Thank you, three hour nap! I am so happy that I was awake.  I have been waiting for this app since I got my iPhone 3G at the end of August. Needless to say, I promptly purchased it using the App Store on my iPhone and got it all set up with my Google Calendar information (for calendar sync) and my Toodledo account (for to-do sync).

I had already set up my GCal to sync with my Outlook and gotten Toodledo populated with my tasks earlier this week so that I would be prepared for Pocket Informant once it was released. I’m so glad I did, and I’m glad that PI chose the services it did to use with sync out of the box.

Syncing both my tasks and calendars went flawlessly and I am really impressed so far. A full review is forthcoming, but I just had to express my joy. I have missed having a good calendar application at my fingertips! I suppose now I have absolutely no excuse for being disorganized…

I’m not a huge fan of the built-in iPhone calendar–it is functional, and I have it syncing with my Google Calendar via NuevaSync, but otherwise it’s nothing to write home about.  I’m used to a much more robust calendaring setup, and I’ve really had to do some work to make this simplified setup useful to me.  I am looking forward to having my categories back, as well as other great PI features that I’m really missing.

Pocket Informant for iPhone won’t be as fancy as Pocket Informant 8 for Windows Mobile is, considering that it’s written from the ground up instead of being a direct port.  That’s really a benefit to the end user though, because 1) it’ll be more solid from the get-go and 2) it really shows that the developers care about the iPhone platform enough to do the work the right way.

One of the things I’m most excited about is that Pocket Informant will sync with Google Calendar for calendar sync, and Toodledo for task sync.  This is how the developers are getting around syncing issues and lack of access to the iPhone databases for the calendar.  I hate having to sync my phone up to the computer on a regular basis because I am very used to syncing to the “cloud” now.

I personally can’t wait for the program–I know that the delays are due to Alex & company at WebIS doing the best job they possibly can, and that the road to developing such a feature-rich app is never a smooth one.  Even though Alex has said on his blog that he’d love to have it 100% complete by the end of the month, it’s probably heading our way sometime right around Macworld (January 5-9) or shortly thereafter.  I think it’d make a great birthday present for me…so hopefully I’ll get an iTunes gift card from the birthday fairy that I can put towards it!

Pocket Informant for iPhone will retail for $19.99 and will be available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.  For more information, visit http://www.pocketinformant.com.

The best parts about having a WM phone are the always-on email and web connectivity and having my full calendar and contacts lists available to me no matter where I am. I am constantly going to client meetings and working off-site, so the ability to access my email and calendar on the go is huge to me. Since things always change, I needed the calendar and tasks to be in constant sync with my other computers. Thanks to the great mobile software community, I was able to figure out a quick and easy way to get my Windows Mobile phone to sync with Google Calendar over my T-Mobile GPRS connection:

1) Pocket Informant – The built-in Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts apps are good, but they’re just not quite as robust or as sleek as I want them to be. That’s why I’ve been a user of Pocket Informant almost as long as I’ve had a PDA. The latest version, Pocket Informant 8, has added a lot of features that make it great for a touchscreen PDA phone. It allows me to manage my calendar, tasks, and contacts any way that I want–it’s very customizable and I love that! I have my personal views set up for easy access to all my important information at a glance.

2) GooSync – GooSync is the best free solution available for syncing your Windows Mobile calendar with GCal. The free version of GooSync allows bi-directional sync of one calendar, which is all I’m rocking at the moment. In the future, I might like to separate my calendars into business vs. personal, or even break down my work calendars by client or project. If I end up doing that, GooSync offers a yearly plan that allows you to sync multiple calendars, as well as contacts and tasks. I may upgrade just to get the auto-sync feature enabled on my GooSync account–my only complaint is that you have to manually sync instead of just counting on it to sync in the background. GooSync is also available for many other devices, including any mobile phone that can run Java programs.

3) MilkSync – Since I’m such a big fan of using Remember the Milk for managing my tasks, I upgraded my RTM account to RTM Pro.  It’s only $25 a year, which I consider to be a web service sweet spot. RTM Pro adds a great advanced feature set, including MilkSync for Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices. It allows for bi-directional sync of tasks between the task application on the WM device and the web-based RTM account. I have it set to do a background sync every two hours so that I always know what I have on my plate.

These programs work seamlessly to keep my calendar and tasks updated on my Windows Mobile phone. I could not be happier with the solution–now I can walk into any meeting with confidence, and work off-site without worrying that I’m forgetting an appointment or deadline. Syncing my information without having to use a go-between (i.e. ActiveSync or Missing Sync) means that I’m never tied down.

How do you keep your devices and your calendar in sync? Talk back in the comments.

I wanted to make sure that I always had access to my schedule and tasks on the eeePC, and that any changes or additions I made on my calendar there would be reflected across all my devices. So I set out in search of the perfect Ubuntu solution for my eeePC, and this is what I ended up with:

1) Thunderbird + Lightning – I already used Mozilla Thunderbird for my email needs, and had tried its partner Sunbird (the separate calendar tool) with little luck. I just can’t stand having separate programs on such a small device. I don’t want to have to move to another window or virtual desktop to go between my mail, calendar and tasks. So, I decided to try the Thunderbird calendar plugin Lightning to bring the calendar functionality of Sunbird right to Thunderbird.

Right away, I liked Lightning better than Sunbird. Sunbird never seemed to work quite right for me–the views were all off and it froze up on me a lot. I really liked having it integrated into Thunderbird, which I always have open on my second virtual desktop.

However, due to the limitations of the eeePC’s smaller screen, I had to adjust things so that I would have the best possible layout. Thankfully, one of my favorite extensions for Firefox on the eeePC is also available for Thunderbird–Tiny Menu consolidates the menu bar into one small drop-down menu. Once I had Tiny Menu installed, I re-arranged the toolbars until I had all the icons I needed for email, calendar, and tasks on one row. That freed up a lot of visual space and made Lightning much more usable for me.

2) Google Calendar – GCal is the syncing conduit for all my devices. There is no “perfect” solution, but thanks to GCal I feel like my system comes pretty close. I really appreciate that they open up their API so that people can create syncing solutions that make it simple to keep everything updated.

3) Provider for Google Calendar – Once I had Lightning all set up, I had to figure out a way to get it to sync with GCal. The expandability of Thunderbird and Lightning once again saved the day, and I installed the Thunderbird add-on Provider for Google Calendar. It requires Sunbird or Lightning to be installed, and enables bi-directional sync between the calendar program and GCal. It works effortlessly for me.

4) Provider for Remember the Milk – The one fault with Google Calendar is that it doesn’t have an integrated task list. However, there is a fabulous web-based task manager called Remember the Milk that fills the gap nicely. It has also offered up its API so that people can create great applications that interface with the web tool. Thunderbird add-on Provider for Remember the Milk allows you to sync tasks in Lightning with your task list in Remember the Milk. It’s not perfect–things like tags don’t carry over, for instance, but it is more than functional for what I need. I look forward to further development that will hopefully do things like sync tags in the future.

So far the only problem I’ve had is a recurring appointment not showing up correctly. Otherwise, it’s worked flawlessly with GCal and my other devices. How do you keep your life in sync? Talk back in the comments.

However, in my work life, I can’t help but be as organized as I can. I rely heavily on email, because often times it drives my daily tasks as well as provides a clear documented line of communication between me and my clients. I think it’s that way at almost every company in the modern age–live and die by email. I also use the Outlook Calendar a lot for scheduling client meetings, internal kickoffs, and more.

We have a documented project process that we follow for every client project, and I have the elements in place on my computer at work to get those things set up and completed. However, I am forever writing new to-do lists in the margins of my Levenger Circa notebook (my best analog tool at the office!) and I really hate trying to keep a paper datebook because my timelines for projects tend to be very fluid when there are delays, hiccups, or changes in scope.  I also hate having to change all my Outlook calendar entries when a project’s timeline changes, because somehow it never seems to sync up right to my PDA phone or iCal on my Mac at home.

I know I’m not the only one who has sat down with their various daily driver gadgets and thought, “Surely there has to be a way to make it all talk to each other!” There doesn’t seem to be one outstanding solution that will handle all needs for all platforms–yet. I think it’s coming, I HOPE it’s coming soon, but I can’t wait for it to arrive. I need a solution NOW.

I use the following devices every day:

• Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone running WM 5.0
• PC at work running Windows XP
• Power PC Mac at home running Leopard
• eeePC running Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

I think I am slowly but surely figuring out the way that I can get everything to connect and sync together without trying to sync the PDA phone with any computer (a nightmare on Mac and Linux, annoying even on Windows) and across the multiple software platforms.

I have the first three “phases” of my calendaring setup completed and working, which I’ll document in more depth tomorrow.  So far, I have the eeePC, the work PC, and the Windows Mobile phone all communicating to the same central hub that I have set up in Google Calendars.

Up next, part one–tweaking out Thunderbird on the eeePC to be a robust calendar and task solution!