OT: Android Users

essex-commuter

I've been a 'smartphone' user for many years, and before that I always had a PDA. I've had Palm Pilots, Palm Treo's, various Windows devices and for the last 3 years, a Blackberry - with the last one being a Bold.

Today I have a Galaxy S being delivered, Android.

I'm a bit of a 'Power' user when it comes to calendars, tasks, notes etc. With the Blackberry I used to sync with Outlook with no issues, it was a good back up too. I now use Gmail and am happy to use their calendar, does anyone have any advice on the best way to manage things, syncing (does the phone do this out the box or do I need additional software?), backing up etc? Any better 'apps' for managing a calendar / tasks / notes on the phone or is the preinstalled stuff really good?

Any advice would be great! Ta.

prj45

I'm sort of happily syncing my outlook calendar with my HTC Desire (actually the other way round mainly), you need to download a little app to the PC to do it though.

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/ ... swer=98563

Nothing for managing tasks as supplied, but I gather there are lots of apps out there, some quite professional.

stuaff

Synching with gmail etc is set up in the phone settings, no additional software needed, and is fully automatic, or (as I've left it) on demand. Calendar, contacts & mail all done both ways, no problems.

jonginge

Yeah, my Nexus is fully synched with Outlook using the built-in email client. Outlook support has been getting better over the past few Android OS revisions. 2.2 was pretty good. I'm now on 2.3

lost_in_thought

Has anyone managed to sync calendars with outlook 2010 64bit?

Do they support that yet?

eyko

Think the syncing bit has pretty much been covered (got both my work/outlook and personal/gmail synced up to the default calendar at have no issue)

For really basic note taking I use 'colornote'. Basic, but great for 'sticky note', style notes .

joshtp

Mine is fully synced... I cant remember which sub menu you'll find it in, but you can choose for google calendar to auto sync... it's all a very slick experience once set up.


I love android!

notsoblue

lost_in_thought wrote:

Has anyone managed to sync calendars with outlook 2010 64bit?

Do they support that yet?

Yep, Google Calender Sync has supported Outlook 2010 64bit for a while now (doesn't support XP 64 bit though)

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/ ... swer=89955

lost_in_thought

notsoblue wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Has anyone managed to sync calendars with outlook 2010 64bit?

Do they support that yet?

Yep, Google Calender Sync has supported Outlook 2010 64bit for a while now (doesn't support XP 64 bit though)

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/ ... swer=89955

Erm......

Google wrote:

Compatibility

Currently, Google Calendar Sync is only compatible with Microsoft Outlook versions 2003, 2007, 2010 (32-bit) and operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows XP 64-bit Edition is not compatible with Google Calendar Sync at this time.

essex-commuter

This all sounds very promising. I think I will miss Outlook but sure I can get to grips with using Gmail all the time, especially now that I have seen that you can use nested labels!

What about backing everything up?

The only thing I haven't figured out how to do is transfer a few thousand emails from Outlook back into Gmail.

stuaff

essex-commuter wrote:

This all sounds very promising. I think I will miss Outlook but sure I can get to grips with using Gmail all the time, especially now that I have seen that you can use nested labels!

What about backing everything up?

The only thing I haven't figured out how to do is transfer a few thousand emails from Outlook back into Gmail.

Backups are a doddle- something like Titanium Backup (from the Android Market- basic version is free but Pro version adds more features) will handle all your files. If you install Clockwork Recovery, you can do a complete clone of your phone (so for example, if you install a new OS version and it's a PITA, you can just roll back and have everything exactly as it was).

bails87

In terms of other applications, if you're a bit of a geek then Tasker is well worth looking at. It can automate all sorts of things, there's a wiki that might give you a few ideas to get started.

notsoblue

lost_in_thought wrote:

Erm......

Oops :oops:

davmaggs

I came to this a bit late.

You can get a free app that connects to your outlook (I connect to my office one) and it pulls in your calendar, to-do lists and emails. It is so easy to set-up that I don't remember how it works, because it just does and within a few seconds of saving something on my work account it synchs over to the phone. None of the plugging in cables or running synch software.

essex-commuter

davmaggs wrote:

I came to this a bit late.

You can get a free app that connects to your outlook (I connect to my office one) and it pulls in your calendar, to-do lists and emails. It is so easy to set-up that I don't remember how it works, because it just does and within a few seconds of saving something on my work account it synchs over to the phone. None of the plugging in cables or running synch software.

Would be interested to know the name of the app or is it the same as Google Calendar sync?

Thanks for the info so far guys. Had a text, DHL have called at home, I'm almost excited as I am when Wiggle comes a knocking at my door. Do DHL do Haribo's?

davmaggs

I think it might be part of Android, but I got it up and running a year ago and can't remember.

Look for "exchange activesync"

shouldbeinbed

essex-commuter wrote:

I've been a 'smartphone' user for many years, and before that I always had a PDA. I've had Palm Pilots, Palm Treo's, various Windows devices and for the last 3 years, a Blackberry - with the last one being a Bold.

Today I have a Galaxy S being delivered, Android.

I'm a bit of a 'Power' user when it comes to calendars, tasks, notes etc. With the Blackberry I used to sync with Outlook with no issues, it was a good back up too. I now use Gmail and am happy to use their calendar, does anyone have any advice on the best way to manage things, syncing (does the phone do this out the box or do I need additional software?), backing up etc? Any better 'apps' for managing a calendar / tasks / notes on the phone or is the preinstalled stuff really good?

Any advice would be great! Ta.

Yes you can add your google accounts and how much, what order and how often is very configurable to actually get the stuff on.

The native HTC email client is fine but the standard calendar is utter tosh, I guess they're much the same across brands - I'm a calendar & notes junkie too.

Touch calendar pro is good but I've recently discovered 'Jorte', its in a different class to tge various ones I've tried. I can't recommend it highly enough: tasks, memos, variety of month-week-day-agenda list views, options to turn em on and off, ehich view to open with, tasks on the same screen or not. It'll pick up google public holiday etc calendars. It is as good uf not better than the magnificent Pocket Informant from WinMob days. That has migrated to Android too but costs a bit.

I have 'colour note' for my notes, got it before Jorte & have kept it on as its dead easy, can be backed up to SD & has password protection for individual notes.

Might I suggest SwiftKey keyboard app too. Physically its much the same but the prediction engine is something else.

Edit: AppBackupReinstall is dead easy to use & having done a hard reset it does work when you really need it to.

bails87

Swype is where it's at for the keyboard! No market app yet though, you have to go to the website.

UndercoverElephant

bails87 wrote:

Swype is where it's at for the keyboard! No market app yet though, you have to go to the website.

Pre-loaded on the Galaxy S. 8)

sufferingpete

Has anyone managed to sync calendars with outlook 2010 64bit?

Do they support that yet?

Google now have a 64 bit version of the sync software.

I ve got it and it does work!

Mr Sworld

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Touch calendar pro is good but I've recently discovered 'Jorte', its in a different class to tge various ones I've tried. I can't recommend it highly enough: tasks, memos, variety of month-week-day-agenda list views, options to turn em on and off, ehich view to open with, tasks on the same screen or not. It'll pick up google public holiday etc calendars.

+1 for Jorte. Great app however if you move it to the SD card then the Widget won't work...

bails87

I feel I should recommend tasker again.

Ive used mine to
-set up a process where, if I lose my phone, I can send a specific keyword/code to the phone in a text, it will then reply to the text with the GPS co-ordinates of the phone. I can then go and find it/burn down the thief's house.

-Set up another one which sets the profile to 'loud' if I send a keyword. So if I lose my phone somewhere in the house, but it's on silent, I can send the text to it and then ring it. It will have changed to full volume so I can now find it.

-it detects (using the cell signal, not GPS, so no change in battery life) when I'm near home. It then turns on WiFi for one minute out of every 5 minutes until it connects to my home network. Once it's done this it stays connected until I go out of range, at which point it turns itself off. So wifi off all day while I'm at work, saves battery. When I get near home it starts scanning. I get home and by the time I've got in, checked the post, put the kettle on, etc, it's connected. Saving me the indignity of having to press the wifi button on the phone!

I also use it to automatically turn on GPS when I open maps, do an automatic sync as soon as I connect to WiFi but only do one once an hour on mobile data, as well as a couple of other things.

itboffin

Hmmm all this talk-e-talk of android got me thinking ...

I have a couple of old devices a HTC wizard and compaq ipaq :shock: have upgraded the HTC sort of to run WM6 & an early android and the ipaq is happily running tomtom 6

I dare say the ipaq/tomtom is actually better than my garmin 705

hfidgen

Got the Galaxy S myself - does all the gmail & calendar synching out of the box, you won't need to worry about that. It'll also synch to facebook and twitter etc if you let it though, which can be a pain in the backside as your contacts lists gets annihilated.

It's a good phone, and although you won't get all of the apps your iPhone buddies have, you'll get most of them, and the number is growing rapidly.

Initialised

Evernote and MEGSBank backs up all your SMS, notes, call logs, etc.. automatically.

Dropbox for 2GB free cloud storage

I use an HTC Desire btw.

lost_in_thought

sufferingpete wrote:

Has anyone managed to sync calendars with outlook 2010 64bit?

Do they support that yet?

Google now have a 64 bit version of the sync software.

I ve got it and it does work!

Please link.... pleeeeeeeeeease?!

davis

bails87 wrote:

I feel I should recommend tasker again.
Ive used mine to .... do clever things

That actually sounds useful. I may think about moving away from my N95...

*goes to find Android-capable phones with proper clicky buttons.

redvee

I want Ovimaps for Android but can't Googlemaps does the same, just not quite as well and the voice and announciation is diabolical.

chilling

But it does cost you nothing though.

essex-commuter

davis wrote:

*goes to find Android-capable phones with proper clicky buttons.

Tell me about it, I can't type half as quick as I could with the Blackberry. Fingers crossed I get better!

lost_in_thought

There's one with a slide-out keyboard, sony ericsson perhaps...