Field Notes

Well, here it is. If you are a iCal user and need to coordinate calendars between multiple people, there is NO better product on the market than BusySync. Using Bonjour as a network communication protocol, BusySync allows you to manage an iCal calendar from multiple machines. For example, my wife uses a Mac Mini in the kitchen office, the location of the “home calendar.” At night, she likes to use her Powerbook before bed to update calendars and plan her next day or week. Using the default functionality with in OS X and the OS X web server only allow remote viewing. BusySync lets her make changes and updates. Now, is there a way to do this with the OS X default features? Maybe. If there is, I can’t figure it out and I can’t find anything on the Internet. That being said, BusySync made it fast and simple. Up and running in about, oh, 2 minutes! If you use Google calendar, it will sync with that as well. This was a possible alternative to BusySync because there are several opensource methods to sync iCal and Google calendar but they are not smooth. BusySync is just so easy and well designed.

Cons: BusySync is expensive. It is $25 per license. So for my wife to accomplish her tasks, it cost $50. Is it worth it? Yes and No. Yes because of the convenience; however I think there is an error in their pricing model. Although they offer a tiered discount model for 5 or more licenses, I believe the current pricing model is best designed for businesses and can push the family users away from the product. It was a tough decision for us to go with BusySync because of the price for a home management package. It would be nice to be able use it on all 3 of our home Macs. If I were the designers, I would have a non-commercial pricing scheme. Say $65 for up to 5 home based Macs. It is reasonable to assume that it is unlikely that a home would have more than 5 computers, frankly I think 5 is probably more than most homes. It would be easy enough to add code to see if there is more than 5 computers communicating, something I think would indicate a business vs. home use of the product. I know that we are “making due” with 2 licenses because more is just not financially reasonable for our budget. So, BusySync designers, I think you should consider adding another tier to your pricing model. I truly believe you will open up a new customer base with easier pricing for the home users.

Regardless. If you need to share iCal among users, don’t even bother looking for another solution. This is it.