Address Book Server (www.addressbookserver.com) allows you to sync your contacts between macs using your own server, rather then having to transfer them over the internet. An iPhone client is in development allowing you to access the contacts on your server while out of the office. The server has a friendly web-interface which can be used to access contact details form other clients.

PS: I am the developer of this project, so naturally biased.

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"A whopping $65"? Seems quite reasonable to me given that gives you a lifetime licence, which entitles you to unlimited upgrades. It's also robust, easy to use and syncs your contacts too.

If you look closely, they also have a reward system in place that could potentially drop the price to $0.

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Oops, also meant to say - I do this (mac only) and it does work a treat.

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Thought you'd like to know that Google calendar now has caldav support. so in ical you enter your account details and they'd sync - totally free!

more info here http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358


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That's also what I do for syncing iCal and Gcal, but I'm not sure if a such a CalDav calendar can be used for MobileMe syncing...



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Sylvain

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>I'm not sure if a such a CalDav calendar can be used for MobileMe syncing

No, it cannot. External CalDAV calendars and other subscribed calendars cannot currently be made to automatically up-sync to MobileMe.

Unless a script is written to copy the subscribed/CalDAV calendar into a regular iCal calendar and have the script executed at regular time intervals.

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Does anyone have such a script?

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I've also used Plaxo to sync Contacts and Calendars to Address Book and iCal, from both Macs and PCs! Works well! And it's free!

Plaxo.com

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Um, doesn't MobileMe sync directly with Outlook? That's what Apple's website seems to say, though I haven't tried it:
"Create an event in iCal or Outlook — the change syncs with MobileMe within 15 minutes* and updates your iPhone and iPod touch."
http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/calendar.html

That would take GCal and Spanning Sync (and some money) out of your sync routine.

Let me know if it works, as I might fire up my virtual Windows machine and install Outlook so I don't have to use Groupcal in Tiger anymore for syncing with Exchange (Groupcal for Leopard doesn't exist).

--David



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Yes, it does but the problem is that the iPhone sets up Outlook as a separate calendar account (sort of like Mail has separate email accounts). So this prevents the iPhone from syncing the Outlook calendar with the desktop's iCal via MobileMe.

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FYI, the Google CalDAV <-> iCal <-> iPhone solution is not quite working yet.

You can't make changes to a CalDAV calendar on the iPhone, however you can make changes in iCal, which are synced immediately. The first time you create a new event on the iPhone, it creates a new calendar in iCal (assuming you only have your "master" calendar(s) synced with Google).

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Before MobileMe debuted, we had to set up a Mac-using executive and his two Windows Outlook-using assistants with calendar sharing. The exeucutive already sync'd his iPhone calendar to his Macbook Pro. So we set up a Google calendar. We installed Spanning Sync on his Mac (and in addition to the other comments about what you get for the price, you can use one Spanning Sync license to sync multiple Macs to the same Google calendar). We installed a Windows app called SyncMyCal on the PCs. Now all three can update their personal calendars, sync certain calendar or all data to Google, and use Google as a bridge between them. The upside is, Google can also be reached from other Macs or PCs that are not part of this setup.

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This is a topic of great interest to me. I've evaluated a similar setup.

I've run into two issues:

1. It's a termination offense to sync my corporate outlook calendar with an external server. Alas, this kind of rule is the norm in large corporations. We are permitted to sync with a local Palm or MobileMe device. I could sync my iPhone to work if I trusted Apple's Exchange/Outlook sync software (I don't trust it), but then of course I wouldn't be able to sync to my home iTunes library. This is a big iPhone limitation for me; my Palm had the same problem.

2. In my testing of Google's calendar sync it's always failed miserably. In the last test I found it failed to sync recurring appointments. I just don't trust Google to get this working, it's clear their heart isn't in this kind of work. I won't be doing further testing since I no longer use Outlook at home (switched to iCal, etc).

I'm not optimistic that we'll see a fix to this problem from Apple. There just aren't enough people who are demanding a solution, and corporations obviously aren't incented to help non-C suite employees deal with work/home calendar hassles.

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John Faughnan
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
www.faughnan.com

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iTunes lets you decide which tab you want to sync with which computer, it's not all or nothing. i sync (wirelessly) using ActiveSync (mostly works fine, some co-workers are having trouble with attachments in email), MobileMe (works fine, no issues), and a few other email-only accounts. i sync my media with my Mac at home. i like to check the "manually manage music and videos" box on the summary tab in iTunes, but that's a personal preference.

i really like having my work and home contacts and calendars both on the device, but separate. with other devices, i had to put all of my personal contacts in my work address book.

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So far the best solution I've found is gcaldaemon. It's free and does everything locally. You don't have to worry about a third party and if they'll be around in five years.
Of course.. it's got a couple of issues with leopard still and you have to have some technical expertise above that of a small woodland creature (your grandmother isn't likely to be able to install/configure it).
BUT.. it's proof that it can be done the right way without robbing people for something that should be free. I mean.. it's calendar syncing. It's not rocket magic.

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I just spent four hours last night doing almost the exact same thing. However, I used <a href="http://www.busymac.com/">Busy Sync</a> to sync to Google</a>. It is only $25.

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$25 a year and it requires you send them all your data and then THEY sync it for you. No thanks.

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Busysync never sees your data. Spanning sync however does.

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joab is right. BusySync has been a nice solution for just this type of issue as well as allowing others to share & edit iCal events who are not on the same LAN.

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You've got these products mixed up.

BusySync is $25, one time. Your data goes directly to Gcal via Google's APIs.

Spanning Sync is $65 one time, or $25 annually. Your data goes to Spanning's servers and thereupon to Google. From their FAQ:

Why does Spanning Sync involve a server?
This architecture allows Spanning Sync to be much more secure than client-only sync solutions, and makes it possible for us to adapt to changes in the Google Calendar API without requiring our customers to install new software.

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My problem with this hint stems from using Entourage, which isn't compatible with MobileMe, on my work Mac in a PC environment. So to get my work calendar updates onto my iPhone, I have to set up an Exchange calendar on the phone. This syncs well enough and any events on the work Mac will show up on the iPhone.

However, the iPhone sets up the Exchange calendar as a separate account from the MobileMe/iCal calendars. So no sync is done, thus my home Mac does not show my Entourage/Exchange work calendar.

That leads to my biggest problem with this hint. In order for the Outlook <> Google <> iCal sync to happen, I have to be using Outlook on a PC. For us Entourage users in a PC environment, there still seems to be no direct or indirect solution (yes, I've tried to CalDAV but that doesn't sync with the iPhone via MobileMe).

:-(

/

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Use Plaxo - syncs all you mention for free and without any delay but instantly.

www.plaxo.com

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Don´t drink and root!

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Well it may well work now....but whenever we have tried using Plaxo we have ended up with all sort of duplicate problems.

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for Part 2 you can just setup iCal to use Google Calendar caldev. That's what I do and keeps my iPhone, 2 Macs, and Google calendars all in sync. I also sync my contacts between all those by using an intermediate server and the open source unison app on my Address Book directory.

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but only with leopard. if your still running tiger, then you are stuck.

For the price of leopard I just might upgade, but it just barely supports my low end powerbook that I use as a music station.

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I thought once I was found but it was only a dream

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busysync 2.x can sync ical and google calendar + calendars in the same network too

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And what about the new iPhone App «SaiSuke» which directly accesses many Google Calendars and let's edit them? Not a very fast solution (for 10 calendars for example) … but working at the moment.

But once Calendar on iPhone supports real CalDAV subrscriptions, then life will be much easier ;-)

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I've been a long time plaxo user and it's worked very smoothly, across MAC/PC OSes. Now they are charging for the service started August 1st, 2009. Has anyone tried www.soocial.com? I'm testing it right now, but having mixed results.

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I was trying it out recently. The only catch for me was the fact that I was using MobileMe along with it. I was syncing two machines via MobileMe and then using Soocial to sync one of the Macs with Google and with Outlook 2003 on a work PC. Seems like I constantly had sync conflicts popping up on my Mac because of mapping differences between Soocial and MobileMe. I decided to turn off Soocial and just hacked the iPod plist file to turn on Google sync in the Address Book. I'm trying that for now. On the Outlook side of things I'm going to try syncing contacts using gSyncIt (which I'm already pleasantly using to sync my Google Calendars) or via GoogleSync on my BlackBerry.

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I'm in the same situation, still looking for efficient substitute for Plaxo.com. So please feel free to give you feedback here ;) I'll do the same if I find an acceptable solution.


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