iPhone Question

[JasonEvans]

Ok, you tech geeks—

My wife has a Palm where she stores all her contacts and calendar and notes and the such. She is thinking about getting an iPhone. Are the iPhones really user friendly and easy to use (my wife is pretty so-sow when it comes to hi-tech/computer stuff)? More significantly, is there any way to synch up her Palm data with the iPhone or will she have to re-enter everything from scratch?

-Jason "the iPhones have REALLY come down in price" Evans

[billybreen]

Ok, you tech geeks—

My wife has a Palm where she stores all her contacts and calendar and notes and the such. She is thinking about getting an iPhone. Are the iPhones really user friendly and easy to use (my wife is pretty so-sow when it comes to hi-tech/computer stuff)? More significantly, is there any way to synch up her Palm data with the iPhone or will she have to re-enter everything from scratch?

-Jason "the iPhones have REALLY come down in price" Evans

Ok, as for ease of use, the iPhone is the best handheld device I've seen. Nothing shocking there.

As for synching from the palm, I have a question first -- will she be connecting the phone to a pc or mac? It should be really easy, but I think the answer may differ slightly.

[JasonEvans]

Ok, as for ease of use, the iPhone is the best handheld device I've seen. Nothing shocking there.

As for synching from the palm, I have a question first -- will she be connecting the phone to a pc or mac? It should be really easy, but I think the answer may differ slightly.

We have a POS Dell PC, bought about 2 years ago, with Windows XP as operating system. Feel free to kill me for a) buying from Dell or b) using Windows. I feel horrible for both. To make matters worse, I mostly surf on IE. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

--Jason "I want to go to Firefox/Mac or something like that, but there are a lot of internal applications I have for work that seem to only work on IE/PC" Evans

[Dukerati]

I will second Billy's opinion that the iphone is awesome. Just an amazing device and if you want a list of pros, I'll be more than happy to give you a loooooooonngggg list. That being said, your wife is out of luck Jason. She will have to reenter all of her stuff. I made a similar change and although the startup time was painful, it was all worth it in the end:)

Just to be fair, I think there are some legitimate cons to the iphone. The size takes some getting used to, people with clumsy thumbs will have trouble texting, and worst of all, the iphone is not a strong "phone". I get much poorer reception and the lack of ability to have vibration and ring at the same time is problematic.

Still, buy the phone!

[billybreen]

We have a POS Dell PC, bought about 2 years ago, with Windows XP as operating system. Feel free to kill me for a) buying from Dell or b) using Windows. I feel horrible for both. To make matters worse, I mostly surf on IE. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

--Jason "I want to go to Firefox/Mac or something like that, but there are a lot of internal applications I have for work that seem to only work on IE/PC" Evans

There's no shame in using XP. As long as you aren't using Vista, I won't judge you (*ducks assault from DevilAlumna*) :)

Ok, I believe there are probably some ways to move from the Palm to the iPhone without too much pain. I found this link (http://dkseto.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/how-to-export-palm-z22-contacts-and-calendar-to-an-apple-iphone/) from a quick Googling. You may need to take responsibility for that if your wife is not very technical, though the directions don't sound too involved.

I actually think manually entering contact info isn't too bad, as long as there aren't thousands of entries. Gives you a nice opportunity to get accustomed to the interface, to build up typing speed, etc. And it's a brainless task that you can do while watching TV.

Finally, I'll treat your need for IE/PC as another opportunity to advocate for Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/), an application that lets you run a full XP install (or any other Windows or Linux variant) in a window on your Mac, at speeds indistinguishable from running natively, with full access to all of your hardware. For the few times you have PC-specific apps, it gives you a really painless option.

[billybreen]

worst of all, the iphone is not a strong "phone". I get much poorer reception and the lack of ability to have vibration and ring at the same time is problematic.

Whoa, you're supposed to be helping me sell. You can't imply a list of positives, without specific examples, then give a bunch of specific cons. :)

On call quality, this is definitely a YMMV situation. Coming from hellish Verizon in the north shore/Boston area, I've been really happy with the service from AT&T. Haven't had any dropped calls, quality is much better, etc.

[YmoBeThere]

On call quality, this is definitely a YMMV situation. Coming from hellish Verizon in the north shore/Boston area, I've been really happy with the service from AT&T. Haven't had any dropped calls, quality is much better, etc.

1 Question, 1 Comment:

What the heck does YMMV mean? You must ? Verify?

It helps to live on the same hill as the cell phone tower. I do in Danvers and have incredibly good cell phone reception. I think both are renting space on it Verizon/AT&T. Of course, I am being dosed daily with all that RF energy. Wonder what the long term effects will be?(Wait, that is another question.)

[billybreen]

1 Question, 1 Comment:

What the heck does YMMV mean? You must ? Verify?

Your mileage may vary.

[throatybeard]

Vista is garbage. Nothing has sucked that much since Windows 95. XP was awesome. I wish I could have gotten it on my new desktop.

[billybreen]

Vista is garbage. Nothing has sucked that much since Windows 95. XP was awesome. I wish I could have gotten it on my new desktop.

Speaking of which, I just had a blue screen. Very much reminiscent of 95.

[gus]

my wife is pretty so-sow ...

My advice is unrelated to iPhones. Personally, I think I would avoid referring to my wife as a pig. I imagine it generally is not taken well, but, as Billy states, YMMV.

[Johnboy]

Check it out: Nokia E70 (NOTE: Profanity) (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone)

[billybreen]

Check it out: Nokia E70 (NOTE: Profanity) (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone)

Maddox is awesome.

[johnb]

I really do like my iphone. Probably not the best for road warrior emailers, but for low tech people who want an all-in-one, it has been a lot of fun. And "fun" and tech don't always go together.

I've had one problem that is apparently shared with some small percentage of people. I can sync my contacts and appointments to my laptop pc, but it doesn't sync on my desktop pc. Since I don't generally bring the laptop to work, it's inconvenient, and I risk losing newly entered contacts and appts. The apple people haven't been able to help, and I gave up trying.

[AtlBluRew]

I like my iPhone as well. I'm happy to say that I bought it when the price dropped. I have friends that text me a lot (even at the my age!), and that feature works very well, although I do wish that multimedia texting was possible.

I'm getting better reception on the iPhone that I was getting on my Razr, with no static.

I've set it up to check email but to leave the messages on the server, and I like that. For music, the sound from the iPhone is better than from my iPod, which confuses me a bit.

There are some functions I'd change. For example, the YouTube button isn't of much interest to me since you can't log into YouTube and your own favorites list. And I wish it supported Java so I could keep some simple documents on it.

[DevilAlumna]

Ok, you tech geeks—

My wife has a Palm where she stores all her contacts and calendar and notes and the such. She is thinking about getting an iPhone. Are the iPhones really user friendly and easy to use (my wife is pretty so-sow when it comes to hi-tech/computer stuff)? More significantly, is there any way to synch up her Palm data with the iPhone or will she have to re-enter everything from scratch?

-Jason "the iPhones have REALLY come down in price" Evans

Come over to the dark side, Jason! Windows Mobile phones integrate very very nicely with Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Exchange servers. (Granted, I doubt you're running an exchange server at home, but if your wife is dealing with a work account, she might have access.)

I can sync my email, calendar, tasks and contacts all over the air (email is pushed as it arrives.) Notes and OneNote Mobile sync on connection with my desktop. I can set my music folders to automatically sync to my 4GB microSD card. Note, I've been able to do nearly all of this for the past 4 years... gosh, iPhone is just so .... groundbreaking. :rolleyes:


But, to answer your specific question, you should be able to use Outlook as an intermediary to prevent manual entry of contacts. The Palm probably came with HotSync (or similar software) which should sync the contacts into Outlook; then I understand that iPhone/iTunes (hey, where are the anti-bundling anti-trust lawyers on THAT one? Why require iTunes for simple *phone* activation?) should be able to import from Outlook.

Note: If you can include the model of Palm your wife is using, I can get more specific information for you.

[Dukerati]

Whoa, you're supposed to be helping me sell. You can't imply a list of positives, without specific examples, then give a bunch of specific cons. :)

On call quality, this is definitely a YMMV situation. Coming from hellish Verizon in the north shore/Boston area, I've been really happy with the service from AT&T. Haven't had any dropped calls, quality is much better, etc.

My comments on the strength of the iphone as a "phone" was made comparing my old Cingular phone to my new iphone, so same carrier, different phones (Sony Ericsson 800i). I think it's particularly telling that I don't even mind the reduced phone coverage because the iphone is so cool.

As for DevilAlumna's comments, she correctly points out the syncing and additional functionality that other phones feature. Most of these features are especially relevant in a business setting and for work purposes, give me Windows Mobile software please! But for everyday use and to the less tech-inclined, I like the iphone better.