i have mastered the late '90s technology of synchronization.
well, i'm doing something i could have been doing years ago. autonomous phone synchronization with my laptop, when in proximity. essentially harnessing the power of bluetooth to keep my phone up to date.
this is cool. getting updates from outlook automatically -when i'm nearby- without any fuss. it's is one of those geek superpowers everyone dreams about eventually. the desire for devices to relay information, without physical connection - without intervention.
it's a little unnerving. how do you know what the devices will do?? i kinda feel like it will just puree all my data if i'm not involved, to keep an eye on things. i still need to enable bluetooth on each, but that's it. the device checks for updates, in the background.
i'm also have my palm, rex, & yahoo set up for simple one button sync. and i've ~beamed~ my v-card to friends, just for fun really. no one really uses infrared & beaming, do they?
i think the goal, is that management for all this is simple, and stress free. if you think about it, synchronization technology must balance two philosophies. balancing the need for awareness and intervention, with the desire for total seemless, autonomous integration. this means the applications must be written, esentially twice -- in order to encompass what people want on both ends.
all my devices have unique constraints, which makes getting everything set up a challenge. but for the most part, they all play pretty well together.