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Synchronize PCs, Macs and phones with Live Mesh

Nick

Nick

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Live MeshHave Microsoft finally come up with something worth getting excited about? Microsoft Live Mesh is an interesting new project that enables users to synch all of their mobile and computing devices seamlessly. This even includes Macs although currently, it’s only available on Windows platforms but a Mac release is imminent. At the moment it’s in pre-release beta stage and only the first 10,000 people who sign-up will be allowed to test it so you’d better hurry up.

The principle is thus – all of your devices that you include in the Mesh can be synchronised with each other at any time from any location as long as you have an internet connection. So let’s say you’re sat on the beach and want to make sure your documents on your Macbook are synched with your documents on your PC at home, just hit a button and it’s done. The same goes for your mobile device such as an iPhone. In the future, it’s expected that it will automatically synchronize your devices with offline applications which will become increasingly important as Web 2.0 takes off.

Live Mesh screenshot

Refreshingly for a Microsoft product, it’s incredibly easy to use and beautifully presented and designed. It makes backing up essential documents, including videos and photos between devices just a matter of a few clicks. And it works perfectly in both IE and Firefox. The question is, how on earth are Microsoft going to sustain this service as it expands? The bandwidth it requires for millions of users synching across the world must be huge. Will we eventually see a distinct decline in synching times or is this a sign that Microsoft can still do something right?

Note that at the moment, it’s limited to testing by users in the US although if you change your localisation settings in Windows to US, you can get round this very easily (under Regional and Language settings in the Control Panel). You can keep up with the latest developments, including the imminent Mac release of Live Mesh on the developer blog.

You can see Live Mesh in action here:

[youtube]http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=uq6YgEIwuCE[/youtube]

Nick

Nick

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