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Disclaimer: The entries you find in these pages are based on my individual opinions and thoughts. Some of the entries may be just plain wrong, and others harmful. Should you choose to act on, or try, anything you find on this site, you assume any and all risks associated with your actions. So there.



 


iPhone Mail and Calendar Integration

December 6, 2007

Of course, I installed Mac OS X Leopard the day it came out. I was really hoping for a bunch of new goodness and integration with the iPhone, but was pretty disappointed that no new secret stuff appeared. Over time I have discovered a few nuggets that have proved to be useful-- especially if you are an iPhone using GTD fanboy.

Everyone knows:
- that iCal syncs to your iPhone
- that there are no To Dos on the iPhone-- not even an app
- that the iPhone notes app doesn't have a Mac counterpart

Everyone (that means me) really hoped that Leopard would miraculously incorporate all of these things. But it didn't. At least not totally. However, THERE IS A WAY.

If you use IMAP for your Mac and your iPhone mail, you can can get both Notes and To Dos from your computer on your iPhone. The implementation still needs work, and I think that Apple will eventually get around to this. But for now, it is very useful for your GTD system.

Under Leopard in Apple Mac, you now have a button for Note and a button for To Do. If you are working inside one of your IMAP mailboxes, such as your inbox, and you click one of these, the item is automatically added to that mailbox on the IMAP server. This means the iPhone will see it.

To view the notes on your iPhone, just look through your mailboxes. Notes will appear as emails "From" you, but with subjects being the first line of the note, and the body being the whole note. Pretty cool.

To Dos show up differently. In Apple Mail, when you create your first To Do (within Mail, while in an IMAP folder), a new IMAP folder will appear, titled Apple Mail To Do. This folder will now appear on your iPhone. There is no real interaction with To Dos on the iPhone, other than reading the To Do, or deleting it. But this is great for those of us who need to get our To Dos on our iPhone. I don't actually use the To Dos, just the notes, but I plan to play with them.

Currently I am using Vitalist to manage my projects and actions. My plans are to create a set of IMAP note folders, organized by context, and migrate my GTD system into it. Now, if Mail just had tagging....