GCalSync - Synchronize Blackberry with Google Calendar

I have a Blackberry Curve 8320 from T-Mobile. I love the device. So much so that I put it through a full washer / dryer cycle just to make it look and smell great! Upon finding out the device no longer functioned, I coughed up the $110 insurance fee and received another. (It looks great, does not smell great... )

But right now I'm not using it with over the air sync of my calendar / address book information since I don't have a working Exchange server at the moment. So I decided to try to (temporarily) move away from the Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft Exchange combination.

The last time I tried this I attempted to use Ximian Evolution (now just Evolution), then I looked into Chandler, and... I came up empty. (Note, the Evolution logo has changed... I just like this one more)

The truth is, I need e-mail and calendaring all the time, everywhere I go, on a laptop, on my desktop, on my phone, and I need them to all share data seamlessly.

I think I may have found what I'm looking for.

Mail: Mozilla Thunderbird

Calendar: Mozilla Lightning (or Sunbird if you want a separate application)

Blackberry Sync: GCalSync

To make it work on the Blackberry side of things you need to be aware of two potential issues which I was not aware of. I received an "invalid tunnel name" error. I fixed it by resolving two issues:

Disabling the "Proxy" setting under TLS on the Blackberry.

Choose Options -> Security Options -> TLS -> TLS Default

Choose Handheld (not "Proxy")

Setting the APN name

Choose Options -> Advanced Options - TCP

Type in your Wireless Provider's APN address, username, and password.

(For T-Mobile, it's wap.voicestream.com with no username or password)

This is the closest I've come to breaking up the Outlook / Exchange combination.

It still isn't seamless, sync between the Blackberry and Google Calendar isn't automatic, you have to initiate it at the GCalSync app on the Blackberry.

Additionally, it won't update already uploaded events.

Nevertheless this is the closest I've come in a while, so I'm going to work with this and see what I end up doing.