Soylent Green

I do not like how the iPhone “syncs” with my Mac. It isn’t broken, but it involves a lot more steps than it should, and doesn’t do a good job of actually keeping me in sync. So I guess it is broken. You heard it here first, people! Ben Brown says the iPhone / iTunes sync is totally broken!

• I don’t like my MP3 player being in charge of keeping all of my data in sync. I feel like making syncing a responsibility of my media manager application means it will not be good at either. I miss iSync, the old Apple sync manager, which synced multiple USB/bluetooth devices as well as .Mac and other online subscriptions all at once, automatically or as I so desired.
• I don’t like that the iTunes sync does not fire off a chain of child-syncs for related applications. As it is, before I can even connect my iPhone, I have to open iCal and have it refresh all of my calendar subscriptions, then do a manual refresh on my Podcast subscriptions within iTunes. Then, after I connect the phone, I have to do a manual import in iPhoto for my photos. Why can’t that be one step?
• I don’t like how it responds to my iPhone’s memory being full. The only option it gives if there is not enough space for a full sync is to turn of Podcasts. Why not offer to delete photos? Or why not do something clever like suggesting a smart playlist that will shrink if necessary? Oh wait, because I can’t create smart playlists that do that.
• Obviously, it is totally retarded that I cannot sync my phone using bluetooth or WiFi. If I can buy songs over WiFi, why can’t I send them over my local network? Am I cursed to always carry a proprietary USB cable around everywhere I go?

When I loaded the mobile version of Gmail on my iPhone this morning (this is the brilliant solution I came up with to solve the problem of crappy Gmail integration…), I noticed it had been restyled to look and work better on the iphone. The inbox is much cleaner, and allows for easier use with the touch screen. The additional commands at the bottom of the page are also easier to get at without mis-clicking, and the message text is now separated from the header block by a slightly different background color.

These are small changes and probably involved only minor style sheet updates, but it makes the app so much more friendly. Good job, Goog!

Updated: Goog also released a nice style update to the mobile calendar. Details here.