Recipe to sync your iPhone to the cloud for free
04 Feb 2010 - DaveiTunes will sync your iPhone to your Mac or Windows PC. There are options to work with Outlook and other Mac/PC software for contacts and calendars. It works but it is not that flexible.
Here’s a link to enable iPhone syncing with a Google account. Google pushes email to the iPhone. Changes to contacts and calendars are kept up to date whether you update the iPhone or Google Calendar, or Contacts. You only need iTunes for is backing up the iPhone or getting software updates. Of course iTunes does the music and other media but I’m looking at the PIM plumbing.
Here’s the link to import Contacts from Outlook into GMail contacts. Google has good instructions for exporting contacts from Outlook or other software and into your Google Contacts.
Here’s a link to a free Google utility to sync the GMail calendar with the Outlook calendar. I used this for six months and it works as advertised.
I am keeping watch on the growing feud between Apple and Google. A couple of years ago they were BFF’s. Now with Google Phones v/s iPhone, Safari web browser v/s Chrome the two companies locked in competition and it is showing. Steve Job’s recent comments sound serious. This recipe works for free if you’re not too worried about Outlook being in sync. If this feud gets out of hand it will pay to have a copy of your personal data that is in your control.
I haven’t found a decent sync utility for Contacts between GMail & Outlook for free. By decent I mean a utility that my aunt, who isn’t a geek, can use. gSyncIt for $15 is the best option to keep Outlook in the loop. There are a few other options but I like gSyncIt because it gives me an up to date copy of my data that is in my control. That might be a little old-fashioned but I’m not quite ready to trust the cloud.