I recently got a Motorola Droid in addition to my Blackberry Tour, and finding myself really pleased with the Android OS. I previously had a Blackberry Storm, which was terrible in its implementation of a touchscreen UI. I wanted the excellent UI of an iPhone, but the iPhone was too limiting in regards to customization, e.g., no themes, no widgets. The Android OS is amazing with its speed and UI customizations especially with widgets.

Blackberry’s excelled with its Outlook syncing, which is critical for me. Android OS syncs seamlessly with Google’s Gmail, contacts and calendar, but what about Outlook? Alas, here’s a great solution, CompanionLink for Android.

CompanionLink for Android has both wireless and USB capabilities to sync the Droid with Outlook. I’ve been using the wireless sync version and it works great. From their site:
What you need

  • Google, Gmail, or Google Apps account
  • CompanionLink for Google
  • Microsoft Outlook on your PC
  • An Android-based phone

Data that will sync

  • Contacts
  • Calendar events and details
  • Recurring events
  • Multiple calendars
  • Tasks – syncs to your Google calendar
  • Notes
  • Calendar reminders/alerts (works with your phone’s audible alerts)
  • Contact photos

Other capabilities

  • Set auto synchronization to transparently sync in the background
  • View contact names by last name on the phone
  • Select one-way or two-way sync
  • Google calendars sync as separate MS Outlook categories
  • View a summary of your overdue tasks in Google
  • Supports Google Apps (all editions)
  • Ability to exclude personal data from sync
  • Free technical support and software updates

CompanionLink is a must have for syncing, works great and I highly recommend this for Android and Outlook. Also available are other platforms and apps. Next addition for me will be a Nexus One; now to decide between the GSM version with T-Mobile or the upcoming CDMA version with Verizon.