vufone to power Motorola devices with sync

The storage paradigm was in the center of the mobile phones market since the devices became more media capable. Mobile phones’ storage capacity has rapidly grown and more and more information is being kept on the devices.
Video clips, MP3’s and pictures are often saved on the mobile device, while the mobile phone increasingly takes part in more events in our lives.

Two problems remain with the data stored on our devices; 1. Content is created to be shared and the social factor is crucial to maintain the interest level in the content. When the content is stored on the device, our friends and family members are being excluded from participating in the social activities based on the content. 2. The device can easily get lost or get stolen, leaving us without the content we have accumulated.
Synchronization is the answer to both problems, but to sync the mobile phone to the PC on a regular basis can be a burden, and to get the content on the computer and then share it with friends is cumbersome.

There are many services aimed to synchronize our data especially for devices with high speed connectivity like 3G. These services were traditionally offered by the operators to let them hold our content thus increase our loyalty (as a result of the dependency in their service). Recently, more and more services are offered independently, detached from the operator, as premium and even free services. Such services include Nokia’s OVI and Plaxo.

Newact, a company specialized in synchronization solutions, has recently changed their focus and their business model in a move that also included laying off 30% of their employees. vufone, a new free synchronization service is the result of that move. Vufone service backs-up the data from your mobile phone and connects Mobile phones to web2.0 sites like Facebook, Flickr, etc.

Access to the vufone service will be soon pre-loaded on Motorola’s devices, but it is also free to any user and supports devices from Nokia, Motorola, SE, LG, and other Symbian powered devices.
The registration has two phases, the first one is the online registration and the second one is the installation of the application on the mobile device. Once these phases are completed, you are “sync” to go.
The mobile application holds 5 basic functions: sync, upload, download, backup, and restore.
These functions are meant for manual synchronization but the application also enables an auto synchronization option that will do everything for you (in the background). When a new contact is added or when a new song is downloaded, the application will automatically synchronize it with the service, accessible online.
The information is stored and is reachable on vufone’s site, in a plain, simple and clean interface in 9 languages to choose from at the moment.

vufone is a great tool for people who are looking for synchronization and backup of their mobile phone’s data seamlessly and in real time.
The big bonus in vufone is that it also supports direct and automatic synchronization to several web 2.0 services such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa and more. If the user decides that the data should also be posted to these sites, every picture the user takes will automatically go to Vufone and facebook and flickr etc.
From an interview we held with the Newact’s CEO, Rafi Ton, we learnt that there are many planned features including a Firefox plugin which is in the works, that will let you “grab” content from the web and get it on your device promptly.

Overall, from what we have tested, vufone offers nice functionality with a clean interface. The connectivity to web 2.0 sites and the free nature of the service makes it a good service to use in order to backup and share your content.