Sharing made simple: Dealing with tough sync scenarios

Recently, we put out a call asking all of you to help us with a problem: finding a way to sync and share calendars, task lists, and other data between different users across different platforms, simply and cheaply. We provided three hypothetical scenarios we were seeking to solve:

  • A married couple keeping track of kids' soccer practices, music lessons, and maintaining a family address book.
  • A four-person traveling sales team working on the road, mostly from smartphones and tablets.
  • A small office of a few dozen people who would like inter-office communication and project management to go smoothly.

You responded, and the answers you gave were both numerous and varied. We got suggestions for everything from command-line tools to home servers to dead-simple cloud products, and there were very few repeat answers among the 80 or so comments we received in the first 48 hours. We've evaluated your suggestions, and it’s time to share the best of what the Ars hive-mind came up with.

Because we were looking for simple and painless solutions, any suggestion requiring command line or scripting knowledge were disqualified (as interesting as some of your implementations sounded, we felt that was too much to throw at an average user). Complexity and cost also disqualified any answer that hinged on setting up your own server. And lastly, because of our cross-platform stipulations, we threw out solutions that only worked (or only worked best) with products from a specific company—though it sounds like many of you in the Apple and Microsoft camps are having success with iCloud and Windows Live Mesh, respectively.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/sharing-made-simple-dea...

Romney Team Goes on Digital Hiring Spree


Mitt Romney’s digital team is taking advantage of the unofficial end to the GOP primaries by ramping up its staff of web developers and data crunchers to compete in the general election. The move solidifies the fact that the 2012 presidential election is poised to be the most digitally sophisticated race ever – on both sides.

The general election is “a very, very different enterprise and endeavor than a contested primary that is moving from state to state very quickly,” said Romney campaign digital director Zac Moffatt, the first in-house digital director hired among the 2012 Republican primary campaigns. Moffatt has been part of the campaign staff for a year now.

Essentially, now that the campaign is no longer saddled with tough primary battles, budget can be allocated to general election infrastructure needs. “We are now able to find and supply the resources to be successful in that environment,” Moffatt said.

The Romney campaign site lists a handful of open positions such as a social media and email writer, data analyst, and software engineer. One position requires knowledge of Salesforce software and split testing for email and text messaging campaigns, for example. When asked how many people will be added to the digital team, Moffatt would only say, “a lot.” Most likely more digital boots on the ground across the country can be expected.

Many of the job ads listed feature the declaration, “The bar is rising in the political digital space.”

As media evolves, even those outside the digital staff are incorporating digital tools into their work. For instance, field organizers post photos online or use Twitter hashtags, noted Moffatt.

Some may see the digital push as merely a response to President Barack Obama’s digitally savvy campaign, but Moffatt begs to differ.

“I wouldn’t look at it in the political paradigm, as a reactive political maneuver,” he said. “I would look at it in the paradigm of what does an organization need to do in 2012 to be successful.”

The Romney camp will work as closely as possible with the Republican National Committee as the general election campaign gets into full swing. The RNC itself has enhanced its own digital capabilities with key digital hires. Execs from corporate tech and digital services firms including ShareThis and Rockfish have joined the staff to help the party vet technologies, make smarter use of data, amplify messages online, and assist the efforts of the communications, finance and politics teams.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Flickr

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, jobs, Mitt Romney


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/10/romney-hiring-digital-staff/?utm_source=feedbu...

"Business Opportunities Are Like Buses; There’s Always Another One Coming." [Quotables]

This quotation comes from business magnate Richard Branson, who has certainly seen his share of business opportunities. When we want something, we can sometimes end up with a laser-like focus on that thing. Opportunities definitely fall into that category. It's important to remember that if one thing doesn't work out, we can get started on the next. If things aren't quite working out the way you'd hoped in one instance, just get ready for the next bus to come.

from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5909399/business-opportunities-are-like-buses-theres-al...

A near-future prognosis for television: surprisingly strong, driven by more control

Television remains at the center of American life, and whatever threats exist from outside the realm of the Great BoobTube, those threats (including the Internet) are not making huge dents in TV consumption patterns. In fact, technologies like the DVR and on-demand services appear to be gaining momentum, largely making up for declines in live TV consumption. 

This is hardly a surprise. Television isn't dying—it's continuing to post strong viewership numbers (and we know that Nielsen and the like capture only a portion of the real audience). The data we have, however, makes it clear that audiences are changing the way they relate to TV. Companies that figure out the best way to service viewers' various demands—better content, served up when they want it, and viewable where they want it—will reap the profits. 

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/05/a-near-future-prognosis-for-tele...

How to Supercharge Your Dropbox or Google Drive with Wappwolf [Automation]

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could just drop a PDF in a folder and it would automatically show up on your Kindle? Or if imported photos automatically scaled themselves down to a smaller size? Or if your PDF documents automatically signed themselves? These are just a couple of examples of what Wappwolf can do along with your Dropbox or Google Drive account. Here's how to make the magic happen. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5907706/how-to-supercharge-your-dropbox-or-google-drive...

TV Now is the latest Internet-based DVR service to find courtroom trouble

Consumers around the world want a hassle-free way to record free, over-the-air television and play it back on any Internet-connected device. But every time a company creates such a service, it gets sued by copyright holders. Last year we reported on ivi, an American firm that argued that it qualified for a compulsory licensing regime designed for cable companies. The courts didn't buy it. Another American company, Aereo, is still fighting in court about whether its "tiny antennas" service is legal.

A similar fight has been happening in Australia. Optus, a major Australian telecom company, created a service called TV Now. Like ivi and Aereo, it acts as a virtual DVR, recording over-the-air television programs selected by individual customers and later streaming them to those same customers. Like its American counterparts, Optus quickly found itself in court facing charges of copyright infringement. On Friday, it suffered a major setback when an appeals court ruled the service was illegal.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/overseas-courts-no-more-frien...

Ask Engadget: best 'money is no object' laptop?

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We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Chris, who simply has too much money to blow on a super-laptop. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

"I sold my business and I want to replace my laptop [HP Pavilion G6] with a completely unreasonably expensive top of the line machine. I want it to do everything I do (gaming, coding, web design) all at the same time. Apart from the fact I need two hard drive bays, I'm completely open-minded, so what should I be buying? Thank you!"

Quell your gnashing teeth, members of the 99 percent, he's done well for himself and now he needs our help. We were able to trick out an Alienware M18x to full capacity for $6,700 -- with an over-clocked 4GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, two 2GB NVIDIA GTX 675M GPUs in SLI mode and 1.2TB of SSD RAID storage. That's the benchmark, folks: who out there can find something more powerful?

Ask Engadget: best 'money is no object' laptop? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/28/ask-engadget-best-money-no-object-laptop/

MacBook Pros may get Ivy Bridge; whither the Mac Pros? The OpenForum speculates

Earlier this week we reported on the arrival of new quad-core mobile processors, which are part of Intel's new Ivy Bridge parts. There’s quite a bit of speculation going on about how those parts could be used for a refresh of the MacBook Pro machines.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/04/macbook-pros-may-get-ivy-bridge-b...

Social Networks: Are They Eroding Our Social Lives? [STUDY]


Is the Connected Generation actually the Alienated Generation?

Nearly 40% of Americans spend more time socializing via the Internet than in real life. Almost a quarter say they have missed out on important moments because they were, ironically, distracted by trying to share those moments on social networks. Nearly 20% say they actually prefer to communicate electronically via social network or text message than talk over the phone or face-to-face.

This is all according to a recent study commissioned by the social discovery site Badoo. More than 6,000 people in the U.S., UK and Germany were queried about their social lives online and off.

While 39% of Americans say they spend more time socializing online than off, the numbers are slightly lower in the UK and Germany — 36% and 35%, respectively.

SEE ALSO: My Life Without Facebook: A Social Experiment

But Americans aren’t totally down on social networks. 84% say social networks are useful for staying in touch with far away friends, three-quarters say they’re great for reconnecting with old acquaintances and 83% say they help those who are shy and lonely meet new people.

Other data from the survey can be interpreted as either positive or negative. One in three Americans say they are more likely to meet someone new online than in the real world, while 24% say they accept friend requests from people they don’t actually care about or even like.

Social network users also appear to be becoming more cautious about what they are willing to put online. Nearly half of the Badoo study’s respondents say they have be more careful about what they share.

How do social networks enhance your social life? Do they also detract from it? Is the Connected Generation actually the Alienated Generation because of social networks? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, EricHood

More About: Facebook, Social Media, social networking, trending, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/04/25/social-networks-study/?utm_source=feedburner&u...

Drag-and-Drop To Automatically Encrypt Files in Google Drive Using Automator on Mac [Google Drive]

OS X: Google Drive is finally here, promising awesome Dropbox-like online storage and file syncing—but also the same security and privacy caveats that come with storing information on cloud servers. Macworld offers this handy file encryption tool that works with Google Drive for drag-and-drop encrypting on your desktop. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5904787/drag+and+drop-to-automatically-encrypt-files-in...