Sync with Outlook?

[mrpush]

Leckert,

I have no intent to really being mean here......The word I used simply has a definition that logically fits the situation based on MY circumstances.

I have a 4 year old xv6700 from Verizon that syncs ALL my Outlook 2003 stuff without Exchange server.

I now have a brand new Smartphone that will not do what a device 4 year old can do?

I believe this is "lacking in good judgement" on the part of Verizon and Android.

I'm not trying to personally call anyone names here. The phone is great other than being able to use if for my business data.

Thanks,

MP

 

[techguru]

Leckert,

I have no intent to really being mean here......The word I used simply has a definition that logically fits the situation based on MY circumstances.

I have a 4 year old xv6700 from Verizon that syncs ALL my Outlook 2003 stuff without Exchange server.

I now have a brand new Smartphone that will not do what a device 4 year old can do?

I believe this is "lacking in good judgement" on the part of Verizon and Android.

I'm not trying to personally call anyone names here. The phone is great other than being able to use if for my business data.

Thanks,

MP

Let's be clear here. You have a four year old phone running a Microsoft operating system running Microsoft apps which syncs very nicely to other Microsoft apps.

You have a new phone running a Google Operating system that syncs very nicely with Google applications.

It also syncs very nicely with Corporate Microsoft servers, which is a nice bonus.

The struggle people are having is syncing a Desktop Microsoft app with a Google device. Although Google has provided some tools for parts of this, Microsoft is unlikely to since they consider Google to be a mortal enemy.

Thal leaves 3rd parties to fill the gap.

Companionlink is good, but not free. There are a few free apps that can do pieces of the puzzle, and we will likely see many more now that the user and developer community for Android probably doubled in the past 12 hours.

I also woudl not be surprised if Verizon expands their Wireless Sync program to support the Android if sales go well (and all indications are they are doing fantastic today).

Alan

 

[mrpush]

Alan,

I do understand your logic on the apps and apps providers.

However, Google knows that there are probably millions people who use Outlook to sync business data on their phones that MUST use outlook in business situations.

Seems they provided for Exchange Server so they are interested in giving access to this MS mortal enemy?

So what about the maybe millions of users who DONT use Exchange and want all their Outlook business data?

It's like getting a new car and not having wipers or headlights available.

As an end user, I see it as Verizons fault. I have a smartphone of theirs that is 4 years old, I now have a NEW smart phone that does half of what the old one does with business data.

I'm not concerned about what OS and who provides apps, that thing needs to give me ALL my business data OUT OF THE BOX, just like the the old one did. If it does not, then Verizon messed up and lots of people are going to not come on board the DRIOD.

It's poor planning, nothing more.

Thanks,

MP

 

[techguru]

Alan,

I do understand your logic on the apps and apps providers.

However, Google knows that there are probably millions people who use Outlook to sync business data on their phones that MUST use outlook in business situations.

Seems they provided for Exchange Server so they are interested in giving access to this MS mortal enemy?

So what about the maybe millions of users who DONT use Exchange and want all their Outlook business data?

It's like getting a new car and not having wipers or headlights available.

As an end user, I see it as Verizons fault. I have a smartphone of theirs that is 4 years old, I now have a NEW smart phone that does half of what the old one does with business data.

I'm not concerned about what OS and who provides apps, that thing needs to give me ALL my business data OUT OF THE BOX, just like the the old one did. If it does not, then Verizon messed up and lots of people are going to not come on board the DRIOD.

It's poor planning, nothing more.

Thanks,

MP

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. There are solutions available if you want them. Really good ones for not much money, or a hodgepodge for free. Rather then typing it out again, see this post and the next one for a couple of choices solutions: Expect a review tonight, 11/5/09 - PDAPhoneHome.com

There are also really good Windows Mobile phones you could upgrade to instead where this is simoly not an issue. TP2 and Imagio are great. Samsung Omnia 2 is due soon and is supposed to have an even better screen then the Droid.

Alan

 

[mrpush]

Alan,

Yes, we can agree to disagree.

You say there are good one, but I have found nothing yet, that is not piece-mail or only does half of what you want.

I will check you link.

The problem is that consumers stand for half-backed devices, so that is what we get.

This is from another post:

<<Lets say you bought a car from Dodge 4 years ago. It had wipers and headlights "out of the box".

You goto Dodge today and buy a new car. It does not offer headlights or wipers.

Do you really care that although Dodge sells the car, that it was made by another company in China?

You want AT LEAST the features that you had before, no matter who designed the car or who actually made it, right?

Would Dodge sell any cars that did not have wipers and headlights?

No, Dodge has better judgment than that and they would plan for all envolved, not matter who it is, that if they are goin to sell the cars they need to make sure they have these options.

Its really just BAD design and planning.>>

I will surely post here if I come across a great solution.


Thanks,

MP

 

[techguru]

Alan,

Yes, we can agree to disagree.

You say there are good one, but I have found nothing yet, that is not piece-mail or only does half of what you want.

I will check you link.

The problem is that consumers stand for half-backed devices, so that is what we get.

This is from another post:

<<Lets say you bought a car from Dodge 4 years ago. It had wipers and headlights "out of the box".

You goto Dodge today and buy a new car. It does not offer headlights or wipers.

Do you really care that although Dodge sells the car, that it was made by another company in China?

You want AT LEAST the features that you had before, no matter who designed the car or who actually made it, right?

Would Dodge sell any cars that did not have wipers and headlights?

No, Dodge has better judgment than that and they would plan for all envolved, not matter who it is, that if they are goin to sell the cars they need to make sure they have these options.

Its really just BAD design and planning.>>

I will surely post here if I come across a great solution.


Thanks,

MP

CompainionLink. Sync Microsoft Outlook with your Google account and your phone | CompanionLink

Alan

 

[mrpush]

Alan,

Thanks, I'm checking it out now.

I have read many threads, and this may work, but people don't like the notion of putting out all there info on Google.

Funny though, I have been using Verizon Wireless sync for years, and Verizon does keep a copy of all my data on THEIR servers for the sync to work.

Not sure how people believe syncing this way is keeping their data any safer than on Google???

Thanks much,

MP

 

[Whoa]

Installing CompanionLink now

Thanks for the info in this thread. All things considered, I'm going to try CompanionLink. They have a 14-day trial.

Regarding putting my contacts into Google's cloud, I don't have a problem with that. So, CompanionLink appears to be right for me.

Agree that it would have been nice to have this feature without having to track down a third-party app.

Compared to my old Samsung XV6700, this phone rocks.

 

[lappster]

Got my Droid this morning. Had to export contacts out of Oulook and Use Google contact manager. Had to import CVS file into google and then sync my phone under settings/ accounts &sync/ and then add the account I created in google. Worked just fine but what a pain. Can't belive this did not snyc out of the box.

 

[BigTex71]

Google wants you to use Google products. Can you blame them?

 

[Whoa]

CompanionLink feedback

CompanionLink hung the first three tries after I went into setup settings.

Finally, I skipped configuring setup (which was anything but intuitive) and just did a sync. It starts off by bringing my Google contacts into Outlook, which is what it is (slowly) doing now.

I could care less about getting Google contacts into Outlook. I need to go the other way, so I can get them into the Google cloud, so that I can then (finally!) get them onto my phone.

All in all, a big fail for the Droid out of the box. I mean, the phone is cool, but, er, getting contacts onto the phone is my #1 concern. I agree with others here that the engineers were big on bells and whistles and weren't thinking about actual phone owners and what people do with phones.

 

[bearlaw1968]

Amen. While tasks and notes are very important to me, that is yet another thing that did not work with the iphone. THERE IS NO APP FOR THAT! Besides, how many geniuses does it take to understand that fundamental elements of data are needed when people use software correctly and thoroughly. What is the purpose of putting one's whole life into a sophisticated program like Outlook/MS Office for around 13 years (in my case) if I have to double entry or suffer without my data unless I band-aid the software? I'm hoping there is a misunderstanding because even the Verizon tech I spoke with this morning didn't know if the contacts would synch with Standalone Outlook, let alone tasks and notes. Besides, why SHOULD I have to put this stuff on Google's servers just to get it to be on my device? All servers are fallible as we've seen recently in the news.

 

[bodean]

All I did was export to csv in outlook. Import in gmail, and was done. Easy,.

 

[bearlaw1968]

Does it guide you as to which fields it needs and will it continue to sync dynamically? That is what I would need. Maybe I'll try that now.

 

[bodean]

Does it guide you as to which fields it needs and will it continue to sync dynamically? That is what I would need. Maybe I'll try that now.

No guide. Just export to CSV, done.