Google Connects Calendar to iCal

Not long ago, our only good options to sync Google Calendar with iCal on a Mac was either CalDAV, or Spanning Sync.

Google ‘Simplifies’ CalDAV

This month, Google decided to give all us Mac users a little gift: a handy little application that syncs Google Calendar with iCal. It is based on CalDAV, but it doesn’t require the elaborate set-up and technical know-how CalDAV demanded.

Sync a BlackBerry with your Mac now!

Basically, the first thing that came to mind is the fact that now you can sync your iCal (all be it indirectly) with your Blackberry without using Pocket Mac. By syncing your iCal with Google Calendar, and automatically syncing Google Cal with your Blackberry, you don’t have to deal with the BB-Mac incompatibility that still exists at this time.

The Downside…

Although this new Google Application, called ‘Calaboration’, does make it easy to import your Google Cal into your iCal, but you do loose some functionality iCal offers if you want the calendar to sync both ways. If you are only using iCal as a Calendar viewer, and do all your editing in Google Cal, then there is no problem. However, Calaboration does not sync your iCal based appointments into Google Calendar unless they are added to your ‘Google Cal’ from within iCal. OK, I know this is confusing, so here is a little picture:

The bottom line is: whatever is added into any of the ‘Calendars’ only appears in your iCal, not in your Google Cal. If you want appointments to sync back into Google Cal, you have to add it to either one of the two ‘GOOGLE’ calendars you see in the picture.

How to Get Around the Problem

As I mentioned before, if you want to ensure a two-way sync you need to add events to a Google based calendar from within iCal. So if you want to avoid missing appointments in your Google Cal (or avoid them not being added to your BB!), then you need to delete all local iCal calendars, and set up only Google based Calendars.

Don’t forget to update your Blackberry to include any new calendars you set up though!

Another (better) option

If you want a cleaner and more organized result, then Spanning Sync is still a better option. Aside from the fact that Spanning Sync also syncs your contacts, it does a great job syncing your Google Cal and iCal. You can get a good deal on Spanning Sync by using this discount code. To see all six reasons Spanning Sync is still a favorite choice, see our review posted recently.

Which tool are you using to sync iCal with Google Calendar? Do you like my little ‘BB-iCal’ hack?