Monthly Archives: December 2009

iPhone How-to : add other Google calendars to your iPhone Calendar

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this is an extension of the iPhone Calendar how-tos… in this post, I’ll describe the steps you need to perform to add someone else’s Google calendar to your iPhone Calendar app.

If you just want to add your own calendar, you may skip this and go to this post instead.

Now, the steps to add someone else’s calendar is very similar to add your own using the CalDAV method. The only thing that needs to be done prior to the config in the iPhone is that this person must first share the calendar with you.

I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here, so please follow Google’s Instructions on how to share your calendar. I discourage you from making your personal calendar public. To learn more, read another Google’s FAQ entry.

For the calendar to work, so that you can see something on the iPhone, you need to set the permission level to at least “See all event details”. If it’s set to “See only free/busy (hide details)”, you will be able to add the calendar via CalDAV, but nothing will show up in your calendar. If you are allowed to make changes even, then by all means go and set the permission to “Make changes to events”.  The ultimate you-have-it-all permission will be “Make changes AND manage sharing”, which I would think most people would not need.

If you are using Google Apps, and you can’t share beyond “only see free/busy information”, you’ll need to request your Administrator to increase the level of sharing allowed. This Google FAQ entry should help. *NOTE* after the administrator makes the changes, it will take a while before the system is updated and you can increase the level of detail to be shared on your calendar. This worked within 10mins during my testing.

Now, once the sharing is enabled, you can do a quick validation via your Gmail Calendar. See if the other person’s calendar is now showing up in your account as well. If yes, and you are not seeing “free/busy” information only, you are good.

The final step is to add the calendar to your iPhone’s setup. The steps are exactly the same as adding your own calendar via CalDAV (read this post), except in step 3, instead of using your own email address, you use the address of the person who had shared it with you. Follow through the rest of the steps, using your own Gmail login credentials, and you should be set!

At this point, your calendar should now show your own and the new calendar that was shared with you.

An additional tip for you… now that you have multiple entries from different calendars, it will be helpful to be able to visually identify easily which entries belongs to who. Fortunately, there’s a way to do this, but you’ll have to do this in Gmail Calendar’s web interface.

This is a very simple process, first just login to you Gmail Calendar. Next, on the left column of the page, find the calendar that you can see, and click on the little triangle next to it. A box will pop up and it will have several colors for your to choose from. Select the one you like and it’s done. In the iPhone Calendar, all entries belonging to that calendar will now have the color code you just picked.

iPhone How-to : calendar sync with Google Calendar via caldav

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if you’ve read my earlier post, my choice to sync my personal Google calendar with my iPhone 3GS is to use caldav. The other option is activesync (MS Exchange), which I used prior to OS3.0 on my iPhone 3G. To understand why, do read my earlier post here.

This post will specifically guide you, step by step, to be able to get your Google based calendar on your iPhone (with OS3.0+). The calendar app on the iPhone will be the default app, nothing additional you’ll need from the app store.

I will create another post to show you how to add other calendars to your iPhone, e.g. your spouse’s or your kid’s calendars.

  1. first, you’ll need your email address… which would be something like “myemail@gmail.com”
    or “myemail@mysuperdomain.com” if you are on Google Apps
  2. next, you’ll need to compose your own “server string”… it looks something like this
    https://www.google.com:443/calendar/dav/myemail@gmail.com/user
  3. pretty much just simply replace the section “myemail@gmail.com” with your Google based email address, be it with “gmail.com” or “whatever.com”
  4. If you’ve got email setup on your iPhone already, you can just email the “Server string” to yourself, which you can copy and paste later… or just type it out carefully on the phone
  5. next, pick up your iPhone,  go into “Settings” -> “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” -> “Add Account…” -> “Other” -> “Add CalDAV Account”
  6. here’s what you put in
    Server : paste or slowly thumb in the “server string” from above (customized with your own email address of course). When you move to the next field, it’s normal for the “server” to only show “www.google.com”, so don’t worry about it.
    User Name : your full email address, e.g. “myemail@whateverdomain.com”
    Password : the password to the account you put in above
    Description : what ever you’d like to call it, doesn’t matter what you put, it’s for your own identification
  7. click “next” when done
  8. If all went well, you’ll be taken back to the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” screen… if you had a typo in the “Server”, “User Name” or “Password” field.. then you’ll be stuck here. Just fix the typo and try again
  9. Validation…. Launch the “Calendar” app
  10. check and see if your calendar items are showing up, or if you have multiple calendars and it’s hard to validate you can select to see only one calendar
  11. in the “Calendar” app, on the top left, tap the “Calendars” button
  12. you’ll be presented with the list of Calendars you have configured, select the one you want to check
  13. You should now see only the entries belonging to that calendar

have fun =)

a new year, a new business

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We’ve come to the point that we really need to boost our income some what to pay for the hefty medical bills that has crept up on us.

With the uncertainty of my current job pending the closing of one of the most watched IT acquisitions in history, a backup plan is really necessary.

So, we have ventured into the cake business and we’ll keep it small, for now. We’ll make do with all the little spare time we have in our hands.

Keeping it simple, we only have 1 choice of cake, that is the Devil Chocolate Cake!! Trying to stay fair and unbaised, this is really one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had, and certainly the best in it’s class.

So, support us, check out the blog for HunnyBunchNCo, and you can place your order there =)

From one chocolate fan to another, this more than just a “MUST TRY!”

To everyone out there, have a happy 2010!!

save $$, go green, use rechargeable batteries – Eneloop

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since my son was born, there has become an increased number of items and toys around the house that needs batteries. Some toys drain batteries really fast and the cost of buying batteries just shoots to the roof.

So, I then discovered Sanyo’s Eneloop batteries. They are rechargeable batteries that comes in standard sizes, AA, AAA, C & D. These little wonders are different from the usual NI-CD, Mi-NH in the sense that they hold their charge for very very long time. A typical old school rechargeable will lose it’s charge in a matter of a few weeks and you’ll have to keep charging them very often.

The Eneloop series only lose about 10-20% of the charge A YEAR if kept on the shelf. This means that you can have a bunch of batteries kept away, and when you need them just take them out and start using. This vs having to charge them up first before use.

Also with their ability to hold charge, it means fewer recharge cycles and longer run time per usage. Now, for most of my household needs, I use only Eneloop batteries. Though each cell costs much more than a regular Alkaline battery, but over it’s life span it take the place of hundreds of batteries I’ll never need to buy again. All it costs me is 15mins and a few cents of electricty to charge up a set of 4 AA/AAA Eneloops! (a 15mins quick charger will be required)

In Singapore, the shop I’ve found with the best prices for Eneloop products is onlineshop.com.sg. That’s where I’ve ordered most of my Eneloop batteries. The even better news, the more you buy in each order, the cheaper the unit price of the product is.

For this holiday season, I’d recommend pairing up your new gadgets with Eneloop rechargebles.