They said it was impossible, (and I’m pretty sure that for $0, it is impossible). Google Calendar (specifically, the Google Apps for My Domain version) synced over the air to a Blackberry.

I’m here to tell you the good news. There’s hope, and it comes with a 15 day free trial.

First of all: it would be remiss of me not to mention GCalSync—an up-and-coming open source solution that lets you sync Google Calendars to Blackberries OTA. However, wonderful as GCalSync is, it’s a tad lacking in the Google Apps for my Domain arena (it won’t let me use my GApps login directly, and attempting to download calendar data from my “private calendar” URL results in all of my events showing up on December 31st, 1969.) That said, although I have not myself attempted it, I hear it downloads events from regular Google Calendars quite well.

But on to the main event: syncing a calendar (or, for an extra $40, calendars) to/from Google Apps for My Domain to your trusty Crackberry.

To achieve this mammoth feat, you will need to:

1) Set up an account with GooSync.

2) Tell them your Google account information. You will not be able to use their (allegedly) magical “auto-setup” utility, or their “you don’t have to tell us your password” Google Calendar authentication. This is the one thing that’s a little chancy about this operation—you do actually have to give GooSync your password to Google (choose the “I want to use password authentication” checkbox.) Therefore, you should likely not use the same password for Google that you use for your bank account, or the nuclear missile silo. Although if you ask me, any company that’s based in Wolverhampton Science Park is bound to be trustworthy.

3) Visit Nexthaus using your Blackberry’s default web browser and download and install their excellent SyncJE client software (http://www.nexthaus.com/bb/syncjebb.jad.)

4) Open the SyncJE client, select “Settings”, and enter:

  • Server URL: http://www.goosync.com/sync/sync.aspx
  • User Name: [your goosync username]
  • Password: [your goosync password]
  • Check “Calendar” and set: Foldername: Calendar

5) Hit Save.

6) Select “Start Sync.” When it completes, you should be able to see your Google Calendar events in your Blackberry calendar!

7) (Optional) Pay Nexthaus $29.95 to get a license so that you can sync for more than 15 days.

8) (Optional) Sync multiple calendars by upgrading your GooSync account (~$40 extra). Once you’ve upgraded, go to the “My Device” screen in your GooSync web console, and click the “Change…” link to the right of “Sharing 1 Calendar.” GooSync automagically loads all of the calendars you have set up as Shared Calendars in your Google Calendar account. It lets you name them, and events from that calendar will show up prepended with [calendarname] in your Blackberry calendar.

As you may have discerned, I am mightily excited about this. Now all I need to make Google Apps truly mobile is a Contacts sync (which GooSync says is in the works).

Note about my setup: I did this on a Blackberry 7130e on Verizon’s network.  To get it to work on a co-worker’s Blackberry Pearl with T-Mobile, I had  to configure their TCP to use T-Mobile’s APN: Go to Options > Advanced Options > TCP, and set APN to wap.voicestream.com.

For other networks, search for “[network name] WAP APN”.