B. Mann Consulting

I'm still using Spanning Sync to sync my local calendars to Google. Calendaring is the main sync issue for me: my phone syncs with my local iCal, and then my local iCal syncs to multiple calendars that I have. This is still a bit tricky, since I have a personal Gmail account as well as multiple Google Apps for Domains accounts. My main request is to support multiple accounts and use the "native" login for that account, rather than having to use one account that has access to all calendars. This does work for calendars, but doesn't work for contacts: your contacts will be synced to only one account.

For calendars only, if you have a Series 60 phone, there is also CalSyncS60. This lets you sync directly from your phone to Google calendar. Except, I never got it to work quite right, and I don't have a data plan at the moment, so syncing would be mainly at the home or office where I have wifi.

The iTunes support for mobile phones begins today, with Apple's partenership with Motorola's ROKR E1 and the US cell company Cingular.

The big question is of course...can we use it in Canada? Well, the Motorola ROKR is a GSM phone that also supports international networks. Being a GSM phone, it means it also uses SIM cards to activate the phone -- meaning you could use the card from any network provider. Cingular may be distributing the phones as locked, but it probably won't be more than a couple of weeks before a firmware upgrade will unlock it, making it capable of being used on any GSM network. Here in Canada, that's only the Rogers/Fido network.

Update: Mark Evans says the ROKR will be available through Rogers by mid-September, although he doesn't name a source.

Elsewhere, Michael Gartenburg covers the iPod Nano -- for us Mac folks, the Windows announcement might get lost in the shuffle: "With the integration with Outlook with iTunes 5.0 and the small size, I can even see folks using this as a personal information manager."