5 Ways I Use SugarSync to Sync and Share Files, Music & Photos in the Cloud

In just a month, SugarSync has become one of my most valued iPhone apps.
I recently decided that it was time to get serious about backing up my files. With all of the projects that I work on, it would be a major setback to lose the data on my harddrive.
While most of my files are backed up on hosting servers — specifically HostGator, which I trust a lot after 5 years — even the best web hosting servers can go down and you could end up with a near-tragedy on your hands. Imagine losing everything.
I originally downloaded SugarSync specifically so that I could back up my iPhone photos as I take them. But since then, I’ve come to realize how useful, and important, a good cloud storage service really is.
Below are 5 ways that I use SugarSync and the SugarSync iPhone app:

1. To back up my iPhone photos as soon as I take them. SugarSync lets you take photos from within the iPhone app and they get stored automatically. Or you can use the workaround that I figured out to route your photos through Dropbox and use the CameraSync app to back them up. This was the original reason I downloaded SugarSync. I chose SugarSync vs. Dropbox for the following reason:


2. To back up specific, important files on my computer. This is why I chose SugarSync vs. Dropbox. With Dropbox, you designate a “Dropbox” folder and then put your important files and folders in that folder to be backed up. I prefer SugarSync’s approach, where you leave your files in their intended places and simply tell SugarSync which folders you want backed up by clicking the menu option “Add folder to SugarSync.” Update: A commenter has clarified that Dropbox now allows you to select folders outside of the Dropbox folder to sync.


3. To access my files from anywhere with the SugarSync iPhone app. Not only does SugarSync back up folders like your typical external harddrive, but it stores them on secure servers AND lets you access them anywhere you go through the iPhone app. If you download a compatible app, such as Documents To Go, you can even edit the files, too.


4. To access and stream my music from anywhere using the SugarSync iPhone app and online music player. I only recently learned about SugarSync’s music player and I love it for this reason: I can store my music in the cloud and remove it from my iPhone to clear out space, then use SugarSync’s music player to play my music from the cloud.


5. To share files with anyone, at any time. The other day, I needed to send someone a document, but I had written the document on my laptop originally without the intent to share it. Luckily, SugarSync automatically backed it up as soon as it was saved, and it’s now accessible from my iPhone.

The above reasons are a few of the reasons to use SugarSync, but an email they sent me today suggested a number of other uses for SugarSync:

There are some very powerful ways you can use your new SugarSync account – here are highlights of our top 10: 1.) Back up and secure your data (you never know when your computer will crash)
2.) Access all of your files on the go (from any browser or mobile phone)
3.) Share entire folders and collaborate on projects
4.) Send large files you usually (try to) email or FTP
5.) Share high res photo galleries with friends and families
6.) Stream your entire music collection
7.) Take pictures with your iPhone, auto-sync them to your computer
8.) Open, edit and save office docs with your Blackberry
9.) Work from home, without having to lug around your work computer
10.) Restore all your data if your computer crashes or is stolen

Click to join SugarSync (free)»

Will iCloud Destroy SugarSync?

Apple will soon release a similar cloud service called iCloud, which will give you 5GB free (same as SugarSync) and give you anywhere-access to your files, media, contacts, etc.
iCloud certainly has the potential to crush SugarSync, since it is a similar service and will integrate well with the iOS software. In the end, however, competition is good for consumers overall, so I look forward to seeing what innovations the other cloud services unveil to compete with Apple.
I for one will probably stick with SugarSync unless iCloud offers a far superior value.

Note: This post may contain referral links, which I use only to recommend products or services that I personally use and enjoy.

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Onavo Data Shrinking App May Pose Privacy Concerns

Yesterday TechCrunch author Roi Carthy hailed a new app that he claims is a “must-have” for every iPhone data user: Onavo, a data shrinking app for iOS. But the obvious potential privacy issues with Onavo went right over his head.
Carthy goes so far as to suggest Onavo is “the very first app one should install” on an iPhone because of its remarkable ability to shrink your data and save you money on your wireless data bill.
But is there a catch to using Onavo? Yes.

Onavo Privacy

While Onavo’s ability to shrink your data is certainly impressive, remember that if something is too good to be true, it probably is, and Onavo is no exception.

While Onavo does a fantastic job of shrinking your data — my own tests showed that Onavo reduced my data usage as much as 75 percent in some apps — it comes at a cost.
There is no monetary cost to using Onavo, as it is currently free, but you use Onavo at the expense of your privacy. To use Onavo requires you to route all of your data and personal information through a proxy so that it can be compressed.
Are you prepared to trust that Onavo, a previously unheard-of company, will handle all of the information you manage on your iPhone — your mail, your passwords, your credit card numbers — in a secure and responsible manner?
Although Onavo states in its privacy policy that it “will not store any content that you upload or download, such as message text, filled-in forms, and data that a website retrieved,” there nevertheless remain privacy concerns with Onavo.
Onavo still reserves the right to use certain “data in a manner that is attributable to you for a period of 6 months and will anonymize the data thereafter.” And they “may also share personally identifiable information with companies or organizations connected, or affiliated with Onavo, such as subsidiaries, sister-companies and parent companies.”
Given the recent outrage over Apple’s use of location data, you would expect iPhone users to be similarly concerned about sharing so much of their personal information with a small, relatively unknown company like Onavo.
Are you willing to trust Onavo with all of your important data?
Update May 1, 2011: Dvir Reznik, head of marketing at Onavo, replies in the comments: “We take our user’s privacy very seriously and store only the bare minimum necessary to support the service – all aggregated and anonymized. This is so that the app can report your savings, app usage, etc. We do not store any content such as messages, passwords, etc. Additionally, any sensitive content that is encrypted (HTTPS) can not and will not be processed by Onavo.”

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Google Maps: Awesome App for Bus Transit Routes

I’ve always used Google Maps for navigation in the car, but now that I’ve moved to Los Angeles, I am using it for a different purpose: bus maps.
Because I wasn’t much of a bus rider before, I never paid much attention to the Bus mode on Google Maps.
Now that I’m car-less in L.A., the Bus feature on Google Maps for iPhone is a crucial tool that I rely heavily on to get around.
By simply touching the Bus icon at the top of the map when you look up directions, you bring up the suggested transit route, with information on the bus number and scheduled arrival time.

What’s more, touching the clock in the upper right hand corner will bring up a list of the upcoming bus arrivals, so that you may choose to plan a later trip.

Once you arrive, Maps will give you walking directions (if applicable) to arrive at your destination.

Highly recommended for transit-riding iPhone owners.
Would be nice to have maps for the metro rail line, though…

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WordPress for iPhone: How to Blog While On-the-Go

I thought I’d take a second to sing the praises of an app that I find indispensable as a blogger and web publisher: WordPress for iPhone.
WordPress is the content management system that runs AppleiPhoneReview.com. It is a phenomenal open-source and easy-to-use software that anyone can use to publish a blog.
The WordPress app is the perfect counterpart to the WordPress web app. The iPhone app lets you post blog updates, upload photos & videos, and manage comments.
Since this blog gets a steady stream of comments daily, the WordPress iPhone app is vital for me to keep up with comment moderation throughout the day. It also works well for writing and posting articles.
Whenever you’ve got time to kill — in a doctor’s office waiting room, sitting on the bus, or waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice — the WordPress app can help you be productive by writing and publishing your blog posts on the go.
Pair the WordPress iPhone app with some photo editing apps, an FTP app (for uploading files to your site directory) and your favorite social media apps and you’ve got yourself a full-on mobile publishing suite.

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Quotebook iPhone App Review [App Giveaway]

Want to win a copy of Quotebook? Post your favorite motivational quote on my Facebook post HERE to be entered into a drawing for a Promo Code ($2 value).

Quotebook for iPhone ($2 as of this writing) is a cool little app that grabbed my attention because it serves a good purpose for me as a lover of inspirational quotes.
Every now and then I come across a quote that I want to remember, and what do I do? Usually I paste the quotation into a note in my iPhone. The result is that over several months I accumulate many different notes with quotes in them. Sure, I could paste all my favorite quotes into one single note, but this is not ideal since I have such a mess of other notes in my Notes app — shopping lists, account numbers, and other random things I’d like to remember — and no good way of organizing them.
Quotebook is an app that is intended solely for storing and organizing your favorite quotes in one place. Maybe you read a quote on a poster somewhere that you like. Put it in your Quotebook. Maybe you are reading a book and you want to jot down several excerpts. Put them in your Quotebook and note the Source (i.e. the name of your book).

Entering a Quote

To enter a quote into your Quotebook, simply hit the “+” sign in the app and paste your quote in the textfield. You can also set an Author, Source, Rating, and one or more Tags.

Browsing Your Quotes

What makes Quotebook great is that you can filter your quotes by any one of the aforementioned categories, as described below.

By Quote

This page displays a list of all of your quotes. In the settings, you can choose whether to display your quotes from newest to oldest or vice versa.

By Author

You can display your quotes alphabetically by author. What is really neat about this feature is that you can tap on an author and Quotebook will bring up the Wikipedia entry for that author, if one exists. It will even pull up other quotes from this author from Wikiquote.

By Source

You can display your quotes by source, which is a great feature if you have entered many quotes from a specific source into your Quotebook. Then you can browse all the quotes that you enjoyed from a particular book, or newspaper article, etc.

By Tag

You can also categorize and sort your quotes by Tag.

Suggested Improvements

I think Quotebook is a fantastic, minimalistic app that serves a focused purpose that will appeal to people who love quotes. However, if the developer would like to really soup up this app, I think it would be great to have the ability to add photos to the app as well as audio.
So if, for example, you see a billboard that’s really funny, you can snap a photo of it and add it to the Quotebook. Or if you want to simply say a quote out loud and record it instead of typing it out, you could do that as well.

How to Win a Copy of Quotebook

Matt, the developer of Quotebook, has kindly offered to give away a Promo Code to one lucky reader of AppleiPhoneReview.com. To enter the drawing to win a copy of Quotebook ($2 value), all you have to do is post your favorite inspirational quote as a comment on my Quotebook Facebook post HERE and I will send the winner a message with the promo code by the evening of Thursday, April 28.

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Watch Seinfeld on iPhone via Crackle

As a huge Seinfeld fan, I am excited about the news that Seinfeld is now on iPhone via Sony’s Crackle app, which is available free in the App Store. The Crackle app lets you stream multiple television shows, one of which is Seinfeld.

Currently, Crackle has ten Seinfeld episodes from several seasons. All the episodes are free to stream:

1. The Chinese Restaurant


2. The Bubble Boy


3. The Pick


4. The Junior Mint


5. The Puffy Shirt


6. The Marine Biologist


7. The Hamptons


8. The Soup Nazi


9. The Bizarro Jerry


10. The Yada Yada

Like most free TV streaming services, Crackle is ad-supported. Each episode begins with a 15-second commercial followed by a few 15 to 30-second ads throughout the episode.
Of all the shows on Crackle, Seinfeld is in my opinion the only one worth watching, though I’m not much of a TV watcher. The other shows are The Jackie Chan Adventures, Why it Crackles, The Killing, Kidnapped, The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, Married With Children, Jailbait, News Radio, The Tick, Starsky and Hutch, Roughnecks, 10 Items or Less, Samurai X, Charlie’s Angels, Held Up, Backwash, and Hot Hot Los Angeles.
Crackle also lets you watch a handful of movies, the most notable of which include Reign Over Me, Big Daddy, Ghostbusters and The Da Vinci Code.
Are you excited about Seinfeld on iPhone? Are there any other television streaming apps for iPhone that you would recommend?

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MoneyBook for iPhone: iPhone Budgeting App

After a recent unfortunate computer accident — word to the wise: never allow liquids near your laptop — I have decided to go on a strict budget to recoup the costs of paying for repairs.
In my search for the best way to document my purchases and keep a close watch on my spending, I have discovered an iPhone app that has been tremendously helpful for managing my budget: MoneyBook for iPhone ($2.99 in the App Store as of this writing).

MoneyBook for iPhone

The MoneyBook iPhone app lets you input transactions (both income and expenses) and categorize them so that you can keep track of what kinds of things you are spending your money on.
The app’s main page (pictured above) displays your salary (in my case, my budget for the month), your remaining funds, and a list of your top three expense categories.

Inputting New Transaction History

To input a transaction, simply touch “New Transaction” and enter the amount of your purchase. You may also select a category and write a note about your purchase. MoneyBook has a number of default categories, which you can modify in the settings.

Viewing Your Transactions

Moneybook lets you view your transaction history in several ways. You can view the current month’s transactions in the Transactions section, where your latest purchases are displayed by date, including the categories, notes and monetary amounts. These transaction items can also be edited.
The History section of the MoneyBook app displays your transactions in the same way, except that you can view your transaction history from past months.

The third and most interesting way to view your transactions is in the bar graph, which you can pull up by reorienting your iPhone on its side (landscape) when in the Transactions section. The bar graph shows you how much money you have spent per category in the current month. This is useful for narrowing down what types of things you spend the most money on.
You might find, for example, that you have been spending more money eating out than on groceries, and then you can adjust your budget accordingly.

Recurring Transactions

Another great feature of the MoneyBook iPhone app is the ability to set recurring transactions, for example rent, cell phone bill and other regular monthly transactions.

Conclusion

I have tried other budgeting apps in the past, but they were either too simple or too complicated to use. MoneyBook for iPhone, on the other hand, includes the right set of helpful features (modifiable categories, good summaries of my transaction history, recurring transactions, etc.) in an easy-to-use interface that has served me well in my recent attempt to better manage my finances.
Going forward, I plan to make my financial security a top priority, and the $3 MoneyBook app will be an essential tool for helping me attain that goal.
If you are serious about saving money and budgeting your earnings, the MoneyBook iPhone app can seriously help.
Have you used MoneyBook for iPhone? What iPhone app do you use to help you stay on budget?

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iPhone Facial Recognition App: Would You Opt In?

Google is reportedly working on a facial recognition app that would let you snap a photo of someone with your iPhone or other smartphone and identify them — including their name, phone number, email address and other personal information. While Google says they will not debut a facial recognition app until acceptable privacy controls are in place, the technology is cause for concern nevertheless.
Google says it will require users to opt in before their photos can be identified by the facial recognition app, but can we trust the search engine giant to protect our privacy? Not according to Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., who warns that our privacy rights “are being Facebooked, spammed and texted down to nothing.”

… in the face of concerns about intrusion, security and privacy, Google says, in effect: Trust us. Which raises an obvious question: Why? – Leonard Pitts, Jr. in Privacy: There’s no app for that

I, too, worry about the privacy issues that an iPhone facial recognition app would pose. Do we want to live in a world where there is no longer a need to introduce ourselves, because the people we encounter have already identified us with a smartphone app?
The advent of iPhone facial recognition technology may be closer than we think. Apple’s iPhoto already has a Faces feature that is fairly skilled at identifying friends in your photo albums, and the App Store has several iPhone apps with rudimentary facial recognition capabilities.
What do you think? Would an iPhone facial recognition app creep you out? Or is this a useful application of technology? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

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Prowl Manages Your iPhone Push Notifications, But There’s a Catch…

In a recent post, I described how the LockInfo app lists recent push notifications on the lock screen of my jailbroken iPhone. LockInfo fixes one of the major flaws in the iPhone operating system: the lack of a notification handling system. In the default iOS operating system, if you get one push notification popup after another, the new notification will erase the previous one. And there is no way to view notifications you recently received. I have written before about the need for a notification handling system on the iPhone, something like the page on Facebook that lets you view all of your recent notifications.
Well, I’ve recently learned of another way to receive and manage notifications on the iPhone, without the need to jailbreak. With a $3 app called Prowl, you can get notifications similar to iPhone’s default push notifications, and you can view and manage them within the Prowl app. But there is a caveat…

Prowl Depends on Growl

The Prowl app only works if you have Growl, a free software (Mac and Windows) that receives push notifications from online services like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

What Prowl does is push your notifications from Growl on your computer to your iPhone. Prowl handles notifications well, but there’s a problem: your computer must be online all the time. So you can receive notifications for a bunch of things, but when your computer is asleep or your ISP is down, you miss out on the notifications because Growl does not receive them. This is Prowl’s Achilles’ Heel, in my opinion. In spite of its strengths, the Prowl app is hindered by its reliance on your home or office Internet connection.
I purchased Prowl hoping to use it for my notifications and simply turn off iPhone’s default push notifications, but apparently the computer will not send notifications to my iPhone when it’s asleep (since the WiFi adapter goes to sleep, and thus there is no Internet signal).
So Prowl might be useful if you leave your work or home computer on when you leave, but I generally like to put my computer to sleep whenever I’m not using it. Energy-conscious or budget-minded people who do not like to leave their computer on all day might find Prowl to be somewhat obsolete.
If you do leave your computer on when you’re away from your desk, then Prowl could be useful. But if you are transporting your laptop in a backpack or it is on standby, then you will miss out on most of the alerts, at least until your computer is back online, but by then it might be too late.

Prowl Notifications

Prowl will notify you of events on your computer, like a completed download, updates to Firefox or its add-ons, and updates from web services like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. As noted above, most of these notifications require your computer to be online in order for them to be sent from Growl to Prowl.
However, Prowl supports certain web services that will send you notifications when your computer is offline, but the list seems limited to Twitter, Google Voice and USPS updates.
Prowl notifications look just like iPhone’s default notifications, with the only difference being that you can see your recent notifications listed in the app. In the Prowl app, you’ll see a brief summary of your notifications. This might be sufficient, except that I would like to be able to touch my notifications and go directly to the relevant app, which you can’t do.
You can, however, set certain notifications to redirect to certain apps when you get a popup. So if you get a notification from Twitter, you can set it to open the Echofon app, for example.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a notification handling solution, Prowl can be helpful in certain circumstances, like when you are taking a break at work and want to stay informed of events on your computer, such as completed downloads, incoming Skype or Google Voice calls, or warnings that your site is down.
Otherwise, it is generally unreliable as a notification handling solution since it requires your computer to be turned on in order to send important notifications. Although some web services will send notifications to Prowl without the need for an Internet connection, Prowl only supports a limited amount of these web services. Furthermore, push notifications from iPhone apps that are unsupported by Growl or Prowl cannot be sent to Prowl and listed in the app.
There is always the option to receive the default iPhone push notifications in conjunction with Prowl, but there is unfortunately little you can do to unify all of your notifications in one place consistently, unless you have a jailbroken iPhone. Prowl is a step in the right direction, but it does not quite resolve iPhone’s notification handling problem.

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