Dashwire is a free service that seamlessly synchs content between your mobile phone and the web. You download a little app to your handset and sign up for a (password-protected) account on their website, and after a really smooth setup/installation process on your device, and about an hour of initial synching time, it just works. It handles contacts, media (video and photos), SMSs, calls, voicemails  and many more features. I log on to my dashboard and i can see (and edit) all my device information right there on the web and changes are automatically propagated back to the device. I can even use the dashboard send SMSs! (standard charges apply, of course). What really threw me for a loop, though, was being able to browse my ringtones on the site, clicking on a link, and having them play on my phone. Wow – how’s that for tightly integrated?!?

I have to say, though, there is some weird perceived privacy issues around all this very personal information, which I’m used to seeing on a 3.2 inch screen, being up on my 15″ desktop monitor. I’m sure it’s just as safe as any other secure site, but there’s something subtly unsettling about seeing SMSs, (as opposed to, say, emails) accessible in this manner. Why is this?

Currently the only supported platform is Windows Mobile, but it looks like support for S60, Samsung, Blackberry and LG are in the works. It’s like MobileMe for the rest of the rest of us (well, those of us with Windows Mobile phones, at least

What I find most impressive about the whole system is the simplicity, especially in the mobile application. Of all the features and options and settings that could have been crammed in there, they’ve really kept the set to a minimum (the only thing you can do, really, is set photos as public/private, name them, or share them), and I applaud them for it. They’ve done a good job of leveraging the device ecosystem, understanding that the ‘heavy lifting’ is best left for a web-based interface, and not trying to mirror the web functionality on the mobile.

Simply being able to take photo on the device and know that it will reliably and automatically uploaded to a place on the web where I can do more with them, is a huge benefit, and [sadly] a big improvement over a lot of mobile devices that I’ve used on the market today. I can’t even count how many times I’ve failed at getting content off a device. MMS doesn’t work (does it ever?). Emails fail to send. The appropriate bluetooth profiles are not supported (thanks, carriers!). It’s the most bitter of ironies that it can be so difficult to get content off of a connected device.

Dashwire is a great example of a system that provides so much benefit for so little effort on the user’s part. 

Related posts:

1. Review: Kinoma Play Mobile Media Browser

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Mobile Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.