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Getting ready for iPhone (UK): Address Book

S

Steven Jackson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2006
387
7
Lincoln, U.K.
Hi. I'm planning on buying an iPhone when it's released here on Friday, and I'm going to spend some time in the evenings before that to get things ready. First thing is Address Book. If someone could take the time to answer these questions, I'd be very grateful...

1) I assume addresses (from Address Book) are added to the iPhone automatically by iTunes. Does the sync go both ways? Will contacts created (or altered) on the iPhone be synced back to Address Book?

2) What fields does the iPhone Address Book have? Address Book in Leopard can be extended indefinitely (in terms of adding multiple phone numbers, addresses, e-mails, etc) -- does Address Book on the iPhone work in the same way? If not, what fields are available.

3) In Leopard's Address Book, there is no way to set a default phone or email address for a particular contact, even though there may be many options. How does this work on iPhone?

4) Can iPhone Address Book fields have custom names, as they can in Leopard? For example, I have customised the fields for my email addresses to read gMail, .mac., Yahoo!, etc. If so, are the customised feeds from Leopard synced to the iPhone?

5) I have seen in the iPhone videos that you can take a photo and assign it to a number. Is this used merely as a background picture when that person calls you, or does it take the place of the small photo that Leopard Address Book allows you to assign to a contact? If it's merely a background picture, does the iPhone display the Leopard picture? Are they synced? Is there any way to change that picture on the iPhone itself?

6) Leopard's Address Book allows customised formatting of phone numbers. Does this get synced to the iPhone? If not, does the iPhone have a similar feature?

7) Do Groups get synced to the iPhone?

Thanks for any answers I get.

Steve.
 
I'l answer what i can from your list...i havnt used all the features in Leopard..but here goes:

(1) - Sync does work both ways from iphone to computer and vice versa. Itunes does not automatically do this until you select this option in iTunes sync menu (only pops up when iphone is connected)

(2) it seems like you can add indefinite fields to the contacts in iphone. One option on my add contacts menu is add field. You can also add multiple numbers, change the name you give them (i.e. i named some as O2, t-mobile, vodafone etc), as well as give custom fields to email adds you enter (i.e. gmail, hotmail etc)

(3) I dont think there is a default number as such for contacts - you simply select which entry to call/text/mail etc

(4) see (1)

(5) If u take a pic on iphone and add it to a contact or use a pic from ur albums, it will use as a background pic when that contact calls you. It will replace the small contact pics in leopards contacts app - but am not sure if this feature can be switched off.

(6) haven't tried

(7) Haven't tried, but believe it does.
 
Hi. I'm planning on buying an iPhone when it's released here on Friday, and I'm going to spend some time in the evenings before that to get things ready. First thing is Address Book. If someone could take the time to answer these questions, I'd be very grateful...

1) I assume addresses (from Address Book) are added to the iPhone automatically by iTunes. Does the sync go both ways? Will contacts created (or altered) on the iPhone be synced back to Address Book?
Yes

2) What fields does the iPhone Address Book have? Address Book in Leopard can be extended indefinitely (in terms of adding multiple phone numbers, addresses, e-mails, etc) -- does Address Book on the iPhone work in the same way?
Yes.

3) In Leopard's Address Book, there is no way to set a default phone or email address for a particular contact, even though there may be many options. How does this work on iPhone?
You touch the one you want. There is no 'speeddial' as such. You do have the favourites list though which you can set a number for one click dialing.

4) Can iPhone Address Book fields have custom names, as they can in Leopard? For example, I have customised the fields for my email addresses to read gMail, .mac., Yahoo!, etc. If so, are the customised feeds from Leopard synced to the iPhone?
They sync over. You can also edit a field and give it a custom name. So I might have 3 mobile numbers under different networks and label them by their network name (O2, 3 etc)

5) I have seen in the iPhone videos that you can take a photo and assign it to a number. Is this used merely as a background picture when that person calls you, or does it take the place of the small photo that Leopard Address Book allows you to assign to a contact? If it's merely a background picture, does the iPhone display the Leopard picture? Are they synced? Is there any way to change that picture on the iPhone itself?
Its the small photo too. Yes you can change the picture on the iPhone. Just click edit on the contact, tap the picture and choose another.

6) Leopard's Address Book allows customised formatting of phone numbers. Does this get synced to the iPhone? If not, does the iPhone have a similar feature?
It looks like all of the formatting is stripped out from whatever is in Address Book in OSX. So 0161-248-1234 becomes 01612481234 on the iPhone

7) Do Groups get synced to the iPhone?
Yep, sure do.
 
Just a quick question with regards to contacts... (sorry to hijack, but better than starting a new thread)

I saw that you can have photos as the contact pictures, but if it isn't the correct resolution it will just display a thumbnail in the corner.

What is the correct resolution for the iPhone display?

I can start editing photos ready for Friday then... :D
 
roblawton said:
Just a quick question with regards to contacts... (sorry to hijack, but better than starting a new thread)

I saw that you can have photos as the contact pictures, but if it isn't the correct resolution it will just display a thumbnail in the corner.

What is the correct resolution for the iPhone display?

I can start editing photos ready for Friday then... :D
Click to expand...

Photos synced to your iPhone are optimised for the iPhone display. I don't know what the actual resolution is, but my iPhone does and that's all that matters!
 
I spent a while dragging and dropping Facebook profile pictures into Address Book.

Also check out AdiumBook which syncs Adium IM contacts display pictures to Address Book.
 
roblawton said:
Awesome. I'll just make a quick folder and I'm all ready! :D
Click to expand...

You don't have to prep for it, when you sync the photos iTunes will make the necessary lower resolution copies of your photos and send them to the iPhone. It does not allow nested folders, so you can have one overall photos folder, and then one layer of sub-folders but that's it. You tell iTunes to sync the main folder, and the sub-folder list becomes a scrolling menu on the iPhone. You then touch the sub-folder name to get a page of thumbnails.
 
rayward said:
You don't have to prep for it, when you sync the photos iTunes will make the necessary lower resolution copies of your photos and send them to the iPhone. It does not allow nested folders, so you can have one overall photos folder, and then one layer of sub-folders but that's it. You tell iTunes to sync the main folder, and the sub-folder list becomes a scrolling menu on the iPhone. You then touch the sub-folder name to get a page of thumbnails.
Click to expand...

So I can't have several albums/events from iPhoto imported?
Do I have to tell it to sync the whole library or a specific album?

Or could I say (as with the iPod) only sync certain albums...?
 
roblawton said:
So I can't have several albums/events from iPhoto imported?
Do I have to tell it to sync the whole library or a specific album?

Or could I say (as with the iPod) only sync certain albums...?
Click to expand...

Sorry, realise that I was NOT too clear above.

You can have as many albums as you want. You can sync them all or you can select only certain ones. You just can't have sub-albums.
 
roblawton said:
So I can't have several albums/events from iPhoto imported?
Do I have to tell it to sync the whole library or a specific album?

Or could I say (as with the iPod) only sync certain albums...?
Click to expand...


Works exactly like the iPod. You can select certain albums/smart albums automatically pulled in from iPhoto.

or...

You can set a particular folder to sync.
 
Phew! All cleared up now!
Thanks guys...

It's just I'm thinking of doing an album in iPhoto specifically for contact photos, then I can delete/add other albums as and when I please, but ensure that my contacts are always there. :D
 
roblawton said:
Phew! All cleared up now!
Thanks guys...

It's just I'm thinking of doing an album in iPhoto specifically for contact photos, then I can delete/add other albums as and when I please, but ensure that my contacts are always there. :D
Click to expand...

Contact photos are stored in Address Book automatically
 
roblawton said:
Even better... so if I select a photo from say 'Holiday Pics' album, it'll copy it over to address book, so that if I delete the 'Holiday Pics' album, the contact photo will still be on the phone?
Click to expand...

Yep, exactly. Address Book has its own database so you are just copying the photo from the album to the database.
 
i have one..

my phone directory is different to my email address book.

how can i transfer my current mobile contacts and then add my mail address book without merging the 2 on my Mac?

does that make sense?
 
So is there any way to get the contacts from my Sony Ericsson in to Address Book on my Mac?
 
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