Yes, it’s intentionally singular.

For the uninitiated, “the Cloud” is the intarwebz; and just as .Mac or MobleMe would want to host your data in the Cloud, I found myself recently trying to accomplish the same thing.

This will be a long post, but I can say with a certain degree of confidence that the information here can be very useful should it be applicable to you.

Why the Cloud?

The main reason that makes it practical for me to start storing pertinent data in the Cloud is because I’ve now been frequently switching from 4 different devices that have the means of access such data.

Before, I just had a synchronization utility to mirror key databases on my two main machines (Desktop and Laptop) – just so when I use one or the other, I know I’ll be using the most recent bookmarks, passwords, etc. I mainly use my Desktop since I work at home, and I switch to my laptop on the rare occasions I feel extremely lazy to even sit up. In such events, I’d usually start the synching routine before I transfer, which can take quite a bit of time. Then do it again when I switch back.

This routine has proven to be annoying, but bearable given how often I had to switch devices. But at the advent of Mobile OSX v2 and the promise of applications in the AppStore, I now find myself being able to switch between 4 devices; the desktop, the laptop, the iPhone, and the iPod touch.

The issue I’m faced with is that there’s no way to “sync” the iPhone stuff without plugging it into iTunes. And of course plugging it to iTunes would mean I have to plug it to the computer with the most recent database – which becomes doubly frustrating since I just really want to sync the more important stuff like the Calendar, Addressbook, the [non-existent] ToDo list, etc.

So how do I make sure everything is consolidated and synced without having to pay an annual $100 premium for a MobleMe account? Naturally, the only choice I’m left with: other “Cloud” services.

What do I really need?

So first thing to decide is what data you prefer to be available to you in the context of the device you’re using. In my case, between the desktop and laptop I have about 9:

1. Firefox bookmarks
2. Keychain (passwords, etc.)
3. NetNewsWire feeds (RSS)
4. iTunes database
5. Calendar
6. Mail
7. ToDo list
8. FontAgent database (fonts)
9. CandyBar database

First, I eliminate 4, 8 and 9 because those are things that I really don’t need to have synced beyond the two big machines. So what I did was put the data either in the Time Capsule or the Drobo and just used symlinks to access them from any of the machines. This only requires me to manually sync their database indexes and not the actual files ¹ Because they’ll ultimately be accessing the same place – which speeds up everything dramatically. Only FontAgent is the exception to this given that it makes font profiles… so I just try to make it a point to not switch machines if I know I’ll be using it ² FontAgent btw, is a font-management application. Fonts take up system memory so the more you have “installed” the less RAM you’re going to be left with REGARDLESS if you use the fonts or not. Given the my work, I deal with fonts A LOT, and apps such as this allow you to install temporarily to memory and unload when you’re done. (I’ll probably have to find a way to just set one machine as the master and have the laptop sync from it… I think that’s possible, it’s just not a priority as of the moment)

Now for the remaining ones… it’s off to the Cloud!

• Firefox bookmarks: FoxMarks

FoxMarks is a Firefox add-on/extension that lets you log in to an online account and store your bookmarks there. All you have to do is have all your Firefox browsers (portable or otherwise) to have it installed.

This however doesn’t sync with Mobile Safari. Lucky for me, I just use Mobile Safari for casual surfing – so I’m not worried about it… yet.

• Keychain: 1Password / my1Password

The Apple Keychain is great, and if you got MobileMe, you should be set, but 1Password is a little better in the sense that it integrates itself to different browsers and applications. It would take too long to describe how the thing works, but trust me, it does a whole lot more than Keychain. Visit the site for more info.

One thing worth noting here is that there’s a 1Password web-app for the iPhone (and its going to be made an official app in the AppStore!). Cut and paste is non-existent in the iPhone/iPod Touch – which can be a pain in the ass when you’re trying to fill in usernames and passwords ³ Especially for me… my internet banking password is a 64-character random alphanumeric one. 1Passowrd solves this.

The other thing worth noting here is that 1Password has got its own (hopefully free ⁴ Right now it’s free, but once they roll the product out officially, I hope they make it free, or a one time fee. ) online account system called my1Password – much like FoxMarks… only my1Password has got some heavy duty encryption – so youe data is secure and safe.

• NetNewsWire: NewsGator

There was a time where NetNewsWire wasn’t free and it required you to tie in your account with an online account… which I’m sure we all agree sucks in principle. So now I find it amusing and ironic that I find myself subscribing to the service when NetNewsWire is now free. But all the same, just like Foxmarks and my1Password, you can now sync everything in the Cloud. This is a God send because like FontAgent, NetNews wire takes a bit of a long time to manually synchronize between physical machines. This solves that issue instantly.

The Most Important Stuff

Now lets get to the three most important areas; those that can actually affect productivity.

Mail / AddressBook: Google

I enabled IMAP on my GMail account and had have my mail sync with that. Then I had Addressbook.app sync as well with Google Contacts. Like NetNewsWire and FontAgent, Mail, and Addressbook are a pain the ass to synchronize manually – and this “Cloud” approach makes swift work of that.

You know, I have to admit, the sheer usefulness of Google’s services is beginning to scare me since they literally can store all our sensitive data. Granted, the data is [hopefully] encrypted, but the thought is quite unnerving right? In the end, for me, practicality and the willingness to trust won… I’m just hoping Google doesn’t betray that trust.

One issue I noticed is that while the iCal

iCal: Google / ToodleDo

This is the most spartan area of my whole data reorganization (and it’s not because I’m a lousy data organizer). Sufficed to say it works; a lot of irritation comes with it, but it works.

So for the calendar, I had it sync with the Google Calendar – ’nuff said. Google’s basic implementation of the calDAV protocol seems to work fine for putting and editing events. To delete an event in iCal though, it seems that you have to cut the event and not paste it back – as there’s no way “delete” it. So Calendaring is not perfect but works just fine.

Now for the bane of our existence… As we know, Apple has a ToDo list feature built right into iCal; but Apple, in its infinite knowledge, for some reason decided to leave it out, and prioritized Notes over it. ToDos are notes (the essence, not the application) if you really think about it, so why not just integrate the whole thing, but I digress.

The AppStore has got a lot of ToDo managers that accomplish this a number of ways, I was after cloud synchronization… which narrowed the list a whole lot. I ended up purchasing (that’s right! I paid for it) app called Todo from www.appigo.com, and use it in conjunction with an online service called ToodleDo. ⁵ Isn’t that just a cromulent name?

Now Google Calendar doesn’t have native ToDo functionality (Greasemonkey hacks are not considered as legitimate solutions as they, at best, just interpret an “event” written a certain way). ToodleDo itself on the other hand, has a calDAV implementation, so I had iCal subscribe to that account instead.

Another issue springs forth from that: iCal can add/edit/remove events from Google Calendar, but iCal does not only read ToodleDo items as events (not real ToDo items), but it also cannot edit them. Luckily there’s a free dashboard widget that lets you access, add, edit all your ToodleDo stuff in realtime. ⁶ Now if only they improve the GUI, because it’s BUTT UGLY.

Such a convoluted process to accomplish a simple thing dong you think? Like I said; this is Spartaaaa!

But it works, and I’ll stick with it until something better comes along.

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Also, I do realize MobileMe probably solves EVERYTHING in one swoop (assuming they get their at together and fix all the issues/bugs) – but $100 a year? My method will make you spend a lot less than that one time and you can do the same thing.

I think it’s the server space that’s pushing the price up. 20GB minimum webspace I guess is reasonable, but that’s assuming people want to use the Cloud also for that kind of data storage. As for me, I just want productivity data synced – which is essentially all text (save for mail attachments).

Give me a stripped down MobileMe account for $24 annually and I’ll think about it, but $100 of what I know I’ll never get to fully utilize, I don’t think so.