Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (Part2)
In Part One, we covered pushing your Google Contacts and Calendar to your iPod or iPhone and back. In part two, I’m going to show you how you can add your Mac into the mix, so if you update on your iPhone, it gets updated on your Mac too.
With Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.4 at least), it has support for Google Contacts built into Address Book.
Open up Address Book, and choose ‘Address Book’ > ‘Preferences’ from the menu bar.
Tick the ‘Synchronize with Google’ checkbox, click on the Google button and fill in your Google Account.
That’s your contacts taken care of. Synching iCal takes a bit more work.
The easiest way that I found was to use BusySync, and have it sync with Google every minute.
I couldnt find a free alternative that was as easy, so if you know one, do leave a comment! :-)
So, maybe all of this is not *really* ‘Push’, but neither is MobileMe.
Things you can use it for;
Now your Mac will sync it’s address book with Google Contacts. NuveaSync will then push the changes to your iPhone.
Add an event on your iPhone, which will then push it through NuveaSync to Google Calendar. Your Mac will then pick this up next time you sync it (using BusySync for example).
And lots of other things too.
Hope that at least some of you got something out of this ;-)
July 18th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
[...] was trying out your part two but my 10.5.4 with MobileMe update does not have sync with google option! O_O My Address Book is [...]
July 19th, 2008 at 4:12 am
removing my mobileme account from my iPhone or signing out from the MBP system preferences does not update iTunes… It still says that my contacts will be synced from MM… now I just lost everything…
And how come i do not choose to sync the address book with an Exchange server instead??
July 19th, 2008 at 4:20 am
@GuillaumeB – I unfortunately do not have a MobileMe account so I cannot help you with any problems to to with MM.
In regards to having Address Book sync with the Exchange server directly, instead of going to Google, is that it can’t be done at the present time.
NuevaSync does not have true Exchange support, as it does not support email. If you try to set it up with Address Book, it will ask for the address of the Outlook Web Server, which, well… there isnt one.
Stay tuned though – I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before NuevaSync add email support into the mix :-)
July 19th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Thanks for the heads up on NuevaSync – looks to be a really promising service! BTW… I’ve got a review of the rather disappointing MobileMe on my site: http://byjoeybaker.com/blog/?p=332
July 19th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I currently use mail2web as my free exchange server to sync my iPod Touch with my Windows Mobile device. It’s a bit late for me to think this through, so maybe some of you can complete the thought process whilst I sleep. Perhaps mail2web can be worked in to your setup to fill in the missing pieces? I’d love it if my iPod touch, my Windows Mobile phone, my iCal, and Address Book app could all sync with Google!!!
July 19th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@johnny envelope, I’m in the same situation unfortunately i don’t think it will owkr out since the iPhon/iPod Touch only allows for one Exchange account on your device :(
July 20th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Push gratuit sur iPhone : Comment utiliser Google comme alternative gratuite a MobileMe…
Si vous n’avez pas envie de vous abonner à MobileMe en raison de son prix élevé, voici un petit tutorial, trouvé chez Beau Giles, qui vous pemettra d’avoir sur votre iphone ou iPod Touch vos mails, contacts et calendriers en…
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I’ve followed all your instructions. It doesn’t work this way!
Contacts can sync from Address Book to Google only while iTunes syncs with with iPhone on which Exchange contacts sync is not enabled, which means, iPhone which will never sync to NuevaSync. So to make it work you have to manually swich Contacts sync on iPhone on and off.
I’ve tested it in all possible ways with both test account with 4 contacts and my real account that has 1300+ contacts.
Other issue I’m working now is photos sync, later on it.
Looking forward to your and other people replies and experience.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
@Granin:
Unfortunately, you cant have your device sync with an Over-The-Air service *and* your Mac. If you still want push contacts – enable Exchange ActiveSync, and then enable the Google synching in Address Book. This is the only way unfortunately :(
August 12th, 2008 at 2:20 am
I think Google is supporting CalDAV now. This at least allows iCal to “subscribe” to the Google calendar and I believe edits made at either location will update the other.
Go to Google’s site to find out more:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358
August 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
wow amazing, unfortunatly i don’t have leopard, so i cannot sync with google my contacts, is there any way y can do this without having to buy leopard, perhaps an address book plugin? thank you
October 8th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Hi,
I’m having trouble syncing my mac address book with google apps. I’ve entered all details as above, but it just doesn’t seem to sync (ie, lots of contacts on google apps, none in address book). Do I have to activate access to the contacts or something? Cheers for any help.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I wrote a post on my blog that details my way of adding the mac to the syncing cycle….
It also includes a tutorial for the whole iphone-gmail-mac setup, taken from here, so you can also use it.
http://allyourinternets.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/a-free-mobileme-alternative/
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 am
Google now supports CalDav syncing => iCal support.
No more need for BusySync!
Google provides a simple “setup” application.
NuevaSync still works better for the iPhone side, except it does not distinguish between multiple calendars and doesn’t let you hide calendars. (In other words, it will show your girlfriend’s events as your own if you have write access to her calendar.)
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99355