Desktop syncing?
 

Hi there

I really love using omnifocus on my macbook and am seriously thinking of getting a 3g iphone when it comes out primarily to use omnifocus on it. As a busy husband and dad who works in a hectic university dept I think it has the potential to transform my personal and work life. But I have one question about the coming iphone version I can't find an answer anywhere: will I be able just to sync my iphone version with the desktop version WITHOUT using the web/mobile-me?? I am very happy to sync my iphone with my macbook at the start and/or end of the day at home. Will this connected way of syncing be available in the same way as with itunes and ical? Hope someone can answer this.

Thanks

That's the very same question I asked in another thread, but nobody has answered. As an iPod touch user who just let his .Mac account expire due to insufficient use, and who does not have webDAV-enabled webspace, I would be very happy to see a direct iPod to Desktop syncing method.

The only other solution if this is not available would be to set up a webDAV server on your own Mac and sync to that.

[CODE][/CODE]I guess for me this is really important and could be deal breaker as to going with omnifocus. Iphone to desktop sync should be there - shouldn't it!? Hopefully someone will come back to us on this before too long!

I was just looking at the iphone omnifocus page and noted this "Synchronized with your Mac via .Mac or WebDAV". Does this mean no desktop only sync?
It would be really good if someone could answer this question. For some of us this is really important. We really see the benefits of omnifocus on our macs and can't wait to use them on our iphones - but we want to sync without using the web! If this isn't possible at least be up front about it.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and speculate that the Omni folks are still recovering from WWDC and may not get around to replying on demand until the upcoming week. Patience, folks!

Please bear in mind that we're under a non-disclosure agreement with Apple which limits our ability to talk about the capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch operating system. So, at this point, we're only allowed to talk about capabilities which Apple has already disclosed to the public (such as location and networking services, camera and voice recording) and how we might leverage those.

But that said, there are lots of advantages to WebDAV. It lets you synchronize when you're not physically connected to your Mac (in case you forgot to do it before you walked out the door) and is widely supported by all kinds of web servers (including the built-in Apache web server that ships with every Mac) and is available through many online hosting services. (That includes Apple with .Mac and presumably Mobile Me, but a quick google search also turns up a number of others that offer gigabytes of WebDAV storage for $5 per month.)

Thank you Ken for coming back to me. I appreciate your reply but feel you aren't really being totally up front with us. Perhaps your most immediate competitor at this point in this market is Things. In their forums they have spoken openly about the ability to perform a desktop sync. I know you won't comment on someone elses comments but they (and presumably) apple don't feel they are breaking the NDA is saying this. I feel inclined to believe that 'web-less' syncing is not something omnifocus will provide at least at this point. Can I ask if desktop syncing is important enough to a significant percentage of your customers would you consider implementing it? If I'm right I am really really saddened by this! I will be faced with a very very difficult choice as I think wil many potential omnifocus customers!!

You can sync to a local WebDAV server on your Mac using your local WiFi network, you don't have to use (or even access) the Internet. (Every Mac comes with built-in WebDAV server software.) Sorry if that wasn't clear!

Ken, so is that like usb sync for example ipod to itunes but over wifi between my macbook and my iphone? does it use isync or how do you set it up? sorry for asking so many questions but I'm totally new to all this! the term webDAV is confusing for non-techies like me!! thanks

I have .Mac (soon to be MobileMe) so this won't be an issue for me, but I was curious about this so I did a little digging. From what I could find, OS X (at least the Leopard version, didn't check for Tiger) comes with the software installed for webdav, but it isn't configured to run by default - is this correct?

The line in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-dav.conf

looks like it needs the # sign removed to uncomment it. I don't know what else is involved. Can anyone post instructions for getting a webdav server running? A quick google search wasn't too helpful.

Thanks,
Dave