Mobile Device Storage Terminology (in the light of GTD)

[jimboling]

(... I had to add "in the light of GTD" otherwise the title would sound off-topic
)

Just was reading a new review of Pre Plus and it reminded me of a question that is probably pretty basic but I want to make sure I am not misunderstanding.

It mentions the amount of Flash memory on the Pre Plus. Now, on my Palm T|E, that translates into, roughly, how many zillion bytes of notes I can carry around tracking all my tasks. I.e., the notes are stored on my standalone TE and I sync with the desktop.

When it comes to a given mobile smartphone (WebOS or Android or WinMo or Symbian or whatever mobile device), does it mean effectively the same thing or does it vary by OS and/or by device?

SPECIFIC EXAMPLE: if I buy a Pre, and use the Classic emulator or whatever, I assume that means all my text data used by my apps are locally available, regardless of whether I have a cell signal or a WIFI signal. What I don't know is how to determine whether my local data can be synchronized with a web-based source.

My impression is that it depends on the phone, the OS, and on whether there is a corresponding web application at all (let alone whether it supports mobile sync).

Assuming my impression is correct, and I really really want local storage and web synchronization, I think that means there aren't many options out there. I have mentioned http://notespark.com before on here; it is for the iPhone and I am pretty sure it supports full sync between the iPhone and my web-based data.

So am I correct, or are there actually a lot of options for this local storage/web sync capability and it is just a matter of choosing between features?

Thanks!
Jim

 

[mcogilvie]

My impression is that it depends on the phone, the OS, and on whether there is a corresponding web application at all (let alone whether it supports mobile sync).

Assuming my impression is correct, and I really really want local storage and web synchronization, I think that means there aren't many options out there. I have mentioned http://notespark.com before on here; it is for the iPhone and I am pretty sure it supports full sync between the iPhone and my web-based data.

So am I correct, or are there actually a lot of options for this local storage/web sync capability and it is just a matter of choosing between features?

At this point, the iPhone has the most options. There are a lot of free or cheap iPhone programs that have only local storage. However, there are several decent options in the notes and todo categories that have web and local storage. Notespark is ok for smallish notes. Evernote is a real heavyweight, and what I use for most things. There are many others, though. A lot of programs sync or at least backup to Google docs. For todo's, you might look at Toodledo and Remember the Milk on the web. There are several programs on the iPhone that interface to each. I can't comment on specific programs for the Pre or android phones.