Help me reach Gmail / mobile / desktop sync nerdvana

May 1, 2007 8:06 AM

Please help me come up with a solution for automatically syncing Gmail, GCal, my desktop client and my mobile in one big data orgy.

Currently I'm hosting my domain (email only) with Mailstreet and I'm relatively happy with their services and support. However, the siren song of "Gmail For Your Domain" has me entranced.

I'm in the market for a new mobile, and I'm looking at either a Blackberry 8800 or a Nokia E61i (when it comes out). Regardless, I want the full wireless sync of not only my email, but also my calendar and contacts (notes too, if possible). I can get this through Mailstreet if I sign up for the Blackberry service, but it's not cheap, and the storage space is limited (100Mb).

So I was wondering how I can set up automatic synchronization between my desktop PIM (I use Entourage, as I like having one app with all the data consolidated), my mail host, and my mobile as with the BES.

This sounds like something that Funambol would provide, but I'm not clear on the Gmail For Your Domain integration aspect.

The end goal will be I can add a contact on my mobile, and it just shows up on my desktop a few minutes later (the same with email, and calendar items). If I have to pay for Exchange, so be it, but I'd prefer to get away from it if possible.

posted by mjbraun to computers & internet (6 answers total)

Sure, it is called Exchange, Outlook, and Active Sync.
posted by mrbugsentry at 8:50 AM on May 1, 2007

Hmm, synching between three things is hard. There's a Free app for phones, "gcalsync", that can sync to gcal. Gmail has a phone client, and it's pretty darned good. OS X iSync can sync all calendar and address data on your phone with iCal and Address Book.

The only things missing:
- it's two steps to sync calendar. Once to google, once to computer.
- your phone address book and gmail address book aren't synch'd this way, but they are arguably different anyway. One has phone numbers and the other has email addresses.
posted by cmiller at 9:45 AM on May 1, 2007

There are a variety of apps out there that will sync Google Calendar with Outlook. Once you've got that, you can sync your phone with outlook and everything will be transfered automagically.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:32 AM on May 1, 2007

This is exactly what I've been trying to do since I got a T-Mobile Vario (Windows Mobile 5 phone) almost a year ago. I have not succeeded. The best sync solution for a Windows Mobile device is wireless (OTA) via an Exchange Server (I tried this via a free account at www.mail2web.com) but this does not involve GMail or GCal and the web interface isn't very good. Syncing the calendar with GCal works quite well via WM5 software like GooSync but there is no way to sync the contacts with the GMail Addressbook. You will have to resort to manual exporting/importing. Emailing on my phone also works best via Exchange but since I want to keep using GMail and I want to have all my mail in one place I use the GMail Mobile Java client. Far from ideal but I haven't been able to figure out a better solution.
posted by dinkyday at 3:02 PM on May 1, 2007

Why are so many people mentioning Exchange when the poster mentioned Entourage. Those are for disparate platforms, yesno?
posted by cmiller at 7:00 PM on May 1, 2007

Exchange Server is not something you install on your own computer so the fact that the OP uses a Mac does not matter. Entourage can connect to Exchange just as Outlook can on a Windows box.
posted by dinkyday at 11:20 PM on May 1, 2007