that it's working on its very own file-synchronization app -- and it's already looking for a limited number of test subjects for its pre-Alpha stage. So far, the premise is to offer identical copies of your files on all machines, all sounding pretty similar to how you use iCloud, Skydrive or Dropbox, although there would be no cloud-caching. According to GigaOM, files will be protected by 256-bit encryption, with native test apps for Mac, Windows and Linux (alongside NAS integration) already in testing. There's no mobile version just yet, but BitTorrent has stated that it's "committed to mobile across the board," and, well, it's still pre-Alpha. If you're up for trying another file sync service, the company is recruiting willing participants over at the source.
Things 2 for Mac now on sale for 50% off
Cultured Code has a treat for Mac owners looking for a new task manager. Starting today, Things 2 for Mac is on sale for US$24.99, a 50 percent discount off the app's normal $49 price tag. Things is a fantastic to-do manager that appeals to a wide range of users. With tags, projects and areas of responsibility, it's robust enough for power users looking for a nimble task manager. At the same time, it's not loaded down with lots of extra options, so even beginning users can jump right in and start managing their tasks with minimal effort. This limited-time sale applies only to the Mac version and ends January 31. This is only the second time Cultured Code has discounted Things for the Mac, so grab it while you can.
Cut the barcode scanning cord with CLZ Barry for iPhone
Did you have a New Year's resolution to organize your book collection (again)? It's definitely on the list in our household, but it's a daunting job; we have thousands of books (literally and literarily) scattered across many shelves, basement boxes and a home office, plus another whole library at my wife's office in desperate need of some database love. A bit of luck, though: bibliophiles have a leg up on most other varieties of packrat, as almost all modern books have an ISBN, a number that purports to uniquely identify them. Capturing that ISBN may be a manual process for older titles, but for anything published in the last few decades there's almost certainly a UPC or EAN barcode on the cover with the ISBN encoded in it. Getting serious about cataloging might prompt you to consider a Bluetooth hardware barcode scanner like the US$149 Intelliscanner mini, which can be used with its own bundled media database or with powerful software tools like Readerware, Book Collector or Bookpedia. One well-known Mac app lets you scan UPC barcodes with your Mac's iSight camera alone. But you've already got a powerful camera attached to your touch and voice-activated pocket computer. Why not scan barcodes with your iPhone, and use them to populate your desktop catalog app? That's where the special talents of CLZ Barry ($7.99 for iPhone, also for Android) come into play. CLZ Barry, made by the same folks behind the Collectorz.com Book Collector and other media database apps, is a barcode scanning app with a twist. The core functionality for scanning codes in Barry is built atop the RedLaser SDK, so it scans quickly and accurately. You can keep a running list of codes locally in Barry, and share them out via email, text message or iTunes download. The magic is in the fourth sharing mode for scans: Barry cleverly pairs with a buddy application running on your Mac or PC. If both the iPhone and the computer are on the same WiFi network, your scans from Buddy instantly appear in the active text field of the foreground app, just as if you had typed the ISBN on the keyboard. Assuming your catalog app has a quick entry or multiple entry mode (all the ones listed above do), you can blithely scan away as you climb the ladders/dig in the boxes/roam the stacks, and have all the cataloging done by the time you get back to your desk. (Bruji's $3.99 Pocketpedia can do a similar trick, but only with the company's own desktop apps.) This sounds a bit Rube Goldberg, but in practice it works extremely well. The iPhone's camera is plenty accurate for scanning, and the Barry app supports older hardware down to the iPhone 3GS and the fourth-gen iPod touch. You get clear audible and visual feedback on a successful scan, so you don't have to glance at your computer to see if the code made it over. I've tested Barry with both Bookpedia and Delicious Library, and it works great; a trifle slower than a dedicated USB handheld scanner, but more than adequate for the task. Now, you could manage your entire book collection on your iPhone, but the biggest source of book catalog information won't necessarily be available. Back in 2009, Amazon began enforcing a restrictive clause in its API agreement that forbade licensees from using "Product Advertising Content" -- book images and descriptions -- on any mobile device app. This immediately put an end to popular iPhone apps like the iOS version of Delicious Library and Bruji's original Pocketpedia. Pocketpedia 2 actually made it back to the store for about two months before Amazon sank it again; it was more than two years before Pocketpedia 3 arrived (with a new model for Amazon search that skirts the earlier issues), and it's coming up on its first anniversary this April.
Improv Electronics Boogie Board Sync hands-on (video)
Either Improv Electronics loves trees, or note taking. Perhaps both? What we do know for sure is that its latest offering to the list maker is here at CES, and we just got some hands (and pen) on time with it. The Sync is a 9.7-inch slate containing the company's own eWriting technology. More than that, it also has a microSD card slot, USB and Bluetooth. That last addition is where the money is with this particular model, allowing you to wirelessly... sync with other enabled devices (i.e. second screens, desktops and iOS / Android devices). This means you can scribble away on the Sync, and have your scrawls appear at presentations and beyond. Of course, any note taking device wouldn't be complete without some Evernote integration, and luckily enough, it's present here. So, once you're done transferring inspiration from brain to slate you can grab it as a an image, and store it in the cloud for later. The models themselves were still prototypes, but they looked and felt solid and comfortable to use. As with the other models in the line, there are little ergonomic touches that please the eye and hand alike. There's a mount on the side for the all important stylus, and the screen itself -- wile utilitarian in nature -- is easy to look at, and text, words and drawings appear clear. The SD card functionality means you can save your notes for later upload, and the mobile app functionality is also set to continually improve, with real-time second screen coming to mobile and tablets, as well as on desktop. The Sync will be up for grabs sometime around the holiday season this year. For now, sync with the gallery and video past the break. Steve Dent contributed to this report.
Glympse app gets integrated with Ford SYNC
Ford car owners with SYNC AppLink can now enable voice-controlled location sharing through the Glympse app on their iPhones. To use Glympse, drivers must have the app installed on an iOS or Android-based smartphone. The car automatically recognizes the app when the phone is Bluetooth-paired or USB-connected. With Glympse activated, drivers simply need to press the SYNC voice button on the steering wheel and say, "Send Glympse." Users can send a Glympse to a friend's email or mobile number, or to Facebook and Twitter. Recipients can then monitor the vehicle's progress and ETA via a real-time dynamic map, on either a smartphone or desktop. After the user-defined time limit expires, the location is no longer updated. Glympse has been a favorite app around here, and it joins a growing legion of apps that are designed to work with car systems so dashboard controls link to apps rather than having to manipulate the phone while driving. We've seen automakers add services like Pandora, Rhapsody, Aha and BeCouply. BMW has its own app that puts web radio, news, Twitter and Facebook on the dashboard screen, and other car makers are following suit.
Microsoft dropping Windows Live Mesh on February 13th, steers us toward SkyDrive
We can't say that many of us used Windows Live Mesh, and Microsoft would presently agree when fewer than 25,000 people actively rely on its file and desktop sharing. Accordingly, it's marching the service out the door: Live Mesh users have until February 13th to sync for the last time and explore any substitutes. Microsoft is quick to point to SkyDrive and Remote Desktop Connection as the replacements, both of which should cover the same territory with a modern flair. We'd tend to agree, although anyone who's less than completely invested in the Windows ecosystem may want to peek over the fence at equivalents like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Escape the contact sync spiral with addapt for iPhone
Sometimes I miss a paper Rolodex. While I'm not really old enough to have used one, the idea of a reliable, semi-permanent repository of contact information -- update it by stapling in a new business card, or with good old correction fluid -- seems comforting. Plus it makes that cool whappity-whap sound when you spin it. Modern contact management, while faster and much lighter (my 1K+ contact list would be a pretty bulky Rolodex), doesn't provide the same sense of control. When your contacts could disappear in a puff of iCloud, it would be comforting to know that your friends' up-to-date info is only a few taps away. Contact syncing from LinkedIn, Plaxo and now Facebook helps somewhat, but all those services come with their own baggage and inessential features. Former LinkedIn exec Mrinal Desai looks at the current state of contact management and thinks that we might as well still be using the spinny card holders. "We used to pen down contact info before and then when and if informed, erase it and write a new one all over again -- today we do the same. Everything has changed yet nothing has changed for the address book," he says. That's why he and co-founder Jorge Ferreira are introducing addapt for iPhone, a free app that aims to modernize the contact update cycle. The addapt approach is straightforward. You select your contact info; you share it to fellow contacts in your address book. If they reciprocate, you'll stay in sync automatically with nothing to import, export, re-enter or correct. Grace notes include a best-guess iMessage accessibility field (for contacts who have a phone record flagged as iPhone) and a clear local time indicator so you don't call people at odd hours of the night. There are other clever services for parsing and importing contact information from inbound email (WriteThat.name for Gmail accounts is one example) or apps that will merge and de-munge the inevitable duplicate contacts from cross-service sync or Facebook integration (Wim deNood's Cleanup Suite on iOS, Spanning Tools on the Mac), but few that deliver dead-simple updating. If you're tired of emailing out a blast whenever your phone number changes, check out addapt's app. You can learn more about the addapt service at the company's website. As they ramp up the service, access will be invitation-only for a while; be sure to mention that you read about it here on TUAW and maybe you'll get bumped to the front of the line.
Apple needs to learn how the Internet works before iCloud evaporates
Last week a former Apple employee posted a scathing breakdown of Apple's cluelessness in cloud services. The article notes that Google is getting better at design faster than Apple is learning to grok cloud services. Let's see, we've gone through iTools (yes, I'm ignoring eWorld), dot mac (the very name was awkward), iWork.com (forever a beta, now defunct) plus MobileMe and now... iCloud. For users of all of these services, the reality of the experience fell short of the promises made by Apple at packed-to-capacity keynotes. In the case of MobileMe's calamitous debut, those failures meant a team-wide, brutal evisceration by the CEO. Is the same angry finger-pointing happening now? Maybe it should be. Apple makes great hardware, adequate software and terrible web services. It's a huge problem for the company, and it will continue to weigh Apple down as iCloud continues to offer sync and data management nightmares. This time it's personal Let's ignore the myriad App Store errors. Let's forget what a clusterfudge MobileMe was, or how Apple-hosted mail dies like Prometheus (regularly and painfully). And does anyone even recall the "exclusive" dot mac Dashboard widgets we were promised? No, you do not, for good reason. Apple hasn't seemed to have its eye firmly on this stuff until very recently, when it realized that forcing customers to connect their Mac or Windows machine with a cable to sync iDevices was a patently bad idea. Well, that and Google (and pretty much everyone else in the Valley) has been beating them to death with excellent online services for a few years now. My own bout of horrid luck with Apple's ignorance of data integrity and web tech kicked off over Thanksgiving. While returning from a friend's new home, I needed directions to my own house. I figured I'd ask Siri for directions (again, let's forget how Siri has been up and down). Whoops! Siri suddenly didn't know where I lived or who I was! Why? Because my own primary account info had been deleted from Contacts. And iCloud. And all my Apple devices using iCloud. Unbelievable. I'm not the only one who has had contacts mystically disappear. Granted, the designation for the "primary contact" or "My Info" is a local Siri setting, not something that would necessarily sync back to iCloud. It's not linked automatically to your Messages emails, for instance; those are stashed in iCloud directly, and I've been able to associate a number of former emails (@mac and @me) with various iDevices so Messages could route to them. You'd think that there might be a flag to prevent your "My Info" contact from vaporizing, so the "me" the iPhone knows is a bit more protected. On the other hand, it would potentially be weirder if the iPhone didn't respect contact changes from the cloud (iCloud.com, in this case) and left you with a phantom, unsynced "me" contact. At any rate, I soon discovered a number of my family members had been deleted, including my dad and my children. The relationships were saved into my primary contact, which was also deleted. My mom was still in there, along with six instances of Apple, Inc. Since I started using contacts across devices and syncing them, way back in the Palm Pilot Pro days, I've never had such a massive screw-up with my data. Duplicates are one thing. Removing user data without warning or even good reason, at the risk of breaking things (like Siri and Maps), is just bad business. To be fair, things can go awry if you hold your nose wrong in Google and Exchange contacts, but what is baffling is the inconsistent behavior and the inability to pin down how sync is really working. I tried a number of tricks to divine how things got so messed up, scouring my Macs, iCloud.com and my iDevices for discrepancies. At one time I had four multiples for almost every contact. At another time I had half the contacts I had before. I still have a huge mess on my Mac, including 4 copies of every group I've ever created (which are practically useless as Apple doesn't seem to grok groups that well either -- add that to the ever-growing list). But I did manage to stem the magical deletions. Incidentally, a call to Apple for help left the tech handling the call baffled, and none of my questions about the sanctity of my data were answered. I solved this problem on my own. Here's something I learned: if you want to see what Apple really thinks you have in our address book, log in to iCloud.com and check. iCloud represents "the truth" as far as PIM data is concerned -- it stores the only real copy of your data. I'm still unable to remove the 800 or so duplicates in Contacts, but for now I'd rather err on the side of keeping the data rather than losing it. Fixing contacts If you're having issues with contacts, I encourage you to check out these potential solutions. My issue was far simpler, it seems. One of the joys of being a loyal Apple customer for three decades means that I have a plethora of email suffixes. My iPad 3 happened to be using @mac.com to log in to iCloud, whereas everything else appears to have been using @me.com. Unfortunately the email forwarding config is completely independent from the Apple ID being used to sync your various iCloud applications. I made the mistake of presuming my Apple ID suffixes wer somewhat interchangeable. For a while, it really seemed like that worked, since when iOS 6 first came out I tested Maps and at the time Siri knew where I lived. Something changed, but with the black box that is iCloud sync, it's hard to say when. Apple has some ID issues going forward. For one, you cannot merge Apple IDs. For whatever reason, I happen to only have one Apple ID (that I know of) -- that means I'm a lucky person! Unfortunately Apple's databases apparently cannot divine the sameness in my addresses as it pertains to iCloud services. Thus, the one disturbance in the force (a different suffix on my account email) was enough to start deleting contacts, willy-nilly. I don't know about you, but if I were a small business owner I would think again before trusting my data with Apple after reading just a few of the many discussion groups on the topic of data loss around iCloud. I'm still not 100% convinced that iCloud won't just randomly delete my data. As a lifelong Apple customer, I find myself hesitant to recommend its products because of this critical failure. Your data is hardly more replaceable than your device, but I sometimes forget Apple is in the hardware business. Things are bad right now, but maybe they'll get better And "things" are worse than most people know. In almost every discussion I've had with developers, I hear some horror story about iCloud. Ordinary users are bitten regularly with missing data, and not just contacts. We're talking about work documents. Can you get those back? Often, you cannot. There is no Time Machine for iCloud documents on iOS. Versioning? Good luck with it. How we wish Apple could have bought Dropbox. Issues with iCloud document management are documented elsewhere, so I won't go into that. I'm talking about Apple being incapable of simply storing your data. It seems the company just can't do it. I don't know that I can stand another @whatever, either. I wish Apple would pick a technology and stick with it. In perspective, iCloud issues represent a small group of dismayed customers. As I kvetched on Twitter about my predicament, I was reminded by others how data is routinely lost across a variety of company cloud offerings. No system is perfect, that much is obvious. But what is also obvious to me is that Apple, on a fundamental level, does not get cloud services. This is wasn't a big deal in the eWorld days, but today it's the biggest problem Apple may face. iTunes Match, iCloud mail, Messages -- the list of failures in this area is growing longer than the hardware achievements of the company. There's a Twitter account for iCloud downtime that makes the former IT nerd in me want to Hulk smash some Xserves. In the end, it could be these user-facing services and their continuing failures that impacts the bottom line of Apple. What Apple needs to do is focus on the back end for a bit and fix the underlying technology problems a few legacy systems have caused. Stuff like taking an entire store offline to update a product catalog is no longer retro chic, it's downright embarrassing. The biggest question of all is whether Apple will figure this out before it is too late. Then again, maybe next year we'll finally get an update to the Mac Pro.
2014 Ford Fiesta gets MyFord Touch, smarter Sync voice commands
For all of Ford's emphasis on Sync, it's hard to deny that Fiesta drivers usually sit on the bottom rung of the automaker's technology ladder when they're denied MyFord Touch and the related perks of larger vehicles. Pick up the keys to a higher-spec 2014 Fiesta, however, and you'll be in for a treat. The compact will stuff a 6.5-inch touchscreen and MyFord Touch into the center stack, with a few software upgrades over what we've already seen in cars like the Focus and Fusion. The highlight is undoubtedly the more direct voice command system -- the Nuance-driven recognition no longer demands that we specify music categories or radio formats to start playing tunes. Bluetooth smartphone pairing and navigation by address should be streamlined at the same time. Motorists will have to wait until 2013 to reap the rewards, but it could be worth the wait to drive away with Ford's better electronics in an affordable ride.
Ford sells its 5-millionth vehicle with SYNC: that's a lot of media-savvy cars
They grow up so fast, don't they? It was almost six years ago that we saw Ford SYNC step into the world, and the automaker has just handed the keys to the owner of the 5-millionth SYNC-capable vehicle. While we haven't been told what model had the distinction, the milestone represents another million SYNC cars, SUVs and trucks than we saw in May last year. The most striking aspect between then and now may just be the shift in focus (pun entirely intended) -- where we started off just happy to hook up our Zunes in a world of CD changers, we're only content today if we can control seemingly every mobile app known to humanity through a touchscreen. Ford might not want to look too fondly at its rear-view mirror, however, lest an abundance of technology-laden competition close in too quickly.
Doxie One portable scanner rolls in for $149, plays well alone and syncs with Mac, PC and iOS
Doxie has added another portable scanner to its heart-logo'd lineup, the Doxie One, which can digitize documents and images to an included SD-card with nary a computer in sight. Doxie says that'll let you travel light with the "paper-towel roll sized" device to scan and automatically generate Abbyy OCR-read PDFs, then sync up later with a Mac, PC, iPhone or iPad. From there, you can use the included app on a Mac or iDevice to transfer the scans to Dropbox, Evernote or iMessage. The device eschews the WiFi option of its recent Doxie Go sibling, but carries a lesser $149 sticker -- check the PR for the full dope.
Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac updated for WP8, rebranded simply as 'Windows Phone'
For Mac users who prefer Microsoft as their mobile partner, Windows Phone 7 Connector has been the one bridging the divide so far. The sync app has just been updated to v3.0, gaining support for Windows Phone 8 and a concise new name -- "Windows Phone" -- to match its Windows 8 counterpart. The new app plays well with Retina Macs too, while other goodies in the changelog include drag-and-drop capability for transferring files in either direction, along with support for iPhoto 9.3.2 and Aperture 3.3.2. Incoming WP8 devices such as the HTC 8X and the Lumia 920 will also get enhanced ringtone features and allow battery life to be monitored via the app. Persuaded? Then collect your goods at the source link below.