As a user of Google Apps, I have found it a very disjointed experience up until now.

I now sync my mail, calendar and contacts to and from Google Apps straight to my phone. The mail is not push yet, but I am guessing they will upgrade this shortly (they just enabled this for Iphone and Windows Mobile).

This is very easy, you can use exactly the same method with Gmail as well.

1. Download the latest Nokia Sync software to back everything up. MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS, IT WILL SAVE YOU!!!
2. You need to download the Mail for Exchange onto your phone
3. Visit the Google Sync website for mobiles and follow the setup instructions
4. Spend the time organising your contacts and calendar, you only have to do this once.

Do you use Outlook on your desktop?

1. You can use Google calendar Sync to ensure that your Outlook has the same calendar as your Gmail calendar. I have used this while Outlook is still connected to Exchange and it works well.
2. Use an IMAP connection to sync your mail to Outlook.
3. The missing piece of the picture  - you can not easily sync contacts for free. I am guessing that they will release this soon.

Good luck

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 8:48 AM

Posted by Marcus Foster, Product Manager, Google Mobile

Those of you who live in your Gm`ail inboxes usually want to know what’s happening with your email more instantly than standard fetch mail on your phone allows. Sure, using Gmail in your mobile browser gives you all the benefits of conversation threading and starring, but you still have to refresh every time you want to check for new mail.

When we launched Google Sync for Contacts and Google Calendar earlier this year, an over-the-air, always-on connection to sync mail was noticeably absent. We heard your requestsloud and clear, and starting today you can use Google Sync to get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Windows Mobile device.

You can set up push Gmail by itself or choose to sync your Contacts and/or Calendar as well. If you’re using an iPhone, make sure you’re running iPhone OS version 3.0 or above (on your device, click Settings > General > About and scroll down until you see Version). If your software is out of date, follow Apple’s upgrade instructions. Then, visit m.google.com/syncfrom your computer for set up instructions. If you’re already using Google Sync, you can just enable push mail.

Once you’re set up, new messages are normally pushed to your phone within seconds. While this type of speed is pretty awesome, push connections tend to use more power than fetching at intervals, so don’t be surprised if your battery life isn’t quite what it used to be. We’ve done a lot of work to optimize power usage, but if you prefer to save battery life, you can always turn off push in your phone’s settings and fetch mail every 30 or 60 minutes instead.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/push-gmail-for-iphone-and-windows.html