Triangle Trip

I spent the better part of my Sunday trying to figure how to best sync my calendars on my Mac and my phone.  And I think I finally found the magic formula using Google’s free services.  Here’s how to better sync your life:

Google Calendar Setup:

1) First create your calendar(s) on your Google account.

2) If you have multiple Google accounts, pick one to be central point of access and on that account add any calendars on your other Google accounts.  For example, I have a personal Google account and another one for my work through Google Apps.  I chose my work Google account to be the central account and added my personal Google Calendar via its email address.  You will first have to give full read/write sharing permissions to the central account on your other Google Calendars.  If all goes well, your central Google Calendar should list out all your other Calendars under “My calendars”.

Mac iCal Setup:

1) Download the Google Calaboration utility.  This tool helps automate the setup of your Google Calendars on the your Mac iCal application.  Before, it was a tedious process but this definitely make it a whole lot easier.

2) Open up Calaboration, sign in to your Google account, select the calendars you want to add, and click the “Add to iCal” button.  Quick, simple, and efficient.  If everything went well, you should now see your Google calendars on your iCal application.

TIP: If you have multiple Google calendars on iCal, you can easily move an event to a different calendar by dragging the event to the respective Google calendar in the Calendar List view.

Phone Setup:

1) Follow the instructions for you specific device listed here.  I, for example, followed the instructions for the iPhone OS Version 3.0.  Regarding the iPhone setup, note that you can only setup Microsoft Exchange account, hence the importance of the “central” Google account.

NOTE: If your Google account is on a different domain via Google Apps, please have your administrator enable Google Sync on the domain.

2) After the Google Calendars have been configured for your device, go to http://m.google.com on your phone.  If your Google account is via Google Apps, there’s link towards the bottom that says “Google Apps user?”; click on that link to add your Google Apps domain.

3) Click on the link labeled “Sync”.  You should now be able to manage your calendars on your device.

AND presto!  Your entire life is now synchronized.

The iPhone has been out for a couple of years now and with it’s elegant touchscreen, GPS feature, amazing interface and 3G speed, I can’t rave enough about it. I have it next to my laptop as indispensable items for my travels. My goodness, how did us road warriors ever survive during flight delays? Long check in lines?

You may have seen lists of “Must Have iPhone applications” on many sites. However, I find them lacking in one true road warrior perspective. For us true road warriors, we all know that connectivity (and battery life) is king. What happens when you’re without connection 35,000 ft in the sky, for five long hours? Or in the middle of the lake on the ferry? Forget about it! And not to mentioned AT&T’s spottiness (in the US)?

Here are our top “offline” capable iPhone apps. But before we dive in, check out our rating criteria:

• Must work offline:  no duh, huh? But really, if it doesn’t work in airplane mode, forget about it!
• Must be free:  free is good. (check back for our paid apps ranking)
• Can’t look foolish:  Wii is fun. But you really want to bust out your wii moves in front of sleep deprive, uncaring, and impatient road warriors? Yeah, no good. Thus any app that attraction unwanted attention is out.
• Entertaining:  it’s got to keep your attention for at least a bus stop. What good does a flashing light do? (for you epilepsy inducers, that’s just disturbing…)

And without further ado:

1.  Stanza – OK, so you can download all sorts of books on the Kindle. But who the heck wants another bulk in the laptop bag? (think, thin is in!!) Plus why drop another three bills? Download Stanza! Stanza is the ebook for your iPhone. You can buy the latest best sellers, or better yet, download from over 50,000 free classic titles. I’ve downloaded all the books I ‘cliff noted’ in high school. Hey, better now than never!

2.  Sol Free – it’s was a toss up between Solitaire and Minesweeper. Remember passing the time on your old NT with these two games? Sol Free does this and more. I tip the scale to Sol Free because not only can you play Klondike Deal 3, there are also Klondike Deal 1, Baker’s Game, Demon, and Spiderette. This is sure to keep you numb for hours.

3.  iChess – if Solitaire is just too brain numbing, Chess can always spark that intellectual juice! It was also a toss up between Chess and Sudoku, but since Sudoku didn’t allow me to easily notate each square I kicked it down a notch. iChess is a nice chess game for you chess gamers. By no means am I ranked in any fiction or non fiction chess world, so I find that the level 3 (there are 5) quite challenging. Maybe some of you chessmasters might object to this app but for the normal folks, it was quite rewarding beating the computer at level 2 and moving myself to level 3. To date, I’ve still not won at level 3, but that should change with time…

4.  21 Pro – for you gamblers, this is your game! Not only does it feed the gambling need, it also helps you count cards with either the hi-lo or knockout strategy. The game is fast moving but it’s only you vs the computer. Still great for passing the time.

5.  Tap Tap Revenge – I debated putting this app here. It’s borderline foolish. Tap tap is akin to guitar hero on your phone. You tap to the music on a set of buttons like guitar hero. With headphones on and ‘easy’ tapping, I figured one can be discreet on this app. Just remember to download enough songs so you don’t run out during your offline play!

As iPhone applications are consistently changing and released, this list is by no means final. Check back here for our latest updates!

Coach