New iPhone Questions

[DianaS]

The voice mail announced the delivery of my 3 GS and I waited an hour last night to pick it up at the ATT store. Today I try to get it to work the way I want and take over from my iPAQ 211. So far I have 2 questions.

Number 1: do all the iPod synch cords that are lying around the house work the iPhone?

Number 2: I have to move a whole lot of notes from PhatNote on my iPAQ and desktop to a new program. I installed WritePad Notes on my iPod and haven't been able to get it to work on the iPod or synch with my desktop. PhatWare never responded to my email, so that's out.
EverNote looks like it might work, but I haven't been able to figure out from the website description and other people's reviews whether you have to have a wireless connection to access your notes on the iPhone. I really want something that puts a hard copy on my desktop and the iPhone. It doesn't need fancy formatting, but I do want to be able to password protect some of the notes. What seems to work for other people?

Thanks for all the input. The Brighthand team really made using my iPAQ more effective and has already helped in deciding on some of what I'll try on the iPhone.

[brickman65]

Congrats on the new iPhone DianaS!!!

I know you are going to love it!

#1) Yes. Any iPod/iTouch cord will work.

#2) Not sure about PhatNote, but if you can get your notes into Outlook your new 3GS will sync with Notes now. As far as protecting sensitive notes I use 1Password. There are others also. It is password protected and is also good for keeping up with web log-in info. 1Password also has a desktop version that you can buy for syncing. It is pretty cool also. I personally do not use it but I have seen it and it is nice.

Good Luck and let us know how it turns out!

[DTM]

Regarding the sync cables: don't make the mistake I very nearly made. The cable that came with my Touch slid in and out very easily. I then bought a second cable so I could leave one at work and have one at home. The second one slid in very easily, but wouldn't pull out. I started pulling harder. Just before I did something really stupid, I noticed that this had the type of connector where you have to squeeze the sides to release it.

Take a close look at the connector body before you try to disconnect. Both types work fine; just don't pull hard on the "squeeze" type.

[Silly Rabbit]

As Brickman said, you should get a password manager for sensitive data (they not only require a password to get in, but also encrypt the data on the device.) I have SplashID & Resco ID Guard on my Palm TX & may migrate SplashID over to the iPhone.

Evernote is geared more toward cloud computing & pretty much requires a connection of some sort (WIFI/3G/etc) to the internet to access your notes. You can pull notes down onto the iPhone (while you have internet access) & mark them as favorites. In my limited experience with EN on the iPhone, this appears to save the note to the iPhone. But that would be a PITA if you had very many notes you wanted to access even w/o an internet connection.

[RobbM]

Among the number of things that have changed about the iPod/iPhone line through the years, the 30-pin connector really hasn't been one of them. However, there might be an issue with the other end of the cable. Apple started out with FireWire being the ideal connection but USB 1.1 being usable. Now FW is out and USB 2 is in. So you aren't going to hurt the iPhone using pretty much any of the cables, but still the sync might not work because of the type of plug on the other end.

And you said something interesting in your post: "...get it to work the way I want...". If you aren't experienced with Apple products, you may discover that the way things work is not always the way you would want them to work. They work the way Apple has designed them to work, which may have you cursing at first. But then you discover that, in fact, the people at Apple have spent an awful lot of time thinking not just about HOW things should work, but HOW you will use them. Then you'll wonder how you ever did it any other way.

[Guest]

Regarding the sync cables: don't make the mistake I very nearly made. The cable that came with my Touch slid in and out very easily. I then bought a second cable so I could leave one at work and have one at home. The second one slid in very easily, but wouldn't pull out. I started pulling harder. Just before I did something really stupid, I noticed that this had the type of connector where you have to squeeze the sides to release it.

Take a close look at the connector body before you try to disconnect. Both types work fine; just don't pull hard on the "squeeze" type.

The most obvious difference is the "plug length" on the iPod end.

Here's two pics. The left/first picture is the kind you squeeze. The right/second picture is the kind you don't squeeze (although I suppose it probably wouldn't hurt anything if you did squeeze it ).

[Silly Rabbit]

One thing you didn't ask about that I will mention...it's my understanding if you have an older iPod docking station, the newer iPods/iPhones/iTouches will play on them...BUT they won't charge the iDevice.

[Green Loontern]

Note that iPhones, being cellphones after all, can cause annoying interference if docked in stereos and clock radios designed for the iPod only. The iPhone will detect incompatible sound equipment you plug it into, and will offer to go into Airplane Mode if you prefer.

[Guest]

One thing you didn't ask about that I will mention...it's my understanding if you have an older iPod docking station, the newer iPods/iPhones/Touches will play on them...BUT they won't charge the iDevice.

It depends. If your old docking station is Firewire based, you may get playback but not charging since newer devices only charge from USB. There are also a lot of older docks, especially ones not from Apple, that don't work at all with newer devices even though they can physically connect. Some may also work fine but just give the Airplane Mode message mentioned previously.

As for interference, on AT&T's bands, iPhones cause MUCH worse interference on 2G than on 3G... it's so bad that I wish there were an option to disable 2G altogether. So you are more likely to encounter interference if you have an iPhone EDGE (the original iPhone) or if you are in an area with poor 3G coverage.

[DianaS]

Loving how fast it this gizmo is. Reference stuff (medical) loads so much quicker than on the iPAQ.
Installed SplashID on the iPhone, but when I try to install the desktop I hit a wall at the step when when the phone tries to find SplashID on the desktop. Since it's not installed yet, I'm not sure what it is supposed to connect with. Tech support says maybe wireless network (which is up and running fine at the moment) or firewall, virus software (both AVG) are the problem. All other programs seem to sync fine between the phone and PC. Any ideas?
I may have run into the FireWire/USB issue. My Belkin double charger worked fine with the USB connection from the iPod touch. When I hook in the Mophie/iPhone USB connector, the phone beeps and gives a message that this is a noncompatible device. If I put the USB end into the iPhone little white charger block, it charges fine.
Thanks all.