Sync GCal with iCal - "Spanning Sync" Beta Rating Options

[Swad]

Every so often there’s an app released that is so simple, but so helpful, you wonder how you lived without it. Spanning Sync may just be one of those apps, especially for those of us without .Mac accounts.

I love iCal. I love Google Calendar. So far, their relationship is a one way street, which can't be much fun for either of them. Enter Spanning Sync. It spreads the calendar love both ways - iCal to GCal and vice versa. Although the concept isn’t terribly complex (click here for a video walkthrough), Spanning Sync is a simple app I can’t wait to be released in full.

There’s a new (free) public beta out for the testing, available from the SS Blog. If you try it out (and you know you want to), make sure you let us know what you think!

[Takuro]

Just a warning: it's called a "beta" for a reason. Your Google calendar can potentially get wiped out. Just make sure you back everything up.

Personally, I haven't been able to get it to work. When I enter my login information for g-mail, I just get a very general message "Spanning Sync has encountered an error."

[Harlock]

I tried it and works on my hackmac. Brilliant. Now I only need an easy way to sync the contacts on my gmail accont with Address Book.

Is there an esay way that DOESN'T involve exporting the contacts on strange formats (CSV) and editing the fields manually? 3

[Island in the Net]

I have been using SpanningSync for some time now and it works well. Setup is very easy and one can sync multiple iCal calendars to a single or multiple Google Calendars.

Personally, I haven't been able to get it to work. When I enter my login information for g-mail, I just get a very general message "Spanning Sync has encountered an error."

This might be related to OCSP and certificates. Go into Preferences in Keychain. Select the Certificates tab and turn off OCSP.

[Tanner Lovelace]

Spanning Sync is very cool, but what they don't mention up front is that all your data has to traverse their servers to accomplish the syncing. If you're fine with that, great, but if it gives you pause you might want to think again. There's no real technical reason they need to see your data, ever.

[Urbz]

nope, but I bet it's some great free market research for other products...or even that they can sell to other companies to make $$$.

[Swad]

Just curious, how did you figure out it has to go through their servers? I agree, there's not really any need for that in what I can see...

[Takuro]

Just curious, how did you figure out it has to go through their servers? I agree, there's not really any need for that in what I can see...

It's a conspiracy to amass hundreds of usernames and passwords from Gmail to launch an e-mail spam wave big enough to make Nigeria shudder in fear.

But seriously: As far as I know, Google Calendar can send its data to iCal for syncing, but not vice-versa. A 3rd-party server has to be used to enable 2-way syncing. I could be wrong though. I hope I'm not, because in that case, this is a little suspicious.

I know Gmail can forward its emails to a second e-mail account (like AOL mail), but it can't receive forwarded e-mails from an AOL SMTP account. I think Google Calendar has the same 1-way forward/syncing limitation.

This post has been edited by Takuro: Feb 9 2007, 10:52 AM

[Takuro]

I know Gmail can forward its emails to a second e-mail account (like AOL mail), but it can't receive forwarded e-mails from an AOL SMTP account. I think Google Calendar has the same 1-way forward/syncing limitation.

Ok I think somebody from Google might be watching me. Now they've suddenly added POP/SMTP mail importing as a feature.

Erm... never mind. It's not so "one way" after all...

[Swad]

I just discovered that on Thursday, Takuro, which means I can finally move everything over to Gmail. That rocks.

[mcintosh_no_a]

I've been using SpanningSync for a few days, and whilst it's a handy product, there are 2 things stopping me from buying it:
- price is quite excessive. $US65 is about $AUS80, fairly hefty for what it is.
- it seems to randomly give me "SpanningSync encountered an error" when trying to authenticate. It's something to do with the keychain, but it bugs me that I can't just enter my gmail username and password and have it use that, rather than somehow integrate with the keychain. I realise there is a suggestion above and I'll try it out.

[QuietRiot]

I don't know exactly why I found this amusing, but, Swad, you're quoted on their webpage.

[Tanner Lovelace]

<br />Just curious, how did you figure out it has to go through their servers? I agree, there's not really any need for that in what I can see...<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Because Spanning Sync is very upfront about the data going through their servers. That's why it is billed as a subscription, not a simple one-time charge like BusySync. For myself, I'd prefer not to have my data going through someone else's servers between my computer and Google.