Breaking News: Project Titan Will Be Integrated In iOS 4.2

I've just hung up the phone from a conference call with Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg who are respectively my 104th and 105th best friends. It was the middle of the night for them and morning for me but hey, I wouldn't have agreed to that call if I had to stay up late or wake up early in the morning. Anyway, we talked a lot of nonsense and also the future of Apple, Facebook and the World.

As you should know, Mark is hosting a special event next Monday to announce his so-called Project Titan. There's been a lot of talk about this project, maybe, maybe too much talk. This project is not a rebel project, this project is Titan Bloody Titan (Bono, leave my body right now).

Some people have been speculating that Titan is set to be a Gmail killer. Well, as I know about it before anyone and didn't sign any non-disclosure agreement (and even if I had, I doubt that Steve and Mark would risk losing me as a friend by suing me), I'm going to reveal it right now.

Basically, Project Titan is more than a Gmail killer. It will not only integrate push email through Facebook's web interface but also contacts, calendar and notes synchronization. The key feature there is not its availability on desktop computers through its web interface but its release on Monday on all iDevices (including Apple TV 2). That is the reason why Steve and Mark were spotted having coffee together in Palo Alto not long ago. Besides talking about how much more fun it would have been had I been there with them, they also discussed Project Titan.

It is no coincidence that iOS 4.2 hasn't been released to the public yet, the reason behind this is that it will be released on Monday coincidentally with Mark's announcement. iOS 4.2 will let users configure a Facebook account in pretty much the same way they are able to configure Exchange, MobileMe or other email accounts right now. They will, then, get push email, contacts, calendar, notes and Farmville directly from Facebook on their iOS device, rendering Microsoft Exchange useless.

Through this partnership between Apple, Facebook and its announcement on my blog, the three of us will dominate the world and facilitate Facebook addiction worldwide. Facebook will be the portal and iOS will support the devices.

Based on this information and my love for insider trading, I am publicly planning on taking over Google. My initial offering is US$ 0.000001 per share. As there are 270 million shares on the market, this should cost me something like US$ 270, a fair price in the light of the aforementioned secrets. I'm, obviously, not doing this for profit. I just wouldn't want Google to disappear from the face of the Earth as they still offer great services and host my blog.

Note: Should my prophecies not come true on Monday, you should consider that they originated from a different timeline in a parallel universe and should, hence, be discarded when assessing the credibility of this blog.

We Want You To See Tron Legacy Come Dec. 17th

10 REM MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM
15 ON ERROR CALL -151 OR 911
20 IF DATE$="12172010" THEN GOTO CLOSEST MOVIE THEATER
30 IF MOVIENAME$="TRON LEGACY" THEN GOTO 100 ELSE GOTO 20
100 IF 3DMOVIE=1 THEN GOTO 105 ELSE GOTO 20
105 BUY TICKET
108 BUY HOTDOG
110 BUY NACHOCHEESE
120 BUY REGULAR COKE
130 WEAR 3D GLASSES
140 WATCH MOVIE
150 GOTO 10

The Holy Grail Of Synchronization

As you might have figured, I'm a bit of a geek and if there is one field of computing that my friends agree I'm knowledgeable about it is data synchronization. Until we see the day where cloud storage becomes mainstream and total (by that I mean literally running a virtual machine in the clouds with not even on OS on the local host), we will have to deal with fragmented services. As a matter of fact, if you want to back-up your data online or synchronize it among different computers, you will need to use different services. Having synced data across multiple computers and phones for years, I consider myself quite proficient (with my usual modesty) in this field. So, here is what I would suggest for anyone that would like to keep multiple devices in sync:

- For Contacts, Calendar, Notes & Tasks: In my experience and as much as I hate to admit it, nothing beats Microsoft Exchange. There are great companies that offer hosted Exchange services for a small fee. I've been using 123Together.com for the past 3 years and have been very happy with them. For less than US$ 15 per month, I get a great service and I don't have to deal with the expenses and maintenance costs of having my own Exchange server installed on a local computer.

Thanks to 123Together, I can keep all my contacts, Calendar, Notes & Tasks in sync across 3 macs, one PC, one iPad (soon 2) and all my iPhones. Their monthly service also includes an Outlook 2007 license. As for macs, iPads and iPhones, they're natively compatible with Exchange 2007.  If you would like to sync your Notes and Tasks on your iPhone as well, I recommend the IMExchange app that works like a charm (Notes & Tasks aren't supported natively on iOS devices).

I have tried different solutions in the past but none work as well as Microsoft Exchange. MobileMe is unreliable at best, tethered syncing from one device to another sucks big time. Gmail offers the ability to push sync contacts, calendars & emails natively to your iPhone but it won't support desktop syncing (unless you get a premium account).

- For syncing files and data backup: Besides making frequent backups of my computers on external hard drives, I also use an online backup service. My service of choice is SugarSync. Not only does it allow me to backup all my data online, it also lets me sync folders across multiple computers. A pure blessing when using multiple computers! I can save a file in a synced folder on my iMac at work and when I get home in the evening it will be sitting in the same folder on my home PC. SugarSync also released an iPhone and Android app which lets you access all of you synced data from your phone and view or send it from anywhere. In case of a fire at your home, all your important files will still be available and retrievable on their servers!

Dropbox offers a similar service but is a lot less flexible when it comes to syncing multiple folders or different sets of folders from one computer to another.

If you have further questions, don't hesitate to drop it in the comments, I'll be more than happy to help!