Learn: giffgaff Top Tips

[trick202]

Hi all

One of my favourite features on the iPhone is the ability to sync contacts, calendar, and email - all over the air (OTA), in realtime, automatically, AND get full-fat PUSH email. Most iPhone users will have heard of "mobileme", a paid-for service offered by Apple. It offers all of the features I mentioned above, plus a little space for storing photos. It only works with the iphone though, so if you fall out of love, you're b*ggered!

The good news is, that Google can provide most of these features for free - AND it has the advantage of still being usable if you decide to move to Android or Blackberry (it may even work with Symbian and Win7 - I can't confirm that).

The biggest investment in this process is your time - but the great thing is that you only have to do this once! When all your contacts and calendar entries are being handled by google, they're always there to be backed up if you change/lose phones, or swap platforms.

So: what will you need? You'll need a gmail account, and some time.

1: Create your gmail account, and add all your contacts to it. You can even add the little pictures in the contact detail too - and they'll appear on your iPhone when you sync - cool. If you're particularly clever, or have a phone that can sync contacts to a CSV file, then this will be much easier. If you're coming from a "dumbphone", then you may need to grab a coffee and get your sleeves rolled up. Easier than doing it on the iphone keyboard though!

2: If you like, you can also add in any calendar events you may have. It's much easier doing on the PC or lappy - especially the recurring events!

3: Swing by at http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138740&topic=14252 to see how to set up your exchange account. Follow all the instructions carefully.

4: If you have a weird popup on your iphone telling you that the password you're using is not correct - despite the fact you know it is; then you need to go here: https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and fill out the form. You may need to redo step three after unlockingCaptcha

When you're all done with that, you'll notice that all your contacts have synced, your calendar is spookily populated with auntie Mabel's birthday, and you get push gmail right to your phone. Yep, that's right Blackberry owners! How d'ya like me now!  

Of course, you can also do this if you have a full contacts list on your iphone already. It's a great way to safeguard your contacts - just in case. My only comment would be to pay attention to the settings on the contacts sync. If you're not careful, it'll remove your iphone contacts and replace with thin air (or whatever you have on your gmail contact list). 

There you go!

If you move to Android, or most other smartphone platforms, you can take all your info with you quickly and easily by using google sync. If you have a lot of information to edit, then doing it on a full keyboard on a lappy is a joy! Just sit back and watch it all update by magic on your iphone.

If you don't have a Gmail account, then I'll need to know where you've been for the last 10 years!? You can set your gmail account up to retrieve mail from most other accounts (or you can forward them from your old account) - you can even set gmail up to look like your sending address is different (i.e a work address).

If you need pointers - just PM me. If you want to talk about your feelings, don't.

[trick202]

A little update on what's compatible:

http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/