Was looking for something great from Windows in mobile phones, but that’s not happening this year. When Microsoft came out with their new Windows Mobile 7, they locked up the phone tighter than the iPhone. Everything has to be synced through the cloud – your contacts and calendar have to be on Microsoft’s “Live” computers.
That was not my choice for where I want to put my business – you know, all my personal stuff. There are enough problems with identity theft and personal info getting into the wrong hands. But no, no, Microsoft actually was going to force you to use the cloud. As of this date, they have not provided any way for developers/programmers to get what you need on your phone in a direct link to your PC.
Worse, they just came out with a major update to WM7, and there is still no way to get anything other than your Zune music files and pictures synced to your phone without the cloud. So after spending all that time researching WM7 devices to replace my WM6 Blackjack II, I was disturbed to say the least. Did not really think that I wanted to move to a Blackberry, and was not ready to jump on the iPhone bandwagon. Yes, it is possible to sync my contacts and calendar to an iPhone if I use Outlook. Be still my nervous heart. Outlook is almost the last thing I would want to use – for virus and worm reasons.
My search settled on Android devices, and on investigation, I found that it was possible to sync Lotus Notes with an Android device. That would allow me to keep my stuff on my computers and backed up to my portable drive or CD/DVDs. Further investigation found that the Motorola devices would very soon (it has already happened) have the ability to sync my iTunes playlists. Wow! Now I can put my music or podcasts on my wonderful device!
Settled on the Motorola Bravo, and am quite happy. There are more than enough apps to keep me busy searching and uninstalling the “free” apps that have noxious nagging advertisements. Simple moved all my Lotus Organizer data over to Lotus Notes, and then synced up my new phone.
Stay tuned for the saga as it continues to unfold. Technical items about the Android phones will be posted on my TECH Blog.