Google Calendar vs iCloud Calendar pros and cons - my $.02

[Amamba]

Having used Google Cal for a very long time, I just switched to iCalendar. Here are my observations:

Google calendar web interface is much faster. iCloud on PC is slow and clunky. Opening the calendar, opening appointments, etc. takes far longer.

Google calendar has better designed views in browser. You can see more information and you can set up a custom view.

Google calendar is significantly easier to share across different devices and operation systems. You can also control the level of access (on most systems) from read-only to full edit. I did not find any native way to share iCloud calendar with non-Apple devices. Needs a 3rd party software.

Google calendar has a search function. iCloud does not (why ?! it's 2015 for God sake !)

iCalendar supports attachments but does not sync them to iPhone. At least this didn't work for me.

So, why did I switch ? That's why:

There's no easy way to sync Google calendar with Outlook. There's a number of 3rd party solutions, all of the ones I found were paid solutions. And not cheap (gSyncit $20, and AFAIK needs to be purchased separately for each computer, many even more expensive).

It's easy to show a read-only Google calendar in Outlook, in the same view as your Outlook cal. But any change must be made outside of Outlook.

ICoud, on the other hand, makes it very easy to set up syncing of emails, tasks and reminders with Outlook on any computer where you can install it. So I can have my personal calendar right there with my work calendar on my work machine, and make changes to my appointments without having to constantly switch to a web browser. I also set it up the same way on my home computer.

So, for anyone using web browser on PC as their main tool for Calendar / email / reminders access, Google kicks ****.

If you're using Outlook, it's the other way around.

 

[Bigeric23]

Thanks for posting your review. . . . I'm not a fan of Google, so I don't use their calendar, but other people might find this information useful.

 

[Amamba]

All companies have their skeletons.. Google is spying on every aspect of your life, Microsoft was notorious for putting competition out of business with questionable practices, Apple creates a closed ecosystem and charges users arm and a leg for using it (the most expensive storage in the world).

I am trying to use what works the best for me.

 

[HankAZ]

All companies have their skeletons.. Google is spying on every aspect of your life, Microsoft was notorious for putting competition out of business with questionable practices, Apple creates a closed ecosystem and charges users arm and a leg for using it (the most expensive storage in the world).

I am trying to use what works the best for me.

Yes, you should use whatever works best for you. For me, that included the security of a closed system.

 

[Amamba]

Yes, you should use whatever works best for you. For me, that included the security of a closed system.

Well, I don't know if the security of a closed system applies to cloud devices as it did to desktops. A cynic in me thinks that Apple doesn't let you use a SD card in their phones so that they could charge you exorbitant prices for extra gigs of storage on the phone and in the cloud, not just because it's a security issue. And it was Apple's security that failed so spectacularly in the celeb hacking case - no other major provider would allow the attacker to keep entering passwords over and over and over again until they brute-forced it.

This could be the iCloud flaw that led to celebrity photos being leaked (Update: Apple is investigating)

Apple is more secure in some areas but appears to make dumb decisions in others.

But that's for another topic.

 

[RCS04]

Amamba,

I've got a host of questions, but I'll start with the simplest, are you using Outlook on Windows or a Mac? I know using the iCloud software on Windows you can sync contacts, calendar, etc with iCloud.

The problem I'm trying to solve is:

- Wife uses Outlook (2011 on a Mac) and an iPhone.
- She wants to keep them in sync (bi-directionally).

Right now her iMac can't be upgraded to Yosemite due to it not having any sync services (right now it isn't reliable, but it does work most of the time). That syncs the Outlook calendar to 'Calendar' and Outlook contacts to 'Contacts'. From there I use SyncMate to push changes to iCloud. Due to the flakiness of Sync Services, trying to connect the Mac applications to iCloud led to a lot of duplicates (randomly).

Our personal email domain is hosted by Google, so even if my wife used the native Apple applications on the iMac, her invites don't get sent (I love that Outlook is a unified program - hate that Mac applications are not).

I get if you are using Windows you might not have much insight to share, so let's start there.

Thanks,

RCS

 

[gellard]

Google Calendar is very usefull for me, i like it