Keep Important Lists Up to Date, All the Time

Life is fast paced and we're expected to have it all, balancing our own needs with those of our coworkers, family, and friends. Computers are a great help, allowing us to organize personal information and manage schedules. And many of us have computers at work and home, and carry one or two around with us in the form of a Pocket PC and/or Smartphone.

My problem is that I keep different information on different computers, and I can't always access the computer holding the information I need. For example, I dropped my son off at his soccer practice and had an hour to do some shopping. I keep the main family shopping list on my laptop PC at home, and keep it synchronized with my Smartphone so I have a copy of it with me at all times. Unfortunately, my husband adds items to the laptop list all the time, and the list on my Smartphone is almost never up to date. I need to be able to access current information wherever I am, and I need to be able to share it with other people in a timely fashion.

The only device that I keep with me all the time is my Windows Mobile Smartphone. I know there are technologies that allow you to sync your Smartphone over-the-air in real time; however, they are limited in how they access data and who you can sync with. In addition, solutions like Microsoft Exchange require that you have a server. (I don't know about you, but I don't have one of those!) So what's a girl to do?

The answer: marry a developer! My husband is one of the co-founders of Unwired Software, a company specializing in wireless access and collaboration software. I discussed my problem with him and he and his partners decided that solving it might lead to a product they could market. The result of their efforts was InfoShare List Manager, a software program I now can't live without.

InfoShare List Manager lets you wirelessly synchronize lists on your desktop PC (top) with lists on your Pocket PC (middle) and Smartphone (bottom).

InfoShare your lists

InfoShare List Manager is the first in a suite of "InfoShare" technology applications. It easily installs on one or more of your Windows PCs (Windows 98 and later) and Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and Pocket PC devices. The program installs a List Manager application on your PC computers and mobile devices. The data stored in these applications can be synced via the Internet, so that the lists are always up to date. For this to occur, all devices must have a live connection to the Internet.

With InfoShare List Manager I am able to remotely synchronize all my lists, including my tasks list, grocery lists, lists of people I need to contact, and more. I even keep our daily schedule in list format, so that it will be up-to-date on all of our computers and portable devices.

In our household, we have a network of four PCs and two Smartphones. InfoShare List Manager ensures that all of our lists are 100% current on all of our computers. If my husband adds an item to the shopping list when I'm at the store, it will appear on my Smartphone while I'm at the store. If I add "don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning" to our schedule list, he gets the message! We're a much more "in sync" family these days.

Better yet, I can limit which lists go where. I can keep some lists private; share some only with my husband; and share others only with my work colleagues. This is an important feature—you don't want to share a list of gifts you've purchased for the holidays with your family, or a list of office budget cuts with everyone at work. In addition, the program incorporates industry-standard encryption, so any lists I send to others are secure.

More efficient and productive