My dad bought a TMobile G1 phone (the new Google Android phone). When I arrived at his house for Thanksgiving dinner, he proposed a deal: he would hang the Christmas lights on my house if I would figure out how to integrate (he didn't use that word, of course) his phone with his Outlook contacts, calendar, and email. Thinking I was certainly getting the easier end of this deal, I quickly accepted. Well, before I explain how I did it, let me just say that he finished about 2 hours before I did.
Furthermore, there isn't really a way to sync contacts (yet). Anyway, here is what I did:
First, I had to configure the Exchange server at his office for IMAP (good thing I manage his office's network). Turned IMAP on, opened the port through the firewall, and added the account on the phone. Easy.
Second, I started searching a way to sync the calendar. After much searching and contemplating, I finally decided to create a GMail account for him and use Google's Calendar Sync. No, it won't sync in real-time if his laptop isn't on, but no big deal. Moving on...
Ok, here I searched and tried everything. Maybe Plaxo? No, it's only a one-way snyc to Gmail. Tried SynContact, which looked promissing, but it kept bombing on me and I never could get it work work. Ultimately, I had to manually create a CSV of his contacts from Outlook and import them into Gmail. Fortunately, Google has released their contacts API, so hopfully someone will write something soon. If you come across this article and have any better ideas, I'm all ears.
Josh Phillips
www.provisionit.com
Saturday, November 29, 2008
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