Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Schedule, Schmedule!

I can't believe I missed this one. I remember looking at Google Calendar some time ago and thinking "This is awesome! It's what iCal should look like when it's published to the web." I love iCal and it's publish feature, but if you ever want to reference it online, it's UGLY. If I wanted UGLY software, I would own a PC (Sorry, PC friends). There's also the limitation that you cannot make an update on the web. iCal is the only place where you can make changes. And you have to make the changes from the computer that publishes the particular calendar you want to edit. It's not really a syncing of your calendars so much as a broadcasting of them.

I've been using iCal to publish my calendars to my .mac account for a few years now so that my wife can subscribe to them and know what's on my schedule. It's really is a great feature. She publishes her calendar too so I can subscribe and know what is on her schedule.

Sometimes I will get an update for one of the kids' school functions and I have to email it to my wife because I can't update her calendar. She has to update it and then my iCal will grab the changes.

Today I happened upon Spanning Sync. This great new release introduces your iCal to Google Calendar and finally you can have true synchronization of your calendars on multiple computers and even edit it from any computer with Internet access. Watch the video and take it for a spin. There's a free 15 day demo available for download. Let me know what you think.

2 comments:

Mitchell said...

I used it when it was in beta. It was great, but I am cheap. I am not sure if i am going to stay with it or look for another option.
Mitchell

Geekbert said...

I already pay $99 a year for .mac. I'm thinking that I can get more for less money by using Spanning Sync for my calendar sync and Goggle's Picasa for my web albums. I knew .mac was high priced but I didn't want to switch piece-meal. I have been looking for a Mac-centric package solution and the Google, Picasa, Spanning Sync may be it. I'll know for sure in a few weeks.