I was wondering about the option "Not automatically, but I do sync them sometimes". Would that include opening your phone's contact list manually typing the data into your computer's address book? Because I have done that (or going the other way, from computer to phone) on occasion.
Explanation of the "Something else that I'll explain": I have multiple address books on my PC, some of which get synced to my phone, some of which don't. I do that to avoid burying the contact list I *want* on my phone with contact details for people I will never, ever want to speak to.
That makes sense. I have multiple address books, and I suppose I might access some of them through various means on my phone, but never actually sync them at all. If I save someone's phone number/address/whatever on my phone, it just stays on my phone, and doesn't join the rest of my address books.
I'm probably being a bit sentimental and 20th century, but I remain a little baffled by the idea that I would want a small, vulnerable device to be permanently logged in to my primary email address.
Unless I've misunderstood it, or if my phone model was a quirk, Android phones insist on a Gmail address when you first activate them, and the email app remains connected to it, alerting you to incoming messages. There doesn't seem to be a way to password lock it - anybody picking up your phone can, if the screen's not locked or if they can get past that, just open the email app to start using your email account.
I know "physical object" isn't a bad line of security, and I also carry around a small piece of jagged metal that unlocks the building I keep all my stuff in, but this bothered me enough to use a secondary account and just check Gmail through the phone's browser.
Andriod and googlemail do it for me without me having to do a suncing process of any sort. This is why having to use a non-Android phone would be a total no-no for me and posing my phone never means losing my contacts. It's a huge deal to me.
Wow, so many typos that is actually unreadable, I'll try again.
Android and googlemail do it for me without me having to do a syncing process of any sort. This is why having to use a non-Android phone would be a total no-no for me and losing my phone never means losing my contacts. It's a huge deal to me.
Same for me.. I also like the fact that if someone emails/IMs me a phone number or address, I can just copy/paste it into googlemail and have it synced to my phone.
I'm sure I would find it useful, I just can't justify the extra cost at the moment. I use my dimphone for texting, calls and taking photos, and that costs me about £5 per month. Stepping up to a smartphone would be a hefty extra hit.
I get unlimited texts, unlimited data and 250 mins of talk for 10 quid/month (giffgaff). Depends what you consider hefty (and even before I had a smartphone I was using data for IMAP, gmaps, etc, and paying more than that).
The Galaxy Nexus is nice because it's supported directly by Google (so already has Jelly Bean, the most recent Android OS release) and is generally a great phone but some people don't like the fact it doesn't have a microsd slot so you can't add extra storage to it. 16Gb is enough for me, but not enough for much of my music but then I have a tiny mp3 player for that (40Gb of storage). It also has a rather large screen, M doesn't like mine because it's too big for her hands so I found her a used Nexus S instead (~GBP150 on ebay with the usual be careful about what you're buying used on ebay, particularly for screen scratches).
There's a lot of variety in Android phones on the market which is good but can make choosing one first somewhat challenging. Some of the cheaper ones seem appealing but in practice don't have enough internal storage or a fast enough CPU/GPU to run the most recent Android releases (such as the HTC Desire). Phones that ship with ICS (android 4.0) or are supported by CyanogenMod 9 are a reasonable starting point.
Android + Google contacts is very easy and makes sure I have my contacts around even if I forget or lose my phone. Also means I can enter contact details on my computer where it's easier to c&p or type on a real keyboard and they automagically appear on my phone. I sync everything but I have a "phone" group and set that to be what is displayed by default.
Before I had a smartphone I used to sync with AddressBook on my mac to have a backup.
I didn't think my phone synced contacts but having read the rest of the responses here about Android (which I also use) I'm starting to wonder if that's not the case!
I don't have an application on my computer that can access whereever they're maybe being synced to, at any rate.
I think it's optional but turned on by default; you can add a Google account to the phone but turn off syncing in the accounts and settings section of the phone so I'd assume that'd prevent GMail from using them too.
i ticked no but technically my contacts are synced to Google, I just don't use them for anything other than the phone. (there was a reason why but I forget what it was now, could've been something to do with getting contact's birthdays onto the calendar?)
I've never knowingly done this, but my phone strangely seems to know the e-mail addresses and/or telephone numbers of some people that I'm certain have never given them to me. However, the coverage seems remarkably sporadic, and many more are clearly not there.
One day I intent to read the remainder of the instruction manual of my phone. I think I have about 140 pages to go.
What counts as "syncing"?
Date: 2012-08-03 10:40 am (UTC)Re: What counts as "syncing"?
Date: 2012-08-03 10:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 12:01 pm (UTC)I know "physical object" isn't a bad line of security, and I also carry around a small piece of jagged metal that unlocks the building I keep all my stuff in, but this bothered me enough to use a secondary account and just check Gmail through the phone's browser.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 12:18 pm (UTC)Android and googlemail do it for me without me having to do a syncing process of any sort. This is why having to use a non-Android phone would be a total no-no for me and losing my phone never means losing my contacts. It's a huge deal to me.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 09:39 am (UTC)(and even before I had a smartphone I was using data for IMAP, gmaps, etc, and paying more than that).
no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 10:30 am (UTC)The Galaxy Nexus is nice because it's supported directly by Google (so already has Jelly Bean, the most recent Android OS release) and is generally a great phone but some people don't like the fact it doesn't have a microsd slot so you can't add extra storage to it. 16Gb is enough for me, but not enough for much of my music but then I have a tiny mp3 player for that (40Gb of storage). It also has a rather large screen, M doesn't like mine because it's too big for her hands so I found her a used Nexus S instead (~GBP150 on ebay with the usual be careful about what you're buying used on ebay, particularly for screen scratches).
There's a lot of variety in Android phones on the market which is good but can make choosing one first somewhat challenging. Some of the cheaper ones seem appealing but in practice don't have enough internal storage or a fast enough CPU/GPU to run the most recent Android releases (such as the HTC Desire). Phones that ship with ICS (android 4.0) or are supported by CyanogenMod 9 are a reasonable starting point.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 01:54 pm (UTC)Before I had a smartphone I used to sync with AddressBook on my mac to have a backup.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 04:39 pm (UTC)I don't have an application on my computer that can access whereever they're maybe being synced to, at any rate.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-03 06:45 pm (UTC)If you do, it simply backs up your contacts automatically into your gmail contacts. It's not a phone app of any sort as such.
There are Android phones that do a separate phone sync as well, of course, that would do it via an app.
I like it because I can log into my gmail anywhere I have internet and all my contacts are there, it's awesome!
My "system"
Date: 2012-08-03 10:17 pm (UTC)Home addresses I have in a spreadsheet in google docs that I can open on my phone.
Email addresses are in gmail which I think autosynched with the phone but I only use the gmail client to send emails so I'm not 100% sure on that.
So basically google has all my data in some form or another that I can access via any device
no subject
Date: 2012-08-05 12:05 am (UTC)i ticked no but technically my contacts are synced to Google, I just don't use them for anything other than the phone. (there was a reason why but I forget what it was now, could've been something to do with getting contact's birthdays onto the calendar?)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 12:31 pm (UTC)One day I intent to read the remainder of the instruction manual of my phone. I think I have about 140 pages to go.