But with SocialSafe, no matter what an evil hacker does, you would never actually lose your data. It's all safely stored on your own computer. (Those people who are currently affected by the ongoing "site maintenance" issue that has locked an unknown number of people out of their accounts could probably have used a program like this too.)

The new addition of Facebook Wall Backup adds another component to SocialSafe's Time Capsule feature which lets you see how your Facebook account has changed over time - that is, from your first backup onward. It provides an overview of your Facebook account where you can see the friends and photos you've added, those you've removed, and so on. It's also an easy way to scan your "digital diary" for any time period. Now with your Wall Posts backed up too, you can quickly navigate to any old post and its associated comments instead of having to manually click the "Older Posts" button at the bottom of your Facebook Wall time and time again.

The new version of the SocialSafe application will be made available for download from the company's home page here.

Mobile phone backup services are par for the course these days. Several vendors offer their own version: for example, Apple has MobileMe, Microsoft has My Phone and Nokia has Ovi. Despite this fact, a lot of users aren't taking advantage of these solutions for one of two reasons: either their phone isn't supported or they simply don't want to pay for the service. Case in point, Apple's MobileMe starts at a hefty $99 per year. After already blowing hundreds on the handset alone, that extra fee often proves to be too much for some users.

That's why Best Buy mIQ has appeal. Although the service maxes out at 1 GB of storage, it's enough for the average mobile phone user to backup everything on their phone with room to spare (well, except for iPhone users, but they're not supported at this time. Guess they have to pony up the $99 after all). 

In addition to providing online storage, the new service also provides a web site where users can access their online account, even reading and responding to incoming SMS messages from their PC. From the website, mIQ users can share photos and videos to popular social networks, too, including Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and Twitter. And all changes made from the web instantly sync back to the mobile phone and vice versa.

Officially launching on Monday October 12th, mIQ will be pre-installed on any supported phone sold at Best Buy. In addition, other users, even those who bought their phone elsewhere, can sign up to use the service too from miqlive.com. Currently the system, built by Seattle-based Dashwire, supports smartphones running BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems like the BlackBerry 9700, Bold, Tour, Nokia E71 and N97, HTC Pro 2, Samsung Omnia II and T-Mobile Dash 3G.

But you don't have to wait until Monday to sign up. The site is accepting registrations as of now.

What's the Catch? Why is mIQ Free?

If you're wondering why Best Buy would offer a valuable backup service like this for free when so many others force you to pay, it's because the company is busy rebranding themselves as more than just a place to buy phones and accessories. They want to be an end-to-end mobile solutions provider - a place where you can shop for phones from multiple carriers, get advice, and receive support for your handset throughout the life of the phone.

To accomplish this goal, the company has been busy ramping up new offerings like a dedicated Best Buy Mobile site, a revamped Facebook page with new applications, and of course, a partnership with Google for exclusive Best Buy apps, including some designed just for Android phones. ]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/best_buy_announces_mobileme_competitor_miq.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/best_buy_announces_mobileme_competitor_miq.php Mobile Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:16:36 -0800 Sarah Perez Did you know that your tweets have an expiration date on them? While they never really disappear from your own Twitter stream, they become unsearchable in only a matter of days. At first, Twitter held onto your tweets for around a month, but as the service grew more popular, this "date limit" has dramatically shortened. According to Twitter's search documentation, the current date limit on the search index is "around 1.5 weeks but is dynamic and subject to shrink as the number of tweets per day continues to grow."

What that means is something tweeted prior to a week and a half ago can never be retrieved via search.twitter.com. That's bad for users and it's definitely bad for data-mining. Unless Twitter corrects this issue on its own, we have to find another solution for archiving tweets ourselves. Here are 10 ways to do so.

1. The Archivist: A Desktop Tool for Archiving Searches

The Archivist is a Windows desktop software application built by members of Microsoft's Mix Online team. With this program, you can create Twitter searches which will then be archived to your PC so they can be data-mined by you at a later date. Recently, the program was updated so that it can be minimized to the system tray - especially helpful for when you want to track a Twitter search over a long period of time. They also added a data visualization feature which calculates who's tweeting the most about your topic.

2. Twapper Keeper: Archive Tweets Based on Hashtags

Twapper Keeper is an online tool which archives tweets based on a given hashtag. Once you set up a query, Twapper Keeper will periodically scan Twitter for that tag and then archive the tweets it finds on its own servers. Tweets are scanned approximately every 5 minutes but that can vary based on the velocity of the incoming tweets. Once archived, you can then organize the tweets into categories of your choosing which show up on the right-hand side of the archived page.

3. Twitter Tools: Archive Tweets in WordPress

Twitter Tools is a WordPress blog plugin which integrates your blog and Twitter account. Once installed and configured, the plugin can be used to both Twitter links to your blog and to create posts which contain your recent tweets. While this is handy for the WordPress blog owner, keep in mind that post after post of "Today's Tweets" isn't all that appealing to blog readers. You may want to create a separate blog for this if you intend to use WordPress as your own personal Twitter archive.

4. Twistory: Tweets in Your Calendar

Twistory is a service which lets you add your Twitter backlog feed to your favorite calendar application. The service lets you subscribe to any user's Twitter RSS feed which can then be integrated into a calendaring application like Google Calendar, Outlook, Thunderbird, or any other application that supports the iCal format. Tweets are added immediately to the calendar upon posting and the service can even import almost all the way back to your first tweet ever.

5. SweetCron, AmpliFeeder, or Storytlr: A Lifestream of Tweets

We reviewed SweetCron back nearly a year ago when it first launched. Essentially, this self-hosted lifestreaming application lets you create your own customizable version of a FriendFeed-like service, but one that's hosted on your own server. The software is installed on a server with PHP and MySQL running on it and then must be configured with the social media sites you want to aggregate. Of course, one of the sites you can pull in is Twitter.

AmpliFeeder works the same way and includes a number of themes to choose from. This service can also generate XML files which can be used to backup all your social streams' data, too. Recently, Amplifeeder launched their hosted version of the service (get started here), but unfortunately, it relies on FriendFeed to import your lifestream. And who knows how long that will be around.

Storytlr is a third option for creating a lifestream at your own custom URL. However, it's doesn't just function as an aggregator - it also lets you post your own, unique content too. (Our review).

6. Twinbox: Tweets in Your Outlook

TwInbox is an Outlook plugin which lets you receive your friends' updates directly in your Outlook inbox. With this plugin activated, you can search, archive, and group your tweets the same way you manage your email. You can also update your Twitter status from Outlook or retrieve tweets based on keyword searches. Of course, if you're in a corporate environment, your I.T. admin may enforce mailbox size limits which means you'll have to archive your "tweets" folder more often than you'd like to keep your PST/OST to a manageable size.

7. RSS Feeds

One of the simplest ways to archive tweets is to simply grab the RSS feed for your tweet stream of choice and add it to your preferred RSS reader. If you use Google Reader, for example, the service's "infinite scrolling" feature lets you go back to the very first item ever tracked for that subscription. Plus, Reader has a search box at the top for searching for keywords or phrases in your feeds which will also help you rediscover older tweets. (Update! See our post "How to Backup and Search All Your Friends Tweets in Google Reader" for how-to instructions on using RSS as a backup method.)

8. Tweetake, TweetDumpr, Tweetscan, BackupMyTweets, TweetBackup: Twitter Backup Tools

Tweetake is a third-party service which lets you back up your Twitter account including tweets, DMs, followers, friends, and favorites. However, Tweetake is limited to backing up only the first 1000 contacts and there's no way to re-import the data into Twitter at the moment. It's mainly used as a personal archive of data which you can store for safe-keeping. TweetDumpr is a similar service but only focuses on backing up the tweets themselves from public timelines. Tweetscan also lets you download your Twitter message archive including replies to a CSV file. BackupMyTweets and TweetBackup are yet two more Twitter backup services which lets you backup your tweets daily.

9. Archive Tweets with Evernote

The popular note-taking application Evernote offers a feature which lets you send your public Twitter messages and private DMs right into Evernote where they can be searched and stored permanently. Unfortunately, in order for this service to work, you have to put "@myEN" into the body of any public tweet, making it less-than-ideal for archiving your every missive. Instead, this is a good way to archive select tweets you wouldn't want to lose.

10. Geek Tools Let You Archive in XML, PDF, HTML, TXT...or even with Python

RSS guru Dave Winer released a tool earlier this year which archives Twitter posts using the OPML Editor and optionally synchronizes with a structure on Amazon S3. Alternately, there's this simple Python script for archiving tweets. Sourceforge also hosts an app with lets you backup up tweets of different users as XML, HTML, PDF, or TXT. However, it can only perform backups of 3200 tweets at a time. Each subsequent backup will append the additional tweets to the current existing archive.

Then, depending on your computer (Mac or PC), you can either download the Windows-only desktop client or head over to the online service at quanp.net. Unfortunately, non-Windows users using the online service miss out on the sexiest thing about this new service: the 3D file browser.

For Windows Users

In the Windows desktop client, you browse through your files using its visually stunning interface. Although pretty, visual browsing isn't always the most efficient way to locate a particular file, so quanp's software also lets you search by keyword, tag, date, and more. The client even includes a basic reader for Microsoft Office files so you can see the content without having to launch the office software.

For Mac Users

Non-Windows users can use the online site to browse through files, but there's nothing all that exciting about this part of the service. It doesn't even offer an web version of the 3D interface. However, you can view files and their metadata, share them with others, plus upload or download files using buttons provided on the site.

Sexy, But Useful?

For the most part, a lot of what makes quanp fun to use is its visual eye candy. However, for users of the free Windows Live service, there may be some hesitation in switching. Although lacking a drag-and-drop widget of its own, Windows Live users can upload both photos and videos to online services using Photo Gallery software - and not just to the online service provided by Windows Live, but to flickr, Facebook, and YouTube as well (the last two via plugins). They can also tag files, identify faces, edit photos, and browse through files - just not in glorious 3D.

Of course there are plenty of other online storage services out there, but Windows Live is the most apt comparison since it, like quanp, is a combination of desktop software and an online component - a "software + services" arrangement. Most other online storage services either don't offer desktop tools at all or don't offer tools that also function as a way to elegantly browse and edit your files.

To determine if quanp is the better choice for you, think about whether you need to upload more than just photos or videos - if so, then quanp will work (although visual search of docs isn't quite as fun). Also of note, quanp offers 10 GB to Windows Live's 25 GB. However, the company plans to offer graded pricing in the future for additional storage, but no official decision has yet been made on exactly what that will be.

Of course, for some early adopters, "sexy" beats "practical" any day. If that describes you, then you should sign up for the quanp beta here. (But sorry world - the beta is U.S.-only!)