In December last year I wrote about how bad deal I thought .Mac was.

Now it seems that the synchronization software specialist Mark/Space, Inc. thinks that there is a market opportunity for a sync solution based for people that have two or more macs (or families with more then one mac). SyncTogether is scheduled to be released later this year, and provide Mac-to-Mac synchronization of vital information, such as contacts, calendar events and tasks, notes and memos, Apple Mail settings and Safari bookmarks for multiple users. Cool isn’t it?

I was I long time user of Missing Sync for PalmOS, but last week changed license to Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. Mark/Space had a MacWorld Expo deal and I only had to pay US $ 10 inbetween. The Palm Treo has been retired and replaced by an HTC P4350. Even though the HTC P4350 isn’t listed as a supported device, it syncs flwwlessly. It is just brilliant, not only can I sync my calendar entries and todos from iCal, contacts from AddressBook, but also playlists and mp3 from iTunes! It can also sync with Entourage for those of you using that.

missingsync

I have been asked by many people what I think of the iPhone. I have never had an iPod in my life, nor do I plan to get one. And it is for sure not to be one that uses Dashboard widgets as it’s interface. The first application that I download for my MacBook Pro when I have done a clean install is TinkerTool, and the main reason is to turn of Dashboard and it widgets. So why would I go for a phone using that dreadful GUI?

Still reading? What does the iPhone bring you that isn’t already part of other mobile phones? Push Mail? Wifi? Browser? Most smartphones have that already today. Ah, it must be the Google Earth? Yeah, I haven’t seen that on any other device. How often do you think you will be using that? And why not then just go for a smartphone with GPS inbuilt? What then with HTC P3300, it can even show you where you are on a map! Wouldn’t that be something? The lack of 3G isn’t something that bothers me, I dropped that on my last mobilephone, wasn’t worth the extra price.

Qwerty hardware keyboard or virtual keyboard. Steve Jobs made a big point about how stupid it was to have hardware keyboard, cause then you couldn’t change or add keys. Think about that for a second. How old are you? For how many years have you been typing on keyboards? I have been typing on keyboards for about 20 years. I guess I can “recall” three changes in the keyboard: @, € and the multimedia keys. The multimedia keys are probably part of the iPod part of the device. So what do you think is best: A thumb keyboard or a greasy screen? I’m going for the thumb keyboard …

Price? Yes, the iPhone comes with two years subscription in the U.S. For private end users in Norway the maximum is 1 year of subscription when buying a new phone. That means that the phone will be even more expensive here in Norway, on top of that comes the already bad exchange rates Apple is using. A product costing US $ 599 would most likely cost 5.990 NOK in Norway. The market exchange rate is close to 1:6 and not 1:10. But I guess the price for these two iPhone models would even be higher in Norway, by law these kind of products should be lasting minimum 5 years, if not the consumer come with a reclamation on the product. Apple needs to insure itself against that, and that will be done through higher prices!

But don’t get me completly wrong, the iPhone will push other mobile phone vendors to create better looking phone with more functionality. The iPhone is also probably far easier to use then the Symbian phones from Nokia. These phones even have a worse user interface …