AirSet – my new PIM

By kate on September 10th, 2007

I’ve been using Trumba for an online calendar since they were in closed beta. I became a paying user because I liked it so much. Now, however, they’ve given the finger to their individual users, jacked their prices sky-high, and aimed for the enterprise market. Fine, screw you too, Trumba.

I spent a long time looking around online for a solution that would be an online calendar and sync automatically with Outlook (not because I’m a giant Outlook fan, although it’s fine, but so that my calendar could then sync to my Blackberry). Most of the sync solutions out there are made to synchronize Outlook and Google Calendar, so I gave Google Calendar a whirl. Unfortunately, I found the interface kind of clunky. I was also not interested in sifting through the pile of third-party Google-Outlook sync apps to weigh value for money.

Luckily, I finally stumbled across AirSet. After finding it, I read that both Joel on Software and Walt Mossberg liked AirSet, so I registered and gave it a try.

AirSet is not only an online calendar, but also includes RSVP management, contacts, lists, group management, photos, files, links, and even music playlists. All for free! It’s a group website in the vein of Yahoo! Groups (but more sophisticated). Right now, the only thing you pay for is to access AirSet on your mobile phone (they don’t support Blackberries yet, but I can still sync mine free using RIM’s desktop app). If you install the free AirSet desktop app, it can sync AirSet with Outlook, Outlook Express, and/or a Palm device.

In one long day, I was able to move all my calendars from Trumba to AirSet and get them synchronized. My contacts are also being synchronized from Outlook, which is a great addition because now Steve can access them online if he needs to. I don’t think we’re going to use the more frivolous features like music playlists or photo albums (we keep those elsewhere), but maybe one day we’ll use the files feature to store important family info or use AirSet to share important URLs.

To put the icing on the cake, their customer support is very responsive. I had a bunch of feedback and suggestions after setting myself up, so I submitted them yesterday afternoon. Within four and a half hours, I had a personal and detailed reply from someone at AirSet (on a Sunday evening!).

I’ve only been using AirSet for a couple of days, but so far it seems like it’s a winner.


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One Response to “AirSet – my new PIM”

  1. Hello, My Name Is Kate » Dream job: Alpha Tester Says:
    February 8th, 2008 at 1:03 am

    […] started with Trumba about three years ago, when I was a beta user (unfortunately, I soured on Trumba later). Of course, I helped my husband improve Feedwhip, and later Picnik. More recently, I’ve […]

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