If like me you are considering migrating from Apple’s MobileMe to a more open (and free) repository for your PIM data, then Google’s Gmail could be the answer.

Once you have setup your Gmail account simply export your contacts from Address Book or MobileMe, then import directly into Google.

In Mac OS Address Book go to Preferences > Accounts and tick the ‘Synchronise with Google’ option. Enter the Google Account and Password that you wish to synchronise with. You may find that your contacts don’t appear immediately, but you can force a resync via iSync. To do this open iSync, go to Preferences and tick on ‘Show status in menu bar’. To force a manual resync click on the iSync icon (swirly arrows) in the Mac OS menu bar and choose ‘Sync Now’.

The default automatic sync interval is set to 1 day. This can be changed by editing the StartInterval key in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent.plist which has a default setting of 3600 seconds (1 day). I changed this to 300 seconds, which forces an automatic re-sync with Google every five minutes.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent</string>
<key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
<string>Aqua</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/A/Resources/gconsync</string>
<string>--sync</string>
<string>com.google.ContactSync</string>
<string>--periodic</string>
</array>
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>3600</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Finally you should check through all your contacts to ensure that they comply with Google’s ActiveSync limitations:

The iPhone can synchronize up to 3 email address. Phone number synchronization is limited to 2 Home numbers, 1 Home Fax, 1 Mobile, 1 Pager, 3 Work (one will be labeled ‘Company Main’) and one Work Fax number.

Aside from some teething troubles when Google’s Calendar service went down last week, this setup has proven to be reliable and I can now keep my PIM data in sync between Mac, iPhone and Android devices.

Want a quick way to switch between email identities when sending email in Apple Mail? Well it’s remarkably easy – once you know how!

Instead of creating separate accounts, simply add all the email addresses separated by commas on the email address line in Mail > Preferences.

Mail.app will then display a drop down list of the addresses next to ‘From’ when you compose a message. Just pick the one you want and away you go. Don’t forget that if you are using an address not provided by your ISP then you may need to use SMTP authentication to prevent anti-relaying from blocking your outgoing mail as spam.

This morning I lay in bed and listened to nothing but the occasional light breeze blowing through the blossom in the trees outside and the cheerful morning chorus of chirruping local wildlife.

This is a special day, a day when I have not been rudely awoken from my slumber by the thunderous roar of Boeing 747s on their final approach overhead. This is the day that airplanes were banished from our skies, when we regained the most basic human right to be free of the unhealthy and invasive noise pollution.

A hushed sense of relaxation has enveloped the entire neighbourhood, conversations are no longer punctuated by the scream of jet engines from overhead, there is a holiday atmosphere.

The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has granted us a brief glimpse of how life would be without the planes. Would I forsake foreign holidays and unseasonal imported fruit in return for this? You bet I would!

Apple today released the following statement:

Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

Even by Apple’s standards this is iGuff. Assuming that there are some Apple fanboys who are genuinely disappointed they won’t be getting their greasy fingerprints on an iPhone Giganotosaurus this month, is it any consolation to know they are being deprived simply because their cousins across the pond are deemed more worthy?