I lost my MacBook Air this week. Fortunately, I got it back when someone turned it into the manager of the restaurant where I left it.

I was fortunate, but what if the finder decided to be a keeper? What if she also found a way to crack my system password, access my email, bank site, and other personal details that I have on the system? I’d be screwed because I did not do some very simple things. I did a few things right, but should have done more.

Make sure you learn from my failure and don’t fall prey to the dishonest people out there. I got lucky, but you might not.

Here are a few ways you can keep your MacBook, or Windows notebook, protected, and even track it down if it goes missing. Best of all, you don’t have to spend a dime to do this.

Prey Tacking Software

This summer our editor Josh Smith posted about his use of LoJack for Laptops, a laptop tracking application that helps you recover your laptop if stolen or lost. That solution will secure your computer for a price. A free alternative he mentioned comes from the folks at the Prey Project. I chose it because I’m cheap, but it also will let me add features for a decent price.

Like LoJack, Prey keeps you protected from unscrupulous people who get access to your system. Sign up for an account and install the software on your Mac, Windows, Unbuntu or other Linux system and it runs quietly in the background. In fact, you won’t even know its running. That’s a good thing since the bad guys won’t know it either. On my Mac it doesn’t have a menu bar icon or an app icon in the Applications folder.

You can watch the company’s video demo for the Pro plans which do cost anywhere from $5/month for a personal account up to $399/month for enterprise users with a slew of PCs to protect. You can use the service for free if all you want is very basic tracking. Added features include installation on more computers, an active mode that keeps track of your computer all the time, not just what you report it, and a few more features which you can see on their plans page. They also have apps that work for iPhone (in beta and will be released soon) and Android.

Prey Project introduction from Carlos Yaconi on Vimeo.

iCloud Find My Mac

For Mac users, the forthcoming iCloud will offer a new service very much like the Find My Phone for iOS. It will track your computer and let you know where it was last used based on where the bad guys log onto the Internet. The feature will be ready to go for all users on October 12 when iCloud launches and offers a free version with up to 5GB of file storage and other paid versions with added storage. Use the storage to backup and sync files between Macs and iOS devices.

The key security feature finds your Mac on a map (see image above). It will also let you send a message to the computer so that you can tell the person who “found” your computer that you want it back and how they can do the right thing and turn it into you. If you need to you can lock the system down and remote wipe the user data in your Home folder.

These solutions may work great, but what if you lose it and no one finds it or what if it you, someone else or mother nature destroys it? What if the bad guys know what she’s doing and wipes the system before any of these security apps can kick in? You need to do a few things to protect your data. You should be following these best practices anyway.

Back Up Your Data

Have a regular backup plan. If I hadn’t recovered my MacBook, at least I’d still have all of my documents and files. That’s because I use SugarSync to synchronize my important files between my three computers and their cloud storage service. I also regularly keep a backup copy of all of my music, videos, and pictures. I backup the media files manually since they take up too much space for SugarSync to handle (over 200GB). Every time I download new music, create a new video or load new photos onto my computer, I back them up to my 2TB Firewire drive hooked up to my other computer.

iCloud will come in handy for Mac users because it also handles file backup/syncing. Windows users can take advantage of SugarSync, DropBox, or Windows Live Skydrive, just to name a few. Whatever you choose to use, use it! For unlimited data backup in real time, get a Carbonite account.

Password Protection

Passwords protect you only if you do the following:

• Make good passwords including random numbers, letters (both caps and lowercase) and if possible punctuation marks
• Don’t use common words, names, well known personal data like birthdays
• Use different passwords for all of your sites – don’t have one password to rule them all
• Use a password database application like Lastpass

The last suggestion can really help if you password protect your Lastpass account with a really good password. Then, you only have to remember one password. Lastpass stores your password database online in encrypted form so that not even they know what the passwords are. They also don’t know your password, so you make sure you make a good one but also remember it. View the Lastpass instruction video below:

Finally, don’t keep your passwords written down near your computer. If you have little notebook with all of your passwords in your computer bag, then you are just asking to have your bank account emptied by a criminal.

Lock It Down

Finally, remember that your computer can be taken even if you just go across the room for a refill or to the restroom for a pitstop. A good lock can help, like a Kensington lock or Griffin’s TechSafe Calbe Lock that I recently reviewed.This system doesn’t work with the MacBook Air, but if you don’t have a Kensington lock slot on your computer, this is a good solution.

With these you lock your computer to the table or some heavy object and the grab-and-go criminal will be thwarted from stealing your computer.

How to Protect Your Notebook in Case You Lose It is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft announced an update to Skydrive, the company’s cloud storage service that lets you store 25GB of documents, photos and even music for free. Although similar to other cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Apple’s new iCloud, Skydrive delivers much more storage for free.

I’ve been using Skydrive for quite a while now and it has gradually improved over the years. It is still not where I want it to be, though, with one of my complaints being file size limitation (although that has been improved a bit in this new update).

I have always liked Skydrive’ collaboration capabilities: you can share your files easily with friends and colleagues, also. When you upload an attachment, whether it is Microsoft Office files or photos, you can choose to have them stored on Skydrive for easy access and quick editing if necessary.

The new Skydrive takes on a familiar Windows Explorer look which should be more attractive and welcoming for first time users of the service. Files are displayed in a default details layout along with the default ‘My Files’ location, which displays all file types.

There are some limited customization capabilities built in: you can change the default view from details to Thumbnail preview.

If you want to see more information about your files or folders, just hover over the file and click the blue i that appears. A TaskPane will appear on the right side of the screen with attributes about the file. This will have options that will let you add information, edit in Word Web App, Open in Microsoft Word or download to your hard disk. You can also see version history and edit the document’s permissions.

The new Skydrive features greatly improved search with a new suggested results feature. Just start typing a few words and the most relevant results will appear as you type. You can also see that you have quick access to other options beneath the document, such editing in the browser or view properties information.

The new Skydrive strongly focuses on quicker access to tools. The toolbar, for instance, displays quick links to creating a new Office file such as a Word document, spreadsheet, presentation or notebook. You can also create a new folder, add files or view synced files. Because you are using the browser instead of Windows Explorer to manage and create files, such improvements are welcome.

You can quickly organize and view common file types using the new Skydrive. For example: the Navigation Pane has a Documents and Photos link so you can quickly view all related files. In the above screenshot, I am in the Documents view where I view a combination of folders and Word documents. I have similar organization tools I can find in Explorer, such as columns, for viewing files. A nice feature is viewing the size of a folder.

You can also use the Quick Views capability first introduced in Hotmail to quickly access recently added documents or documents shared with you. The Groups feature allows you to easily collaborate with groups you might have set up on Windows Live Messenger. A very well integrated experience across core Windows Live services.

Photos

The new Photos view is nicely done in Windows Live Skydrive. By default, photos are displayed in Thumbnail Preview. One of the nice features I noticed include a faint watermark on the bottom right of the total number of photos in a folder. See below:

Another nice thing I discovered is that each thumbnail preview is an actual mini slideshow, see below:

Mini slideshows dynamically changing

Overall, these improvements are welcome and will make Windows Live Skydrive a more attractive option to use. However, the file size limitation still remains a big deal. Individual file sizes have moved from 50 to 100 MBs, but that is still not enough for what most people would like to use the service for. Especially for video and photos that can balloon in size. It’s something Dropbox still beats Skydrive on.

The other thing would be synchronization. Although Windows Live Sync is easy to use, there is a set it and forget it approach to Dropbox: just install the free client, type in your account information and files are automatically synced up. That seamless experience is still something Skydrive lacks.

That said, if you like Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 integration, just like Hotmail, you can drag and pin the Windows Live Skydrive web icon to your Windows 7 taskbar for quick access with built in Jump List. It’s a good effort focused on making the service easier and more accessible. And in the end, it’s a free service, so its definitely worth a try. There’s nothing to lose.

How to use the new Windows Live Skydrive is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Cloud Storage is the new big thing. With literally hundreds of gigabytes of free storage available for free, it’s no wonder that users can find an insane amount of free cloud storage to keep their files and devices all in sync.

We’ve rounded up a collection of our favorite cloud storage services, that combined, will deliver 117GB of free cloud storage.

Most fo these services not only allow you to use tons of free cloud storage, but will also make it easy to keep your files in sync and accessible form any location via a web browser or special apps.

How to Get 117GB of Free Cloud Storage

To take advantage of all of these offers, you will need to use multiple accounts, but if you have a plan for how you want to use the storage, you can easily grab a large chunk of cloud storage for free.

ADrive – 50GB

ADrive offers 50GB of free online storage, yes that’s 50GB of free online storage. You can upload folders and directories, which makes it easy to upload a large music collection or photo archive.

Microsoft Live SkyDrive – 25GB

SkyDrive will give you 25GB of storage or free with a few limitations. First off, you can’t store files over 50MB in size, but for most users looking to stash a collection of digital photographs and important documents this will deliver more than enough.

Amazon Cloud Drive 5GB (20GB w/ MP3 purchase)

Amazon has just launched Amazon Cloud Drive storage which offers 5GB of online storage for free, and bumps the limit up to 20GB with a $9.99 MP3 album purchase. The Amazon Cloud Drive lets you store music and all types of files. The music files can be accessed on your Android smart phone with the Cloud Drive Player or your browser for music playback on the go.

SugarSync – 5GB

SugarSync offers 5GB of online storage for free and allows you to keep multiple computers in sync. The base account comes with 5GB of free storage, but you can earn up to 10GB in free storage by referring friends and family.

Box.net – 5GB

Box.net is well known in the business world, but not a lot of end users know about it. Box.net offers 5GB of free online storage and also has third party add ons and access form third party sites which extend the use of storage.

iDrive – 5GB

iDrive also offers 5GB of free cloud storage for personal users with the ability to upload photos, documents and other items. iDrive will identify important files and automatically include them in the backup so that you don’t forget a critical file that is stored in an odd location.

MemoPal – 3GB

MemoPal offers 3GB of free online cloud storage which allows you to place your files online for safekeeping and includes software for syncing across multiple computers. You can earn more space be referring friends.

Dropbox – 2GB

Dropbox has been our go to syncing and cloud storage tool for years now and while it only offers 2GB of online storage for free, you can earn more storage by referring others and by playing along in promotions from time to time. Dropbox will keep your files synced across multiple computers and accessible online and on your mobile devices.

SpiderOak – 2GB

SpiderOak offers a free 2GB of cloud storage for online backup and file storage. The service allows for syncing and sharing of files like many of the other offerings. SpiderOak is compatible with Mac, Windows and many flavors of Linux when it comes to syncing.

How to Keep Track of your Files

If you need help keeping track of these numerous options, check out this Lifehacker post which includes a collection of file types and tips for organizing your media across multiple cloud storage tools.

While you can buy online storage pretty cheap these days, 117GB of free storage is nothing to laugh at. Many of these services allow you to connect the storage to Windows Explorer as a mapped drive, simplifying your access. Gladinet can do this for Amazon Cloud storage and many others, but requires a purchase for heavy use.

If you search for “how to map service name as a network drive”, you’ll get a good number of results for how to map many of these services to your Windows or Mac notebook.

Photo Via Peter Kaminski

Cloud Storage Roundup: How to Get 117GB of Free Cloud Storage is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

We live in a connected world and we always want access to our most important information, anytime, anywhere. The buzz word lately is the cloud, which is a way of utilizing the Internet to store, manage and share information.

Utilizing the cloud is still a new idea for many although we have dabbled with in some form or another for a long time now, web mail services such as Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail are common examples of utilizing the cloud for storage and communication. Instant messaging is another form of using the cloud for communication too. In this article, we take a look at how we can use the Cloud to store our data such as large files, pictures, videos and music to name a few.

There are many services out there and I don’t believe there is a one size fits all solution, so I will be looking at two popular files storage and sharing services. In this article, we’ll look at Live SkyDrive.

Windows Live Skydrive

When you talk about cloud storage, Microsoft makes it literal with this easy to use online service, its also attractive with its massive 25 GBs of available space. To use Windows Live Skydrive, you need a Windows Live ID there is also a storage limit of 50 MBs per file. So, for people with heavy needs Skydrive might not be the best option, lets take a look at how to use it.

First you need to log into your Skydrive account at http://skydrive.live.com

You will then be presented with your main page with displays familiar folders you find in Windows such as Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Public folders. The philosophy shared between the two makes it easy to get a hang of.

Add a File

After logging in, the next step is to add a file or files, its up to you to decide where you would like to store your files. You can also create your own folders and store files there too. Lets open the Documents folder and add some there. You can choose to add them anywhere you desire. Please beware though that files added to the Public folder are available on the Internet to anyone.

Here you can see I already have some files in my documents folder.

Click the Add files link

In the box displayed, you drag your files or you click the select documents from your computer link and browse to where your files are located. I am going to use the drag and drop option since its quick and easy.

As you see in the above screenshot, I selected a few Microsoft Office files I would like upload to my Skydrive Documents folder. After the files have been uploaded, click Continue.

That’s it!

Please note, you are not just limited to office files and pictures, Skydrive can handle larger files too such as videos. Just to prove it here I am uploading a video file which is 49.8 MBs in size which is just below the file limit of 50 MBs permitted by Skydrive.

Sharing is just as easy.

Once the file has been uploaded, hover over it with your mouse pointer and click the Share link that appears.

Click Edit permissions

Set permissions for who can access your file, you can leave it at just you and select the option to email to additional people.

In our next article, we take a look at another solution, Dropbox.

How to Store and Share Large Files Online is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

For those who work in multiple operating systems (Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X) one challenge is getting files transferred between the two. We will show you four strategies on how to keep your files in sync and shared between your MacBook and a Windows Notebook.

USB Drives – For Occasional Transfers

If you only need to occasionally transfer a few files, the fastest way is to just get a USB hard drive or flash drive and plug it into the source computer, copy it over and then unplug it. Take the drive to the other computer and plug it in and copy it wherever you want it. On Windows you would use Windows Explorer and on a Mac you would use Finder.

If you want it to be more automatic, one solution might be Clickfree’s USB backup drives. They make it pretty easy to do. Just plug in the drive and it finds the files in your user or home folder and copies them over. The first time will take a long time, but after that it just grabs new or changed files. Now you can take the drive to the other computer and have access to the files you want.

When moving between Windows and a Mac, file formats can be in issue. For example it is not easy to read files created in Pages on a Mac when they are on a Windows computer. We have a guide to show you how to do that if that is your issue. Otherwise, be sure to save files on the Mac in a format that your Windows computers can read or vice versa. For example, in Pages, Numbers or Keynote on a Mac, save your files in formats that are compatible with Microsoft Office. In Pages go to File, choose Save As, and then look for the drop down box at the bottom. Select it and then choose Word Document from the drop down list.

The Save As Dialogue Box in Word 2011

It is much easier when going from a Windows computer to a Mac. Most file formats that can be created on a Windows computer can be read by software on a Mac. If you have problems, do a Save As in the program and choose one of the following formats:

• Word, Excel, PowerPoint (can be read by Office and iWork)
• PDF (can be read by Macs with Preview app)
• RTF (can be read by Macs with Text Edit app)
• Almost any picture file format including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP
• Video files work best on Mac with M4V, MOV, MPG

DropBox or SugarSync – For Syncing Lots of Files Between OS X and Windows

If you have a lot of files to keep synchronized on both Mac and Windows, then services like DropBox or SugarSync are great tools. If you are coming from Windows and already use Windows Live Mesh, it too works on a Mac, but we think these other solutions are better.

What is synchronization? It is automatic copying of files between two devices. If you create a Word document on your Mac and save it to a synchronized folder, it will automatically upload to the service’s online storage site and then download it to the second computer. Then, let’s say you go to the other computer and open the file and edit it. Save it and close it and the file will become available on the other computer and the online storage site. Be sure to close files or they will not sync.

Security: If you are worried about security, remember a few things. First, both services encrypt the files which scrambles them and keeps them from being viewed by anyone other than you, unless you give away your password or put the file in a special public folder that it is viewable by others. Don’t put anything in that public folder and you have nothing to fear.

Second, if you are afraid of having your files on the Internet, remember they are encrypted. Only you can read them. Also, this is no different than having your email on the Internet. In fact email is less secure than these services, so as long as you create a secure password and keep others from getting access to that password, you should be safe.

Here is a video that explains what Sugar Sync can do:

The basic operation of each service is the same. Install the client software on both machines, With DropBox there is a new folder in the user folder. Anything put in that folder is synced. On SugarSync, just tell the program which folders you wish to sync. From then on, any files in the folders will be synced immediately after they are saved or changed. Also, you can access them at the online site from multiple devices, including any computer, tablets, or smart phones including Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. The only Windows Mobile app comes from SugarSync, so if you use that device, that’s the service to use.

These services are popular so many other programs and apps will work along with them. So let’s say you snap a photo on your iPhone or Android phone. Many apps will take those files and upload them to DropBox for you.

To see the differences between the two, check out Sugar Sync’s comparison chart. One benefit tipping in favor of SugarSync is the amount of  free online storage. They recently upped it to 5GB. DropBox only offers 2GB for free.

To learn how to use DropBox check out this great Howcast video below. Just wait a second and click Skip this Ad.

Here’s one for SugarSync:

Network Attached Storage – for Making Files Available, but not Stored Locally

A third option is for those who want to keep files available to a Macbook Pro or MacBook and a Windows notebook, but do not want to actually store them all on both computers. For example, let’s say you are creating a bunch of videos on your MacBook. After creating the video you want to be able to access it from the Windows computer, or any other computer. But you don’t think you will want to access that file all the time. There is no reason to copy it to the other computer’s hard drive until you plan to view it.

The best solution for this is a network attached storage device, or NAS. If you have a network at home to share your Internet connection between multiple computers, then you will likely have a router. The router might have a USB port on it intended for hooking an external USB hard drive (see above – Netgear WNDR3400 Wireless Dual Band Router). Consult your router’s support page or documentation to see if it does. If so, you can get a cheap USB hard drive and plug it in. Configure it to be available to all the computers on your home network. It might even have the ability to make the files available to you over the Internet.

If your router doesn’t have a USB port on it, then you might want to try out a device like the PogoPlug. We reviewed the older version and found that for accessing files over a network or from the Internet, it is great.

PogoPlug shares hard drives and printers

PogoPlug is a box that plugs into your network via an Ethernet cable. It can also be done wirelessly, but if you can we recommend using the Ethernet cable. Then, you plug in up to four hard drives which can then be accessed from any computer on the network or through a special web interface anywhere in the world from the Internet. There are a lot of other features to including:

• Accessing from tablets and smart phones
• Sharing certain models of printers over the Internet or to some tablets and smart phones
• Sending file to hard drive via email
• Streaming video, music and pictures via the Internet to many devices

Setup is a little tricky, but it is worth it. They have three options, but we recommend the PogoPlug Pro. It has built-in Wi-Fi and replaced the ugly pink with black. It is $99 direct although we found one on Amazon for just $72.23.

Google Docs or Windows Live SkyDrive – for Transferring Office Documents Between Mac and Windows

Some people only want to share their office documents, like word processor files, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. For those people, the best option might just be to use either Google Docs or Windows Live SkyDrive in conjunction with Microsoft Word 2010 and 2011. Microsoft’s tutorial page shows how their service works.

For SkyDrive, from within Microsoft Office 2011 apps on a Mac, like Word, just choose File, Share and then “Save to SkyDrive…”. It will ask you for your user name and password and export the file to the online storage. Then, just access it by going to your SkyDrive page on the other computer.

To dot his on a Windows computer, just follow our guide. For this to work you will have to have a Windows Live ID, which you can get at the Windows Live site.

If you prefer to use Google Docs, you will need an account. For Gmail users, you already have one. Just go to the Google Docs site and sign in using your Gmail credentials. From there you can create the document and save it. Then go to the other computer and sign in and open the document.

One benefit of Google Docs is you have both Google’s online office suite, but you can also upload a lot of different files formats and have them accessible online.

What is really cool is you can just open up the folder that contains the file(s) you wish to upload and drag them from Finder on a Mac or Explorer on a Windows computer to the box on the docs site (see screen shot above). To see what kinds of files you can upload, click the “File types and size limits” link below the “Drag and drop files here” box. It includes:

• Word .doc
• OpenDocument text .odt
• StarOffice text .sxw
• PowerPoint .ppt and .pps
• Excel .xls and .xlsx
• OpenDocument spreadsheet .ods
• Comma-separated .csv
• Windows Metafile .wmf
• Photos with .jpg, .gif and .png formats
• PDF

One thing is for certain, sharing files between Mac OS X and Windows is much easier than it used to be thanks to a collection of free or cheap tools. If you switch between systems on a regular basis we highly recommend one of these solutions to simplify your file sharing and access.

How to Transfer Files Between Mac and Windows – 4 Solutions is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

With the release of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft has focused on improving the synergy between online services and the productivity suite. The buzz word these days is ‘Cloud’. The cloud refers to web services replacing or complimenting existing resources such as storage, backup, communication etc. Microsoft has been pushing into Cloud computing heavily through its Windows Live Online services such as Hotmail, Windows Live Photos, Messenger and SkyDrive.

Windows Live SkyDrive in particular represents the online storage component of this cloud strategy. It offers users 25 GBs of free online storage, but is limited to 50 MB files. To use Windows Live SkyDrive, you need a Windows Live ID: Hotmail or MSN account. You can sign up for a free one here. If you are looking to sync files between computers, you can sync up to 5 GBs of data using Windows Live Mesh.

Saving Microsoft Office files to your SkyDrive account

Saving to SkyDrive is only supported in Microsoft Word 2010, Excel 2010 and PowerPoint 2010.

Click File

Click Save and Send

Then click Save to Web

You will be asked to sign in if this is your first time saving to your SkyDrive.

Click any of the listed folders you would like to save the file. Please note, if its sensitive information, be careful not to save it in any of the Shared Folders.

Give the file a name and click Save.

In the Microsoft Status Bar, you will notice it says ‘Uploading to the server’

The key advantage of this is, your document is now accessible from any Internet connected device. If I go to my Skydrive account in Internet Explorer and open the My Documents folder where I saved the file, I will now see it listed there:

If I want to edit the file, all I need to do is click on it to open it in Microsoft Office Word Web App. So, if you are working on a computer that does not have Microsoft Office installed, you won’t have any problems.

Please note, you won’t get the full experience of Microsoft Word on the desktop while using the web apps, but it’s good for minor edits and collaboration. If you want to make significant changes to your document, you can open it in Microsoft Word and save any changes.

This is definitely a cool feature worth checking out and most of all, its free when you sign up for a Windows Live ID.

How to save Microsoft Office files to Web (Quick Tip) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Today Microsoft announced an update to the Office Web Apps that brings several much needed features to the free service. If you aren’t familiar with Microsoft Web Apps it is a free service that provides users with the ability to create and view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files online as well as store up to 25GB of files with SkyDrive.

One of the most notable features in the Word web app is the ability to print documents from within the editor. Previously users had to use the Microsoft Word viewer to print, but now the option is built-in.

In Excel, users can now insert charts and manipulate data as well as use the autofill handle to easily fill cells with a formula or a set of data.

Finally, PowerPoint users will be able to insert clip art and select themes in the PowerPoint Web app.

All together these are some very handy changes for a free product and will make it easier for home users with little need for a full office suite to get their work done and use files sent to them by others.

Via Technologizer

Microsoft Office Web Apps Upgraded: Printing, Charts and more is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft senior vice president of Mobile Communications Andy Lees today showed off Windows Phone Live, a cloud service that will go along with the new Windows Phone 7 coming later this year from Microsoft and hardware partners like HTC. The service is reported to be able to not only sync your content but help out if you have lost your Windows Phone or had it stolen, this according to the Windows Phone Blog.

…the new Windows Phone Live companion site that gives people a central place to see pictures they’ve published, view their Windows Live calendar and contacts, exchange OneNote files and access other information shared between the phone and the Web. (Aaron Woodman, Windows Phone Blog)

The service will interface with Windows Live SkyDrive, the MS cloud storage service that offers users 25 GB of data storage online for syncing via Windows Live Sync. This means that all your pictures, documents, notes, contacts and email will be synced to the cloud service for you, making backup much easier. It will also offer an easy way to get content from your phone to your computer, via SkyDrive.

The other touted feature of the service is Find My Phone. It will find the  phone for you on a map, let you call the phone, lock it and even erase it remotely. If you lose your phone, you can log onto the site and find it. The location will be displayed on a map so you can determine where you lost it and possibly track if it is moving meaning someone found it. If you are afraid that it has been compromised you could  call it to see who answers and potentially arrange to pick it up. Jus because the finder is honest enough to return it doesn’t mean he or she won’t pilfer through your data. So you can lock the phone remotely. And if, in a worst case scenario, you lose it or believe it was stolen with little hope return, you could remotely wipe the phone of all data so at least you won’t lose sensitive information to a thief or dishonest  finder.

These are features previously available in other smart phone services like MobileMe for the iPhone. Also RIM announced a beta test of a similar service recently for their Blackberry phones. The difference between the Windows  Phone Live service and Apple’s MobileMe is price. MS will not be charging for their sync and security services while Apple charges $99 per year. RIM’s service will also be free.

None of this matters until Windows Phone 7 devices are released. According to the Windows Phone Blog, they should be coming soon. Woodman said, Windows Phone 7 will be available regionally this holiday season and beyond. I’m happy to say that Windows Phone 7 will be well represented in countries around the world this holiday.”

With promotional materials for Windows Phone 7 reportedly showing up in AT&T stores this could be sooner rather than later.

Windows Phone Live Will Sync Content and Help With Lost or Stolen Phone is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

I was a Windows Live Sync Beta user when it first came out (and was originally called FolderShare) back in what now seems like the dark ages. Then I discovered Windows Live Mesh and jumped over to that service because I liked some of its features. Live Sync would look at folders you selected on multiple computers and automatically compared the differences between the folders and mirrored the contents so that all the docs in the folder on PC1 would show up pretty quickly on PC2. Mesh did the same thing but also added online backup for up to 5GB of data. You could log into your Life Mesh desktop and access those files and download them to a computer that did not even have mesh installed.

I would do this to take the slides I had created in Photoshop on my home or office PC, put them in a folder that I was sharing via Mesh so they would upload to the online site and download them onto the PC in our church’s sanctuary. It didn’t have Mesh because I didn’t want all my personal files on it. It is used only to displays our presentations while I preach and record the worship services for Ustream and our CD distribution ministry.

For the first year of use I was happy with just a few exceptions. Mesh didn’t handle my OneNote Notebooks well. Things would get messed up and I often lost whole notebooks. Also it would not sync an Outlook data file (the file with a .PST extension that stores all your Outlook data). It was frustrating but manageable.

For a while the Mesh team would update the software and it got better and better even though it was in beta. I came to rely on it. Then everything seemed to stop. The above weaknesses remained. I kept asking for help in the Mesh forums and I searched for solutions on Google and elsewhere. Nothing! It was like the Mesh team just disappeared and the software was orphaned.

The other problem with Mesh was that it would not sync with their Skydrive service, a cloud storage solution from Microsoft. I would upload files to my Skydrive using Skydrive Explorer, a program you can install on your PC and it treats the online storage as a local disk. It is now called SDExplorer Pro. But Mesh wouldn’t work with Skydrive. This was frustrating and I kept asking if this would ever come and there would be no answer from official sources.

Almost unrelated, I got an iPad. When I did, I began wanting to find a way to easily move files from my computers to the iPad. I used the iTunes import method. But while doable it is not quick and easy. Then I discovered DropBox. And with that discovery I removed Mesh from all of my PCs. Now I put all the files I want to sync in my DropBox. I can access them on my different PCs because the DropBox client syncs them quickly. There are two significant weaknesses in DropBox when compared to the beta version of Mesh. First, Mesh offered 5GB of online data. DropBox gives you only 2GB for free. You can pay for more, but I didn’t want to pay for what I could get for free from Mesh.

The second weakness of DropBox compared to Mesh was the ability to log into a computer and remotely control it. It was very slow but at least it was doable. There are other services that make this possible, but I liked having it all together in one app. But again, I got an iPad. And with my iPad I found LogMeIn Ignition, a $30 app that I previously demonstrated (see above video) It lets you control a PC so long as the PC is running the client software. It is as simple as installing a little app on the computer and the iPad and logging in. It just works and it is amazingly quick even over the Internet.

So, after waiting for improvements to Mesh and after finding DropBox and LogMeIn and the iPad, Mesh became expendable.

Now, Microsoft has finally updated Live Mesh integrating it with Live Sync and Skydrive. And they have created something that I was longing for when I was a user. It is integrated with Skydrive. It syncs your computers. And I understand that it will even sync your Microsoft Office settings and personal files. OneNote notebooks and Outlook files are apparently included. They even are integrating it with Office Web Apps. But I have long since abandoned Outlook for Google’s Apps for my Domain and OneNote because it doesn’t work well with the iPad. I use Evernote for that now. And I just don’t use cloud based office productivity software unless I absolutely have to.

When I learned of the new version of Windows Live Sync with Mesh technology and Skydrive integrated and syncing of notebooks and settings in Office, I was tempted to try it again. Then I realized a couple of things. You only get 2 GB of online sync. What a ripoff! Going from 5GB down to 2GB when it is now new and improved” reminds me of the way Hershey shrunk their chocolate bars and called them better. 2 GB? I already have that with DropBox. Also the new Sync is still a little slow and doesn’t work on the iPad. DropBox does.

For these reasons, sorry Microsoft. Windows Live Sync beta may be great. It may have much of what I have asked for. But you took a big step backwards cutting storage to 40 percent and you were just too darn slow to update the thing. A little heads up might have saved me as a user, but not now. Further you are ignoring a device that has become a big part of my mobile life.

Windows Live Sync Beta: Too Little Too Late is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft announced that Office Web Apps are now live on SkyDrive. Yesterday on the Windows Live Blog, Jason Moore wrote that Office Web Apps are no longer in preview mode. This means anyone with a Microsoft LIve account in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Ireland can now use Microsoft’s Office Web Apps immediately.

The Office Web Apps enable users to upload documents to Office.live.com. In addition, documents can be created from scratch from within a Web browser. Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote documents can all be edited and created using Office Web Apps.

Once a document is uploaded or created, it appears in the Recent Documents section of Office.live.com, making it easy to find the documents that are currently being worked on. Clicking on  ’edit’ opens the document in your web browser and you can begin working on your documents without launching any additional software.

Office Web Apps allow users to co-author documents, which means multiple users can edit a document at the same time. This provides real-time collaboration, allowing all users to provide input. It also gets rid of the need to email multiple versions of the same document back and forth.

Office Web App documents can be viewed on smartphone browsers, such as the new iPhone 4‘s. This means you can use Office Web Apps without purchasing additional software.

Office Web Apps was also meant to enrich the user’s experience with Microsoft Office 2010. For instance, users can edit documents offline using Office 2010, and then finishing editing the same document using the Office Web Apps. This is a feature that is not yet available in alternatives such as Google Documents. Google Docs offers many of the same features as Office Web Apps. However, there are no offline applications comparable to Office 2010. Google’s recent acquisition fo DocVerse shows that Google is serious about integrating Office 2010 with the cloud.

Office Web Apps offer a free way to compose documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, with the ability to edit from almost anywhere with almost any device.

Microsoft Office on SkyDrive Now Available is a post by Carter Sprunger from Notebooks.com.