Need A New Smartphone

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Bigaldoc
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Need A New Smartphone

Post by Bigaldoc »

Preface: I do not use Microsoft Office and therefore do NOT have Outlook! My mobile carrier is Verizon Wireless.

I like to maintain my calendar, contacts and memos on my DESKTOP COMPUTER and copy them (synch) to my handheld smartphone so I can have the info with me. However, I do NOT want to make or edit those entries on the phone - ONLY on the desktop. My "thumbs" are just not good enough.

With those two caveats in place, I bought a Blackberry a year ago and because it would ONLY deal with Outlook or Yahoo on the web, I've been maintaining my calendar, contacts and memos on Yahoo web and synching them to the Blackberry as appropriate.

In the past day or so, Yahoo has pulled the rug out from under me and revised those three web apps and as a result my Blackberry can no longer see the Yahoo web calendar, contacts and memos.

I'm ready to junk the Blackberry in favor of something else that IS capable of a desktop computer version of the above apps. I know nothing about Apple or any other "smartphones." Does anyone have any suggestions, please?

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StuartR
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by StuartR »

Al,

My Palm Pre 2 is very easy to configure for synchronization with Yahoo, Google etc. for mail/contacts/calendar. I haven't actually used it with Yahoo though.
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Bigaldoc
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by Bigaldoc »

Thanks Stuart. I bet if you had, you'd also be "SOL." The changes Yahoo made have negated any synching except with Outlook.

I guess, as much as I hate to do it, I might have to buy a standalone copy of Outlook since I don't want or need the other Office apps.

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Re: Need A New Smartphone

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I'd check either an Android phone or Windows Phone 7. I think the big V is supposed to start selling a Windows Phone 7 very soon. My wife has an a Samsung Vibrant (Android) and I have an HTC HD7 (WP7). We are both pleased with the phones. Note: these are T-mobile phones but I'm sure there is something close at Verizon.

Who hosts your email?

Joe
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Bigaldoc
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by Bigaldoc »

Thanks for the comments, Joe.

I have four email accounts but I don't do email on my smartphone. Just calendar, contacts and memos.

My email accounts are with my ISP (Insight), Google, Yahoo and my own web domain.

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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by JoeP »

Sorry for my misread about email. If you can use Google calendars and contacts it is easy to synch most Google stuff to an Android phone. Don't know if you can NOT do email but still synch everything else.

I know you can synch Hotmail/Windows Live Mail contacts and calendars easily to a WP7 device. Not sure about memos.

Don't know about synching to Yahoo on those devices. Yahoo has always been a bit strange about that sort of stuff.

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StuartR
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by StuartR »

JoeP wrote:...Don't know if you can NOT do email but still synch everything else...
When I add a Google or Yahoo account on my phone it displays an on/off button for independently synchronizing each of mail/contacts/calendar/messaging.
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by JoeP »

StuartR wrote:
JoeP wrote:...Don't know if you can NOT do email but still synch everything else...
When I add a Google or Yahoo account on my phone it displays an on/off button for independently synchronizing each of mail/contacts/calendar/messaging.
Thanks for the reminder Stuart. Yes, that is what I remember now too.

Joe
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Timelord
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by Timelord »

you can also sync Google with your blackberry. Here is a news link (not instructions). http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... berry.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Bigaldoc
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

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Timelord wrote:you can also sync Google with your blackberry. Here is a news link (not instructions). http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... berry.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Thanks for that lead, but there's a show-stopper (I think) if I'm reading it correctly:

    • In a blog post, the search engine giant did not say if or when it plans to let users sync Gmail or the contact list in Gmail to their BlackBerry.


I have never and do not plan to ever do email from my smartphone. I use it for a telephone AND my calendar and contact lists. So, what I am really "yearning" for is a phone that, like my OLD and now retired PALM smartphone, had a local PC software app for calendar and contacts - Palm Desktop. When I changed provider from AT&T to Verizon, I was mandated to junk my Palm or I'd still be using it.

I may not ever find a comparable setup, but look I continue to do. I guess I'll just hang in and see if Yahoo, as promised, re-enables the synch with my Blackberry. I'm really ticked at them for not warning us that their "new" web apps would kill smartphone synching!

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Re: Need A New Smartphone

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Bigaldoc wrote:... I bought a Blackberry a year ago and because it would ONLY deal with Outlook or Yahoo on the web, I've been maintaining my calendar, contacts and memos on Yahoo web and synching them to the Blackberry as appropriate.
The above quote is from my original post in this thread.

I'll attach a text file of the response I just received from Yahoo after I wrote to them yesterday. Frankly, I don't see why they bother calling the Yahoo calendar "new" since there's more take-aways than there are improvements (my opinion)!

Yesterday I (reluctantly) bought a stand-alone copy of Outlook 2010 and will now proceed with the task of seeing whether it will work with my Blackberry handheld. I was assured in a live chat with a MS staffer that it will, so here goes. Sheesh, I hate the (possible) thought of rebuilding my calendar and contacts lists, so I'll first try to one-way synch from the handheld to Outlook to see if that'll give me a starting point.

I anticipate I'll be reading our Outlook forum here for much tutoring...
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StuartR
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by StuartR »

Al,

This sounds like a fine example of a Schlimmbesserung to me.
StuartR


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HansV
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by HansV »

Al,

We all know of software that isn't quite ready for prime time when it's first released, but it looks like "All-New Yahoo! Calendar" wasn't even finished yet!
Best wishes,
Hans

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Bigaldoc
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

Post by Bigaldoc »

Good one, Stuart. And I think I definitely agree with you, Hans.

I think I also hit the nail on the head when I said that I'll be "partaking" of the Outlook forum! I hope you know that I'll try my level best not to be a pest.

Wow, the Outlook 2010 GUI is overwhelming! Took me a long time just to wade through far enough to find how to tell it: 1) Outlook is not my default mail program; 2) do not check email, period.

Along the way, I discovered that one has to do some things via Control Panel! And I did find a command line for running it to an open calendar, rather than email. Whew, I'm gonna be a busy dude for some time.

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Bigaldoc
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Re: Need A New Smartphone

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Just continuing to post "observations" here just in case some other hapless Yahoo user comes along. Won't ask any Outlook questions here. Although the GUI is somewhat overwhelming, I'm doing OK so far.

Well, I've successfully imported my web Yahoo calendar and contacts into Outlook 2010 !!! It wasn't without two surprises. In order to import calendar entries, I had to BUY a utility (addon) that I was pointed to by Outlook. No big deal since it wasn't too expensive, but a shame for a one-off operation.

I also had to download and install a MS search program(free) that I had never taken an interest in before in order to search my now converted contacts list.

I feel pretty @#$%& good so far and by the end of the day, I will be an " EX-YAHOO " user !!

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Re: Need A New Smartphone

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And more! This may be the most useless thread in our Lounge, but I'll continue. This Friday 13th has been a GOOD day for me, contrary to common belief!

After getting my calendar and contacts into Outlook 2010 I proceeded to do a couple of things next. The Blackberry has in its synch setup an item called Memos and another called Tasks. Since I didn't know which equates to Outlook, I created a test TASK and another for NOTES in Outlook.

Lo and behold, I couldn't get the Blackberry to synch at all with Outlook, receiving an error message that said simply: "No Available Message Stores." Huh? Well, a quick Google on that descriptor turned up a Blackberry page that indicated FOUR possible problems. I'll only say that my "guess" was correct and that it involved the version number of the Blackberry software. I had version 5.x installed and it takes 6.x to work with Outlook 2010. No problem. I used Revo to install everything Blackberry on my local PC and downloaded and installed the latest 6.x version and my synch was BACK IN BUSINESS!

After getting the latest software installed and running a synch, I learned that Outlook's NOTES synch to the Blackberry's MEMOS. At this time I still don't know what happens to TASKS, but that may be a tomorrow project!

All is good in Bigaldoc land and my Blackberry is looking like I'd like it to look. I've even figured out to "color code" my Outlook calendar for such things as recurring birthdays and such. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Happy weekend everyone!!!