Database Users

A couple of pains...

Hello all
Right, so I've had my Wizard for a couple of months so far and it's struck me as a wonderful piece of miniaturisation. But I've found the OS lets it down - WM2005 tries to do too much and thus fails as the basic features, stability and user-friendliness. Anyway, bashing Microsoft isn't why I'm here today
I've managed to sort out most of the pressing concerns with the device, especially the sluggishness (fixed with a firmware upgrade from O2, my carrier). But there are a few things that bother me still:
1) When adding a new ToDo task or contact, the first field loses focus after a random amount of time, halfway through typing. This is incredibly annoying as I have to, after typing in thef first few letters, refocus the cursor at the end of the text to continue typing. This only effects the default (first) field selection, ie, the contact or task name.
2) When plugged into my PC, it appears as a network device. Fair enough, I can see the logic behind a phone being classed as a network device. What's annoying as that whenevr I plug it in, a network connection is set up which become the primary - overruling my LAN connection to the internet. Now I never use my phone as a modem, but I still have to unplug or disable it if I want to access the web or do other PC-based networking activites.
3) Hotmail. I can't believe this was built into the email client. How can it be removed? And can the 'Outlook' email be made to download email directly? It's completely pointless to have to maintain two email profiles for the same account - one for email received via Outlook and the other for directly downloaded messages. I need to reply to SMSs for them to be marked as 'read'. Anyone know if this is usual behaviour? Better yet, are there any decent alternatives to the messaging suite? I really loved the threaded SMS views of the Treo and its email client, but haven't found any PocketPC equivalents.
4) I'm really hating Outlook on my desktop - the only reason I installed it was to allow (half) my emails to by sync'ed. I've been yearning to get back to Thunderbird but have been held back by my phone. However, recently, I heard of something called FinchSync, which claims to allow Thunderbird-WM2005 email/contact sync'ing. Anyone used it?
5) Skype. I like Skype and would love to see it on my phone. I knew when I brought it that it probably wouldn't be able to run it and my tests (even if OC'ed to 252MHz) show that it doesn't really work (gets tantilizingly close). Yet I hear people claiming it works perfectly on their devices - I was wondering if there's a clever trick to this.
Phew - that's a load!
Thanks

F*SH said:
Hello all
Right, so I've had my Wizard for a couple of months so far and it's struck me as a wonderful piece of miniaturisation. But I've found the OS lets it down - WM2005 tries to do too much and thus fails as the basic features, stability and user-friendliness. Anyway, bashing Microsoft isn't why I'm here today
I've managed to sort out most of the pressing concerns with the device, especially the sluggishness (fixed with a firmware upgrade from O2, my carrier). But there are a few things that bother me still:
1) When adding a new ToDo task or contact, the first field loses focus after a random amount of time, halfway through typing. This is incredibly annoying as I have to, after typing in thef first few letters, refocus the cursor at the end of the text to continue typing. This only effects the default (first) field selection, ie, the contact or task name.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hm never had that problem
2) When plugged into my PC, it appears as a network device. Fair enough, I can see the logic behind a phone being classed as a network device. What's annoying as that whenevr I plug it in, a network connection is set up which become the primary - overruling my LAN connection to the internet. Now I never use my phone as a modem, but I still have to unplug or disable it if I want to access the web or do other PC-based networking activites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it has to be related to your PC networking settings[routing i think]. right now my wiz is connected and I use net ;]
3) Hotmail. I can't believe this was built into the email client. How can it be removed? And can the 'Outlook' email be made to download email directly? It's completely pointless to have to maintain two email profiles for the same account - one for email received via Outlook and the other for directly downloaded messages. I need to reply to SMSs for them to be marked as 'read'. Anyone know if this is usual behaviour? Better yet, are there any decent alternatives to the messaging suite? I really loved the threaded SMS views of the Treo and its email client, but haven't found any PocketPC equivalents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is related to way of managing mails. Outlook is build in acount fo handling sync'ed mail's and standard pop3 is for handlig popped mails. Actually I am not syncing my e'mails (my inobx on pc is larger thn my sd card ) but imo there is another way of managaging (ie. on my pop3 account emails are deleted from device when read and older than settins)
4) I'm really hating Outlook on my desktop - the only reason I installed it was to allow (half) my emails to by sync'ed. I've been yearning to get back to Thunderbird but have been held back by my phone. However, recently, I heard of something called FinchSync, which claims to allow Thunderbird-WM2005 email/contact sync'ing. Anyone used it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope
5) Skype. I like Skype and would love to see it on my phone. I knew when I brought it that it probably wouldn't be able to run it and my tests (even if OC'ed to 252MHz) show that it doesn't really work (gets tantilizingly close). Yet I hear people claiming it works perfectly on their devices - I was wondering if there's a clever trick to this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on my OC [240] wiz skype is working flawleseverything I've done is oc my wiz. skype was included on rom I am using.
Phew - that's a load!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iv that was a help, np. [/quote]

Hi savac
Thanks for the reply - I'm thinking you're right about the networking issues being on the desktop.
You got your Skype on a ROM - I downloaded mine from the Skype website. I opted for the 'low power' version, I assume that's the one everyone else uses?

Why Google needs “Direct Push” for Google Apps

Direct Push with Google Apps?!?!?!
Hi everyone. I think I might have asked this question before but maybe something has developed in the last few months.
I am running my own IT consulting business and as I get more and more busy my calendar is becoming an ever more important tool. My dear wife went out and got me a good old-fashioned spiral bound day-timer but I have a sophisticated day-timer right here in my pocket in the form of my HTC Touch. As an IT consultant I think I should be using it rather then pulling out the pen and paper. Right now I am using the calendars in my Touch, Outlook, Google Apps and the calendar in the Exchange account I have with one of my customers. Too many calendars and all because I really want to use my Google Apps calendar and have it sync with my Touch.
I really want Google to develop “Direct Push” technology so that I can get my email, calendar and contacts all from my Google Apps account just like it was an Exchange Server. I am even considering switching my email back to an Exchange Server just so I can sync with my Touch. This way my wife could login and add stuff to my calendar and it will appear on my Touch. Right now I have my Email coming in from Google Apps via IMAP, my Calendar synching with Outlook (installed locally on my laptop without Exchange) and my Contacts syncing with my customer’s Exchange server. This is a pain and I want everything in one place that can be maintained/synced in real-time.
I will say this right now and keep in mind that as an IT consultant I like Microsoft’s products and install things like Windows 2003, SQL Server and Exchange on an almost daily basis. If Google develops “Direct Push” for Google Apps it will be an Exchange killer. The only, and I mean only reason I am thinking about switching my domain back to Exchange (I moved from Exchange to Google Apps about 1 year ago) is for the ability to sync everything (not just email) with my Touch.
On the other hand if Microsoft comes out with a version of Outlook/Exchange that dispenses with the whole “Inbox/Sent items/Delete” model and goes for the Google-style “conversation & archive” model along with the search capabilities I might fall back in love with Exchange.
The Fish

Oh and just in case anyone from Microsoft is listening, “threaded inbox” isn’t what I mean by “conversation style”. Come on Microsoft. Just admit that Google has actual built a better mousetrap and managed to improve on the age-old email model of “folders” and “sent items”. Go ahead and copy them… copy, copy copy! Oops sorry, I mean “embrace and extend, embrace and extend”

Something like that would be great!

matthew232 said:
Something like that would be great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And not to mention totally do-able. There is already an non-Exchange mail server out there called “KerioMail Server” that implements Microsoft’s Direct Push protocol. Check out this link http://www.kerio.com/kms_activesync.html
Microsoft’s Direct Push is entirely HTTP based. It shouldn’t be that difficult for Google to do.
The Fish.

I guess you have to wait for Google Android.

thefish123 said:
On the other hand if Microsoft comes out with a version of Outlook/Exchange that dispenses with the whole “Inbox/Sent items/Delete” model and goes for the Google-style “conversation & archive” model along with the search capabilities I might fall back in love with Exchange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The moment they do that (without giving an option) is when I would have to quit using Exchange. I **hate** Gmail's threading and forward those mails to another account that isn't threaded (and the fact that they don't let you turn it off).

I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but have you checked out any of the 3rd party sync options? GMobileSync is a free little program that allows bidirectional syncing for your calendar (not push though). GooSync offers a free service level that also gives you calendar syncing. If you upgrade to their payed version (I think it is something like $30-40 for a whole year) you get not only calendar sync, but contacts, tasks etc. Might be worth a look.

jeffreycentex said:
The moment they do that (without giving an option) is when I would have to quit using Exchange. I **hate** Gmail's threading and forward those mails to another account that isn't threaded (and the fact that they don't let you turn it off).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Microsoft would never do it without making it an option. But I am surprised to hear you say that you head Gmail’s threading. Quite honestly you have got to be the FIRST person I have heard say that.
I have never (till now) talked to anyone who switched to Gmail who didn’t have anything but good to say about it. Most people I know who use Outlook or Outlook Express and who do ANY real volume of email spend at least an hour to two hours a day “organizing” their email. They have a whole list of sub-folders under their Inbox and then have almost the exact same set of sub-folders under their “Sent Items”. They spend time trying to decide how to file things or if they should file it in the first place or just delete it. Sometimes they delete and email and two of three days later the whole issue has ballooned into a big issue and they are filing the responses but no longer have their original email because they didn’t think it would become important.
Gmail lets me keep my Inbox clean while at the same time never worrying about filing or organizing or having trouble finding things back. I would probably hate Gmail if I was still trying to fit it into my narrow 20-year-old “I must use folders” paradigm of thinking (which I did when I first started using Gmail) but it was fun to give up on that and the new paradigm of “never file, never delete” is so superior.
I don’t really case WHERE my email is as long as I can find it back in a natural way. I think in years to come we are going to see the same thing happening on computers and to some extent we already are. The #1 reason most people hate Windows Vista is because of the way the new “Explorer” obscures the hierarchal folder model that everyone is used to from our Norton Commander days. It is really very Mac-like. Most Mac users couldn’t tell you where their pictures were in terms of a “directory” or a “folder” but they have less trouble finding them, or copying them to a USB drive, or attaching them to an email then most Windows users.
If we ever do see WinFS (Windows Future Storage) it is supposed to be a Microsoft SQL layer bolted on top of the file system and gives you database-style searchability with all kinds of meta data attached.
The thinking behind the Reiser file system is that any structure on top of the file system for storing data indicates that the file system isn’t doing it’s job. And I can kinda see the point.
The Fish

I agree, Gmail should definately come out with direct push technology
I currently use gmail with pocket outlook with imap.
It's annoying having it set to check my email in intervals.
I didn't even know what direct push was until today, until i saw a friend using his phone w/ his private exchange server...my first reaction was wow...i want that!!
I'm hoping android will implement features like direct push, among others.

surgex0 said:
I didn't even know what direct push was until today, until i saw a friend using his phone w/ his private exchange server...my first reaction was wow...i want that!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It’s not even so much that I want “push” email (although that would be cool). The biggest issue is that there is no way to sync my Calendar and my Contacts with Gmail. This means I either A) have to use the Calendar/Contacts on my Touch in their “stand alone” form without syncing to anything or B) have to sync them with something else.
I really like being able to use my web-based Gmail calendar (Google Apps) but I wish like crazy there was some way to get this on my Touch.
The Fish.
PS: when you sign-up for Google Apps it asks you what (if any) previous mail system you used. As an example it says in brackets “Microsoft Exchange”. This makes me think that Google Apps is positioning themselves to take the SMB email market away from Exchange. I think if they really want to do this they will make Google Apps look just like an Exchange Server to the millions of WM devices out there. Currently I am seriously considering moving my email back to Exchange when I get my own server online (in a few weeks).

Google's apps for WM are all in java aren't they?
I know the gmail one is, and it sucks big c---.
I'd rather use opera and gmail html mobile than use their ****e java client.

surgex0 said:
Google's apps for WM are all in java aren't they?
I know the gmail one is, and it sucks big c---.
I'd rather use opera and gmail html mobile than use their ****e java client.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googlemaps apparently has a native app now (altho I would rather use Livesearch), so no, they aren't all JAVA. I take it you visit the HTML site instead of using IMAP so that you can see the threading and other g-mail features?

If you want gmail to push, use SEVEN at
community.seven.com
john

Sync & Push
I use www.mobipush.com to push my gmail and it works instantaneously. Fantastic. This is free, perhaps only while they are in beta.
I also use www.oggsync.com for syncing my calendar. There is a free version, but I bought the software and daily sync about 11 calendars 2 months backwards and 2 years forwards. Hardly ever any issues. They are working on contact sync - have a public beta out now.

surgex0 said:
Google's apps for WM are all in java aren't they?
I know the gmail one is, and it sucks big c---.
I'd rather use opera and gmail html mobile than use their ****e java client.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don’t know if it’s really the Gmail client that sucks so much as that it just doesn’t run properly on the version of Java that comes on my Touch (the Bell Mobility Touch in Canada). I was pretty happy to have the Java Gmail client on my Razr back before I got my Touch.
That being said I keep hoping they will come out with a native Windows Mobile version like they did with Google Maps. But then again it seems kinda silly to come out with an email client for a device that already has a built-in integrated email client. The better solution would be to make the pre-exiting email, calendar and contacts features work properly (as in within their native capacity – meaning DirectPush) with their Gmail counterparts.
The Fish

Exchange on the Hero, first impressions

I've noticed that not has much been said on the Hero's exchange support in any of the reviews or user reports so I thought I'd let people know what it's like as, for me, this is a must have feature. I should say that I have not had an android phone before and so I have had no experience with Nitrodesk's exchange solution so I can't compare.
Well, I entered my exchange details during initial set-up and after my first attempt was unsuccessful (SSL needed and is off by default) it than worked. Asked me if I wanted to sync Mail, Calender and Contacts all of which I selected. After the rest of the setup had finished the phone told me I had a new e-mail arrive so I could tell it was working straight away.
Mail is fantastic. Downloads everything fine, has at least as many options as WM for choosing which messages to download. E-mails look great on the display and html e-mails show up fine.
Contacts are great, they all appear straight away in the people and the phone application. All the Facebook and Flikr integration works perfectly. Only niggle is that you can't group contacts by company which is something I used to do on WM.
Calender seems to work fine. Appointments showed up ok, including appointments sent by e-mail.
All in all, the exchange sync is way better than expected and in some ways better than WM. The integration seems very deep and integral to the OS rather than a bolt on feature.

I agree with you there Bud, just a shame that there is no task sync support yet - still looking

All was fine for me, but as soon as I've allowed it to connect my contacts to FB contacts, sync fails for conacts with a 'client/server conversion error' message.
I'm using exchange 2003, mail and calendar are syncing fine, and I too would love tasks to be added, along with a fix for contacts and I'm a happy hero user

Strange - I have had no issues with the Fb sync but i use Exchange 07

Just Exchange, or...
...also Outlook?

not tried to sync with outlook yet, whats the best app for that?
I would settle for an outlook connector that I could just set to sync contacts and tasks, as these two arent really changing so frequently I wouldnt mind having to 'plug in' to sync these.

I just use exchange so can't comment on outlook sync. Facebook linking worked fine for me but I also have exchange 2007 so can only assume it's a problem there. Not sure if the exchange functionality is all implemented by HTC or whether they've used part of Nitrodesk's Touchdown but I saw on the Nitrodesk website that they don't support exchange 2003 yet.

gingepaul79 said:
not tried to sync with outlook yet, whats the best app for that?
I would settle for an outlook connector that I could just set to sync contacts and tasks, as these two arent really changing so frequently I wouldnt mind having to 'plug in' to sync these.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only app is HTC sync which is included along with the hero's manual on the sd card supplied with your phonbe, word of warning i just installed htc sync on my vista pc and it caused windows explorer to continuously crash until i uninstalled it, not impressed

Tried to install the app ealier, drivers failed and the app wont work (win 7 32 bit)

Going to try the long way round for now - sync outlook contacts to my google account and keep the google contacts synced to my phone - would I end up with a duplicate of everyone then though?

gingepaul79 said:
Going to try the long way round for now - sync outlook contacts to my google account and keep the google contacts synced to my phone - would I end up with a duplicate of everyone then though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I, like you (not I like you!), have synced up this way. I too cannot get HTC sync to work. I am sure Orange have bundled the wrong version.
So, I export Outlook to a file, then import contact file to google cal, then sync gcalendar to hero. Job done.
No duplicates, google calendar seems intelligent enough to recognise the dups

I would like to share my experience
Booted up.... would you like to set up exchange?
HELL YES!!!!
enter the details..... (internet accessible exchange server)
<entered>
What you wanna sync my boy?
EVERY GOD DAMN THING
oooooook here we go.......
<done.>
Sweet!

Thinking about an Adriod as my next phone, since I think WM is really falling behind everyone else! I use it mostly for work so a couple of questions if you don't mind....
No tasks syncing so far?
How does the calander work, are the views easy to see, day and week stuff?
Meeting requests work?
Can you flag email messages? This is a must for me and I hate that WM 6.5 can't even do it!
How do you find the keyboard replying to emails?
Can you open Word, Excel, PDF files?
Any other features it has for work that WM doesn't?
Thanks

Exchange
I'm having probs with exchange.
It will only sync my main inbox, not any of the subfolders I have, and will only sync via mobile network - fails on wifi ? ?
Then again can't get ANY web stuff on wifi ? ?

Word and excel fully creatable and editable with Docs to Go, and Open Office I think does let you read different docs though not sure which. Best PDF Reader seems to be RepliGo Reader which is good for books as well.
I'm only just getting to grips with Google Calendar but seems to have a great deal of flexibility for appts and stuff.
Widgets really just getting going, so I'm not sure of all those available...
Daisy - Magic owner, so Hero may be slightly different xx

herman3101 said:
I've noticed that not has much been said on the Hero's exchange support in any of the reviews or user reports so I thought I'd let people know what it's like as, for me, this is a must have feature. I should say that I have not had an android phone before and so I have had no experience with Nitrodesk's exchange solution so I can't compare.
Well, I entered my exchange details during initial set-up and after my first attempt was unsuccessful (SSL needed and is off by default) it than worked. Asked me if I wanted to sync Mail, Calender and Contacts all of which I selected. After the rest of the setup had finished the phone told me I had a new e-mail arrive so I could tell it was working straight away.
Mail is fantastic. Downloads everything fine, has at least as many options as WM for choosing which messages to download. E-mails look great on the display and html e-mails show up fine.
Contacts are great, they all appear straight away in the people and the phone application. All the Facebook and Flikr integration works perfectly. Only niggle is that you can't group contacts by company which is something I used to do on WM.
Calender seems to work fine. Appointments showed up ok, including appointments sent by e-mail.
All in all, the exchange sync is way better than expected and in some ways better than WM. The integration seems very deep and integral to the OS rather than a bolt on feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have reiceved my G2 touch and havn't been able to setup exchange sync over the air. It goes past first option i.e. to show me what i want to synch mail, contacts, calendar and than when I click on finish setup it fails with message unable to create account try later! Any idea what is going wrong. How can I fix it?
Sachin

Anyone have any experience with exchange sync where the server requires you to set a password/pincode for the phone?
Heard some people saying that this was not supported by the Hero. A pity if true, as I need this to work in order to be able to use the Hero as a work phone (in other words, if I am to buy a Hero).

The out of the box exchange support is really very good. It just needs the ability to authenticate via password or client certificate.
I much prefer it to WM, but only because its completely finger friendly.
Yes you can flag emails, and they show up under the flagged emails tab at the bottom.

I really really hope the update within 10 days or September will affect this thing? Need to be able to sync more than one folder at the time.

cbailey said:
I, like you (not I like you!), have synced up this way. I too cannot get HTC sync to work. I am sure Orange have bundled the wrong version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
works for me on vista 64 with orange branded HTC Touch. I believe there is an update on the HTC website, not sure if that enables win7 support
I certainly didn't notice explorer crashing after I installed it, chances are it's another explorer extension interfering (either a media codec that is failing at showing thumbnails, or a right-click extension or similar)

Which desktop PIM works best to sync with the Droid X?

I'm a wannabe WinMo convert, and my new Droid X will arrive later today. As I surf the web trying to be as ready as possible for the transition, I'm struck by the fact that Android doesn't sync directly with Outlook. And to shortcut the immediate responses, I will never want to sync my personal & private info with "The Cloud" for all the world of hackers to see. The number of times (just within the past year alone) that we've all seen news reports of some supposedly secure Big Brother company having its servers hacked and its users' personal info stolen, means that cloud sync is not now - and may well never really be - a secure option.
From what I can gather from several hours of scouring the reviews, the cobbled-together 3rd-party apps that attempt to allow one to sync an Android phone directly to one's own computer - either via WiFi, BT or a USB cable - all fall short in some critical way or other, such as not including all of Outlook's data fields for a Contact. The data never appears on the phone, and when syncing back to the PC, those particular fields get erased on the PC too! So there's only limited success with "The Missing Sync" & "CompanionLink." (And Android-Sync is still a pre-alpha.)
This leads to the question. What desktop PIM software do you all use --- BESIDES Outlook?
Thanks!

Why don't you directly sync your X with the exchange server you're connected to with Outlook?

onelifexv said:
Why don't you directly sync your X with the exchange server you're connected to with Outlook?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He didn't indicate he had an exchange server. Just Outlook on his desktop.
Mason,
As much as I agree with your privacy arguments (and believe me, my friends and associates argue about this all the time), I just don't think Android is going to be fully functional for you if don't "let it go" and put those contacts on your google account.
I went through this when Droid 1 Launched. I had all of my data on my exchange server, and refused to move it to Google. Android 2.01 worked with exchange, but just barely. The whole process frustrated me, and I ended up taking the phone back and getting a TouchPro2.
Since then, I've given in and begun migrating my company info over to Google Apps. I still have my exchange server in the meantime, but all of my mail, etc is going through Google Apps for Domains. This time around, with Droid X, my sync experience is working a lot better.
I know that's not what you want to hear. But if your not willing to put your data in Google's hands (and I don't really blame you for not wanting to), then take the phone back and wait for the new Win Phone 7 devices.

Thanks for your replies. I also used the Touch Pro2 earlier this year, and more recently, the LG Fathom. The latter may be the last of the WinMo 6.5 phones, and that's really a shame, since it really worked well, just lacking HTC's Sense, Motorola's sound quality, and the latest generation's innovative 4.3" capacitive screens. Of course it synced perfectly, and all contacts were immediately available for voice command dialing on the phone.
Today I downloaded the trial of CompanionLink and installed DejaOffice on the Droid X. After the proper setup - which includes setting the Droid X to be in "USB Mass Storage" mode when connected via USB to the PC - it was able to sync calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.
BUT only in a manner of speaking. I promptly found out that I couldn't voice dial any of my contacts. Neither Calendar nor Contacts were sync'd with the Droid X's native Android apps; that required another, VERY long sync, having gone into DejaOffice's Sync Settings and selecting the options to ALSO sync with the Android native apps. And although I went into the Droid X's settings and deselected the option to sync my Google/G-mail account, I still suspect that my information went to the cloud - even though I didn't want it to - since the arrows under the Droid X's "3G" icon in the notification tray were gray the whole time, indicating data transmission. And despite all that, some of my contacts still mysteriously didn't make it into the native app, although they were in DejaContacts. So to voice dial someone inparticular, I STILL had to enter their contact info manually into the native Android contact app.
And all of my categories for all of my Notes were somehow stripped away when the Notes transferred into the Droid X; so now, they're all unfiled.
I don't know if I'm willing to put up with these headaches on a regular basis. But the preliminary reviews of Windows Phone 7 are very disappointing, and it can only be a matter of time before WM6.5 becomes so neglected that it's no longer usable. Oh well.
Zaphod! I remember fondly the Isaac Asimov novels.

MasonStorm said:
Thanks for your replies. I also used the Touch Pro2 earlier this year, and more recently, the LG Fathom. The latter may be the last of the WinMo 6.5 phones, and that's really a shame, since it really worked well, just lacking HTC's Sense, Motorola's sound quality, and the latest generation's innovative 4.3" capacitive screens. Of course it synced perfectly, and all contacts were immediately available for voice command dialing on the phone.
Today I downloaded the trial of CompanionLink and installed DejaOffice on the Droid X. After the proper setup - which includes setting the Droid X to be in "USB Mass Storage" mode when connected via USB to the PC - it was able to sync calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.
BUT only in a manner of speaking. I promptly found out that I couldn't voice dial any of my contacts. Neither Calendar nor Contacts were sync'd with the Droid X's native Android apps; that required another, VERY long sync, having gone into DejaOffice's Sync Settings and selecting the options to ALSO sync with the Android native apps. And although I went into the Droid X's settings and deselected the option to sync my Google/G-mail account, I still suspect that my information went to the cloud - even though I didn't want it to - since the arrows under the Droid X's "3G" icon in the notification tray were gray the whole time, indicating data transmission. And despite all that, some of my contacts still mysteriously didn't make it into the native app, although they were in DejaContacts. So to voice dial someone inparticular, I STILL had to enter their contact info manually into the native Android contact app.
And all of my categories for all of my Notes were somehow stripped away when the Notes transferred into the Droid X; so now, they're all unfiled.
I don't know if I'm willing to put up with these headaches on a regular basis. But the preliminary reviews of Windows Phone 7 are very disappointing, and it can only be a matter of time before WM6.5 becomes so neglected that it's no longer usable. Oh well.
Zaphod! I remember fondly the Isaac Asimov novels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"It's like Deja Vu, All over again." These are the exact issues and problems I ran into in my first encounter with Droid. At the time, I felt like the TP2 was a viable alternative to the Droid (wasn't nearly as fast, but had nice screen, better keyboard, etc.) so I just bailed out.
Much like you, I don't believe there is a viable alternative any longer. I too have no enthusiasm for Win Phone 7, and highly doubt that any advanced hardware is going to come with win 6.5X at this time.
I will also pass along this small piece of advice. Either embrace the cloud, or dump the phone. The more 'interconnects' you put between you and your data, the more frustrating this will be. It would be shame to have all of this power, and then limit its potential.

Instead of starting a new thread I thought this would be the best place to ask. First time Android user long time WM user so excuse my ignorance. I have an exchange / outlook setup that is working great with the corp sync of android but I have Notes that of course MS thought it was a good idea not to sync OTA. I used to connect my WM phone via BT or USB and sync the Notes with ActiveSync every couple of days or so to make sure they were updated on both device and Outlook. I know I can't use ActiveSync, what kind of solution does Android provide for this type of sync? I am open to anything as long as it is free as I don't really want to spend money on something that used to be free under WM.

Anyone? No one coming from a TP2 used notes?

I tried once more to sync the X locally, using the Mark/Space Missing Sync software (which requires Fliq Notes & Fliq Calendar to be installed on the phone, and Missing Sync on both the phone and the desktop). This too proved entirely too problematic, with ridiculously erroneous syncs that proved entirely unreliable for a business user.
It took another day of wrangling/justifying/coming to terms, but I finally relented and took Zaphod's advice to embrace the Cloud. gSyncit has proven to be a reliable, easy-to-use sync app for me, but it does require sending all of your stuff to Google, and then setting the phone to sync with Google. Calendar & Contacts work fine, and Notes works by syncing to Google Docs. The latter is then synced to the phone using the GDocs app, downloaded from the Marketplace. I've abandoned Tasks for now, but apparently it can sync by creating a 2nd calendar - a Tasks Calendar - in Google Calendar.

I'm also battling this Outlook to Droid X sync issue. I've come to realize the "best" way to resolve this is to give into Google's global domination plan and simply use my Google Calendar to sync via the cloud. However, I'm worried about duplication of meetings (which has happened in the past with the Dx using CompanionLink and DejaOffice, and with WM6.5 on my Imagio). My other question/issue is whether my contacts associated with my Gmail account have to be merged and subsequently synced with all my business contacts. My Gmail contacts include almost 1,000 email addresses, many of which I never use and don't recognize.
I'm also running Outlook 2007 with Win 7 64-bit. I've tried using Google Calendar Sync but it doesn't play nicely with 64-bit Win 7 (I guess that one sneaked up on Google?).
Any input is appreciated.

I work with small businesses helping them with handhelds and CRM. All my small businesses are using hosted exchange server for mail. Some use Blackberries, others iPhones, a tiny portion Windows Mobile and now I'm "dog-fooding" Android so I can find out what works. Believe it or not, only about 5% of my customers use Outlook tasks. Most rely on the calendar for task management. I myself do use tasks so I'm trialing Remember the Milk and syncing to it from Outlook using Gassumo Outlook to Remember the Milk sync. That's working quite well.
I've found that the contacts and calendar sync have some quirks that I'm coming to grips with - it seems sometimes to use File As, other times not to so sometimes the names are backwards. The calendar has been OK
I'm hoping PocketInformant for Android gets finished soon. They are beta testing now. I've been using it on Windows Mobile for years. It's very polished, those guys know how to build a handheld PIM.
Exchange is a great way to do OTA sync. You put the contact in Outlook and it's on your phone, same with calendar.
I'm a big OneNote user on the desktop, on Windows Mobile I used it only for a single purpose - to label photos I took of equipment I deploy. I would type the client, location, purpose and then take photos of the asset tags, serial numbers etc. To get them onto the desktop I had to USB sync but this system is very handy, if I needed to call Dell about a machine I have the asset tags right at hand. I'm looking at Evernote to take over that duty. I don't really care if it lives on OneNote, I just need to be able to annotate photos and get at them quickly during support calls.

[Q] Newbie resources?

So I just got my Atrix from ATT, coming from WinMo 6.5 (Tilt2), and am a bit lost.
There used to be guides and such for people upgrading, but I've hopped on the train so late I'm having trouble finding a good one!
So feel free to point me towards better resources or useful threads on here especially from the perspective of WinMo to modern Android.
But for now, first question: what is the best way sync Outlook and my new phone?? I've got Outlook 2010 and have been building an address book in it since my MPx220! I know I could export/import a .csv but am far more interested in actual sync, with contacts and calendar at the minimum. Preferably free, but if not OK (as long as it works). So far I've tried MyPhoneExplorer but it can't see the phone via USB. Trying www.soocial.com now, looks interesting...

Is it ever gonna finish inspecting my 16GB card? Can't find a progress indicator anywhere...

I know it's not helping but just wanted to say that I'm exactly in the same boat with you. I used Windows Mobile since around 2004 (with mpx 220, tilt, and tilt2) and I'm kind of clueless about this whole android thing
Oh and I could not find a way to directly sync my outlook contacts with atrix either. Also, if you go with the .csv route, it does not sync some fields, for example Work2 phone.

fincan said:
Oh and I could not find a way to directly sync my outlook contacts with atrix either. Also, if you go with the .csv route, it does not sync some fields, for example Work2 phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Def. try www.soocial.com It's free (as long as you're less than 250 contacts) and it's *ongoing* Sync like we're used to.
Goofy thing is, Google is said to make a calendar sync (outlook --> google), why don't they have their own for contacts??

Well, so far I'm a touch underwhelmed. Coming from the WinMo world I'm used to many things being customizable, often in the program, if not maybe in the registry or easily swapped out for other software.
I'm noticing a lot of dumb choices and a lot of things that don't give me obvious options.
Let's call it a Universal Inbox but it won't have your Gmail! There's a way around, you setup instead as regular IMAP email and use that app or end up using both email apps... grr! Better 3rd party alternative?
No 'file as' in contacts or ability to customize much of anything about how it looks, what it shows...
Friggin 'security lock timer' setting is disabled when using fingerprint!
Oh, and scanning my SD card *never finished*! After a couple hours (during which I couldn't install anything from the marketplace--though it gave me NO error to let me know why it was ignoring me pressing install!) I yanked the card. Maybe if I clear it out first?
Of course it's much (MUCH) better than my POS Tilt2, but I'm not quite convinced it's worth it, yet.

Your card scanning issue is not normal. IT STINKS! Something from the school of the united nations
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

I came from windows also. Companion Link is the only software to give you a true live sync between outlook and google calender and contacts that I have found. It wasn't free but I don't remember how much. It syncs your desktop outlook to your online google account which is automatically synced to your device.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

For the contacts things you can always setup your gmail account as an exchange account in outlook and sync it that way, but then again it would be the same as syncing with gmail itself.
As for an outlook sync that isn't third party, there is no way to do it other than having an exchange account.

I found and downloaded a program called My Phone Explorer, it says it can sync outlook contacts & calendars if you install it's companion software to your PC. I did not have a chance to try it out yet, I'll update this thread once I try it.
Also, did you guys find out how to set custom ring tones? Like copying wav, mp3, ogg etc. files from my old phone to this and make them show up on the ringtone selections?

sdlopez83 said:
Your card scanning issue is not normal. IT STINKS! Something from the school of the united nations
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It had been in my Tilt 2 and had about 10gig of various files, some WM6.5 stuff (.cabs, apps, etc) and media. I formatted it and put back in the phone (couldn't do anything with it while it was scanning) and it was fine.
Marketplace didn't actually do anything when I hit install until the card was happy.

So far I'm pretty impressed with Android but not so much with this phone. The combination of not-latest OS with updates being locked to ATT/Moto's discretion worries me as the Tilt2 I'm coming from was absolutely crippled by the crap ATT OS version available (though at least it wasn't impossible to flash it!).
My other big problem is that while this phone is supposedly lightning fast, but how does that make any difference in actual use, since this dual-core CPU and nVidia chipset are a small part of a big and diverse market, for which the Nexus S and all the similar Samsungs set the baseline? Example, I noticed I can't play at decent framerate a 720p h.264 media file (.torrent downloaded Top Gear, 1.5GB on class 6 microSD), even in QQview--which can't seem to access the SD card directly (it only sees the ~11GB internal which is called SDcard), by the way. So what good does this extra speed do if there are no apps to take advantage of it? And how many others are going to have troubles accessing my new 32GB microSD because they only see the internal?
I'm also fairly annoyed by the lack of customization in the settings. At worst every damn thing in WinMo was customizable via registry. I usually find a setting each day in Android which I should have easy control over but don't. Example: notifications being the same volume for texts/emails as BS systems sounds I haven't figured any way to turn off... again a missing setting that's almost there: I noticed within text messaging and email I can set specific sounds (including silent) but for the overall system one there's no silent option (which would be overridden by the selected ones above)... Maybe there's some apps that do some of what I want, but having to pay or sideload are both kinda foreign concepts to me, especially for small system hacks!
But on the other hand it's very responsive, does seem to play 720p Xvid torrent downloads OK (though I haven't watched one all the way through), and the voice features are great.
One other annoyance is that while BT links to my car automagically it doesn't link to my Panasonic handsets at home unless I turn BT off and back on for some reason...
So given how much I paid (premiere, non-contract) I'm leaning towards return. Wish the damn ATT-bands Nexus S was out!!

but, more importantly did you get the critic references?