Smartphones offer hyperaccessibility to shared information - they are as powerful as computers, they always-on our persons and they are always connected to a data network. With the right settings, we can instantly share huge amounts of information automatically thereby making communication powerful and seamless.
My wife often asks me to pick up something from the shops before I get home from work. She has a few options to communicate this information with me whilst I am away:
A) She can call/text SMS/email the shopping list. This would efficiently deliver the information to me. However, if she wanted to add or remove items from the shopping list, she would have to send another call/text SMS/email with the additions or changes, resulting in multiple and fragmented copies of the same shopping list information.
B) She can add the shopping list as a task in her Google Calendar (which is shared with my calendar). This will instantly show up as a notification in my own calendar on my smartphone. Furthermore, she can edit the task to add or remove items from the shopping, and this information will be instantly updated on my smartphone.
Sharing Your Google Calendar
1) You and your OH must have seperate Google Accounts.
2) Login to your Google Account, and then go into Calendar -> Settings -> Calendar -> Click on Sharing.
3) Enter the OH Google Account's email address in the sharing setting, and make sure that they can 'Make changes to events'
Result: You now have the ability to edit each other's calendar events and schedules
Tip: Colour code your calendars to clearly see who created each entry.
iPhone
1) Login to your Google Account, and then go into Calendar -> Settings -> Calendar -> Click on [Your Name Calendar] -> Calendar Address: ICAL
2) Copy the address of the ICS file down - the format should look like: [https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM/user]
3) Go to your iPhone -> Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Add Account... -> Other -> Calendars: Add CalDAV Account
4) Add the address of your CalDAV Account (from Step 2) and also enter your Google Account username and password
Result: You and your OH can now edit each other's Google Calendar from your iPhones
Pro Tip: You should avoid syncing calendars using the Exchange account protocol. This is because:
1) The iPhone only supports one Exchange account, which may be required for a work account.
2) The iPhone randomly designates colours to your Exchange account calendars (which may conflict with what you are used to seeing on your Google Calendar view from your desktop). You can work around this by adding multiple copies of the same CalDAV account, and deleting the undesireable colours.
BlackBerry
1) Visit m.google.com/sync on your BlackBerry's official browser
2) Download and install the Google Sync app
3) Go to Google Sync -> Calendars -> Click Options and then select calendars to sync
Result: You and your OH can now edit each other's Google Calendar from your BlackBerries
Android
Google Calendar syncing is a native part of the operating system. Once you've made sure that your Google calendars are shared, and on your Android device, enter your Google Account details in the system settings.
