Synchronize multiple (primary and secondary) Google Calendars to Outlook and your iPhone/iPod Touch for free with OggSync.

• Download OggSync 3.22 for Outlook (direct link)
• www.oggsync.com

The iPhone and iPod Touch don’t support calendaring very well out of the box. Apple provides some rudimentary implementation for Microsoft Outlook on the Windows side (the majority of the user base is Windows-users – after all). And that’s pretty much where it stops. Most likely, when the iPhone SDK makes its debut the tables will turn once the third-party developers get their foot behind the door, but for now we’re stuck with Outlook.

The only way to get your Google Calendar(s) onto the iPhone* (i.e. without hacking) is to go through Microsoft Outlook. This means you’ll have to subsequently synchronize your calendars with Outlook and then with the iPhone. Furthermore, the latest version of the ‘Home & Student’ edition of Office [2007] doesn’t come equipped with Outlook anymore, like previous iterations used to. If you’re a Windows user and want calendaring on the iPhone, you’ll have to acquire Outlook first.

Lame, I know.

The secondary calendars dilemma

The problem with Google’s own syncing app for Outlook is that it only supports 1 calendar, the primary calendar. If you like a certain structure in your events, like I do, this will rapidly become a problem. If you want, it is possible to merge all your calendars into one. In that case, you can go ahead and sync to Outlook with Google’s own app.

In order to accomplish a merged primary calendar, you can:

• Move the events to your primary calendar, or
• Export your entire secondary calendar and import them into your primary calendar

(Google promises to make the multi-calendar feature available in the future, but doesn’t specify a date)

OggSync (Google-Outlook Sync) to the rescue

For those who refuse to make such a sacrifice (hell, I do) there’s a free app out there called OggSync. It’s an Outlook Add-In that supports primary and secondary calendars seamlessly and best of all, it’s free. It docks right into the standard Calendar view as a toolbar and provides you with a few options. Once you’re set, all you need to do is hit the ‘Sync’-button. Magically, GCal events will start to trickle into your Outlook Calendar…

After that, plug in your iPhone and sync away.

Pros:

• Full support for all your calendars
• Support for both Outlook 2003 AND 2007
• Pro version available, but optional
• Free!

Cons:

• A bit of a hassle, but heck, it’s better than nothing, no?
• No calendar coloring support [yet] in Outlook 2007
• An occasional freeze, but they don’t usually linger for long

Download OggSync 3.22 for Outlook (direct link)

Notes

*: You can also access your Google Calendars via the Safari browser on the iPhone. However, this is a static view and means you cannot add or edit events. Furthermore, you will need WiFi availability in order for this work. Experience has shown you don’t usually have wireless around when you need that desperate peek at your calendar.

Over the weekend popular tech sites got themselves engulfed in iPhone 2.0-related stores. Numerous live reporters/bloggers were present, yet they all had a different take on Apple’s presentation related to the soon-to-come 2.0 Software Update and SDK. In search of a neutral stance on things, I found Paul Thurrott’s rather lengthy write-up on the matter.

In case you’ve got an hour and a half to spare and are in for some Apple-bragging, the whole event is up on Apple’s website in both Standard and High Def (QuickTime) video. I wonder why anyone would like to see Jobs’ face up close in HD, though.

A concise version of the event

As always, Jobs starts his presentation with the regular bragging about how fantastic things are going. The iPhone is now n°2 (right after RIM>BlackBerry) in the US smartphone market with a 28% share and accounts for 71 percent of mobile browsing.

Enterprise support

The iPhone is finally going to natively accomodate corporate functionality, in hopes of winning over businesses to acknowledge the iPhone as a true smartphone. When Apple ships the 2.0 software update, the iPhone and iPod Touch will support the following enterprise technologies.

• Full support for Microsoft Exchange
• Push e-mail/calendaring/contacts
• Global address list support
• Cisco IPSec VPN
• Two-factor authentication by means of certificates and identities
• WPA 2 Enterprise, 802.1x
• Remote wipe (over the air)
• Mandatory usage of a PIN

To make this all happen, Apple licensed the ActiveSync protocol from Microsoft.

The software update will be offered to iPhone users for free. iPod Touch users will need to pay a nominal fee, probably (hopefully) similar to the $20 fee for the 1.1.3 update.

Software Development Kit

The SDK is out already and can be downloaded for free*. Apps will be distributed through iTunes via a developer program. Developers can join this program for $99 a year. Companies will pay more ($299, also yearly). Though this looks like a great deal, you must note that the SDK will only work on Macs. Developing for the iPhone/Touch will require more funds than you thought, since you’ll need to purchase a whole new computer, too.

As an introductory to the SDK, Scott Forstall (vice president of iPhone software) outlined the iPhone’s architecture, which borrows heavily from Mac OS X. In fact, it’s comprised of 4 main layers:

• Core OS
• Core Services
• Media
• Cocoa Touch

The most impressive thing about this all is that Apple ported the first three layers from OS X without a lot of modification. The media layer provides several interesting API’s including an embedded version of OpenGL. Electronic Arts has developed a demo version of Spore, which uses the accelerometer for navigation.

Developing for the iPhone will give you all the tools Apple uses for OS X and the native iPhone apps:

• XCode + iPhone emulator: Apple’s Mac OS X-based development environment
• Remote debugger: hook up an iPhone/Touch and debug live
• Interface Builder: toolset for creating the GUI for the app (by dragging around controls, like Visual .NET)
• Instruments: statistics on the debugging app (CPU, File System, Memory Usage)

All APIs are written in Objective-C, a language that resembles C++, C# and Java to a certain degree, but is substantially different from what most programmers are used to.

App Store & iTunes

Every iPhone and iPod Touch that applies the 2.0 update will get a new icon on the home screen. This will initiate the App Store, the portable version of the iTunes Application Store. A user would be able to view the inventory and download/install the desired application without ado. It looks and acts much like the iTunes WiFi Store, but will also work over EDGE. Every application you install will also be automatically updated, too.

Rev Split

Developers get 70 percent of the revenues. The other 30 for Apple will render the hosting and distribution. If a developer decides to provide its application for free, there won’t be any hosting costs either. Credit card fees and marketing costs will also be taken care of by Apple.

The iPhone 2.0 update will become available in late June this year.

*: The SDK has indeed already been finalized. I initially stated that it was still in beta, like the 2.0 software update. Thanks for the feedback, Clak.

Yes, it is possible! For the holiday season the Zune has been heavily discounted. Right now, it’s Amazon’s top selling music device. How is this possible? As I’ve just stated, price.

• 4 Gig iPod Nano: $135
• 30 Gig Brown Zune: $134 (!!!)
• 30 Gig Black Zune: $140 (!!!)
• 30 Gig Pink & Red Zune: $150

What’s more, the new Zune 80’s are marked at 17th place at Amazon and are sold out everywhere. Finally some real competition for Apple, huh?

The Zune 30 was the first music player Microsoft came out with and has been recently upgraded with the new firmware, which originates from the new generation of Zunes.

(Yes! It now supports podcasts!)

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader which is able to store sheer amounts of electronic books, but sadly enough still doesn’t deliver a high enough contrast to enable hassle-free, minimal eye-strain (black letters on white paper) reading.

As an observer sitting on the ledge looking out on the numerous Americans going berserk over a new gadget baptised The Kindle, I’m once more amazed at how frenzied some (many?) people let themselves become. Not only does it cost a hefty dime, I’m also dead sure it won’t be as portable as a good old paperback or even an iPod (for audiobooks). It might not be a fair comparison, but I just couldn’t imagine anyone accidentally sitting on their Kindle (forget about popping it in your back-pocket!), spilling coffee over it or forgetting it on some random airliner (like Leo Laporte did just recently with his Sony Reader — another piece of gadgetry).

That said, there are many appealing characteristics about this device. The Kindle might just inflict enough arousal exposure to force the other manufacturers (Sony?) to pitch in.

• EVDO Internet (not Wi-Fi): this is included with your subscription to Amazon and allows for immediate book purchases from the device itself. It can also automatically pull down the newspapers you’ve subscribed to.
• Long battery-life: Amazon claims the Kindle will keep on running for 1 full week on one charge — provided the user disables internet access completely (otherwise the battery-life would decrease to a mere few days).
• It resembles a paperback, at least size-wise.
• Free wireless access to Wikipedia.org
• “Holds over 200 titles” [Amazon Website]
  I wonder why they didn’t bother to translate this to a more understandable notation like Megabytes? What, do they deem their users to-be tech-un-savvy? I would assume the contrary.
• Dictionary, annotation-capabilities, semi-scalable fonts, …

That’s a lot of functionality for an e-book reader, that’s for sure. Certainly it’s interesting to have a lot disk space to play with (one could expand the capacity via SD-cards, as well) and it’s definitely a plus to use this thing when you’re not in the comforting vicinity of your computer — or — just far away from home. But also consider the following:

• (actually) Low-contrast display (in comparison with white paper due to the current state of E-Ink technology.
• Priceyness
• Lag between page-flipping
• Have a RSS feed you’d like to subscribe to? You can, if you pay for it.
• Amazon charges for viewing of own files

Good technology, rough around the edges | All in all, the Kindle looks like a good piece of technology, though still in 1.0. Obviously, Amazon wants this thing to catch on, so I’m sure they will have evolved the technology enough by version 2.0 or 3.0. For now, it seems it’s only for the tech-enthusiasts among us who also happen to be a bookworm.

If it were available to me, I don’t think I could be persuaded in being interested.

I, myself am more an audiobook-guy and I’ll tell you why you should be that too. Everyone already carries around at least two devices nowadays: a cellphone and an MP3-player (or better yet, the two combined into one), so why lug around another? Audiobooks are often very engagingly narrated and allow you to continue your activities without needing to hold a book. I “read” books while walking to the train station, on the train itself, on my walk to school, etc.

And no, it’s not just for lazy people.

For a more hands-on view on the Kindle: ArsTechnica has an extensive review of the Amazon Kindle, here.

P.S.: I wonder where they got the name.

Paul Thurrott has just published his review on the new series of Microsoft’s iPod competitors, the Zune 2. The first-generation has been augmented with a new hard-drive based player and two flash-based players, the Zune 4GB and 8GB. The new Zune’s have been completely rebuilt from scratch, hardware as well as software. I’m an iPod-guy, myself, but the way the Zune’s evolving, they’re looking more and more appealing. The Zune 2 is now a feasible alternative to the Apple iPod (at least from what I’ve seen).

Read Paul Thurrott’s extensive and honest review at WinSuperSite.com

They got the basics right. No more hour-long tedious setup-times and horrible Windows Media Player-esque PC software. The devices’ firmware has been upgraded to version 2.0 (2.1 by now I think) and adds podcasting, amongst other minor improvements. The PC-software has also been revamped and is admittedly gorgeous-looking. Kudos to Microsoft for making the software upgrades interchangeable with the 1st generation Zune as well. This way early adopters won’t feel cheated and are improved for their loyalty.

The copy-cat feeling everyone had with version 1 should fade away now, as MS is trying to innovate in a space that’s ruled solely by Apple. No matter how evil Microsoft may look, they entered the market and a year in, they’ve become number two and surpassed all other competition. Quite and achievement, if you’re honest.

Dell gear is sturdy stuff, but as of late, the online sales model has become the culprit of Dell’s previous success. It is indeed so that consumers like to see and feel their investment, prior to definitively leaping into a sale, so it’s no more than logical to move to retail again. Ordering online has its benefits, but lagging deliveries have had to tendency overshadow.

clipped from arstechnica.com Dell has reached a deal with the office supply chain Staples to offer Dell desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, ink, and toner. Staples will begin selling Dell products both in its physical stores and online at Staples.com The move by Dell marks another major shift into retail for the computer company When the Internet took off, Dell moved to a primarily web-based sales model. In 1999, Dell finally overtook longtime rival Compaq to become the largest seller of personal computers in the United States. the shift in consumer preferences towards laptops has resulted in a greater consumer preference for seeing and using the product before purchasing it. Dell’s growth fell behind competitors like HP and Gateway Dell then fell from the top spot to the #2 PC manufacturer, behind HP. CEO Michael Dell promised “quite aggressive” moves into retail earlier this year, and Dell has already begun selling PCs in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.