<p>Google and Microsoft are battling it out on a lot of fronts, but many times there is little collateral damage to end users. Unfortunately, in a few cases, end users have been cast aside in the spirit of strategic lockouts and bickering. Two immediate examples are the Windows Phone YouTube app and the battle of the calendar. I'd like to drill-down into Google dropping EAS and Microsoft not supporting calDAV in MS Office to highlight just how much these two giants are damaging the end user and I'll end suggesting a unique solution.</p><p>It all started with Google's "Winter cleaning" in December where they decided to stop supporting Microsoft Exchange Active Sync (EAS). This meant that Microsoft products like Outlook and even Windows Mail and Calendar 8 would no longer work if they were connected using EAS. It also screwed over users like me who run their businesses off of Google Apps who wanted to use the calendar inside Windows 8 for use with their Windows 8 touch devices. I already used Outlook and synced with Google Apps using Google Sync free of charge. At the time, Google Sync didn't work with Office 2013, so I was stuck with Office 2010 which is a horrible touch experience.</p><p>Microsoft could have invested some work into their offline or online calendars to work with calDAV, but they didn't, and I believe that it was for the "Scroogled" cause, not because it's difficult. You see, 20 person development shops or less support calDAV. At a minimum, Microsoft could have been more transparent about why they weren't supporting calDAV or whether they would ever support it.</p><p>I've tried many times to get away from Outlook. I may be in the minority, but I cannot run a small business off of web mail and calendar. Some can do this just fine, but many of us need a real app, not a web app as it's faster, has better offline capabilities than Google Calendar and has many more robust features. I tried Thunderbird, eM Client, Zimbra, but they all have fatal flaws; eM Client doesn't support conversation email, Thunderbird requires the buggiest of calendar and address book plug-ins, and Zimbra is this odd web-app that didn't connect with my Google Apps Contacts. For a Windows 8 touch experience, I just hid the Windows app and placed an Explorer link on my desktop to my Google Apps Calendar.</p><p><a href="http://techpinions.com/microsoft-and-googles-game-of-office-chicken-is-just-alienating-users/17292">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.datamation.com/mobile-wireless/25-android-apps-for-document-creation-handling-and-printing-from-your-mobile-device.html">25 Android Apps for Document Creation, Handling and Printing from Your ...</a> (Datamation)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dTo-duiHMEYzj9M1nRRwj4sUUPoWM&ned=us">60 additional articles.</a></p>