Today I came across a service called NuevaSync. It allows you to sync calendars between Google Calendar, Gmail, Plaxo (which I don’t use actively, was just automatically signed up for from AIM a couple years ago), and mobile devices that support Exchange, like the iPhone and Windows Mobile-based devices. I thought about this after reading a little bit about the Chandler Project, an open-sourced project intended to compete with Microsoft Outlook. Scott Rosenberg worked on the project for three years and left before its first release, and has said, “For now, Google Calendar does the job for me.” I use Outlook at work, but not the Calendaring feature. I used to use iCal on my MacBook, which sync’ed nicely, but since my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced, I am back to using my PC as my primary machine, and my MacBook only when necessary. The only way Google Calendar would be useful to me would be if it synced with my iPhone.
Which it does, now, with NuevaSync.
Setup is a cinch.
Step 1: Click on the “sign up” link and enter your user info.
Step 2: Check your e-mail and click on the link.
Step 3: Sign in and set up your services.
Step 4: Configure your phone.
It’s a mobile-friendly site, so you don’t need to be on your computer to set this all up.
When you set up your Google Calendar service, it will take you to an official Google site where you confirm your access request. It appears this is all done through an API rather than screen scraping, so you don’t have to worry about NuevaSync having access to your password or any other information from your GMail account.
Unfortunately, I cannot go any further in this review as far as how well it works or how convenient it is. It turns out Apple syncs from a clean slate, so you will lose all your existing contacts and calendar information if you choose to use this service. I’m not willing to do this, but as iPhone updates come out in the future, I’ll keep checking back on this page to see if anything has changed.