Let’s face it, Apple and Google are fierce competitors in almost every field they enter. Steve Jobs and his team have a lineup of popular iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices. Google in the other corner, is working to conquer the intelligent application space one Android-enabled device at a time.
It will come as a pleasant surprise that syncing your Google Calendar, Gmail, and Google Contacts with your Apple iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch is quite a refreshing, straightforward task. You no longer have to be jealous of those BlackBerry or Microsoft Exchanges; your Apple ‘I’ Devices and Gmail can work harder for you.
You will want to locate your “Settings” App button on your iPad. This is represented by a gray graphic with a set of three gears. After you click the button, you will see a list of various device options that can be modified.
Scroll down to where it says “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and open up the screen. You should immediately see two headings, one called Accounts and one called Mail.
We will start with the Accounts heading. This heading will present an option to add a new Account. Once you select that option, you will see a list of available email providers you can add. This is where it gets a little strange and wanders off the beaten path. Select Microsoft Exchange Account. Yep, you read that right and ignore the one that says Gmail. This will bring up a few key options that must be filled out. We’ll go through each of the options one by one.
- Under the “Email” option, enter your current Gmail account (myemail@gmail.com).
- You can skip the “Domain” option and proceed to the next one. It is not required to get this up and working.
- Under “Username,” enter your full email address again. (myemail@gmail.com)
- Under “Password,” enter your Gmail password.
This will release another magical option called “Server.” Enter m.google.com in that slot.
Tap Next, and if you entered the above information correctly, the corresponding screen will allow you to turn on Mail, Contacts, and Calendars syncing. I recommend activating all three to keep your life fully in sync.
If you already have contacts or calendar events on your iPad that are not loaded in your Google Account, you may want to ignore the option to delete all iPad contacts/calendar data. This will
enable you to keep your current contacts and still sync with your Gmail account.
