Blackberry vs iPhone

[Goofy6294]

So I've been thinking about ditching my Blackberry for a new iPhone. It's a dedicated business phone and will need to seamlessly synch with my Outlook email, calendar and contacts (all local to my laptop, no Exchange server). Suggestions/comments/advice?

 

[Master Yoda]

While I have not tried every app out there the only phone that I have seen that has been able to seamlessly sync with Outlook 100% of the time regardless of service or email provider was one running Windows phone 7.

 

[Monty]

iPhone syncs with Outlook, calendar and contacts. All can now be done "in the cloud" and althugh I haven't used Outlook or calendar myself [can't bring myself to use them, too much hatred for all things Microsoft :lookaroun], it is supposed to be seamless. :shrug:

My contacts are maintained across platforms.

 

[Master Yoda]

iPhone syncs with Outlook, calendar and contacts. All can now be done "in the cloud" and althugh I haven't used Outlook or calendar myself [can't bring myself to use them, too much hatred for all things Microsoft :lookaroun], it is supposed to be seamless. :shrug:

My contacts are maintained across platforms.

It is supposed to be seamless but my experience has been anything but. Several of our salesmen switched to from blackberry's to iphone 4s and none have been able to get their phones to sync correctly with the company email. From what they are telling us it is a problem with the email service itself. I have had the same issue with android and my kingdom konsultant email as well.

 

[Goofy6294]

Thanks for the info. I think I'm just a little caught up in the iPhone hype. I'm normally more of an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type. I may just leave things as is for now. I'm using an old Blackberry with an old OS, but it works...

 

[wdwmagic]

So I've been thinking about ditching my Blackberry for a new iPhone. It's a dedicated business phone and will need to seamlessly synch with my Outlook email, calendar and contacts (all local to my laptop, no Exchange server). Suggestions/comments/advice?

This all depends on what you are using for your mail service. For multiple devices (laptop, phone), you want your mail to be centrally hosted, either on something like Exchange, Gmail, iCloud etc. You can then use all your devices to view that email. Trying to sync a phone to Outlook itself is not the way it is done anymore, and I don't think you will really get anything new out there that will do that.

Out of the box with an iPhone, you get iCloud based email, contacts, and calendar, that would all be synced on your laptop and iPhone, iPad etc. All free.

I have a Windows PC running Outlook, a Mac running Mail, an iPhone and an iPad. Anything I do to mail, contacts or calendars on any of those devices is instantly done on all the others. I can sit in front of the PC with my iPhone, delete an email, and I can see it go from Outlook within a second. All done without any cables or manual sync process. It just happens in real time.

 

[Goofy6294]

Thanks for the input Steve. I guess email's not as much of an issue as my calendar and contacts. In a complete 180 from my 10/26 post, I just ordered an iPhone 4s. I'll let you know how things work out...

 

[wdwmagic]

Thanks for the input Steve. I guess email's not as much of an issue as my calendar and contacts. In a complete 180 from my 10/26 post, I just ordered an iPhone 4s. I'll let you know how things work out...

Great choice, I think you'll like it a lot. Enjoy!

 

[prberk]

This all depends on what you are using for your mail service. For multiple devices (laptop, phone), you want your mail to be centrally hosted, either on something like Exchange, Gmail, iCloud etc. You can then use all your devices to view that email. Trying to sync a phone to Outlook itself is not the way it is done anymore, and I don't think you will really get anything new out there that will do that.

Out of the box with an iPhone, you get iCloud based email, contacts, and calendar, that would all be synced on your laptop and iPhone, iPad etc. All free.

I have a Windows PC running Outlook, a Mac running Mail, an iPhone and an iPad. Anything I do to mail, contacts or calendars on any of those devices is instantly done on all the others. I can sit in front of the PC with my iPhone, delete an email, and I can see it go from Outlook within a second. All done without any cables or manual sync process. It just happens in real time.

Steve, not to sound stupid, but how do you do that? I have an iPhone 4 and a PC running Outlook. My e-mail service is Verizon, and it is kept on their servers until I click "Send/Receive" on Outlook, at which time it is downloaded to Outllook and removed from the server.

My iPhone gets the mail that is on the server, but it stays on the Verizon server also until it is downloaded by Outlook. (And I set Outlook up that way in order to keep the e-mail indefinitely.)

Contacts and calendar are not synched at all, that I know of. I am interested in finding out how to do that.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[wdwmagic]

Steve, not to sound stupid, but how do you do that? I have an iPhone 4 and a PC running Outlook. My e-mail service is Verizon, and it is kept on their servers until I click "Send/Receive" on Outlook, at which time it is downloaded to Outllook and removed from the server.

My iPhone gets the mail that is on the server, but it stays on the Verizon server also until it is downloaded by Outlook. (And I set Outlook up that way in order to keep the e-mail indefinitely.)

Contacts and calendar are not synched at all, that I know of. I am interested in finding out how to do that.

Thanks,

Paul

Hi Paul,

Do you want to stay with Verizons email, or do you want to switch to Apples iCloud for your email?

You will need to get the iCloud control panel for Windows at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455

This allows you to sync calendar and contacts. If you use Apples email, it will also do that for you.

 

[Master Yoda]

Steve, not to sound stupid, but how do you do that? I have an iPhone 4 and a PC running Outlook. My e-mail service is Verizon, and it is kept on their servers until I click "Send/Receive" on Outlook, at which time it is downloaded to Outllook and removed from the server.

My iPhone gets the mail that is on the server, but it stays on the Verizon server also until it is downloaded by Outlook. (And I set Outlook up that way in order to keep the e-mail indefinitely.)

Contacts and calendar are not synched at all, that I know of. I am interested in finding out how to do that.

Thanks,

Paul

If you want to stay with outlook many of the people around my office have had good results with DejaOffice. The app is $50 but you can download a free trial.

 

[Goofy6294]

Update -

Ordered my 4S last week and Sprint said it would take 3 weeks to come in. I received it yesterday (nice job Sprint)! Played with it a little last night using my wi-fi connection since I was so hesitant to terminate my Blackberry. Got to the office this morning, loaded the iCloud control panel on my laptop, and so far I'm getting real-time syncs with my calendar and contacts (using Outlook 2007 in MS Office Basic).

So far I'm loving it. My 9 year old son had a great time asking Siri nonsense questions last night but, living in south Louisiana, the way we pronounce things, I imagine Siri must think most of our questions are nonsense!

 

[adam111]

I love Apple products for one reason: They work!