Google brings cloud syncing to the iPhone and Windows Mobile

As more companies come out with smartphones, more of them are launching their own ways to sync data between computers and their devices wirelessly. Apple has its own such service (Mobile Me) and Microsoft is about to launch a new set of applications for such a task (Me Phone). But I have a problem with these applications: I use Google applications to store and sync all my data in the cloud already. But today, Google is expanding the Internet sync services that it already has with the BlackBerry and a few other devices to the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices as well.

Yes, if you needed to access Google’s services such as Calendar and Contacts from these devices previously, you could do so via the web browser or a few rather convoluted ways (syncing Google Calendar to iCal and having iCal sync with the iPhone, for example). But part of a smartphone’s allure is using its native application suite. I would love to use my iPhone’s Calendar program, for example, to input a new appointment, but I can’t do that right now. With the way it currently syncs, I can only edit one default calendar on my device.

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Not only does this new sync process fix that, but using push technology, it means that any change made on your calendar on your device will be instantaneously changed on your Google Calendar on the web, and vice versa. The same is true for your contacts as well.

The detailed steps of how to set this up for both the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices can be found here. It’s definitely worth noting that there are currently some limitations. For example, with the iPhone, you can only sync 5 calendars, due to the way the iPhone displays different calendar colors (apparently, it starts using some funky colors that you can’t really see beyond 5 calendars). Google says it’s working with Apple to resolve this.

Find out more in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt_-qHczCMg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&w=560&h=345]