The Teaching Box

Gone are the days when you used one PC at work, another at home and a laptop while traveling. Technology has now made it possible to carry the same device wherever you may go. Almost everyone has a smartphone these days and a laptop has become a necessity. This being the case, it can be an uphill task of managing the operating systems of each device that you own. However, there are several ways you can sync your tablet, smartphone and desktop.

Before we go into details of how you can do this, you need to understand and determine what exactly you need to sync. The integration that you carry out depends very much on what you do. Also bear in mind that if you work in the corporate world, you will have to take into consideration your office’s IT polices as well.

Here are some basic tips on how to synchronize your devices.

Use portable devices: This is by far the easiest way to get information from one device to another. Using a USB flash drive or a portable hard drive will ensure that you have all the files you need with you, all the time. You can make use of software to sync between the external drive and the computer. Alternatively, you can work on the file which is stored on the portable device. This might be a good option for you if your company does not allow you to download software on your office PC.

Syncing browsing data: The browser you use will determine how you sync browsing data across devices. For Google Chrome, you can do this by enabling sync under the Personal Stuff tab found on the Chrome Options panel. Windows Live Mesh lets you sync Internet Explorer bookmarks. Firefox is more difficult to sync. You need to enter a unique password on the systems where Firefox sync is to be enabled.

Managing documents: There are different ways to do this and it depends on what exactly you wish to do with the documents. If you edit and create documents on a Windows computer, but want to view them on another non Windows device, you will need to use a cloud based storage application called Dropbox. This will set up a Dropbox folder on the main system which can be shared across other devices. This is done via the Dropbox account you will have to create. Dropbox is versatile and works across Android, iOS, Mac OS, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Syncing Calendars and Contacts: This may seem the most difficult to do but actually it is not so. This can be done by syncing your contacts and calendar with the iOS device you have, on each other device that you possess. Android and iOS tools allow you to sync these with your mobile devices. MyPhoneExplorer is one app that works well in making your Android device sync with Outlook.

This is a guest post by Tina Reeves. She is a writer who writes more about digital cable and high speed internet. You can get more information about cox tv if you visit the site.