I've been doing a lot of technology blogs lately, but I keep running across really great applications that I think are really worth a look. The biggest issue that I've had is trying to find an app that will sync everything with gmail. I use Outlook 2007 as my email client, but without an exchange server it gets to be a pain keeping calendars, contacts and emails. I send a lot of emails with my phone and with Outlook and in the past it was a pain to remember which machine I used to send an email, especially if I didn't CC myself when I had the Blackberry.
I've used Gmail pretty much the day Google announced it and have really liked it for the storage that they offer for free and the fact that it keeps getting better and better. I have multiple address from all the domains and just forward them all to Gmail. When they added the IMAP feature I had to fight off tears, no more CC-ing myself...or forgetting to. Every email client is now running IMAP so if I send emails they show up on every email client/device that I use.
Google has also added a calendar sync feature, but I've heard mixed reviews. I've been using SyncMyCal for Outlook for almost two years now and see no reason to switch, so I have no experience with Google's sync.
Contacts have always been a pain, do I use Gmail contacts or Outlook contacts? I've used Outlook's contacts since it sync's with most phones, but once-in-awhile I'm on another PC and always kick myself for not keeping Gmail's contacts up-to-date…..it's a vicious circle. There are programs out there like SyncMyCal that also sync contacts, but there are always mixed reviews and let's face it, free makes a big difference in these times. The iPhone has a service out there called MobileMe that sync's Outlook and the phone, but it was a disaster when I tried it and I personally thought that $99/year was a bit steep.
I got a call from a friend a couple of weeks ago about a free service that is still in beta, but I've had no problems with it yet and my friend has been using it for quite a while without any issues. It is very simple to set-up for Gmail and works with contacts, mail and calendar for both iPhone's and Windows Mobile Phones. You can also use sync with your Plaxo contacts rather than Gmail if you would like, it's nice that you have a choice to use either one when you set-up each sync. The only thing that it doesn't do is sync with your Outlook, once you set-up your iPhone with the service iTunes will no longer give you the option to sync the phone with Outlook; not a bad thing though for me, I've updated my contacts in Gmail and now just export them to Outlook in a few minutes. What I like is that if I add a contact on my phone it immediately gets added to Gmail contacts, or if you add/change something on a contact it sync's to Gmail and vice-versa. The calendar is nice as well, my wife and I each have a calendar in Google and we can view/add events to each other's calendar easily. This new service let's you add up to eight calendars each with different colors which makes it great if you have a team to be able to see each other's schedules. If you haven't tried this feature in GCalendar, it's pretty easy to set-up and it's free as well. I haven't tried the mail sync though, I'm using IMAP on the iPhone and don't need this feature through this service.
As I stated above, the service is free but it's in beta and I really don't know if they will be charging for it down the road….but, for now it's free and it works like a charm. You can set this service up by going to www.nuevasync.com and signing up. They have very easy instructions on how to set-up both the service and the phone, if this is a tool that you have been looking for I'd recommend giving this one a try.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you back-up your phone and any important data before you set this up as it will wipe out your contacts and calendar on your phone.
Comments(6)