Google Apps Calendar #sucks

Dear @google, your Apps for domains are awesome but why does it have to suck with real push syncing on the Mac? #icloud ftw!

I have 4 main machines I use in my daily use, a MacPro (for my desk), a MacBookPro for my remote development and work, my iPad for bedtime reading and air travel, and of course my iPhone for my "keep it always with me". I need them to also always be in sync. I also use Google Apps for Domains for my email and calendar. I loved it when Google released real "push" email and calendar by simulating an exchange server for my beloved travel devices. I assumed they also had "push" in the calendar for my computers. I assumed wrong. I noticed that as I added an event on Google or my computers running iCal, the IOS devices got the events, but the Macs did not. The only way my computers got the event was if I ran iCal continuously on each machine. If I didn't, the machine would miss the event... so there I had a manual step in my "syncing" my computers. Luckily my trusty IOS apps got the event.

I think I must have set something screwy, since Google offers exchange style push for Microsoft Outlook on Windows and mobile devices. So off I went and Googled "google push ical exchange" and this appears to be a real complaint for Apple users. Apparently Google made exchange/push for IOS/Android and Microsoft Outlook users (non-Mac of course), but silently left out Apple users to have a true push experience. Not sure I get why. Tin foil hat posters seem to think its a vendetta for the Google vs Apple wars. *shrug*

Then along came Apple's iCloud. Oh how I love thee iCloud. With push and syncing between devices... It just works™. So I exported my calendars from Google and into iCloud they went. Total time to set up on all devices and computers: about 10 minutes from export to fully running synced calendars. So now, Google Apps now handles my email and iCloud wonderfully handles my calendar. I get my cake and can eat it too!

So here is what I don't get. Google must have seen the iCloud thing coming. You would think they would have thought "Hrm... we had better get our act together and give push to our Apple users or they may leave our calendars behind." But they didn't. Was it really that difficult to enable Exchange for use on Lion, especially since Lion is 100% exchange compatible? I really like Google's services and have been a faithful Apps user for Domains for several years. I would have kept my calendars at Google had they "pushed" me my calendars and never even looked at iCloud. But Apple built a better mouse trap and it will need to be something compelling to get my calendars back on Google. If Apple builds an "ICloud for domains", it will probably be adios to Google Apps for good since I can still only use IMAP or POP to my Mac email clients.

Are you listening Google?

Frist Post

First... about me... I am the founder of Savoir Technologies, a SOA/Java consulting company specializing in the Apache Services stack (ServiceMix, Karaf, CXF, ActiveMQ, and Camel). I work with a group of very talented guys and we all have contributor or commit status on some of the various aforementioned projects (and more). We contribute heavily to Open Source and believe in the Open Source methodology for integration. My hobby is Fire Fighting (yes ... really) and am a volunteer firefighter for Evergreen Fire Rescue, which is my community's volunteer fire department. I have been a fire fighter for 10 years. I am happily married to my wife Nazarena for nearly 17 years and have 3 children, Madisyn (12), Weston (10), and Coleton (5). I'm a techy geek type of guy and am a misfit's fanboi. I love hacking the iphone and was on the iPhone Dev Team as "fred_". I was the guy who wrote most of the code for the revirginizer, which fixed Apple's bricking of anyone who unlocked their iphone and was the catalyst for getting iPhone Elite reintegrated with the iPhone Dev Team... long story... ;-) But I no longer spend large swatches of time hacking the iphone because I simply just don't have the time. I found that most folks who are married and have a family lose their luster for hacking and concentrate on the more important things in life.

So... enough about my background...

It's been a long... long... time since I blogged. My old blog, 'Random Neuron Firings' was kept up until 2006. I personally hosted that blog on my own servers using the awesome Apache Roller, but it soon became too much of a headache and blogging just got plain old boring. But I'm back. Why? I'm not a socialite as I just can't get into the Twitter/Facebook thing.

Twitter just seems too much about telling people how big the turd is you just left or using dumb services like Four Square that announces to all thieves that you are not home so just burglarize me. Do I tweet? Yeah... I try once in a while so that I have some epiphany that turns on in my head and get that "ah ha" moment. But it just doesn't happen. Maybe one day?

Facebook is all about "me me me me me". I could care less about the picture of your 8 month old's dirty diaper or how you threw up all over yourself after last night's party. The only time I log into Facebook is to look up someone whose information I forgot, looking for how to connect with them (phone or email - yeah people put way too much personal crap on their Facebook page). I also use Facebook to do "background" checks on potential employees or contractors to be sure I don't hire on someone I may be sorry about later. The good thing about Facebook is it underscores that old saying my mother used to tell me, "Choose the company you keep wisely, for you will tend to be just like them" and "Birds of a feather, flock together". Facebook is great at getting a quick look into someone's personal life and it can be very telling.

Blogging is a different story. Its a great place to journal things you really want to keep. Its keeping it up to date that is the struggle. I must say I shut down my blog in 2006, but I still dig for some great tech postings ind code snippets that I wish I hadn't forgot. So for me, putting my blog here give it a bit more life and using the cloud to handle the ugly stuff.

So this blog... what's it about? Its about manly tech stuff... code snippets that I want to keep... and journal some ideas and thoughts that I want to look back on. I want it to be about my adventures in tech, fire fighting, soa, and family. I want it to be my legacy to look back on and be my little personal imprint on the web.

Thats it for my frist post... more to come...