Hawk Wings » syncing

EventSync: Sync iCal and facebook events

Tim Gaden — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:37:05 +0000

James Frye has written a small app that syncs facebook events into iCal, so that you can integrate your facebook invitations with the rest of your calendars in one view.

Packaged up as a stand-alone app, it first authenticates into your facebook account, and then retrieves a list of your events.

Its Preferences allow you to determine whether or not it lists events that you have accepted, declined, are unsure about or have not yet replied to.

You are then presented with a dialog containing the events:

Hit the sync button, and the app creates a new local calendar in iCal called “facebook events”, displaying all your “facebook dates”.

Because it is all listed in one new calendar, it’s easy to delete them again—say, hypothetically, you have a student who has (by mistake?) created a 21st birthday party that lasts for a month. It’s easy to undo the sync again.

James is working on EventSync 2.0 which will display the flyers and images associated with the facebook events as well.

EventSync is donation-ware and can be downloaded from its own web site.facebook, ical, events, syncing, social networking, not apple mail, not mail.appSimilar Posts:

Syncman 1.1: Address Book-Gmail sync app gets new features

Tim Gaden — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:37:15 +0000

The recent 10.5.3 update introduced built-in syncing with Gmail Contacts in Address Book.

Despite this, developers of third-party Address Book-Gmail syncing apps are soldiering on. Both SpanningSync and Syncman developers point out that 10.5.3 offers this only for Leopard users and, even then, only for Leopard users with an iPhone or iTouch device.

Jeff Nichols, Syncman developer, has just released a new improved version of his sync app, lending credence to his claim that Wateree (his software firm) is a “small and agile company that can adjust quickly to our customers needs and desires”.

Syncman 1.1 can now be configured to run as a menubar utility and to load automatically when you fire up Mac OS X.

Behind the scenes further tweaks have improved the way Google Talk address are mapped to Jabber addresses in Address Book, and improved treatment of how Address Book’s Last Name field is handled.

But the number one request of users was for scheduled syncing, and Syncman delivers on that too.

The Preferences allow you to set the period of the sync and to customise the level of confirmation you want before it makes any changes:

Confirmation is another nice feature of Syncman, that is lacking in Address Book’s default sync option. As Jeff puts it:

Syncman respects the effort you’ve put into maintaining your Address Book, and therefore gets your confirmation before making any changes that could potentially cause you a whole bunch of headache.

So Syncman offers a confirmation dialog displaying potential changes before it makes them:

SpanningSync has also recently launched a 2.0 beta of its software, which is addition to syncing iCal and Google Calendar, will also sync Address Book data, including photos (Syncman is promised to have this feature soon too). The beta is free (but is a beta, so backup!).

SpanningSync costs either USD 25 for a year’s subscription or USD 65 for a once-off, unlimited licence.

Syncman is shareware and costs USD 15 (€9.95). You can get a 30-day free demo from Wateree’s web site. address book, gmail, google calendar, syncing, menubar, contacts, scheduling, nimble agile developersSimilar Posts:

BusySync now syncs iCal over the Net, Google Calendar syncing not far away

Tim Gaden — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:47:38 +0000

BusyMac has released an update to its BusySync software, which adds the ability to sync iCal calendars over the internet. The company has also released a public beta of BusySync 2.0 (due in February) which will add syncing between iCal and Google Calendar.

Previously, BusySync users were limited to sharing calendars over a local network, but now distance is no obstacle. With the BusySync Preference Pane installed, users are able to view, edit and manage shared calendars remotely, without the need for a .Mac account.

Options to allow and control the sharing are provided in the Preference Pane:

BusySync 1.5 costs USD 19.95 and is available from the developer’s web site .

The company’s press release for the 1.5 update gives more details of this clever utility.

In addition, BusyMac has launched a public beta of BusySync 2.0. It promises Mac users “bidirectional synchronization between iCal and Google Calendar, providing web based access to your calendars from anywhere”:

When it is released in February, it will provide a cheaper option than SpanningSync , which costs USD 25 for a 12 month subscription and
USD 65 to purchase outright. BusySync 2.0 will cost USD 24.95.

You can sign up to be added to the public beta trial on the BusyMac web site.ical, productivity, google, calendar, syncing, dotmac, spanningsync, busysyncSimilar Posts:

Killer list of Google Calendar tips

Tim Gaden — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:13:13 +0000

Christina Laun at VirtualHosting.com has posted a killer list of 50 tips, scripts, extensions and hacks to make the most of Google’s Calendar service.

She starts off with some basic tips, keyboard shortcuts, integration with Gmail, reminders and so forth.

Things get more interesting for seasoned users with her collection of 15 (mostly Greasemonkey) scripts that offer skinning, interface streamlining and more, including the Better Gcal script, which combines several of the most useful scripts (Ã la Gina Trapani’s Better Gmail Firefox extension).

Finally, she provides a list of Firefox Extensions, hacks and some syncing utilities that help Outlook users and others get the most of Gcal. She doesn’t mention BusySync’s public beta that offers iCal-Gcal syncing or Spanning Sync , but I guess you knew about those already.

If you use Goolge’s Calendar, you will want to bookmark Christina’s collection of tips for sure.not mail.app, not apple mail, google, calendar, tips, scripts, greasemonkey, web 20, ical, productivity, firefox, syncingSimilar Posts:

FacebookSync: facebook plugin for Address Book

Tim Gaden — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:54:40 +0000

FacebookSync syncs data between your Address Book and facebook account. It used to sync a lot of data (email addresses, IM details, phone numbers, etc) until facebook pointed out that this was a breach of its terms of use.

It still does a number of useful things though. It can add facebook profile pictures to Address Book contacts who have no photo, also address information.

Fire it up and you are asked to authenticate your facebook account. Then it delivers a list, comparing information about friends in your facebook account with your Address Book contacts, noting the differences:

You can then select sift through the contacts manually to select which Address Book contacts you would like it to update, or use the buttons on the right for a batch job.

It’s very clever. If you are addicted to Mail.app’s ability to display a photo of the author in the top righthand corner of each email, which somehow (for me) turns emails into conversations with real people, you will love it. Finally, I have an Address Book photo for a photo-shy friend! (I could simply have taken it from her facebook profile page but that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.)

facebooksync is freeware and and you can get it from the developer’s web site .address book, mail.app, apple mail, contacts, friends, facebook, syncing, social webSimilar Posts:

Spanning Sync gets more reliable

Tim Gaden — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:38:44 +0000

Spanning Sync has released a new version (1.1.3) of its iCal-Google Calendar syncing utility, which offers several significant stability improvements.

In particular this release makes large syncing attempts more reliable and less memory-intensive.

Also, in Leopard it now allows the syncing of iCal-Address Book’s Birthday calendar, as well as CalDAV and subscribed calendars.

The developers are quick to point out, however, that Leopard users are still experiencing problems, ranging from data loss to minor annoyances. They offer a short and a lengthy explanation and some tips on Spanning Sync |
Google Groups">how to unstick Leopard iCal when things go wrong.

Spanning Sync casts USD 25 for one year and USD 65 for a life-time licence, although a free trial copy is available from its web site .gmail, google calendar, ical, address book, syncing, leopard, caldavSimilar Posts:

Do It 2.4: Nifty task list app gets more nifty

Tim Gaden — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:40:38 +0000

Do It is a very clever little task manager app with almost ever option one could hope for — iCal and Address Book integration, a Quicksilver plugin, syncing, lists for each context, skins and more. (See the extensive review in an earlier Hawk Wings post).

The developer has just released Do It 2.4 which adds localisations for Russian, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch and Traditional Chinese, and a few other tweaks like smarter item sorting in its to-do lists.

Since I last looked at it, other new features have been added, including extra options for handling completed tasks:

This is an application worth checking out. If my heart didn’t already belong to MailTags , I’d be using it myself.

Do It is donationware and available from the developer’s web site .productivity, task manager, to-do lists, ical, address book, quicksilver, syncing, contexts, Similar Posts:

Do It: Nifty task app, Quicksilver, syncing, skins

Tim Gaden — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:07:44 +0000

How I haven’t seen this before, I don’t know.

Do It (formerly known as ToDo) is a very nifty, tricked-out task or to-do management app that features everything but the kitchen sink — Address Book integration, Quicksilver plugin, syncing, lists for each context, skins and more.

In the app’s readme file, the developer describes it as “a small application to manage categorized to do lists. Each to do item can be linked with a file on your computer, a URL, such as the address of a web site, or a contact from your address book. The linked file or URL can be opened directly from the Do It window.”

The interface is nicely done.

Clicking the orange arrows moves from one category (or Context for GTDers) list to the next, and items within each are ordered by priority.

If an item has a file or URL linked to it, clicking the small arrow on the right jumps to the file or web page.

Double-clicking the item’s title allows it to be edited. To edit other details of the item, you need to click the “i” button at the bottom or use âŒ˜-I:

The details are stored in a “MailTags-like” smoked glass pane.

Hovering the cursor over “To Do …” slides down a Notes field and the “Deadline …” (not visible here because it is expanded already) opens up options to add reminders for the task in iCal, use an alarm and something called “Auto upgrade priority”.

I couldn’t work out what that last options does, but it sounds pretty cool.

Dragging a file from Finder or a URL from your browser over the Linked Item box stores it with the task. Here you see the URL of Do It’s web site, but it could just as easily be the TextMate draft of the post.

Do It is designed to be skinned and the developer maintains a list of user-submitted skins:

Quicksilver nuts like me will love the fact that the developer has written a Quicksilver plugin for Do It.

Install it from the Do It menu, quit and relaunch Quicksilver and creating to-do is just a Quicksilver activation keystroke away:

After hitting return, a supplementary dialog appears allowing you to assign the new to-do to the category or context or your choice:

In another nice piece of integration, Do It comes with an Address Book plugin which offers contextual menu options to set reminders to email or phone people in your Address Book:

A similar additional screen lets the reminder be assigned to the category of your choice.

Syncing with .Mac options are controlled within the app’s Preferences.

As if all of that is not unbelievable enough, Do It is freeware.

You can get a copy of it from the developer’s web site .not apple mail, productivity, ical, to-dos, task management, quicksilver, syncing, address book, plugin, Jeepers this is slickSimilar Posts:

Ghost Action GTD app: simple, slick, syncing

Tim Gaden — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 12:48:45 +0000

Ghost Park Software has released a simple, slick and polished app “for keeping track of your to-dos using the simple and stress-free Getting Things Done method”.

It comes from the “lean and mean” end of the GTD app market and looks more like Actiontastic than Midnight Inbox and other “eye-candy heavy” apps:

Context, Project and Action views provide powerful and flexible ways to carry your to-dos forward.

The developers give a lot of attention to syncing, which is good. Ghost Action has full two-way synchronization with iCal. It can also synchronize with any iSync-compatible device — a PDA, an iPod or a phone.

Syncing options are provided in the app’s Preferences:

One user provides Ghost Park with a full praise for its clever syncing:

I love the fact that Ghost Action recognizes theâ€¨project name in the to-dos imported from iCal (like â€œsome task [Project â€¨X]â€). Very handy, that means I can enter to-dos on my Palm and and they will be properly synchronized to Ghost Action through iCal. Cool! â€” Ksenia Marasan

Ghost Action is an universal binary and shareware (USD 19.95). You can get a free 14-day demo from the developer’s web site.

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote up “Ten Mac Tools for Getting Things Done“. Now it could easy be twenty Mac tools, all of them high quality solutions.

Ghost Action has the edge in sync options. Actiontastic gets brownie points for Quicksilver integration.not apple mail, getting things done, GTD, productivity, to-do, task management, getting organised, ical, syncing, isyncSimilar Posts:

SyncTogether: Syncing without .Mac

Tim Gaden — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:00:18 +0000

Mark/Space has released SyncTogether , the commercial version of the app formerly known as MySync, which syncs Address Book, iCal, Mail (and more) data between multiple Macs.

It’s quite clever as you can see from one, two, three previous Hawk Wings posts.

SyncTogether will interest two sorts of people; those with more than Mac and members of workgroups and families who need to keep data in sync across multiple Macs, whether they are on the local network or working remotely.

After establishing a main server and workgroup, registering other Macs to sync to and choosing what data to include, its interface allows for easy control of the sync process:

While it was in development MySync was freeware. SyncTogether is not; a licence for up to three Macs costs $49.95.

But make sure you read the list of known issues before parting with your money.

If you are very hardcore or frightened by the price tag, take a look at “Making your own .Mac“.

You can download ~~a 14 day demo~~ it from the Mark/Space web site .

UPDATE: Apologies. I could have sworn that I was rewarded with a screen mentioning a 14 day demo when I clicked “register later”, but I was hallucinating.mail.app, apple mail, ical, address book, syncing, dotMac, .Mac, appleSimilar Posts: