Ever since my first cellphone, the sexy Motorola RAZR V3, I not only got worried that I couldn't easily backup the data that's in there, but also that it would synchronize with my existing data from my other devices. My main concern back then was my address book, though Macs back then came with a rudimentary tool called iSync that managed to synchronize contact information, so I was all set.
Still, it was a throwback to the days where syncing a device like a Palm Pilot was an risky ritual, where the crappy desktop tool could crash at any time, and every sync might bring countless errors and loss of information. I can partly understand the risks: there is not universal standard for calendaring and contacts, and the few ones commonly used (vCard and iCalendar) are rife with proprietary extensions that will surely be lost in the conversion process and may contain important information for each device.
With my next phone, the imported Motorola RIZR Z8, I bought the aptly named software The Missing Sync, which indeed sync everything properly. Still, it was far from seamless, as I would have to initiate myself by at the very least turning on my laptop while the cellphone was around.
And so are gone the days of syncing, somewhat. Online tools like iCloud, Dropbox, Remember the Milk and Evernote do sync data across devices, but their "always there" presence of your data online and automatic sync makes the whole process transparent. True, those are even less "standards", and backing up your data outside of those services requires some (easy) manual effort, but with such convenience I can't even think of going back to those "conflict resolution" synchronization days.
Published on July 5, 2012 at 21:30 EDT
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