It works by taking a CSV file of your exported Gmail contacts (which you need to create first), and comparing it to the contacts in your Address Book. Any contacts not found in the Address Book are added.

Contacts in Address Book but not in Gmail are added and the merged CSV file is then imported back into Gmail.

All of this and more is explained carefully in a ReadMe file for the script, which you should read before using the script.

As Benjamin explains, the script is a labour of love (he wrote it initially for his girlfriend) and is not widely tested. He welcomes feedback on how it works for you. You’ll find an email address on his web site.

ABGMerge is donation-ware and is available from Benjamin’s web site .mail.app, apple mail, address book, gmail, email, merge, contacts, synchronization, GoogleSimilar Posts:

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It also allows you to make full use of other MS Exchange features like booking people or resources for meetings, responding to meeting requests and viewing Free/Busy time.

Calendar synchronization is controlled from the app’s main window:

GroupCal 3 brought compatibility with 10.4.

GroupCal 3.01, released on Saturday, fixes a significant problem in 3.0 in which Exchange “Tasks” (i.e. iCal “To Dos”) were not being synchronized from Exchange into iCal. It also adds hotkeys to the Synchronize menu entries.

The latest version will run on Intel Macs under Rosetta but is not yet universal.

Designed for the business market, it comes complete with a corporate price tag. Licences range from USD 54.95 for a single user to USD 1.029.95 for 25 users. A free but crippled demo is available from the developer’s web site .

(I have no access to an Exchange server to test this. I even had to pinch the developer’s own screenshot).ical, events, todos, MS Exchange server, synchronization, rosetta, meeting requests, booking resources

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It uses the Apple File Sharing feature built into OS X to get its work done and also supports WebDav over SSL, so that iSynCal can automount network volumes.

iSynCal features numerous options, including the ability to automate the synchronisations, as a screenshot of the app’s main window shows:

Click image for a full-sized view

Because iSynCal reads and synchronizes calendar files based on the open iCalendar standard, the new version (5.5) offers full syncing integration between iCal calendars and those generated by Mozilla Sunbird or the Calendar extension for Firefox and Thunderbird.

iSynCal is shareware (USD 25) and a demo is available from the developer’s web site .ical, sunbird, thunderbird, syncing, synchronization, webdev, SSL, calendars, .Mac, icalendarSimilar Posts:

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You can also add other customized Address Book date items to iCal and even add birthdays for people for whom you don’t have a separate Address Book card.

The interface windows demonstrates most of the app’s options:

You can set the kind of alarm that iCal will provide (email works best for me) and choose the advanced notice you need.

After importing the events are fully-editable so that you can customize them or add notes.

Dates to iCal is donationware and is available from the developer’s web site .ical, address book, birthdays, syncing, synchronization, datesSimilar Posts:

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Plaxo has released an updated beta (beta 2) which contains several new features and bugfixes. It now includes an uninstaller, data caching to improve performance within Address Book, better handling of Groups and the “Contact History” features is now enabled.

The beta is available from Plaxo’s web site . You must have a Plaxo account to use it.address book, plaxo, plugin, contacts, synchronizationSimilar Posts:

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This will allow Mac users to sync their calendar and contact data with Zimbra’s web-based interface. It seems to offer a solution for those who fear too great a gulf in Web 2.0 services between server-side data-storage and users’ computers.

The screenshots featured in the announcement show that the beta is already well-developed and offers significant user control over the synchronisation:

The beta test is only open to Zimbra Network Edition or Network trial users. The Open Source Edition is not supported.

Users who qualify can contact their Zimbra sales rep to register their interest.

[Thanks, sjk]Zimbra, ical, address book, mail.app, apple mail, web 2.0, synchronization, beta, emailSimilar Posts:

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The Plaxo service allows you to synchronise contact information, to update the information of contacts who are also Plaxo members automatically and to ask for updated contact information from others.

The idea is to keep ahead of the endless changes in phone numbers and email addresses that cause you gradually to lose contact with people.

With the plugin much of the work of keeping your contact information current is made automatic. Its preferences allow you to “set and forget” the synchronisation and update options. It also adds a collapsable pane to each Address Book contact that enables you to manually request an update on contact information and displays a history of your communication with that person (this feature is “coming soon”).

Last year Plaxo struck a deal with AOL to manage the contact information for AOL’s Triton Instant Messaging application. Unlike some other apps, Plaxo has also opened up its API to third-party developers.

Services like this are not for everyone. It’s not for me. Despite Plaxo’s strong privacy policy, I’m not happy loading up my contact information into some third-party’s database.

Oddly, I do almost the same thing hourly with iSync and don’t think twice about it. Somehow I trust Apple more. I’m such a babe-in-the-woods.

But if you are interested in testing out a service like this (you can delete your Plaxo account and all your information entirely if you change your mind), download the beta of Plaxo’s Address Book plugin and give it a try.plaxo, contact management, address book, plugin, synchronization, AOL, contact information, email addressesSimilar Posts:

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It will deliver an excellent and very useful improvement.

The developer Scott Morrison sent me a preview screenshot of the plugin’s new information panel:

As you can see, MailTags 1.2 will feature synchronization with iCal.

Scott writes, “I have most of it done.”

“It works so that if you change the event in iCal (change name, complete status, due date, etc), MailTags will update it in Mail when you revisit the message.”

This is exactly the kind of integration between iApps that works for me (compare CRM4Mac).

Now you will be able to create an iCal ToDo from a message while you are looking at it. No cutting and pasting, no AppleScript.

With MailTags 1.2, Mail.app users will be one step closer to enjoying the seamless interaction between iCal, Address Book and Apple Mail that makes it an even more serious alternative to Entourage.

It will also make MailTags an even more valuable tool for “Getting Things Done” (GTD) with Mail.app.

Scott adds, “I will get this with bug fixes and the universal version out as MailTags 1.2 hopefully in the next 2 weeks.”

MailTags 1.2 is going to make a real difference to the way I work with Mail.app. I’m looking forward to it.

When 1.2 is released, you will be able to get it from Scott’s web site.mail.app, apple mail, ical, synchronization, integration, todos, applescript, mailtags, universalSimilar Posts:

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