I have been going through the process of trying to get all my data synchronised across the different devices that I have. Cellphone, Laptop and the Web. I am considering the web as a device because it is like a device that is available everywhere.

Mail

So I am using Google Apps which gives me GMail and contact management. I love the web interface and because it has IMAP it easily syncs with outlook on my phone and with Evolution on my laptop.

Contacts

This was an interesting challenge. To sync with Evolution was no big deal, but syncing with Windows Mobile phone was. I tried to use OggSync but for some reason it never worked from my phone. The other option was to sync through the laptop. This can be done, Windows Mobile can sync with Evolution on Linux, however I experienced a lot of pain with it creating duplicate contacts and constantly running into conflicts so I decided to ditch this idea. The last option was to use one of the online sync services out there. I took a look at a few services before finding NeuvaSync. They have a service that looks like an Exchange Server, so using ActiveSync on my device I can point it to that server which in turn talks to GMail. It took about five minutes to get this setup and was by far the easiest option.

Calendar

NeuvaSync also gives me calendar syncing with Google Calendar. It works beautifully and finally makes using Google Calendar worthwhile for me. I had never bothered with it before, opting to use only my phones calendar. But it is nice to be able to edit it online. The calendar also syncs with evolution which is a again a no brainer to setup.

Tasks

I am trying to make more task oriented as I find it hard to know what I am supposed to be doing at any given time. Writing down tasks and just working through the list of priorities makes things a lot easier. I am using the built in task application on my phone and Remember The Milk to manage them online. RTM has an application to sync tasks called MilkSync, you have to pay $25/yr but it is nothing considering the benefits. On the laptop I am using Tasque which is a client for RTM so the data is the same. RTM ALSO comes with a widget for GMail so I can see tasks from there as well, now I have no excuse for not getting things done!

Offline Support

On my phone everything works fine without having to be connected to the net. Bizarelly this is a problem on my laptop. Evolution does not seem to copy the contacts or calendar locally so I can’t use that. And tasque stores everything directly in RTM so there is no local copy of tasks either. I am pretty sure that evolution is supposed to work offline to there must be something I am not doing right there. I am not sure about tasque. I might have to try a new program to get offline support for that one.

Conclusion

Overall I am quite happy. Since leaving dropping Outlook and switching to GMail it has been painful to not have data synced between devices. Using these services has made things a lot easier and at practically no cost. NuevaSync is currently free and RTM is cheap ($25 USD/yr). Everything else is open source and free.