Spanning Sync announces public beta

Wow- Worked a treat going up to GCal then logged in to see only one colour- fair enough, BUT! I Changed one thing in GCal, went back to iCal to Sync Now and lost all my colours, i.e. all my different calendars.

Lucky I backed up database- just reverted to it.

There's a problem for you to sort out Spanning Sync before you charge for this, but you are onto something here. I like the idea. It juts won't work for me...with only one colour. Let me know if you wanta report or if you know of my problem.

I have installed the beta. Working great as far as syncing, but now my computer doesn't like to wake after sleeping overnight. I have to restart the machine everytime. It is a MBP connected to a 23" Cinema Display (running with lid closed.)

I have installed the beta. Working great as far as syncing, but now my computer doesn't like to wake after sleeping overnight. I have to restart the machine everytime. It is a MBP connected to a 23" Cinema Display (running with lid closed.)

#24: Sure, but running syncing engines isn't cheap, and most companies don't offer that service for free. Just look at all the email providers out there that only do POP and not IMAP.

Offering certain features and options for free is always a gamble for companies. Blogger is a great and much-debated example - no one really knows why Google still offers it for free, especially since it's such a popular and heavy traffic service.

Some features and products may be free for you to use, but they're costing *someone* money. The whole planet can't simply be given away on a silver 'web 2.0' platter, and Spanning Sync is a shining example of a 3rd party seeing a need, filling a need.

All google really needs to do is implement CalDAV and this software won't be needed as long as you have OSX 10.5

This is really a great tool. I expect Apple to either snatch this up or implement a similar functionality. AppleGoogle integration in the future is a no-brainer, we're seeing it with iPhone and with Google's CEO on Apple's board. I hope Apple buys these guys and gives them some cash for a job well done.

After my negative post earlier, Charlie Wood from Spanning Sync contacted me and within a matter of hours not only had he found the problem, he'd also put together a fix and made it available.

Things are working well for me now - thanks to Charlie.

#19: Synchronizing your calendars is a lot different from simply subscribing to published calendars. First, items are synchronized - changes made in one place are reflected in the other; no subscribing is involved. This can be a huge value to many calendar users. Second, a lot of people don't have the ability or the know-how to set up hosting and publish calendars on their own servers, and plenty of others don't want to pay .Mac's subscription fees to do it the super-simple Apple way.

I hope these ideas offer a better perspective on why Spanning Sync has such an appeal for so many users.

If I use Google Calendars as my main calendaring program but do use iCal from time to time, what does this program do that cannot be achieved by simply subscribing to my Google Calendars in iCal? I also publish one iCal calendar and subscribe to that in Google Calendars for the times when I need to enter events in iCal.

I'm just trying to understand what this offers that I am not already getting. Thanks!

You're right! It suddenly worked after the second or third sync. It does sync both ways. Not it's definitely one of my favorite utilities, great job!