Ubuntu One
Surely there should be a better way to sync. That’s been a problem since sync technology started. Hence its a small market. Same with backup. But with cloud storage use growing, Canonical will need to do something more unique for Ubuntu One to stand out (of course they will in due time).
Honestly, the beta is a sleeper. I could not even move assets from one folder to another in the web interface. If its possible, then there is a big UI fail happening. But then, what’s the percentage of people using the web interface compared to the client? Dropbox is pretty much the king of the hill in this arena.
MobileMe almost nailed it, but is disastrously unstable (but they’ve been improving lately). The only reason why people stick to it is because of sync and the other services are just dogs not to mention overpriced. But hey, its Apple.
In the future releases of Ubuntu, expect a notification alert on the first login to sign up to the service (30 day trial for premium service, stuff like that). That’s the only way to have more subscribers outside the usual PR to come out.
have to disagree with you on the stability of mobileme – i’ve used it for a year and have found it excellent, stable and fast
I’d love to see things working, but also no adverts inside the distro… who wants them, anyway? This ubuntu thing is rocking because of the community and because what it’s got It’s just about free software… what’s the big deal? I’d wish Canonical and other in the business, as well as the public sectors) did something cleverer like investing some small 1% in the FS proyects they draw efforts from. That would make things rock for good and for all. Or so…
I actually think that MobileMe is a compelling service with regards to sync, especially with the iPhone. A few months ago, I accidentally erased everything on my iPhone while out of town and just connecting to MobileMe, I was able to recover every bit of contact I need. The other services though, are just flawed in my opinion. But with regards to stability, they’ve improved a lot for sure.
It’s too bad Ubuntu didn’t just buy out the excellent Dropbox utility and open source the client.
Alternatively, what about iFolder?
I second that. Dropbox is excellent and works flawlessly on Linux, Mac and windows. I even managed to bump up my free storage allocation to 5Gb.
However the contacts sync bit of Ubuntu One is interesting.