Using your iPhone 2.0 With Zimbra

With the new server upgrade in place, you can now wirelessly sync your iPhone with Zimbra, and never tether it to your computer again for Contacts and Calendar syncing — you’ll still connect it for iPod Music/Video/etc syncs.First, the caveats:

• Your iPhone’s Calendar and Contacts will no longer sync with your computer.  The only calendars you can sync are the ones on the Zimbra server.  If you have calendars elsewhere that you’d like to sync with your phone, you may be able to automatically add them to Zimbra.  More on that later.
• If you choose to sync your calendar with this, it will erase the current calendar.  Ditto for contacts.  So make sure you’ve got everything all backed up on the iPhone before you do this, just in case you change your mind.  If your Zimbra account is current with everything, it’ll all fill back in pretty quickly.

Now, how to set up your phone to sync wirelessly with Zimbra:

• Go to Settings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
• Add an account.
• Choose Microsoft Exchange (yeah, I know)
• Fill in the info as follows:
  • Email: Your e-mail address (usually [email protected])
  • Username: <your MCS/LCF/CELS username>-mcs (eg. stace-mcs)
  • Password: <your ANL domain password>
  • Description: Whatever you like.
• Click Next, it’ll try to connect and fail, then open a new section, called “Server”.  Use zimbra.anl.gov and click Next.
• Choose which items you want to sync with this account.  I’ve turned on Mail, Contacts and Calendar on mine, but maybe you prefer to keep your contacts local to your phone.

That’s it.  It takes a couple of mins for everything to sync up (over WiFi, longer over Edge or 3G, I’m sure).I will post more on what you can expect out of this new feature later, but here a Zimbra blog post to prime the pump: http://www.zimbrablog.com/blog/archives/2008/07/zimbra-mobile-for-iphone.htmlHave fun!