iPhone by Steve

Spanning Sync has finally made good on their promise to add Google Contacts sync to their already impressive Gcal syncing program. The public beta of Spanning Sync 2.0 is now available at their website. If, like me, you’re already a Spanning Sync user, then this is great news. Here is how the Spanning Sync program, which is currently available only for Mac, will benefit the iPhone:

• If you use Gmail as your main email program, then you’ll also be able to use your Gmail contacts as your main contact management program and keep them synced to your iPhone.
• Likewise for Google Calendar. If you use it as your main calendar, then you’ll be able to keep it in sync with your iPhone without having to use the Gcal web app.

Here’s how this whole syncing process will work:

1. Spanning Sync will synchronize your Google Contacts and your Google Calendar to your Mac computer. Contacts will be synced to Mac Address Book and Google Calendar will be synced to Apple iCal.
2. When you plug in and sync your iPhone, your iPhone will sync to iCal and to Address book, and you will then be totally synchronized between iPhone, your Mac computer, and Gcal and Gmail.
3. Of course, this whole process will work in reverse: If you enter a contact or calendar event into your iPhone, your computer will pick up the changes when you sync your iPhone, and Spanning Sync will keep the data synchronized with Google Calendar and with Gmail Contacts.

This isn’t over-the-air syncing, however. You still need to hook up your iPhone to get the data. But, if you use Gmail and Google Calendar, this is a great step forward.