First, BusyCal doesn’t have that annoying faux leather iPad style interface. It retains an unadorned look more in line with older versions of iCal. There are hacks to return your iCal to classic mode, but sensible good looks isn’t the only thing BusyCal is offering.

BusyCal supports direct syncing of calenders between computers, and if you desire, can bypass the cloud altogether. Otherwise the app supports syncing to any CalDAV service such as MobileMe as well as Google. Setting up Google Calendar sycning is a breeze. You put in your credentials and away you go. Your calendars instantly appear. Lion’s iCal requires a few additional steps to add multiple calendars, which is both annoying and unnecessary.

In iCal for Lion, the calendar list floats on top of your calendar, making it near impossible to view both it and your calendar list. BusyCal retains a unique column for your entire calendar list, as well as a month at-a-glance view (mini-month). Although BusyCal doesn’t have iCal’s yearly view, it does have a list view of all your upcoming events, regardless of when they fall, and can integrate daily events into an optional icon on the menu bar. This is a handy feature to answer the basic question of where you have to be today.

Other nice features in BusyCal include the ability to add graphics to an event, as well as sticky notes and custom banners. These features will even sync with other BusyCal users, but won’t sync with your iPhone or Android device. Best of all is that BusyCal will show you the daily forecast with highs and lows right on the day in question.

Although Lion introduced some great new features, iCal is one giant step backwards in my opinion. BusyCal on the other hand retains great features from Snow Leopard’s iCal, while adding some new ones as well. BusyCal is sold directly for via the Mac App Store for $49.99 ($79.99 for a family pack), which is more than Lion costs as a whole, but the price of entry may be worth it to users that once relied on some iCal features that are no longer there.

Disclosure: Busymac provided a copy of BusyCal for review purposes.

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TouchBase automatically works with your iPhone’s built-in calendar, so you don’t have to sign up for a new service or port all your appointments. And like Siri, it’s smart; TouchBase’s intelligence is a very specific kind of smarts, however, one designed to take the busywork out of maintaining a detailed and highly interactive digital appointment book.

When you create appointments (either in your Calendar app itself, or in-app through TouchBase), the TouchBase software parses your brief description and comes up with two kinds of crucial information: who’s involved, and where things are taking place. So, for instance, I can type (or dictate using Siri, if I prefer) “Lunch with Ian D. at Kenzo,” set the time and day, and be completely done with the appointment-making process. From that, TouchBase will automatically find the correct contact information for the person involved (Ian D. in this case) and set the location, provided I’ve given it enough info to find a likely match in Google Maps.

With that information, TouchBase can quickly perform a number of functions. Using special macros, it can text people you’re meeting with a pre-configured message to let them know you’re at the agreed-upon meeting location, or that you’ll be late. You can also call and email your contacts with just a couple taps, and look up the meeting place via your iPhone’s Google Maps app.

For me, filling out the various fields in my Calendar app when making a new appointment is just too time-consuming in terms of the reward you get back. With TouchBase, however, a simple one line event descriptor takes care of all the heavy lifting for me, so I can just focus on keeping track of things I have to do, without it becoming a huge production.

So is TouchBase more helpful than Siri when it comes to scheduling? Actually, it turns out the two combined are an unstoppable force. I’ll dictate appointments to Siri, who records them in my calendar, which then feeds to TouchBase, where I can use its smart macros to stay in touch with folks I’m meeting and look up venues. Even without direct integration, this is how Siri combined with other apps really does equal magic.

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As you can see in the video, the iCloud apps (running in the latest version of Safari on OS X Lion) look a lot like the redesigned Address Book and Calendar apps from Lion, as does the Mail app from screenshots I’ve seen. Apple’s decision to go for a unified look and feel between the web-based iCloud presence, Mac apps and iOS software is a great idea for encouraging adoption of cloud services among users new to the concept. One experience, no matter where you access from, really helps the learning curve and should help alleviate any concerns about privacy and security of access.

One other really nice feature about the iCloud.com beta: it appears to remember where you are when last you left off, even if you last logged in from a different computer, and delivers you right back to that same spot the next time you log in. It’s sort of like having Lion’s Auto Resume feature on the web.

Apple has definitely stepped up its game compared to MobileMe. Do you see yourself using iCloud on the web when it becomes available to the general public this September?

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First there was the web-based Mail overhaul, and then the Find My iPhone app. Now, the Calendar web app gets a similar makeover to the one Mail received, and like its predecessor, it starts out in invite-only beta form. And at nearly the same time, we get an update to MobileMe’s iDisk app for iOS devices, bringing with it true iPad/iPhone universality. And it’s about time.

The iPad has been out since April of this year, and yet Find My iPhone was the first MobileMe-related iOS app to boast universality. iDisk and Gallery seemed to be being ignored, despite the obvious potential both apps held on the larger iPad screen. Well iDisk is now fully updated for the iPad, and it works wonderfully. The built-in document viewer lets you see all those PDFs, images and word processor files you have stored on your cloud disk. It also works with the “Open In…” feature along with compatible third-party apps, and allows you to create shares for people who don’t use MobileMe.

The Calendar web app beta probably won’t mean much to iPad owners, since presumably they’re using the native Calendar app on their devices, but it sure is a big upgrade for those accessing their MobileMe services from their computer’s Internet browser. Again, like with Mail, it takes cues from its iPad predecessor. The book-style view is there, and there’s also redesigned day, week, and month views in addition to a new barebones list view.

You can share calendars among friends and set up email notifications regarding changes, and publish a calendar for public use, if, for example, you have a recreational sports team to organize. You can also create events and send invites and receive RSVPs, even if your guests aren’t using MobileMe themselves. Sounds like it could provide one more reason for me to stay away from Facebook, if it works as smoothly as it sounds like it should.

The Calendar beta does come with some hefty requirements for all this, though. If you’re on an iPhone, you have to be using iOS 4, for example. It’s iOS 3.2 on the iPad, of course, and 10.6.4 on the Mac. PC and Outlook support are said to be coming soon. To get access, you must be a MobileMe subscriber. Login, and navigate to me.com/calendar, and then click on the “Request an invite” link in the lower left-hand corner of the screen…then cross your fingers.

There are comprehensive third party desktop syncing programs available such as Missing Sync, but realize that with a “Google-based” phone, over-the-air syncing is automatic and built in. When you purchase your Android-based phone, you’ll link it with your Google account (a free Google account is required to use the phone’s over-the-air syncing). Your phone will generally auto-sync with your Google account allowing you to possibly ditch your MobileMe subscription. The task then is to get your Mac to sync with the Google account.

1) Foreplay

While using a Droid isn’t as easy as using an iPhone, it’s not that much harder. Here’s a tip, do NOT allow your mobile phone company to import your contacts from your old phone. This has caused problems with synchronization for some. It’s best to start with a clean list of contacts in your Google account. If you haven’t synced your previous phone with your Mac, go ahead and do it before switching phones. If you can’t, you might consider typing the phone numbers into your Mac Address Book beforehand.

2) Safe Syncing

Syncing is only one step above the SCSI voodoo of previous generations. It’s always best to start with a core data set and push it to other devices. Trying to merge two data sets can result in duplication and corruption.

If your Google account already has contacts, export them from Google as a vCard file and import them into your Mac Address Book.
Once imported, delete the contacts from Google so the initial sync pushes all your Mac info into Gmail. As always, it’s a good idea to back up your data before any sync endeavor. From the Mac Address Book, go to the File menu, then choose Export, and then Address Book Archive.

For your calendar, the safe sync concept is similar but you actually want to start with a populated Google calendar and a clear iCal. From experience, if you push too much into Google at once, it can choke. If you already have a Google calendar, back it up by clicking “Settings” under the “My calendars” Then choose “Export Calendars”.

They’ll download as a zip file that you can double click and get the individual .ICS files. Similarly, backup your iCal by visiting the File Menu and choose “Backup iCal.”

Syncing can be buggy under the best of circumstances, which is why I recommend backups throughout the whole process.

Now that both your Google Calendar and your iCal calender are backed up, you’ll then want to export your existing iCal calendars and import then into your Google calendar. This isn’t the same as backing them up. Click on a calendar, and then go to the File menu and choose “Export This” which will create individual .iCal files for each calender you use. Note that Google doesn’t like To Dos so go ahead and remove those beforehand.

Now that you have your individual iCals exported, go to that same Settings tab in Google under “My Calendars” and now import your individual iCals into your existing calendars. Note: it won’t give you an option to create a new calendar from the import, so have your Google calendars ready beforehand. Finally, delete your iCal calendars (remember to back up first) so your iCal is clear of info and all your data is now on Google’s servers.

3) Getting Your Sync On

If you skipped step two, proceed at your own risk. You have been warned.

If you have Snow Leopard, Google contact syncing is built-in: go to the Address Book Preferences and check “Synchronize with Google”. Put in your Google name and password and let the syncing begin! For Leopard users, you’ll need to own an iPhone or iPod touch to enable syncing or use third party apps like Gsync.

To sync calendars, you’ll need to be running Leopard or Snow Leopard. Go to your iCal application and then go to Preferences and then Accounts. Click the + icon and put whatever you want for description. For username put your name@gmail.com and your password for Gmail. Then under the disclosure triangle for Server Options, put https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/(followed by your googlemail address) and then user. So for example, https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/myname@gmail.com/user would be what you enter. Your calendars will now start downloading from the cloud. Alternatively, you can use BusySync and avoid these hassles.

For photos, iTunes-like picture sync isn’t available, but you can mount your Droid like any other mass-storage device and have it recognized. You’ll need to enable USB mounting first. Go to the menu at the top of your phone and then click USB Connection to mount the SD card. To move music and other multimedia files easily I recommend DoubleTwist.

Having used a Droid for a while I’m pretty darn impressed and you gotta love the advertising. If Mac syncing is holding you back from buying one, you just removed one reason not to switch!

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Many, many months ago, it looked like an official solution for syncing BlackBerry devices with the Mac (including media and iTunes playlists) was right around the corner. Now, almost a year later, RIM is finally making it official. But don’t get too excited. You still have to wait until September before the new software will be available for download.

BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac, which should allow you to do pretty much everything you can do using the Desktop Software for Windows package currently available, will be available as a free download from BlackBerry.com. In addition to iTunes playlist syncing, you’ll also be able to manage your contacts, calendars and tasks, and install new software packages, if you’d rather not use App World to download them to your device directly.

In addition to a brief overview of the features of the new Desktop Software for Mac, Andrey at Inside Blackberry (the company’s official blog) also posted screenshots of the application in action. It looks a lot like their official Media Sync solution for Mac, but with a lot more options, as you’d expect from a program that does so much more. And it’s nice to see that RIM is paying attention to the desires of its users, as Apple-loving BlackBerry users have been clamoring for just such a program for years.

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting this release, and want to be first in line when it does eventually come out, you can sign up to be notified of its availability via BlackBerry’s web site. Users who want to get a taste of iTunes playlist syncing, without all of the other features, can download a Mac-compatible version of BlackBerry Media Sync that came out back in December of last year.

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Part of that tune-up includes making sure that you won’t have to worry about losing valuable data or not being able to check that important email you’ve just received, even if you’re in an area with a bad cellular data connection. Basically, you now get limited offline support in Gmail for iPhone thanks to Gears integration in the new system architecture.

You also get some very handy usability improvements, including a new way to perform batch commands, which should save you a lot of headaches. The big change in this area is the addition of a floating menu bar which scrolls with you as you move through your inbox. It means that you can check as many messages as you want, and then, using the menu, batch delete, archive, mark as read/unread or spam all without returning to the top of the page.

Search has been moved to the top for easier access, and individual message appearance has been overhauled, so that reading your emails on the iPhone more closely resembles the desktop Gmail experience. Overall, it’s actually a much better experience than Mail.app, but I still prefer a software to a web-based email solution. Calendar gets the same look and feel as Gmail, and the same underlying engine, but I don’t use Google Calendar much so you’ll have to see for yourself about overall usability improvements. Check out Gmail.com on any iPhone or iPod touch to see the changes.

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Email + Calendar

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

Although this doesn’t fall into the standard “app” category, having this collaboration toolset is fundamental to most users within medium to large enterprises. In the iPhone 2.0 release, Apple added Exchange ActiveSync support, giving every user access to both their corporate email and calendar.

Unfortunately, a limitation of this support is that you can only accept meeting invitations; you cannot send them. Compared to the native Exchange support on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Motorola’s Good Mobile Messaging, this is an oversight on Apple’s part.

For users in environments without Microsoft Exchange, other third-party Mac software vendors have stepped in to provide alternate ways to support ActiveSync. These include Communigate, Notify Technology and Google.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Having your customer data with you when you’re away from the office is pretty important. Thankfully, the major vendors in the CRM space have provided apps to connect to your corporate data.

Salesforce Mobile (free, but requires a Salesforce license)

Salesforce.com recently released the 3.0.1 version of their Salesforce Mobile application. If you have a Mobile User License, you can view/edit all of your Salesforce.com data.

Oracle CRM On-Demand (free, but requires an Oracle license)

The team at Oracle released five applications for connecting with their on-demand CRM product.

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Daylite Touch ($49.99/year per user)

The team at Marketcircle released this app last week. For more information about Daylite Touch, please read my First Look article.

Search2GO for Salesforce CRM ($9.99)

The Search2GO app enables Salesforce.com users to search for leads, contacts, accounts and so-called “opportunities” within their account. The cool feature of Search2G0 is that users can access their Salesforce.com data without the additional Salesforce.com mobile license. There’s also a Lite (free) version that provides read-only searching.

Expense Management

Another important tool for business travel is being able to maintain your expenses. Here are some great choices.

Expense2Go for Salesforce (free)

Expense2GO lets folks manage their business expenses and synchronize the data with the online expense management application in Salesforce.

XpensTracker (7.99)

In terms of popularity, Silverware Software’s XpenseTracker is at the top of the iTunes Business Apps list for expense management. It’s rich feature set, combined with its pleasant UI, provides a complete solution for the corporate traveler.

Others in the category: iXpenseIt ($4.99) and iXpenseIt Lite (free).

File Management & Manipulation

As a corporate user, having your files with you is critical. Plus, being able to have PDFs of your boarding passes and itineraries is just plain helpful when you don’t always have access to a printer.

MobileFiles Pro ($9.99)

The folks at QuickOffice built MobileFiles Pro for the true mobile professional. This application makes it very easy to add your files to the iPhone via a simple web browser interface. You can read many different file types (Microsoft Office, iWork 08, PDF) as well as create/edit Microsoft Excel 2003 files (.xls) right within the application. Further, if you use MobileMe, you can access your iDisk files as well.

Documents-To-Go (price unknown)

Dataviz is the file management king of the SmartPhone world. They are currently at work on their version for the iPhone. Dataviz expects their iPhone version to ship sometime in the second quarter of 2009.

Others in the category: ReaddleDocs, Air Sharing and DataCase.

Task Management

For corporate users, having your tasks with you on the road and being able to update/sync with them back at the office is crucial to “Getting Things Done.”

One item of note: If you use Microsoft Entourage, you’ll have to wait for the new update that supports Exchange Web Services to have Notes and Tasks synchronization capabilities.

iMExchange ($7.99)

iMExchange enables you to sync your Outlook Notes, Tasks and Categories to your iPhone. It works with both Exchange Server 2003 (SP1) and 2007.

Others in the category: Keynotes and Key Tasks

Itinerary Management

If you’re on the road, the best way to keep track of the flight and travel information on your iPhone is by using one of the following apps.

FlightTrack Pro ($9.99)

Using this app, as long as you have a TripIt account, you can synchronize your flight itinerary. FlightTrack Pro lets you see where planes are in-flight (only if you’re tracking other flights, as you can’t check your own flight status in-flight), and it has a fantastic UI.

TravelTracker ($9.99)

TravelTracker uses more of the TripIt API to sync not just your flight information, but your notes and itineraries, including hotel and car reservations. Although this is more expensive, it’s also a more comprehensive application.

Others in the category: FlightTrack and Flight Status

Virtual Meetings

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center (free)

Using the WebEx Meeting Center App, you can easily join an online/virtual meeting. The app sizes the information appropriately for the iPhone screen so you can view the meeting data accurately. The bonus to this application is that it’s free to join meetings. If you want to schedule meetings, you will need an iPhone-enabled WebEx account.

Conclusion

I’m sure that I haven’t included every potential corporate application available in the App Store. However, the purpose of this article is to expose you to which apps will best help you as a corporate user of the iPhone. Please comment below and provide additional suggestions/recommendations of apps you think are best for use within the Enterprise.

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The weekend seems to have rolled up super-fast, so welcome one and all to the Weekly App Store Picks.

Before we jump in to this week’s apps, let’s take a gander at recent happenings in the world of Apple.

First up, as a frequent tweeter, I was pleased to learn about desktop tweeting without a client app earlier this week. Check out the article for a helpful how-to guide.

Mid-week it all kicked off iPhone-style! Countering Apple’s recent anti-jailbreak actions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a 15-page exemption request to the U.S. Copyright Office. Hit up our post for the low down.

With timing that implied that their next-action was some kind of nonsensical retort, Apple clenched their fists, stomped their feet and promptly rejected the latest South Park game from the App Store.

Moving on to the apps, this week I’ve been looking at FrostyPlace, geoDefense, GooSync, Bowman, technoBox and Shooter.

FrostyPlace (free)
By installing this app, Apple’s ultra-cool Japanese emoticon set — Emoji — are activated on your iPhone. Simply download the app, open it once, close it and then go to Settings, General, International, Keyboards, Japanese and switch Emoji on. Now try sending an SMS, click the globe icon, you’ll have access to a cavalcade of Emoji. Absolutely awesome, essential, legal and free!

geoDefense (99 cents)
There is an overwhelming array of tower defense games available at the App Store. Some are downright awful and a minority are good fun. This app, geoDefense, is a clever twist on a confusingly saturated genre. The game plays out like a puzzle: as the vectorised baddies follow a set path through each stage, you have to work out the optimal tower configuration to defeat each enemy wave. It’s cheaper than many of the other apps, wonderfully stylised and a serious challenge too.

GooSync+  ($14.99)
GooSync+ syncs your Google Calendars, contacts and ToDo lists and is a seriously pricey app, especially for what it is, given the other options available. The problem is that Google’s iPhone and touch web-app support is pretty good — Gmail works perfectly (and is apparently going to feature offline mail in a future update), tasks is now available for iPhone too and users wishing to sync their actual iPhone Calendar with their Google Calendar can do so for free already.

Bowman (99 cents)
My current online game of the moment is Globulos — my user-name is Olly for any readers looking to challenge me — unfortunately, it’s not on iPhone as yet. However Bowman, an online time-waster that I have consistently returned to over the years, has just hit iPhone and touch. Seriously low on graphical flair (you’re a stick man with a bow and arrow), where it really shines is the gameplay — drag the arrows back before launching them at unwitting silhouetted ducks. So simple and so very satisfying as your arrows thunks in to a bird which then plummets to the ground in a shower of blood.

technoBox ($9.99)
I adore electronic music and, as such, there’s a special place in my heart for Roland’s TR-808 and 909 drum machines. If you’re not too familiar with what I’m talking about, go watch this video of the TR-808 in action, bask in its glorious rhythmic awesomeness. Developed by AudioRealism, creators of various pro-level audio plugins, technoBox recreates the 808, 909 and also 303 bass machine. The even has a sequencer and a raft of variables for creating awesome blippy techno tracks whilst on the go.

Shooter (99 cents)
Finally! It’s the official Shooter game, a perfect companion to the movie. You know the movie, right? The one that came out two years ago, featuring nobody we’ve actually heard of except that moderately-talented actor from the Funky Bunch? Yeah, that’s the one. Frankly, I have no clue why this game is tied in with the movie, its not like there’s a marketing bandwagon it could jump on to. It doesn’t even seem to feature Marky Mark’s likeness. The game itself is quite good fun though — it’s like sniper mode from Counter Strike — and, for the price, it’s definitely worth downloading.

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next Saturday, in the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what you’ve been downloading (and enable those Emojis!).

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This might just be incredibly coincidental timing, but Apple is announcing that they’ve finally brought the Windows side of their MobileMe personal data syncing service up to snuff, only shortly after it’s come to light that Microsoft in working on their own similar service, currently dubbed “My Phone.” Either way, Windows users who are also MobileMe subscribers (like myself, via BootCamp and netbook) should be well pleased with the new feature additions.

The improvements were made to MobileMe’s syncing service for Outlook, which until now was pretty dismal, and not very Push-y at all. In fact, I never actually considered Windows syncing to be a big part of my MobileMe purchase, and rarely used it when running Windows, preferring to just check my email, calendar, etc. via the web interface or on my iPhone.

Apple now promises that changes you make to your Outlook calendar and/or contacts list will automatically update the information stored on MobileMe, and vice versa. To get the new auto-syncing features working, all you have to do is make sure you are running iTunes 8.0.2 and have downloaded and installed the latest update for MobileMe Control Panel, version 1.3. Once that’s done, you just have to set the “Sync With MobileMe” option to “Automatically.”

It’s something the service should have launched with, honestly, if they really wanted to appeal to the Windows market. Personally, I suspect that most, if not all, Windows users of MobileMe are also OS X users. I find it highly unlikely that Window-only people would buy an Apple-branded personal data syncing solution. If you’re out there, speak up and prove me wrong!

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