Spanning Sync Blog

Spanning Sync 3 Beta 1 Now Available

(Cross-posted from the Spanning Sync Beta Blog)

After months of development and testing, we're happy to announce the first beta release of Spanning Sync 3, available for download now at spanningsync.com/beta-download.

If you're like me you won't read the ReadMe, so here are the five things you absolutely must know:

1. This is a beta. That means there are bugs. Back up your data before you use it. I'm not kidding.
2. You must quit System Preferences before installing the beta. Then just double-click the Spanning Sync.prefPane included in the download. (If you forget to quit System Preferences first, it will hang when you first launch Spanning Sync—just quit and reopen it, then reopen Spanning Sync.)
3. Some defaults have changed, so make sure you're happy with them before your first sync.
4. Your first sync will be a refresh sync, so it will take longer than usual. Be patient.
5. There's lots of cool new stuff. Keep reading.

What's New in Spanning Sync 3 Beta 1

• Event alarm syncing
• Customizable alarm types
• Syncs more contact properties, including birthday and nickname
• One-way syncing option for both contacts and calendars
• Option not to sync older calendar events
• One-way syncing for CalDAV calendars
• Much faster sync times
• Reduced memory usage
• Easier installation process
• Uses Sparkle for software updates
• Makes full use of Google's Contact Data API v3.0
• Bug fixes

To those of you willing to help us beta test—that is, to find the bugs we assume are there but which we haven't been able to find yet—thanks! We look forward to getting your feedback, either via email at beta@spanningsync.com or through our new ZenDesk-powered customer support system.

If you're not comfortable running beta software on your most important data (I know, who wouldn't be, right?) just hang tight for now and we'll let you know when it's safe to jump in the pool. Until then here's a sneak peek at some of the new features in the UI:

For ongoing updates about the beta, please follow the Spanning Sync Beta Blog.

New Beta of Spanning Tools for Mac Available

A new beta version of Spanning Tools for Mac is available with lots of bug fixes and features you've asked for.

Note: We've changed the names of two of the apps. Sparkle can't auto-update those (see their bug #228447) so please download the most recent version (0.61) manually here.

Here are the changes:

Contacts Cleaner:

• Existing organization names are no longer lost when resolution is "reformat name".
• Existing person names are no longer lost when resolution is "convert to company".
• More info is provided in the preview area when deleting contacts.
• The icon for businesses is fixed.
• Merging is now a possible resolution for duplicates.
• Added option to "Ignore Similar Conflicts".
• Fixed some minor problems with backups.

Calendar Cleaner:

• Changed the name of the app (from iCal Cleaner).
• More info is provided in the preview area when deleting events.
• Merging is now a possible resolution for duplicates.
• Added option to "Ignore Similar Conflicts".
• Remembers "calendars to scan" selections.
• Added the option to delete older calendar events.
• Fixed some minor problems with backups.

Sync Tune-Up

• Changed the name of the app (from Sync Toolbox).

Please send bug reports and feedback to beta@spanningtools.com.

[FIXED?] Google Calendar Not Showing Yearly Recurring Events

Google Calendar is currently experiencing a problem where yearly recurring events like holidays and birthdays are not being displayed. (They are however included in search results.)

Google has been notified of the problem and we're hopeful they'll have it fixed very soon. I'll update this post when the issue has been resolved.

Update: Well, it's now been more than four days since this issue was reported to Google on their support forums and over 30 hours since I opened a support ticket (#00394857) with Google Enterprise Support. No word from Google yet.

Disappointing.

Update 2: Still no word from Google, but recurring yearly events are showing back up on my Google and Apps accounts. Some of our (free Google Apps) test accounts are still exhibiting the bad behavior though. Hopefully they're in the process of applying the fix to all calendars.

Update 3: The problem appears to have been fixed.

Good News/Bad News About Google's V3.0 Contact API

The good news is Google has released version 3.0 of their Contacts Data API, which Spanning Sync uses to sync with Google Contacts.

It adds a number of features, most important of which to our users is support for structured names and postal addresses. This means that Google will now distinguish between a contact's first, middle, and last names, etc, and the street, city, state, etc, parts of their addresses—so we don't have to guess at which words should go in which fields in Address Book, which we have to do now. (Goodbye, compatibility modes!)

As soon as we got access to the API we started implementing support for it. That work is now largely complete, and will be part of Spanning Sync 3. We've done some interoperability testing and have had great results with both Google Sync for iPhone and the new Google Apps Sync for Outlook. But other apps and devices are more problematic.

The bad news is that the Google Contacts web UI itself and the Contacts application on Android devices aren't well-behaved, which can lead to data loss.

When you create a contact in Address Book and sync it using Spanning Sync 3, the contact's structured names and postal addresses are sent to Google. But when you then edit that contact in the Google Contacts web UI, the structured data is destroyed in Google's database. That's no good.

Android's Contacts app doesn't completely destroy the structured data but it rearranges it in ugly ways, moving parts of contacts' names and addresses to the wrong fields.

We're in close contact with Google about this issue and have been told that the Contacts UI team is working on a fix. We're optimistic we'll see that fix soon.

In the mean time, we continue to add even more killer features to Spanning Sync 3, which we hope to have in beta soon. We think you'll be pleased. Stay tuned.

WWDC Special: $5 Off Spanning Sync with Discount Code "WWDC09"

This week we're celebrating Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference by staying chained to our desks and working long into the night on Spanning Tools for Mac (now in beta) and Spanning Sync 3 (coming soon, and as always, a free upgrade for Spanning Sync subscribers).

But whether you're lucky enough to be in San Francisco for the big show or not, you can save $5 on Spanning Sync.

Just use the discount code "WWDC09" when you check out—or just click here.

This code expires when WWDC wraps up on Friday, June 12. In the mean time, have fun, be safe, and thanks for supporting Spanning Sync!

Spanning Tools for Mac

Hi all, Larry here. It's hard to believe, but here at Spanning Sync we've been working on sync software for nearly three years! During that time, we've learned some lessons about the nature of the data that our customers sync like contacts and calendar events, and the problems that they sometimes run into.

First, most people just aren't very good at keeping their contacts and calendars organized. Open up your Address Book, or perhaps that of a friend or family member, and you're very likely to find duplicated entries, contacts with names in the wrong fields, mislabeled contacts…the list goes on. And who can blame us? Our lives are busy and complicated.

Second, sync software is generally not very good at dealing with bad data. We're proud to say that Spanning Sync is currently (as far as we know) the only sync product on the market with active duplicate prevention on both ends. If you find a duplicated calendar event or contact on your Mac or on Google, chances are slim that Spanning Sync put it there (barring Google Calendar time zone bugs; sorry New Zealand!). That said, once duplicates find their way into your calendars and contacts, all sync software has the potential to act like a virus and propagate these inconsistencies to every device and app that you sync with.

Clearly, these two facts can lead to a "perfect storm" of sync destruction which we sometimes find when helping our customers resolve various issues. When we find such issues, we refer our customers to useful utilities such as iCal Dupe Deleter and/or recommend a data cleanup that entails hours of tedious preening inside iCal and Address Book.

That is, until now. Today we're announcing Spanning Tools for Mac, a suite of utilities that analyzes, reports, and fixes dozens of problems with iCal, Address Book, and Apple Sync Services — problems ranging from the obvious, such as duplicated calendar events, to the subtle, such as invalid calendar dates and poorly formatted contact names.

We're going to kick things off with a public beta, which you can download right now from this download link. We'd appreciate hearing about any problems you run into or any enhancements you'd like to see. Just drop us an email at beta@spanningtools.com.

Headed to Google I/O

Hi everyone, Charlie here. Tonight I'm headed to San Francisco to attend Google I/O. I hope to see some familiar faces and to put some new faces with familiar names, especially from the Calendar and Contact Data API forums.

If you see me please come say hello. (I look pretty much like the picture on my Google Profile, but in more need of a haircut. :) I might even give a few private demos of the world-eating Spanning Sync v3.0. It's so awesome I'm having trouble containing myself.

Also, I'm following and will use the #io2009 hashtag on Twitter.

See you there!

[FIXED] Google Calendar API Experiencing Problems

Over the last few days we've gotten numerous reports of problems with the Google Calendar API including failed logins, redirection issues, "Could not generate feed" errors, and the mysterious "Error=Unknown".

The problems are on Google's end and are not specific to Spanning Sync; if you sync Google Calendar with other applications or devices you'll notice that they're affected too.

We've reported the problems to Google and are optimistic that they'll be addressed soon. I'll update this post when we know more. In the mean time, the Google Calendar web UI seems to be unaffected.

Update: This morning (April 22) we got an update from Google on this issue: "A quick update—we see the problems you're having in our logs, it appears to be an issue on our side, it's not very widespread, we have some ideas why it may be happening, and we're thoroughly investigating."

Update 2: Trevor Johns at Google just posted this message to the Calendar API group:

"Google is aware of a problem with the Calendar Data API affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are able to access Google Calendar, but are seeing error messages when attempting to access API feeds.

We will provide an update by April 22, 2009 3:00:00 PM UTC-7 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change."

Update 3: Late last night we got word from Trevor at Google that they believe the problem has been solved. We'll continue to monitor our logs for signs of trouble. If you see any errors, please create a problem report (Advanced > Create report) and email it to us at support@spanningsync.com. Thanks!

Company-Only Contact Display Fixed

Two weeks ago we announced a change that made contacts with company names only display better in Google, but that change only affected people using Spanning Sync's Gmail compatibility mode.

This morning we pushed an update that allows company-only contacts to display properly in Google regardless of which compatibility mode you choose in Spanning Sync. (People who sync their Google contacts with other applications or devices should use Gmail compatibility mode.)

To switch between compatibility modes:

1. Open the Spanning Sync pref pane
2. In the "Contacts" tab, uncheck and then re-check "Sync contacts"
3. Choose the desired compatibility mode
4. Click "OK"

To update your Google contacts to display properly, just make some small change to one of your Address Book contacts and then sync. This will force a "push" sync, during which your Google contacts will be fixed.

Working with the World's Most Innovative Companies

For the fourth year in a row Apple and Google have been named BusinessWeek's two Most Innovative Companies. And as I wrote in 2007, "Spanning Sync combines products from the two most innovative companies in the world into something even more useful. We find that incredibly exciting."

A lot has changed in the last two years as both Apple and Google have continued to innovate at a blistering pace. And I'm proud to say that we've not only kept up with new technologies—for instance by introducing contact sync shortly after Google released its Contacts API—but also gone head-to-head with the giants of innovation and won on features, cost, and quality.

But not content to just build on the work of others, we've introduced some exciting innovations of our own. Last summer we rolled out Save 5+Make 5, our profit-sharing program that rewards our loyal customers for recommending Spanning Sync to their friends and saves their friends some money at the same time. And just this week we launched SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com, which helps level the playing field for program participants who don't run high-volume web sites.

Obviously we operate on a smaller scale than Apple and Google, but every day we look for new ways to innovate, and not just with features like calendar and contact sync but also with business model innovations like Save 5+Make 5. Our next few projects are already well underway, and we look forward to rolling them out in the coming months.

The Easiest Way to Find a Spanning Sync Discount Code: SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com

This morning we launched SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com, the easiest way to find fresh, valid discount codes for Spanning Sync.

We've been very pleased with the success of Save 5+Make 5, the program that rewards our customers for referring their friends to Spanning Sync and saves their friends some money at the same time. Every month we send out thousands of dollars in referral payments.

But recently we've noticed that a few affiliates are earning a disproportionate amount of referral fees simply because of their Google search rankings. We'd like to help level the playing field a bit for our customers who don't run high-traffic websites, so we've created a site of our own for them.

SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com lists the discount codes of the people who have most recently signed up to participate in Save 5+Make 5, so earning that first referral fee is now even easier for affiliates and finding a discount code is even easier for new customers.

If you're a Spanning Sync customer and you haven't signed up for Save 5+Make 5, you should! To get started just open the Spanning Sync preference pane and click "Refer a Friend". Once you've agreed to the terms of the program, your code will instantly show up on SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com and you can start earning referral fees.

Sending a customer his or her first referral fee is one of the most rewarding things we get to do. It's our hope that SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com will help us do that more than ever before.

Spanning Sync Keeping Pace with Google Contacts Improvements

Thanks to a recent changes by Google, we've been able to improve the way contacts sync.

Last year when we introduced contact sync in Spanning Sync v2.0, Google Contacts had a number of small annoyances we had to work around: no two contacts could share an email address, company contacts didn't display correctly, etc. But Google has been steadily improving their system, and as they do we're making changes to Spanning Sync to deliver the best experience for our users.

Until recently Google Contacts didn't display company contacts correctly, so Spanning Sync used the company name from Address Book for both the company name and the contact name in Google:

Google Contacts now shows company contacts correctly, so Spanning Sync no longer doubles up company names:

As Google continues to improve their contacts system, we'll make sure Spanning Sync continues to improve along with it.

Spanning Sync v2.1.3 Now Available

This morning we released Spanning Sync v2.1.3, which fixes two small bugs.

What's New in v2.1.3:

• Fixed a rare crash
• Fixed a problem that could cause detached events to be deleted from iCal when there were duplicates on Google Calendar

All users are encouraged to download and install the update as soon as possible. Like all new Spanning Sync versions, this update is included in your Spanning Sync subscription.

As always, if you run into any problems or have any questions please contact us at support@spanningsync.com.

Spanning Sync Turns Two!

Two years ago today we launched Spanning Sync v1.0. Can it really have been that long ago? Wow.

At 8:24am on March 13, 2007 Peter A. became our first paid subscriber. Three minutes later our subscriber base doubled. Since then it's doubled fourteen more times.

To our loyal customers, the helpful and friendly people at Google and Apple, and my awesome teammates Larry and Byron: Thank you! You rock!

But enough nostalgia. We're hard at work on the next major release of Spanning Sync, and on a couple of surprises. Stay tuned. The next two years promise to be even better than the last.

Save $5 with Spanning Sync Discount Code "SXSW09"

This week Austin welcomes music, film, and interactive geeks from around the world. But you don't have to be attending SXSW to save $5 on Spanning Sync.

Just use the discount code "SXSW09" when you check out—or just click here.

This code expires when SXSW wraps up on Sunday, March 22. In the mean time, have fun, be safe, and thanks for supporting Spanning Sync!

Spanning Sync v2.1.2 Now Available

We've discovered a bug in v2.1.1 that disabled "trickle" sync, which pushes changes from your Mac to Google as soon as they're made. The problem has been fixed in Spanning Sync v2.1.2, which is now available for download.

What's New in v2.1.2:

• Fixed a problem introduced in v2.1.1 that broke trickle syncing.

All users are encouraged to download and install the update as soon as possible. Like all new Spanning Sync versions, this update is included in your Spanning Sync subscription. And as always, if you run into any problems or have any questions please contact us at support@spanningsync.com.

Spanning Sync v2.1.1 Now Available

Thanks to reports from several users we've been able to find and fix a bug which was causing continual syncs under some conditions. The problem has been fixed in Spanning Sync v2.1.1, which is now available for download.

What's New in v2.1.1:

• Fixed a problem that could cause the program to sync in a never-ending loop.

All users are encouraged to download and install the update as soon as possible. Like all new Spanning Sync versions, this update is included in your Spanning Sync subscription. And as always, if you run into any problems or have any questions please contact us at support@spanningsync.com.

Why Google Sync Users Need Spanning Sync

Today Google released Google Sync for iPhone, which we're very excited about. It provides over-the air synchronization of calendars and contacts between your iPhone and Google. But it has a few limitations, including the fact that it makes your iPhone stop syncing contacts and calendars with your Mac.

So what does this mean for Spanning Sync? As it turns out, Spanning Sync can not only simplify the initial setup of Google Sync but will also keep your Mac in sync with Google—something Google Sync doesn't do.

When you set up Google Sync on your iPhone, all existing contacts and calendar events will be removed from your phone. So before you get started with Google Sync you'll need to get your iPhone's calendar and contact data onto Google. With Spanning Sync that's a snap: just use iTunes to sync your iPhone with your Mac, then Spanning Sync to sync your Mac with Google. That way when you set up Google Sync on your iPhone you'll still have all of your data.

After you've configured your iPhone to use Google Sync, it will no longer sync calendars and contacts with your Mac through iTunes. But Spanning Sync will continue to keep your Mac calendars and contacts in sync with Google, so for Spanning Sync users this is a non-issue.

We'll be writing a more detailed post soon detailing the benefits of using Spanning Sync and Google Sync together. But the bottom line is this: when you use Spanning Sync and Google Sync together, your data will be kept in sync everywhere you need it: iPhone, Mac, and Google.

Note: If you see unwanted X's in your contacts when using Google Sync and Spanning sync together, you need to switch to Spanning Sync's Gmail compatibility mode:

• Open the Spanning Sync pref pane
• In the Contacts tab, uncheck and then re-check the "Sync contacts" checkbox
• Choose "Preserve Gmail compatibility" and click "OK"
• Make some small change to any contact in Address Book to force a "push" sync
• After syncing with Spanning Sync and with Google Sync, the X's should be gone

How to Get Spanning Sync for Free

These days it's more important than ever to be smart about how you spend your money, so here's an easy way to get Spanning Sync for free:

1. Use a Discount Code
   When you purchase Spanning Sync, use a discount code to get $5 off. If you haven't already gotten one from a friend, try SpanningSyncDiscountCodes.com.

2. Refer a Friend
   After you've made your purchase, click "Refer a Friend" in the Spanning Sync pref pane to find your personal discount code.

3. Share Your Code
   Share your code with your friends, family, coworkers, blog readers, tweeps—anyone who uses Google Apps and a Mac.

4. After Four Referrals, Spanning Sync is Free
   Every time someone uses your discount code we'll send you $5. If just four people use your discount code you'll get $20, making your one year Spanning Sync subscription effectively free.

Of course this isn't only available to new customers. No matter how long you've been a Spanning Sync customer you can start at Step 2. If you have any questions, just leave a comment here.

Deja Vu for Email Blog Subscribers

If you subscribe to the Spanning Sync Blog via email, you probably received a post titled "Our First Anniversary" yesterday. If you look closely, you'll see that post was dated March 13, 2008. It was erroneously sent out yesterday due to a bug in FeedBurner's email blog subscription service.

So to avoid any confusion: as of today, January 4, 2009, the current version of Spanning Sync is v2.1 which we released in December 2008.

To make sure you're using the most current version, just open the Spanning Sync preference pane (in System Preferences). If you need an update, you'll be notified then. And as always, all Spanning Sync updates are free to paid subscribers.

2009 promises to be an exciting year for us. Watch this blog for more details soon.

By Popular Demand, Suggested Contacts No Longer Sync!

Whenever you send someone an email using Gmail, Google helpfully adds that person to your Suggested Contacts group in Google Contacts. But no one wants all of those email addresses cluttering his Address Book. Until now there's been no way for Spanning Sync to prevent Suggested Contacts from syncing.

Happily, one of the new features in GData v2 allows us to do just that, and we've just rolled out support for it. Since we added contact sync this has been the feature most requested by our users, so we're very pleased to be able to deliver it. The changes were all made server-side, so there's no need to update Spanning Sync on your Mac.

If you have existing suggested contacts in your Address Book and they're still listed as Suggested Contacts in Google, here's how to get rid of them for good:

• Open Google Contacts
• Select the "Suggested Contacts" group
• Click Select All
• Click "Delete Contacts"
• Sync

The contacts will be deleted in both Google Contacts and Address Book. As James Byers points out in the comments, you might want to peruse your Suggested Contacts before deleting all of them. That way you can move any you want to keep into My Contacts first.

After performing this procedure, if a contact is suggested again by Google it won't be synchronized unless you move it to "My Contacts".

Please let us know if you have any questions or run into any problems.

Users Favor Spanning Sync Over Google's CalDAV

Last week we described the Top 4 Reasons Spanning Sync is Better than Google CalDAV:

1. Cost
2. iPhone Support
3. Customer Support
4. Contact Sync

But don't take our word for it—here's a sample of what some users had to say:

"Tried CalDAV for 5 minutes. Spanning Sync is far better in my opinion."
—Jill Ducey

"Why would you use Spanning Sync instead of Google CalDAV? This is truly a case of getting what you pay for."
—Cecily in Vancouver

"If you use CalDAV, every one of your calendars will show up as a separate group which is very annoying!"
—Germane

"Sure Google CalDAV is free, but the way it sorts your calendars that are synced just isn't useful for me. It's ugly. It's messy."
—Elliott Bledsoe

"Until Google CalDAV supports synching contacts & editable events on my iPhone cal, I'll stick with Spanning Sync."
—phej

"A great number of my calendar entries are entered directly on my Touch, which I then count on being synced to iCal on my next iTunes sync, which I then count on getting picked up by Spanning Sync and sent up to Google Calendar. Apparently that process isn’t going to work with the free Google stuff, so it’s not an option for me. Spanning Sync will get my $15 every year, at least until something else changes."
—Steve Crook

"I'll vouch for Spanning Sync here. They are awesome in support, very friendly in sales, and this app is great. It's simple. It works. It's in the background. No crazy configuring in iCal."
—Brian Dusablon

"If you want your Google Calendars to sync, I suggest not using CalDAV and giving Spanning Sync a try."
—lbaj

We're proud to offer a service that's even better than what you can get from Google and Apple alone. You can find these and other comments about Spanning Sync on our Reviews page.

Top 4 Reasons Spanning Sync is Better than Google CalDAV

We've gotten several emails asking how Google's CalDAV support compares to Spanning Sync. There are a number of important differences, but here are the ones that we think will affect the most people:

1. Cost
   Google CalDAV is free, and what could be better than free? Simple: something that makes you money, which is exactly what the Spanning Sync does with our Save 5+Make 5 program.

   Several people have already made over $1,000 just by including their personal referral code in blog posts, Twitter tweets, and comments. Brian Dusablon is one of those people, and here's what he had to say:

   It's pretty easy to get four referrals, and if you get five or more, you're at a profit already. [Within eight weeks] I hit $1,000. I'm donating half to charity, and I'm buying a Drobo.

   We think saving money is great, but making money is even better.

2. iPhone Support
   Calendars synchronized using CalDAV become read-only on iPhone. One of our customers recently rolled out 700 iPhones and 200 iPod touches. This lack of iPhone compatibility makes Google's CalDAV solution a non-starter for them, and for anyone else looking for bidirectional sync between iPhone and Google Calendar.

   Calendars synchronized with Spanning Sync are editable on Google Calendar, iCal, and the iPhone calendar, and changes made in any of those places will show up on all three (after syncing your iPhone using iTunes or MobileMe).

3. Customer Support
   Sync is inherently complex, but when problems do crop up they can usually be solved quickly with just a little customer support. Unfortunately, Google doesn't provide any. They've even said publicly that it's "not feasible" for them to respond to individual requests for support.

   At Spanning Sync, we provide support our customers have called "tremendous", "excellent", and "stellar", regardless of whose software is causing the problem: Google's, Apple's, or ours.

4. Contact Sync
   Spanning Sync syncs not only calendars but also contacts, including contact photos. Click here to see a video. And of course contact sync works great with or without iPhone, just like our calendar sync.

Spanning Sync also supports existing iCal calendars, read-only Google calendars, MobileMe sharing, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", and true Mac-to-cloud "push", none of which are supported by Google CalDAV.

Over 100,000 people in 58 countries have used Spanning Sync, and we invite you to become one of them. To start a fully functional 15-day free trial, just download Spanning Sync, install it, and log in with your Google account information.

If you have any questions, we're always ready to answer them on our discussion group or at support@spanningsync.com. And to our customers: thanks again for supporting Spanning Sync!

Spanning Sync 2.1 is Now Available

This weekend while many other Americans were eating turkey and watching football (hook 'em horns!) we were putting the finishing touches on Spanning Sync 2.1, which is now available for download.

What's New in v2.1:

• Spanning Sync now sends changes to Google in small batches. Batching has the following benefits:
  • Greatly reduced memory usage on large syncs
  • Eliminates various timeout errors on large syncs
  • Information will show up on Google faster
  • Total time to finish the sync is about 25% faster
• Fixed a rare crash
• Syncs that were canceled or aborted at just the right time would miss records on the next sync
• Better UI for over-quota conditions
• Reliability fixes
• Small fix to French translation
• Human readable log now includes event dates & times

All users are encouraged to download and install the update as soon as possible. Like all new Spanning Sync versions, this update is included in your Spanning Sync subscription.

Customer Earns $1,000 with Spanning Sync Discount Code, Gives Half to Charity

A few weeks ago we were wondering when our Save 5+Make 5 affiliate program would have its first $1,000 referer. Well, we're not wondering any more.

On November 4, Brian Dusablon's Spanning Sync discount code was used for the 200th time, putting his earnings to date at $1,000.

We asked him to describe his experience with Save 5+Make 5. Here's what he had to say:

A friend of mine had been bragging about how much he had made from Save 5+Make 5 in just a couple of weeks so I finally decided to do a social experiment to see how much money I could make. I figured I might get lucky and make my $20 back over a couple of weeks, not really knowing who read my blog or how much exposure I had online.

Anyhow, I was pretty blown away, as in just a couple of days I had already made close to $100. Then there were a couple days where I had 15-20 referral purchases. All I did was post an article to my blog (which had, and still has, only a few subscribers), post a link on Facebook and Twitter for my Mac friends.

Fun thing was making money during our recovery from Hurricane Ike, since I was literally making money doing absolutely nothing, with no power, no internet, etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, even if you don't use Spanning Sync, it's pretty easy to get 4 referrals, and if you get 5 or more, you're at a profit already (if you purchase the year subscription, that is).

The bonus for me was when Spanning Sync added Google Contact sync. This was huge! All of the sudden, an app I purchased just as an experiment to see if I could make any money off referrals, turned into an app I needed. And the rest is history. I hit $1,000. I'm donating half to charity, and I'm buying a Drobo.

So not only has Brian earned $1,000 (and counting), he's also decided to give half of it to charity, which we find incredibly admirable. You can ready more about Brian's experience on his blog.

The Save 5+Make 5 program is open to all Spanning Sync customers. Just open the Spanning Sync pref pane and click "Refer a Friend" to get started.

Spanning Sync v2.0.2 Now Available

Spanning Sync v2.0.2 is now available, and all users are encouraged to upgrade to take advantage of its improvements. Like all upgrades both major and minor, v2.0.2 is free for all Spanning Sync subscribers.

What's New in v2.0.2:

• Improved reliability with calendar syncing
• Handles Internet connectivity issues more gracefully
• Improved memory footprint

You can upgrade automatically by opening the Spanning Sync pref pane in System Preferences, or manually by downloading the update from spanningsync.com/download.

Spanning Sync v2.0.1 Now Available

Spanning Sync v2.0.1 is now available, and includes a number of fixes for users of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" and people syncing very large numbers of contacts. It also includes improvements that will affect all users, so please upgrade as soon as possible.

What's New in v2.0.1:

• Fixed a problem that would cause the pref pane to hang when signing out in Mac OS X "Tiger"
• Fixed a problem with the "show menu bar icon" checkbox in the pref pane
• Fixed some issues that could cause the sync to abort
• Memory optimizations

You can upgrade automatically by opening the Spanning Sync pref pane in System Preferences, or manually by downloading the update from spanningsync.com/download.

Spanning Sync v2.0 is Now Available, Adds Contact Sync

After an extensive beta period, we are pleased to announce the availability of Spanning Sync v2.0, which now syncs not only calendar events but also contacts.

Like all upgrades to Spanning Sync, v2.0 is free for paid subscribers.

To upgrade, just open the Spanning Sync pref pane and follow the instructions. Or you can manually download Spanning Sync v2.0 at spanningsync.com/download.

What's New in Spanning Sync v2.0:

• Contact syncing! Spanning Sync now syncs Address Book with Google contacts.
• Contact photo syncing!
• Trickle syncing! Changes in iCal and Address Book are automatically pushed to Google as they're made.
• Improved, easier-to-use preference pane UI.
• Dramatically improved network performance.
• Improved support for syncing huge (10,000+ events) calendars
• Improved support for syncing large numbers of contacts
• Improved support for multi-Mac configurations.
• Improved compatibility with MobileMe.
• New user-friendly log window for troubleshooting or checking status.
• Improvements to the "create troubleshooting report" system.
• Tons of other bug fixes and improvements.

You can find more detailed information in the ReadMe and in the User's Guide that's included with the download.

Thanks to the thousands of people who helped with the beta, Spanning Sync v2.0 is the fastest, most reliable, most thoroughly tested version we've ever released. If you're already a Spanning Sync user, we urge you to upgrade as soon as possible. And if not, we invite you to download Spanning Sync, log in with your Google account name, and start your 15-day Free Trial.

Spanning Sync Customers Earning $100s with Save 5+Make 5

When we launched Save 5+Make 5 last month we didn't know whether it would take off or not. Well, now we know. It's taken off, kicked in afterburners, and broken through the sound barrier. And it's still accelerating.

Several Spanning Sync customers are now deep into triple-digit dollar earnings, all for simply sharing their Save 5+Make 5 discount codes. We'll be posting profiles of some of them in the coming weeks, but here are a few quotes from their emails to us:

"The Save 5+Make 5 offer has made much more than I thought it would."

"I don't blog for the money, but this is the most money I've made in blogging ever."

"I would recommend that other users participate [in Save 5+Make 5] — except they'll probably steal my traffic. :)"

Many new Spanning Sync customers are finding discount codes simply using Google and Twitter, so you're already a Spanning Sync customer and you haven't put your Save 5+Make 5 discount code somewhere online you're missing out on some easy passive income.

To find your discount code, just open the Spanning Sync pref pane and click the "Refer a Friend" link.

We're now looking forward to our first $1,000 referrer. At this rate, it won't be long.

Latest Entourage Update Fixes Sync-Related Problems

We're pleased to report that Entourage users can at long last use Spanning Sync!

Due to user reports of corrupted Entourage databases, we've always recommended that people who sync Entourage with iCal not use Spanning Sync. But we've recently heard from Microsoft that the latest version of Entourage (v12.1.2) includes several fixes for sync-specific issues, and shouldn't exhibit the problematic behavior.

Thanks to Microsoft for the fixes, and for letting us know about them. If you run into any problems syncing Entourage with iCal and using Spanning Sync, please let us know right away so we can work with Microsoft to investigate.