As soon as I heard the news of Google Calendar I got really interested in the idea. As many other people, I found the service quite interesting but with three annoying missing features:
- Option to set calendar hours, I mean start and finish hours for a day. I rarely make appointments at 3 am or 11pm. This makes life easier but one can live — at least for a while — without this being implemented.
- Simple to dos, with keywords (tags) and due dates. This one is important but, again, I can wait for this or keep my list somewhere else.
- The ‘almost a deal breaker’: lack of synchronisation with desktop clients (iCal in my case). How does one access the bloody calendar without internet access and/or a supported browser?
Spanning Sync has positioned itself almost as the de facto synchronisation product between Google Calendar and iCal. However, I still struggled with its price: USD25 per year or USD65 for a permanent subscription sounded very steep just for syncing; particularly when using Google Calendar is essentially free.
I then tried a couple of other approaches. I tested using Thunderbird + Lightning + Provider. I do not mind using Thunderbird as an email client: I think it is quite good, except for the lack of integration with Address Book in the mac. However, after following a very good description of the setup, I realised that the calendar is synchronised and visible only when there is internet connection, defeating the purpose. I am sure the developers are working in persistence while disconnected, but meanwhile is essentially useless.
Quick note here: Incidentally, if you have problems adding a second calendar, just use your normal login and password for the calendars, rather than the bigcode@group.calendar.google.com set up by default.
After not making progress with Thunderbird, I went for GCALDaemon. After fiddling around with download, permissions, editing configuration files, etc. I managed to make it run. Nevertheless, it crashed and trashed the contents of my online Google Calendar after one hour of use. Good thing that I had a backup. I can’t remember where I read a user commenting that ‘why would you pay for Spanning Sync if there was GCALDaemon’. Short answer: read the previous three sentences.
At some point, one realises that the time invested (or wasted) is certainly worth much more than the syncing service’s cost. So I was ready to pay for Spanning Sync, when one major improvement was anounced: mobile browser access (http://mobile.google.com/calendar). I always carry my mobile phone, so if I have coverage (most of the time) I am OK. When visiting Australia last April I could still access Vodafone at domestic prices, making the system viable. However, when roaming in other countries the price to access calendar and email through the phone quickly becomes prohibitive. A good thing is that this type of trip does not happen that often, so I will rely on mobile access for the next couple of months and give the system a proper test.