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Microsoft adds WP8 app to Windows Store just in time for launch
If you're aiming to get your hands on one of the many Windows Phone 8 devices launching later today, it would be nice to be able to sync it with your Windows 8 PC, no? Redmond has you covered in the nick of time, as it's just released the free Windows Phone app to its Windows Store. That'll let you get music, photos, or video over to your computer and back, use Windows 8 apps to share things like searches, automatically save photos or videos taken with your phone to your PC and check your phone's storage to see how it's being used. It'll also let allow you to download phone apps and learn more about your device, while pulling off a trick we've saw first with Apple, then WP7 -- letting you track down your smartphone if it goes missing. You can grab it at the source, then all you'll need is a WP8 (or 7.8) handset -- so stay tuned for our liveblog at 10:00 am PST / 1:00 pm EST to see when that might happen.
Rdio posts Android beta app with new sidebar UI, unified playback and remote control
Rdio has spent a large part of 2012 revamping its mobile app, and a new beta shows that it's still full of ideas with two months left to go. The 2.3 test version makes the ubiquitous hidden sidebar even more unavoidable than we've seen before, but those not irked by UI homogeneity will be happy to see Rdio gain some multi-device harmony: along with syncing whatever's being played from desktop to mobile and back, the beta introduces a remote control that lets Android gear either serve as the remote or as a target for other devices. A play-later queue persists across devices, too. Although we haven't been given a timeframe for the finished version pushing out through Google Play, there's nothing stopping avid subscribers from taking a slight risk with the beta and getting a taste of their musical future.
More car companies link iPhone nav apps to dashboard displays
Rather than offer proprietary in-car navigation solutions, auto makers Ford and Chevy are looking to smartphones for their driver's navigation needs, says a report in the New York Times. Ford is working with Telenav on a solution that will let smartphone owners connect their phone-based maps application to car's in-dash display. The Ford solution is powered by Ford's Sync system and requires the use of the CarConnect app, which costs US$25 a year. An Android-compatible version is available now, while an iPhone version is in the works. Chevy is offering a similar system in its 2013 Spark model. Spark owners can take advantage to the Chevy's MyLink system and the $50 BringGo app which sends navigation data to car's dash.
Ubuntu One reaches Mac in beta, completes the cloud storage circle
For all of the many directions Ubuntu One's cloud storage has gone, it hasn't headed the Mac's way. Official clients have been the province of Linux devotees (naturally, Ubuntu is recommended) and their Windows friends across the aisle. A newly available Mac beta puts all three major desktop platforms on an even keel, very literally -- the OS X port is almost identical to what you'd get in Linux or Windows, including a few rough points where other interface concepts clash. Still, the Ubuntu One test build has a handy Mac-specific menu bar item, and it's one of the few cloud options that will natively support both the Ubuntu box in your den and the MacBook Pro in your bag. Grab your copy at the source link if you can deal with a few unfinished elements.
Missing your iDisk? OpenDrive is an easy-to-use substitute
When Apple killed MobileMe and iDisk I was pretty unhappy. It was great for quick small backups, and an easy way to share files with friends by giving them access to a public or password-protected folder. There are plenty of sync/backup solutions out there, like MediaFire, Dropbox, SugarSync and others, but I really liked the desktop mounted iDisk, that looked and acted like an external drive. Other similar options include Google Drive, SkyDrive and, of course, Apple's iCloud, but none functioned quite the way iDisk worked. This weekend, I took a look at OpenDrive, which does a fine job of doing what iDisk used to do. You get a desktop mounted virtual drive, complete with public and private folders. You can drag anything in, or set it up to sync with any files on your computer. The system encourages collaboration, and it is easy to give someone a URL so they can download a single file, several files or a folder. Files are encrypted (AES 256) and on the Mac you get a menu bar control that opens the virtual drive. You can also mange everything from a web browser that lets you set up folders, security and get direct links to files. OpenDrive has a free subscription option that gives you 5 GB of space. There are various plans starting at US $5.00 a month for 100 GB storage, and 25 GB/Day bandwidth. With increasing costs you get more storage, up to 1 TB, custom branding and more daily bandwidth. I tried the free solution and it worked well. In fact, it was very much like my old iDisk. I dragged in some files, and easily shared them with friends through a browser GUI that allows them to view a file if it's a video or photo, or download it. Documentation is a little thin and I'd like to see built-in help. For backup or syncing OpeDrive has plenty of competition, but for pretty much capturing the spirit of the iDisk, OpenDrive is fairly unique. Pricing is reasonable, and even the free 5 GB plan will probably be very useful for people doing casual file exchanges. There are some file size limits. The $5 home plan limits file sizes to 1 GB, the $15 Office plan ups that to 3 GB, and the $25 Pro plan allows 5 GB files. OpenDrive works as advertised. The company offers free iOS and Android apps for sharing between portable devices, and Macs and Windows computers are supported with feature-complete applications. You can also use the service with a browser. OpenDrive is just one way to handle backup, sync and file sharing, but it closely replicates what iDisk provided and adds even more features. If you miss the ease of use of iDisk, OpenDrive is worth a try, especially since you can see if it meets your needs at no cost. %Gallery-167825%
Synology launches DiskStation DS413j NAS server for your own private cloud
If you like your data local, but crave remote access, you've now got options like Synology's new DiskStation DS413j -- a network-attached storage (NAS) server for your own private cloud. The feature-packed box has four drive bays for a total of 16TB storage, and you can mix and match HDDs of different sizes without losing the comfort of RAID. Along with what you'd expect from NAS, its media server will stream content to your console or TV via DLNA or UPnP and push tunes to your stereo, with iOS and Android apps for couch DJing. The server will sync your files across computers if you wish, and give you access to all that data on the move via the internet or mobile apps. And, if you need more files, you can download directly using your favorite protocols -- it'll even automate them if you trust RSS feeds to make recommendations. All this can be yours for around $380, depending on the retailer, but don't forget to budget for drives to fill those empty bays. %Gallery-164329%
With iOS 6, your iPhone address book may be invaded by Facebook email addresses
I'm generally a fan of Facebook. I only use it to keep in contact with people I actually know and hang out with in real life. And for my friends that live in other countries, it's the easiest way to share photos, videos, and other life events. That's why I'm pretty excited about the iPhone's Facebook integration in iOS 6. The ability to post to Facebook from almost anywhere in iOS, use single sign-in to log into any number of apps, and 'like' apps and songs is going to be great. However, there's one unpleasant outcome of Facebook integration in iOS 6: it may load up your contacts list with loads of practically useless @facebook.com email addresses. As I'll explain, this is a huge boon to Facebook's underutilized email service, but a bane to iOS users (and within a matter of days, OS X, Windows, and Android users) across the globe. First the good news: In iOS 6 (and OS X 10.8.2) Apple and Facebook have teamed up to sync your Facebook contacts and their info with the contacts in your existing Contacts app. This is actually a win for users, because most people update their mailing addresses, phone numbers, instant messaging names, and emails addresses on Facebook more often than they would manually send out vCard or simple email updates to contact details. The Facebook contacts sync, in the end, automatically updates your friends' info in your Contacts without you (or your friends) lifting a finger. Syncing contact info is an all-or-nothing feature. Now for the bad news: iOS 6's sync options may also be a Trojan Horse for Facebook's underwhelming email address service. Since 2010 Facebook has offered all of its users @facebook.com email addresses based on the Facebook vanity URL name on the account (the words that appear after the www.facebook.com/ in your Facebook profile's URL). And if you haven't chosen a vanity URL, it's a lot worse: you'll be assigned an @facebook.com email with random numbers in front of the @, à la CompuServe in 1994. Any email sent to your Facebook email address will be automatically routed to your Facebook messages folder on Facebook.com. With the rollout of @facebook.com emails in 2010, Facebook aimed to take on Gmail and improve the stickiness of Facebook.com. That way, when you checked your email you'd be going to Facebook instead of Google or Yahoo or AOL. But as Facebook discovered, no one really cared (or knew) about their @facebook.com email addresses. That's why in June of this year, without notifying users or getting permission, Facebook set every single Facebook user's publicly listed profile email to their @facebook.com email address and hid all their other email addresses from view. Facebook's excuse for this was that they were protecting user privacy, but that's pretty much total crap. It got worse in July, as early beta testers of Facebook sync discovered quickly that the @facebook.com addresses were replacing the default addresses for scores of contacts. The sync API was pushing the most-recently-added email address, rather than the primary -- which automatically meant the @facebook address, since that was newest. While this behavior was deemed to be a bug by Facebook affecting "certain devices" and quickly fixed, our tests now show that the @facebook addresses are still being sync'ed over alongside the user's real world, primary email address. Here's the big problem: Most of Facebook's 900 million plus users still don't know @facebook.com emails exist, yet their @facebook.com email is now listed on their profile by default -- unless they've gone in to change settings to hide the (useless) email address. So what's going to happen in 2-3 weeks when iOS 6 comes out? There are 900 million Facebook users. There are going to be close to 400 million iOS 6-capable devices in the wild by the end of this year. If even a quarter of those users enable Facebook contacts sync, we could have scores of @facebook.com email addresses added to 100 million users' contact lists. As an Apple user who likes clean, uncluttered interfaces, this is a huge drawback. Suddenly all of my contacts will now have at least two email addresses (their "real" one and their unused @facebook.com one). That means when I start typing their name in Mail's "To" field I'm now going to have to select from at least two choices for their email address -- or even more if they already have multiple emails. The result? More taps and impaired productivity. Yes, after I select the primary email address enough times, eventually it will default to the top of the list, but most email users aren't as tech savvy as the people reading this and they might not even notice the "@facebook.com" email address they're using to send their friend a message. And it's not like anyone ever goes to Facebook to check emails when someone says "Didn't you get that email I sent you?" so the result could be a lot of misdirected messages. Useless contact detail is never good for an OS that prides itself on simplicity. But this isn't just a complaint about data clutter and user confusion. Yes, the Facebook contacts integration is only on iOS and OS X, but the Contacts apps on both of those systems sync to other email services (like Gmail, Outlook, etc) and Windows PCs, which then connect to Windows Phones and Android phones and all their contact books and Exchange servers and the list goes on and on. (There are already Android phones that sync Facebook contacts, as well as plenty of third-party apps that enable sync.) So it's entirely possible that within 48 hours of iOS 6 launching, Facebook will have successfully spread its @facebook.com email address to many millions of contact books and email clients -- on myriad types of devices -- across the globe. That's something Facebook has never been able to do with the @facebook.com email addresses, until now. It's of a piece with the shady default "public" email change they made for users a few months ago (which I'm sure, "coincidentally" for them, timed nicely with the upcoming iOS Contacts sync). It's sneaky, and in my opinion it's wrong. While no one at Facebook would send me an email saying "Yeah, this is something that's gonna work really well for @facebook.com email adoption," I've spoken to plenty of Facebook employees off the record. They say Facebook isn't exactly unaware of the benefits iOS sync will deliver to Facebook's email rollout. So what can you, the user do? As a symbolic protest, you can hide your @facebook.com email address from your Facebook friends. This won't stop it from being synced with your Contacts on iOS and OS X, but it will keep Facebook friends from picking it up off your profile page. If you want to make sure it doesn't sync out to other people's address books, commenter Chris suggests setting the Privacy flag on the @facebook address to "Only Me" -- that will keep it entirely secret and out of everyone's hair. To make either of these changes, click the Update Info button on your profile page, then scroll down to Contact Info on the right and click Edit. Find your @facebook address and then set both flags to maximum privacy. Once iOS 6 and OS X 10.8.2 arrive, you probably will want to wait a week or two before enabling Facebook contact/calendar sync, to give this whole mess a chance to sort itself out. But what if there turns out to be no way to block the @facebook.com address invasion? That would be a shame because, besides the @facebook.com email mess, the Facebook integration is going to make a lot of things easier for iOS and Mac users. Other than that? Hope Apple adds selective sync to allow you to control which information iOS draws from Facebook to add to your Contacts. As I've said, this is not only something that will affect iOS or Mac users. The @facebook.com emails will use iOS and OS X as a Trojan Horse and ride it into contact books and email servers across devices across the globe. And that wouldn't be a bad thing if people wanted to use their Facebook email addresses as their primary ones or even as a secondary option, but given that @facebook.com email adoption is basically nill after two years, I'm going out on a limb and saying no one really wants it. It's just excess data that we have to sift through and it shouldn't be forced on us in the guise of otherwise excellent new features.
Windows Phone companion surfaces for Windows 8, could take over syncing duties
It's tough to ignore that the Zune era at Microsoft is quickly winding to a close. That doesn't mean you'll necessarily be out of options for syncing a Windows Phone's contents by the time the Zune desktop app fades away, however. A tip to The Verge has shown a companion app for Windows 8 users that will reportedly load the first time a Windows Phone 8 device syncs up, giving a fully Metro-friendly place to transfer any media. Windows 7 would get its own parallel, just in case some of us aren't willing or able to upgrade our PCs in concert. The replacement desktop apps could be available at about the same time as the Windows Phone 8 launch, if the claims are at all accurate -- which might leave less than two months before one more vestige of Microsoft's MP3 player days goes away.
Mozilla pulls Firefox Home from the iOS App Store, posts source code to GitHub
iOS users keen on Mozilla's Firefox Home will have to find another browser syncing solution: the application has been retired. The app worked in conjunction with Firefox Sync, and was designed to give users access to their desktop history, open tabs and bookmarks on the go. Mozilla says the project "provided valuable insight and experience with the platform," but ultimately decided its resources were better focused elsewhere. All isn't lost, however -- the company is making the source available on GitHub, encouraging users to tinker with the iOS Sync client Firefox Home was built on. Feel free to swim in the code yourself at the source link below.
Mark/Space Welcome Home eases us into new Nokia Lumias, lifts the burden of app hunting
So you just bought a Nokia Lumia 900 and are wondering how on Earth you'll get all your old phone's data over to that new Windows Phone. Nokia and Mark/Space have you covered with a new, Lumia-tuned Welcome Home to Windows Phone app. The Mac- and Windows-based utility goes beyond just shuffling calendars, contacts and media; if you're jumping ship from Android, a BlackBerry or an iPhone, it will scan apps linked to the outgoing hardware and offer QR codes to download either direct or close-enough equivalents for the Windows Phone world. Fresh Lumia owners might appreciate the price more than anything -- unlike the Android porting tool, the Lumia version is a free treat just for joining the Nokia flock. It's available today, but we have a feeling that most of the demand will come after September 5th.
Japan court rules Samsung's Galaxy phones, tablet do not infringe on an Apple patent
Samsung may have lost a billion dollar round here in the US, but it appears to have scored a victory in its patent battle against Apple in Japan today. Reuters and Bloomberg report a judge there decided its Galaxy smartphones and tablets did not infringe on an Apple patent. Apple sued Samsung there in September of last year, however the Tokyo District Court has ruled Samsung did not violate a patent that covered syncing music and video data with a PC. According to The Yomiuri Shinbun, presiding judge Tamotsu Shoji dismissed the claim, saying Samsung's implementation of this specific technology was not covered by the scope of Apple's patent and, Bloomberg reports, ordered Apple to pay the costs of the lawsuit. Just as we're seeing in US District Court in California however, one judgement doesn't mean the seemingly never-ending battle is over however because Apple may be able to appeal this decision to a higher court. There are also other cases ongoing, which The Sankei Shimbun reports includes one focusing on the infamous bounce-back patent, so as usual, stay tuned for further updates.
Adobe Revel 1.5 released with new UI, text captions and auto-syncing albums
Adobe's cloud-based photo storage and editing app has been enjoying its new name since it hopped off the Carousel, and now it's appreciating a feature bump too. Version 1.5 has just hit the virtual shelves of the Mac and iTunes stores, complete with a new UI and the option to log in using Facebook or Google accounts. Functionality wise, the update adds text captioning for your snaps and the ability to create albums which auto-sync across your devices and can be shared with others via the web. Alright, so the update isn't revolutionizing the service, but we're sure those that currently subscribe are reveling in it.
Things 2 now out, adds long-awaited cloud sync
Cultured Code has released Things 2, an update to its Things task manager, including the very, very long-awaited cloud sync capability. Did we mention that we've been waiting for it for awhile? The best news is that unlike rival The Hit List, cloud support is free on Things 2. Things 2 is a multiplatform release across the Mac, iPad and iPhone; updates to all editions are free from 1.x. In addition to the cloud sync tool, called Things Cloud, other new features include: Things for Mac Daily Review list that pulls up a list of tasks and let you decide if you want to work on them today. Mountain Lion capability, including streamlining with Reminders so Siri can easily be used to enter tasks Retina display updates Things for iOS Daily Review added Design UI tweaked Scrolling date picker Other iOS improvements such as tapping and holding a checkbox to cancel a task, log completed tasks automatically and VoiceOver accessibility Things 2 is a welcome release, and we're looking forward to putting it through its paces. Unfortunately, the delay in adding cloud sync (other productivity systems -- such as OmniFocus -- have had the feature for years) has lost Cultured Code a lot of its goodwill, as apparent by reading the comments on the linked posts above. We're glad to see Things Cloud is finally clear of its beta evolution and ready for prime time. When you sign up for the Things Cloud service on either your Mac or your iOS device, you'll get a confirmation PIN via email. Entering the PIN in your client will confirm your account, and from that point you can log in on all your devices using your email/password combo. (Don't reuse passwords, please.) The first Things instance you connect to the cloud will populate it with data, and subsequent devices (if they have to-dos on them already) will give you the option of merging, replacing local, or replacing the cloud list of tasks. Things' previous Bonjour/WiFi sync scheme has been removed in the 2.0 release, so if you update your Mac copy of Things you'll need to update everywhere in order to sync with the new cloud service. If you need to retain local network syncing for some reason, there is now a "Legacy Sync" version of Things 1.5 for Mac (and a corresponding "Things 1 Mode" toggle in the iOS apps) that maintains Bonjour sync. Things 2 for Mac is $49.95 through the Mac App Store, and a free trial is available from Cultured Code's website. Things 2 for iPad is $19.99 and Things 2 for iPhone is $9.99. Both iOS versions require iOS 5 or later, and the Mac version requires OS X 10.6.6. Thanks, Eric!
Microsoft gives a tease of Office for Windows Phone 8, talks up Office 2013 integration
Microsoft may have told us a lot about Windows Phone 8 in June, but it left out much of what the Office component's update would entail. Thankfully, Partner Group program lead John Jendrezak has volunteered to let us peek under the hood, including our first real glimpse of the new Office Hub. The app's connection to Office 2013 is more than the skin deep looks you see here: Office documents will sync more seamlessly from desktop to phone, and it's implied that the reading position sync from the desktop version will extend to the mobile realm as well. Many mysteries still remain as to what's exactly different in the more pocketable version of Office. There's more about the new work suite's communion with the cloud at the source link, however, so dig in if an offline Office feels like a prison.
Microsoft updates SkyDrive for Windows app: new status window, freshened logo
We dug into Microsoft's recently updated SkyDrive efforts in a review earlier this year, and it looks as if the company's still intent on improving things based on user feedback. The newest update to SkyDrive for Windows (version 16.4.6003.0710, for the number crunchers) includes quite a few under-the-hood improvements that are said to bolster "performance, reliability, and compatibility." But beyond that, you'll also see a much-requested status window; put simply, this guy gives users a glanceable view at whether or not their SkyDrive is in sync, and displays the time at which it was last updated. In the event that a sync is still ongoing, you'll also see the number of megabytes and files you have remaining to sync. Finally, Microsoft has refreshed the SkyDrive logo -- not surprisingly, there's a pinch of that Metro styling throughout.
Apple unveils vew version of Safari that syncs tabs, supports gestures
During its presentation on OS X Mountain Lion, Apple unveiled a new version of Safari that'll improve your desktop browsing experience. The new Safari will have the "fastest javascript engine of any browser on the planet" and "lightning fast page loading," said Craig Federighi during the WWDC keynote. A new scrolling architecture based on Core Animation will deliver smooth-as-silk scrolling. Besides improving the rendering engine, Safari will have a new tab syncing feature that'll show you all the pages you have open across all devices. Apple also added several multitouch gestures (swipe and pinch/zoom) that'll let you move between tabs. And it that isn't enough, there's also a very Chrome-ish smart search field that'll let you search right in your browser address bar.
Apple unveils new features for Safari: unified search, iCloud Tabs multi-device syncing and more
Apple's fresh new hardware may have gotten the headlines thus far during Apple's 2012 WWDC keynote, but there's also some good news for browser aficionados, too. Safari has taken a page out of Chrome's book by offering unified search for the web, your history and bookmarks. Additionally, Safari now syncs your web-browsing info across all your devices. Called iCloud Tabs, the feature lets you see the tabs you have open on any device simultaneously. That means you can surf the web on your iPhone while you're out and about, and continue your web session seamlessly on that shiny new MacBook Pro when you get home by clicking the new handy dandy iCloud button. Not only that, Safari's picked up some new multitouch tricks, letting you swipe all the way out to tab view, then pinch on the page you want to dive back in. Safari's Mobile version has also gained the ability to upload images directly and it now has an Offline Reading List that downloads and caches anything you add. Furthermore, Safari can now provide a notification if there's an app for the website you're browsing. Tapping the notification brings you to the App Store, and once downloaded, the browser pushes the URL to the app so you can pick up the content right where you left off. %Gallery-157904% For more coverage of WWDC 2012, please visit our event hub!
OmniGroup has info for those syncing OmniFocus to MobileMe
Time is running out for OmniFocus customers who are still using MobileMe to sync their data. Apple is going to shut down the MobileMe service on June 30, 2012 and users need to switch their syncing services before this date. To help you transition away from MobileMe, OmniGroup lists several alternative syncing solutions, including its own sync server. Once you have chosen an alternative to MobileMe, OmniGroup also has a set of instructions that show you how to change the sync settings within OmniFocus. If you run into any difficulties, you can email or call their support team using the contact information provided on OmniGroup's website.
Ford says Sync is now in 4 million vehicles, takes a moment to talk up Focus Electric
Since its debut in 2007, Ford and Microsoft's Sync infotainment system has made its way into several of the auto maker's models, including the 2012 Focus Electric. At this week's Future in Review tech conference, Ford announced that more than 4 million vehicles in the US have its entertainment platform on board. In addition to dropping that stat, the company talked up its new EV, which it says can charge in half the time it takes for the Nissan Leaf. Maybe Ford caught wind of Nissan's just-announced e-NV200 all-electric van and wanted to remind those in the market for an EV that a blue box isn't the only option.
Tweetbot 2.4 brings keyword mute filters, offline favorite and read later support
Tweetbot just got the update treatment, enabling a handful of features aimed at optimizing the way you interact with Twitter, both online and off. These added gems include an option to mute certain keywords ('cereal' may be a good start), location-based keyword searches, along with offline favorite and read later support (for booting links to apps like Instapaper or Pocket, for offline viewing). Most other functionality remains unchanged, as does the $2.99 price tag. You'll find the full list of updates after the break, with download links just below.