Bender Blather

As I said on Friday, I did get the iPhone to sync it’s calendar with Google using NuevaSync.  I haven’t bothered with syncing mail or contacts, since I don’t keep those with Google, but for the sake of others who are trying to do the same, I’ll just spell out here the config I’m using.

With NuevaSync, you need to set up an account, so you have to create a username and password for it.  Once logged in, to set up the Google sync, you have to provide your Google username and password. That’s really it for the online setup.  On the iPhone, go to <Settings>, <Mail, Contacts, Calendars>, <Add Account…>, and select “Microsoft Exchange”.  Since in my case I wasn’t setting up email, the email address doesn’t matter.  I have an address in there that isn’t actually valid, so I know this is true.  The “Server” is “www.nuevasync.com”, and the “Username” and “Password” fields are your NuevaSync ones, not your Google ones.  You are logging into the Nuevasync service, remember, not Google directly.  NuevaSync has your Google login info to pass along to the Google service.  The “Description” field is just that, so put in whatever you like.  I also have “Use SSL” set to “ON”.  That’s it - that’s all you need to do.

OK, I know, I know, I’m giving my account password to someone I don’t know (NuevaSync).  Well, for me I took the risk, and it’s minor since I don’t have anything valuable there except my calendar, and that I have backed up.  For other people, though, you may want to think twice if you don’t have a usable backup or you have valuable info there, or you are generally risk-averse.  Nuevasync is apparently a service of Bozeman Pass Incorporated, located in (of course) Bozeman, Montana it seems.  I don’t have any connection with them, but at least it’s something to go on.  They do seem to have their hands in various open-source and consulting-type things, so it seems legit.

I do hate passwords, by the way.  more on that later.

BTW, GooSync says that it will doing this same thing very soon (see bottom of that page) as well.  Expect more compeition and advanced features (and security, hopefully) to follow quickly.  The first being full multiple calendar support (This NuevaSync method syncs all my Google calendars onto one in the iPhone).  Of course, you could just use MobileMe, but I don’t need all that for a hundred bucks a year.  Anyway, it seems to have it’s own problems with multiple calendars.