As I noted over at TheAppleBlog, Google has turned on push for Gmail on the iPhone. That means that your incoming messages will be pushed from the Google servers to your phone, instead of your phone having to call in periodically to check for new mail. It means you’ll be more up-to-date, and your phone will use a lot less of your battery’s power than if you use Apple’s Fetch alternative.
For Gmail users with an iPhone who work from home, this is great news. Often, those of us not plugged in to the corporate world miss out on the little niceties like Exchange information syncing. Google Sync, now that it includes Gmail, offers a great free alternative for those of us who’ve left our office working days behind. And it uses Microsoft Exchange technology to do it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: apple, calendar, contacts, Email, Gmail, google, Google Sync, iphone, ipod, push, sync
Good news! SugarSync, a file synchronization and backup service for PC and Mac (reviewed positively here on WWD), today started offering free accounts (previously the cheapest option was $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.)
The catch is that free accounts are limited to 2GB of storage, which will be inadequate for backing up large collections of files or music, but for syncing a few big files between machines — accessing project files on the road, for example — it could be very useful.
SugarSync differentiates itself from its competitors (like Dropbox) by offering comprehensive mobile support, with clients for iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. The free accounts announced today include access to the mobile clients.
Let us know what you think of SugarSync in the comments.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you may be interested in track-tracking and invoicing app Timewerks. Timewerks is probably best-suited for those who don’t have laptops with them all the time. But for web workers wanting a more portable invoicing solution, Timewerks is still a good option.
Overview
Timewerks creates invoices and tracks billable hours and materials used on a per-project basis. You begin by creating projects. The application contains five primary screens: Projects, Invoices, Clients, Work Items and More. The features in More include Data Export, Help and Invoice Color, while the Clients section integrates with your phone’s Contacts so you don’t have to enter contact information twice. Read the rest of this entry »
Last month, in reviewing Taskpaper 2.0, we noted the desire for simplicity in to-do applications, while, personally, I was holding out for a good Google and Apple linkup to bring together Gmail and Apple Mail.
Well, we’re not quite there yet, but Google yesterday announced that Gmail’s recently-launched Tasks feature had been repackaged for mobile browsers for iPhone and Android as well as functioning independently of Gmail. The feature works well on the iPhone, particularly when added to the Home Screen with it’s own icon, giving it the feel of a native application.
With the simultaneous availability of Tasks for iGoogle, it seems Google is taking baby steps to unbundle Tasks from Gmail; with some APIs and syncing capabilities, it could evolve into a valuable tool for web workers…and indeed, Google’s own advertising business! Now if only they’d unbundle Gmail’s Contacts, too…
The mobile Tasks feature is available at http://gmail.com/tasks, requiring users to sign in with their usual Gmail credentials.
Addendum: If you’re a Google Apps for Domain user, you won’t be able to access it through that URL. You’ll need to head to:
https://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com/
Or:
https://mail.google.com/tasks/iphone/a/yourdomain.com/
https://mail.google.com/tasks/android/a/yourdomain.com/
Hat tip to James for pointing this out.
Photo by Josh Bancroft
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I never listen to music on my iPod. Seriously. I keep a playlist of 25 songs on it just in case I get the urge to listen to music, but I never do. And yet, I listen to my iPod for a minimum of 30 minutes every day and often for several hours.
Instead of music, I fill my iPod with audio podcasts. I don’t watch the news on TV or listen to the radio, so I rely on podcasts as my primary way to consume some types of news (blogs and feeds are also a big part of how I consume information). I use iTunes subscriptions, which allow my podcasts to automagically appear on my computer every day, and I sync my iPod first thing in the morning so that it is ready at all times.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’m downloading apps like crazy onto my iPod Touch, trying to find the perfect combination of tools to make it more than just a great entertainment device. I was especially inspired by Judi Sohn’s post about her iPhone, one month later.
I’m still on the fence about purchasing it only because it isn’t like an iPhone with its near-ubiquitous connection to the Internet and online work tools. When I’m not around wifi, it is not as useful to me from a work standpoint. So in addition to looking for work-related applications, I’ve been scoping out any application that can also support offline work.
Here’s my growing list of iPod Touch/iPhone apps that are giving me added productivity when I’m not around my MacBook.
Read the rest of this entry »
As I noted over at TheAppleBlog, Google has turned on push for Gmail on the iPhone. That means that your incoming messages will be pushed from the Google servers to your phone, instead of your phone having to call in periodically to check for new mail. It means you’ll be more up-to-date, and your phone will use a lot less of your battery’s power than if you use Apple’s Fetch alternative.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
