Martin Gordon's Blog

GooSync, a new service currently in beta (surprise, surprise!), offers the ability to sync Google Calendar with handheld devices.

Setup
The setup process is straightforward, although registration left a bad taste in my mouth since it required my address and date of birth (for what?). The next step consists of the actual device setup, which they break down into three categories:

- Your device supports over-the-air configuration:
We will send you a configuration message by sms, just open and save the received message to auto configure your device.

- Your device requires manual configuration:
We will display generic manual instructions, follow these to manually configure your device.

- Your device is a Palm or Windows device:
We will display the download and install instructions, follow these to manually setup your device.

Since I have a Treo 650, I fall into the last category. I downloaded the .prc file, installed it and entered my GooSync credentials. No issues with this step, except that the password dialog is in plaintext, so make sure to not type it in around anyone you don't want knowing your password.

The Sync
Syncing happens in about a minute, but there is no automatic syncing, so I don't know how useful this service is really going to be. All the events on my Treo showed up in my default calendar in GCal and an event in my default calendar in GCal showed up on my Treo. I'm not sure if it'll sync other personal calendars, but shared calendars I'm subscribed to aren't synchronized.

I'm glad that there is finally a way for me to get my Google Calendar onto my Treo and more importantly, a way to get my Palm Calendar (which syncs to Outlook/Exchange automagically) onto Google Calendar. It's a really simple process, but I do have two main concerns:

1. The unnecessary information required at signup. What does my home address or DOB have to do with syncing my Google Calendar? I put in a fake address and I can see them needing DOB for COPPA purposes (although how many 11 year olds really have a need for this service?), but even just them asking for this info made me a bit uneasy about it.
2. There's no automatic syncing. To be honest, unless there's something I really need from one calendar on the other, I'm probably not gonna use this. I have my Treo with me all the time and my GCal usage has dropped to almost zero. I prefer to enter events in GCal, but until I can have those events show up automatically on my Treo without having to run the GooSync app, I'll probably just stick to entering them on the phone itself.

It's mostly the second issue that'll keep this at the "proof of concept" level for me. Granted, it is still in beta, so I do expect them to add this feature in a future release.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Calendar, GCal, GooSync, sync, synchronization, HotSync, Palm, Palm OS, smartphone, handheld, PDA, Treo 650, phones, mobile

voo2do is a simple web-based to-do app utilizing AJAX. I've tried a couple of online list apps, including 37 Signals' Backpack and Ta-Da Lists and the excellent (and completely self-enclosed) TiddlyWiki. They never really stuck, though, since they weren't very time management-oriented but more organizational-oriented. The deal breaker for me was that I couldn't assign due dates to tasks.

In comparison to the aforementioned alternatives, voo2do is more like the Tasks/To-Do function of a PIM than a simplified Wiki. For example, voo2do lets me assign projects to tasks and add notes to them, as well as letting me add time estimates a la Joel Spolsky's Painless Software Schedules system, none of which any of the alternatives allows me to do.

Here's a quick overview of all of voo2do's features:

• The Dashboard tab gives a general overview, providing a list of tasks on the left hand side and (the latest?) notes on the right.
• The Tasks tab is where the action happens. On this tab, you can create new tasks, edit their details, mark them as completed or delete them. This tab is split between Pending Tasks and Recently Completed Tasks.
• The Projects tab lists your different projects, listing the number of tasks, the number of hours a project will take and the number of hours remaining for each project. In addition, you can create different "views" that will allow you to group any number of projects together. I can see this appealing to Getting Things Done fans who will most likely use voo2do views as GTD projects, voo2do projects as GTD contexts and tasks as next actions.
• The Notes tab will display the notes attached to all your tasks. It provides a convenient "delete" button to eliminate the hassle of going through and having to click multiple times to get into a task and delete each note the long way. I would like to see a way to free-standing create notes that aren't attached to any task, but I suppose I could just create a task called "Notes" to get around this limitation for now.
• The Deadlines tab displays tasks by due date. Overdue tasks are listed at the top, followed by tasks due today, then tasks due tomorrow and finally, tasks due this week.

Though I haven't used it much yet, I'm already a big fan of voo2do. It is a simple app which only does one thing, but it does that one thing very well.

The bottom line is, if you need central repository for text that's available online, give Backpack or TiddlyWiki a try. If you're like me and need an online to-do list application, or are looking for the best app to implement GTD with, voo2do is the best I've found so far.

Technorati Tags: organization, ajax, wiki, gtd, getting things done, to-do, tasks, backpack, 37signals, web2.0, pim