Another fine Mesh: Microsoft renames Live Sync again

Skydrive

FFS Microsoft, why don't you just merge this and Skydrive finally? Why have to basically identical products running in parallel?

By ripclaw666 on 31 Aug 2010

So confused, where does Windows Live SkyDrive fit in?

By Deano on 31 Aug 2010

Beat me to it ripclaw :)

By Deano on 31 Aug 2010

Does anyone at MS know what they are doing?

I too am already massively confused by the online file storage side of it - so much so that I'm not sure I can be bothered to use it. Clearly MS has several teams, none of which talk to each other about what they're doing.

Worryingly, Allison O’Mahony seems to think that remote access is an "addition". This has been in Live Mesh for ages, if not from the outset.

By halsteadk on 31 Aug 2010

Well at least they are doing this in the Beta phase so the truth is most of the general public will not even be aware of it.

But they do like to make life difficult for themselves!

By Grunthos on 31 Aug 2010

@halsteadk

Perhaps Alison was referring to the addition of those features to LiveSync, when LiveMesh was incorporated into it...? Benefit of the doubt, and all that...

By stephenjfa on 2 Sep 2010

It's free and it works

I have tried out remote connect (equivalent to remote desktop connection, except it even works with Win7S, and is free). It works nicely. Very pleased to have it. Easier to set up than LogMeIn Free, which sometimes does not work for me.

I have tried out file sync, which also works, and is easy to set up. I agree that it partially overlaps SkyDrive, and therefore confused the hell out of me till I realised it is a separate facility. The web site could be made less confusing, which would help.

I have been an early adopter of Exchange Active Sync for Hotmail. I have it working on Win7, but also on iPod and iPad, and I might soon have it working on my Nokia phone. It 'just works', and I think people underestimate what a big step forward this is, to have a solution that works across platforms for the first time, and at no cost.

Bear in mind that a lot of separate pieces of technology are coming together now, and it is becoming apparent that MS has been playing a long game. It is a pincer movement big enough to ensnare Apple and Google and beat them. I am impressed by what I have seen so far, and I think MS deserve some positive comments for what they are doing.

Apple and Google have been greedy and uncooperative. MobileMe does nothing worth having (at GBP 5.00 per month). Google and Apple both want lock-in to their ecosystems. MS is opening it up to produce a cross-platform solution.

The FCC was invented to force 3 competing US phone companies to work together so that businesses did not need 3 phones on each employee's desk. It or someone should long ago have forced cooperation between MS, Apple, and Google. But no matter, MS is going to eat Apple and Google's lunch with Windows Live.

Am I an MS evangelist? I am just pissed off with Apple and Google. Especially Apple's greedy restrictiveness. I will never buy another Apple product.

By fogtax on 2 Sep 2010