So it turns out that not only do I have Bluetooth on my laptop (never turned on), but I have Bluetooth on my Palm Zire 72 as well. What does this mean? It means that it might actually be possible for me to use GooSync to sync my Google Calendar with my Palm, without having to buy the third-party PPP software from Softick PPP.

And yes, it turns out that I can actually pull this off, but it took me the entire afternoon to figure it out. And much chicken bone waving. It might actually be worth it to just buy the Softick PPP if you’re not into installing and tweaking mumbo jumbo. But give this a shot first, it only took me, say 3 hours.

The first thing I did was start surfing the Web, looking for people that had done this before. What I found was scary - it seemed possible, but all the web sites were scary, full of arcane details and mysterious mumbo jumbo. Here’s a look at how I pulled it off.

First, I turned on my Bluetooth adapter (I always leave it off, since I don’t want people connecting to me accidentally, or wasting my battery power. I’ll also admit that I know absolutely nothing about Bluetooth, so turning it off was probably safest.) I turned it on on both my laptop and Palm. Then I messed around for half an hour or so, trying to get it to work on my own. No go. Back to the arcane instructions online.

My laptop is a ThinkPad, with integrated Bluetooth, so I focused on web sites that discussed this hardware. Some places, like this forum, said that it was bad to have both my IBM device, and the Microsoft device running at the same time, i.e.,

Check your device manager to see if Microsoft Enumerator is listed under the Bluetooth Devices listing. If it is you’ll have to get rid of that.

Later on in the forum post is a link to instructions at Microsoft on how to disable the Microsoft device. I followed them, but I’m not sure it was effective. I seem to recall that the next time I rebooted, the second, i.e., Microsoft, device was back. Shaky ground here.

What I did like about the forum post was that it gave a good link to a Thinkpad download, which I did end up using later on. The major confusion that I had was that originally, my device manager said that I had an IBM Integrated Bluetooth III device. But the download specifically says “Integrated Bluetooth II” software, which seemed to be going backwards.

Anyway, the most help I got was from this particular page at Whizoo, where the author explains how to set up a Bluetooth connection so that you can connect to the Internet through your Palm. It was a little daunting, especially since his screenshots didn’t look anything like what my computer looks like. And he kept saying that if you don’t see such and such, then you’re set up wrong.

So, I puttered away for a while, trying to make it work somehow. Finally, I just bit the bullet. I turned off my Bluetooth radio on the laptop. I disabled the two devices, so that there was no more Bluetooth visible in my hardware devices. Then, using the download page above, I downloaded the IBM Integrated Bluetooth II software exe and ran it. This creates a directory on your machine, full of goodies. I went to that directory, said, “the heck with it” and ran the setup file. It installed some stuff, and then all of a sudden, I had an icon on my desktop for “My Bluetooth Places”. This was new. I also had a different icon in my taskbar - one that changes colour depending on whether or not I have a connection happening.

Here’s what my Hardware Devices look like now:

Here you can see my new Bluetooth Places:

And here’s what my Palm looks like when it’s connected:

And here’s the taskbar item when connected:

Now my computer looked (more) like the screenshots discussed on the instruction page. I scrolled down the header “PC Setup for sharing the Internet”, maybe a tenth of the way down the page, and started following the instructions from there. These instructions are very clear, and I had no problems at all. I managed to set up my desktop properly, then followed the instructions for the Palm side of things. Again, no problems. At the end of it, I was able to connect to the Internet through my Bluetooth. I gave GooSync a try, and it worked perfectly.

On the same, page, about two-thirds of the way down is a header called “HotSyncing“, where the author describes how to do a HotSync via Bluetooth. He doesn’t recommend it, because it’s not as fast or stable as with a USB cable, but the instructions still work. I just like being able to know that I can do it, if I want to.

If you’re interested, here are some of the links I used while figuring this out:

• Whizoo - Bluetooth Adapter Setup for Palm Tungsten…
• How to share your Internet connection via Bluetooth to a Palm OS device
• How to Hotsync your palmOne Zire 72 over Bluetooth
• use bluetooth headset with t42?
• Integrated Bluetooth II software for Win… - ThinkPad…
• Microsoft - How to remove Bluetooth wireless device support in WinXP SP2

If this is something you’re dying to try, give it a whirl - hopefully this post, and the pages I’ve linked to will help you out. If not, don’t worry - you can still use (quite easily, I might add) the PPP functionality offered through Softick PPP. It’s extremely easy to install and use.

Last week, I posted about how I wanted to be able to sync my Google Calendar to Outlook, and then to my Palm. Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I’m still trying to get my Google Calendar and Outlook to talk directly, but I have found a way to cut out the middle-man. Today, I’ll tell you how you can sync Google Calendar directly to your Palm (or other handheld device).

There’s a lovely little service out there called GooSync, which “will seamlessly synchronize almost any mobile device with your Google Calendar.” It’s a great service, with two flavours:

• Free Service: Let’s you sync all-day appointments, recurring appointments, for a limited range (-7 to +30 days). As the name implies, it is free.
• Advanced User Account: This one takes it up a notch, with extended date range, support for multiple calendars, and even for shared calendars. I found this one a little pricey, especially since it’s a subscription system. You pay £19.95 (Pound Sterling) for 12 months. That didn’t sound too bad, until I did the conversion - $38 USD per year.

I signed up for the free version. Unfortunately, the total cost of syncing is not free, for someone like me, owning a Palm Zire. My Zire doesn’t “do” the internet, unlike many other devices out there. So, if I want to be able to sync, I have to do it through my cradle. As GooSync says, “the Palm HotSync software does not allow an IP connection to be established through the cradle/cable.” But not all is lost! GooSync points you towards a nifty piece of software from Softick.com, called SoftickPPP, which will provide the necessary functionality for you. And this is where the cost comes in. You could still use GooSync for free, but you’ll have to pony up $24.95 USD. On the other hand, this software lets you do more than just sync your Google Calendar. You’ll now be able to do other internety things, like surf the web, receive/send mail etc., while your Palm stays in its cradle.

Unlike the grief I had when trying to get Google Calendar synced with Outlook, this technique worked the first time I tried it. There are a few steps, but nothing onerous:

1. Download, install, configure Softick PPP. (Skip this step if your handheld device already talks to the internet.)
2. Sign up for a free GooSync account. During registration, you’ll select your handheld device, and be able to download a Palm installer .prc file, to put the GooSync client on your handheld. You also tie into your Google Calendar account.
3. Once you’ve got Softick PPP and the GooSync client on your Palm, syncing is easy:

1. Put your Palm into its cradle, or connect by cable.
2. Find the GooSync client program on your Palm.
3. Tap on the Start button. Because your Palm can now talk to the internet, it does so automatically, letting GooSync do its goodness.
4. Done. It really is that easy.

I really like this solution to my problem. First of all, I can actually synchronize my Google Calendar with my Outlook; I just have to go through my Palm to do it. (Doing so is easy - after you’ve done the GooSync on your Palm, do a regular HotSync.) In addition, it means that I’m not tied to Outlook. So, if I were to get a job where Lotus Notes was King, I could still have my Google Calendar on my Palm, without having to figure out a new solution.

Another reason I like this solution is that, although there are a few steps, especially if you need to put Softick PPP on your palm, once you’re set up - that’s it. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now (trial version of PPP), and I haven’t had any problems at all. Well, there was that time I forgot to connect my Palm to its cable, but that’s a user error ;) The whole process is clean. Yes, it doesn’t have autosync, but then again, neither does my Palm for its regular hotsyncing.

I’d have to say that the only downside is the cost of the advanced GooSync membership. I’m not a big fan of subscription-based pricing models, although I can see their attractiveness for the company providing them. However, even if I were willing to pony up some money every twelve months for the privilege of syncing to my Palm, there’s no way that I would be paying $40 USD every year. That’s way outside of my sweet spot, especially for something that really is non-essential for me.

I haven’t yet decided to commit to this solution though. I’m still harbouring a little hope that one of the Google Calendar-to-Outlook solutions pans out. However, I do like knowing that this solution is waiting for me, as soon as I decide I need it. After all, if I stay with the free version of GooSync, all it’s going to cost me is $24.95 for the Softick PPP software.

Update 17 Mar 07: I’ve received a lovely, helpful email from someone at CompanionLink, offering to extend my trial of that software, and help me figure it out. He’s also provided some additional information about their products. I’m out of town right now, but as soon as I get back, I’ll update the post and table. Check back in a couple of days :)

Update 18 Mar 07: I’ve updated the table below with the new CompanionLink information.

One of the reasons I was tied to Outlook in the past for keeping track of my hard landscape (calendar) and Next Action lists (todos) was because I wanted the ability to to have these things on my Palm.

Last year, I moved to a different system for my next actions - it consists of a text file and some Perl scripts + DOS batch files. More recently my primary calendar also became text-based, using Cygwin and Remind (more about this in some future post).

But I still want the link to my Palm. I’ve even gone so far as creating a Perl script to translate each of my NAs into a task in Outlook (one-way sync). And for quite a few months, I was duplicating my calendar entries, putting them both into my text file and Outlook. Plus spending much time making sure that they were manually in sync. What kind of foolishness is that?

I’ve since decided that I don’t need to have my NA list with me at all times. If there’s going to be a time where I think I might want that, I can just print out the current list (sorted by context even) and take it with me.

However, the calendar still remained a problem. I want to have a current calendar on me, so that when I need to set up an appointment some time in the future, I can do that.

There has been more and more talk about being able to sync Google Calendar and Outlook (or even straight to PDA). I’ve figured out a relatively easy way to get my text calendar into a format that Google can read. So now, it’s just a question of syncing Google Calendar and Outlook. Surely, among many options now out there, I can find a solution?

The Contenders

There are several applications out there, geared specifically to syncing your Google Calendar with Outlook. (I was only concerned about Outlook 2003, but at least one offers to handle 2007 as well, as well as back to 97).

• gSyncIt

• Available from some place called Dave’s Website, this appears to be a nice little app created by someone for his own personal use, and put out there for the rest of the world. It gives you a new toolbar in Outlook that you can use to configure your syncronization. Both manual and automatic syncing are supported. The date range is good - going back 365 days and forward 365 days. Only the default calendar is supported for two-way syncing, but this is supposed to be an issue with the Google Calendar API.

• This is an open-source project, the code for which is found on SourceForge. I found two blog posts explaining how to install and configure it. Here’s the original one, that even claims that the installation is tricky, and a second one that goes into even more detail. The Remote Calendars app allows a user to “subscribe, reload and delete a generic remote iCalendar from Outlook”; so it’s possible you could use this, even if Google Calendars wasn’t your intended calendar. Again, the range is good (+-365 days), and two-way syncing is offered for the default Google calendar. Autosync is available. Being open-source, the price is right too.

• This is a commercial product, with two flavours - light and pro. The light version limits you to a 7 day date range, and no autosync. The pro version boosts this to “any” date range, and gives you autosync. It also supports two-way sync, multiple calendars, and all sorts of other goodies, all for $25. This one seems to be the most feature rich.

• Another commercial offering; this one gives you a 14-day trial period. This one gives you the most potential targets: Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop, Groupwise. For $29.95, you get the ability to do two-way sync of your default calendar, including appointments, reminders, recurring events, details, notes, etc. 2007-03-18 17:49 Update from CompanionLink: They have two versions, “Lite” and “Pro”, the only difference between the two being that with Pro, you can sync to a different folder than your default Outlook folder. In addition, although CompanionLink doesn’t offer autosync support, it is possible to “manually” autosync using the task manager. Instructions for this are here. Finally, they’re looking into the new API for Google Calendars and are developing the ability to handle multiple calendars - current and future customers will be eligible for this upgrade, free of charge.

Summary

In order to help you decide if any of these interest you, I’ve created a small table, summarizing the features and prices of these products.

My Take

You may or may not have noticed a certain lack of enthusiasm in this post. That lack is caused by the fact that even though I really want to be able to use one of these apps (at this point in time, any one of them), I could not get a single one of these programs to work for me. Given that all four of them have failed for me, I’m assuming that there’s something wrong with my configuration, either with my Google Calendar (although even an empty calendar caused me grief), or my Outlook installation. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve got both .NET 1 and .NET 2 on my machine. Maybe these program’s don’t like the weather up here. Who knows.

I’ve spent a few hours here and there over the past few weeks trying to get any one of these working for me. No joy. I’ve scoured through the help/FAQ looking for answers. No joy there either. Here’s a description of the grief that each of these has caused me:

• gSyncIt: Installs; gives me a nice toolbar; lets me configure for my default Google Calendar. When it comes time to sync, I keep getting an “Index out of bounds error”. I’ve sent an email to the developer, hoping for some joy.
• Remote Calendars: I’ve gone through the installation process at least four times. Even though no errors ever occur, I never get it to start - there’s never a toolbar in my Outlook, even though there’s supposed to be.
• SyncMyCal: Like gSyncIt; installs and gives me a nice toolbar. Seemingly hangs when syncing. The one time that I let it run all the way through, got an “Index out of bounds error”. (Seems to do the same thing as gSyncIt, but much much slower.)
• CompanionLink: Tried installing it a couple of weeks ago, but could never get it to find my Google Calendar. When I went back to it today, my 14-day trial period had expired, so no more testing for this one.

Now, I’m now laying this out here to tell you to stay away from these applications - I’m just saying that they’re not working for me. Most likely, they will work for you. I’d love to hear from anyone who gets them to work for them - maybe we can compare notes.