Syncing To My Nokia N93

I was fooling with a new Nokia N93 cell phone last week (see New Nokia Phone: N93), and I was aware that -- in principle-- I could use its wifi capability to connect to the Internet. I actually got that to work, on the first pass.

I was trying to move the phone numbers from Zyb -- a new phone syncing service -- to my N93 because iSync hasn't caught up with Nokia yet: there is no iSync capability for the N93 yet.

I am sorry to say that Zyb largely works as advertised, except for a devastating problem with Google calendar sync. I was able to sync my phone's calendar and contacts with Zyb through the n93's wifi capability. I set up an access point on my n93 for my home wifi, using a WEP key, and that just worked the first time (which never happens with me). Following the detailed Zyb instructions, the sync worked like a charm.

At first, the Zyb service was converting all my appointments to Denmark time. They have fixed that gaffe, although the times displayed on their web site still are localized to Copenhagen, but they convert appropriately on the phone.

But then, death: The import of my Google calendar is just that, an import. There is no automatic syncing with Google, so I have to go back and reimport my Google calendar data each time I want to update my phone, and duplicates them. If there was a way to delete all the entries first, that might be ok, but there isn't, so I just can't use Zyb the way I had hoped. I guess the idea is that I would switch over to using Zyb as my desktop calendar. No way.

So, it's great that it (sort of works) but Zyb is going to have to mature a lot before I can use it.

I noticed that Henry Bridge had left a comment on a recent post (Google Calendar Mobile), where he mentioned that he had developed a Google Calendar Mobile app. I went to the page browsing on my n93, downloaded the latest build which installed and ran on my phone. But When I synced with my Google calendar, I got just one appointment. Deleted the app. [On reflection, might be the same issue that I sorted out later on with Gcalsync: see below.]

Ugh.

I noticed at his site that something called Goosync exists. When I went there, registered, and selected n93 as my phone, nothing happened. Apparently it is not supported yet.

Ugh.

I tried Gcalsync, which installed, and seemed to download stuff onto my phone, but the new dates never appeared in the phone's calendar. However, the stuff in my calendar did appear on my Google calendar. A little snooping, and I discovered that the all the syncing was to a single calendar in my Google Calendar account, the default, topmost calendar.

The problem? I have been keeping my appointments on a calendar in my hosted Blue Whale Labs calendar account, not my stowe.boyd personal account. Rather than try to find out if I can sync to the hosted account, I figured it would be easier to reverse my set-up: to keep my appointments on my stowe.boyd account in the default calendar (now called "Stowe Boyd") and to share that with my Blue Whale Labs account.

The times were being thrown off by 5 hours for some unknown reason, but if I deselect the "use Google Calendar time" option on Gcalsync everything works.

Yeeha!

Simple as pie.

I still have a problem with phone numbers on the N93, although I managed to get a one-time loading of my 'phone' group via Zyb. That's a problem for another day, though. I may just wait for an iSync update.

[Update: My buddy, Andy Abramson, pointed out that Novamedia carries a line of iSync plugins for 'hot' phones that Apple hasn't caught up with yet. Gah. Would have saved some headaches, although I would have to continue the circuitous route of subscribing to Google calendars from iCal, and then syncing via iSync. And of course I can sync to my N93 now without passing through my Mac.]

[Full disclosure: I am receiving Nokia cell phones, like the N93, as part of the Nokia Bloggers program, for free. Ted Rheingold reminded me that I hadn't mentioned that when I first published this post.]

tags: zyb, gcalsync, n93, nokia, nokia+n93, goosync, phone+sync, google, google+calendar, calendaring, isync, apple

Comments

[Ted Rheingold]

Stowe, I think the proper ethical action when discussing an freebie item is to explictly state each time that you did not pay for it and it was given to you in the hopes you would write about it, everytime you write about it.

I was happy when I read your first entry and you detailed how you got it, but this one does not indicate that. Anyone finding this entry via a search may not go back and read earlier ones. Thus it's deceptive.

I've found I'm much harsher in my criticism and fault finding when I paid hard-earned money for something and I'm much more forgiving when I haven't paid anything at all.

[Christopher]

Hi Stowe,

I am doing an informal straw poll and was wondering if you'd comment.

If GMail and GCal are now your primary calendar and email tools do you primarily access them online or via an email client like Outlook or Mail.App.

Thanks,

Christopher

[Stowe Boyd]

Ted - You are right. I forgot, but I have modified with a disclosure.

Christopher - I am *not* using a mail app on my Mac, any more, but I do sync Google calendar to my phone, and I would like to figure out a way to sync Google addresses to my phone, too.

[atmasphere]

Couple of things for you ...

You can sync any of the new Nokia devices courtesy of a free plugin for iSync - http://www.mactomster.de/isync/

If you iSync GC to iCal on your desktop as well with Google Calendar it will sync via bluetooth... For OTA sync the best option is currently GooSync - http://www.goosync.com. There's a bug with S60v3 devices like the N93 which they are working on. I've had trouble receiving the config SMS which is being blocked by Cingular in the US... not sure who you use, but be warned. The only rub here is that in their free version you can't sync more than a single calendar, but will be able to when they offer a pay service.

[atmasphere]

don't think I included the URL for GooSync - http://www.goosync.com

[Henry Bridge]

Stowe,

Thanks for trying out my mobile java client and finding the correct link (http://gcalmobile.googlepages.com). You're quite right: the app currently only downloads and adds appointments for your default calendar. I'll be adding support for multiple calendars soon. If you've moved your appointments over to your default calendar, you should now see the rest of your appointments.

Best,

Henry

[Ted Rheingold]

Nice Stowe,

The ethics of future journalism are pretty much going to have be determined by us. Dog forbid we just end up becoming the MSM in all it's sloven corporate-driven glory.

Glad you're leading the way.

t-

[ben whitby]

Hi Stowe,

Really interested in your N93 syncing article - Im having trouble syncing the device with emails rather than calenders. Any ideas - I want to sync through a hard link to my outlook folders and gmail if possible.

Cheers
B

[Mike]

Hello i tried to set up wlan on nokia n93 however i can
type 5 letter from 10 in wep key whats wrong??