Replacing Outlook Calendar with Google

DalesWife · #1 (**permalink**) 02-21-2009, 12:12 PM

Sorry to seem ignorant here but I just discovered Google Apps for my business (thanks to schettj), so now rather than PAYING GoDaddy for email and a website, I am using GMail, Sites, Docs and Calendar through Google. Lovesit!

I am now syncing the calendar and contacts over the air with Google Sync. I've seen no problems at all, nothing was duplicated or deleted and the process was pretty seemless. I particularly like that my business parter and I can share calendars!

My primary question is concerning the Calendar still being in Outlook on my Touch Pro. Is there any way to replace the Outook Calendar altogether and use only the Google Calendar? I see that even though everything is full integrated, I still am accessing the Outlook Calendar which appears on the HOME screen on the TP. Any way to change it so that when I touch Calendar I access Google Calendar? I know that on my laptop I have offline access to google, maybe I can put that on my laptop so that I don't have to go online each time I look at my calendar? (Internet seems very slow on my TP for some reason.)

I hope I've explained this well enough, that it makes sense and that someone can help! Thanks in advance!

zero157h7 · #2 (**permalink**) 02-21-2009, 02:20 PM

There is not really a google calendar app so I think you should just leave it as it is. i saw something about a new version of opera using google gears which could possibly allow you to run google calendar without internet access from opera but I think that you would just bet better off staying with outlook or some replacement that takes the functionality of outlook and improves it.

**lawmangrant** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-21-2009, 04:09 PM

Correct, there is no Google Calendar app for the TP.

Outlook is a PIM that can display your data, so if it is syncing with Google just fine, sounds like your done!

DalesWife · #4 (**permalink**) 02-22-2009, 04:43 PM

Any way to foresee if a Google Calendar app is in the works or not? It would be way more convenient to just bypass Outlook altogether. Thank you both for the insight.

zero157h7 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-22-2009, 05:11 PM

Anything is possible although I would think it is not probable simply because of the fact they licensed active sync in order to get it to your device. There is also the possibility that someone could develop an app that would run online apps without being online. There is one for linux called prizm I think.

**lawmangrant** · #6 (**permalink**) 02-22-2009, 05:38 PM

I doubt you would have a GoogleCal app, only because they have information that ANY PIM can display.

Why build something when other people are already building it.

DalesWife · #7 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 10:25 AM

Sorry for the ignorance but I have no clue what a PIM is. (?)

I was just hoping to make more use of the calendar and have my events "pop up" on the home screen like they do using Outlook. I really have no qualms with Outlook, but the fact that Google updates over air is so much more convenient.

In order to see my calendar with Google Calendars (using Google Apps) I have to log on to my Google Apps acct, then go to the Calendar via the internet (unless I refer to my daily 4 am email throughout the day to stay on task).

zero157h7 · #8 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 11:11 AM

Are you using google's over the air active sync, because I am starting to think you are syncing to a home pc and then syncing to a phone. If that is the case go into active sync on your phone, delete your current sync partner, setup google to sync with. The only information you should need is your google login, password, and the server is m.google.com. When you put in your login put the @gmail.com on it, domain will kind of grey out once you have the username with @gmail.com and will not need to be filled out. It will pop up and want to know what you want to sync. Uncheck tasks and mail as it only supports contacts and calendar right now.

Let us know if that helps and gets you what you want. If there is a problem with setting it up, or if you do not want to give up syncing with your computer or another server for this. If you can't give up your one activesync you may want to look into a 3rd party app to take care of the syncing. I think oggsync is one.

sasjapuppy · #9 (**permalink**) 03-18-2009, 12:10 AM

Sync Outlook with Google per instructions above. That's what my wife and I do and it works great. Another plus by doing it this way, you can have multiple devices set up to sync with the same Google Calendar (We happen to have two HTC Touch Pros) and they both sync with Google Calendar. We then have our laptops synch with Google too. This gets all four devices synced with each other. ( May be a good option for your partner and you too).