Of all of the obvious features that users clearly want on their iPhones/iPads/iPods, but that Apple has so far refused to provide, wireless synchronizing is easily the most popular. Nova Media has announced a software solution that, for Mac users, takes a few small steps towards solving this problem.
Nova Media’s iHub is an OS X application that sits on your Mac and monitors your local network for wireless iDevices and other Macs (no client app is required). When one is located, it synchronizes your calendar and contacts between the two devices. According to Nova Media, the software can be configured to synchronize certain calendars only with certain users (devices), so that your work calendar doesn’t end up on your kids’ iPod Touch, for example.
The downside is that iHub supports calendar and contacts syncing only. Music, video, apps, books — basically any media that resides strictly in iTunes — is not synced. So iHub isn’t a complete solution to the syncing issue, but if you grow tired of having to manually sync your devices just to keep your calendars and contacts straight, you may want to give iHub a try when it is released. No information yet on pricing or availability.
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Sounds like it’ll need a bit of work to match The Missing Sync/SyncTogether from Markspace. (Though the iTunes-only stuff is still a problem there: That’s going to require cooperation from Apple to solve.)
isnt this the same as mobileme?? that syncs my calendars and my contacts
DStaal:
Thats probably not going to happen unless Apple moves to an open protocol for it (iTunes syncing) in the future.
Daniel:
It solves similar problems like MobileMe – yes. But so do Porsche and BMW. 😉 It’s always good being able to choose. Also MobileMe is quite pricey!
iHub sounds interesting, but as far as I understood their upcoming product it only works when you are in the same LAN/WLAN like your Mac. fruux offers a similar software but it works via the cloud (like Dropbox) and they recently also announced that they’ll soon offer iDevices support – so probably I’ll stay with them. Such a cloud based solution feels much more convenient for me.
iOS devices must be running version 3.1.3 or higher of the operating system in order to sync calendars, while only the upcoming iOS 4 will allow users to sync their address books.