I'm done syncing with Outlook!

[JRakes]

Thanks for the review & info, Hook! This certainly sounds as though the local sync door is still open wide. YAY!!!

[AshMa]

Thanks a lot JRakes and Hook! If I do jump aboard Android with the EVO, I will be purchasing the apps mentioned here as I've just checked them out and all seems to be pretty good as you guys stated. However, I have to say that the calender views are anything but nice to look at. I'm considering coming to Android because of the future of apps, and the OS and all the apps being made for fingers. But I just don't understand how Android is considered to be very good looking.

Does anyone know of an app like Co0kies Home Tab for Android? As i mentioned before, I am very happy with my HD2 right now but the future is that WM6.5 will have little to no support left.

Can I really tweak and mod the EVO to look anything like my HD2 (screenshot attached)?

[Hook]

Yeah, the calendar views are weak, but you can make use of other third party calendar apps that use the Android dbs and there are much better calendar views avaiable that way. By the time you come to Android, Pocket Informant will likely be available.

There are a lot of options out there for changing the looks of the Android home screen and multiple desktops. Even more if you root. I don't think you'll have much trouble customizing.

[Varjak]

I just had a look at the latest version of Companion Links Outlook syncing app on Android. Renamed Deja Office on Android (the app is free, you pay for the desktop conduit program), it has really gotten slick doing easily as well as Beyond Contacts on Palm. The 5 Day interface on the calendar sucks, but the rest is all good. They also solved a major puzzle that was the one real downside of the app, and did so cleverly.

The problem was this: to do what it did to keep all the major features of Outlook, including traditional categories, it needed its own databases. The problem with this is most Android apps are going to only look in the default Android dbs for date and contact information. What Deja Office does is add syncing with the Android databases without involving Google. It essentially copies all the data (minus Outloook exclusive features like categories) to the Android dbs so that the info is there for other programs. If changes are made by those other programs, they will be copied back to the Deja Office databases. Seems to work well on my limited testing.

Whatever you do, do not ever try to do both Deja Office sync and syncing with Google accounts. Things will get royally messed up. I blame Outlook and Microsoft's disdain for standards, but who knows. But if you want a USB sync with Android with Outlook andnever want to use Google, this is the solution.

I'm afraid I find Google too valuable to give up to go back to syncing with Outlook again, but for others this is a great solution.

Sounds good. I may be missing something; but if it doesn't copy the categories to the Android dbs, how does it know how to reconstruct the information when changes are made and the info transferred back to the categories? I could see that getting very messed up if something were shifted from one category to another, right?

[Hook]

Sounds good. I may be missing something; but if it doesn't copy the categories to the Android dbs, how does it know how to reconstruct the information when changes are made and the info transferred back to the categories? I could see that getting very messed up if something were shifted from one category to another, right?

Maybe, I sure didn't test it thoroughly, but first there would have to be another Andriod app that uses categories. What is seems to do is simply sync the data fields, probably using standard and very basic apis. It shifts the same data back. It reads it in without messing with the other fancy stuff it maintains from Outlook. I doubt it reads in anything else. I don't pretend to know how it does what it does, but it seemed to work pretty well in my brief tests.

To really explore this feature, I'd need to do a factory reset and then spend a day or two no syncing with Google. Hmmmm...

[JRakes]

I'm glad you found this info useful, AshMa, but I have to give all of the credit to Hook - He's the one who's done the testing so that curious bystanders like myself have good info.

I'm a little "concerned" about the lack of categories, as I use categories quite a lot. They're incredibly useful (for me) to filter my data for specific looks at things without creating all manner of "custom views" and crap like that.

Question: If Android doesn't use categories, how does one filter PIM data? I have no desire to go through some convoluted 3 page database query thing just to find a handful of contacts...

[Hook]

I'm glad you found this info useful, AshMa, but I have to give all of the credit to Hook - He's the one who's done the testing so that curious bystanders like myself have good info.

I'm a little "concerned" about the lack of categories, as I use categories quite a lot. They're incredibly useful (for me) to filter my data for specific looks at things without creating all manner of "custom views" and crap like that.

Question: If Android doesn't use categories, how does one filter PIM data? I have no desire to go through some convoluted 3 page database query thing just to find a handful of contacts...

Deja Office *does* use categories, from Outlook. Most Smartphone OSs seem to depend on search to find things rather than categories. Symbian did that too. The exception is Google Calendar. In Google calendar you create orthogonal categories by creating different calendars. It then shows you all the appointments from all the calendars you say on one calendar, but each calendar's appointments are in a different color. Some apps use tags to do the work of categories. So 3Banana notes lets me add keywords with a hash symbol. It then lists those tags and I can select just the notes with one of those tags.

I suspect in part it is easier for programmers. Categories require more structure in the programming, almost like defining arrays, but keyword search is very open ended. Again, I'm noe expert, just taking guesses.

[AshMa]

I'm glad you found this info useful, AshMa, but I have to give all of the credit to Hook - He's the one who's done the testing so that curious bystanders like myself have good info.

I'm a little "concerned" about the lack of categories, as I use categories quite a lot. They're incredibly useful (for me) to filter my data for specific looks at things without creating all manner of "custom views" and crap like that.

Question: If Android doesn't use categories, how does one filter PIM data? I have no desire to go through some convoluted 3 page database query thing just to find a handful of contacts...

I'm with you on that!!!! I've been using categories for many years and every device I've synced to, never had issues with keeping my categories, from Windows Mobile to BlackBerry. I'm willing to spend on all the apps I'll need, so if there is an app (the ones you guys have mentioned) I'll try them to get the effect I want.

Well tomorrow, I'm going to walk into my local Sprint store where they will have an EVO 4G that I can test out side by side with my HD2 and so I'll see how that goes.........

[AshMa]

Sounds good. I may be missing something; but if it doesn't copy the categories to the Android dbs, how does it know how to reconstruct the information when changes are made and the info transferred back to the categories? I could see that getting very messed up if something were shifted from one category to another, right?

Varjak, I know that name! Are you already here or are you also thinking about joining Android?

[JRakes]

Deja Office *does* use categories, from Outlook. Most Smartphone OSs seem to depend on search to find things rather than categories. Symbian did that too. The exception is Google Calendar. In Google calendar you create orthogonal categories by creating different calendars. It then shows you all the appointments from all the calendars you say on one calendar, but each calendar's appointments are in a different color. Some apps use tags to do the work of categories. So 3Banana notes lets me add keywords with a hash symbol. It then lists those tags and I can select just the notes with one of those tags.

I suspect in part it is easier for programmers. Categories require more structure in the programming, almost like defining arrays, but keyword search is very open ended. Again, I'm noe expert, just taking guesses.

I knew G-Calendar worked that way. Seems way too kludgy for how I use my calendar. I need more "instant flexibility" than choosing a particular calendar just to add an entry (I don't filter a category in my calendar to add something with that category now,) then switch back to see them all. And why I'd want to keep a dozen different calendars just to stay organized is beyond me - I only have one schedule for one me. I just want to keep it organized, not spend half my time shifting through calendars.

I don't want to have to search every time I want to find something, either. Searching is fine for certain things, but doing a search every time I want to narrow down a list is just too cumbersome. I want to do 3 or 4 taps (max) and Poof! There it is. I've been using categories FAR too many years to try to go restructure my entire system simply because certain programmers are lazy.