Apple to add iPhone notes syncing to Mail.app?

Posted Aug 15th 2008 9:00AM by Cory Bohon
Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, iPhone

A loyal reader recently sent in a tip asking us had we seen a dialog in Mail.app. The dialog in question is produced when creating a new note and pressing command + b. You would expect it to be a shortcut for bold, but no ... it brings up the above dialog.

The dialog specifies that by converting the note to Rich Text, devices such as the iPhone will not be able to edit it. Could this be a sign that notes syncing between iPhone and Mail.app could be coming in the not so distant future? We can only hope so.

Thanks for the tip, Shayan!

credit - http://www.tuaw.com/2008/08/15/apple-to-add-iphone-notes-syncing-to-mail-app/

• Marchello: It's seems to be done

• Eric: Ok, how does the data look on the PC now?

• Marchello: YES!!

• Marchello: It's on my PC

• Eric: Oh man! 2 for 2!!

• Marchello: Let's check my iPhone

• Eric: Ok, so now same type of thing for the iPhone. I'll get a quick article that shows how to do that.

• Eric: Ok, please reference this one:

• Eric: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1672

• Eric: You probably won't have to do all of those.

• Marchello: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2630 I read this one today

• Eric: Oh cool. Let's try again now, you might have different results after all the other things we did.

• Marchello: ok

• Eric: Thanks!

• Marchello: ok , I delete the account and added it with a me.com domain - is that fine?

• Eric: Step 10?

• Marchello: yes

• Eric: Yeah that one usually works. Go for it.

• Marchello: I did

• Eric: Any change on the iPhone?

• Marchello: not yet

• Marchello: I have WI-FI on

• Marchello: LOL

• Marchello: WOW

• Marchello: it worked

• Eric: Takes a minute or so sometimes to kick in on the phone I've noticed.

• Eric: That's great, so we have good solid data at every location now.

• Eric: Just think of it as a virus. But a really good virus.

• Marchello: yes we do

• Marchello: lol

• Eric: Cool. Did you need assistance with any other aspects of MobileMe?

• Eric: I'm pretty hot now so you should give me a tough one1

• Marchello: no, thank you for all you help

• Eric: My pleasure Stacy!

• Eric: I am glad to have been able to help you with MobileMe. If you need assistance in the future please feel free to visit us again.

• Eric: Thank you for chatting with us.  We value your feedback.  Please click the blue "Close" button at top left to answer a few questions about your experience with us today.

• Marchello: I have blogged about this my blog

• Stacy Jones: arcelay.vox.com

• Eric: Cool! I'm famous now!

• Marchello: you better belive it - thanks, you really help me with my problem.

Eric: Anytime Marchello. Have a good one!

On more HAPPY Mac customer - Thank You Eric & Apple

• Eric: Ok. Have you tried to reset up to MobileMe from your computer, thereby replacing it so that good data is both on the computer and MobileMe? After that you could do the same thing and continue replacing form MobileMe to the iPhone and the PC.

• Marchello: define "reset"

• Eric: On your Mac > go to System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync

• Eric: Then click Advanced and reset the data. Make sure the data from the computer is moving to MobileMe since we want the good data to overwrite the not as good data.

• Marchello: I have .Mac in my System Preferences -

• Eric: Oh, you must be running Tiger.

• Marchello: yes

• Eric: Same procedure, just replace MobileMe logo with .Mac logo.

• Eric: Same steps

• Marchello: I am resetting the data from .mac/mobileme now from my mac to the clouds "I guess"

• Marchello: It's syncing .Mac now

• Marchello: can you see it on your end?

• Eric: Yeah, if the best data is on the Mac, replace from computer to MobileMe. Data on MobileMe gets replaced with good data.

• Eric: No, I can't see your data.

• Marchello: no I meant the activity

• Eric: Oh, no I can't really see the status of the reset

• Marchello: the date online was correct - it was not syncing to my phone or my PC correctly

• Eric: Ok, so the data on your Mac is good, the data on MobileMe is good.

• Eric: We just need to move that to your PC and iPhone.

• Marchello: yes and yes

• Eric: Correct?

• Eric: Sweet.

• Eric: One sec.

• Eric: Ok, because I can't see your screen, let's have you pull up this article:

• Eric: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1681

• Eric: There are a couple of steps before you get to the reset part.

• Eric: Just confirm those first couple of steps and move to the reset part.

• Marchello: mobileme sync to my PC but the date was not complete, my groups in my address book will not sync and my event in iCal will not sync

• Eric: Is this because it's going to Outlook?

• Marchello: I do use outlook on my pc

• Eric: Did you already try to reset from MobileMe to the PC?

• Marchello: my mac is resetting mobileme now

• Eric: No, I was talking about reseting the data on the PC with the data that was already good on MobileMe.

• Marchello: how can I do it on my pc

• Marchello: I have mobileme preferences open now

• Eric: If the data is correct on MobileMe, you can resync the data on your computer with data from MobileMe:

  Open the MobileMe Control Panel.

  Click Sync.

  Click Advanced.

  Click Reset.

  Choose to replace the data on your computer with data from MobileMe.

• Marchello: I'm doing it now

• Eric: Cool, thanks!

• Hi, my name is Eric. Welcome to Apple!

• Eric: How can I help today?

•  Marchello: hello

• Eric: Hello Stacy, are you there?

• Eric: How can I help?

• Marchello: my contacts and iCal are not syncing

• Eric: Just on the phone or also between MobileMe and your computer?

• Marchello: on the phone and on my pc

• Marchello: on my pc my groups are not the same as my mac

• Marchello: and on my phone not contacts or iCal events

• Eric: Ok, is there one location where your data is the most up to date and accurate? Where is the best data?

• Marchello: on my mac

• one minute on hold turned into 1 hour
  

How to Sync Any Desktop Calendar with Google Calendar

As of yesterday's announcement of CalDAV support in Google Calendar, you can now sync your Google Calendar with virtually any popular desktop calendar for free. Not only can you enjoy your favorite desktop calendar software and still get the benefit of the web interface, but you can also sync any desktop calendar with any other across platforms using GCal as a go-between. Let's take a comprehensive look at how to set up bidirectional syncing between Google Calendar and your favorite desktop calendar—from Outlook and iCal to Sunbird and Thunderbird—for free.

Remember, this doesn't mean that you can sync Google Calendar with just one desktop calendar. It means that no matter what you're using—Outlook at work and iCal at home, for example—you can always stick to desktop calendars if that's what you prefer. Google Calendar now works as both a great web application and a dedicated syncing tool. It's the cloud, and once it's set up, you don't ever have to access your calendar through the web again if you don't feel like it. But when you're not at a desktop, you can fire up GCal from any web browser, make changes, and still be confident your desktop is completely in sync next time you fire it up. Let's get started.

Sync Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar

Syncing calendar events between Outlook and Google Calendar has been a cinch ever since Google came out with Google Calendar Sync, a free application that provides bidirectional syncing between the two. (It also supports one-way sync in either direction, if for some reason you don't want two-way syncing.) Assuming you're using a supported setup (Outlook 2003 or 2007 and either Vista or XP), here's how to get it working.

1. Download and install Google Calendar Sync.
2. Enter your Google account email address and password.
3. Select your sync method (most likely you want two-way syncing) and the sync frequency you prefer. It defaults to syncing every 120 minutes, which seems a little long for most.
4. Hit Save and you're done. Easy, right?

If you've added a new item to your calendar and you want to force a new sync rather than waiting for Google Calendar Sync to run its next sync, just right-click the system tray app and choose Sync. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Sync iCal with Google Calendar

As of yesterday, Google Calendar supports two-way synchronization with iCal through the CalDAV remote calendar standard. Setting up iCal with GCal varies slightly based on whether or not you're using your default GCal calendar or a secondary calendar. First, here's how to set up your Google Calendar default with iCal:

1. Open iCal, then fire up your iCal Preferences (iCal -> Preferences or Cmd-,).
2. Click on the Accounts tab, and then click the '+' button to add a new remote calendar to iCal.
3. Call the calendar whatever you want (I went with 'Personal' for my main calendar), then enter the Google account username (which is normally your Gmail address) and password.
4. Click on Server options to display the Account URL text box. For your default calendar, enter the following URL:
   https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/youremail@gmail.com/user
   ...replacing youremail@gmail.com with your actual email address.
5. Once you've done that, just hit Add and you're finished. Give iCal a few minutes to download all your events and you're good to go.

If you want to add a secondary calendar, the steps are exactly the same as above with one small difference. Instead of inserting your email address in the Account URL as described in step 4, you need to grab the calendar ID for that specific calendar. You can find it by opening GCal, clicking the arrow next to the calendar you want to sync, and selecting Calendar settings. In the settings, find the Calendar Address section near the bottom of the window, then just copy and paste the Calendar ID (which is formatted like an email address) in place of youremail@gmail.com in the URL above.

You can refresh iCal to make sure you've synced the latest-and-greatest at any time by selecting Calendar -> Refresh or hitting Cmd-R. (Original post)

Sync Mozilla Sunbird or Thunderbird with Google Calendar

Whether your using Mozilla's standalone calendar application Sunbird or Thunderbird with the Lightning extension installed (Lightning integrates Sunbird into Thunderbird), bidirectional calendar syncing between either application and Google Calendar is a breeze. The special sauce in this sync is the Provider for Google Calendar extension. Installing Provider in either Sunbird or Thunderbird is basically the same procedure, and here's how it works:

1. Download and install the Provider extension by saving it to your desktop, opening the Add-ons dialog in either Sunbird or Thunderbird, and dragging the file you just downloaded into the Add-ons dialog. Once installed, make sure to restart the application.
2. Now that Provider is installed, you have to add your new Google Calendar. In Sunbird, go to File -> New Calendar; in Thunderbird, it's File -> New -> Calendar when you're in the calendar view.
3. You're now looking at the Create new calendar wizard. Select "On the Network" and hit Continue.
4. Choose Google Calendar as the calendar type. The Location field requires the XML flavor of your calendar's Private Address, which you can get by opening GCal and choosing Calendar settings from the drop-down next to the calendar you want to access. At the bottom of the settings page you'll see the Private Address section. Copy the XML link and paste it into the Location field in Sunbird or T-bird.
5. When you hit Continue, you'll be asked for your Google Calendar username (again, your Gmail address) and password. Enter it, give your new calendar a name, and hit Continue. You're done.

From now on, any event you add to that calendar will automatically sync to GCal and vice versa. You can reload the calendar to get the most up-to-date information at any time by clicking the Reload button in your toolbar. (The button is installed in the toolbar by default in Thunderbird, but you may have to customize your Sunbird calendar to add it to the toolbar.)

Sync Your Mobile Device with Google Calendar

If you're interested in syncing your mobile device with Google Calendar, you've also got a ton of great and free options. BlackBerry users can check out Google Sync, a BlackBerry app made by Google specifically for Gcal-to-BlackBerry syncing.

Alternatively, the free, open-source application GCalSync does bidirectional syncing between Gcal and tons of supported phones. (Original post)

If you're an iPhone or iPod touch user, you can set up automatic, two-way syncing between your Google Calendar (and Gmail contacts) with web site NuevaSync. (Original post)

Finally, if your phone supports SyncML, web application GooSync can handle Gcal syncing without installing anything.

Other Options

If you're not happy with the methods detailed above—which I selected because each represents the easiest and cheapest (read: free) option—there are still tons of other tools to sync Google Calendar with your desktop calendar. First, we've covered how to sync Google Calendar and Gmail contacts with the more technical GCALDaemon. Also, the cross-platform Calgoo just went free, with both Outlook and iCal syncing capabilities.

On a somewhat unrelated but still useful note, you can also now sync Google contacts with your Mac OS X Address Book.

credit - http://lifehacker.com/399407/how-to-sync-any-desktop-calendar-with-google-calendar

Turn Off Crash Reports to Speed Up iPhone Sync

Any iPhone or iPod touch running the 2.0 firmware can use a little speed boost when it comes to syncing, and some intrepid tweakers have found at least one no-pain way to boost syncing time, at least a little bit. To disable iTunes taking the time to send error or crash reports to Apple every sync, turn off automatic syncing (if enabled) on your phone/iPod, right-click on the unit in iTunes, and click "Reset Warnings." The next time you sync, your system will ask if you want to send the reports. Un-check the "Do not ask me again" option, hit "Don't Send," and you're good to go. It's not going to eliminate the longer lags for application syncing, but it might help move things along. (Screenshot via Gear Diary)

iPhone backup process extremely slow, corruption issues

Posted By benwilson On July 18, 2008 @ 11:21 am In Troubleshooting | 6 Comments

Free Ways to Synchronize Folders Between Computers

Nothing sucks worse than getting to the office in the morning and realizing you left the most recent copy of an important file—whether it's your to-do list or a PowerPoint presentation—on your home computer. No matter where you are and what computer you're using, you always want the most updated set of documents and files you've got without having to carry 'em around on a thumb drive. Luckily, several free solutions can automatically sync folders between computers—even over the internet, through office firewalls—no matter what operating system you use. Whether you want work files edited at home to magically appear on your PC at the office, or the family room Mac to have a copy of the latest batch of digital photos downloaded onto the computer in the den, three free applications can help.

Sync Folders over the Internet with FolderShare (Mac and Windows, Free)

If the two computers you're working with aren't on the same local network and aren't both Windows machines—such as your home Mac and your office PC—you can still sync files between them over the internet using a free service called FolderShare. (We've already run down quite a few uses for FolderShare, from maintaining a consistent workspace, to syncing your Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts between computers.)

If you haven't tried out FolderShare yet, here's how to get it set up:

1. On the first computer, download the appropriate FolderShare software for your system (either for Mac OS X or Windows) and install it. If you don't already have a FolderShare account, set one up using the installation wizard; you just need an email address and password. You will also assign your computer a name that FolderShare will use to refer to it. Make it something descriptive, such as "Work PC" or "Home Mac."
   
2. If you're running a firewall software like Windows' built-in firewall, when you complete the FolderShare installation, you may get a message asking whether the firewall should allow or block connections to and from FolderShare. For FolderShare synchronization to work, you must allow FolderShare traffic through your firewall.
   
3. On the second computer, repeat the same process. But when it comes time to set up or enter an existing account, choose "I've Already Created An Account" and enter the email address and password you set up in Step 1. If your second computer's firewall also asks, you will have to allow FolderShare through its firewall like you did on the first.

After FolderShare is set up on two computers, you're ready to start syncing folders between them. In Windows, click the FolderShare icon on the system tray and choose My FolderShare from the menu. The FolderShare web site will launch. Log in and click the Sync My Folders button, as shown.

From here, you can choose a custom folder path or choose from commonly used folders, such as My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music. After you choose a folder, select a computer that the folder should sync to and a destination on that computer. After you've selected both devices and folders, FolderShare will create what it calls a library that you can name and set to automatically sync. For example, the two computers I have FolderShare installed on are named "Desktop PC" and "Mac Laptop." I created a Work files folder on the PC's desktop, which syncs to the laptop, as shown below.

Click "Complete Setup and Start Syncing" to let FolderShare begin doing its thing. Any time you copy a file to a FolderShare folder on one computer, automatically in the background it will copy that file to the mirror folder on the remote computer. In my example, work files modified on the desktop or laptop will always stay in sync, regardless of location. As long as FolderShare is running and the computer is connected to the internet, the files will update. Note: FolderShare isn't completely unlimited—there's a 2GB individual file size and a 10,000 files per library limit on FolderShare synchronization.

Sync Files to Your PC on a Local Network with SyncToy (Windows only, but can sync to any shared folder)

Free Windows utility SyncToy is a simple tool that synchronizes files between two folders (located on the same PC or on different computers). Download the SyncToy 2.0 beta and install it one PC that will be syncing with another. Start up SyncToy and click "Create New Folder Pair" to define a "Left Folder" and a "Right Folder." Files will initially sync from left to right, so choose the folder with the source files on the left and the destination on the right. If you're syncing to another computer entirely, you will need to share the folder so that your computer can open and save files to it. (Here's more on how to share files from a PC, and how to share a folder on a Mac.)

After you've chosen the Right Folder on the other PC, click the Next button. Select Synchronize as the Folder Pair action, and click Next to name your pair something descriptive, such as "Family room photo sync." Click the Finish button.

From here, you can configure, test, or run your new folder pair action, as shown.

Set SyncToy Action Options

To exclude any files from the synchronization action (such as system files, or maybe non-image files), click the "Change Options" link. There you can exclude files by name, extension, or subfolder; exclude hidden or system files; save overwritten files in the Recycle Bin; and choose other settings for your pair, as shown in the options dialog below.

Dry-Run Your SyncToy Action

When you're satisfied with the synchronization action options, it's time to try the synchronization. Because you'll be copying large numbers of files and you don't want to accidentally overwrite anything important, you can preview the results of the sync without actually running it. Click the Preview button to see what files will be copied from where and to where, given your action specs. Adjust your action as needed. If you don't want to synchronize folders, you can also Contribute or Echo from the Left Folder to the Right Folder to perpetuate actions on the Left Folder to the Right without mirroring the contents exactly. See SyncToy's help menu for details on what the Echo and Contribute actions do.

When you're happy with the results of your SyncToy action's Preview, it's time to give it a try. Click the Run button to perform the sync between folders. You can set up any number of folder pair actions in SyncToy to copy any number of folders to any number of other computers. The other computer doesn't have to be a Windows PC; Windows just needs to be able to browse to it to select it as the Right or Left Folder in SyncToy.

After you've set up SyncToy, each time you work on files in one place, you don't have to copy them manually but instead can just run your SyncToy action to update the folders elsewhere. That is, on either the family room or den PC, you can run a SyncToy action that copies the latest digital camera photos with one click.

Sync Files Between Computers at the Command Line with rsync (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Lifehackers comfortable at the command line who want scheduled syncing between computers on the local network or over the internet can do it using the old-school command line utility rsync. Rsync comes built-in to Linux and Mac OS X, and you can download it for Windows for free (using a Unix emulator like Cygwin or on its own). Rsync requires manual configuration and some mucking with IP addresses, firewall ports, and other fun stuff if you want to use it over the internet, so I recommend it only to those who speak CLI and are comfortable rolling up their sleeves. Here's a detailed primer on how to mirror files across systems with rsync.

If you regularly sync files over the network, pick your poison:

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Are you a FolderShare/SyncToy/rsync user? What do you like or dislike about the software? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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• FEATURE,
• FILE SHARING,
• GEEK TO LIVE,
• HOME NETWORK,
• MAC OS X,
• RSYNC,
• SYNCING,
• TOP,
• WINDOWS