Intel's Unison App Syncs iOS and Android Phones With Your PC (theverge.com) 34
Intel has announced an intriguing new app called Unison, which aims to "seamlessly" connect Intel-powered computers to smartphones -- not just Android phones but iOS devices as well. From a report: Following what Intel says is a "simple pairing process," the Unison app will allow PCs to replicate four key features of the connected phone. They can answer and make calls; they can share photos and files (pictures taken with the phone will show up in a specific Unison gallery on the PC); they can send and receive texts; and they can receive (and, in some cases, respond to) notifications that the phone receives -- though if Unison is closed, they'll go to the Windows notification center. "The advantage we can bring to a PC user that's got a well-designed Windows PC is not having to choose their device based on the PC they have. They have an iPhone, they have an Android phone, any device they want to use will be able to connect with this capability," Josh Newman, Intel's VP of mobile innovation, told The Verge. "When you're ... on your laptop, and you get notifications or texts on your phone, you can keep it in your bag and get right back into the flow of your work."
Name is taken (Score:2)
Unison File Synchronizer
https://github.com/bcpierce00/... [github.com]
If Intel won't change name and anyone wants to put together a trademark lawsuit I'm ready to put some money in.
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That was my first thought too. But is Unison a registered trademark? I know that simply using a name is enough to make it a trademark, but it's much easier to protect if it's registered.
I'd throw in a few bucks to defend the Unison mark.
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https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcp... [upenn.edu]
"Copyright 1998-2012, Benjamin C. Pierce" ...how did Intel fuck this up? Lol.
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Copyrights are not Trademarks. Totally different type of intellectual property.
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Copyrights are not Trademarks. Totally different type of intellectual property.
There was a very similar situation with Linux long ago. Long term use of a name is sufficient to justify registration. If Intel have registered a trademark then Unison should challenge that and demand that the ownership be transferred to them. Someone should open a bug on their GitHub to ensure that they know about it.
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These days, I'd say that "software" is too broad a category to get a trademark for. As long as they're sufficiently different enough to never be confused for one another.
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They're both file synchronization software... I think confusion is probably inevitable with this naming collision.
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File sharing (but more like drive mounting), but I don't think there's a sync feature.
And the rest is proxying communications.
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Does your company do file synchronization? If not then you should be fine because it's not confusing with Unison the software.
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Unison is great software, too. Simple, works dead reliably. Good stuff.
KDE Connect (Score:5, Insightful)
They invented KDE Connect for Windows, neat. KDE Connect does need call answering capability I believe.
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Or My Phone for Windows...
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All KDE Connect needs to add is an automated file backup a la bittorrent sync (err, resilio sync, now) and it would be about perfect.
I use it all the time for everything from phone->desktop notifications to mousing from the sofa and sending files. I also love the feature where it auto pauses whatever your watching on your desktop when your phone rings (and resumes playback when you hang up).
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Syncthing is a good companion to KDEConnect. Catfriend's fork (github/fdroid) is an improvement over the stock Android build.
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Unfortunately for Intel, they reinvented a thing Microsoft had built into windows for like 2 years now. I guess the picture sync thing is ok, but we already had Google Photos for that?
Re: KDE Connect (Score:2)
Lock-in, except it's not lock-in (Score:5, Funny)
The advantage we can bring to a PC user that's got a well-designed Windows PC is not having to choose their device based on the PC they have
They definitely have to choose a specific PC, even though this software doesn't rely on any special features of the Intel CPU. Oh, and not just any Intel CPU but either a 12th generation model built by a specific brand or a 13th generation. But you're not limited by which brand of phone!
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Read closer. Computer models using those CPUs are built by different brands and this is not just locked to the CPU but initially to specific OEMs.
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The good news is that if you are running Windows 10+, you already had this available [microsoft.com] to you for quite a while without Intel's particular brand of hardware lock. Maybe it's new that you can do this with iPhone?
Fuck off Intel (Score:2)
Neither iOS nor Android want anything to do with x86.
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To be fair, it's pretty great to answer your phone via the laptop or desktop you're already using. And photo sharing between phones and windows PCs is terrible without something like this.
Unfortunately for Intel, Microsoft already solved this over a year ago, without Intel's particular brand of "you have to have one of OUR processors to do this, and it had better not be more than 6 months old, or else (for some reason) bluetooth connections just won't work between your phone and your PC!"
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Fuckoff yourself. This system already works between Android and Windows (originally called My Phone) and it is excellent. No one gives a flying fuck about their CPU architecture, but currently Intel's solution seems to be the only way to get this Android functionality with an iOS device on a Windows machine.
Don't criticise people offering more consumer choice.
lemme guess (Score:2)
Let me guess, the software is free as long as I share all data with Intel, right? Fuck that.
Already exists..? (Score:2)
Windows has a feature like this, doesn't it? I haven't used it, but there's an option to link your phone to your PC, and can control it remotely that way, doesn't seem to specify Android or iOS. Maybe it sucks?
For me the main nuisance is responding to texts on the phone itself, and the Android Messages app takes care of this as well, and you can view and send texts from a browser window, easy peasy. (I've just always got that tab open, and pop over if I get a beep.)
Pretty much the only time I type on my pho
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Yes, it's called "My Phone". It has been a part of Windows 10 for quite a while now. Apparently, it works very well with Samsung phones the best due to a partnership between the companies.
I have never used it. I don't need more notifications in my life. I can glance at my phone easily enough.
Shameless Plug (Score:5, Informative)
MyPhone Explorer [fjsoft.at]
Not my app, but I've happily donated to the dev, repeatedly. It works directly via WiFi or USB, and syncs contacts, calendars, texts, files, gives notifications, caller-ID popups including an area to write call notes, a notepad application, a file manager...and it's donationware. I've also gotten it to run over a VPN, though I've needed to do a 'route add' for that to work...but it does, and it works well!
No account, no cloud syncing, no data siphoning, no information going where it isn't supposed to...just the sort of synchronization utility for Android I'd always wanted.
On the iOS side, I recently became a fan of Imazing [imazing.com]. It isn't at feature parity with Unison, I grant you... but it's an app that moved a depreciated, un-downloadable app from my old iPhone to my new iPhone, lived up to all of its advertising (which is a genuinely impressive feat for most iPhone management products, and didn't give me any sort of sketch vibes at all. Another product that lives up to its name.
I say this because my mere 11th-gen Intel CPU isn't going to be running Unison, so in the event that similar functionality was desired without a CPU upgrade...I submit these tools for your consideration.
about time (Score:2)
A weird product for Intel (Score:1)