Google Calendar (no Palm Sync yet)
Google Calendar has now entered it’s public beta testing phase. The interface will be familiar to anyone who’s used GMail and any other calendar application before – it’s basically a hybrid of the two.
Palm Sync for Google Calendar is Needed
My initial impression is that it looks good, but without the ability to sync with handheld devices (e.g. Palm Pilot) it’s ubiquity is far from certain.
PC-using iPod owners will no doubt be delighted to know that their music machine can already sync with google calendar, thanks to it’s support for the iCal format (if Palm Inc. are listening, take note!)
iCal
The best of the low-hanging fruit so far is that it happily subscribes to iCal files, so publicly available calendars (which are typically produced by the legion of apple users who have been enjoying a good calendar app for a couple of years) are now far more accessible to web-based users.
Sharing
The ability to collaboratively author calendars looks good too, however, this seems to be broken at the moment.
Update: People want Palm Sync!
Since writing the above entry I’ve noticed an awful lot of people arriving here with similar desires… it’s understandable really, given that Palm have sold over 34 million PDA’s worldwide, and licensed the OS for use in millions more phones.
90 Comments
I join this wish.
as a proud owner of PALM i’d like the ability to sync palm and google calendar
just on it my-self.
using a treo650 and would love a sync to google calendar and maybe even an imap gmail access via GPRS
)
i would like a sync palm calendar google pleaseeeeeeeeee
Well Google has release the API for the calendar, so I would not be surprised if we see this soon from a 3rd party!
Thanks for the tip Timmay. Google have today announced the Google Calendar Data API which includes all the basic bits that will be required to at get a conduit working, so if anyone’s going to hack one out, feel free to leave a message and ask for volunteers/testers/etc.
I agree – GMail and Google Calendar without any Palm synching just doesn’t fly. When does Google plan to suport sync for GMail contacts and the Google Calendar – especially on the iMac ???
I’ve been working on a Google Calendar Palm Sync and I’m looking for some testers. If you are interested, email me at shawn [at] aimsniff [dot] com
PLEASE provide a Palm synch.
Patience my friends…GOOG must know it’s a MUST DO if they want their calendar to take off. Otherwise, we need to manage two calendars (Palm & Google), & we all know that’s not going to happen.
I’m sure their development nerds are coding long nights as we yearn!!
Note to Google…HURRY UP!!!
I want Google to develop some synching programs for calendar as well as contacts for my iPOD! I love both it’s hard to have them apart.
My wife and I have just started using GCal to keep up with our schedules.
Correction – our 5 boys schedules. Between church, school, band, scouts, and baseball we’ve got some challenging logistics to work out most days.
The online functionality is nice but since we’re both longtime palm users it would be worth CASH MONEY (as a father of five that stuff is hard to come by these days) to have a way to sync my treo 650 and her Palm Tungsten E2 with GCal and send the event invites to the grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Not to mention the number of times it would keep me out of the doghouse for being late to an event.
Not to sound TOO eager/easy but…
Programmers, I’m waiting with credit card in hand…..
I deffinitly agrea. I own a palm and I need the sync, before I can start using it!
I agree – Plan sync is a requirement for me. But I think it is not google, but Palm that will need to develop it.
I would really like to see a Palm sync application, this is one reason I do not yet use Google calendar.
I won’t find any use to it either unless it supported Pocket PC sync. Atm I Just use outlook
Just adding my name to the legion of Palm diehards who need google calendar to synch. Hard to convince coworkers, friends, relatives who own palms to move away from Outlook and into gmail/google calendar.
One note of trepidation…has anyone seen threads about the impending pervasiveness of the google “syndication” as it relates to the late 1980s and the “Thank God Microsoft is here to provide simple solutions to my computer woes”?
Please Google…tread carefully!
Our office needs a web-based calendar to keep our schedules under control. We have one now but it is unreliable and not user friendly. Outlook and iCal are not an option for many reasons. The google calendar fits the match perfectly, except we need it to sync to our palms. Any idea if this is coming and how soon???
I am using the gmail calendar to keep my own personal schedule but I would definitely recommend it to everyone, as soon as we can sync directly to our PDAs.
me too
The google calendar looks fantastic, but don’t want to start maintaining ANOTHER calendar. I already have my palm, my cell phone, my work outlook, the calendar stuck to our fridge, … …
Give me this and I can start combining all of my calendars!
Hi
sync both ways is already available, if you’ve got Outlook 2003…
http://sourceforge.net/projects/remotecalendars
Here are the instructions on how to set a real 2-way sync between Google Calendar and Outlook!
http://remotecalendars.sourceforge.net/google.htm
Hello,
There’s a lot of talk about PALM. Please, don’t forget about us Windows Mobile users. I love this calendar; I just need to be able to sync it! Google team, GET ON IT!
Thanks
Dear Santa; be kind, give us Google clendar sync with our Plams!
I need it.
I want it.
I contacted Shawn to see if I can help. Have you?
–PB–
A little extra googling (well, actually reading further down the same search results that brought me here :>) has revealed open source code for a suite of utilities that sync ICAL to Palm.
http://www.alcove-labs.org/en/addons/ical2pilot/
I dl’ed the files and had a quick look. Some of the minimal docs are in French which I would be happy to translate if there are any real coders who want to take a run at this.
The file dates are from 2000 but that’s only meaningful if we assume they had their system date set properly.
–PB–
A way to sync Google Calendar with Palm is to export with Jpilot to a iCalendar file and then import from google Calendar. It’s a bit odd but the only way i found.
I still waiting…..
I want gcalendar sync with my palm * ok, ok outlook is fine
I want my gmail contacts syc with my palm ok, ok outlook is fine
Google tell me is asking to much?, you have a lot of enginers pls let de people get what they want….
I would dearly love to be able to sync to my google calender, since I no longer use my Outlook calender and don’t wish to go back to it.
Here’s the third party software for syncing Google Calendar with Palm:
http://www.companionlink.com/clgoogle.html
Yeah, if you can get companionlink to work give me a shout, I’ve been trying for days!
There are so many suggestions for exporting from Outlook (e.g. CSV) and importing into Google Calendar, but the WHOLE point of using gCalendar is the ability to NOT open Outlook in the first place anymore with all it’s resource grubbing greed.
Bah, come on Google…
I’ve tried CompanionLink and found it to be utterly useless. Hitting the synchronize button just pops up an error box that says:
Anyhow, whilst I’m happy to trial such a program, I’d not pay for it.
Update:Albert can fix this.
I will PAY for Palm Sync so I can use Google Calendar with my Samsung i500 (Palm) phone. I’ve switched to Gmail, but can’t completely kick the Outlook habit until Google Calendar and Google Contacts sync with my device! I know it’s coming, but wish they’d hurry… ~ Drew
i would love to know any sync program available for my treo 650. or balack berry?
There’s an old project at http://sourceforge.net/projects/jp-icalendar/
It looks potentially useful, but it is very low activity. I’m trying to build it now, but am still figuring out the dependencies.
sync with Palm Vx please……..
My company doesn’t allow to install any software. I can’t sync my PDA to Palm desktop. The only way is through Yahoo Calendar but it is terrible.
Well, it’s been a few months now. Anything? Anyone? I just want to be able to hit the Sync button on my treo and have it match my Google calendar! Is that too much to ask? I was able to export from google to outlook which syncs with my treo, but once I’ve made changes in Google, it’s just too much work to re-export the calendar. Please, there’s got to be an easier solution.
I found one solution that seems to work and it’s free. I signed up for AirSet which has an option to subscribe to an iCal feed. I export the iCal address from my google calendars to AirSet so whenever my Google calendar changes, my AirSet calendar does too. Then AirSet can sync directly with my Palm Desktop or outlook (which syncs to my palm). You do need to download free software though to sync. Seems to work so far.
Sounds promising!
Aside: the addition of a wifi card to my T5 has killed the battery within 6 months of commisioning, so I’ll not be able to test this until I’ve done a little soldering.
Well, add me to the long list of folks that would like to see Google Calendar sync up with Palm Pilot calendar…otherwise it’s really not worth the effort, trying to keep to calendars.
Ditto! I’d like to be able to sync to my Palm Treo 700p! would make this a great thing!
The ability to sync with my Tungsten will make the Google Calendar solution complete for home and office.
Tried CompanionLink with no luck. Seemed very half-baked. Plus, they only sync to Palm Desktop so their claims of sync’ing to your PDA are inaccurate/misleading, in my opinion.
Google calendar looks really good but it’s useless to me without a quality Palm Sync tool.
What about Blackberry? There are a good number of us Blackberry users out there.
I’ve been hunting for a good way to do this for months. I think the AirSet is going to be the way for me. I can sync my calendar both at home, at work, and on the palm, plus my wife has a chance to know where the heck I am. A great web-based solution (I’m giving up on google calendar all-together)
emphasis on SteveK’s comment – desperately need a “QUALITY” palm sync (other than quality sync NEED NOT APPLY)
I’m waiting for this sync,
Bart, Belgium
I’m waiting for Google to set up the calendar so when you print it out in month format you can see all your appointments properly. At the moment it cuts them off!
Me to Gmail sync for me plam please ASAP!
Hah, I’d take a PHP or CGI that loads a datebook.dat and coughs out an ical format file. At least then I could easily remotely read my calendar.
I would like a Gmail contacts AND Google calendar to Palm sync tool!
Definitely usefull !
palmsync and google calender!!