US-based Funambol has released a new version 8 of its open source software, which syncs data and content of billions of mobile phones with social networks, email systems and personal computers through the Internet cloud.

“With the exploding popularity of smartphones, people are carrying more of their lives on their phones than ever before,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO.

“People increasingly expect to access their data and content in the cloud and other systems.”

Additionally, Funambol v8 has reinvented the AJAX web portal. The portal's striking interface makes it simple for users to access mobile data and rich media in the cloud, using any modern browser.

“The new Funambol Portal makes it super easy to access mobile data and content, anytime, anywhere,” added Capobianco.

The upgrade has added the portal with features enabling direct access to mobile phone contacts, calendar, email account, profile, phone settings, and mobile and desktop clients.

It also provides remote auto-setup and configuration of SyncML settings on billions of phones, as well as a “quick add” process to set up Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL or POP/IMAP email accounts and an easy step to download-install-run Funambol email client on mobile devices.