[Hidden-tech] Electronic calendar

[Joseph Steig]

Hmm, Jan, I don't think that's quite right about Google contacts and
calendar. I don't attribute to Google all the nefariousness that you do. I'm
sure that they're quite smart enough to mine data any way they please,
regardless of how contacts are or are not segregated!

About contacts:

First, I believe that Outlook also saves every e-mail address you send and
auto-completes it. It's a helpful feature for most users, not something
evil. Google is tremendous in my book for making small continuous
improvements to the user experience. I'm sure they're doing all sorts of
stuff behind the scene that we don't see, but they have no need to degrade
the user experience to make their data mining easier.

Second, Google makes a distinction between "All contacts" and "My contacts".
I believe that only "My contacts" will sync and it only puts e-mails into
that section when you've e-mailed the person multiple times or when you
manually elect to put the contact there.

Finally, not perfect but you can export contacts and import them into
another GMail account.

Here's some additional information on contact sharing, which works if you
have multiple users on the same domain (i.e. not on user at gmail.com but on a
corporate or educational version with a customer domain--I pay Google $50
per year for my customer domain name account, with no ads but you can get
the same service for free with the ads)

About calendar:

I use a BlackBerry and sync it with Google calendar. Wonderful! I'm able to
sync multiple (infinite?) numbers of calendars into my BlackBerry. Sharing
of Google calendars with others is also excellent. And if you're on a
corporate account, even better: you can give others privileges to add to and
manipulate your calendar etc.


On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Jan Werner <jwerner at jwdp.com> wrote:

>    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
> After 15 years of using Palm PDAs, I was shocked at how poor Google's
> contact and calendar implementations turn out to be.
>
> For example, there is no way to prevent Google from adding the address
> of any email you send via gmail to Google Contacts -- you have to go
> into Contacts and manually delete the address if you don't want to keep
> it. Also, there is no simple way to manage multiple accounts owned by
> the same person or to synchronize or transfer records between them.
>
> I suspect that this is deliberate on behalf of Google. Multiple accounts
> for the same individual would immensely complicate the data mining
> operations from which they derive most of their revenue.
>
> I don't know about Motorola phones, but HTC provides a program which
> allows you to synchronize Outlook to the address book and calendar on
> most HTC Android phones. I have a HTC Droid Incredible and although it
> took me a while to get HTC Sync to work, it does the job. It even
> supports Outlook 2000, which Google sync does not.
>
> Aside from that, while the Android address book is reasonably good, the
> calendar program on the phone is primitive compared to what was on my
> old Treo, or even my original Palm III. Once again, I believe the goal
> is to get people to rely on Google's online calendar databases rather
> than what is on the phone, to enhance their ability to data mine the
> contents and target advertising at users.
>
> So while I really love the HTC Droid Incredible and what Android allows
> me to do with it, I don't find it very good as a PIM.
>
> Jan Werner
> ____________
>
> Christine Pilch wrote:
> >     ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's
> area.
> >     ** If you did, we all thank you.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Susanna, Droid doesn’t have an ap to sync with Outlook directly, so you
> > can use a third party, paid ap, or do what do:
> >
> > Set up Google Calendar account.
> >
> > Sync your Outlook appointments with Google Calendar and sync your Droid
> > with Google Calendar.
> >
> > Any change you make in one pace automatically goes to the other two. It
> > works like a charm and is effortless.
> >
> > You can also sync your Outlook contacts in the same way if you want them
> > on your phone. I don’t want several hundred Outlook phone numbers of old
> > clients on my phone, so I sync my phone only with Google Contacts, but
> > not with Outlook. This provides a backup of your phone book just in case…
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > - Christine
> >
> > cid:image001.png at 01CA8D67.12D0EB70
> >
> > /Miracle Growth for your Company/
> >
> > Grow My Company
> >
> > 68 Dugan Road
> >
> > Ware, MA, 01082
> >
> > 413.537.2474
> >
> > Christine at GrowMyCo.com <mailto:Christine at GrowMyCo.com>
> >
> > http://growmyco.typepad.com/company/
> >
> > Connect: Linkedin <http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinepilch> Facebook
> > <http://www.facebook.com/growmycompany> Twitter
> > <http://twitter.com/ChristinePilch> cid:image005.png at 01CB1EBA.EC06CC90
> > <http://www.youtube.com/user/christinepilch>
> >
> > *From:* hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
> > [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] *On Behalf Of
> > *Susanna Opper
> > *Sent:* Thursday, July 29, 2010 9:32 AM
> > *To:* 'Hidden-Tech Listserv'
> > *Subject:* [Hidden-tech] Electronic calendar
> >
> > After all these years of holding on to a paper calendar, my new smart
> > phone is making me think it’s time to get into the 21^st century.
> >
> > The phone is a droid. The question is, if I take the plunge do I use the
> > phone’s calendar? Google calendar? Outlook calendar and synch? A
> > calendar app? Something else?
> >
> > Some background:
> >
> > One calendar and one only is a rule I live by.
> >
> > I like to see a week or two at a time w. all my appointments shown. I’m
> > used to a month at a time, but in reality I don’t care what happened
> > three weeks ago, except as a record.
> >
> > I think I’ll want to print out past months for a record.
> >
> > I don’t think I want to synch because I’m sure I’ll be dashing out of
> > the house and realize I haven’t synched and won’t have time.
> >
> > Typing on the phone isn’t all that easy, but you knew that.
> >
> > As ever, thanks for your wisdom and generosity.
> >
> > --Susanna
> >
> > *-------------------------------------*
> >
> > *Susanna Opper*
> >
> > Shawenon Communications
> >
> > /Our distinction is communicating your distinction/
> >
> > 413-528-6494
> >
> > susanna at shawenon.com
> >
> > www.shawenon.com
> >
> > Twitter: @SusannaOpper
> >
> >
> >
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