Sidingsound

Last October, I posted about a small problem which I was trying to work out: how to synchronise the calendars on our Mac and my Nokia N95 mobile phone, with Google Calendar.

Four months on, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t made much progress in the interim. To recap, these are the essentials of the setup which existed prior to last October:

• The N95 calendar synced “over the air” with Google Calendar via the GooSync service.
• The Mac calendar synced with the N95 via iSync on Mac OS X.
• The Mac can also update Google Calendar directly via iCal, thanks to GC’s CalDAV interface.

You may have worked out that Google Calendar acts here as the de facto “master” calendar, i.e. the primary copy of the calendar data. In this setup, the Mac doesn’t have a “local” copy of this data (it connects to Google’s server and displays what’s there), whilst the N95 does have its own copy of the data, but still treats Google as the “master” version.

This arrangement worked fine until last October, when GooSync ended its free service level, in favour of “GooSync Lite” (£5.99 per year). I haven’t renewed my subscription to date, as I’ve been prevaricating on what would be the best option—a lifetime subscription to GooSync Premium is £40, with a fair number of additional features, so that might be worth consideration. (The same service costs £20 for 12 months, and £30 for two years; how likely is it that GooSync might disappear within that time?)

So, at present, I can access Google Calendar via the Web, or via CalDAV (using either iCal on our Mac, or Mozilla Thunderbird (via the Lightning calendar add-on) on my Linux-powered Asus Eee 701 netbook). If I want my calendar synced to the N95, at present I would have to sync the phone with the Mac rather than Google; this is all well and good, but what if I am away from home and therefore unable to access the Mac?

I am also unsure whether iSync will transfer calendar items which aren’t located in the Mac’s own iCal database—i.e. because they’re on Google’s servers instead. For me, this is a wider issue: the Mac and netbook can only display the calendar if they have Internet access (more of a problem for the netbook, as the Mac stays at home). Therefore, I would like to find out whether it’s possible to sync the Mac and netbook calendars with Google (i.e. create synchronised copies on these machines of the events on Google), so that the events can be viewed and interacted with when the machines are offline.

I think I have a few options at this stage:

• “Admit defeat”, and cough up for a GooSync subscription. Otherwise known as the “path of least resistance”, at least this would sort out the N95/Google sync issue. If there are SyncML-compatible clients for Mac and Linux, I suspect GooSync Premium might also solve the “local copies on Mac and netbook” issue above, as GP allows up to four “devices” to use the service; this may require an email to GooSync to clarify.
• Sync the N95 with the Mac (and/or netbook) instead of Google. This would rely on a few “ducks in a row”: for one, clarifying whether iSync on the Mac needs the calendar items to be present in the Mac’s iCal database first. There is apromising-looking “one ring to rule them all” syncing utility for the Linux GNOME desktop—Conduit—which looks like it might be able to act as the go-between for Google, the netbook and the N95, but so far it appears that mobile phones are not yet supported explicitly (no doubt that will follow).
• Some combination of the above—e.g. GooSync for the N95, and other methods for the Mac and netbook.

So, the saga continues—just hope I can come up with a suitable solution before that vein in my head goes “pop”…

A couple of months back, I looked back on some of my “computing milestones” from the past fifteen years or so, and in passing, mentioned that for a couple of years I was the proud owner of a Psion Series 5mx.

Whilst I had time to write about how I was getting on the Internet with it in 2001 (via my then mobile phone—a Nokia 6310i, as I recall—via GPRS over an infrared link!), I didn’t mention another use for the Psion at the time: it was also my calendar, which I synchronised with Lotus Organizer (sic) on my desktop PC via PsiWin.

Of course, there’s little new in syncing a PDA with a PC/Mac—owners of handhelds have been doing this since the 1990s. However, after parting with my Psion I didn’t get back into calendar-syncing activity until acquiring my current mobile phone (a Nokia N95), in the summer of 2007. This syncs very nicely with our iMac (either over USB, or more often, wirelessly via Bluetooth), but it can also exchange data with calendar hosts on the Internet.

Since last year, I’ve been syncing Google Calendar with the N95 over the Internet (3G or WiFi, whichever is available). A sync setup has evolved over time between the iMac, the N95 and Google Calendar where:

• Google acts as the de facto ‘master’ calendar, mainly because until relatively recently, Apple iCal couldn’t update Google Calendar directly. Therefore, I set up iCal to “read” the GC data, and updated GC via either the N95 or the Web interface. (I just learned that iCal now supports “write access” to GC via CalDAV, of which more shortly.)
• Until now, the N95 has synced with Google Calendar over HTTP, via the GooSync online service. (You will note the past tense, the reason for which follows in a moment.) I also sync via HTTP to Nokia’s Ovi service, as it seems to me one can never have too many data backups…

The problem with GooSync, is that they have just discontinued their Free service, in favour of offering “Lite” and “Premium” packages. The “Lite” package isn’t ruinously expensive (about £6 a year), but being a bit of a cheap sort (!), I thought I’d look around for free alternative solutions for syncing between Google Calendar and my N95, or even completely different approaches.

Well, at time of writing, I’m still looking. Basically, I haven’t found another free service offering sync between S60 phones and Google Calendar over SyncML (the preferred method for S60); they’re all paid services. Google’s own SyncML-based service is limited on S60 to contact information (so no calendar sync); however, they offer contacts and calendar sync if you’re prepared to download Nokia Mail for Exchange, which Google warns may result in data loss (“make sure to back up any important data before you set up Google Sync”, but then that’s good advice anyway).

One positive development: I’ve managed to set up iCal on the Mac to access Google Calendar via CalDAV, so I can now not only read GC items within iCal, but add them as well. Whilst I could get around the GC-N95 sync problem by syncing the N95 and Mac (i.e. the Mac becomes the ‘master’), this wouldn’t work if I’m away from home, and I’d also be stuck if the home Internet connection goes down.

Loads of fun, anyway. In the end, it may turn out that I have to bite the bullet and pay for a Google Calendar syncing service after all (in which case, I’d probably stick with GooSync). It all makes me feel as if I took the ability to sync my calendar online from my phone, for free, somewhat for granted.

Whatever the case, it looks like I have some weighing-up of options to do.

Steve Litchfield, the mobile technology journalist and creator/presenter of The Phones Show, made a somewhat poignant comment on his Twitter feed a few days back:

Kind of sad that in 2009, I choose my smartphone based on the premise of “Which one sucks the least” 8-(

I replied via Twitter that the net effect of finding out about the smartphones currently on the market, has been to strengthen my inclination to hang onto my venerable Nokia N95 “classic” until it falls utterly to pieces, expires in a puff of smoke or otherwise “goes to join the choir invisible”. (Obviously, I expressed that within the 140 characters allowed, but you catch my drift )

Whilst it’s no secret that I like my gadgets, I don’t feel the need to ensure that they are the “latest, greatest and up-to-datest”—put simply, if they do what I want them to do, they could look like a potato or run on clockwork as far as I care. The N95 is a case in point: it does many things, it does most of them very well, it is still working fine, the firmware (operating software) is now mature and reliable, and I am genuinely happy with it (and yes, I have watched the competition closely, as you’ll see).

I upgraded to my N95 in the summer of 2007, and whilst it has been superseded by seemingly countless models in the ensuing two years, there hasn’t been a single handset from any manufacturer in my view, which has matched the range of features (and competency at them) which the N95 offers, for a price which doesn’t leave me glancing nervously at the monthly household budget.

Oh, there have been a couple of phones which “came close”, and to name but three:

• the Nokia N82 offered most of the same features as the N95, and added a xenon flash to make it possibly the most capable cameraphone on the market;
• the Samsung i8910 packs HD (720p) video recording and a great screen, but is expensive and only available in the UK on Orange, who apparently “could’ve done better” with the software; and
• the new Nokia N900 “internet tablet” looks great, but again the price is likely to be eye-watering, and we’ll have to see if my network offers it (as I don’t want to switch).

When it comes down to basics, though: quite simply, I’m generally content with my N95, and even more so with the monthly tariff I’m on with my network, which is now really quite modest whilst suiting my needs nicely.

Of course, there’s the question of what I’d do if my N95 failed, broke beyond repair, suffered some nasty accident (dropped in the toilet, fell in a cement mixer, etc.), and I had to replace it. Assuming I couldn’t get a replacement N95 without going on eBay or the like, and I wanted a new phone, there’s only really one handset which I think would offer me similar features (though not all of them) at a fairly low cost, and that’s the Nokia E75. I would be sacrificing two megapixels of camera resolution (and the Carl Zeiss lens) and video editor of the N95, but I would be gaining a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and USB charging (and possibly more), and retaining many of the N95 features I use.

I don’t know if my network would offer the E75 at the time I would “need” it, or if there will be a better alternative by that stage. However, I’m hoping that my N95 has at least a year or two more in it, so I can make the most of possibly the best all-round smartphone Nokia has ever produced. And nearly three years on from its introduction, I think that’s no small achievement.

Last night, I wrote a blog post about the rumours swirling around, that T-Mobile UK was about to be bought by one of its rivals. I put the post together on my Nokia N95 (my wife was on the Mac), but it appears that for some reason my post failed to publish.

Actually, I don’t really mind—partly because the piece was rather poorly-written in my view, but mostly because it has been overtaken by events. This morning, the BBC is reporting that the UK arms of T-Mobile and Orange are to merge, in a deal which would make the combined network the UK’s largest.

My first reaction was dismay—ironically, I left Orange for T-Mobile in 2004, partly because the former had a data package which was behind the times even back then. I have always been very content with the service I receive from T-Mobile, especially in recent months as I’ve been able to go on a very reasonable monthly tariff with Web’n'Walk (T-Mobile’s excellent “all you can eat (within reason)” 3G data package, and I am very disappointed that this might all be about to change.

I suppose we will just have to see what happens from here—particularly, whether this is a “merger” as the report says, or simply T-Mobile getting “Borg-ed” by its larger rival. My special concern is with Orange, as they have a poor reputation in certain quarters for the modifications they make to the firmware of the phones they carry (the Samsung i8910 is but one case in point), though if I stay with my N95 as long as possible, this would be a moot point.

Anyway, whatever happens, I think I’ll start “shopping around” the other mobile networks to see what’s on offer, and hope that for the time being at least, there won’t be much change (if any) to the service I am currently receiving.

Here’s a ‘poser’ for you for the middle of the week: what do all the following items have in common?

1. Bluetooth keyboard support
2. Support for Flash in the Web browser
3. 5Mp still photos
4. Carl Zeiss lens/optics
5. Video editor, with the capability to add captions and render movies at full VGA resolution

Guessed it yet? Yup, they’re the features which (to the best of my knowledge) the iPhone 3GS doesn’t have, which my two-year-old Nokia N95 does have (and which I actually use), and which Apple are going to have to add to the next iPhone before I will even consider switching.

Now, believe it or not, I’m not trying to be deliberately provocative here. I love my gadgets as much as anyone (if not more), and as a Mac owner, I really would love to like everything about the iPhone. I’m happy to admit, the above list is gradually getting smaller than it used to be—the 3GS now supports cut/copy/paste (as the N95 always did); it now supports Bluetooth headsets (ditto); and you can now use the live video-streaming service Qik with the 3GS (thus joining my N95, which I’ve been using with Qik for the last eighteen months).

It’s hard to believe one still can’t use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone without ‘jailbreaking’ the latter—ironically, it doesn’t even support Apple’s own wireless keyboard (which, to further ladle on the irony, I use perfectly well with my N95). It seems to me that an iPhone or iPod Touch paired with a BT keyboard, would make a brilliant laptop replacement, so I wonder if Apple has deliberately withheld this support so as to avoid cannibalising sales of MacBooks (which wouldn’t make much sense, given the disparity in price between the products).

To top all this off, comes the continuing speculation that Apple is readying an “iTablet”—that is, basically a larger iPod Touch with a bigger screen (and presumably a few more bells and whistles). Sounds interesting, except I’d place a bet that it’ll have an eye-watering price tag, and probably still won’t have Bluetooth keyboard support (again, not to cannibalise sales from the MacBooks).

Anyway, it looks like I’ll be sticking with my trusty N95 at least a bit longer, even if it doesn’t look as cool as a laser-engraved Apple product…