I was asked about the ability to remotely access a Windows computer from a BlackBerry, and I admit I wasn’t up to speed on what solutions are available. I have tested various methods in the past, but I don’t access my PC desktops through a phone as a rule. It is not easy working with a large desktop on a small phone screen, but those who need this ability find it very useful. I know some system support folks who do this regularly, and it often saves them a trip to sit down in front of the computer. I started searching around the web for such a solution, and found the Remote Desktop Manager Plus (RDM+) from SHAPE Services that looks pretty useful.

RDM+ does indeed work with certain BlackBerry models (Storm included), but there are clients for other phones too. There are client apps for the iPhone/ iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, Java phones and the old Palm OS. There is no Android nor WebOS version that I could find. There is also a client to allow remotely connecting via another web-connected computer.

The program consists of one of the clients, and a host application for the computer to be remotely accessed. The host can work with any flavor of Windows, 7 included, and there is a Mac version. This means you can effectively work with any Mac or Windows computer, from almost any phone. That is a very powerful combination, and it looks to be a viable utility for those needing remote access from anywhere. I have not used it myself, but would love to hear from those who are using RDM+. The program is an expensive $40, but there is no subscription and this price includes all future upgrades.

With all of my looks at web-based storage, I overlook Microsoft’s SkyDrive every now and again. It’s definitely worth the look due to the generous 25 GB of free storage. While you can download an ActiveX control to integrate your SkyDrive into Windows Explorer, but there’s another option pointed out by gHacks: SkyDrive Explorer, which just got an updated beta version yesterday.

The free download of SkyDrive Explorer adds some features that the ActiveX control currently doesn’t offer when using SkyDrive in a browser, namely: renaming objects, deleting groups of object and copying folders with subfolders and files from SkyDrive. And it makes it easier to take basic file or folder actions on your SkyDrive:

• View the structure and contents of folders in SkyDrive
• View files information (type, size, creation date in GMT format)
• Create new root folders and subfolders
• Copy files into storage
• Delete files and folders
• Copy files from storage to the computer
• Copy folders and subfolders from the storage to the computer keeping their structure
• Use Drag & Drop for files operations
• Rename files and folders
• Create links to SkyDrive folders on your computer

While I tend to work in a browser, there are plenty of folks that want to access files with in Windows Explorer. If you’re one of them, SkyDrive Explorer is worth the look. My installation in Windows 7 went without a hitch and the program integrated my SkyDrive in Windows Explorer as if it were a local system folder. Clicking the “local” SkyDrive does prompt you for your Windows Live credentials, but you can allow the app to remember them for quicker access. Now if I could only get my SkyDrive mounted as a drive so I could easily integrate cloud tunes with a local music player, I’d be really happy. Aside from Windows 7, SkyDrive Explorer works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003 / 2008.

Now that I have two mobile phones and no landline, Google Voice is part of my daily life. The service helps me manage my calls, regardless of which number people use to reach me. On my iPhone 3GS, I simply use the mobile Google Voice site to manage devices or listen to voicemails — pressing play on a voicemail opens up the Apple Quicktime app so I can hear it. I use the free gDial Pro on my Palm Pre, which is nearly as good as the native Google Voice software on an Android device. It’s not perfect, but it meets my needs well enough.

Up to now, I’d access Google Voice on my Mac or netbook right through my web browser. But over the weekend, I started using a nice Adobe AIR implementation of Google Voice called GVoice. Even cooler is the fact that one of our own readers created it! RStoeber is a regular here at jkOnTheRun, and he pinged me to share the app. I’ve been running it nonstop ever since he told me about it — you can find it here, along with a few other projects.

In this early version, the app is exactly like the mobile version I see on my iPhone. Voicemails even play within GVoice — I tested it with a message James left me because Google’s translation went awry in a few spots. Since GVoice runs on Adobe AIR, it’s cross-platform so I can run it on either my Mac, my PC or a Linux box. While I could just leave a tab open in my browser for Google Voice, I like this standalone implementation better. It refreshes the Inbox every minute, so I’m always up to date on my voicemails and text messages without having to look at my phone. Of course, I can send texts from it or initiate a call to a contact from one of my two phones, as well. Developers started to add Growl support to Adobe AIR last November, so a future version of GVoice could support instant notifications of messages, too.

One of the big “gotchas” of Windows Vista ought not to be a problem with Windows 7. In my usage of Microsoft’s new OS over the past year, I’ve noticed far greater hardware support through proper drivers. The same can’t be said of Vista at launch time, but I’m not looking back. Still, there might be the occasional missing or outdated hardware driver here and there. That’s where RadarSync comes in.

RadarSync has opened up its driver database for free access to the public and offers searches by device manufacturer or device name. I hit it up to look for my Toshiba netbook’s Alps Touchpad Drivers and found them easily. I probably should have checked sooner because I was missing the scrolling capability on my netbook after installing Windows 7. RadarSync gets updated every other day, and the Windows 7 repository was started up back in March of this year, so it’s fairly extensive. Links to all drivers are pointing directly to the manufacturer’s servers, so you’re downloading the real deal. Obviously, I can’t guarantee that RadarSync will have the driver you’re looking for, but it’s worth a try if you need to easily track one down and Windows Update isn’t cutting it.

Good news for T-Mobile Sidekick customers. Microsoft today stated that its data recovery and validation phases are completed for some of the lost Sidekick server data. That puts Sidekick users in the warm, liquid goo phase and ready to prep their devices for data reanimation. Actually, it’s not as scientific as that — on the My T-Mobile web site folks will find a data recovery tool to restore lost contacts.

“This tool will enable you to view the contacts you had on your device as of October 1. With a few clicks and a confirmation, you will be able to restore these contacts to your Sidekick. If you have recreated some of the same contacts on your Sidekick since October 1, you can choose to keep both sets of contacts, merge them, or just keep the set of contacts now on your device. You may also edit any partial or complete duplicates on your Sidekick after restoration.”

Microsoft is “making solid progress” on recovering lost pics, notes, to-do lists, marketplace data, and high scores from backup archives. It sounds like this is a six-round battle that’s only just beginning, but it’s a promising first step.

I hear about the “mobile web” a lot, and that makes me think about it all the time. The great NewNet session that GigaOM had yesterday was filled with such great conversation around the mobile web that I had visions of it dancing in my head last night, when I should have been sleeping. This morning I have arrived at the firm conclusion that the mobile web doesn’t exist. Now before you shout “heretic” hear out why I believe the mobile web is dead.

You’ve heard mention of the mobile web, I am certain. The mobile web is that web in the cloud that we tap into when we’re out and about. It can be when we’re traveling, or running around town, pretty much anywhere besides sitting in front of our main computer. It is the web we access when we are mobile, which makes sense. And I am convinced it is dead.

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It’s no secret that the Mozilla team is looking to expand from desktops and laptops to handhelds. The Firefox browser is popular on the big screen, but Mozilla’s Fennec is poised to challenge on the small screen. And the company’s prototype synchronization service, known as Weave, will bind the web experience together. I looked at Weave in its early prototype and it has come a long way since then — the service syncs bookmarks, passwords and cookies between web clients. Theoretically, Weave will help your browsing experience be continuous whether you’re on your notebook or your handheld. Might that even include your browsing experience on the iPhone? John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla, didn’t offer specifics, but he did tell Om that there’s a Mozilla app for the iPhone coming soon.

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WebWorkerDaily is a “must stop” site for me every day. Sure, I am a web worker, but I find they have so much good information for anybody who is online a lot. I was thrilled to see this morning that they have compiled some of their best articles concerning freelancing and working on the web, into an e-book for easy reading. The best part for me, apart from it being an e-book, is that Web Work 101: How to Escape the Cubicle is freely downloadable. It is in PDF format so anybody can use it. Go grab it and tell them that we sent you. Great work, WWD! I have been glued to the book since I grabbed it and not getting any work done. Don’t tell Kevin, he thinks I’ve been working all this time.

Many early reviews of Google Wave show it to be a noisy environment — waves of content and interaction crashing all around. I’ve kept my usage of it to a minimum by standing near the shore, so I haven’t experienced the riptides just yet. And no, I don’t have any invites to give just yet. Firefox users can better surf the waves with a free Google Wave Notifier extension, written by Chad Smith. Once installed, it monitors your Google Wave account for recent activity, displays the number of unread updates and takes you to them with a right-click. That should keep folks safer in the deep end of the wave pool.

(via Lifehacker)

The inadvertent loss of all data on the Sidekick servers and devices has certainly questioned the viability of storing important data on the web. The situation has generated some good discussion around the need for redundant data. I think reader Dave said it best in his approach : “Everything is backed up in multiple places. It’s the only way to go, cloud based or not.” I completely agree and very little of my data isn’t living in two places, either on the web, on local storage or a combination of both. If it’s not, it’s data that I’ve deemed as data I can live without.

Having said that — and as a big user of Google’s Gmail — here’s a list of three ways to backup your Gmail.

1. Use a desktop client. This sounds like a no-brainer but some folks (like me) only use the web to access Gmail. If you simply use Gmail with a desktop client such as Microsoft Outlook, Mac Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird or any other standard email client, you can include the mail data as part of your standard computer backup approach. You are backing up your computer, right?

2. Gmail-Backup for PC or Linux. This free download exports all of your Gmail conversations and attachments into EML files which you can then backup or store somewhere else online. EML files can be opened with mail clients like Outlook, Thunderbird and Entourage. Lifehacker says the Linux version will work on a Mac as well.

3. Forward all mail to a different mail platform. I’d use this strictly for archive and backup purposes because it can be a pain to manage multiple mail addresses. Also, by sending the mail to a different platform, you reduce the risk that one disaster can take out both your primary and secondary copies of mail. Of course, if the web-at-large goes down, you’re generally stuck.

I’m all for other ways too, so if you have them, please don’t hesitate to share. In the end, a combination of web and local backup may be the best of both worlds. This whole situation has me thinking of installing Outlook on my Windows Home Server!