what's the difference between using the standard google calendar setup vs. doing it as a CalDAV calendar?? guess i don't see a big difference.
Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
Here's the one tutorial I followed:
Configuring CalDAV on iPhone 3.0 for Google Calendar - Robert Chien's Blog
Pretty much step by step exactly what you need to do.
So to answer the question, Google Sync uses Microsoft Exchange Activesync. It essentially mimics being an Exchange Server. This is the most convenient as it will sync all of your calendars with one exchange account setting.
Well you can only have one Exchange account configured on the iPhone at a time. In my case I'm using Exchange for work, so I can't set it up to use Google sync as well.
CalDav is direct syncing with individual calendars directly. I don't know much about it honestly.
You can have (as far as I know) as many CalDav accounts as you want which is what is so convenient about it in this case.
The iPhone can also do "subscribed" calendar account syncing. But I believe this is one way (read only) as long as you have the Google address to the iCal .ics URL.
On Google, I have 4 calendars. 3 are mine, which I share with my wife and one is my Wife's which she shares with me.
So on my iPhone, I have these accounts set up:
Exhange calendars - all sync with work
My Calendar on Google - CalDav Account
Her Calendar on Google - CalDav Account
Hockey home schedule - CalDav account
Hockey away schedule - CalDav account
Google Mail - Personal Email on Google.
Yes, I have season tickets to San Jose Sharks hockey so I have the hockey schedule separate, and I share it with my wife on Google.
If someone is sharing a google calendar with you, depend on whether they give you rights to change their calendar will carry over to the iPhone. So you'll either be able to edit events or it'll be read-only depending on permissions.
And as I said before, the colors you choose on Google will be the colors that show up on the iPhone. With Exchange, it just assigns colors that you don't get to choose.
So check out the link. It explains a lot.