Go Wireless: Google Sync
Go Wireless is a weekly feature where The Mobile Ping takes common tasks and situations and explains how to streamline your life using wireless technology.
For our first “Go Wireless” feature, I decided to use probably the most useful wireless convenience I’ve come across, Google Sync. Google Sync allows any Microsoft Exchange compatible phone (with the exception of Android phones, it just works) to sync with Google Calendar as well as Google Contacts. With “Go Wireless” we would like to focus on things that can be accessed through Standard Phones as well as Smart Phones, but Google Sync is such a convenience that it definitely deserves a mention.
The main issue with smart phones and most consumers that purchase smart phones is that they will almost never sync the phone with their computer. Obviously all of the information on the phone is stored on the SIM card or on the network right? Of course not. A SIM card can only store a single number per name, additionally most carriers are only able to store 250 contacts to the SIM card. This is fine for a standard phone, but with a smart phone you generally take advantage of the different ways a smart phone can communicate with the people important to you. A decent amount of your contacts may have a mobile phone number as well as a home phone number. Additionally, throw in an e-mail address, the occasional physical address, home page, etc and your precious all-knowing SIM card is able to barely store 35 contacts with all that information required per contact.
To solve this dilemma Palm introduced desktop sync for their line of Pilots which then carried over to the Treo series of phones. Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone and now the Palm Pre all have desktop syncing solutions. That solution has made sense when your smart phone was more of a PDA with a phone duct taped to it, but I believe desktop syncing is becoming irrelevant with the ever increasing amount of Data required phones. If your phone requires an internet connection, you should be syncing your Contacts and Calendar (in the least) wirelessly over that data connection, and you should only ever plug your phone into your computer in order to move content onto your microSD card (or heaven forbid your fixed storage).
The first obvious advantage is if anything happens to your phone, the most important part is stored on Google’s servers for you to view from any computer, or sync up to another device. I regularly switch between an iPhone and blackberry for one of my lines, and I also have my G1. All three phones are synced to my Google account, and they always display the same information. I know this is not entirely common, but if you’re upgrading your old blackberry curve to a G1 or iPhone, wouldn’t it be nice to just punch in your Google Account information and everything moves over? Same thing if you drop your phone in a pool, or it gets lost or stolen, you never have to worry about losing your contacts ever again. Unless Google has some catastrophic security breach and everything is purged, but I bet Google has massive amounts of redundant storage.
Another advantage Scott and I have run into since starting The Mobile Ping is that with Google Calendar you can share specific calendars with any other Google user. So naturally we setup a calendar for our blog so we can be reminded to post regular features, record the podcast, or if something comes up that doesn’t occur regularly. Either one of us can update that calendar, set up if there’s going to be an alarmed reminder, tell us if it’s a regularly repeating event or just a one off, and instantly both of our devices (well in reality, all 4 of our devices) are updated. This is a great way to stay organized for smaller groups of people, like a family that needs reminders for soccer practice or doctor checkups, or even a weekend warrior band that’s going to different venues each weekend, they can all get their updates instantly and wirelessly, it gives me butterflies just typing about it.
Obviously there are different wireless sync alternatives. The obvious start is Mobile Me for most Apple products and most carriers have, had, or will have address book syncing solutions. Google Sync is free, and it’s accessible through any computer, and Google Calendar is an incredibly powerful and versatile solution for managing events and reminders (albiet, there can be a bit of a learning curve, but it’s very much worth it). If you have a smart phone with a data connection you should have Google Sync, straight up. Do be warned, if you setup a Google account and instantly set your phone up to sync, you will lose all of the contacts and events stored on the phone. So be sure to import your contacts into Google first, before syncing. Once it’s setup though it’s the greatest feeling of security and versatility when it comes to backing up and managing contacts and your calendar.
