Outlook, the iPhone, and me

January 5, 2009 7:15 AM

Hey, iPhoners, how have you set up your personal information management system?

Santa (aka Mrs. Shallow Center) left a shiny new iPhone in my stocking this year, and I'm trying to figure out how to configure my calendar/contacts/task list. My last smartphone was a Moto Q running Windows Mobile, which I synced to Outlook on my PC. I'm seriously considering migrating the Outlook info away from a specific piece of hardware so that I can make changes whether I'm at my PC in the home office, on my MacBook in my local coffee shop, or noodling on the iPhone while I wait for the movie to start.

Here's what I'm considering:

* Calendar: GCal
* Contacts: GMail
* Tasks: Remember the Milk, perhaps? Since I have GMail open all day, this would put my tasks right in front of my nose, and RTM now has an iPhone app.

I'm open to suggestions for any of this, and that's where you guys come in. How do you do it? Thanks!

posted by shallowcenter to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

Address Book can already sync with Google Mail contacts (it's in the preferences), though I use Spanning Sync to sync calendars and contacts with my Google account. It's not free, but it's extremely well done. Both of those options would run on your Macbook, so that may be an issue. I'm sure there are corresponding apps in the Windows world, but I don't have any experience with them.

Remember the Milk is excellent.
posted by socratic at 7:21 AM on January 5, 2009

Er, ok, that wasn't entirely clear. I meant that if you use either of those two options, you'd need to sync your phone with your Macbook rather than your Windows machine to pick up changes.
posted by socratic at 7:24 AM on January 5, 2009

BusySync was one of the best $25 I've ever spent. I haven't even thought about whether I use iCal or GCal in months. I just make an appointment and it shows up on my phone, on my desktop iCal, and in my GCal. I also subscribe to a bunch of GCal calendars and they all magically appear in my iCal/iPhone without having to think about it.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 7:27 AM on January 5, 2009

Oops, I made the same mistake. Yes, it would depend on which machine (your MacBook or your PC) you sync your phone with.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 7:29 AM on January 5, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, socratic and DrJohn. I plan on continuing to sync with the PC, since that's where my iTunes is housed.
posted by shallowcenter at 7:35 AM on January 5, 2009

I've been using Evernote to happily synchronize my bits of data between my Macs and my iPhone for a few months. Contacts and Email are all MobileMe so that's done for me automatically on my Mac. Evernote has a PC client as well, but I don't know if it's as well-written as the Mac version. I like that there is web browser integration for Evernote: a Firefox extension and a Safari Bookmarklet that allow me to easily clip text and graphics automatically to Evernote, which then automagically synchs between all my computers, devices.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 7:41 AM on January 5, 2009

The way I see it, the hurdle you need to solve is Mac-Windows syncing, and the iPhone is just a distraction. If you sync the Mac and Windows boxes via Google, everything will just flow to/from the iPhone naturally.

I also use BusySync on the Mac side, and it's great. Google recently released their own tool for syncing with iCal (Calaboration), and it sucks balls.
posted by mkultra at 7:55 AM on January 5, 2009

Remember the Milk is outstanding on the iPhone and well worth the $25 a year to use it. I manage ground level tech support at four schools in addition to my own projects and tech support for my wife's hair salon and it lets me easily keep on top of tasks.

I also have it integrated into my Google home page and Gmail as well.
posted by fenriq at 8:34 AM on January 5, 2009

If you jailbreak your iphone (which seems to be quite easy and harmless these days) you may use the free NemusSync - it synchronizes Gcal to iphone over the air, so no need for a computer. Contacts get synced with Gcal/Gmail automatically through itunes. I tried some other syncing programs, but not all work with Google apps.

RTM is great for task management, but you do need a Pro account for a RTM client on your iphone. Otherwise, it's just web site tasks.
posted by Yavsy at 9:07 AM on January 5, 2009

I sync Google Calendar with my iPhone Calendar via NuevaSync. It pushes the data and works pretty flawlessly. Update on phone, check online and it's there. Update online, it's put on the phone automagically. They also do Google Contacts syncing as well (haven't tried this since I would have to remove the contacts I've already added into my phone or offload them elsewhere before setting up). Best of all, their service is free of charge. Can't beat it.
posted by genial at 9:34 AM on January 5, 2009

Seconding NuevaSync. GCal works like a charm, but I've had trouble with Google Contacts, so I now sync with Plaxo instead.
posted by perrce at 9:46 AM on January 5, 2009

I have a Mac, a PC laptop, and an iPhone. I do most of my work on my Mac and sync the phone there, so maybe my world is simpler as a result.

Calendar: iCal. If I need to check a calendar item when I'm on the PC, I look at the phone.

Mail: All my mail goes to fastmail.fm; IMAP keeps it in synch with all three platforms (including Mac Mail and Thunderbird on the PC). If a client sends me an Outlook meeting invitation the Mac can accept it into iCal, and since I sync twice a day to get my podcast fix, it gets into the iPhone quickly enough for me.

Contacts: Highrise for business contacts, accessible from any platform. For personal contacts, the standard Mac address book in sync with the phone.

General-purpose tasks: I decided to simplify this by putting them on the phone only, using the Toodledo iPhone app. I always have my phone with me.

Detailed to-dos for a big project: Evernote, which syncs with all three platforms. I create a note called something like BigProjectToDo and use the checkbox bullet.
posted by PatoPata at 9:54 AM on January 5, 2009

I love Remember The Milk. There's a one-week free trial iirc; install it and have a play. I set up lists for everything and am in organised bliss. Even stuff that doesn't belong on a traditional To Do list - 'Check out [blah TV series]', 'Listen to some [blah music artist]' - fits into my 'Entertainment' list all ready to be checked on when I'm in a bookstore or video store or whatever. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything in my life it *can't* organise. ;) I've actually pretty much quit using the web interface since installing it, fwiw. It's just so good on iPhone. Good to know it's all available online too, though, should I need.

For a calendar I've just been using the default thing it comes with, and contacts I haven't really sorted out yet. Interested in reading the responses though!
posted by springbound at 1:25 PM on January 5, 2009

I also use NuevaSync for my calendar to sync over the air with Google Calenar, absolutely perfect. I intend to move from Outlook to NuevaSync for my contacts as well, but my first attempt at importing contacts into Gmail wasn't overly successful (lots of numbers without names).
posted by shinynewnick at 7:18 PM on January 5, 2009

pocket informant is coming out this month and i cannot recommend it enough! it will sync to your google calendar and toodledo for tasks.

mefimail me if you want specifics on how i set mine up
posted by phritosan at 8:40 AM on January 9, 2009

Any easier way to clean contacts on iphone up than one at a time on the phone: since i imported from my imac, my old phone and my outlook pc i have a real mess and cleaning it up without cut and paste is a nightmare...
posted by dougiedd at 6:48 PM on January 9, 2009