GOOGLE: Calendars Are Meant To Be Free

One of the hardest things I faced when switching from my PC to the Mac back in 2004 was my addiction to all things MS Outlook. I had an Exchange server and was used to all that glorious synchronization. Entourage was not a solution (the notes and tasks would sync with the server but not back to MS Outlook on the PC). I then tried a 3rd party solution from Snerdware (I debated mentioning their name, but figured that you needed to know it to avoid it) that was thoroughly under-supported and still didn't do all I wanted.

Eventually I ditched any hopes of syncing with the PC world apart from using the web-based version of dotMac/mobileMe.

Then Google Calendar started supporting the CalDav standard. If you followed the instructions it worked well, but it was not exactly intuitive. It's worked so well, in fact, that it's one of the key reasons I decided to ditch mobileMe altogether (see my article on replacing mobileMe for free here).

So imagine my surprise when I read in Macworld today that Google has introduced a tool called Collaboration that makes syncing your Google Calendars with iCal a snap. If the instructions above were just too daunting, this tool will help you make the switch--and it's VERY painless.

And for my PC-using friends out there, if you've got Outlook 2003 or 2007 you can easily setup syncing with your Google calendars as well.

When the good stuff is free, why pay more?

- Hutch

Oh, and as an added bonus: If you're looking for information on all-things calendar/PIM-related check out calendarswamp.blogspot.com.