PlayNice Syncs Your Data Across Platforms [Review]

PlayNice from PocketMac is a new utility that enables syncing between Windows and Mac OS X. It is designed to be a replacement for MobileMe syncing and it doesn’t require an annual subscription.  You can sync contacts, calendars, and tasks between iCal and Address Book on Mac OS X and Outlook on Windows.

What does PlayNice do?

You can sync information with up to three computers with PlayNice, but it will only do this across computers on the same network. It is targeted at users that aren’t interested in all the extra features and the $99/year subscription price of MobileMe, but still want to be able to sync their data. It will even work between a Mac and  Windows (even virtual copies of Windows running on the same network or even on the same Mac). It supports two-way syncing that will allow you to merge your data onto the three supported machines. Afterwards all three machines will have the same updated contacts, calendars, and tasks.

PlayNice vs. MobileMe

It is hard not to compare PlayNice with MobileMe especially when PocketMac mentions it  on their PlayNice web page. I’m an avid fan of MobileMe and I’ve managed to renew my subscription annually for $69. This is mainly due to the fact that I buy at least one Apple product like a Mac or iPhone annually bundled with MobileMe that makes me eligible for this $30 discount. PocketMac touts the cost savings between PlayNice and MobileMe – they are right about that you can save a lot of money, but for me $69 annually isn’t a whole lot to spend.

Especially considering that each time I renew my MobileMe subscription it gives me another year with a service that offers a lot more features besides syncing that PlayNice cannot beat. I get web mail, contacts, calendar, etc., but more importantly I get  cloud storage. As I said earlier PlayNice is limited to working on a local network. That’s a big negative for me, because I had to have my first iPhone 4 replaced and if I didn’t have MobileMe I would have had to wait until I was at home or in the office to get my contacts loaded onto my phone. That is where you would be if you used PlayNice for syncing. In my case I had all my contacts on my new iPhone 4 in under a minute once I synced with MobileMe afterwards I wasn’t very unhappy about the $69 I spent this year on MobileMe vs. the one time cost of PlayNice.

Conclusion

Does this mean that PlayNice is a bad product? No, but it is a niche product. It is aimed solely at people who are not interested in annual subscriptions, but who are interested in syncing across machines and operating systems on their local area network. It works very well in this role and if all you need is syncing I think you will be happy with it. You have to decide what’s best for yourself — are you interested in saving money and forgoing the features and convenience of cloud storage that MobileMe has to offer? If you answered, “Yes, ” then PlayNice might be a good solution for you. If you answered, “No, ” then stick to MobileMe.

Sync contacts, calendars, and tasks between a Mac, another Mac, or any Windows PC.

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