BlackBerry and iCal, Address Book

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Level 1

26 points

BlackBerry and iCal, Address Book

I currently use an Exchange server to host all of my contacts, calendars, email, and tasks. I use either Outlook through VMware, or Snow Leopard's Exchange support to access it all from my Mac (primary machine), and from my iPhone.

I am considering abandoning Exchange (cost cutting) and moving all my data into Apple's native apps, Mail, iCal, and Address Book.

I am also considering abandoning my iPhone (because AT&T's network performance has been deteriorating for 2 years and worsens by the month). I would replace the iPhone with a BlackBerry Tour from Verizon.

My question:

If I go this route, can the BlackBerry have direct over-the-air access to my contacts and calendar entries? OR, would I still need to sync my data from my Mac to somewhere else like Google and then have BlackBerry pull the data from there?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6), 2.53 Ghz, 4 GB, Snow Leopard & Vista Home Premium; iPhone 3G 16GB

Posted on Dec 9, 2009 11:44 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rich Fleming

Level 6

13,420 points

Dec 10, 2009 7:50 AM in response to dantrimble

The BlackBerry will not have direct OTA access to your calendar & contacts, even if you kept your Exchange environment as it is now.

Without BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) for Exchange, your best bet is to utilize Google Sync on the BlackBerry as this will allow you to sync your contacts & calendar OTA.

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Answer 2

dantrimble Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 10, 2009 10:29 AM in response to Rich Fleming

Rich,

Thank you for your feedback to my BlackBerry question. I know BES is required with Exchange server; that's not a problem as we do have it. But trying to move off Exchange entirely...

Right now, I have all of my data syncing directly to MobileMe/.Mac where my iPhone can get it "pushed" (sort of). Is there any connector for OTA access to .mac from BlackBerry, or ANY other options other than also syncing from my Mac to Google?

dt

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Answer 3

Dec 10, 2009 10:57 AM in response to dantrimble

There's nothing that will give you direct OTA calendar & contacts sync between a non-BES BlackBerry device and .mac. You can get OTA email, but not PIM data.

Utilizing Google Sync for BlackBerry as a "middleware" syncing solution is the only way that I know of.

It's not an Apple limitation... it's a BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) limitation. BIS simply doesn't have OTA PIM sync functionality yet. Only recently has Google and RIM begun to work together to start doing native OTA contacts sync via BIS.

If you were just looking for OTA email delivery... then BlackBerry/BIS is wonderful. Unfortunately, when you start adding OTA PIM sync into the mix, BIS falls flat.

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