iosiphone
I am trying to decide if it is better to use the IMAP/CalDav option for accessing my GMail/Google Calendar on my iPhone vs. Using the exchange connection. Anybody got pros and cons of the different options?
What I know so far is this:
Any other thoughts?
Unless you manually go to that "All on My iPhone" section and add a contact, contacts would be created by default on the account you're viewing, i.e. Gmail. Just keep the Contacts app viewing only the Gmail contact list and you should be fine.
iOS5 now has a Default Account option under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Contacts (section) (Credit to Peter for the update)
Use iTunes to sync and make sure you have your phone contacts in your MS-Exchange folder. Then you can either use the Google Apps migration tool or export them from outlook and into gmail.
Next you can remove the exchange account (which will probably delete you contacts).
Next you can uncheck the box in itunes that says "sync my contacts" so that they will all come off of your phone. Make sure you have them backed up first.
You can also uncheck the box to tell it not to sync the calendar if you like.
Next, you can add a Gmail account or google apps account - but when you do, don't click on Gmail for the account type - choose "Exchange" because it allows syncing of contacts and calendars, too.
See the gmail site for more details:
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138740
Best Answer
Exchange (Google Sync) for GMail lacks some features that you are probably used to--search and cloud drafts. The "known limitations" are listed here: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139635.
My experience with CalDAV in iCal are that multiple calendars on a single account are a bit squirrely to work with—you won't be able to get each calendar listed by itself under the primary google account heading. The calendars end up in a set of subfolders, depending on how you end up configuring it. That said, I don't know how the same thing would look on the iPhone.
What I do and recommend would be to continue using IMAP for GMail access--there's nothing wrong with it and you don't gain anything by moving to exchange. I do use Google Sync for contacts and calendars since it's the closest I can get to the functionality of MobileMe for free, and I'm very happy with it. For desktop access (aside from the webapp) I like BusyMac (post hyperlink limit reached; Google it) Software's products: one is an iCal superset clone and another is a sync utility that makes your Google Calendars show up in iCal just like MobileMe would.