I’m very impressed by the contact and calendar sync available through Google for the IPhone and IPod Touch. I spent the weekend setting it for my Dad in celebration of his birthday. It allows him to add a contact on his IPhone or his IPad and the contact immediately syncs online with his GMail account and syncs down to the respective device. I use it with my IPod Touch and my three primary computers (laptop, desktop at home, desktop at school). It’s convenient because if I add or modify a contact or calendar event on my IPod Touch, email, I can access the most accurate information with whichever computer I happen to use. I also use the Google Desktop Gadget in Windows 7 and XP to show all my Google calendar events, so overall I’m much more organized and don’t have old or duplicate entries.

The procedure for setup is a bit challenging, but I’ve figured it out after setting it up for myself and both my parents. The key is to get all your contacts and calendar events into your GMail and Google Calendar. Then set up the syncing and it will update all the information to all devices.

Here’s the step-by-step directions and tutorial for other phones/mobile devices. It requires a Microsoft Exchange server setup.

Also, the Google Calendar gadget for Windows 7.