My only gripe was the buggy MobileMe web site. Problems were numerous, such as the page randomly refreshing in the middle of adding a calendar event. Obviously this wasn’t disastrous on its own, but annoying tics add up, and eventually push people to look for alternatives.

Recently, I discovered an offering from Google that challenged the PIM synchronization features of MobileMe and competitors like Microsoft Exchange (what you unfortunately probably use at the office). This new service, Google Sync, offers the same seamless integration between your computer and mobile phone. It’s fast, free, and, most importantly, it works.

Setting it up, as you will soon find out, can be tricky, and takes time, patience, and an understanding of two-way syncing. Unless, that is, you’re starting from a blank slate with no contacts or calendars. However, I assume you already have a digital life, so I will attempt to coach you through transferring your information to Google first. I’m not going to retype all of Google’s own instructions. Instead, I’ll outline shortcuts around the sticky issues I encountered while setting up Sync. Google doesn’t organize its instruction processes well, so hopefully this will save you some time and a few headaches.

Requirements:

• Google account
• Contacts organized in Address Book
• Calendars organized in iCal
• You do not use an Exchange account on your iPhone

Exporting your Address Book Contacts to Google

1. I used a Google-recommended application called A to G to export my contacts as a large CSV file, and then import them into Google Contacts. You can get A to G here.
2. After you created the CSV file on your desktop, go to your Google Contacts page:
   https://google.com/contacts
   Note: For Google Apps users go here:
   https://mail.google.com/a/[domain name]/#contacts
3. Click on “Import”, choose the CSV file on your hard drive, and boom, your contacts are now in Google.

Exporting your iCal calendars to Google

1. Unfortunately, you have to export your iCal calendars one at a time. You can do this by clicking once on a calendar in the CALENDARS area, and selecting File -> Export.



2. Then, go to Google Calendar:
   https://www.google.com/calendar/
   Note: For Google Apps users go here:
   https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/[domain name]/
3. Settings -> Calendars -> Import Calendar
   
4. Click “Choose File” to select the exported calendar on your hard drive. Choose which Google Calendar you want to import the information into. I recommend manually creating calendars in Google Calendar with the same names as your iCal calendars. Then, import the iCal files into their corresponding Google calendars. Repeat for each file you exported from iCal. Your calendars are now on Google.

Let’s recap. Your current contacts and calendars are now on Google. However, that information will never change unless you set up synchronization on your iPhone and Mac(s).

Configuring Google Sync

Warning: This is where you begin changing settings. If you’re a MobileMe user, all of your data is safe with Apple and everything you do here is completely reversible.

It’s easy to temporarily disable MobileMe while you set up Google Sync. Go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars, select your MobileMe account from the Accounts list. Switch Contacts and Calendars to their OFF positions. If, in the end, you don’t want to use Google Sync, you can remove the Google Sync account you are about to set up, and switch your MobileMe Contacts and Calendars to their ON positions.

If you sync your Address Book and iCal information via iTunes, you should deselect those options in iTunes and resync your iPhone. The goal here is to clear out your contacts and calendar information on your phone. Again, if you decide to not use Google Sync, you can remove your Google information, select the contacts and calendars checkboxes in iTunes, and sync your iPhone with your computer once more to restore your data.

Now you’re ready to get your iPhone syncing data from Google. Follow these instructions about setting up your iPhone to get that working.

Important Google Apps note #1:
Apps users have to enable Google Sync in your dashboard, which can be done following these instructions.

Important note #2:
If you use more than one calendar, you have to configure that on the iPhone, otherwise only one will appear in the phone’s calendar app. After you’re done with the “Setting up your iPhone” section, go to m.google.com on your iPhone and select Sync. If you’re a Google Apps user, scroll to the bottom to select the “Google Apps User?” link. After logging in you can select which calendars you want to sync to the iPhone (maximum is five currently).

Now, any changes you make in Google Contacts or Google Calendar will be reflected on your iPhone. Also, any changes you make to your iPhone’s contacts or calendar information will be reflected on Google’s corresponding sites. Do you use IMAP for your Gmail account? Then consider yourself 100 percent synced.

If you’re satisfied with using Google’s sites and your iPhone to manage your information, then you’re done. However, if you want your current information to appear in iCal and Address Book, then you have a few more steps:

1. Importing your Google Contacts into Address Book
   This requires setting up built-in Address Book preferences.
2. Importing your Google Calendars into iCal
   This uses software called Collaboration.

Conclusion

Congratulations on making it this far. Hopefully, you’ve successfully set up Google Contacts and Google Calendar with your existing information, and both your iPhone and Mac(s) are now synchronized with Google. You can now make changes to or add contacts and events from any computer or your iPhone, and all without spending a dime. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions!

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What You Need

1. Fluid – This allows you to create applications from web sites. In our case we will be creating a Google Calendar application, and a Google Tasks application.

2. Calendar icon

3. Tasks icon

4. 10 minutes

The Steps

1. Download Fluid.

2. Open Fluid.app.

3. The first app we’ll create is for Google Calendar.  Let’s use “Calendar” for the name.

4. The URL for Google Calendar is google.com/calendar/m.

Note: For Google Apps users it’s google.com/calendar/hosted/[your domain name]/m.

5. The dock or menu bar icon for this application can either be Google Calendar’s favicon, the tiny icon that appears in the address bar of your browser when you visit the site, or something a little fancier, like what I suggested above.  To use the fancy icon select “Other” from the Icon menu, and locate the newly downloaded icon on your hard drive.

6. Click Create.

7. After a few seconds you’ll have the option to Launch. Go ahead. Don’t be afraid.

8. The window that appears is a web browser that will automatically open to Google Calendar.  Log in (if necessary).

9. Go to the Calendar menu and hover over User Agent.  Select “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 – iPhone”.

10. Go to the File menu and select Close Window.

11. Go to the File menu and select New Window.

12. Go to the Calendar menu and select “Convert to MenuExtra SSB…”  Click OK in the warning window and you’ll have a new item in the menu bar: a tiny calendar icon.  Click on it to see the mobile version of your Google Calendar.  You can drag the lower-left corner to resize the window.

Repeat for Google Tasks

For Google Tasks, follow the same steps (you obviously don’t have to download Fluid again).  The URL you will use is gmail.com/tasks.

Note: For Google Apps users it’s mail.google.com/tasks/a/[your domain name].

Tasks will not properly load until you perform step 9 and set the User Agent to “Other”.  Enter the following text into the window:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20

You’re done! Now you can quickly and easily view upcoming appointments and manage your tasks list.

If you have any questions leave a comment.  Good luck getting organized!

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I live and die by my Google calendar and have always hated the fact that I could not wirelessly sync it with my iPhone. I’ve tried every method in the book, and finally have found two methods to wirelessly sync your Google calendar to your iPhone.

NuevaSync

The first method is free and uses a service called NuevaSync. NuevaSync allows over the air synchronization to the built in iPhone calendar. It seems like a great service, but I could never get it to work because it requires the iPhone Exchange account to work (you are only allowed to have one Exchange account per phone and mine is used for work email). My roomate has successfully set it up on his phone and he reports that it works well. NuevaSync does not require the user to install any third party software, but does require the user to create an account on the NuevaSync website (security risks?). Instructions for configuring NuevaSync can be found here.

SaiSuke

The second method, SaiSuke, can be purchased from the iTunes App store for $10 and installs a separate calendaring application on the iPhone. After downloading and installing, it literally took me five minutes to set up (set up your Gmail username and password inside the iPhone menu Settings > SaiSuke). The program allows you to toggle which Google calendars are visible, and whether you want to sync 1 way Google-to-iPhone only, 1 way iPhone-to-Google only, or 2 ways. The color coding of the calendars stays intact, making reading a whole lot easier. There are a myriad of views including: list, day, week, month, and year, but I tend to stay in the default month view with the summary of the day below.

If you can get away with using NuevaSync, and do not mind giving your Gmail username and password to a new kid on the block, then try out NuevaSync. If you want a more robust, secure method, I highly recommend SaiSuke.

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The iPhone is indeed a wonderful little device and, for some of us, a game-changer in terms of managing our digital lives from the palm of our hands. There are, however, some essential features that Apple neglected to implement.

Regular GMail and Google Calendar users will have noticed the glaring lack of a Calendar synchronization option, making the native iPhone calendar app somewhat less useful.

All is not lost though! Enter NuevaSync, a web-service that enables two-way synchronization between your Google Calendar and the iPhone Calendar app. NuevaSync is secure, easy to use and painless to set-up…and most notably, it’s totally free.

So, it’s time to grab your gear and follow this ten minute guide to setting up NuevaSync. You’ll need your computer, a Google Account and your iPhone, with the latest firmware update. And by the way, iPod touch users can also get in on the syncing fun.

TAB Disclaimer: Before we begin, it’s worth noting that NuevaSync is still in beta, so if it all goes a little Steve-Jobs-circa-1985 (i.e. everything goes wrong and stops working), it’s not our fault. Nevertheless, the service has worked smoothly for us since sign-up and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

1. To start, you’ll need to create a fresh account on NuevaSync. Before you make the account, plug your touch or iPhone in, boot up iTunes and run a quick sync to make sure you’re all backed up (it’s good practice and will make you feel all warm inside). While the device is backing up, go create your NuevaSync account on this page.
2. Now that you’ve got a new account, visit the configuration page. You’ll notice that there are four options on this page — Calendar, Contacts, E-mail, Tasks. We’re just syncing our Google Calendar today, so ignore the others. It’s also worth noting that the clever folks at NuevaSync still haven’t implemented Mail sync for the iPhone/touch, this feature is in development though.
3. Click change to the right of Calendar and, on the resulting page, click the Google button then click the Change button. By doing this, we’re basically telling NuevaSync that we’d like to sync our Google Calendar with their service. NuevaSync will tell you that your changes have been saved. Clicking through to the next page will take you through the service setup options. When prompted for your Google Account ID, enter your GMail address and then click Request Account Access. If you’re not logged in to your Google Account, you’ll be sent to the standard Google log-in screen before continuing.
4. Once you’re logged in, you’ll be presented with the standard Google Access Request page. If you’re super-security conscious, read the blurb, once you’re all done, click Grant Access. This tells Google that you’re happy for them to send your Calendar info to NuevaSync (and vice-versa). Back on the Status and Setup page, you’ll see that there’s a big red light next to Calendar – this is a good thing, you’re halfway home and it’s time to grab your iPhone.
5. We’re now going to add NuevaSync as an account on your iPhone. NuevaSync works using the Exchange options on your iPhone. Open up Settings on your iPhone, then go through to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars page. Select Add Account and then tap Microsoft Exchange.
6. For your e-mail address, enter the same one you used for your NuevaSync registration. NuevaSync has mentioned that your device might warn about a certificate being invalid. This isn’t NuevaSync’s certificate, so it’s no reason to be concerned. It’s actually Apple’s auto-config feature trying to guess the appropriate server name based on your info. For your Username and Password, enter your NuevaSync account details. Finally, enter a Description. For instance I use, “Olly’s Calendar”. Now tap Next.
7. You should see a quick message stating Verifying Exchange account information. Incidentally, we got an error message doing this the first time and the service still worked. If that happens and it all goes a little pear-shaped, don’t worry, there are some trouble-shooting tips at the end of this guide.
8. When the Exchange account verification process has finished, a new field will pop-up called Server. Enter www.nuevasync.com and then tap Next. On the resulting page, turn off Mail and Contacts – we only want to sync the calendar today. Then just tap Save and we’re almost done.
9. The final step is to turn off Time Zone Support. So back on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings page, scroll to the bottom and then tap Time Zone Support. Then switch Time Zone Support to Off and exit.
10. We’re all done! You’ll want to test and make sure that everything works — make sure your WiFi or 3G connection is enabled and then open the Calendar App on your iPhone or touch. It should auto-update and, if you’ve got stuff in your Google Calendar, you should see it here.  Try adding something to your Calendar and then go check if it appears on your computer’s Google Calendar (and vice-versa too, so add something to your Google Calendar and then go open the Calendar app to see if it appears there).

If everything is working, it’s time to celebrate. Organise a party to celebrate how wonderful NuevaSync is, add said party to your Google Calendar schedule and then watch it magically synchronise with your iPhone.

Troubleshooting Tips

Maybe there was a problem in the setup process or maybe everything ran smoothly but it’s just not working. Whatever the issue, here are a few tips to ensure you get yourself synchronised:

1. Make sure you’re only syncing Calendar. Remember that Mail doesn’t work. You can try Contacts, but we haven’t given that a go yet (and this guide only covers Google Calendar synchronization).
2. NuevaSync have a well-written Troubleshooting page. Visit it here and see if that solves your problem.
3. If all else fails, drop NuevaSync an e-mail. They’re a helpful bunch, very friendly and surprisingly prompt: support@nuevasync.com

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Unfortunately, as with most web applications, when you’re disconnected from the internet (whether traveling or just having trouble finding a connection), it becomes unusable for obvious reasons.

Enter PackRat.

PackRat is a desktop client for Backpack that lets you use your Backpack data, as well as create new data, without ever visiting your Backpack page. You then can do a simple sync to keep everything together on both the website and the application.

You can do just about everything in PackRat as you can on your Backpack page. I actually prefer the desktop client to the web client. Everything just seems more straight forward and it’s one less tab I have to keep open in Safari.

The interface seems a bit rough around the edges, but that hasn’t had any noticeable effect on performance. A lot of things that tend to make the Backpack pages feel cluttered have been removed in PackRat so you really are shown just the tools needed to do the job.

PackRat is a great tool and certainly worth checking out if you’re a Backpack user. You can try it out (with a 5 page limit) right now. It costs around $25 for the full version. The price is arguably a tad steep for a program that just piggybacks off a real app…but I definitely think the program is still worth checking out to get a feel for if it’s right for you.

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