OS X 10.8 ML - Sync Apple Calendars *UP TO* Google ??

[IceMan30]

My wife and I keep our calendar in Apple's Calendar application (formerly iCal), but we access our joint google email via browser, as she prefers that interface over an application email client (I would prefer to use Apple's Mail or other, but she's the boss )

Currently, I have several google calendars synced down to our Calendar app, as this is the easiest way I know of so far (ready to tinker if I can get some direction!) to keep our information organized. I need things to go to google as her company uses the google-verse to store/share data, and that's what she's comfortable with, including her android phone, currently our only smartphone (come on iPhone 5!)


Some questions - realizing they may have the same/similar answers:

1. Is this the best way to go about things? (i.e., syncing google calendars DOWN to "iCal") Any ideas on a cleaner or simpler approach?


2. What I really want is for all our calendar info (and everything else for that matter) to be based on our Mac, and then have it sync up to google, etc. Say I create/edit an event in one of the "iCal" subcalendars (note: NOT one of the synced google calendars) How can I go about syncing these calendars UP TO a google calendar? I've found links to add-ons like BusySync (now BusyCal), and I'm also thinking about downloading the OS X Server to try something with the Calendar Publisher. Any thoughts there?



Next step will be to drop/sync google contacts and home-made contact spreadsheets into Address Book. (I know, behind the times...) Any suggestions for that endeavor?


Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[milbournosphere]

Syncing is a two-way connection. If you create an event in iCal, it will push to the servers at Google (and to any other devices synced to Google's servers), and if you create an event using the web interface, it will push from Google's servers to your mac and other devices.

My setup:
Mail: Gmail, synced to iThings and mac via IMAP. Set to download emails locally in event of server outage.
Calendar: Google, synced to iThings and mac's iCal application.
Contacts: Google, synced to iThings and mac's Address Book application. I take a .vcard backup semi-monthly and store it on a drive backed up via Time Machine. I'd die without my contacts list, so a local backup is essential.
Reminders: Synced via iCal (Apple just does this better, IMO)

More on syncing Google's stuff to devices and computers is available here:
http://www.google.com/sync/index.html

I guess the question to you is...are you over-thinking this? Are you concerned in some way with where the content is stored? If not, the idea is that it doesn't matter which application/interface you use, the data will be current on all the synced devices. I, for one, like using Google as a conduit as it is more platform agnostic than Apple's offerings are. Far more of my friends/colleagues use Google for their calendars than iCal, etc.

On the spreadsheet-contacts problem. I believe there is a way import contacts to Google from a Spreadsheet document, so I'd upload it to Google Drive and try from there.

 

[IceMan30]

Agreed - it is more than likely I'm over thinking things...

But where this really comes from, for me, is a desire to "own" my data. Quotes used as I know that's practically impossible on today's internet. The idea though, is that if I create everything natively on my Mac, it's mine - no questions or Terms of Service required. This is admittedly somewhat theoretical (for lack of a better word).

I agree Google makes a great conduit for data and information, and in the end the practicality of that approach will probably mean that's how I'll keep things. But I would be much happier to have it all natively on my Mac, and pushed up (maybe that would have been a better phrase than 'sync up'?) to google or even some other web access method.

To throw another wrench in the works, it appears that the "Lists" in Apple's Reminders App only correspond to calendars that are native to your iCal/iCloud, i.e., NOT the pulled down google calendars. For that matter, they may not be linked at all, which seems a little odd to me, but I guess that's the point of a separate reminders app(?). Don't know how much of that will matter in the end, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to manage my information in 10.8.

<big breath> Think I have some reading to do….


Thanks for the advice and input. Much appreciated!

 

[milbournosphere]

I hear ya on the data issue. The only way that you'll truly own your own data is if you setup your own CalDAV and IMAP servers. Google has T&C, as does iCloud and pretty much any other cloud service. OS X Server does have built-in iCal server, as they do for Mail. If you set that up and open up the ports on your router, you would truly own your own data. Of course, you'll also be responsible for the back-end, so I guess it's a toss-up as to whether you want to go the trouble, or let google make some money off of your eyeballs for handling all of the infrastructure for you.

And yeah, Reminders is kind of separate now. The new application is actually REALLY cool. It works through iCloud, and it's the only iCloud service that I have setup besides the location tools.