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.