TooMuchGreen

As an alternative to MobileME I thought I’d evaluate a replacement cloud calendar service, preferably with desktop sync, preferably with a To Do or Task list (I’m a staunch list maker) and preferably both viewable and editable on the iPod Touch (or iPhone), in fact never mind *preferable*, I demand all three, not only that I want them for nothing (If I had to support myself as a user I’d hate me).

Although I don’t have a GMail account Google calendar had to be the starting point, as did the superb open source mail client Thunderbird for my IMAP mail as it’s no big deal integrating the Lightning calendar add-on and getting it to talk to Google, here’s how.

Before we start make sure you’re running T-Bird version 2, I was on the Beta 3 version and had to downgrade for plugin compatibility (bah..!), you lose tabbed browsing but it’s all more or less the same bar a few on screen fonts, oh and before I forget, I’m a Mac OSX user, the procedure may be similar on a PC but I wouldn’t know. So, OK then, download the Mozilla Lightning calendar plugin and install it (LINK HERE), next configure your Google calendar, you do have a Google account yes? If not it’s a no brainer to set one up, really, it’s very straightforward.

Once you have your Google account (and calendar) set up and the Lightning plugin installed you need to set up a new calendar, this is the fun part and I discovered a super quick way of doing this without faffing about with another extra plugin or having to go back into Google (which is the other, longer way). It’s not *that* bad to do but there are a couple of steps involved so I’ll start a new paragraph and treat you to some bullet points -

• Firstly, in Thunderbird open the Calendars section

• From the ‘Calendar‘ drop down menu on the top bar select ‘New Calendar‘ and (obviously) ‘Create a New Calendar‘

• Select ‘On the Network‘

• In the next box select ‘CaliDAV‘, the address you input here will be as follows – https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUR GOOGLE USERNAME/events/ (*IMPORTANT* – Make sure you have the forward slash at the end or else the window won’t let you click to the next section)

• Input your Google password when asked, give the calendar a name, choose a colour, check the email address is correct and finish, your new calendar will appear in the left hand pane.

Functionality isn’t 100% as far as I can see but it’s close, and only lacking in so far is there seems to be a glitch with the alarms, no big deal for me however and I’m going to look into it, I may have overlooked something in my excitement.

Right, tasks (or ‘To Do’s) next then. The Google calendar doesn’t support such a low end requirement (beats me why) so I use the superb (and free) cloud based service ‘Remember the Milk‘, pop on over there and create an account, I’ll see you in a moment.

OK, now you have your RTM user name the next thing to do is to download and install the relevant Lightning Add-On for it, again very easy and available HERE (Register with Mozilla first to access). Once installed it’s the same routine as before (up to a point) -

• Top menu bar > New Calendar > Create New Calendar > On the Network

• This time select ‘Remember the Milk Provider‘

• Input the web address of your RTM account, the format will be as follows – http://www.rememberthemilk.com/home/YOUR USERNAME (No forward slash required this time)

• Name the new calendar (MILK?), choose a colour, check the email address and finish.

You will now have two calendars in your list, one from the Google cloud and one from the RTM cloud, one for Events and one for Tasks, cool, but you’ll be wanting to view them on the iPhone/iPod Touch too of course, no worries, this isn’t a problem and only involves downloading one app (Remember the Milk only offer a chargeable optimised iPhone app, obviously trying to make a few quid to offset their free service, fair enough)

First download the Google Mobile App, install it and fire up the Calendar, fill in your details, save it to the home screen and that’s the calendar done. Access for Remember the Milk is even easier, just open Safari and go here > http://m.rememberthemilk.com – This address takes you to the old skool generic mobile interface, it’s not iPhone-esque but it does the job and it’s really not bad, stick your user-name and password in the boxes, save the page to the home screen and that’s it.

There we have it, another free software solution for you put together from ‘what’s already out there‘ by Too Much Green, not *super* straightforward but certainly a workable solution which I know will only get better with the final release of Thunderbird 3, and of course you have to remember this is a FREE solution, Apples MobileME service will set you back $99 a year.