iPhone, Contacts and Calendars

[jimbofoxman]

I need some guidance here. I just joined the iPhone world and this Calendar and Contact stuff is driving me nuts. I'm not sure what direction to head and all I do is get pissed off when I start trying to figure it out.

So, at home I have Thunderbird using 2 email accounts, my personal Gmail account and my hobby/business account. I have contacts on Thunderbird that I don't have on my iPhone and I have contacts in my iPhone I don't have on Thunderbird.

I have Thunderbird at work also, but I really don't care about those email addresses. We are a small company and I have everyone already in my iPhone and I don't save any other email addresses at work. So syncing to work is not a big deal to me.

I have all 3 email accounts setup for Imap and I can read and reply on my phone.

I don't have any calendar setup to worry about yet. I have a Google Calendar created, but don't use it. I have Thunderbird Lightning but don't use it. I have the Calendar on the iPhone that has one item in it so I am not to far into anything to stop me from changing.

I don't want to sync Contacts with Google Contacts cause the Google Address book keeps every email you come in contact with (major stupid). I jumped to Thunderbird cause I hated Outlook and Outlook Express.

I am running Windows 7 Pro 64bit which doesn't have Outlook or Outlook Express. Do I just bite the bullet and jump to Windows Live Mail and abandon Thunderbird?

To me the $99 for Mobile Me and the Cloud seems hugely ridiculous to me.

So what should I do?

Thanks from Major Frustrated

 

[MotionMan]

So what should I do?

Thanks from Major Frustrated

What do you want to end up with?

MotionMan

 

[jimbofoxman]

What do you want to end up with?

Well maybe that's the problem. I don't know. I'd guess I'd want all my email address on Thunderbird (or whatever route I end up going) to be on my iphone and be updated if something were to get added. I guess the same going from my iphone back up to Thunderbird (or whatever app). Calendar the same way.

More so the email addresses, cause I would probably be on here when at home typing emails and what not rather than on my phone.

Right now when I go into the INFO tab in Itunes the only one I can select to sync is Contacts. I can't do anything for Calendar, Mail or Others.

 

[jimbofoxman]

Basically it looks like if you don't use MobileMe or Outlook/Outlook Express you are hosed. Either that or their is no easy way to sync with another email/calendar app to the iPhone.

Or should I just bite the bullet and use Outlook 2007? I really don't wanna spend the $99 for mobileme.



I have to dump all the data from a co-workers Palm Pilot to the iPhone, looks like that is a PITA too.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

There are rumors that MobileMe will be free by this summer. Which explains why they don't sell MobileMe in the Apple Store anymore. There's also the 60 day trial if you want to try it and see if it works for you.

 

[speg]

Can you sync thunderbird with gmail?

The best way to do mail/calendar/contacts on iOS is through Gmail's exchange services (N.B., this is not the same as the plain google or imap setup in iOS). You can find instructions from google easily enough.

After that it's pretty sweet, and you can choose to have all three (gmail/contacts/calendar) or just one or two in sync.

How that ties in to thunderbird, I don't know. But I'm sure they have options/extensions to sync on exchange.

 

[Rottie]

There are rumors that MobileMe will be free by this summer. Which explains why they don't sell MobileMe in the Apple Store anymore. There's also the 60 day trial if you want to try it and see if it works for you.

about time Apple understand why we cant afford MobileMe for 99.00!!! I assume it will only free for iphone 4 and 5 not 3GS?