As someone who uses several different phones, and switches frequently, syncing is really the only option that I have for making sure my phone has all of my contacts, calendar, and todo items. This is especially important because I add items to my calendar throughout the day, and need to make sure those entries are available on whatever phone I choose to use that day. Since I often have various review phones coming in and out of Casa Guru, syncing also allows me to quickly add all of my contacts/calendar/tasks to a new phone, with minimal fuss (assuming the phone supports it, of course). There are basically 2 ways to sync.
Obviously, the first option is local syncing. This is done with PC Suite on Windows computers and iSync plugins on Mac computers. For Windows, this basically requires Microsoft Outlook, which does an exceptional job of storing contact information, calendar entries, and tasks. The benefit here is that I have a local copy of all my information, should something happen to my phone. It’s also not reliant on connectivity, as I can use either a USB cable or Bluetooth to copy all my information over to a new phone. This method will work with multiple devices, obviously, but unfortunately, Outlook doesn’t yet hook into my Google account very well. Local storage also depends on my local machine staying intact, which isn’t always reliable.
The other option is OTA (over-the-air) syncing. This is what I’ve been testing for the past few months, and have found that while it works good, there are some definite limitations on Symbian-powered smartphones that need to be addressed, and soon. First off, there’s currently not a great all-in-one solution, specifically if you use Gmail, which most people I know do. However, I also wanted to give Nokia’s Ovi Sync a shot, because I think it has some cool features, as well.
Unfortunately, Nokia has not yet set it up so you can synchronize your Ovi account with other web services, such as Gmail, and Google’s current sync product only allows you to synchronize a single calendar, so I’m stuck with three synchronization profiles on my phone – Google, GooSync, and Ovi. I’ve covered GooSync in-depth before, and it’s currently the only way I know to easily synchronize multiple Google calendars. I use Google’s synchronization service to synchronize my contacts with my Gmail account, which is important.
Ovi Sync is useful for a few reasons. First, it’s a single place to store all of my data – contacts, calendar, notes. Second, it has a really simple ‘Restore Phone’ setting, so that when I get a new phone, or hard-reset it for whatever reason, I can easily restore all of my information. Brilliant.
For the purposes of this experiment, I have been using this setup on three different phones – the Nokia E63, Nokia N79, and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – representing S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, Feature Pack 2, and S60 5th Edition. While the setup of each of these synchronization services is quite simple on all three devices, the actual user experience completely blows, and there are no signs of improvement, unfortunately.
Oddly enough, the Nokia E63, with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, was the best overall user experience, thanks to a little unsigned freeware application called Swim for S60. Why Nokia hasn’t purchased this app, or partnered with its developers to make sure it’s signed and available for all S60 devices is beyond me. Swim’s only functionality is that it automates the process of you opening the ‘Sync’ app on your phone, highlighting a profile, and clicking ‘Synchronize’. Yes, it’s really that simple. With S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices, opening the Sync app simply shows you the list of synchronization profiles. Activating them is as simple as scrolling and clicking.
With S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 and S60 5th Edition, unfortunately, it became MUCH more confusing. When you open the Sync app, you’re shown the settings for whatever the last used profile is. To switch profiles, you have to press options, change active profile, and then choose the profile from the list. Ugh. To do this for all 3 of my synchronization profiles is a total of 23 clicks.
The obvious solution is to offer an application such as Swim, which automates the process of synchronizing things. The Nokia E55 has such an app, but it appears to be baked into the firmware, and not something Nokia plans to release for other phones, unfortunately.
Also annoying is that when you setup each profile (both Google and GooSync had to be manually entered), you’ll see there are options to synchronize a host of useful stuff, including web bookmarks, contact groups, SMS, MMS, and more. I’m not sure why Ovi Sync doesn’t synchronize this information yet, but at least we know it’s supported.
Also, Ovi Sync currently won’t work on any of my devices. When I tried to set it up on my N97, I was told, ‘Invalid Remote Database’, with no other explanation. On my N79, it tries to synchronize, but gives me a System Error halfway through. I wish Nokia would work on that, cause the service itself definitely shows promise.
What are you using to backup or synchronize your phone’s contacts, calendar, and other information?
