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May 29, 2008

tips

Sync your Google contacts with Address Book, no iPhone/iPod touch required

Posted May. 29, ’08, 9:15 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips

Google SYncSometimes people accuse of us being totally biased in favor of Apple, but you know what? We call things like we see ‘em. You may disagree—and hey, it’s cool; that’s what freedom of speech is all about. But we’re not afraid to go up against Cupertino when we believe in it—what are they going to do, revoke our Apple Fan Club Membership?

Hence, this whole deal with syncing your Google contacts with Address Book in 10.5.3, which only appears to work for iPhone and iPod touch users. We call it lame-o, loud and clear. What kind of elitist hornswoggle is this, Apple?

Anyway, if you’re among those who want to sync your Google Contacts over, but haven’t yet shelled out for a fancy handheld device, our friends over at Lifehacker come to the rescue with this useful workaround for fighting the Man.

It involves meddling around with Property List files, so either you’ll need to have installed OS X’s Developer Tools so you can run Property List Editor, or you’ll need to pick up PlistEdit Pro. And, most importantly, you’ll want to backup the existing .plist file, just in case something goes horribly, terribly awry (we doubt it will, but better safe than sorry).

Voilà, you should now have the ability to sync your contacts with Google. I can’t try this out, as I already have the Google option in Address Book (thanks, iPhone), but please let us know if it works or doesn’t work for you.


3 Comments

Kirk said:

I have no iphone or touch, but I do have the option to sync with google contacts (works great)... am I the only one?

May 29, 2008 10:28 AM
Dave-O said:

Ouch, who let the .Mac manager in on that decision? Is it just Google sync that's disabled, or are Yahoo and Exchange also unavailable (I swear I saw Exchange syncing before I ever had an iPhone)?

May 29, 2008 11:04 AM
Michael Ball said:

Why Plist edit pro? Why not ANY text editor (not pretty) or the free and fast PrefSetter.

May 30, 2008 3:29 PM

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