August 2, 2011

Every night before going to bed, I place my iPhone on the charger and watch the little sync icon come alive. Yes, iOS 5 will sync your iPhone or iPad to your computer without wires, and without any user input. It’s all automatic. I have not plugged my iPhone into my Mac in several weeks now, and it’s an easy thing to get used to.

And then I needed a photo I’d taken with my iPhone camera. Surely I didn’t have to plug my iPhone into my Mac just to transfer the photo? So I emailed it to myself. But there had to be a better way since you can’t actually retrieve photos from your iTunes backup/sync.

A short while later, I discovered PhotoSync. Everyone is going to have to get this app: it’s the perfect solution for our new untethered world. There are options for everyone. Do you only want to sync your photos from your iPhone to your iPad? PhotoSync can do this. Happy using Dropbox and don’t want to change? PhotoSync has you covered here, too. What’s that? You’re a pc, not a Mac? No problem!

I have tried several sync methods with PhotoSync, and they are all easy, and successful. PhotoSync offers both a Mac and Windows desktop companion (at no charge!) with setup taking no time, no effort, and almost no thought.

The basic Configure menu allows you to set up your favorite online services so that when you tap the sync button, all you have to do is choose from the list. You can actually send your photos to Facebook, and then send them to Flickr. OCD about your photos? Send them to all the services offered one after the other.

Or use the desktop client and send them straight to the PhotoSync folder nestled in your Pictures directory. Web Sharing is also an option, but it seems almost redundant with both Mac and Windows desktop clients. (Using these clients will also allow you to send photos to your iOS device.) PhotoSync offers Direct import into Aperture & iPhoto / Sending by drag & drop on the Mac client. While I refuse to use iPhoto and don’t own Aperture, all you have to do is drag photos/videos onto the PhotoSync icon and they are transferred to your device in seconds – without iTunes.

Performing the actual sync is pretty straightforward. Choose the photos you want to sync, (or choose none and sync all when given the option as you can see here at the right), and press the familiar sync icon.

You will even be able to follow the sync progress. In this screenshot to the left, you can see a Picasa sync. If you look at the status bar in the window, you can see that this is a sync going from the iPhone to Picasa just from looking at the icons. PhotoSync is not only a workhorse, but it is very well written, and beautiful to look at. The UI is striking as well as intuitive.

And just in case you thought you were limited to your camera roll, you’re not! You can sync photos from your other albums, which is great if you have multiple computers (like so many of us do).

If you are one of the adventurous, and already using iOS 5, or just planning ahead, go get this app now. Don’t wait. You can find it in iTunes for $1.99, which is a steal for such a beautiful app with so many features.

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