INTRODUCTION

    A beta version of Dashwire was reviewed back in April,
but in the world of mobile application development, a few months can be an
incredibly long time. The initial version of Dashwire offered online backup
and sharing by syncing the data on your mobile phone with your account on the Dashwire
web site. Version 2.0, still free of cost, has added functionality to the mobile client, bringing
some of the website features directly to your phone. Read on to see what
Dashwire 2.0 can do for you!

WHAT’S HOT

    Key features:

• Backup of contacts, photos, video, call logs, etc.
• Share photos and video with others over the web
• Social network integration
• Online contact management

SETUP

    After signing up for the service on the Dashwire web site,
you will be directed to the Windows Mobile client application. You can also access the latest mobile client from your
mobile browser at http://m.dashwire.com.
Once installed, the mobile client will keep all of your phone data synced with the online
service.

PRODUCT FEATURES

    Since most of the Dashwire improvements have occurred on the
mobile client, we’ll focus most of our attention on those changes. You can refer to our earlier review
for coverage of the Dashwire web application.

The main screen in the Dashwire client shows your sync status (“Connected
and in sync”), your profile status (“working hard”), and an array of the photos and videos in
your Dashwire account.

   
The Dashwire mobile application can be configured to sync only the information
you choose with the Dashwire service. You can also specify whether information should be synced
automatically or manually, which may be useful if you don’t have an unlimited data plan on your
phone, but want to use the service when a WiFi connection is available.

   

   
When connected to Dashwire, your profile status is updated in your Dashwire
account. If you’ve set up a link to your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, your status will
also be updated on those networks. If you are a heavy user of these services and like to keep
them up to date, Dashwire makes it very easy for you to keep them all in sync while on the go.

   

   
If you like to share photos from your mobile phone, Dashwire gives you the
opportunity. When viewing a photo, you can make it public so it appears on your shared page
on the Dashwire web site. You can also edit the title of a photo to give viewers some context
for the photo.

   

Any changes you make using the Dashwire mobile client are reflected on
the Dashwire website.

Unfortunately, you still need to use the Dashwire website to post
photos to other networks, but it is still a simple task.

    Dashwire provides an online help area
with tutorials, FAQs, and a list of known issues.

    The Dashwire web service runs in a web browser. Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, and Safari
are all supported. There is no client software to install to successfully use the Dashwire web site.
The mobile client is available for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices. Installation
requires 200 KB of device storage memory (it will not install on a storage card). Symbian support
should arrive later this year.

BUGS AND WISHES

   
Though a number of new features have been added since the first review, all
of my earlier wishes for Dashwire remain unfulfilled:

    Finally, I’d like to see a Today screen plug-in for Dashwire that
just showed my current status and allowed me to update it. I constantly see the Today
screen when using my phone and it would remind me when my status is no longer correct.
Ideally, I would be able to configure several common status messages and select one of
them or enter a unique message.

PURCHASING

   
Dashwire
is available free of charge. The earlier release was being marketed
as a free service and that has not changed, so I continue to expect that Dashwire
will remain completely free. However, it’s still not clear who will pay the bills
for the service long term. You may be able to keep an eye on the company’s
blog for any insight into the future.
One post in
particular gives some ideas about what the company leadership is thinking.

PROS

• Still free
• Easily keep contacts, photos, and videos backed up
• Integration with social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr
• Quickly transfer information stored in Dashwire to a new phone
• Share photos and video through a Dashwire public page

CONS

• 
  

  Lacks sufficient support for business contacts

• 
  

  E-mail and other files are not synced

• 
  

  Lacks integration with YouTube and other online video services

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    Dashwire continues to extend their feature set to make it
easy to backup and share personal information. I would still like to see Dashwire
add file synchronization and integration with YouTube and other online video services,
but it is still a very useful and valuable service. If you already use
many of the supported social networking sites, Dashwire provides a nice central location
from which you can update those services. Anyone interested in seeing
Dashwire in action can look at the online tours of the web application
and mobile client. I will continue
to keep Dashwire running on my phone and look forward to seeing even more features added
to the mobile client in the future.