My MacBook Pro is the “master” in my digitally replicated life. The problem is that in order to replicate any of that information I have to install a bunch of one-off applications. I have a program installed for Flickr/iPhoto integration. I have a program for Plaxo/AddressBook. The problem is, I want a bunch more of those apps and they don’t exist.
My laptop is my control center for my life. Apple has worked hard to integrate entertainment and devices with my Mac. All I am asking is for them to allow me to integrate services too. It would be nice if Apple provided this functionality. It is possible that this is one of the features of Leopard that has been kept under wraps.
Now,I have never written iSync conduits, but I looked at it a little bit when I was hoping to sync the Samsung a900 with my Mac. From what I remember, iSync drivers for phones are written in XML or YAML. I can imagine that the same kind of thing would be possible if Apple provied SOAP, WSDL, and XMLRPC drivers for iSync. Then, when an API was released developers would be able to quickly tie that API into an iSync conduit and allow data from that service to be synchronized with iLife apps.
I don’t want to just sync my photos with Flickr, I want to sync friends and messages too. The same goes for Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, MyBlogLog, etc.
I gave it a quick look and I don’t see any examples of this, so it would probably take a fair amount of work to get it going. Unless of course Apple made it easy for us.
I am going to mull this one over until Leopard is released. If Steve announces Service Conduits for iSync at WWDC it will put Apple well ahead of the competition in the world of social integration. If not then at the very least I will be writing more about how it could/should work.
