I recently stumbled upon an application/service called Synble.com, while sneakily looking over the shoulder of Rafe Blandford. While the documentation on their site is extremely light, I gave it a run, and am rather impressed with the service, overall. Synble consists of an on-device application, which acts like a server to keep you connected to the service.
Once you have setup and connected your phone to the Synble service, that’s when the cool stuff happens. By default, it will automatically copy all of your messages and call logs to their servers, and present them to you in a web-based form. You can access this website from any computer, regardless of whether or not your device is currently ‘connected’, which can prove to be very handy.
There are basically three main views within Synble’s online service: Messages, Friends, and Settings.
In Messages, as noted before, you see a list of your recent messages and phone calls, presented in chronological order. For messages, Synble will show the person who sent/received the message, linked to their Friends page, if they’re in your phonebook. This can be extremely handy, and if those contacts are Synble users, you can even send them a message, which will appear as an incoming SMS on their phone.
In the Friends, or contacts view, you get a list of all your contacts, with thumbnail images, if you have one set. This view will show, by default, their mobile phone number as a clickable link, or their email (if you don’t have a number listed for them). Friends are separated into ‘Synble Friends’ (i.e. those also using Synble) and in this group, you have a presence indicator. All other friends are simply listed under ‘Contacts’.
You can also click on a contact to see a snapshot of their information, as well as a timeline of your communication with them. I’m a huge fan of this view, especially.
The Settings area, however, is where things get really interesting. First off, you’re asked to add your cellphone number. This is needed to allow others to find you. You can also change your profile picture in the settings, which is used throughout the site. The next setting allows you to add a Google Talk or other Jabber account, so that any messages you receive through both your phone and the Synble service are delivered as an IM conversation. You can also add your Twitter account, so that any direct messages or @replies sent to you in Twitter are delivered as a message through Synble.
One of the other really killer features is RSS-to-text, and text-to-RSS. Here, there’s a simple RSS link that you can add to your RSS reader to get all of your Synble messages delivered there. Personally, I don’t see the conveneince in this, but you might. The real kicker is the RSS-to-text, where you can add any number of RSS feeds, and have them delivered as an SMS (sort of) to your phone! For instance, I have the Symbian-Guru RSS Feed fed into mine, so that whenever a post goes live, I get the first handful of sentences, plus a link to check out the full post, right on my phone! Killer.
Here’s the key to the Synble service, and specifically the extras, such as messaging within the app, to other Synble users, and the RSS-to-text: You have to have the phone client running. This is your connector to the rest of the service, and unfortunately, it does not autostart when you turn your phone on. You’ll definitely want to remember to go turn it on, or you’ll be disappointed when you realize your Synble isn’t connected. Hopefully this will be addressed in future updates to the client.
Overall, it’s a pretty cool service, and I know they have plans to spruce it up more over the next few months. There’s also an S60v5 version of the phone client in the works, so that should be coming soon, as well. Cruise over to Synble.com to get the client and get things setup. Check it out, and let us know what you think.
Note: one annoyance, also, is that you have to have the client on your phone to setup an account. You can get this easily by going to m.Synble.com on your phone’s browser.
