Guess what. I got an iPhone. Thanks edu­Me­dia.

I might write some Web Apps, or even native ones… If I feel creative!

iPhone

Syn­chro­niz­ing Gmail con­tacts, adding a Google Apps mail account and Palm cal­en­dar events was not that easy (on Win­dows), in case you won­der how to do: read on!

For some of these steps you’ll need a Yahoo account and Microsoft Out­look… I know.

Gmail con­tacts

  1. Go to Gmail
  2. Switch to Con­tacts view
  3. Export them (tiny link on the bottom-left cor­ner of the page), choose the “Out­look CSV” option
  4. Store the .csv file on your hard drive
  5. Go to Yahoo Mail (I used the “Clas­sic” UI)
  6. Switch to the Con­tacts tab
  7. Go to Import/Export (top-right corner)
  8. Choose “Out­look CSV” as the import pro­gram and browse to select the .csv, then import
  9. Now go to iTunes, make sure your iPhone is plugged in and selected the left pane
  10. Go to the Info tab
  11. Check the “Sync con­tacts with” and select “Yahoo address book”, you’ll be asked for your login and password
  12. Now apply set­tings and sync…
  13. Here you are!

You might notice that some char­ac­ters (like French or Span­ish ones) are replaced by ugly things. That’s because Gmail doesn’t out­put an UTF-8 CSV…

Adding a Google Apps mail account

This one is quite sim­ple, as you’ll notice.

  1. In the iPhone set­tings, go to “Mail”
  2. Add an account
  3. A Gmail one
  4. Enter your set­tings but spec­ify the entire e-mail address (user@my-company.com)
  5. That’s it!

Import Palm cal­en­dar events

Once again, make sure you have a Yahoo account. And for this one you’ll also need Microsoft Out­look. Sorry.

  1. Open Palm Desktop
  2. Switch to Cal­en­dar view
  3. File > Export, save the .dba file on your hard drive
  4. Go to Yahoo Mail, and select the Cal­en­dar tab
  5. Go to Options, and “Import/Export”
  6. Browse to your .dba file in the “Import from Palm Desk­top” section
  7. When done, go back to that “Import/Export page” and scroll to the “Export to Out­look” section
  8. Export
  9. Open Out­look (you can use the trial ver­sion for free)
  10. File > Import and Export > Out­look > Import from another pro­gram or file > Next > Comma Sep­a­rated Val­ues (Win­dows) > Next > Browse to your .csv > Next > Select “Cal­en­dar” > Next
  11. Events should now be imported, make sure every­thing is OK, espe­cially the dates because they might have slided a bit. You might also see extra com­mas at the end of some event names…
  12. Now open iTunes, make sure your iPhone is plugged in and selected the left pane
  13. Check “Sync cal­en­dars with” and select “Outlook”
  14. Apply set­tings and sync…
  15. That should be it!

You’ll also notice some UTF-8 odd­ness… Damn!
Wow, could have been easier!