Activesync in Snow Leopard and Google

[GabooN]

Hi, I did a search but didn't really find what I was looking for.

I just ordered a 13 inch macbook pro and have been doing some preparation for when I receive it.

I currently use Gmail (and calendars, contacts) and have an iPod touch. As many people probably do, I set up Gmail on the iPod touch and then used the activesync tool to sync my google contacts and calendar to the iPod, giving me sync of all three.

Now with SL having exchange support, will I be able to use essentially the same method for syncing all my data to iCal, Address Book and Mail. I know I can sync them all in Leopard but they require seperate methods for each app, mail I can set up easily enough, iCal using calDAV, and then contacts using the feature available to people using iphone/touch. But I would like to have them all sync without having to sync contacts using the itunes sync method. I would prefer all over the air, which I hope the exchange support and the google sync will accomplish.

 

[GabooN]

anyone who has been using snow leopard have any insight? or what solutions have you been using?

 

[wakka092]

I'm pretty sure it will work, since Exchange is standardized between desktop and mobile devices. You know you can sync your calendar with Google Sync's Exchange? No CalDAV/ICS subscription required.

 

[GabooN]

Oh ok, I was unclear about having to use CalDAV or not. I don't have my Macbook Pro yet, it should be here in two days, so I was looking into this in anticipation. Everything works smoothly between Google and my iPod Touch so I suppose, as you said, I should expect the same from the Macbook with Snow Leopards exchange services.

 

[Zod]

I have wondered about the same thing, and searching for an answer I ran into this thread including some others.

I'm pretty sure it will work, since Exchange is standardized between desktop and mobile devices. You know you can sync your calendar with Google Sync's Exchange? No CalDAV/ICS subscription required.

That is what I thought too, but looking at Google's info pages on sync, it only shows how to set it up on mobile devices, and this page concludes the theory that only mobile devices are supported (you have choose which devices to sync on m.google.com)

part of the steps required for exchange sync on the iphone is to add your device to your account (you log into m.google.com/sync/ and setup which calendars to sync to your device). so unless google extends this to desktop computers, no you won't be able to do it. good news though is if you look on the snow leopard new features page http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html#mail you will see an entry that says the following: Automatic setup in iCal.
iCal sets up your Gmail and Yahoo! calendars automatically. Just type in your address and password, and iCal configures your calendars.

(google.com/sync support)

It appears we don't need Exchange anyway. Perhaps for Address Book—I don't recall, I added that to my account.

 

[bcburrows]

Sync

Any news on active sync and snow leopard - i got zip here trying to set up my webmail account on my mac - works great on my iphone though!

 

[orijinal]

Google uses Exchange ActiveSync to communicate w/ the iPhone. Snow Leopard Exchange support is implemented using Exchange Web Services, which is a separate protocol, I think.

 

[Saladinos]

Google uses Exchange ActiveSync to communicate w/ the iPhone. Snow Leopard Exchange support is implemented using Exchange Web Services, which is a separate protocol, I think.

This is correct. Apple has implemented ActiveSync on the iPhone, and Exchange Web Services in Snow Leopard. EWS was introduced in Exchange Server 2007. As with most Microsoft technologies, Exchange is a mess of proprietary legacy standards and protocols.

Note that Apple's iPhone features page explicitly says that "iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync", whereas Snow Leopard page mentions compatibility with "the latest version of Exchange Server" and does not mention the word "ActiveSync" on the page.

Google Sync uses ActiveSync, and is hence compatible with the iPhone but not Snow Leopard.

 

[shadowswan]

This is correct. Apple has implemented ActiveSync on the iPhone, and Exchange Web Services in Snow Leopard. EWS was introduced in Exchange Server 2007. As with most Microsoft technologies, Exchange is a mess of proprietary legacy standards and protocols.

Note that Apple's iPhone features page explicitly says that "iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync", whereas Snow Leopard page mentions compatibility with "the latest version of Exchange Server" and does not mention the word "ActiveSync" on the page.

Google Sync uses ActiveSync, and is hence compatible with the iPhone but not Snow Leopard.

Would It be possible for someone to write an app that say polls the activesync or translates it into ews, or is it down to Google to turn EWS on, which is never going to happen thus waiting for Apple to support activesync on the Mac which MS woud probably not let happen?