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Price: Free (Isn’t it always?)
Syncs: Email, Contacts, Calendar, Documents
Pros: Works on all Platforms and browsers, as well as mobile phones.
Cons: Living in the cloud is a lifestyle choice, and not one you should enter into lightly.
PC: Yes Mac: Yes Linux: Yes Mobile: Windows Moble, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia
Email is all the same, isn’t it? You probably hear us talk about Gmail here at Max PC a bit more often than competition for one simple reason, it really is better than the rest. Gmail has a lot going for it these days. The web interface is lightening fast, Google Labs allows you to enable tons of great plug-ins, and one feature in particular makes it stand out from the crowd, IMAP. (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a vastly superior solution to the traditional POP based email supplied to you by your ISP. It will allow you to access your mail from any email client, the web, or both at the same time, all while keeping your sessions in sync. You can read, delete, edit, save drafts, all while knowing that changes will ripple across your desktop clients. It’s so good in fact, many, including myself, have abandoned dedicated email clients almost entirely.
Gmail is one of the few free IMAP options available right now, but it’s important to know, IMAP is not enabled by default. To get started, simply surf over to the Gmail Homepage, signup for a Google account, and head into your new (or existing) mailbox. One in, scan along the top right for a link called Settings, followed by Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Once here, you can enable the IMAP service (shown below), and access the Configuration Instructions if you’re planning on still using a desktop mail client. Once you’re up and running with your mail client, you might even feel like dragging and dropping messages stored on your machine, over to Gmail. This will allow you to search, view, or access any message across all of your machines. You can also use a mail client to drag mail from Hotmail or other services over to your new email account.
In addition to keeping your email sessions in sync, Gmail offers an innovative service called Mail Fetcher. If you head back over to the Settings link along the top right, you can then click Accounts followed by Add a Mail Account You Own. Simply enter your email address, and setup the rules regarding incoming messages. You can tell Google to leave a copy on the pop server for safe keeping, or to automatically redirect incoming messages to a dedicated folder, making your email easy to sort.
Using any webmail based service is the ultimate way to keep all your email, contacts, and calendars in sync. However, for a certain percentage of the population Outlook is a safety blanket they simply refuse to live without. If you fall into this category, it’s okay, you still have options. Google Calendar Sync allows you to manage your calendar both through Gmail’s web interface and using Outlook. Calendar Sync is currently compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and 7, and is designed for use with Outlook 2003 or 2007. We also recommend that you don’t try to install this if your outlook is configured for exchange. Trying to do so will be far more hassle than it’s worth.
Your First step will be to download Google Calendar Sync Client, and run the installer. Once this complete, you will see the above configuration screen which will allow you to input your Gmail Account details, and if you want 1-way or 2-way sync. When making your decision, we would recommend that you pick the option that most realistically matches your usage scenario. Calendar sync works well, but you can further remove the odds of conflicts or corruptions if you select 1 way sync. You can also configure the time between sync sessions, and the minimum selectable is 10 minutes.
Google offers a dizzying array of mobile optimized services for pretty much every popular smartphone on the market. The even better part about Google’s mobile service, is that all of the information is tied back to your primary Google account. This means that Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Docs, Reader, pretty much everything you love about Google is available in a portable format. To get started all you need to do is point your phone’s internet browser to http://m.google.com .Through this interface you can access your Calendar & Contacts, but what if want them to sync with your phone’s build in applications instead? Meet Google Mobile Sync:
Setting up Google Sync isn’t difficult, but it is important to keep in mind that your existing contacts and calendar on your phone will probably be overwritten, so make sure you are up to date, or backed up before proceeding. All Smartphone’s, with the exception of the iPhone, can install the sync application within the mobile browser and have you up and running in no time flat. However, if you’re on the iPhone you’ll need to dive into iTunes a bit to make this work. Click the following links for step by step instructions on the PC or Mac.
Comments are closed on this article
Philips
October 29, 2011 at 3:22am
Synchronization and sure management is really necessary. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Surely, this would truly help.
DePat
July 15, 2009 at 8:46am
I read your article with great anticipation. However, I noted that nowhere in the article was MS Home Server mentionned. Are there applications that MS home server users can use to sync calendars, emails and the likes? MS Home Server users already have a server that they can connect to anywhere they are. How about expanding its use as the central repository of calendars, e-mails and other files and/or application that we use across platform.
One of the attractions of doing this is that nobody will later on charge you a fee for using your own server, and with the prices of Hard drives dropping all the time, your personal storage can grow significantly. For example, right now I have 6TB of storage in my server which can be easily double as soon as the prices of 2TB hard drives come down to earth (and we know they eventually will).
Thanks in advance for any reply and suggestions!
PS: Can MaximumPC includes MS Home Server in their articles? MS Home Server Users need a home. Why not you?
DePat
jonbach
July 14, 2009 at 10:12pm
Live sync would be an absolutely ideal file sync program if it supported network folders. But Microsoft has specifically made the program unable to do so, citing security implications. To me, I don't feel comfortable until I have a RAID5 NAS running in two locations with realtime file sync.
Daniel15
July 14, 2009 at 5:25pm
No mention of Opera Link? It's a great way to synchronise bookmarks, notes, and history, and is built in to the Opera web browser (so, if you use Opera, there's no need to install any additional software). I've been using it for ages.
http://www.opera.com/link/
Redeye
July 14, 2009 at 4:24pm
I think I may give Microsoft's Live Sync a try to keep my saved game files synced up across multiple computers (desktop and laptop). I have a sever that stays on all the time and if I could automate this process that would simply be fantastic, looking into it this weekend. Thanks Maximum PC!
anitardzg
July 14, 2009 at 2:34pm
Live Mesh is one great service for synchronization ofdocuments; I’ve used it myself and have found it very useful. I would definitelyrecommend it to all my friends and family. Thanks for the post, I enjoyedreading it!
Our company just developed a cloud-hosted applicationusing Live Mesh that I think you’ll find very useful. You can take a look at ithere: http://personalradiostation.cloudapp.net/. If youlike it, you can help us vote for it at the new CloudApp() Contest: http://www.newcloudapp.com/vote.aspx. The appis listed at the end of the page, under the name of Omar Del Rio.
Rewards,
Ana Rodriguez
KLM2010
July 14, 2009 at 8:40am
If you are desperate to get around the linux limitations you can install firefox with wine, then install the extension IE tab (normal linux firefox will not work). IE tab renders the page with ieexplorer.exe, so any incompatibilities should go away. It's a great add on.
vistageek
July 14, 2009 at 7:02am
Are these guys supposed to copy your paper?
http://www.gadgetpaper.com/how-to-stay-in-sync-across-multiple-gadgets-and-desktops/
Stinky Fartface
July 14, 2009 at 6:57am
I am firmly tied to Outlook. When I recently upgraded my home and desktop computers with Vista, it broke my phone sync, which I had used to keep my home and office calendars and address books in sync (as well as the phone itself). I tried Google Outlook sync and it refused to sync most of my calendar events. It has very few options and nothing I did would convince it to sync properly. I found some vague references that Goggle sync will only sync with events that the user published themselves. I don't know what that means or if it's relelvant at all, but regardless, it didn't work well.
I eventually discovered Plaxo which offers a very good Outlok sync function. It recognized all of my events, including meeting requests sent from my office. It supports color categorizing, task lists, and didn't screw up my reoccuring events. It's fast too, with changes in the calendar appearing within a minute on the other computer (I tested this using remote desktop). I did initially have some issues with a lot of duplicate entries, but that went away after the initial syncs.
This service is currently free on Plaxo, but I just got an email this past weekend saying that it was too expensive for them to maintain for free and that they would be moving it into their premium service package. I'm still determining if it is worth $60 a year for this service. Of course there are other services they provide as well, including a dupelicate entry remover, and they can sync with all sorts of other calendars and devices too, including many phones, but Outlook is the only one I'm interested in at the moment.
Justin.Kerr
July 14, 2009 at 4:54pm
I agree the service is great.
I intentionally took them out of my writeup because of the new pricing model.
Didn't think it offered enough value for the price.
infamousacid
July 13, 2009 at 9:22pm
Read it cover to cover and there is so much good stuff in here.
Guess I know what i'm working on this weekend.
DBsantos77
July 13, 2009 at 9:17pm
Ridiculous article, will have a go at it sometime, as this is a constant problem for me.
Great job!
