They say life is about the journey, not the destination. The experiences, the relationships, the good times, and the challenges are what shape us.

Never has this been clearer to all of us at Tungle then now, as we look back over the journey that has brought us to where we are today.

With our recent acquisition by RIM, we’re closing a chapter in the Tungle story, and opening a new (and exciting) one.

There’s much more to come as this new chapter gets underway, and we hope you’ll join us on that journey as well.

In the meantime, we invite you to take a trip down memory lane with us in a look back at Tungle’s roots. Stick around till the end – you just might learn something about where “Tungle” came from

You didn’t think you would be reading this this morning, did you? Yup. It’s official. The team at Tungle will now be sporting new BlackBerrys

Tungle has been acquired by Research In Motion (RIM).

We’re really excited about this. We know there isn’t an industry more exciting than the smartphone and tablet markets. And RIM is a dominant player in this space.

And they’re Canadian, eh?

This is exciting for you too as we expect the Tungle service to only get better. Our plan today is what it has always been – for Tungle to become integrated with your daily activities and be ubiquitous within the applications you’re already using. When you think scheduling, Tungle should be at your fingertips.

As of today, the entire team is joining the ranks of RIM. It’s playoff season and the Tungle team is focusing on putting the puck in the net for you, our customers.

You have kept us on our toes, given us great ideas and most importantly, have been great supporters. For that, we thank you.

Our objective is to keep innovation at the forefront – to be rebels in our own way. Think, Create, Innovate.

Yesterday, Microsoft released a new service pack for Outlook 2011 that (among other things) opens up sync services to third parties.

Until today, Outlook 2011 for Mac customers were unable to sync their calendars with Tungle because of Microsoft’s limited access.

With yesterday’s release, we’re happy to welcome Outlook 2011 for Mac customers into the Tungle.me fold.

To sync, you’ll first need to install the service pack from Microsoft. You can find it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads

After you’ve installed, go into the “Tools” menu in Outlook and expand the “Sync Services…” menu. Check “Calendar” to sync it with your iCal first, then install the Tungle Mac connector (you’ll find it under “Calendar” > “Sync calendar / contacts” in your Tungle account).

This will sync your Tungle account to your Outlook 2011 for Mac calendar.

If you’ve been Tungling for a while, or recently attended a Tungle.me 101 webinar, you’re familiar with the basics of Tungle.me.

If you haven’t had a chance to really explore Tungle, here are 5 things you may not have known you could do with Tungle.me:

Public events

By default, all your calendar information is private – only you see it when signed in.

But let’s say you have an event that’s so exciting you want to share it with the world – a conference, or a trip.

Mouse over the “i” icon at the top-right of the event. Click “Publish this event on my Tungle.me page”.

Once you confirm, the event will be public (anyone can see it) on your profile page. You can also broadcast it through other social networks – Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Suggested locations

When we talk about the Personalization Pack, we mostly talk about branding – adding your logo and colours to Tungle.me.

But the pack also includes suggested locations. You can set up to ten suggested locations for people to choose from when requesting a meeting through your profile page.

Use them for physical locations like an office, coffee shop or conference room, or add a phone number, Skype ID or conference bridge.

Calendar sharing

Your public profile lets you share your availability with anyone, easily.

But sometimes you want to share more with a specific person. To do that, go to “Calendar” > “Share calendar” and click “Create sharing request”.

Find the contact(s) you want to share with and choose what you want to share with them – free/busy or meeting details. Customize the request and send.

Your request is sent by email and the other person can choose what they will share with you. They must have a Tungle account as well to share.

Group pages

Using just a comma, you can create instant group pages.

For example, tungle.me/marc,jacou (Marc’s URL is tungle.me/marc and Jacou’s is tungle.me/Jacou) gives you a group page for our CEO and VP of Product Management. The page shows their aggregate availability and allows others to request meetings with them as a group.

You can add as many people as you want to a URL and even add them using just an email address.

You can also save groups in Tungle by expanding the “Show contacts” tab on the left and clicking “New Group”.

More on that here >

RSS feed

Keep an eye on your Tungle updates including invitee replies, sharing requests, meeting updates, etc.

To enable your RSS feed, mouse over your name at the top-right of the screen and click “Settings”. Select “RSS Feed” from the left, choose what you want included in your feed and click “Enable RSS feed”.

Tungle will generate a private URL for you to view in any browser or feed reader.

BONUS: Daily Calendar Digest

If you didn’t know about this one, that’s ok – it isn’t fully rolled out yet. We’ve released it to a small number of the Tungle community as a first step, and will start rolling it out to everyone shortly.

The Daily Calendar Digest is a daily email that summarizes your meetings, including profile information on the people you’re meeting with and latest news from companies you’re meeting.

Do you know someone who has never (gasp!) seen Tungle? Do they have 30 minutes?

Please send them to us: erin[at]tungle.com

What’s it for?

We’re conducting usability sessions to help improve your profile page.

The goal is to gather feedback that will help us make your profile as simple as possible for your visitors.

The best way to understand what needs improving is to see someone visit a profile page for the first time.

Which is where your non-Tungling friends come in.

What do they need to do?

We’ll book 30 minutes of time with them. Sessions are online, so they don’t need to go anywhere (but if they’re in the Montreal area, we’d love to have them come in).

The session consists of navigating through specific parts of Tungle and telling us what they like and don’t like – what makes sense and what doesn’t.

How do I send people to you?

Simply ask them to email Erin at erin[at]tungle.com.

Here at Tungle, feedback has always been important to us as we built and continue to enhance Tungle.me.

And it’s important to you too. It’s how your experiences and ideas are heard. It’s your opportunity to have a voice in the future of Tungle. And it’s how you get your questions answered.

Because of that, it’s important to give effective feedback so we know exactly what you’re experiencing and can help you as quickly as possible.

Here are a few tips for giving effective feedback:

Tell Your Story

What do you want to do? How will you use the feature you’re requesting, or what situation caused you to want a feature removed or changed?

If you’re reporting a problem, what were you doing when you encountered the problem? How were you expecting it to work?

The Details

When asking a question or reporting a problem, the details are important.

For example, what type of calendar are you using? Browser type? Operating system? If you received an error message, what did the message say? Did you encounter this problem on the web, or on a mobile device?

The more, the better.

Focus on ‘What’ not ‘How’

Unless you have a passion for figuring out “How” – then we’re all ears

If that’s not your thing, just tell us what you want to do, or what you’re experiencing. Forget about figuring out the How – that’s our job.

You should feel comfortable sharing your feedback. Don’t feel you have to get technical. It’s not for everyone.

Show It

A picture is worth a thousand words. It helps us understand your point of view – literally. When asking a question, sharing an idea or reporting a problem about a specific part of Tungle, include a screenshot so we know exactly what you’re looking at.

Note on Privacy

When you post on the Tungle Community it is public for others to see. This is great because you’re helping to build a knowledge base for others to find answers, join conversations and build on ideas.

However, we encourage you to always keep your own privacy in mind. If you’re posting a screenshot, blur or black out anything you don’t want others to see.

Don’t post your email address, phone number or other personal contact information publicly.

If you do need to share any private information with us, simply email support[at]tungle.com.