1. September 30, 2011
batteryfast.co.uk
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet,
and Smartphone
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet,
and Smartphone
What Do You Need to Sync?
A few years ago business people carried a laptop
on the road, used a desktop PC in the office, and Before you start downloading a bunch of cloud-
worked on another PC at home. Maybe they had a connected apps, take a second to lay out your needs.
BlackBerry, too–but only if they were real big shots. For example, if you mostly work at home, and you
attend relatively few meetings, you might not need
to sync your calendar across multiple devices. If
you’re a writer or some other creative type on the
These days almost go, you may want a way to log your constant stream
everyone has a smart- of ideas electronically. If you’re working on a joint
phone, whether it runs project, you may need to share a variety of docu-
Android, iOS, Windows ments with your colleagues.
Phone 7, or BlackBerry
OS. You may also carry a tablet with a different OS Another key point is to understand which of your
than your phone. And you might pack an ultralight platforms need to share data, and which types of
MacBook Air in addition to your Windows-based data you need to share. For example, I have a Wi-
computer at home or at the office. Fi-only iPad 2 that I use exclusively as an email and
Web-browsing tool; I don’t really need to access my
Managing those disparate devices, with their assor- work data with it, though I do use it infrequently
ted operating systems, applications, and connecti- as a note-taking tool.
vity options, can be a nightmare. But with the right
mix of software and services, you can easily handle If you work in a corporate environment, you have
multiple platforms and integrate your data. to take your company’s IT policies into considera-
tion, as well. Your IT managers may have their own
I use several platforms. At home, I’m on Windows ideas about which kinds of information the company
7, when I’m working on my desktop PC. For travel, wants living in the cloud versus on its own servers.
I recently shifted to a MacBook Air running Mac Be sure to touch base with your IT department if
OS X Lion. I also have an iPad 2, which I use mostly you think you might want to share potentially sen-
for occasional email checking and Web browsing. sitive or proprietary information across devices or
My main mobile phone is an iPhone–but a Droid X, platforms.
which runs Android, has replaced my office landline.
joliprint
The bottom line is that your integration needs will
As you can see, I own a fairly eclectic mix of devices vary depending on what you do, how much you
and platforms. It’s quite a juggling act, keeping all of travel, and which platforms you carry with you.
them in sync. Thanks to some useful applications, With that in mind, it’s time to take a look at a few
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though, it gets much easier.
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2. September 30, 2011
batteryfast.co.uk
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet, and Smartphone
different scenarios, as well as applications that might load and install Windows Live Mesh. That isn’t a
be useful in each case. bad thing, though, as Live Mesh also lets you share
more than just IE settings: You can sync Office tem-
plates across computers, and also sync important
folders with Windows Live SkyDrive, Microsoft’s
See Also: cloud-storage service.
Syncing Browser Data Syncing Notes
It’s easy to sync Evernote’s Web
all Chrome set- interface.Pe-
tings and book- rhaps you just
marks.Maybe want to keep
you don’t notes across
create a ton of multiple de-
documents, vices, but you
but you are a don’t always
heav y- duty work in the
Web user. For- same location.
tunately, all the Maybe you’re out shopping, and an idea comes to
major browsers now allow you to sync bookmarks, you, so you need to jot it down on the notepad in
passwords, and other data across platforms. Google your mobile phone. Or maybe you’ve settled into
Chrome is the most transparent, assuming that you your airliner seat, and you want to enter a quick
have a Gmail login–just enable sync under the ‘Per- note on your smartphone before shutting it down
sonal Stuff’ tab on the Chrome options panel. for takeoff.
Firefox is more painful to sync: You have to enter a In this case, one of the best online choices is Ever-
special passcode on all systems where you wish to note. A free note-taking application at first glance,
enable Firefox Sync. It’s enough of an annoyance Evernote is actually a cloud-based service. Every
that it’s one reason I generally avoid using Firefox time you write a note in Evernote, your local note-
now. book syncs up with the Web-based version. Ever-
note also manages to maintain a consistent interface
Sync your IE across its desktop, Web, and laptop versions, though
settings using the mobile versions do look different
Windows Live
Mesh.You can Evernote offers a slick array of options that can help
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sync Internet you integrate it into different platforms. An Outlook
Explorer book- plugin, for instance, lets you easily add email entries
marks, but the to Evernote. You can have multiple notebooks, share
task requires specific notebooks with other users, and add tags
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you to down-
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3. September 30, 2011
batteryfast.co.uk
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet, and Smartphone
to entries. Evernote even has a small marketplace music, movies, Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents,
of Evernote-related applications. PDFs, and so on), or send a file to another app that
can better handle that file’s format.
Another sharing tool is Live Mesh, which I mentio-
Managing Documents Across Devices ned previously in the section on browser-sync tools.
Although it’s more Windows-centric, Windows Live
You prepare a lot of do- Mesh also runs on Macs. The only mobile devices it
cuments, but moving currently supports are Windows Phone 7 handsets,
them back and forth but Android and iOS clients are in development.
between different plat-
forms can be a chore.
Not to worry, however:
You have a few different Creating and Editing Office Documents on
ways to sync your documents, depending on whether the Go
you need to be able to create and edit them on each
of your devices, or whether you can get by with What if you need to create and edit on multiple
editing files on PCs and simply viewing them on platforms? Even if you usually start your Microsoft
your smartphone or tablet. Office documents on a desktop PC, sometimes you’ll
want to make changes when you’re viewing them
For instance, if you primarily edit and create on a on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Windows PC but you need to view documents on
non-Windows platforms, you’ll probably do fine Syncing related devices, such as a Windows Phone 7
with Dropbox, a cloud-based storage application handset and a Windows PC, is fairly straightforward.
and service. Dropbox creates a folder on your sys- In that case you’re likely running Office–and with
tem that you can share with other devices, using a tools such as Live Mesh or Dropbox, you can easily
Dropbox account you create. You can specify folders move documents back and forth. However, this ar-
for sharing with other users, too. It’s easy and simple. rangement assumes that you have client software
You get 2GB of free storage, but prices increase ra- running on both your PC and your mobile device.
pidly after that: The next tier is 50GB and costs $10
per month. (You can increase your free storage by If you have a mix of Mac OS, iOS, and Windows de-
referring other users.) Dropbox is great because it vices, you can still use Microsoft Office or Office-like
works across most platforms–I have Dropbox run- tools. Versions of Office run on Mac OS and Windows,
ning on Mac OS, Windows 7, Windows Vista, iOS, allowing easy document exchange. For instance, I
and Android. have Mac Office 11 on the MacBook Air, Office 2010
for Windows on my desktop PCs, and Quickoffice
On Windows and Mac OS, Dropbox creates a folder HD on my iPad. (I don’t have Quickoffice for the
that behaves just as any other data folder does, but iPhone, because I use my phone mainly for brow-
joliprint
any document you place in the Dropbox folder be- sing, not editing.) Quickoffice is also available for
comes available across all your Dropbox-enabled Android devices.
devices. Dropbox is an app on Android and iOS, but
you still have access to all your files through the app; Google Docs lets
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you can use it to read common formats (images, you edit and
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4. September 30, 2011
batteryfast.co.uk
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet, and Smartphone
share files easily, but you must be connected to the You sync your
Internet.But you might not want to pay for client contacts and
software on multiple systems–that can get expensive, calendar with
fast. You can save money by sticking to a cloud-based your iOS de-
office suite. The downside of such services, of course, vice on a per-
is that if you aren’t connected to the Internet, you device level.If
don’t have access to the apps. Also, if the cloud ser- you’re running
vice itself is down, then none of your devices can some flavor of
use the service. Microsoft Of-
fice, syncing
On the upside, using cloud-based services is chea- the calendar
per than buying several office suites (at their most and contact
basic level, the services are usually free), and you manager on
can more easily share documents with other people. your PC with
those on your
The granddaddy of these services–in product matu- smartphone has become a little easier: A number
rity, if not age–is Google Docs. It’s free for individual of iOS and Android tools can sync Office schedules
users; paid subscriptions, plus support, are offered and contacts with mobile devices.
for businesses.
On the iOS side, syncing is built in, though you do
Microsoft has a similar service called Office Live; it need to run iTunes. You have to sync your contacts
works well, but the individual apps are a little less and calendar on a per-device level, so if you have
elegant than Google Docs. Microsoft also provides both an iPad and iPhone, you’ll need to set them
Office 365, a paid version. Office 365 is a more-robust up individually.
package for small businesses, integrating a host of
client- and cloud-based applications, but it requires MyPhoneExplo-
a per-user monthly subscription. rer offers one
way to get your
Overall, sharing and editing office documents Android phone
is much easier today than it was even two years to sync with
ago. Getting everything to flow in both directions Outlook .An-
seamlessly still takes a little time and effort. But droid gets a
document syncing is more powerful now, and it little tricky–on
makes working across long distances much easier. this platform,
you need a
third-party app to sync contacts and appointments
with Outlook. One app I’ve found that works well
Syncing Contacts and Calendars is MyPhoneExplorer. You have to install both the
joliprint
MyPhoneExplorer app on your Android device and
Of all the usage scenarios, this one may be the most client software on your PC. The user interface is a
difficult to deal with. But the problem itself is ea- little 20th century; once configured, however, the
sier to parse when it comes to platforms. Business app seems to work well.
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users often work with three devices: a desktop PC,
a laptop, and a smartphone.
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/battery-technology/tech-news-how-to-sync-your-pc-tablet-and-smartphone/
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5. September 30, 2011
batteryfast.co.uk
Tech News: How to Sync Your PC, Tablet, and Smartphone
It’s a Multiplatform World
Even if you religiously stick with one brand in order
to minimize integration hassles, you may still need
to work with other platforms. Fortunately, with the
right tools it’s not hard to ensure that all of your
documents and devices integrate seamlessly.
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