BlackBerry is known for its business prowess. Google is known for being Google!
Put the two together and you have yourself a business phone running the top business applications to
- improve your productivity
- live a more mobile lifestyle (that work-from-anywhere thing)
- just be cool
I have a gripe or two with Blackberry. As an owner of a Blackberry 8800, I have long been frustrated with the absence of basic functionality that are present in practically all other phones (like adding a recently received unknown phone number to an existing address – in RIM’s Blackberry, you have to follow a large number of steps to achieve this feat and it always gets to me!). BlackBerry does email the best when it comes to phones, where as Google does email the best when it comes to, well, when it comes to email itself.
BlackBerry Calendar
BlackBerry Calendar in week view
But there is one more thing that the BlackBerry does that I really like and use to my benefit; the calendar. The built-in BlackBerry calendar is very easy to use, you can set up an event quickly with the option of adding in details such as Location of Event etc. Some calendar applications assume that you want to fill in everything regarding a calendar entry and that makes basic usage quite difficult. The BlackBerry calendar, on the other hand, does not do that. It is as simple and as detailed as you want it to be, which is just great.
Combining two greats might as well equal to the greatest
We have a great, tried and tested calendar application in BlackBerry. When you combine that with Google’s Calendar application (available also in Google Apps), the integrated solution works like a charm!
All the entries you make on your Google Calendar (while sitting on a desktop anywhere, for example) gets synced with your BlackBerry’s calendar. And vice versa. It has happened often enough that I check my calendar on my phone to set an appointment, and then find out that I have that weekly reporting to do (thanks to Google’s shared calendar application). I adjust accordingly and immediately. Nice.
How to sync BlackBerry Calendar with Google Calendar
This is the easy part (staying organized is the difficult one 
). Google’s mobile app only synced the calendar entries, but from November of 2008, Google added the capability of synchronizing your BlackBerry contacts with your Google account as well!
- Go to http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/sync.html (LINK)
OR – and this is what I recommend – simply type in http://m.google.com/sync (LINK) in your BlackBerry’s internet browser. - The application Google Sync will download on your phone and install. (no seriously, it is this simple)
- Viola! The Google Sync will update not only any future calendar entries but also your entire BlackBerry address book will be in sync with your phone! This not only becomes convenient, but also gives you handy backup of your contacts if you were to lose or damage your phone.
