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| Making Google Your Online Digital Assistant |
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Like many of you, I am a big fan of Google Apps, especially Gmail and Google Calendar. Having an online calendar that I can access from anywhere has been a big boon to my productivity. But I also have use an iPhone, and that creates a problem that you may also have experienced: I have to worry about keeping the data in sync between Google, my laptop and my iPhone! Having to worry if my data is out of date is a hassle that I don’t need, so I have found a way to keep everything in sync; hopefully, you find it useful as well.
The solution lies in making Google your invisible digital assistant, always keeping you up to date. This can be done with tools that you can use to sync your Google data with your computer and smartphone. Much of the information you need to learn how to do this can be obtained from Google’s sync page, but there are also third-party tools out that that may serve your needs even better.
Let’s start by getting your Google data to sync with your computer. If you are running Windows, you can sync your Google Calendar data with your Outlook calendar via Google’s Calendar Sync. Currently, Google does not provide the ability to sync your Outlook contacts with your Google Contacts, but there are several third-party services and software out there that will sync both your calendars as well as your contacts. If that’s what you need, you might want to look at KiGoo or OggSync. If you are a Mac user, several options will let you sync your Google data with your Mac. If you have OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later, you can use CalDAV to connect Google calendar to iCal without any additional software. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can connect Google Contacts to your address book, again without installing any additional software. Granted, there are some limitations to CalDAV support, and if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch, the contact sync is not an option. You might want to take a look at Spanning Sync, which will sync both your Google calendar and contacts with your Mac. While it is not free and requires a software install, it is a more robust solution then the free options described above.
Now that your computer is set up to sync with Google, let’s do the same for your smartphone. One of the simplest ways to do this is to have your phone sync with the calendar and contact software on your computer. Unfortunately, this option has some limitations: if you cannot get to your computer to sync, then your smartphone’s data will be out of date, which is not a good position to be in. Direct syncing over your smartphones data service is a better bet, as it will make sure that your smartphone always has the latest data. If you have an Android phone, it is designed to sync with Google; all you have to do is enter your Google account information and your done.
For Blackberry users, Google has software that will let you sync your calendar and contacts. Google also supports the Microsoft© Exchange ActiveSync© protocol, which allows iPhone and iPod Touch devices, as well as Windows Mobile devices, to sync with Google’s Calendar and Contacts. However, Google’s implementation of the protocol comes with some limitations: you can’t have more than 5 calendars, and only your default calendar can be updated from your smartphone while all the other calendars are read only. If these limitations present a problem, you might want to take a look at NuevaSync, which also uses Microsoft© Exchange ActiveSync© to sync Google data with iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices. NuevaSync allows you full two-way syncing for up to 11 calendars. Another advantage of NuevaSync is that it’s service will allow you to sync your smartphones contacts against your Plaxo contacts if you are a user of Plaxo.
So, go ahead and set up Google to be your Online Digital Assistant. Once you have, you will soon realize how powerful and hassle-free it can be to have technology invisibly keeping you informed and up to date.
Andrew Tillman
atillman@realtors.org |
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