Instant Messaging for Devices Makes Data Transfer Easy

As the number of computing devices used by the average user increases - desktop at work, notebook at home, mobile phone for email and web browsing- moving data across these has become a challenge.

Two researchers at IBM have devised a way to make it easier to manage multiple devices and transfer files, images and other information seamlessly.

Think of it as instant messaging for your computing systems, they say, where different devices are almost like friends on your buddy list and can be connected with depending on whether a particular device is online or offline.

Data management is an emerging yet a growing problem today, says Michael Gartenberg, vice president at research firm Jupitermedia.

"They are absolutely 100% on the right track here," says Gartenberg. "What they are doing is very, very important because consumers are using a whole host of devices and very few, if any, are thinking how to make that device usage seamless."

A quick survey of 27 IBM researchers and Stanford faculty showed that most people carry nearly six devices including their PCs at work, home and mobile phones.

"We have more devices than ever that we work with but each assumes it is the only one," says Jeff Pierce, a researcher at IBM's Almaden Research Center who will be presenting the software at a user interface software conference in Monterey, California next week.