iPhone vs Android for PC user

[Elemental]

I just bought an iphone 4 (my first smart phone) mostly due to all the positive reviews it got from other collegues in the medical field. At the time I also had considered a Blackberry but it seemed I heard more positive and fewer negative reviews for the iphone. I never put a lot of consideration into a Droid phone at the time.

While I think my iphone is great, I am a bit frustrated with some of it's compatibility issues with my PC (I swore I would never buy a Mac). Specifically, syncing music (as well as all information from Outlook) through iTunes is a pain and transfering pictures and videos isn't as simple as it was with my old Motorolla phone. I also didn't like that I had to buy and download a special application on both my iphone and PC in order to get my Outlook Tasks list to appear on my iphone. Hotmail only syncing through POP3 rather than IMAP is another big grievance. None of these issues are overly large but I was wondering, do Droid phones tend to work better with PC/Windows programs?

 

[Marc]

yes iTunes is a major suckhole of a program no if buts or whys. There are programs out there that provide and alternative such as MediaMonkey however the arrival of iOS have busted things and at this point it doesn't work with the iPhone running the latest software.

Umm you should be able to sync hotmail via imap. I use IMAP on two different mail accounts on my 3G running iOS4. You just have to make sure when setting up the connection that you specify to use IMAP and not POP3 and yo may have to do it as custom connection (can't remember exacly it's been a while).

 

[JonathonWally]

None of these issues are overly large but I was wondering, do Droid phones tend to work better with PC/Windows programs?

I've never had an issue with iTunes on my PC with my iPod Touch. As it is easier with my Nexus on my PC I guess, just drag and drop files and such and use doubletwist for my music transfers.

 

[Arrqh]

Syncing information on Android is a little different... you don't sync Outlook directly to the phone. Instead, you have to install Google's sync tool for Outlook which syncs everything to your Google account. The phone then sycns to the Google account OTA. I don't use Outlook myself, though I've heard the setup can be pretty annoying but once it works it's pretty seamless.

For music, there isn't actually a built in syncing tool, you just mount the phone as a USB drive and copy files over by hand. Which can be good or bad depending on your perspective.

 

[JonathonWally]

For music, there isn't actually a built in syncing tool, you just mount the phone as a USB drive and copy files over by hand. Which can be good or bad depending on your perspective.

I like doubletwist, it syncs over my iTunes playlists.

 

[STR]

Syncing information on Android is a little different... you don't sync Outlook directly to the phone. Instead, you have to install Google's sync tool for Outlook which syncs everything to your Google account. The phone then sycns to the Google account OTA. I don't use Outlook myself, though I've heard the setup can be pretty annoying but once it works it's pretty seamless.

For music, there isn't actually a built in syncing tool, you just mount the phone as a USB drive and copy files over by hand. Which can be good or bad depending on your perspective.

If you're looking to move entirely from outlook to the cloud, it's pretty easy to just export your outlook info into a .csv file, which can be uploaded to google.

 

[Elemental]

yes iTunes is a major suckhole of a program no if buts or whys. There are programs out there that provide and alternative such as MediaMonkey however the arrival of iOS have busted things and at this point it doesn't work with the iPhone running the latest software.

Umm you should be able to sync hotmail via imap. I use IMAP on two different mail accounts on my 3G running iOS4. You just have to make sure when setting up the connection that you specify to use IMAP and not POP3 and yo may have to do it as custom connection (can't remember exacly it's been a while).

Ok, but are either of those accounts Hotmail accounts? I've scoured the internet and set up the account twice now and I can't see how to set it to IMAP. Any pointers?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Microsoft does not permit POP or IMAP access to Hotmail. Sorry.

 

[JoeZhang]

Microsoft does not permit POP or IMAP access to Hotmail. Sorry.

Yeah they do, POP3 access has been enabled since at least early 2009.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Microsoft does not permit POP or IMAP access to Hotmail. Sorry.

Yeah they do, POP3 access has been enabled since at least early 2009.

Ah, I had outdated information. You are correct.

 

[JoeZhang]

If anyone is a hotmail user, the new microsoft desktop email client is pretty good... it's called... em.. anyone?

 

[Brent]

I just bought an iphone 4 (my first smart phone) mostly due to all the positive reviews it got from other collegues in the medical field. At the time I also had considered a Blackberry but it seemed I heard more positive and fewer negative reviews for the iphone. I never put a lot of consideration into a Droid phone at the time.

While I think my iphone is great, I am a bit frustrated with some of it's compatibility issues with my PC (I swore I would never buy a Mac). Specifically, syncing music (as well as all information from Outlook) through iTunes is a pain and transfering pictures and videos isn't as simple as it was with my old Motorolla phone. I also didn't like that I had to buy and download a special application on both my iphone and PC in order to get my Outlook Tasks list to appear on my iphone. Hotmail only syncing through POP3 rather than IMAP is another big grievance. None of these issues are overly large but I was wondering, do Droid phones tend to work better with PC/Windows programs?

I can't speak on the email stuff, I haven't ever synced email to any smart phone I've owned, and I have owned a Blackberry Bold, and now an Android phone (Samsung Captivate). I can speak on the music and pictures syncing though, and it is a snap and easy on both Blackberry and Android.

All that is required is to hook your phone up to the computer through the USB cable, then I can simply drag whatever music I want onto the phone or memory card, just copy whatever music I want in there. The phones automatically scan for new media files and organized it automatically, and Android does a great job of getting it right. So I can download any old MP3 (or other formats) and just copy it to the phone in whatever folder I want (I've created a media folder).

As for getting pics to and from the phone, its just as easy, just drag and copy the pics or move them etc... Or, if you want Windows to manage to the pictures you can right click on the phone in My Computer and choose to Import pictures, then you'll be able to set a folder name and it'll put it in the My Pictures folder for that user.

So with both Blackberry, and Android phones, its just as simple as dragging, copying, moving media files about, no need to use any special software to sync.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I've had my Droid for a few weeks and have been nothing but impressed with it. A world of difference between it and my old BB Curve.

 

[FrontLine]

Current BB Storm2 user and soon to be Droid X user here. One of the things I am not looking forward to is the inability to sync Outlook (POP, stand alone, not exchange based) address books, calendar, notes, to do list on your desktop directly with the phone like you can do with WinMo or BB via a USB cable. This is IMO a major shortcoming of the Android OS. There are those who simply do not want to sync their calendar (only) with Google Calendar via the cloud. Others want all the functionality from Outlook to be available. There is one possible solution called Companionlink. There are other similar programs but Companionlink seems to be the most polished, but it still has problems.

I am hoping that it will work for me because I am really wanting to dig the Droid X. Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

 

[Marc]

Current BB Storm2 user and soon to be Droid X user here. One of the things I am not looking forward to is the inability to sync Outlook (POP, stand alone, not exchange based) address books, calendar, notes, to do list on your desktop directly with the phone like you can do with WinMo or BB via a USB cable. This is IMO a major shortcoming of the Android OS. There are those who simply do not want to sync their calendar (only) with Google Calendar via the cloud. Others want all the functionality from Outlook to be available. There is one possible solution called Companionlink. There are other similar programs but Companionlink seems to be the most polished, but it still has problems.

I am hoping that it will work for me because I am really wanting to dig the Droid X. Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

Anyone know the reason for the lack of Outlook Sync on Android based phones? Google pushing their own services or obstruction from Microsoft?

 

[Arrqh]

I've always assumed it was the former. Google seems very keen on making everything possible go through the cloud for better or worse.

Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

Actually, 3.0 is Gingerbread. Cupcake was 1.5.

 

[JoeZhang]

Current BB Storm2 user and soon to be Droid X user here. One of the things I am not looking forward to is the inability to sync Outlook (POP, stand alone, not exchange based) address books, calendar, notes, to do list on your desktop directly with the phone like you can do with WinMo or BB via a USB cable. This is IMO a major shortcoming of the Android OS. There are those who simply do not want to sync their calendar (only) with Google Calendar via the cloud. Others want all the functionality from Outlook to be available. There is one possible solution called Companionlink. There are other similar programs but Companionlink seems to be the most polished, but it still has problems.

I am hoping that it will work for me because I am really wanting to dig the Droid X. Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

Anyone know the reason for the lack of Outlook Sync on Android based phones? Google pushing their own services or obstruction from Microsoft?

Google doesn't believe in computer to phone sync for PIM, it's cloud all the way. They actually licence Microsoft exchange for their gmail service but they do not permit it to work with outlook.

 

[JoeZhang]

Current BB Storm2 user and soon to be Droid X user here. One of the things I am not looking forward to is the inability to sync Outlook (POP, stand alone, not exchange based) address books, calendar, notes, to do list on your desktop directly with the phone like you can do with WinMo or BB via a USB cable. This is IMO a major shortcoming of the Android OS. There are those who simply do not want to sync their calendar (only) with Google Calendar via the cloud. Others want all the functionality from Outlook to be available. There is one possible solution called Companionlink. There are other similar programs but Companionlink seems to be the most polished, but it still has problems.

I am hoping that it will work for me because I am really wanting to dig the Droid X. Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

It's never going to happen, not for PIM.

As for Windows Mobile, that's going to be Cloud only as well with Windows phone 7.

 

[FrontLine]

Current BB Storm2 user and soon to be Droid X user here. One of the things I am not looking forward to is the inability to sync Outlook (POP, stand alone, not exchange based) address books, calendar, notes, to do list on your desktop directly with the phone like you can do with WinMo or BB via a USB cable. This is IMO a major shortcoming of the Android OS. There are those who simply do not want to sync their calendar (only) with Google Calendar via the cloud. Others want all the functionality from Outlook to be available. There is one possible solution called Companionlink. There are other similar programs but Companionlink seems to be the most polished, but it still has problems.

I am hoping that it will work for me because I am really wanting to dig the Droid X. Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

Anyone know the reason for the lack of Outlook Sync on Android based phones? Google pushing their own services or obstruction from Microsoft?

Google arrogance. Plain and simple.

I've always assumed it was the former. Google seems very keen on making everything possible go through the cloud for better or worse.

Also rumors that the next OS update, Cupcake, AKA Android OS 3.0 will finally get the USB sync ability.

Actually, 3.0 is Gingerbread. Cupcake was 1.5.

Yep. My bad.

Google doesn't believe in computer to phone sync for PIM, it's cloud all the way. They actually licence Microsoft exchange for their gmail service but they do not permit it to work with outlook.

And with the release of Froyo there has been a collosal fuck up with wireless exchange syncing. So much so that Motorola is paying for a 3rd party app right now to get folks through this until they can fix it.

It's never going to happen, not for PIM.

As for Windows Mobile, that's going to be Cloud only as well with Windows phone 7.

What do you base your statement on? All I have heard of is rumors so far, but I haven't heard of any rumors saying it wont ever happen. About WinMo 7, are you saying that M$ is gonna kick its users in the nuts and force them onto the cloud? If you have an inside track, please share it.

 

[JoeZhang]

What do you base your statement on? All I have heard of is rumors so far, but I haven't heard of any rumors saying it wont ever happen. About WinMo 7, are you saying that M$ is gonna kick its users in the nuts and force them onto the cloud? If you have an inside track, please share it.

It's common knowledge, Paul Thurrott discusses it here:

Windows Phone will only sync with cloud-based data sources like Exchange, Windows Live, and Google/Gmail, so those who are still using Outlook as a hub for their personal information are going to have to move their data to the cloud. This isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's an opportunity to jump into the 21st century and make your data more resilient and accessible.

http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wp_cloud.asp

It's also mentioned here a month or so earlier:

Speaking of contacts, the OS supports multiple Exchange servers allowing you to have multiple email, contact and calendar sources. This is good news for users with corporate Exchange servers and a desire to sync Google or Hotmail info. Windows Mobile Device Center and ActiveSync are a thing of the past. There will be no more syncing with Outlook on your desktop. It will have to go through an Exchange server for contacts and appointments. Email will be synchronized through Exchange, IMAP4 or POP3 servers.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog...l;jsessionid=IJJYCG4R0IH2VQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN