Image copyright J.D.S.

When you phrase the question that way, the answer becomes pretty obvious. You worry about your driver’s license and credit cards and, in particular, the information contained on those pieces of plastic. Wallets and credit cards are really just vehicles for valuable data.

At the same time, those vehicles come in handy when you’re in the checkout line at Target.

This two-part relationship is an essential element in the evolution of what you could call the storage fabric. The storage fabric consists of the ability to access data nearly anywhere at any time, as well as a superstructure of hardware, software and services to deliver and manage it. It’s much like your relationship with electricity — you probably didn’t buy a diesel generator to get electricity into your home: You plugged into the grid.

In the ideal storage fabric, consumers and businesses will store oft-needed information on their smart phones and notebooks for rapid access and better performance. Services like Amazon Cloud Services, Dropbox, or our own eVault, meanwhile, will archive your personal history, filter out redundancies and unnecessary information and gather new material that you might find interesting.

Applying for mortgages, sharing medical information and confirming educational and employment history will be far easier because your history — and the history of those you’re dealing with — will be at your fingertips through secure connections and permissions. Information brokerage services like those being created by Reputation.com will allow you to selectively give your information to marketers.

Your personal devices and the cloud, along with being plugged into the fabric, would also continually study your habits and act in the background to keep you up to date. If your phone falls into a storm drain, you can just switch to a new one: It will have everything you need. If the cloud stalls or there is a security breach, you’re not locked out.

Apple, and companies like those listed above, has started to take initial steps with services like automatic syncing, but we’re still a long way away. Some of these services are for hardware customers only. Sharing can require several steps. In the future, companies will install local storage islands around cities for smoother, faster streaming. Software will be required to help you navigate, prioritize and edit the growing stack of information.

It is easy to forget, but superstructure — hardware — is a crucial part of the equation to make everything easy. Google renamed its document service GDrive for a reason.

A movement toward a storage fabric like this represents the next logical step in the history of information. For the first five thousand years of civilization, information was largely tied to physical media: scribes carved directives from the king in tablets and third grade teachers resorted to the copy machine for homework assignments. The advent of digital and magnetic technologies in the second half of the 20th Century marked a watershed moment, because they dramatically eliminated a substantial portion of the physical bulk and legwork required to store information. Documents and datasheets could be edited on the fly. Just as important, archiving and managing data became fundamentally easier: file clerks, once a substantial portion of the workforce, suddenly were as common as blacksmiths. Still, only finite copies of most documents existed: things could easily be lost.

The Internet took things a step further by breaking the relationship between information and its physical media. Hotmail, the one-time king of email services which Microsoft recently transformed into Outlook.com, probably deserves some of the credit for convincing customers about the benefits of remote access. When Hotmail was founded in 1996, email was still a thing: you downloaded software onto your computer to receive email and all of your messages were stored on your laptop or desktop. With Hotmail, users could suddenly easily access messages anywhere, not just from a particular PC. Consumers no longer owned the drives and computers where their messages lived. The information was theirs, but the superstructure wasn’t.

Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook soon followed. From a user’s perspective, you could make infinite copies and get unlimited access to anything. This split, however, introduces a new set of challenges. Users are no longer responsible for the health and maintenance of the systems that store their data: they expect companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google to do it for them. And while these companies have created state-of-the-art data centers and backup systems that function at incredibly high levels of reliability, reality sometimes intrudes. Crashes occur, and instead of one person in a cubicle complaining about a lost file, it’s a whole swarm of angry, impatient consumers. Security demands will grow as sensitive information shifts finally from paper to active files.

Remote access also potentially means a gargantuan increase in data packets. To keep networks humming, service providers will have to develop caching, recovery and de-duplication strategies to minimize the volume of traffic and the distances individual bits have to travel.

Finally, managing the massive and never ending increase in structured and unstructured data has its own inherent challenges. Which data goes where? When does the consumer want to access that data and how? Companies like Seagate and many others will look to tackle that challenge and deliver on this concept called the storage fabric. Consumers won’t have to worry about the back-end technical gymnastics and complicated algorithms that are managing their data. They only need to focus on a single view of their digital world, regardless of their device.

The hard work, however, will pay off. It will lead to what people think of when they think of the “cloud.” Not the reality of millions of machines anonymously churning away. Instead, it will just be the data, which is more valuable than any individual device.

You won’t have to think about a storage fabric. It will just be there.

The new Jawbone Up

But now, nearly a year after the company pressed “pause” on its first activity-tracking wristband, Jawbone is giving it a second go.

The new Up band, announced today, promises to fix earlier issues with the product, and comes with much-improved mobile software that offers a more comprehensive data-tracking experience.

The Up looks pretty much the same as it always did. But the company says the band has improved water resistance — one of the reasons why the first band couldn’t hold a battery charge — and better circuit-board pliancy, allowing it to be flexible while protecting the tiny components inside from damage.

In addition to recording activity, the Up mobile app now includes a Trends tab that allows side-by-side comparisons of personal metrics. There are also Moods, which allow the user to say if they’re feeling cranky or like they’re going to conquer the world on any particular day; and more detailed food logging, with a bar-code scanner for scanning food items.

With the last Up, Jawbone’s solution for food tracking was to tell users to snap and add photos to the app. Now, Up provides actual data, like calories and grams of sugar in a particular food item.

And for users who want to track intense workouts, there are now options to log running, yoga or cycling sessions, among other activities.

The wristband costs $129 — $30 more than the original Up — and hits the market today. It’s available through the Apple Store, AT&T, Target, Best Buy and Jawbone’s own Web site. The free app works only on iOS devices to start.

The redesigned Up arrives 11 months after Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman had to issue an apology to some Up owners who were complaining about technical and design issues with the first wristband.

Jawbone also initiated a “no questions asked” refund program (which the company says is technically still in effect, for those who haven’t yet requested a refund on the original Up).

Since then, the Bay Area-based start-up has conducted 46 weeks of user tests and trials, across “thousands” of Jawbone Up devices, the company said.

In the foreground: The guts of the new Jawbone Up, compared with the earlier model

While the redesigned band boasts some important features that weren’t in the previous version of the product, it’s coming to market at a time of increasing competition in the area where mobile health meets wearable tech.

Earlier this year, Nike introduced its own version of an activity-tracking wristband, the Nike+ FuelBand, which also syncs with an iPhone app. Nike uses its own currency, called “fuel,” to measure the wearer’s exertion level.

And Lark, maker of a wearable sleep sensor, just announced its own holistic wristband-with-app, called Larklife, that tracks activity, sleep and eating patterns. Lark CEO Julia Hu declined to give details on when the product will launch, except to say it will hit “this holiday season.”

Both the Nike+ FuelBand and the Larklife bands cost around $150.

But there’s likely to be more competition in the near future. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this coming January, the CEA expects to see more than 215 exhibitors — about 25,000 square feet of exhibit space — devoted to tech surrounding weight loss, body mass, calorie-tracking and other areas of health and wellness. Compared with last year’s CES, this is a 25 percent increase in tech health exhibitors, according to Jeff Joseph, senior vice president of communications for the CEA.

I have a new iPad and am trying to learn how to use it. Is it possible to move any of my Picasa photos and/or my music over to this thing?

A:

Assuming your music is on your PC or Mac, it’s easy to move it to your iPad. Just install Apple’s iTunes software, and perform a sync. You can move all or some of your music. Picasa is a Google service that isn’t directly supported by Apple.

However, there are a number of iPad apps that will let you view photos in the Web version of Picasa and do other things. Just go to the app store and search for “Picasa.”

Q:

Is there a product that syncs calendars over all or most products?

A:

Google Calendar, which can be used via a Web browser, will always be up-to-date, regardless of whether you add, delete, or change an event. You can access it in Web browsers on PCs and Macs, iPhones and iPads and, naturally, devices powered by Google’s own Android operating system.

If you’d rather use dedicated calendar apps instead of a Web browser, Google Calendar can also be viewed and managed via programs like Outlook on Windows, iCal on the Mac, and the built-in calendar apps on iPhone, iPad and Android.

Q:

We are on vacation in the U.K. with an iPhone and noticed that AT&T billed us for data charges for use of a free Wi-Fi hot spot.

Is this typical? The company says it is “looking into it.”

A:

An AT&T spokesman says: “You should not incur international roaming charges for usage on a free Wi-Fi hot spot.” I’ll say. Cellular carrier data plans, even when used at high extra rates overseas, are about use of the cellular networks, not other companies’ Wi-Fi services. They should do more than “look into it.”

Write to Walt mossberg@wsj.com.

My home PC using XP has become very unreliable and I am intending to replace it. The question is whether to move on to Windows 7 or switch to Apple? Our house is a Windows house with Windows based external hard drives, games and photo-processing software. However Microsoft’s products seem to lose reliability over time. Then there is the virus issue. In contrast, I have yet to come across anybody who has made the switch from Windows to Apple and regretted it.

A:

My bet is you’d likely be happy with Apple, but, given your long and total commitment to Windows, I would wait to see how you feel about the heavily revamped new Windows 8, due this fall, and the new PCs on which it will come preinstalled.

Q:

My wife and I recently switched to HTC Thunderbolt Android phones and find we cannot easily coordinate our phones and computers. Often when we sync, we get double and triple contacts and events. Is there a phone or something that can easily work for us?

A:

It’s hard to know what specific issue your phones or accounts are having. Android phones naturally use Google Calendar and Google Contacts, and, in my experience, they sync both calendar events and contacts well among Android mobile devices, PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads, even with multiple users. On computers, most Google Calendar and Contacts users access these services from within Web browsers (contacts are typically accessed from within Gmail.) However, if syncing won’t work for you, try one of the many other calendar or contact apps in the Google Play store, before going to new phones.

Last week, Ford Motor Company officially opened a new “lab” in Silicon Valley, a move to get it immersed into the tech scene here and also burnish its innovation cred.

The reasons for the move — which some other car companies have also made — are myriad, including focusing on leveraging big data from its four million cars that have a variety of sensing and other synching technology embedded in them.

It’s all been part of an aggressive effort by Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and CEO Alan Mulally to double down on tech as a key differentiator of its automobiles.

That includes Ford’s nifty hands-free SYNC offering, which lets consumers control a variety of devices without interfering with driving. Detroit-based Ford has opened up the technology to allow third-party development using SYNC.

Now comes the inevitable Palo Alto, Calif., office in the heart of the digital industry, to push Ford further and to move the company from the car business to the “mobility” one.

That’s according to Paul Mascarenas, the charming CTO of Ford Research and Innovation, who leads the global development and implementation of the company’s technology strategy.

He talked about a wide range of issues for automakers going forward — from air bags in seatbelts to cars that sense your every move.

Mascarenas was even brave enough to let me drive him around in Ford’s latest all-electric vehicle — the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, with a range of 90 miles — which I thankfully did not crash into some geek on University Avenue.

Here’s the video of the interview:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120624/fords-cto-drives-new-silicon-valley-office-opening-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120424/meet-google-drive-specs-and-screenshots/ http://allthingsd.com/20120424/meet-google-drive-specs-and-screenshots/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:30:43 +0000 Liz Gannes http://allthingsd.com/?p=199464 Google Drive launches today as a revamped version of Google Docs, with greatly improved storage and accompanying software. Google has had a serious case of amateur hour while trying to keep this product a secret, but now people can stop speculating and start seeing if this is something they want to use.

Google Drive will start being available to some users today, and it will roll out globally “over the next several weeks,” said a spokeswoman.

Walt Mossberg has a thorough review, and I also have an interview with Chrome and Apps SVP Sundar Pichai and Google Drive product manager Scott Johnston that I’ll publish soon. But for the sake of setting them out clearly, here are some of the basic Google Drive specs:

• Each Google Drive includes 5 gigabytes of free storage. Docs created with Google don’t count against that limit.
• Users can pay for up to 16 terabytes of storage — 25GB for $2.49 per month, 100GB for $4.99, 1TB for $49.99, 16TB for $799.99 — with many levels in between. Drive will also be included for enterprise Google Apps users as part of their pricing structure.
• Drive is available for Web, Mac, PC and Android phones and tablets. The team showed me a working version on an iPad, and said iOS would be available very soon.
• Drive is the new Docs. For users who have Drive on their accounts, docs.google.com will start redirecting to drive.google.com. All of users’ Google Docs are automatically imported into their Drives.
• In addition to creating regular Google Docs files, users can install apps through the Chrome Web Store. The 18 launch partners include HelloFax (faxes), Balsamiq (mock-ups), Lucidchart (diagrams), DocuSign (signatures), SlideRocket (presentations) and MindMeister (mind maps).
• There are lots of ways to sort and view files, including an activity stream of all the most recently modified documents that you have access to, and a grid view that shows thumbnails.
• Users can also search across all their files, with image recognition and optical character recognition automatically applied to new pictures and scanned documents so they can be more easily searched even if they don’t have much metadata.
• When users click to add a photo in Google+, they’ll now have the option of taking it directly from their personal Google Drives. Google Drive will also be available for attachments in Gmail, but not at launch.
• There are chat conversations associated with every file, where users get notified whenever someone leaves a new comment.

View the slideshow

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120424/meet-google-drive-specs-and-screenshots/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111130/apple-itunes-match-review/ http://allthingsd.com/20111130/apple-itunes-match-review/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:03:21 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=148916 One of the more interesting ideas in the new wave of cloud-computing services is the music locker. This is a service that lets consumers store their music collections on a remote server and access them from any device, either by streaming the tunes or downloading them.

Amazon and Google offer such locker services. But they have a big downside: You have to upload all your music to your locker first. If you have a collection of several thousand songs or more, that can take days as most home Internet connections have slow upload speeds, even if their download speeds are decent.

Now, Apple has introduced a locker service that mostly eliminates that problem by doing away with the need to upload the vast majority of your music, while still allowing you to populate your locker with your songs quickly and easily. It’s called iTunes Match, and it’s the last piece in the company’s rollout of its massive iCloud initiative, which includes things like wireless synchronization of contacts and calendars.

Here’s how it works. Instead of making you upload your song files to Apple’s servers, iTunes Match scans the iTunes library on your Macs or Windows PCs, then matches the titles you have with the 20 million songs Apple has the right to distribute via its iTunes store. If your songs are included in that 20 million, Apple simply places them in your online locker. In almost all cases, users will be left with only a small remnant of songs to upload—such as recordings by garage bands. (ITunes Match works only for digital music, not movies, TV shows or audiobooks, even if they’re available in iTunes.)

Once the songs are in the cloud, they also appear in your library in iTunes on computers, or in the Music apps on iPads, iPhones and iPod touch devices. You can stream the music, or press an icon with a downward arrow inside a cloud to download it. You can include up to 10 devices in iTunes Match. Plus, iTunes Match—which costs $25 a year for up to 25,000 songs—covers any song you own, regardless of how you obtained it. That includes songs purchased from non-Apple music services or imported from CDs, or even those that were downloaded illegally.

Pressing the cloud icon beside a song downloads it to a device.

I’ve been testing iTunes Match on several Macs, a Windows PC, and on an iPad and an iPhone. In general, I found Match delivers on its promises, despite some limitations and glitches, several of which Apple told me it will remedy via software updates.

Because of Match, my music collection is now complete and essentially identical on all my computers and on my iPad and iPhone, allowing me to access any of my songs from any of these devices, without manual synchronization via a cable, or paying more than once for the same song. My Match locker is even accessible from my Apple TV device.

Match is an optional addition to an existing free service called iTunes in the Cloud, which covers only songs you bought from Apple’s iTunes store, or which you buy there in the future. Songs bought from the iTunes store don’t count against the 25,000-song limit in iTunes Match.

Google’s music locker is currently free, but limited to 20,000 songs. Amazon is now offering unlimited music storage for $20 a year as part of a broader plan that allows storing various types of files in the cloud.

One nice aspect of iTunes Match is that even if your songs are in a lower-quality format before they go into your iTunes Match locker, Apple streams or downloads them in a relatively high-quality format.

In my tests, I scanned and matched the iTunes libraries on several computers containing all my music—about 5,500 songs, a number Apple says is fairly typical for iTunes users. The process took under an hour, including the time needed to upload the minority of songs Apple couldn’t match. However, I have a mostly commercial collection and a fast Internet upload link in my home. I have heard from at least one colleague with a larger library and a slower Internet broadband link, who says it is taking forever to upload his nonmatched songs to Apple.

In my case, some of my songs weren’t accepted by iTunes Match, and were marked with cryptic icons that Apple doesn’t adequately explain. A handful were declined because of an unspecified “error.” Apple later told me these files were corrupted, sometimes so subtly that it didn’t affect playback. Others were declared “ineligible.” Mostly, these songs had been imported from CD years ago at a quality rate of lower than 128 kilobits per second. Also ineligible are things like audiobooks or PDF booklets Apple sells with some albums.

In my case, these exceptions were reasonable and few, but Apple needs to explain them better. The company says it is working on doing just that. In the case of the subtly corrupt files, Apple says a new version of iTunes coming soon will be more liberal about disqualifying a song.

I also ran into two Match problems on my iPhone and iPad that Apple says are bugs that will be fixed in an upcoming release of the operating system for those devices. One bug scrambles the alphabetical order of songs, albums and artists. Another causes album art to either never appear, or to show up only when a song is almost done playing. Apple won’t say when the bug fixes will be ready.

There are a couple of issues that Apple has no intention of changing. One: If a person has more than 25,000 songs, Match won’t allow the user to designate a subsection for storage in the cloud.

The other: On iPhones and iPads, Apple downloads the whole of any cloud-based song you’re streaming, even if you don’t want it on your device. Apple says it does this for smooth playback, and for playback when you’re offline. It adds that all songs stored on your hand-held devices are now placed in a special cache from which old or rarely played songs are automatically removed periodically to make room for new ones.

In all, I like iTunes Match, and can recommend it to digital music lovers who want all their tunes on all their devices. It’s another nice feature of iCloud, priced reasonably.

Write to Walt at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111130/apple-itunes-match-review/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111011/apple-helps-devices-get-their-heads-in-the-cloud/ http://allthingsd.com/20111011/apple-helps-devices-get-their-heads-in-the-cloud/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:00:59 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://allthingsd.com/?p=131272

Apple devices can be addictive: People buy one tiny iPod, fall in love, and end up with three or four other Apple products. Now if only they could see all their data on all those devices simultaneously.

Starting today, they can.

ICloud is designed to store and replicate documents, music, apps and 1,000 photos on PCs, the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It also syncs contacts, calendars and email so all your machines and devices have the same data and content. It will back up five gigabytes of data, but certain types aren’t counted against that total. The best part: It’s free.

Thanks to iCloud, the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch all have the same document with no work on the user’s part.

I’ve been testing iCloud’s sync ability between a MacBook Pro, iPhone 4S and iPad 3G. I also accessed and added content using iCloud.com. At first, I ran into a few hiccups with syncing photos, but an Apple spokesman explained that the company’s servers were occasionally down while they were being prepared for Wednesday’s iCloud launch. After that, iCloud worked without a hitch—well enough that I stopped thinking about which device held what since they were all updated with the same content.

Over the weekend, I imported 300 photos my parents took on a recent trip to Italy, forgetting that my computer was set up with iCloud. When I picked up my iPhone later, the Grand Canal in Venice and the Duomo in Florence were staring back at me in Photos. Same with my iPad.

On the downside, iCloud doesn’t automatically sync videos to other devices. In WiFi, it won’t sync edited photos if edits are made on a device after its camera app is closed. (This includes removing red eye, cropping and auto-enhancing images.) And document sharing on iCloud is focused on sharing with oneself, not with other people, unlike the document-sharing solutions from Google and Microsoft.

I found iCloud’s most useful feature to be Photo Stream, which automatically sends images captured by an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch up to iCloud and replicates them on all other iCloud devices, one by one. Watching these photos pop onto the screen of my computer, iPad or iPhone was nothing short of delightful.

Photos are pushed via iCloud to the Mac and PC in their full resolution and sent to the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone in a resolution that’s optimized for those displays.

Photo Stream sends images captured by mobile devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, up to iCloud and replicates them on all other iCloud devices.

By default, any images imported to a PC or Mac are automatically sent into Photo Stream, though this setting can be turned off. Devices need only be powered on and in WiFi to receive images from Photo Stream.

Each photo remains in Photo Stream for 30 days, and only the last 1,000 are saved there. Photos moved into albums on devices will be kept permanently, while Macs and Windows PCs have no photo limit because of their larger storage capacities.

A WiFi network is also required for Backup in iCloud, which backs up purchased music, TV shows, apps, books, device settings, app data, messages, ringtones and images in Photo Stream. Only documents and email count against a person’s five gigabytes of free iCloud storage.

Higher storage capacities are available for an annual fee: $20 for 10 gigabytes, $40 for 20 gigabytes or $100 for 50 gigabytes.

Not Just Photos

Documents can be synced to all devices through iCloud using iWork apps. These include Pages, Keynote and Numbers, and each costs $10 in the App Store. I tested this with ease, creating documents—like a flyer I made using a photo of a church that I took with my iPhone camera—that synced with my iPad and vice versa. Changes to documents appeared the same across all devices and at icloud.com almost instantly.

To get an iCloud account, you’ll need either a Mac that’s running OS X Lion, Apple’s latest operating system, or a mobile device with iOS 5.

Starting Wednesday, when users can install the newest software on one of these machines, they will be prompted to set up iCloud. Once you have this account, iCloud will work with a Windows PC running Vista or Windows 7; instructions explain how to set up and use iCloud on Macs or Windows PCs. ICloud is also accessible via Web browser at icloud.com.

If you have an account with Apple’s MobileMe email and storage service, the company will offer to integrate it with your iCloud account. (MobileMe will be discontinued after June.) If you don’t have a MobileMe account, on-screen prompts will walk you through setting up a free me.com email address from any iOS device or computer. I did this in seconds using my MacBook, and noticed that my Mail and Notes were immediately replicated on all devices through iCloud.

Match That Tune

ITunes Match, an important piece of iCloud, wasn’t available for testing yet. To make sure your music library has a high-quality recording of each song, iTunes Match will scan your library for anything not purchased from Apple and then give you access to the high-quality iTunes track in the cloud and on all other devices. Match will be available at the end of this month for $25 a year and will work with up to 25,000 tracks.

Another interesting feature that wasn’t available for testing was Find My Friends, a free app that works with iCloud and is Apple’s answer to Foursquare. It will let iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users find another user’s location—in list or map view—as long as they accept an invitation. Temporary location sharing will be possible with this app, enabling sharing with a specific number of people for a specific amount of time. This might come in handy during a family vacation or at a day-long music festival with friends.

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• New Apple Software Adds Features to Older Phones

Full Apple Coverage »

Email Katie at katie.boehret@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111011/apple-helps-devices-get-their-heads-in-the-cloud/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110413/automatic-syncing/ http://allthingsd.com/20110413/automatic-syncing/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:00:18 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/?p=893 Q:

I am looking for a program to sync folders between computers automatically. So far, I have found two candidates: Syncplicity and SugarSync. I’d like to hear your opinion.

A:

I have never tried Syncplicity, so I can’t comment on it. Despite the occasional glitch, I have found SugarSync to be reliable and I use it regularly as a paid subscriber. It syncs selected folders among a whole clutch of PCs and Macs I own and stores the files in the cloud, allowing access from the Web. There are some downsides. It doesn’t support syncing Outlook data files. And while it can back up photos and music to the cloud, and make them accessible via a browser or smartphone app, it can’t properly sync iPhoto and iTunes libraries—the databases that organize the media within those programs—among multiple computers.

Q:

I am shopping for an iPad 2 and want 3G capability in addition to Wi-Fi. I am wondering if you recommend the AT&T version or the Verizon version? I live in Washington, but plan to use it in New York City as well.

A:

I have only tested the Verizon version of the iPad 2, and have found that the 3G function works fine for me in both those cities. I can’t say how AT&T works on the latest iPad, but on the original model, I found that, while it was good in D.C., it was sometimes unreliable in New York.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns at walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110413/automatic-syncing/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110409/google-acquires-canadian-mobile-music-syncing-software/ http://allthingsd.com/20110409/google-acquires-canadian-mobile-music-syncing-software/#comments Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:44:14 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=4327 Google has purchased Toronto-based PushLife, which helps people easily synch their music collection stored on their PC with their mobile phones, including BlackBerry and Android devices. The software works with either iTunes or Windows Media Player. TechVibes.com is reporting that Google paid about $25 million for the three-year-old company. A Google spokesperson did not comment on the terms, but said: “We believe the team has a wealth of experience building cool mobile applications, and we think they’ll make a great addition to our mobile team.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110409/google-acquires-canadian-mobile-music-syncing-software/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110316/in-and-out-of-office-putting-ipads-to-work/ http://allthingsd.com/20110316/in-and-out-of-office-putting-ipads-to-work/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:13:10 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1826 While it can perform many of the functions of a PC or Mac, Apple’s iPad— including the new iPad 2—lacks two of the most common and frequently used features of a traditional computer. It has no standard USB port for connecting a flash drive or external hard disk, so you can’t move files into and out of it from these devices. And it doesn’t have a systemwide, user-accessible file system like those on traditional computers.

These omissions have led many readers to ask me how you get files—especially Microsoft Office files and PDFs—into and out of iPads. They have bolstered the contention that the popular tablet is really just a “consumption device,” not a productivity tool.

So, here’s a brief primer on how to get such documents into and out of an iPad, and how to view, edit and create them on the tablet. This isn’t an in-depth product review, though I’ve tested every product and method I will mention here. It’s merely a quick, practical guide to how to work with documents on an iPad.

Three faces of creating iPad documents: From left, Keynote, Pages and Numbers apps running on an iPad 2

Before we start, let me mention some caveats. First, to get the most out of documents on the iPad, you have to download add-on apps. Second, while many of these apps can store and organize files, those file systems are silos within the apps. Third, these apps often lack full fidelity with Office on a PC or Mac, especially for complex documents. Fonts and layouts may be changed, and none of the apps I tested was able to display revision histories in Office documents.

Finally, unless you buy an add-on keyboard, typing on an iPad isn’t as easy for many people as on a regular computer. For instance, I wouldn’t want to type a 30-page legal brief on an iPad. But you can use an iPad with Office documents and PDFs.

Creating and Editing Files

Microsoft hasn’t built a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad. But several companies make office suites for the tablet that aim to emulate Office by allowing you to create and export Office-compatible documents, and to import and edit documents created in Office on PCs and Macs.

The three most notable of these are Quickoffice Connect, which costs $15; Documents To Go, which comes in two versions costing $10 and $17; and Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which cost $10 each.

All of these apps are more limited than Office on a PC, but I have found they worked pretty well. All have their own internal file-storage system, and each can be connected to cloud-based services, or can open email attachments or receive wired file transfers from iTunes.

Wired File Transfers

When you plug an iPad into one of the recent versions of Apple’s iTunes program on your computer, and select the iPad icon in the left column, a section appears at the bottom of the Apps tab that is called File Sharing. This module lists all the apps on your iPad that can handle various kinds of documents, and shows you what files they contain. You can then add files from your computer to one of the listed apps, or save the files to your computer, using buttons labeled Add or “Save to….” Even veteran iTunes users may not know about this feature, because Apple hasn’t publicized it much, and you have to scroll down in iTunes to see it.

Viewing Email Attachments

Out of the box, the iPad allows you to view a wide variety of documents attached to emails. If somebody emails you a Microsoft Office file, a PDF file, or other common types of files, you get an icon in the email, and, if you tap and hold your finger on the icon, a pop-up menu appears that allows you to view it in full-screen mode, a function called Quick Look. Just this week, I used this method to review and catch an error in a Microsoft Word document I received from a colleague while riding in a New York taxi with an iPad.

If you have an app like Quickoffice installed that allows saving or organizing documents, or editing them, the email pop-up menu becomes even more useful. In addition to the Quick Look option, it gives you an “Open In…” option that lets you move the document to an app of your choice, where you can store it permanently, or even edit it, if the app allows for that. This “Open In…” option also appears in various apps other than email, so you can move documents from one app to another.

Wireless File Transfers

There are some iPad apps available that allow you to move documents wirelessly if your computer and iPad are on the same Wi-Fi network. One that I have used successfully is called Air Sharing and costs $2.99. It mounts your iPad on your computer as if it were an external drive, and allows you to drag files between your computer and iPad.

Cloud-Based File Transfers

If you back up your PC or Mac files to a cloud-based remote service, like SugarSync, Dropbox, or Apple’s own iDisk, many of these services provide iPad apps that allow you to fetch the files to your iPad, or, in some cases, upload files from your iPad to these services. These apps typically allow you only to view or perhaps store the files on the iPad, but some include the “Open in…” feature to let you move the file to another app where you can edit it.

Sophisticated File Viewers

Some apps for the iPad let you store large numbers of different types of files, view them and even annotate them. My favorite, GoodReader, is a $4.99 app that handles all the Microsoft Office file types, plus PDFs and more.

GoodReader even lets you type notes on, or draw on, PDFs, and then save and email the annotated version. It also allows you to organize files into folders and rename them. And it lets you retrieve files from cloud-based services, without having to switch to a separate app provided by those services. Among the cloud services it supports are Google Docs, Dropbox, SugarSync and iDisk.

Bottom Line

It’s perfectly fair to criticize Apple for leaving out a USB port and a shared file system. The company is reputed to be working on a cloud-based file sharing system that may alleviate these omissions. But, even today, you can work with common file types on an iPad, if you know how.

Watch a video with Walt Mossberg on transferring files to an iPad at WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Find all of his columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110316/in-and-out-of-office-putting-ipads-to-work/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101110/4g-networks-and-macs-vs-pcs/ http://allthingsd.com/20101110/4g-networks-and-macs-vs-pcs/#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:48:16 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/?p=780 Q:

I know T-Mobile and Sprint already have 4G networks. Do you know when 4G on Verizon is coming out? And have you heard anything about 4G on AT&T?

A:

Sprint has a 4G network in scores of cities, and T-Mobile has a souped-up 3G network in many cities that it says can achieve 4G speeds. Verizon has pledged to introduce 4G service in several dozen cities by year-end. AT&T is planning to start rolling out 4G next year.

Two important caveats apply here. First, the term “4G” is a slippery one. While all of these networks offer faster data speeds than traditional 3G, they don’t actually meet the technical definition of 4G speeds set by the international standards body that defines such things. Second, to get the full speeds offered by these new networks, most people will need a new phone. Currently, there are only a handful of phones that can do so.

Q:

My daughter is graduating from high school and has been accepted to several Ivy League universities. She going in to the medical field. Her friend is urging her to get a Mac instead of a PC. What would you suggest?

A:

As I noted in my buyer’s guide last week, Windows PCs come in more varieties and are usually less expensive up front, which could help offset college costs. Macs have extremely high customer satisfaction, according to most major surveys, better built-in software and, perhaps most important, they aren’t susceptible to the vast majority of malicious software, a particular problem on college campuses that can cost money and time and risk losing work.

I’d suggest that once she selects a college, she should check to see which type of computer the college suggests and supports, what the academic prices are, and whether there is any special software required for pre-med courses that would favor one type of machine over another.

Q:

Thanks for your recent article on Ford’s latest automotive digital system. My biggest concern with these various electronic applications is how fast they can become obsolete. I can imagine keeping a $36,000 car for eight to 10 years. I can’t imagine many of the electronic systems will still work with the phones and who knows what else by then. Will Ford provide software upgrades to keep the vehicle relevant?

A:

Yes. Ford has developed a system that allows you to download updates to its SYNC digital system from the Web to a USB flash drive, using your computer. You then insert the portable drive into a USB port in the car to upgrade its software. More information is at http://bit.ly/cK33kD.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online at http://walt.allthingsd.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101110/4g-networks-and-macs-vs-pcs/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101020/microsofts-new-windows-phone-7-novel-but-lacking/ http://allthingsd.com/20101020/microsofts-new-windows-phone-7-novel-but-lacking/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:03:42 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1579 Nearly four years after Apple unveiled the iPhone, and more than two years after Google introduced its first Android smartphone, Microsoft is launching its effort to catch up. On Nov. 8, AT&T and T-Mobile will begin selling the first phones powered by the software maker’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

I’ve been testing two of these initial Windows Phone 7 phones, the Samsung Focus from AT&T and the HTC HD7 from T-Mobile; each will cost $200. Both are slender phones with large screens and virtual keyboards, though the Samsung is thinner and lighter than the HTC.

Microsoft has imposed tight requirements on the new Windows Phone 7 phones—including fast processors, decent screens and adequate memory. However, in my testing this time, I didn’t focus on the hardware. Instead, I bored in on the new Microsoft operating system, set to show up on nine phones this year, including some with physical keyboards.

My conclusion is that Microsoft has used its years in the smartphone wilderness to come up with a user interface that is novel and attractive, that stands out from the Apple and Google approaches, and that works pretty well. Instead of multiple screens filled with small app icons, or the occasional widget, Windows phones use large, dynamic tiles that can give you certain information, like your next appointment, at a glance. And it has special “hubs” for things like contacts and entertainment that use bold, attractive interfaces and offer personalized, updating information.

The Samsung Focus’s large touch tiles

However, despite having all that time to study its rivals, Microsoft has inexplicably omitted from Windows Phone 7 key features now common, or becoming so, on competitive phones. These missing features include copy and paste, visual voicemail, multitasking of third-party apps, and the ability to do video calling and to use the phone to connect other devices to the Internet. The Android phones and the iPhone handle all these things today.

Plus, because it has waited so long to enter the super-smartphone market, Microsoft is starting way behind in the all-important category of available third-party apps. At launch next month, the company hopes to have about 1,000 apps available for the Windows Phone 7 platform, compared with nearly 100,000 for Android phones and around 300,000 for the iPhone. That means Windows phones will, by definition, be less versatile than their main competitors, at least at launch.

In addition, Microsoft, unlike Apple, has ceded prominent home-screen real estate to the phone makers and carriers so they can push their own apps, like subscription-based TV and navigation services.

To be sure, Windows Phone 7 has a few advantages. These include built-in mobile versions of Microsoft Office (present for years on earlier Microsoft-powered phones) and of its popular Xbox Live gaming service, which also interacts with Xbox game consoles. There is a nice feature that allows the camera to be used quickly, even if the phone is locked. And search works particularly well, including a mode that allows you to enter search commands by voice from any screen. Phone calling also worked just fine, with few failed calls, good voice quality and easy connection to a Bluetooth device I tried.

But I couldn’t find a killer innovation that would be likely to make iPhone or Android users envious, except possibly for dedicated Xbox users. Even the built-in Office can be replicated with third-party Office-compatible apps on competing platforms; and the iPhone and Android phones also can interoperate with Microsoft’s corporate Exchange email, calendar and contact system.

So for now, I see Windows Phone 7 as mostly getting Microsoft into the game, and replacing the stale, complicated Windows Mobile system that preceded it. It will get better. The company is already working on a copy and paste system, and said it is coming early next year. But, today, I see Windows Phone 7 as inferior to iPhone and Android for most average users. It’s simply not fully baked yet.

The main feature of Windows Phone 7 is the Start screen, which takes the form of a long vertical list of tiles that can represent either an app or a hub. The phones lack multiple home screens or traditional folders for grouping apps. These tiles are dynamic: They can show things like rotating photos of friends, or how many unread emails you have.

Microsoft doesn’t intend for you to place every app or feature on the Start screen. Instead, some apps, like games, go automatically into one of the special tile hubs, which combine related functions. And all other apps pre-installed or added to your phone go into another long master list you can see by flicking aside the tile view or tapping an arrow.

It’s a clean, simple, different approach. But there is a downside. As you “pin” your favorite apps, contacts, photos or Web sites to the Start screen, the list of tiles grows longer, and you have to scroll further and further to reach some. There is no shortcut for getting back to the top of such a list, as there is on the iPhone.

The hubs have a level of social and functional integration seen on some Android phones and on Palm’s webOS operating system, now owned by Hewlett-Packard. For instance, in the People hub, you not only see your local contacts, but those synced from Facebook or Microsoft’s own Windows Live service. This hub, like the others, borrows the elegant interface from Microsoft’s failed Zune music player, so you can flick left and right to see just recent contacts or to see your friends’ status updates. But the People hub doesn’t have Twitter.

Microsoft sees this combination of tiles and hubs as a “glance and go” interface for quickly seeing important information without opening apps, as on the iPhone. But I was disappointed that more information wasn’t presented on the tiles. For instance, unlike in some Android apps and widgets I’ve used, a stock market tile and a weather tile I downloaded didn’t show on their surfaces the latest information.

The calendar, which syncs with Exchange, Windows Live, or Google, can’t sync with Yahoo or MobileMe, and lacks a week view. The email program syncs with a variety of services, but lacks a unified inbox, so you have to clutter your Start screen with separate tiles for each account.

Another downside for some users: The phones can be used in horizontal view for photos and Web pages, or for typing email, but some screens, like the Start screen and hubs, are fixed in vertical mode.

Microsoft has done a good job with the Web browser, which I found generally comparable in speed and features to the iPhone and Android browsers. But unlike on some new Android phones, it doesn’t support Adobe Flash content.

The People hub borrows the elegant interface from Microsoft’s failed Zune music player, so you can flick left and right to see just recent contacts or to see your friends’ status updates.

The built-in Office suite is very nice. It can link to Microsoft’s SharePoint corporate online document system. One of its apps, OneNote, also synced in my tests with Microsoft’s consumer-focused SkyDrive Web file-storage system. It has a nice feature that makes it easy to jump to sections of long documents, allows for making comments on files, and lets you see presentations broadcast over the Internet.

However, this new mobile Office failed to open a simple Word document I tried. Microsoft says this plain document had some hidden corruption, but it opened on an iPhone and Android, and was editable in their Quickoffice app. Microsoft says it is working on a fix.

Music, video and photos all worked well, and you can use a Zune subscription on the phone. I was easily able to sync media files with a Windows PC using a new version of the Zune software, and I also tried a pre-release version of the new Macintosh Zune software, which is more limited, but also worked properly.

The Microsoft app store, called Marketplace, worked fine, and has a nice try-before-you-buy feature for some apps.

Last but not least is the Xbox Live hub, the center for gaming. It contains games from Microsoft and other developers, and includes your avatar from the Xbox Live service. You can socialize with, and play against, others on the service. For Xbox Live fans, this is mobile heaven.

Overall, I can’t recommend Windows Phone 7 as being on a par with iPhone or Android—at least not yet. Unless you’re an Xbox Live user, or rely on Microsoft’s SharePoint corporate Web-based document system, it isn’t as good or as versatile as its rivals.

Find all of Walt’s columns and videos at walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101020/microsofts-new-windows-phone-7-novel-but-lacking/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101006/syncing-bookmarks-across-browsers/ http://allthingsd.com/20101006/syncing-bookmarks-across-browsers/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:15:30 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/?p=755 Q:

You recommended the great Internet browser bookmark sync tool, Foxmarks; since renamed Xmarks. I have been using it for years to keep Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari bookmarks synced at work and home. With its just-announced demise planned for January, are you aware of any good alternatives that offer both cross-platform and cross-browser bookmark syncing?

A:

I am not, but would welcome any reader suggestions, as I too use Xmarks to synchronize my bookmarks across multiple browsers, whether they are running on Windows or Mac. The four most-popular browsers each offer their own syncing systems, but these don’t work across rival browsers.

However, the company now says Xmarks may not die after all. It says it has received interest from other companies in buying the product and that it is also considering continuing it as a paid service.

In fact, it is running an online pledge drive to see how many people would be willing to pay at least $10 a year for it.

Information on this, and links to information on the single-browser alternatives, are at www.xmarks.com/about/shutdown.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, free online at the All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101006/syncing-bookmarks-across-browsers/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20101006/ford-drives-digital-dashboards-to-next-level/ http://allthingsd.com/20101006/ford-drives-digital-dashboards-to-next-level/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:03:22 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1558 Americans spend vast amounts of time in their cars, where many feel cut off from the digital world. Using a cellphone or digital music player, even in a legal manner, can be clumsy. And a car’s user interface for non-driving functions can seem ancient compared with how other devices are controlled outside the vehicle.

So, auto makers have been trying to bring some of the feel of computers and consumer electronics to the dashboard, making it easier to use phones and music players in a safe way, through big screens and voice-command systems that allow the use of these devices without handling or seeing them. Ford placed a large bet on this trend in 2007 with a system called Sync, which I liked when I reviewed it then.

Now, Ford (F) is taking another big step, introducing a second generation of Sync that aims to redesign the entire user interface of the dashboard with color-coded touch screens, better voice recognition and five-way control pads on the steering wheel. This new system redefines the way you control in-car entertainment and climate settings; permits personalization of things like instrument-cluster gauges; and even lets you set up a Wi-Fi network in the car.

I’ve been testing the new Ford system, called MyFord Touch, for a couple of weeks on a 2011 Ford Edge Limited SUV, one of the first two models on which it is being offered. (The other is the Lincoln MKX, with a MyLincoln Touch system.) The Edge starts at $27,000, but the configuration I tested, on which the new interface is standard, lists for $36,000. On other versions of the Edge, MyFord Touch is available as part of a $1,000 option package.

MyFord Touch’s 8-inch touch screen, with function icons in the corners that switch the screen among four main functions: multisource audio entertainment, navigation, phone and climate control.

In general, I liked MyFord Touch, once I got used to it and configured its settings and its connection to phones and music players. The layout of most of the displays is clear and logical, and the voice-command system is still the best I’ve ever used in a car.

But Ford’s new user interface has so many options and functions that I believe it presents a challenging learning curve. Learning the new system can be distracting while driving, at least at first—even though Ford disables some functions while the car is in motion and even though voice commands are easy and plentiful, allowing you to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.

I urge caution, because this a very different dashboard than you may be used to. I only had the car for a short time, and put very few miles on it, so I can’t say how quickly the new features can become second nature and nondistracting. But anyone buying a car with MyFord Touch should always set up and configure it while parked, use voice commands whenever possible and avoid experimenting with new features and functions while driving. My advice is to learn these in the driveway, gradually.

Instead of the usual array of knobs, dials and passive screens, MyFord Touch is dominated by a giant 8-inch touch screen, with large function icons in the center and color-coded corners that you touch to switch the screen among four main functions: multisource audio entertainment, navigation, phone and climate control. There is also a “home” view, combining common functions that can be personalized.

The system also has several other elements. There are twin 4-inch screens on either side of the speedometer. The one on the left presents vehicle information, such as miles traveled, and allows you to customize some of the gauges so that, for instance, you can finally banish that tachometer you never use in favor of, say, a digital readout on gas-mileage efficiency. The one on the right replicates, in simpler form, the main functions of the center screen, so you can select and check things like audio and climate control without looking at, or touching, the main screen.

These smaller screens are controlled by five-way arrow clusters on the steering wheel, like controllers on iPods and other devices usable by touch alone. There also are some large, touch-sensitive buttons below the main center screen for things like setting volume and fan speed.

Finally, most, but not all, of these functions can be controlled by tens of thousands of available voice commands. And many of these commands can now be spoken without prefacing them with special terms. For instance, you can dial a contact by saying her name at any time, even if you’re not in the phone module on the screen, and even if you don’t first say “phone.”

This voice system worked very well for me, and is the crucial element of reducing distraction. But it wasn’t perfect. For instance, it had trouble with some names in my contact list with multiple entries, and with some streets in the navigation system.

Ford believes the combination of the touch screen, the instrument cluster screens and controls, and the voice commands provides a redundancy and ease of use that should allow both a familiar digital experience and safe driving. Of course, some believe doing anything but driving, no matter how those tasks are performed, is dangerous.

I tested MyFord Touch with an iPhone and an Android phone, which I connected wirelessly; and a standard iPod, which I connected via one of the two USB ports built into the car. I also tested a USB flash drive containing music and a couple of photos, since you can add a personal photo to one of the available views on the big screen. In addition, I tried a USB cellular modem lent me by Ford that creates a Wi-Fi network in the car, presumably only for the use of passengers with laptops and other devices.

All of these devices worked pretty well, but not without issues. The car easily recognized and used both phones for calling, and the iPod generally worked fine. But Bluetooth streaming of music from the phones, which is still an evolving industry feature, periodically failed and never displayed song or artist names. On the physically connected iPod, some album covers didn’t display.

At the moment, only one USB modem, an AT&T (T) model, works with MyFord Touch, and setting it up proved complicated. My general view is that, while operating the touch screen’s main functions is easy, the various setup and option menus are too complex.

The new Ford system can read text messages to you and let you send a limited number of canned responses—the idea being to make texting in a car somewhat safer. But I couldn’t try this as neither of my test phones supported this function.

Ford also has announced that the new system will support some third-party apps, like the Pandora music service, and will eventually have a Web browser for the big screen that would only work when the car is parked. But neither of these features is available yet.

For those who believe doing anything but driving in a car is dangerous, no amount of touch screens, voice commands or redundancy will do. But, for people who would like to enjoy some of their digital lifestyle in a car, MyFord Touch is worth checking out—as long as you take it slowly.

Write to Walt Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101006/ford-drives-digital-dashboards-to-next-level/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100914/springpad-review/ http://allthingsd.com/20100914/springpad-review/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:14:05 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1390 If you’ve replaced pen and paper with digital data, you know how important it is to have a single, smart repository for holding and accessing this information

This week, I tested Springpad (SpringpadIt.com), a free service that saves and synchronizes Web content across all major browsers on Macs and PCs. It also works on the iPad, iPhone and Android using their apps. Services like this aren’t new: Evernote, for instance, does a fine job of saving Web content and synchronizing it across multiple devices. But Springpad is unique in that it automatically generates links and alerts you to online offers related to the content a user has already saved.

The free Springpad service works on Macs and PCs, as well as the iPad, iPhone and Verizon Android.

If I saved a recipe for banana bread, Springpad might send me a link from Coupons.com so I can save money on bananas. If I save the Web page for a new iPod I want to buy and its price drops on Amazon.com, I might see a Springpad alert about it. Or if I save a photo of a bottle of wine to my Springpad account, an alert may appear to tell me about an offer on free shipping from Wine.com.

Starting Sept. 22, these Springpad Alerts will work in mobile apps on the iPhone, Android devices and iPad. (Springpad currently works as a website and as a mobile app, but the alerts only appear on the website version.) Spring Partners, which owns Springpad, plans to also release a Google Chrome browser extension Sept. 22.

Springpad doesn’t work as a BlackBerry app and the company has no immediate plans to make such an app. A Springpad spokesman says the company is working on a version for Microsoft Windows tablets.

Springpad uses a handsome interface to display saved content. Users can look at their saved content in list, detail or gallery view, where you see colorful images of products the service pulls from the specific page you saved. A Web clipper tool can be dragged from SpringpadIt.com to a browser’s bookmark toolbar, which creates a quick shortcut that saves a website in a Springpad account.

There’s also a My Tasks section, which let you jot down personal lists like checklists, packing lists, alarms, events and milestones.

I’ve been testing Springpad and its Alerts on a Mac and on a PC with various browsers, as well as on the iPhone, Verizon Droid and iPad. Spring Partners gave me a way to preview mobile alerts, which would be helpful to read if you’re out shopping for an item and a price-saving alert appears.

The mobile alerts will eventually have smarter capabilities such as using GPS to tell you about a discount at a nearby restaurant that you saved in your My Stuff or if a product you saved is on sale in the Best Buy where you’re shopping. Alerts don’t pop up as text messages or immediate emails; rather, you must open the SpringpadIt.com site or a section in the mobile app to look in Alerts for new offers (a weekly email Alerts summary is also sent).

While not everything saved in Springpad will generate an alert, I found myself more motivated to use this service. I liked the service’s way of saving images with almost every item in My Stuff. I also enjoyed searching through publicly shared things people saved in Springpad to see what others thought was worth saving.

But how exactly do the alerts work? For each saved piece of content, Springpad recognizes the content’s metadata (like the ingredients in a saved recipe) and sends an alert based on that metadata.

A spokesman claims Springpad doesn’t pass any personally identifiable information to retailers. So the fact that I saved a Prince tennis racket to my Springpad account isn’t shared with a retailer. Springpad may, however, pass along statistics to retailers, like 500 users saved Prince rackets to their accounts. If someone uses a link they received in Springpad Alerts to buy something, Spring Partners gets a commission from the company or service.

Springpad Alerts come from the partnerships that Spring Partners has with over 250 companies and services. Among the partners are Price Grabber, Best Buy, Wine.com, Groupon and Fandango, and the company continues to add partnerships.

These alerts are product-specific, so I didn’t have to worry about receiving alerts for a Panasonic HDTV if I saved a Sony HDTV in my Springpad account. There’s no way to opt out of alerts, which appear in special sections on the SpringpadIt.com site and in the mobile app.

If you’d like to display your saved content in Springpad with all other Springpad users, you can opt to make that content public. Someone who visits a new restaurant and wants to tell the world about it, or sees a movie that they think deserves high praise, Springpad will let them do that.

Springpad works like Twitter in that people using the service can follow one another. Unlike Twitter, no one can set an account to require permission to follow it, though marking all settings as private hides everything from others.

And accounts like Facebook and Gmail can be linked to the service creating contacts in Springpad and Flickr and Twitter to share images or saved data.

I don’t always say this about the products I review, but I think I’ll continue to use Springpad—especially for saving important shopping items and recipes that I find online. Its built-in Alerts add an element of relevancy to certain saved items, and I like that it gives me the option to share with Springpad friends or with friends in other social networks.

Email Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100914/springpad-review/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100908/status-update-getting-funny-looks-because-im-talking-to-my-car/ http://allthingsd.com/20100908/status-update-getting-funny-looks-because-im-talking-to-my-car/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:28:55 +0000 Voices http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=29395 In the race to bring more voice tech to vehicles, Ford may have pulled ahead with its Microsoft-based Sync system, but it looks like GM is ready to make a run with a rebuilt OnStar. Bloomberg says the venerable in-car communication service may start offering some free features next year, reportedly including voice-to-text ability that would, among other things, let drivers update their Facebook pages as they jockey for the best lane on the freeway. Luckily, OnStar already includes accident assistance.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100908/status-update-getting-funny-looks-because-im-talking-to-my-car/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100830/if-you-cant-beat-em-sync-with-em/ http://allthingsd.com/20100830/if-you-cant-beat-em-sync-with-em/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:45:10 +0000 Voices http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=28982 MySpace appears to have come to terms with the reality that it will be looking at Facebook’s taillights for the foreseeable future, and it is now taking steps to secure at least a complementary relationship with its larger rival. Today, MySpace started letting its users synch their status updates to their Facebook profile or page and share content with their friends over on that other site.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100830/if-you-cant-beat-em-sync-with-em/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100818/moving-data-to-a-new-pc-and-syncing-itunes-to-other-smartphones/ http://allthingsd.com/20100818/moving-data-to-a-new-pc-and-syncing-itunes-to-other-smartphones/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:35:47 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/?p=710 Q:

I will be getting a new laptop with Windows 7 Home edition. My current laptop runs XP. What is the most efficient and least painful way to transfer my personal files and programs?

A:

Windows 7 has a transfer assistant, but it moves only files and settings. LapLink has a program, PCmover (http://bit.ly/bETKDz), in versions ranging from $30 to $60, which moves everything. Parallels offers the program Parallels Desktop for Upgrading to Windows 7 (http://bit.ly/9L1Er9), which is either $40 or $50, depending on whether you want an included cable.

Q:

I have an iPhone but am contemplating switching phones. I have a MacBook and all my music is in iTunes. Is there another smartphone that will sync my music with iTunes?

A:

The Palm Pre and Pre Plus can work with certain versions of iTunes, though not necessarily the latest. Apple (AAPL) and Palm have gone back and forth, with Apple disabling Palm syncing as it brings out new versions. If you use an older version of iTunes, it may well work. There are products that will sync iTunes music to a variety of smartphones. One is doubleTwist (doubletwist.com). It runs on PCs and Macs and supports Android, Palm, BlackBerry and other devices. Another product that can sync iTunes music to various non-Apple phones is called The Missing Sync (markspace.com). Note that, as far as I know, even if you get iTunes music onto a non-Apple phone, any copy-protected tracks you own won’t play.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100818/moving-data-to-a-new-pc-and-syncing-itunes-to-other-smartphones/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100726/full-d8-interview-video-ford-ceo-alan-mulally/ http://allthingsd.com/20100726/full-d8-interview-video-ford-ceo-alan-mulally/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:33:54 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31192

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s the last interview Walt Mossberg and I did at D8, but definitely not least: Ford Motor Company (F) CEO Alan Mulally.

As you will see, the former Boeing (BA) exec not only rocked his red Ford sweater vest–which I covet–but also talked with great passion about the innovative changes being made at the auto manufacturer.

That includes a big push into the digitization of its cars, using technologies such as SYNC, a voice-activation package on some models that integrates the content and functionality of mobile devices with the car itself via apps.

Here’s the full video of the D8 interview session with Mulally.

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Tim Armstrong, AOL (AOL) CEO.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100726/full-d8-interview-video-ford-ceo-alan-mulally/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100721/when-usb-3-will-be-mainstream/ http://allthingsd.com/20100721/when-usb-3-will-be-mainstream/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:57:39 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/?p=691 Q:

I haven’t seen much information from journalists or the major PC manufacturers about the new USB 3 option. I know just a few manufacturers have it as an option with their PC. When will it be mainstream?

A:

USB 3.0 is a new, much faster version of USB that promises to transfer data up to 10 times as rapidly as the current USB ports (called USB 2.0) and to provide more electrical power to run connected devices. It’s also backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, so you don’t have to throw out your current USB peripherals. The new system should be especially helpful in cases where you are transferring large amounts of data, such as backing up computers to USB-connected hard disks.

Many computer and peripheral makers are planning to build USB 3.0 into their products, and a few have already done so, sometimes including only one USB 3.0 port while retaining a couple of the older-type ports. I expect to see even more computers and peripherals with USB 3.0 by the holiday shopping season. But it may not be “mainstream”—common on most new devices—until sometime next year.

Q:

I’m unsure how syncing works. Is there a danger, when two devices are synced, that an older version of a file might overwrite a later version?

A:

It depends on the sync software you’re using. Some syncing or backup programs do overwrite an older copy of a file with a newer one. Others, like the Hitachi system I reviewed last week, keep multiple copies, or versions, of a file that changes, so you can retrieve an older version, even after it’s been altered. If you’re concerned about this issue, make sure the sync or backup service or software you choose supports retaining enough multiple versions of a file to meet your needs.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100721/when-usb-3-will-be-mainstream/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100603/alan-mulally-session/ http://allthingsd.com/20100603/alan-mulally-session/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:27:26 +0000 Peter Kafka http://d8.allthingsd.com/?p=484 Ford CEO Alan Mulally has come to D8 to take the hot seat, a position he should be used to after steering Ford through the recent financial crisis. Ford shunned the bailout money that carried GM through a restructuring and sustained Chrysler through its sale to Italian automaker Fiat.

Ford (F) recently released SYNC, a voice-activation package on some models that integrates the content and functionality of mobile devices with the car itself. SYNC also adds apps to the car, though it’s not clear what these features will mean for the future of American automakers.

Liveblog

Mullaly appears onstage wearing a very bright red vest. Vibrant!

At Walt’s request, Mulally shows off a piece of paper with handwritten notes that purport to explain Ford’s interest in all things digital. Lots of computers are involved in the creation of your Taurus.

12:30 pm: Kara wants to know why cars have been basically digitally ignorant for a long time. Walt: You open the door to you car and it’s 1957 again. Why is that?

For the record, Mulally doesn’t think you should text and drive.

He also wants you to keep your hands on the wheels and eyes on the road. So there’s lots of digital stuff being built into dashboard and console. Like the SYNC iPod/phone, etc., manager.

Ford is playing around with features like allowing drivers to have their text messages read to them. But safety is paramount. All of our data says your safest operation is when you have your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. But right now, we feel that listening to email and text is a good first step. But we don’t want you sending email and text via voice, at least for now.

12:35 pm: Kara–Why is this taking so long? [i.e., "where is my jetpack?"]

Walt: Yeah! Even fancy German and Japanese cars don’t do it well. It’s pathetic!

Mulally: Don’t blame me! I just got here. Part of the problem is that car development is much slower than consumer electronics R&D cycle. For instance, a lot of competitors have embedded a phone in the car. We’re avoiding that and focusing on interface, so as consumers exchange and swap devices, they can do that.

12:38 pm: A pitch for “My Ford Touch,” which seems to have lots of bells and whistles, but sounds confusing to this frequent walker and subway-taker.

12:39 pm: Walt tries explaining it. “The instrument cluster, which has been on steering wheels forever, is now going to be a on a screen.”

Mulally: Right. We want to make it intuitive. Etc.

12:40 pm: Still trying to explain it. Screen goes on steering wheel and allows customizable controls for operating car, as well as extras.

12:41 pm: Kara–what is that people want to do, anyway?

Mulally: Good question. We watch what people do in cars and try to help them do it, because they’re going to do it anyway. For instance, we’re building in Pandora to our cars. You’ll get the music via the Web, from your cellphone, but you’ll operate it on our panel. Also Stitcher, Open Beak, etc.

A lot of people here are using apps. You’ll get to use them in the car.

12:43 pm: Walt–Will you need a special Ford version of these apps?

Mulally: Yep. You use our API

12:44 pm: Kara wants better navigation services. She doesn’t want to hear a mean German lady giving her directions though.

Walt: Yeah! All of your GPS systems are lousy! The ones on phones are better!

Mulally: We’re with you. That’s why we want to rely on developers to build the good stuff, via our API.

12:47 pm: Let’s talk about the car industry, period. You just got here. You were in aerospace, before. Also, the whole oil spill thing does change the way we look at cars, right?

Mulally: Before I left Boeing (BA), I thought about where the car industry was going. What I decided was that the industry is the soul of Manufacturing–“big M”–all around the world. Lots of stuff goes into this, no matter what country or region. It’s also part of the solution to economic growth, energy independence and environmental sustainability.

On that note: Clearly, the internal combustion engine is going to be around for a while. But we can make them operate more efficiently, etc. Take a v6 and make it run like a v8m, etc. Meanwhile hybrids are tough because you have two different systems: Batteries and internal combustion. Then in the future, we need to move to all-electric. We have a great road map for all of this. First all-electric cars launch this year. Hydrogen is farther out, don’t have the tech for it yet.

12:52 pm: Mulally describes challenges of electric car–need to figure out how and where to get the juice to cars.

12:53 pm: Kara–What about health of business?

Mulally: I like being here much better than testifying in front of Congress.

Kara: How did you get here?

Mulally: I flew! That’s why we have airplanes. For long-distance travel.

12:53 pm: A Zuckerberg hoodie joke.

12:54 pm: Mulally–Time goes fast. Last year, I was testifying on behalf my competitors, who were bankrupt. Now I’m a capitalist. But if GM and Chrysler went away, they’d take the supply base along with them, and they’d probably have put the U.S. into a bona fide depression.

I was asking for temporary help. I didn’t think all of us would end up owning our competitors.

12:57 pm: Mulally–Recovery is coming, by the way. We’ll have 3.5 percent expansion of GDP this year. And Ford is doing well. We’ll have market-share increases.

Kara: What kind of car do you drive?

Mulally: A different one every night.

Q&A

[I hope someone asks about the New York Times series that said that anything you do in your car besides driving is a safety risk. Anyone?]

Q: Please talk about the Mercury situation.

A: We had too many brands. Ford, Mercury and Lincoln. Mercury was supposed to be a gap-bridger between Ford and Lincoln. But the Ford line expanded, so we didn’t need Mercury. “Everybody’s got great options in Ford.” It’s also good news for Lincoln–because we don’t have other premium brands anymore, we’ll refocus on Lincoln for luxury.

Q: Proud Tesla owner Jason Calacanis wants to know why electric isn’t everywhere already.

A: We can make electric cars, but as you know, we can improve them, like battery life.

Calacanis: No. It’s not a problem. Batteries are great at Tesla.

Mulally: Nope. Most of them are too big, too heavy. There’s a lot of room to improve the batteries.

Other point is that the infrastructure has to get there. You need charging stations for people in apartments, in rural areas, etc. When we get there, Ford will be there.

Kara, and Walt want Jason to tell us how much his Tesla cost. Astonishingly, he goes mute.

Q: Did you really say you don’t intend to get a revenue stream from connectivity of cars to data? You don’t want a piece of money made by Yelp, Garmin, etc.?

A: You heard me correctly. We’re laser-focused on safe and efficient transportation. So there’s no conflict of interest.

Q: Walt wants to if these electronics actually sell cars.

A: I demoed this stuff for you, and you’re a tough critic, and you said “whoa!” This technology is absolutely a differentiator.

Q: You’re talking about innovation in cars. Does dealer network have to change too?

A: Absolutely. We’ve been right-sizing the dealer network to match demand for five years. Once you do that, throughput goes up, profitability goes up, interest in improving facilities goes up, etc. Then we can improve consumer experience.

Walt: Because it’s terrible right now.

Mulally agrees without saying so.

Q: China is pushing hard for electric cars. What does that mean for you?

A: I think China is going to continue to take a real leadership position on this. Big population, and they have a chance to really make a difference and maybe leapfrog the past.

Q: There’s that great Ford quote about not listening to his customers, because if he did he’d be in the horse business. So how you do innovate?

A: Stay closet to innovation. And have a point of view about how the industry is going to progress.

Q: Ah! Someone asked about focusing while you drive.

A: Eighty percent of accidents involve taking your eyes off the road. So we’re convinced that the mind has the cognitive ability to do other things while driving as long as you continue to watch the road. So we minimize anything that’s a distraction: Keyboard, certain confusing apps, etc. We are definitely going to be a gatekeeper with regard to apps, because it’s crucial that you not be distracted.

We’re done! Thanks for sticking around. See you in a year!

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as possible. It is not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100603/alan-mulally-session/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100316/xobni-review/ http://allthingsd.com/20100316/xobni-review/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:08:08 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1117 In the same way cellphone address books helped people stop memorizing phone numbers, the magic of auto-complete helped them stop memorizing email addresses. This feature, which is built into most email programs, lets users type as few as one or two letters before seeing and selecting from a list of addresses that may or may not be saved in the email program’s address book. Too bad auto-complete on your mobile device doesn’t work the same way.

On mobile devices, the suggested names in the “To” line only include those of contacts that are saved in a device’s digital address book. This leaves people stuck mid-thumb, trying to remember an email address, or worse, being forced to wait until they return to their desks to send a message.

This week, I tested an app that generates contact information for every person a user has ever communicated with in Microsoft Outlook—or if Outlook isn’t a factor, just with the device. I tested Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry, available as of March 16 at http://xobni.com/mobile. Xobni Mobile costs $10 as a stand-alone app from Xobni Corp. or $7 if it’s bought with Xobni One, the company’s new cloud-based storage service that costs $4 monthly. One year of Xobni Mobile with the Xobni One service costs $40.

I tested Xobni Mobile on my BlackBerry Curve 8900 and used the Xobni One service to connect with Outlook, which was running on my PC with Xobni’s desktop program installed. This app makes a big difference for people like me, who rarely sync their devices with their PCs, don’t primarily correspond with people in their corporate Exchange networks and don’t like taking the time to manually add names, email addresses and phone numbers into the Contacts section of the BlackBerry. This app also uses Xobni’s analytics feature to rank people, thus returning results sorted according to how much a user emails with someone.

More Meshing

Xobni Mobile could stand to do a better job of meshing with the BlackBerry’s operating system, especially considering that the company worked with Research in Motion (RIMM) to build a deeply integrated app. I’ll admit that it comes close—a finger swipe up on the email-compose screen opens the Xobni app. But as my high-school economics teacher always said, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The process required to open the app, type the contact’s name, select the name from within the Xobni app and return to the compose screen can feel too long and a bit clumsy.

Another downside is that the Xobni Mobile app doesn’t yet integrate with text messaging or dialing numbers, so rather than pull up a phone number from within the device’s texting or dialing interface, users must open the app and select a contact before calling or texting. A Xobni representative said the company is working with RIM on deeper integration.

Xobni (“inbox” spelled backwards) started a couple years ago with its namesake product, a downloadable add-on for Outlook that analyzed and indexed all emails and ran in a side panel within the email program. Since its introduction, Xobni for Outlook has added enhancements, including the built-in ability to display an email contact’s Twitter and Facebook profiles. And some of these spill over into the mobile app.

Souping Up a Device

The Xobni desktop program currently works only on PCs (not Macs) that have Outlook installed, and runs only on high-end BlackBerrys, including the Curve 8900, Tour, Storm, Bold and Bold 2. The Xobni Mobile app connected to Xobni for Outlook using Xobni One considerably soups up the experience, adding an average of 10-times more contacts than the BlackBerry alone. The top 6,000 contacts (according to the analysis of who you email the most) will be stored locally on the device, as well as each contact’s photo, which gets pulled in from Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook or a Xobni account. Additional services connected to Xobni include Hoovers, Twitter and Salesforce.

People who don’t use Outlook and/or don’t want to pay for the Xobni One service can still use the app by itself with Web-based email programs running on the BlackBerry.

Finding Mom

I found myself using Xobni on my BlackBerry a lot, despite its extra steps and slightly cumbersome interface. For instance, it gave me three different emails for my mom, rather than the one outdated email of hers that I long ago manually stored in my BlackBerry Contacts and hadn’t updated since. I also liked Xobni’s way of pulling photos for many contacts onto my device.

I didn’t see a noticeable change in my BlackBerry’s battery life while using the Xobni app, though its battery will be taxed when it grabs large bunches of contacts and photos from the server. By default, this only happens when the BlackBerry is charging.

The Xobni One service demonstrates the company’s move into the increasingly crowded realm of backup software programs. When the BlackBerry is charging, this service updates the PC’s Outlook program with any changes on your BlackBerry and sends new contact data added to Outlook to the BlackBerry. If I lost my BlackBerry tomorrow or changed jobs next week, I’d still be able to retrieve several years’ worth of Outlook contacts and their profiles on a new BlackBerry using my Xobni One log-in credentials. (These same credentials, an email and password, are required when installing the app on the BlackBerry.)

Xobni hasn’t announced any definite plans for integration with other mobile devices, but a representative said that the company is considering making iPhone and Android apps.

If you use a PC, Microsoft Outlook and a BlackBerry, Xobni offers a smart solution for automatically organizing all of your contacts into one place and allows for your contacts to be stored somewhere other than just in Outlook or just on your mobile device. If it was a little easier to access on the BlackBerry, I’d like it even more.

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

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