Did Redmond give Cupertino the keys to the sync-dom?
James and I had a great chat this morning around MobileMe, the new "sync your many devices" plan coming soon from Apple. It’s still too early to tell what mechanism Apple is using for the synching, i.e.: iSync, although they did refer to ActiveSync as "ActiveStink" in their presentation. I thought that was in poor taste because although ActiveSync can be flaky between PC and handheld, I’ve found it to be 99.999% reliable when it comes to over-the-air Exchange synchornization in the three years that I used it.
In any case, I know James has a bunch of good conversation coming up on this topic; one that’s key to mobile computing users with multiple devices. At the moment, you may want to check Paul Thurott’s initial table of what syncs with what in MobileMe. I see that bookmarks will sync and not just with Safari, but with Internet Explorer as well. Live Mesh from Microsoft has potential as a competitor here as it works with PCs now and will work with Macs & phones in the future. It seems geared more towards files and folders in terms of syncing, so unless I missed it, e-mail would be a separate solution that could possibly be integrated. By waiting (or taking so long to get it going, whichever the case may be), did Microsoft leave the door wide open for this Apple development in the Land of Sync? And where does ActiveSync figure into all this, if it does at all? Remember, Apple did license ActiveSync for the Exchange features coming in the iPhone 2.0 firmware…
I thought the “activestink” jab was uncalled for as well. It is an example of the kind of condescension that people hate about Apple. I’m an Exchange user on my Blackjack2 now and will be getting an iphone 3g to replace it when they come out. I’ve not decided yet whether to continue with Exchange or give the MobileMe a try–more details are needed.
I don’t believe there is a direct comparison between LiveMesh & MobileMe.
MobileMe appears to have Apple’s current syncing technologies at its core. If you review MobileMe’s Windows sync capabilities you will find its pretty much the same as the current sync capabilieis of iTunes: Outlook Calendar (not Windows Vista Calendar), Outlook Contacts & Windows Contacts, etc.
Further, the storage feature of MobileMe appears to be a standard server based storage similar to Windows Live Skydrive, not a peer-to-peer synchronization based storage like FolderShare or Live Mesh. An interesting question is whether you can save to MobileMe storage if you are offline? I suspect not.
LiveMesh is just a technical preview at this point, and the only implemented features at this point are peer-to-peer syncing, remote desktop & a virtual desktop in the ‘cloud’. It does not implement e-mail, contact/calendar syncing (other than the file based contacts as used by Windows Vista Contacts).
What Apple has gained from MS is the Exchange ActiveSync technology as used in iPhone 2.0 & Snow Leopard, which has nothing to do with MobileMe.
Sync is the Next New Thing:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/apple-youll-get-it-when-you-can-sync-it/
Unfortunately, I’ve been so Pavloved by Palm HotSync, I kept thinking wires.
I must reboot that part of my brain into the wireless 21st century.
Hmmm … and looking at Thurott’s list, it’s clear Mobile Me is 1.0.
1) 20GB storage? It should be enough to backup a 32GB iPhone!
2) No audio files?
And I see iPhone needs an iMovie client (future Apple cost-plus app future download?).
I don’t think Apple had any choice around ActiveSync for Exchange.
At the moment, Blackberry rules mobile corporate email and Exchange is the dominant corporate mail platform.
Microsoft are fighting hard against Blackberry to make their Windows Mobile offering the dominant mobile corporate mail platform and with the current version they at last have a credible product.
But everybody WANTS an iPhone. So put your corporate mail platform (Exchange over Activesync) onto the new iPhone and suddenly you have a very tempting proposition. Apple cannot ignore this and considering they don’t have their own corporate mail solution this is a no brainer.
I had to do a double take on the ActiveStink comment. It was in poor taste to call it that. I mean come on the only people that can call it that are those of us who have lost sleep; or have muttered unrepeatable phrases directed at Microsoft software engineers while attempting to sync a PocketPC or WM device. How dare Apple.
Yeah currently live mesh only does file syncing and remote Desktop (via IE only though) but in who knows how long the Live Mesh will be ready to do what ever you want to code with it (or your Dev team) via the MeshFX. Which will allow a fair number of languages to use Live Mesh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Core