Today after Google announced that Mac OS X 10.5.3 supports syncing Address Book with Google Contact for iPhone users, I asked this question:
Is this functionality only available to iPhone users? What if I just have a Mac and want to sync my Mac Address Book with Google Contacts?
There's been no response yet from Google, but the community hasn't reacted well:
If this is an iPhone-only feature I think that's ridiculous.
I was so happy when I read the title of this announcement! ...and so disappointed when I saw it was for iPhone users only :( But why? Yahoo mail users can do this for a while without having an iPhone!
I am not happy at all. Unless you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Google Sync setting does not appear. That ticks me off. What the heck is so different between syncing with Yahoo and syncing with Google?
I agree completely. It stinks of a marketing/sales maneuver to sell more iPhones.
Yes. Why on earth is this limited to iPhone users? Just to infuriate everyone else? Or to protect sales of Apple's lousy .Mac service by offsetting them with iPod purchases?
A post on Lifehacker (immediately followed by instructions for a hack that enables contact sync without an iPhone) puts it in perspective:
Several commenters rightly point out that this capability only exists for iPhone and iPod touch owners by default, which is quite possibly a crappier move than forcing Safari onto Windows users on Apple's part.
A commenter to the Lifehacker post suggests a new headline:
Gina, perhaps revise the headline to read "Mac OS X's Address Book Can Now Sync Google's Contacts in Exchange for a Small $800 Additional Purchase (plus 2-year AT&T Plan)"
Surely this is just a goof-up of some kind. If not, it will be interesting to see how Google and Apple handle it.
As a reminder, Spanning Sync v2.0 (currently in beta) syncs Address Book with Google contacts, and doesn't require an iPhone or even Leopard, and is free to paid subscribers.
Update: A day and a half later, no one from Google has answered the original question. It's becoming clear though that yes, you either need an iPhone or iPod Touch or you need to perform the hack described on the Lifehacker comments to use the Google Contact Sync function in Address Book 4.1.1. I guess it doesn't come with customer service. Bummer.
Stupid move indeed (I own an iPhone). Apple is known for similar moves but what happened to Google.
Posted by: techmine | May 28, 2008 at 09:57 PM
"As a reminder, Spanning Sync v2.0 (currently in beta) syncs Address Book with Google contacts, and doesn't require an iPhone or even Leopard, and is free to paid subscribers."
The only gotcha is that you have to, uh, pay the makers of Spanning Sync to become a paid subscriber. Other than that, I see your point exactly.
Posted by: sixmemos | May 28, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Also, when you sync OS X 10.5's Address Book with Google on your iphone/ipod touch, it seems to be one way. Pushing info from Google to your Mac's Address book.
If you make a change to say the notes for a contact on your Address Book for OS X, and sync with iTunes, the Google contact notes for the person don't change.
Posted by: John | July 18, 2008 at 03:58 PM