Sharpcast solving synchronization

Inside corporations, these tasks often are handled by internal networks, which store files centrally and back up computers nightly. But consumers have had to resort to time-consuming and imperfect methods. These include e-mailing files to themselves, manually synchronizing phones and computers, and manually copying files among their computers.

In the next year or so, I expect one of the big trends in personal technology will be services and products that make this job easier.

Google and Microsoft are reportedly preparing new services that will back up all of a consumer's data to his servers. Apple already offers .Mac, which, for $99 a year, gives consumers storage space on an Apple server, allows backups to that remote server and synchronizes selected data among multiple Macs. Microsoft has recently acquired a small service called FolderShare that can synchronize and back up selected folders on any mix of Windows and Macintosh computers.

Now, a small Silicon Valley start-up called Sharpcast is introducing an impressive, free service that synchronizes data among PCs, phones and a Web site at lightning speeds. I tested Sharpcast for several weeks, and found that it works really well. You can try it out at www.sharpcast.com.

In this first incarnation — a beta, or test, version — Sharpcast works only with photos. But it plans this year to add synchronization of contacts and calendar entries and, eventually, other types of data. If the service can handle these other data types as well as it handles photos, Sharpcast will be a real boon to consumers.

With Sharpcast Photos, any change you make to an album of photos on one of your devices is replicated within seconds on your other devices. If you add a photo to an album on your PC, it shows up within seconds on your phone and on your Sharpcast Web page. If you rotate a photo on the phone, the same photo is rotated within seconds on the PC and the Web page. If you delete a photo on the Web page, it's immediately deleted on the PC and the phone. And if you take a photo with the camera on your Sharpcast-enabled phone, it will show up in seconds on your PC and your Web page.

You can also share your albums with other Sharpcast users, and receive shared albums from them. By synchronizing your photos among multiple devices and a Web site, Sharpcast is also backing them up, so the loss of one device won't mean the loss of your prized pictures.

On your PC or phone, Sharpcast works through a program you download from the company's Web site. You can also access the service, and your photos, from a personal Web page Sharpcast provides, without using any Sharpcast software.

For now, the Sharpcast Photos software works only on PCs running Windows XP, and on a few high-end phones, like the Palm Treo 700w and the Motorola Q, that run Windows Mobile 5.0 software. The company plans to support more phones soon. It is also working on a Macintosh version. Today, Mac owners can use Sharpcast via the Web page, which isn't quite as capable or fast as the Windows software, but works well.

Sharpcast's phone software is in an even earlier stage than the PC software or the Web site, and lacks their capabilities, especially the ability to share albums and view albums shared with you by others. But it works.

I tested Sharpcast using three devices — a Windows PC and a Palm Treo 700w running Sharpcast's software, and a Macintosh computer logged into my personal page at the Sharpcast Web site.

Using the Windows software on a PC, and the Web site via my Mac, I easily created 10 albums. I added and deleted photos, rotated them, and created and edited captions on all three devices. Sharpcast faithfully and rapidly replicated my changes on the other devices.

Sharpcast plans to extend its synchronization technology to other kinds of data. At The Wall Street Journal's annual D: All Things Digital conference last month, Sharpcast demonstrated a future product that will synchronize contacts.