Dave Thorp's Blog

New version of the iPhone software came out today which added nothing to the experience and was probably just released to block the yellowsn0w soft unlock.

However today, I also had to re-set up how to sync my calendar from the iPhone to Lightning in the Thunderbird mail application as I recently reset both my iPhone and my PC. It’s not easy and is rather convoluted however, as I had to search quite a bit to solve the problem I thought I’d post the solution here to assist anyone else struggling.

Before you beign

Right from the start you will need the following things installed on your PC as well as the following items

• An iPhone or an iPhone 3G… well without them you wouldn’t trying to do this
• Windows…. yep this method only works in windows…. though since Apple basically only let us sync with Outlook I cant say I feel too guilty.
• Outlook…. I’m afraid you still need outlook for this
• A google calendar account…. head to google calendar if you need one
• Thunderbird with the lightning and provider for google calendar plugins installed
• Google calendar sync which you can get here
• Your google calendar’s XML feed location….  get this from your google calendar by going into settings, then calendars, click on the calendars name then right at the bottom there are a load of xml links. Copy the address for the private XML feed

What to do

1. Tell your iPhone to sync the calendar with Outlook in itunes
2. In thunderbird goto file/new/calendar
3. Choose on a network
4. Choose google calendar
5. Put your feed location you got above into this now
6. Put your username and password into Thunderbird for google calendar
7. Install google calendar sync and set it to sync as often as you like (I have 15 minutes)

Now if you create a calendar entry in lightning, it will go straight to google calendar, google calendar sync will sync it to outlook and then itunes will sync it to your iPhone.

Converesly, if you create a new entry on your iPhone, itunes will sync it to outlook, google calendar sync will then send it to your google calendar, and it will show up in lightning

Like I said, convoluted but if apple can’t be bothered to implement this functionality themselves this will have to do for now

Apple have released the 2.2 update to the iPhone this morning. Downloading it as I type.

Full details:

iPhone 2.2 Software Update

This update contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:
• Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View
- public transit and walking directions
- display address of dropped pins
- share location via email
• Enhancements to Mail
- resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching
of email
- improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes
application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
• Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes
you to the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard
Settings

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone
• iPhone 3G

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guide for your iPhone at:
<http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone>

For more information about iPhone, go to:
<http://www.apple.com/iphone>

To troubleshoot your iPhone, or to view additional support information go to:
<http://www.apple.com/support/iphone>

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222>