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Any Google users (Gmail and Gcal) use iCal and mail app?

C

cheapa55

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 29, 2007
907
11
Does anyone who use gmail and/or gcal use mac's built in ical or mail app? I just moved from windows and currently I see no advantage in using ical or mail from the OS.

If you use the built in apps, why? or do you use both google's and mac's mail and cal?

Thanks in advance. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
 
I use it. Its basically because I need it for offline access. I know theres alternatives, but I never found a reason to use it. Furthermore, it syncs with my iPhone pretty nicely.
 
I use Mail because I want to be able to access my e-mails when I'm offline. Plus I can't forward my hotmail things to my GMail-account so I just get everything in one place with Mail.
I never used GCal, but I really like iCal.
 
I use Apple Mail with gmail. I just wet up IMAP in the gmail preferences and check all my mail that way. It works really well and am very happy with it.

I don't really touch the calendar apps so i can't comment on those.
 
I have a GMail account which I have set up in Mail.app using IMAP, although it's not really an account I use much, but it's available should I need it.

I use Google Calendar regularly, editing my calendar using the web interface, but I subscribe to my Google Calendars through iCal (automatically updated every 15 minutes) so that I can easily view my calendars from the comfort of iCal, and it allows my iPhone to have my up-to-date calendars available when I sync it. Basically I only use the web interface to actually add or amend entries, iCal to view. Works perfectly!
 
Hmm, very interesting. I guess I"m so used to gmail and gcal that I didn't see a use in setting up the accounts in Mail and gcal.

and I didn't know you could use hotmail in mail.app? I can't even use it on ms outlook anymore without paying something.

Thank you to those who have replied so far. Are there any other uses? seems like the main one is offline access.
 
cheapa55 said:
and I didn't know you could use hotmail in mail.app? I can't even use it on ms outlook anymore without paying something.
Click to expand...
Forwarding is pretty much the only decent option of getting hotmail email into a non-Microsoft email client. There is a slight catch though, you'll need to login to your hotmail account from time to time in order to keep the account from being suspended/closed or whatever MS do when there's no account activity.

I also use Gmail with Mail.app. With IMAP everything syncs beautifully. Unfortunately that's not the case with iCal and Gcal, without using 3rd party software.
 
I use both gmail and gcal within Thunderbird with the Lightning plugin, so I can manage my mail and my calendar all within the same app.

iCal will only let you read gcal feeds, you can't edit them:

Basically I only use the web interface to actually add or amend entries, iCal to view.
Click to expand...

Installing this plugin will allow you to both view and edit calendar entries within lightning. With this set up you never have to use google's online interface to manage your mail and calendar, and you still have the benefit of online access if you're on another computer.
 
I'm also a fan of gmail and gcal and use them together with mail.app and ical since switching over to OS X about 6 months ago. I set up mail.app to use imap which works very well. For ical/gcal two way syncing I use a third party app called Spanning Sync that works very well. As others have said the main advantage is offline access, but I've grown to like the mail.app and ical interfaces and unless I'm not on my own computer I tend to use them instead of the google apps.
 
seems like most if not all are using something besides google's online apps.
I will have to try to set up thunderbird.

My problem with mail.app and ical is that I have a mac at home and pc at work. I like to be sync'd everywhere I go. I have a windows mobile phone and I like to have things on there as well.
 
prostuff1 said:
I use Apple Mail with gmail. I just wet up IMAP in the gmail preferences and check all my mail that way. It works really well and am very happy with it.

I don't really touch the calendar apps so i can't comment on those.
Click to expand...

Sorry to change topic... but I tried to set up my hotmail in Mail and was unsuccessful... how'd you do it?
 
cheapa55 said:
My problem with mail.app and ical is that I have a mac at home and pc at work. I like to be sync'd everywhere I go. I have a windows mobile phone and I like to have things on there as well.
Click to expand...

As long as you use IMAP, you can use Thunderbird on your PC and Mail.app on your Mac, and both should be in sync.
 
I was going to just get a .mac sub for this but is there a way to keep iCal and gCal synced? I love how my iPhone and iCal stay synced (save for events, but that's another war). It would be nice to get gCal and iCal synced similar to how IMAP works for e-mail.
 
I use gmail.com to check my mail, but I've set Mail.app up to use Gmail's IMAP settings for when I need to send things from my Mac (iCal reminders etc.)
 
soLoredd said:
I was going to just get a .mac sub for this but is there a way to keep iCal and gCal synced? I love how my iPhone and iCal stay synced (save for events, but that's another war). It would be nice to get gCal and iCal synced similar to how IMAP works for e-mail.
Click to expand...
SpanningSync can apparently do this. I've not tried it though.
 
Like others have mentioned, I use Mail with my gmail account as I prefer using Mail to using the gmail interface. I would love to be able to do the same with iCal/google calendar, but I can't get the GCALDaemon to work (others seem to be having the same problem) and I've heard SpanningSync has some issues with Leopard.

I think I'll wait 'till the new version of BusySync to come out - cheaper than SpanningSync anyway.
 
How about contacts? do you have to transfer all from gmail to mail.app?
 
iCal

I have both PC, Mac, and Blackberry and they all sync fine using IMAP.

I have setup google apps for our office and using imap. ICal and Mail sync fine using IMAP. They only things I have run across is that it seems to only sync one calender from Ical and I haven't figured out which calendar if chooses or where to change that setting. The second problem is that while you can see other calendars within your domain using the web interface I haven't found a way to see busy time when trying to schedule a meeting thru iCal.

As far as the mail goes. The one major problem I see with it is when you send an attachement and try to read it using the Mac Mail client they come in as part of the message. you can see them fine on PC (outlook).

Js
 
I have that doubt as well...

cheapa55 said:
How about contacts? do you have to transfer all from gmail to mail.app?
Click to expand...

Hmm i use gmail with the mail app. Though fine with the web based gmail interface i like the mail.app access of my gmail account. I can access mails even when im offline. Plus I am more used to the outlook like mail access (from office) so like the mail.app like interface for gmail account!
But about the contacts...i dont think the contacts get synced with u create the gmail account with mail.app. The intellisense (giving possible names as you type) is not carry forwarded to mail.app. Mail will give intellisense only for those ids sent mails from mail.app after configuring the gmail account.
 
I use Mail.app with Gmail because I also use Mail as my RSS feed aggregator. This means that even if I'm only on the internet for 15 seconds I can download everything that I need to read with the click of a button, and I'm set for the rest of the day.
 
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