Integrated Google calendaring shortcoming

Longtime (longsuffering) readers of this blog will be familiar with my search for the penultimate integrated PIM solution.

By PIM (personal information management) I mean mostly calendaring and contacts, because I have a really bad memory. By integrated I mean no matter where I am and what device I am using, I have the current list of my contacts and calendar in front of me, usually through the mechanisms of synching and/or remoting. By penultimate I mean this discipline is not mature, and thus there is still lots of room for better solutions, and I’m usually whining about the shortfalls, which brings me to today’s whine…

I have been very content for the most part with my current solution, which is:

1. Google cloud-based apps for my central system of record and for a  browser-based client (for when I am using a pc as a guest),
2. Microsoft Outlook as PC client and local database backup,
3. Apple iPhone for mobile client, both for connected and disconnected scenarios.
4. NuevaSync for synchronizing Google with the iPhone (and my PocketPC which I still use at home sometimes).
5. gSyncIt for synchronizing Google with Outlook.

That this solution works at all is a modern miracle compared to the cobbled and hacked “integrations” I have used as recently as last year. And the real bonus is that none of the syncing requires docking.

However there is one fly in the ointment which has been a big pain for me – calendar alerts. All three clients, which are also storage systems, treat alerts differently. However they do have some commonality around popup alerts. And if I create a popup alert on any of the 3 clients, within certain limited parameters mostly dictated by the iPhone’s lack of robust alerting options, it will be replicated to all 3 systems, leading to an alert on all 3 systems.

What’s the problem then? The problem is the iPhone calendar alerts stink. They “pop up” when the phone is locked, and there is no real notice that they have been triggered unless you are staring the screen at the time. The alert is quiet and does not repeat. So I miss them all. You have to clear the popup to unlock the phone, and then it is gone with no way to get it back. In addition the selection of possible alert windows (5 minutes, 1 hour, etc.) on the iPhone is nowhere near enough for me, nor does it match up well with Google or Outlook.

Now there is a great workaround – Google adds an option for email (or SMS) alerts in addition to popup alerts. And that is in fact the solution I want to use. Calendar alerts are sent to my email, where they really get my attention, but where they can wait until I can do something about then.

Where I experience pain, and the reason for this post, is that the only place I can set or edit email alerts on Google is through the PC browser. I can’t set them in Outlook, in the iPhone calendar client, in the mobile browser pages, only in the PC browser, the full web version of Google calendar. That is absolutely crippling for me, as that is not my client of choice (only used at guest PCs) and I am never in front of it when people want to make appointments with me. Agghhh.

So while I wait for something to change, I am grudgingly forced to set temporary appointments with unreliable alerts reminding me to make real appointments when I can. Not good!

I should note, to forestall any criticisms, that I am aware that Google calendar supports auto-reminders (basically default reminders). I have tested these and they only get set if you use the full browser client. The mobile client does not comply with them for some reason. Nor can you set a reminder explicitly in the mobile browser client, which seems like a huge oversight.

Ok end of rant for now :)