We try to 'talk your language' on technology and in that spirit I should flag up the fact that this is probably not an entry that you will be interested in unless certain aspects of technical understanding appeal to you... With that warning out of the way this is an interesting and embedded functionality that ships with Macs (and potentially PCs - I haven't checked yet) that it might be useful to know about.

The nature of ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line), or what most of the UK calls broadband, is that you get different capacity for speed in downloads to uploads... therefore the asynchronicity.

The interesting part of this is that although one may get 400KB/s down stream you may max out at 70-80KB/s upstream in real world conditions - but the two are connected so when one is at capacity the other cannot function properly. When browsing this doesn't really matter as the bulk of the load is generated on the download in calling web-page content such as images, layout code etc. The upload is used, simplictically speaking, just to send confirmation packets to the servers or new requests and so there is limited load.

Of course, in everyday use the main burden on the upload bandwidth comes from the sending of emails with large attachments where a single connection will be clogged for maybe 2 minutes in sending out at a max of 70-80KB/s. During such an event you may find that your download speeds are sluggish for the reasons mentioned above.

But the point of this post is that with tools like SugarSync, mentioned previously, and the proliferation of services 'in the cloud' where you need to upload data significant amounts of data users run into this issue more often. In these circumstances the asynchronicity works against you as the pipe you need is too slow. Upload speeds that would be more useful (in the 200KB/s+ range) are usually associated with SDSL products that are too expensive for most home and small business users. So what to do about an upload session blocking your whole pipe and preventing decent internet use while it is happening?

The key is to throttle the bandwidth of the upload. Sometimes this can be done within the application but often you may need to put a cap on the whole of one machine. I was hunting out a convenient app for the job, on a Mac, when I came across the information that actually you can do it very easily with the internal ip firewall on each Mac and a couple of easy commands in the Terminal.

Therefore, to temporarily cap the out-band bandwidth on port 80 (and not the LAN) from my machine, and to free up my connection for browsing by the other computers in my household, I used the following:

sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 300kbit/s

sudo ipfw add pipe 1 dst-port http

You can change the 300kbit/s to suit your cap (it equates to 30KB/s in real terms) but this allowed my sync to run effectively while leaving enough headroom for other work.

The one caveat is that you should not use sudo to run commands as root unless you know what you are doing, but then if you don't you probably won't have read this far!

To remove the temporary ipfw rule and restore yourself to normal states of bandwidth simply run:

sudo ipfw flush

So with a couple of easy commands you can gain control of your bandwidth and upload to your heart's content without locking your whole household out of the internet.

Obviously many people are excited about the launch, today, of the new iTunes store with its applications for the iPhone. There are already 10's of them and some are not exactly ground-breaking (I have counted not less than 8 for calculating restaurant tips) but there is one small app that lurks in the mix which is free, and is truly ground-breaking.

And not so much because it shows remarkable visuals (it doesn't), or contacts people you feel guilty for not calling enough (thank goodness it doesn't as I'm not sure you'd want the iPhone to do this for you, however clever it might be) - but because using it you can remotely control any Apple music/TV device you own.

Now take the simple example of an iTunes library on a computer: using this remote app on the iPhone you can browse playlists, songs etc and play them instantly. And this is the most remarkable thing - because it operates via your wireless network and therefore is so fast you feel plugged in, in control in a way that you cannot quite believe. It's so trivial, we all use remotes, but imagine being able to switch music on and off anywhere in your house, instantly and from the convenience of your phone. And then choose another track, search for that song that you haven't heard for weeks etc - all so easy.

And then add this to an Apple TV with maybe 40 different TV shows, films and hundreds of songs on it. Maybe two Apple TVs or more in your home. You can suddenly navigate to a series of TV Shows, find the exact episode you want amongst many, all with pictures and information on the large, clear screen and they play - immediately. And you can then play something else on your other Apple TV on another screen.

It has to be seen to be believed - but what I can say is that a simple thing makes a big difference, a dumb phone can be so much more, and your life can be much more enjoyable, because it just got a little bit easier to do things you want to do.

O2 has just texted its thousands of existing iPhone customers in the UK and asked them to head over to o2.co.uk/iphone and register in advance for the new iPhone 3G which officially launches on Friday.

The new iPhone brings some very interesting new technologies to the world's fastest selling smartphone - 3G data speeds, which will make for very swift browsing when combined with the fast rendering engine in Apple's Safari browser, in-built GPS (never be lost again as this works with Google Maps for high quality directions from the palm of your hand) and possibly most excitingly the Apple Store opens for third party apps for your phone. Pretty soon everyone will be able to customise their iPhone to have all sorts of little applications available to them and with the new enterprise-level security with Exchange contact and calendar syncing the little glass-faced phone has truly come of age.

The only small problem, as at the time of writing (9.45am on Monday 7 Juy), the O2 store is down - maybe due to excess demand?

Another recent launch is also garnering some exceptional commentary: it is "really an impressive piece of work" (New York Times), a "convenient way to back-up. sync and access files from anywhere, anytime" (Bloomberg) - and from first hand experience we can highly recommend this sleek piece of software. Running in the background on your PC or Mac it will sync to the secure SugarSync servers on the internet any files or folders that you select from your PC. So far, so simple. But the beauty is that these files are now accessible securely from anywhere by visiting yourownaddress.sugarsync.com online from any computer, or - and this is the ground-breaking bit - you can associate any number of other computers with the same account at no extra cost and they will all synchronise. Your vital files on your home PC are suddenly available to you at work, and if you make some changes they will be changed and ready for you when you get home. Through mobile devices like the iPhone the power of SugarSync stays with you on the move. Just about to go into a meeting and realised that you left the entire sheet of estimates behind? No problem - simply download the spreadsheet from SugarSync onto your mobile, review it and your back in the game. So it is not only of huge benefit to the forgetful but also it might just get you out of tight spot if something dreadful happens to your main computer and your backup (you do backup, don't you?) is in the same room and it is taken out as well. SugarSync secure online service means that there is always a remote copy for you to retrieve. And almost the best bit of all is the price - starting at $25 per year for 10GB, and access by an almost unlimited number of computers. At that price there is no set of household accounts, no small business, no sole trader that shouldn't be getting this software installed immediately and running quietly in the background like a geek guardian angel.