How to Manage Mobile Contacts

We started out writing what we thought would be a simple post about how to transfer contacts from an older device (in my case an old Palm Tungsten) to a new device like an iPhone.  But we soon realized that there are dozens of choices for tech-savvy people who want to sync their calendars and their contacts with their phones, their laptops, and their iPads.  Mac users, alone, have several choices, including syncing with iTunes, paying for MobileMe, or buying Entourage. So rather than one post, this will be a series that explores and reviews the options.

Let’s start by defining the problem.  You meet a couple at an open house and they make an appointment to meet you at your office latter in the week.  You add their contact info (and maybe even the appointment) to your phone, but how do you get it on your laptop computer without entering it manually a second time?  And it’s not just phone numbers and appointments; it’s also notes, passwords, and favorite items.  If you’ve got several different devices—especially devices that are not in the same technical family—you have the potential to have information all over the place.

Our series will consider some possible strategies for keeping yourself organized.  Solutions include:

• Keeping It All In The Family. If you use a Mac, an iPhone, an iPod, and/or and iPad, for example, the challenges of keeping yourself organized are minimal.
• Giving it to Google. Of course, Google would know how to make it work, regardless of what kind of devices you have. They have the answer to everything, don’t they?
• Paying the Piper. Several companies make proprietary software that’s designed to make it easy for you to work on the fly. But are the solutions you pay extra for any better than the options that already exist on your computer?

And what if you have a Windows computer, a Blackberry phone, and an iPod Touch for your music?  What’s the easiest way to sync these devices that come from different technical families?

That’s our challenge: to identify the best solutions for staying organized while being mobile.  Stay tuned for our first article.