Where is my Google Task Sync?

Free productivity tools, like Google Tasks could be so much better... If only they played nice with the rest of my apps.

Ah... Standards. Those methods we use to make sure all our stuff works together. More specifically, I'm talking about iCal and iEvents. Mac OS X Snow Leopard introduced fantastic calendar sync between Google Calendar and Apple's iCal. On iPhone, this is even better, because Google Sync actually pushes calendar updates right to your phone. So, great. Calendars are fairly set.

But wait. What about to-do's/tasks? You can set to-do's in Apple's Mail app on the Mac or in iCal. You can instantly turn that to-do item into a calendar event simply by dragging it into your calendar. It's great! - when I'm on my computer that is. But what about the other 20% of my time? (jokes)

Seriously though, all kidding aside, there is still not a really nice way of managing tasks on your computer within a calendar, and then picking up where you left off on your iPhone.

A free Gmail account gets you Google Calendar and Tasks.

You can access both services from a myriad of devices. When you set a due date for a task, it appears at the top of the day for that in Google Calendar - but only on the desktop, and not on iPhone.

A free Remember the Milk account gets you RTM Task integration.

RTM integrates right into the Google ecosystem with gadgets for Gmail, Google Calendar, and iGoogle. There is also an extension for Chrome and Firefox, and a free iPhone App. Miraculously, the tasks even sync with iCal and show up in your iCal To-do pane; they are read-only. In Gmail, tasks show up at the top of every day, revealed only when you click on the blue tick mark. In other words, you cannot see them at-a-glance, as scheduled tasks across your week, but rather only in the sidebar.

Mostly it's all still alright. I must say I love the morning email with my tasks for the day. Until you get to the iPhone app, which only lets you sync your apps back to the Remember the Milk servers once every 18 hours, and sometimes not even then, unless you upgrade to a Pro Account for USD $25 per year. I have found the sync even between the Chrome extension and Google Calendar to be less than perfect. It's not a bad price, but I still feel people could get this service for free.

Don't even get me started on Mobile Me and iCal sync across iDevices.

This service is great if you live entirely within the Apple landscape. Don't get me wrong, I love what they're doing, but to lend from Gizmodo, wish they would suck a little less at the internet. Firstly, the service should not cost USD $99 per year. The greatest wrong here though, is that To-do's the fantastic task management, introduced back in 2007, have been forgotten and left in lonely seclusion on your Mac. To-dos from iCal do not sync with either Mobile Me or Calendar on iPhone.

So what's a time-management oriented guy to-do?

I'm still looking, but I think for the moment the best solution is still with Google Tasks. Hopefully the search giant adds support for due dates by the hour and delegate calendars for syncing between different calendar applications.

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Remember The Milk - Services / Remember The Milk for iPhone

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