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I am one of those guys that uses Google services for almost everything. One of the most valuable services, for me, is the Calendar. However, keeping it in sync with my Touch Pro is not very easy and although there are some applications to handle the synchronization of calendars, I've not been very happy with them. Also, I have Linux on my laptop, which makes Outlook a little bit hard to use . I believe many people may have the same problems that I have. Having this in mind, I've started the development of a little application that shows the google calendar on the Touch Pro. I've included some screenshots of it.
What I would like to ask you is if this application would interest anyone or if I am already reinventing the wheel and there are better applications already done for the same purpose.
I've also attached the application. Remember that it is in the starting phase and right now only shows the events of the default calendar (except All-day events). If the response is favorable I will add the ability to view multiple calendars, to edit, add and remove events and to notify the user as the "reminder" settings of the events specify (right now I let Google send me a SMS, so it is not that important to me). I have not made an installer yet, so to try the application just unzip it to someplace in your raphael and run the executable (with File Explorer, for instance).
As it is, the application will not store or modify any data in your phone, except storing your username (and optionally your password) in the registry (key HKCU\Software\GooMobiCal).
So, what do you think? Should I continue to develop it? Do you have any other (better) option?
Marco
This looks great. Although I'd like to just see Google Calendar work with the calendar built into the phone. Like it did on my blackberry.
i'm with cladeus101. i would love for gCal to work with the existing calendar on the phone.
but then, i also think that the existing WinMo calendar looks ugly. i like the gCal look more. heh
This app is pretty awesome though! I would love to see the new features you mentioned.
cladeus101 said:
This looks great. Although I'd like to just see Google Calendar work with the calendar built into the phone. Like it did on my blackberry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Google .net API to this this. There are some interessting opensource sync tools out there, but the developer stopped developing them Oh and there is no need for a PC to sync!
Yes I use google calendar but I've just been opening it in Opera. Which is fine but if there was something better...
Hi !
Nice application, that is promising.
Maybe that using Mobile Outlook with Google Calendar API will be also a great interesting alternative. (I am using a Mac). Online Google Calendar Synchronization with Mobile Outlook can be so great.
However, If it is too difficult, your application is in the good way. Please continue .
faeArai said:
You can use Google .net API to this this. There are some interessting opensource sync tools out there, but the developer stopped developing them Oh and there is no need for a PC to sync!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to have a tool like the org. "Google Calendar Sync"4Outook but then for the build in Calendar. I'm using Oggsync now and that works more-or-less. It's a paid programm and the licence you pay for, is only valid for one year. (So i use the freeware version)
In de freeware function, the tool does not sync automatically every X-minutes. (And it supports only one calendar, but thats not a big problem to me)
So what i would like for Christmas is a automatic-calendar-sync-tool that syncs all fields in the calendar (and, if possible, syncs more than one calendar. And² if possible syncs the contacts aswell) Djeez, thats a big question for Santa
I'm with the general consensus .. I would really like to see an app that allows me to sync Pocket Outlook calendar with Google calendar, on an automated scheduled occurrence. As already stated, OggSync kind of works, which means I wont pay to purchase it.
The Google calendar is already available on mobiles (http://www.google.com/calendar/m), which I use occasionally, so I'd see little use in this app for myself.
If there is a possability to add appointments and share the agenda I would like to try it.
Also, it would be nice if the password is stored encrypted.
Hope you will develop it, I'm willing to test if you're looking for testers.
I just found this service that might be everything you already want: http://www.goosync.com/
I found something that is free!
This site is in beta, www.nuevasync.com ...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile. It's free for now, but it says "beta" so hopefully it won't change.
bosskoffee said:
This site is in beta, www.nuevasync.com ...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile. It's free for now, but it says "beta" so hopefully it won't change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm impressed... That's exactly what my ActiveSync/Mobilitycentre does. I can even select more items to synchonize there, but wait, i won't!
If i am on the road, i cannot synchronize with my laptop So i would like to synchonize the phone just by using a tool (like the Google Calendar Sync) and my UMTS/HSDPA internetconnection.
Not sure what you mean Daneels. That site does let you sync with only your phone and 3G/data connection, no need for a laptop.
Basically you set up the active sync on your phone to sync with their server settings (that mimic an exchange server) and you can config active sync to do that at intervals of 5 min to 4 hours.
So contacts and calendar, from just the phone, using software already on the phone. Seems to work okay for me, though like I said the web page says "beta" so I'm a little nervous about how long it will last.
bosskoffee said:
...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...With activesync... Activesync runs on both the phone and computer. By this i mean, very local even without internet, over bluetooth/usb. So i tought someone has re-invented activesync (is also free for Windows-users). If it is syncing over internet, than it's something different . If it enables the use of activesync over internet, than it is extra interesting!
So perhaps we we're having some miscommunication
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say, it let me sync Google calendar/contacts over the internet with the phone...no PC/local connection involved! check it out I just hope it's free forever
These are both subscription services... I do not think that we need subscriptions, just a app that does the synchronization directly with Google. Without anybody in the middle.
I would be glad to start something like that... but I was amazed that there is no cheap way to develop for WinMo. Yes, the SDK is free, but you need Visual Studio, which is far far from free...
EnOleEikka said:
These are both subscription services... I do not think that we need subscriptions, just a app that does the synchronization directly with Google. Without anybody in the middle.
I would be glad to start something like that... but I was amazed that there is no cheap way to develop for WinMo. Yes, the SDK is free, but you need Visual Studio, which is far far from free...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd love to see a talented developer coming up with this as well!
please work on this. Taking winmo into a cloud arena is the right direction. Google currently has the best cloud suite out there. This is great. I can not wait to be able to add events. until then those who are interested should use www.jott.com to add events. there is a google calendar plugin.
Version 0.2
Thank you all for your replies. I already knew GooSync, but not the other services, like nuevosync. However, they are either not free or require a third-party to forward my calendar to my ppc. I see no reason to give a third-party access to my own calendar data (Google already knowing my private calendar is enough for me). I was looking for something more direct.
Having not found anything free, I continued to develop my little application and arrived to version 0.2, which now allows viewing multiple calendars simultaneously (including the Outlook calendar) and allows to add new events to those calendars. Synchronization between Google and Outlook is in my to do list, but I prefer to get more familiar with both Outlook and Google APIs before diving into it. Also, there are a lot of little things to do before, such as:
- Remove events;
- Support All-Day events (they are not displayed yet);
- Support Multi-Day events (they are incorrectly displayed so far);
- Allow "Quick Add" events (easy on google calendar, not so easy on Outlook);
- Store the preferences (such as selected calendars) of the application;
- Store locally the google calendar events to access them offline;
- Encrypt the password on the Registry;
- and probably a lot more features and bug corrections.
Anyway, for those who want to check out how it is going, here are some screenshots and the application. As before, you only need to unzip the file to a folder on your PPC and run the GooMobiCal.exe file.
If you try it, please give some feedback on how to improve it and which features you consider more urgent keeping in mind that synchronization will take a while. Also, I'm doing this on my free time, which really isn't much, so the development is not as fast as I'd wish.
I think there must be plenty of user who just migrate from Palm and WM.
So it is very important for me to find PIM replacement APPs for android.
The PIM(Personal Information Management) are consist of 4 seperate APPs.
1. Calendar
2. Address book
3. To do list
4. Memo pad
I can accept the calendar and address book comes with my Hero.
But it is hard to find replacement APPs for to do and memo pad. Especially
I used to sync those items with MS Outlook.
Google doesn't seems to care about PIM like Palm and WM. We can only sync
calendar and contacts(addressbook) with google.
Is there Any PIM replacement APPs for android?
Need to sync with outlook is a plus.
Thank you!!
There are many todo apps for android, astrid and doit are a few that are worth mentioning. I use doit and works nice.
Don't know if they sync with outlook or with a windows pc, i use a mac and don't sync these items with my iMac.
It is true that about PIM on a android device could be better.
I still wait for pocketinformant for android if it ever comes to android.
I have seen and used it for a short while on a iPhone and used for years on WM device. For me PI is one of the best PIM apps you can buy.
Android needs to step up their android market asap! meaning that they need to allow payed apps globally and with 2.0 the app market app is competitive with the app store.
Then developers will release apps for android. At the moment it sucks, some countries left out for payed apps and developers can't make profit this way.
But you find more and free apps on android for notes and todo's.
It seems that you can't use Windows Mobile Device Center to sync from pc to HD7 phone, it has to be done via a hotmail/windows live account. I really cannot understand why many developers and the might of Microsoft deem it a wise move. Apart from security issues of putting lots of data in to the cloud, the process seems to be impossible to use efficiently. I am finding some contacts with a company name longer than a set number of characters will not fully sync, and there seems to be a limit to the amount of information for a contact. Is this really progress? Does anyone know of any third party apps which enable the sync between outlook and a WP7 phone? Even after the initial sync of contacts and calendar to my windows live hotmail account, which itself took ages, it seems a long while before any changes made on one appear on the other. I am seriously thinking of returning my HD7 - a great pity as WP7 seemed to promise so much. It is most certainly NOT aimed at the business user. Nokia, for all its faults, has a much better program for syncing a Nokia with Outlook, as does iTunes! Even Android has some degree of pc-phone syncing. Anyone got any helpful ideas?
Have patience and give it a try. I too didn't like the new method but once I had pruned my contacts removing unwanted stuff from the notes field it did copy over.
I now have it set up using emails and calander from my exchange account, email from 2 hotmail accounts, with contacts comming from my main hotmail account i set up yesterday.
It was strange at first but I've converted quickly.
P.S just discoved the APPLICATION tab in SETTINGS where you can rename the live tiles too
Thanks xma1e, I'm pleased to hear I'm not the only one to find it awkward. Do you know if there is a limit on the number of people you can have, and also what the limit on size of notes is?
Hampshire PDA said:
Even after the initial sync of contacts and calendar to my windows live hotmail account, which itself took ages, it seems a long while before any changes made on one appear on the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I'd give the Windows Live services a try before moving all my emails and contacts from Google Apps.
I set up a couple of accounts on Windows Live Domains to replace my Google Apps accounts and the first hurdle I hit was not being able to setup an alias email address. Email from only one address (primary) can be received. Email forwarding can't be configured from the domain host because Windows MX servers are handling the email.
The 2nd issue, setting up calendar sharing would always fail. And this wasn't just with the new accounts, two test accounts I setup over a week ago were still failing when setting up calendar sharing between the two. So back to Google Apps for me.
The above issue weren't specific to me, Googling showed lots of users affected.
I might be going off topic but I'm annoyed MS are pushing "the cloud" eveywhere yet the features aren't complete or broken. What took me around 8 hours to setup and configure on Windows Live took 8 mins to change back to Google Apps which works 100%.
Also, if you do have shared calendars working on your Hotmail/Live accounts does the HD7 show them? An early beta review of WP7 by Pocketnow showed shared calendars not working.
Inability to sync Outlook from desktop is a massive oversight. Lots of people use Outlook as a PIM on the desktop, without an Exchange back-end. I have been anti-iphone for ages, I gave back my work-issued iphone as not fit for purpose, and bought the TD2 out of my own pocket, but have been anxiously awaiting the HD7.
Whilst the HD7 and Windows Phone OS is blowing me away, it's so quick, slick and easy to use, I am now trying to work out the best option for syncing Outlook automatically.
The standard option from the web, a 4-step sync between
a) Outlook - Google
b) Google - Windows Live in Outlook
c) Windows Live in Outlook - Windows Live Online
Is not an option because I am running 64-bit Outlook that google sync does not support. There are some 3rd-party options to investigate but these will all cost money.
As reply to kougei, I just had a quick scan of Google's website - are you sure about the Google Sync 64 bit Outlook incompatibility, this is what I read off their website...
System requirements:
Requires Google Apps Premier or EDU Edition
Windows XP (32 bit) SP3
Windows Vista (32 bit) SP1
Windows Vista (64 bit) SP1
Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)
Microsoft Outlook 2003® SP3
Microsoft Outlook 2007® SP2 (or SP1 with hotfix)
Microsoft Outlook 2010® (32 and 64 bit)
- https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use Google myself, but I was just wondering whether you may have missed an update saving a lot of money and possibly frustration?
kougei said:
The standard option from the web, a 4-step sync between
a) Outlook - Google
b) Google - Windows Live in Outlook
c) Windows Live in Outlook - Windows Live Online
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Outlook Connector to sync between Outlook to Window Live if you don't need your data in Google.
Outlook Connector is part of the Window Live Essentials pack.
Mujja said:
an alias email address
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have moved your own domain to Live as I have, what you have to do is create a new user that is the alias you want, then set that user to forward email to your primary address. That is what Microsoft tell you to do, and it works just fine.
To the OP - you're living in the past! It's all about the cloud now, move all your stuff onto the cloud.
If you move to the Live services (and you can put your own domain into Live for free) you benefit from all the syncing of calendars, contacts and email for no cost. Outlook has the Live connector which you use to push all your existing email, contacts and calendars to Live and then collects new email coming in.
In terms of delivery speed - if someone sends me an email I get it at the same time on my phone, Outlook, live web interface...
If you can't use the Live set of services for whatever reason, you can look at a hosted Exchange server. There are plenty of them about and will give you the best possible experience and integration with WP7, Outlook and web based email. One who I do not use personally but I have recommended to others who find it works perfectly (Though nobody I know who uses it is on wp7 yet, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work as it's just Exchange server) is mail2web, though it isn't free.
DaWolfey said:
If you have moved your own domain to Live as I have, what you have to do is create a new user that is the alias you want, then set that user to forward email to your primary address. That is what Microsoft tell you to do, and it works just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did setup a secondary account to forward email to the primary account. But I couldn't see an option to completely disable junk mail filtering so I could never be sure ALL email was forwarded to the primary inbox for me to filter. And with Live Mail's slow and unreliable POP3 importing from other accounts I didn't trust the secondary account to forward emails as soon as they arrived.
To make sure I was getting all my email from the secondary account I could have added the account to my mobile device but I wanted to keep things simple.
adrian-polglase said:
As reply to kougei, I just had a quick scan of Google's website - are you sure about the Google Sync 64 bit Outlook incompatibility, this is what I read off their website...
I don't use Google myself, but I was just wondering whether you may have missed an update saving a lot of money and possibly frustration?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like a Premiere account costs $50 a year,whereas standard free google calendar sync is definitely outlook 2010 32-bit only at the moment. I dont use any aspect of google services currently,so will look at other solutions rather than spending $50 every year.
Mujja said:
Use Outlook Connector to sync between Outlook to Window Live if you don't need your data in Google.
Outlook Connector is part of the Window Live Essentials pack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, all that does is allow you to see a view of windows live mail, contacts, calendar entities within outlook, and use them directly in outlook, in sync.
It does not sync or interact with the default outlook entities that are part of your local pst file.
kougei said:
It looks like a Premiere account costs $50 a year,whereas standard free google calendar sync is definitely outlook 2010 32-bit only at the moment. I dont use any aspect of google services currently,so will look at other solutions rather than spending $50 every year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Apps Premier has a free 30 day trial. I've upgraded my wife's account to premier as she prefers to read her email in Outlook. The premier app sync email, contacts and mutiple calendars and even allows Outlook to display the mutiple calendars side by side.
However the OP wanted to sync Outook to Windows Live which can be done free using Outlook Connector instead of paying £40 for a Google Apps Premier account.
kougei said:
It does not sync or interact with the default outlook entities that are part of your local pst file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, forgot to mention that. But the OP can copy and paste all contacts and calendar entries from the local calendar to the live calendar in one go and from there sync to the phone.
I can live with manually maintaining contacts but i work dynamically with my calendar in local pst via meeting requests, etc. not practical to manually maintain a second calendar. Lets hope either microsoft or google release a free update soon.
Others are finding the same problems as I am. It seems to update the contacts OK if I put a new entry or edit an entry in Outlook. But I am having to update the calendar manually. I really can't believe this is what Microsoft intend - does someone have a way of getting the calendar to sync as well please?
Hi Guys
Last weekend I bought the DESIRE HD and the HD7
I am happy with both phones but I did not like the new WM7 that much, its too funky for me , anyway I got a question
I see that MICROSOFT MY PHONE is not available for the HD7 and WM7 yet.
So how can I copy my contacts and calendar entries in HD2 into the HD 7
I dont want to use my Live Messenger as they are full with MSN contacts and I dont want them there, I want to copy on the ones that are on my HD2
I have managed to do this with my HD Desire HD as there is a Sprite Migrate application for it.
I also didnt have a Google Gmail account but I synched it with the Desire HD and now I have the google contacts.
Is there a way to synch hotmail with google or some other stuff ,?
For me, it was straight forward:
Settings -> email and accounts -> add an account -> outlook -> type in gmail address + password.
I always used to activesync to my gmail account anyway (using google sync), so if you used myphone for that, it might not work so well.
The only problem you'll have is that your main 'sync', as it were, has to be a Live one, and your Live contacts will be imported no matter what you do. Seems to be one of the main complaints so far.
HTC HD7 with WM7 - there is no provision to synchronise with microsoft outlook using Activesync or Windows Mobile Device Centre.
Alternate way of using Exchange Activesync does look complicated
Please address the issue
This has been Answered
There are some workarounds & a 3rd party app, the solutions have been posted and can be easily found with a simple search (here is a hint, CompanionLink for outlook, Windows Live Connector, Gmail Sync). This is a very hot issue and I suspect there will be more solutions forthcomming
Cheers
BR
namasivayam said:
HTC HD7 with WM7 - there is no provision to synchronise with microsoft outlook using Activesync or Windows Mobile Device Centre.
Alternate way of using Exchange Activesync does look complicated
Please address the issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got these answers when I posted on social.answers.Microsoft.com
2 Easy Ways to Sync Outlook with HTC HD7
http://www.pubarticles.com/article-2-easy-ways-to-sync-outlook-with-htc-hd7-1289546168.html
Sync Windows Phone 7 with Outlook
http://www.companionlink.com/windowsphone/outlook/
I recommend posting or looking for WP7 related questions there as they've got a lot of MS employees that answer questions.
My Milage
I tried the Hotmail connector, I had some issues, it seemed to have problems dealing with more than 250 contacts. I am using the Demo version of CompanionLink and syncing to my gmail acct and that is working very nicely.
cheers
BR
I followed method two from the two ways to sync and worked just fine. I kind of like getting away from Outlook anyway. Hotmail/Windows Live is great since it can used through any computer contected to the internet to update contacts, phone numbers, etc. But I could see if this is an issue if you primarily use Outlook.
2 Easy Ways to Sync Outlook with HTC HD7
http://www.pubarticles.com/article-2...289546168.html
The problem I have is my company isn't running Exchange so for me to get my calendar and contacts I need a way to sync with Outlook.
I've tried Hotmail Connector and it works well for a one time sync but if you have a lot of changes to your calendar I have to make the changes in Outlook and Hotmail.
I refuse to pay $40 for something that should work out of the box.
PaullikesWINMO said:
I followed method two from the two ways to sync and worked just fine. I kind of like getting away from Outlook anyway. Hotmail/Windows Live is great since it can used through any computer contected to the internet to update contacts, phone numbers, etc. But I could see if this is an issue if you primarily use Outlook.
2 Easy Ways to Sync Outlook with HTC HD7
http://www.pubarticles.com/article-2...289546168.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. Had all my Outlook contact on my phone the sec I imported the file into Windows Live. I was surprised at how fast everthing setup. I am really like the WP7.
hi all, I'm a new user HD7 ( four hour ago) I syncro with Outlook connector without problems 800 contacts and appointments...
thanks for your help
alabij said:
I got these answers when I posted on social.answers.Microsoft.com
2 Easy Ways to Sync Outlook with HTC HD7
http://www.pubarticles.com/article-2-easy-ways-to-sync-outlook-with-htc-hd7-1289546168.html
Sync Windows Phone 7 with Outlook
http://www.companionlink.com/windowsphone/outlook/
I recommend posting or looking for WP7 related questions there as they've got a lot of MS employees that answer questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, both are cloud solutions, which are unacceptable to me for both security and privacy.
If the WM7 device were seen as an external storage device (apparently doable via the registry), does anyone know whether this could faciliate a direct USB sync with Outlook 2010 32-bit?
Both solutions are OK for a one off copy of Calender & Contacts but do not perform a true contniuous Sync with Outlook and do not handle TASKS
MarkAtHome said:
Unfortunately, both are cloud solutions, which are unacceptable to me for both security and privacy.
If the WM7 device were seen as an external storage device (apparently doable via the registry), does anyone know whether this could faciliate a direct USB sync with Outlook 2010 32-bit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you are not ready to play with the cloud, I don't think wp7 is for you. They seem very serious about making the cloud an integral part of the OS going forward.
nrfitchett4 said:
if you are not ready to play with the cloud, I don't think wp7 is for you. They seem very serious about making the cloud an integral part of the OS going forward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can explain how I get my outlook onto the cloud well you have me.
Is there no place like WinMo6.5x like "Microsoft My Phone" ?
with an live.xx ID
Wolf
wolfwolf said:
Is there no place like WinMo6.5x like "Microsoft My Phone" ?
with an live.xx ID
Wolf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no microsoft myphone. All syncing goes through your live email address (like hotmail). For me, I had all my contact info on gmail because of playing on android with my hd2.
1. Logged into hotmail
2. clicked on import contacts under the contacts view
3. Clicked on gmail and followed the instructions
Took about 10 minutes.
For outlook I'm pretty sure you can do something similar, though I think you might need outlook connector from the marketplace to bridge it over from outlook to hotmail. You will only have to do this once, but then I guess your outlook will not be a syncable acct on you phone.
Just looked on my hotmail and it says to export your outlook contacts to a file that you can then upload to hotmail.
I'm a Windows Mobile User for 2 years now (SE Xperia X1) and loved the way I can sync it with outlook.
I have all my contacts (approx 500) in outlook and also use the calendar (+5000 items)
I've spent some time in the past to get the info on my contacts straight and I'm very disappointed about the lack of synchronisation options between WP7 and outlook.
Why does everything needs to be cloud-based.
I don't sync every day, but neither use outlook on everyday basis.
I never experienced syncing problems on either calender/notes/contacts or mail.
I have read something about features that will be added in the near future into WP7 and hope that local outlook synchronisation is one of them.
Hi guys,
I`m new to WM7 and i`m trying t sync my contacts as well. I don`t use Outlook and idon`t have an account.Is there any other way to get my contacts on te phone?
Thanks
So the windows 7 software allows syncing to google calender, email and contacts?
I'm stunned that there is no native support for Outlook synchronization with Exchange - this is old school and what I consider a core component of any smartphone I purchase.
I've just bought a HD7 assuming it would have this functionality (why would I check for this on a Windows phone, next I'll need to check the thing makes calls), guess I'm going to have to sell it on.
There maybe Third party solutions but I can't imagine they're ever going to work as well as a direct sync with the Exchange server in my office, giving Contacts, Tasks, Calendar Items, etc.
Absolutely gutted.
B
Of course there's native support.
If you have an exchange server, you have ZERO to worry about.
The issue is people who use Outlook for Pop and Imap. Or people who just use it for tasks and contacts. Without a Hotmail Connector, there is no way to interface with Outlook like the old school Active Sync did.
Again though, If you have Exchange, it works exactly like it does on any other platform, if not better. The only thing lacking right now is Tasks.
Jimbonics,
I could kiss you. My wife wouldn't like it (and neither would you most likely, I'm stubbly)
I've been reading phone forums, reviews and specs for what seems like months trying to choose the right phone (offline voice command via bluetooth is essential for me but Android doesn't do it and other devices have flaky support) so I skim read this thread: my bad.
Thanks for making my day.
B