Most cohesive approach for new iPhone user?

[McSh5]

I've been on Android/Windows for awhile, and trying to go back to Apple after a 15 year hiatus. In any case, I have a 4S and MBA, currently using Gmail for mail and contacts and Exchange for my work mail, contacts, calendar and tasks. I've installed Office on my MBA so I use Outlook there but I don't necessarily have to. The MBA is my only computer (personal AND work). I'm browsing on Chrome.

Any suggestions for trying to use something else to make things a little more cohesive? For example, iWork, iCal, address book, etc. I'm trying to take a leap of faith here and give the full ecosystem experience a fair shot. I'd like to keep my gmail account, just because I've had it for awhile. But other than that I don't care too much about my "status quo". I just want something as seamless, integrated and cohesive as possible, even if it means changing some things or tacking a learning curve on new software. Thanks!

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Just thought I would add, I'm specifically interested in a more cohesive experience with my contacts (having to open my browser to view my contacts on my computer seems cumbersome), and perhaps my Office docs as well. But, I'm interested in everything really. Thanks for the help...

 

[silverblack]

I have been a Mac, iPad and iPhone user who recently tried out Android and gave up. I can share with you my experience on migrating from G-everything to i-everything.

Let me start simple. Don't hesitate to ask if you need more details.

1. G-cal. Log into the web version of G-cal, and export your calendars. If you have more than one (work, home, etc), each one will be exported as one ics file. Next, go to iCal, and import them, one at a time. That's it.

2. G-contacts
http://www.maciverse.com/import-gmail-contacts-to-address-book.html
http://www.maciverse.com/add-gmail-contacts-to-ios-5.html

3. Outlook
http://guides.macrumors.com/Moving_Email_from_PC_Outlook_to_Apple_Mail

 

[McSh5]

Thanks silverblack.

I don't use Gcal - I use Outlook as my only calendar. In other words I put both personal and work calendar items into my work calendar account. Of course at some point I may not be working there anymore, but I figure I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. As much as I prefer to keep my personal and work lives separate, due to my job and prior experience with trying to keep them (technologically) separate, I have found it easier just to take the bitter pill and jump in feet-first with having my two lives become one.

I've already pulled my Gmail contacts into my iPhone with the method you provided. But I'm wondering if I should abandon Gmail contacts entirely and just use something more Apple-centric. Apple and Google play very well together now, but who says it will always be that way?

Lastly, given the fact that I am tied to MS Exchange for work, is there really an advantage to going to iWork/Entourage over Office? I think iCloud can back up iWork stuff, right? Outlook for Mac is basically an entirely different software than Outlook for PC, so if I'm going to make a switch I'd prefer to do it before I learn the new ropes for Outlook:Mac...

 

[Leonard1818]

I'm really glad I stumbled across this post.

I don't mean to threadjack however the couple of questions I have are related and rather than clutter up the forums with yet another thread, I figured I would ask here.

I recently went from Android to iPhone and found the transition nothing but smooth. Let me preface by saying I don't use a calendar (on my phone) for personal use or work so that was n/a. I did however set up google voice and currently use that on my iPhone the same as it worked on Android. I also imported my google contacts onto my iPhone the same way I did android.

My question is: Is there a benefit to exporting google contacts/importing into Apple interface?

What would be the difference/benefit of doing so? I don't mind the work of it as I assume it's pretty straightforward. My google contacts were made from my verizon backup assistant .csv file so I'm sure I could just export/import but I'm wondeirng what the benefit would be? Can I see more peoples pictures if they're apple-centric contacts rather than google?

 

[silverblack]

Thanks silverblack.

Lastly, given the fact that I am tied to MS Exchange for work, is there really an advantage to going to iWork/Entourage over Office? I think iCloud can back up iWork stuff, right? Outlook for Mac is basically an entirely different software than Outlook for PC, so if I'm going to make a switch I'd prefer to do it before I learn the new ropes for Outlook:Mac...

I use MS office myself. MS has come a long way to make file sharing between Mac and Win users as seamless as possible. I tried iWork, but found them limiting in functions, and virtually zero compatibility with Win users.

As for document sync with iCloud, I don't think the advantage outweighs the popularity of office. If you really want synchronization, store your files in dropbox, which is what I do when I want to share files between my Mac and iPhone/iPad.

 

[silverblack]

What would be the difference/benefit of doing so? I don't mind the work of it as I assume it's pretty straightforward. My google contacts were made from my verizon backup assistant .csv file so I'm sure I could just export/import but I'm wondeirng what the benefit would be? Can I see more peoples pictures if they're apple-centric contacts rather than google?

Apple's Address book work quite work when synced to G-contacts in general. I did notice the resolution of the contact photos are not as good when synced to Google (limited by Google?) - not 100% sure.

In other words, you won't see "more peoples pictures". You see as many photos as you attached to the contacts. The quality of the photos however may be better via Apple than with Google - again not 100% sure.

 

[bjb.butler]

I'm really glad I stumbled across this post.

I don't mean to threadjack however the couple of questions I have are related and rather than clutter up the forums with yet another thread, I figured I would ask here.

I recently went from Android to iPhone and found the transition nothing but smooth. Let me preface by saying I don't use a calendar (on my phone) for personal use or work so that was n/a. I did however set up google voice and currently use that on my iPhone the same as it worked on Android. I also imported my google contacts onto my iPhone the same way I did android.

My question is: Is there a benefit to exporting google contacts/importing into Apple interface?

What would be the difference/benefit of doing so? I don't mind the work of it as I assume it's pretty straightforward. My google contacts were made from my verizon backup assistant .csv file so I'm sure I could just export/import but I'm wondeirng what the benefit would be? Can I see more peoples pictures if they're apple-centric contacts rather than google?

Why export them? You should just sync your google contacts with the ape contacts app. Just go into the contacts app's preferences, and look for it.
Sorry I don't have specific instructions, I'm not in front of my computer

 

[Leonard1818]

Apple's Address book work quite work when synced to G-contacts in general. I did notice the resolution of the contact photos are not as good when synced to Google (limited by Google?) - not 100% sure.

In other words, you won't see "more peoples pictures". You see as many photos as you attached to the contacts. The quality of the photos however may be better via Apple than with Google - again not 100% sure.

sorry-- I didn't mean "more peoples pictures" as I have pics in my google contacts for almost everyone... I meant to say "will I see more peoples pics in more places (i.e. in text message threads, or when looking at the overall list of texts) vs. now where I only see the contact pic if I pull them up under contacts and tap their name. I don't even see the pics when I'm looking at the overall list of contacts on the phone.

Does using apple contacts change this?

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Why export them? You should just sync your google contacts with the ape contacts app. Just go into the contacts app's preferences, and look for it.
Sorry I don't have specific instructions, I'm not in front of my computer

These are the exact steps I used to import my google contacts:

http://www.maciverse.com/add-gmail-contacts-to-ios-5.html

These steps were included with the info I got when I purchased my iPhone.

What I'm thinking about doing or really what I'm asking about is actually exporting the contacts from the google interface and importing them into the apple interface. Right now if I pull up a contact on my phone and edit the contact, it syncs back and updates the contact in my google contacts. I don't mind this at all but I'm wondering if there is a difference or a benefit to exporting the contacts from google and importing them into an apple interface.

For instance, I currently have pics associated with most all of my google contacts. On my Android (google) phone, when I would have a txt convo with people, it would show our pics by each text throughout the convo. I could also see the pictures as I scrolled through my contact list on my Android phone.

Currently with my iPhone, I don't see peoples pics as I scroll through the contact list (google contacts). I also don't see the pics when I have text convos with people.

Would this be different if my contacts were exported and set up using apple contacts (I could manually go and re-do all of the pics if necessary. I wouldn't really expect those to come over as well).

 

[silverblack]

sorry-- I didn't mean "more peoples pictures" as I have pics in my google contacts for almost everyone... I meant to say "will I see more peoples pics in more places (i.e. in text message threads, or when looking at the overall list of texts) vs. now where I only see the contact pic if I pull them up under contacts and tap their name. I don't even see the pics when I'm looking at the overall list of contacts on the phone.

Does using apple contacts change this?

I see, my short answer is no.

Once contact info/data are imported to Contacts app, they are imported. You will not the info in more apps.

As I said, I only noticed the photo resolution being low when I have the imported from Google. You really notice it when you receive a call, the photo occupies the entire screen, and it blurry. To fix it, I went to my Mac and re-attached high res photo and then sync with iCloud ever since.

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Currently with my iPhone, I don't see peoples pics as I scroll through the contact list (google contacts). I also don't see the pics when I have text convos with people.

Would this be different if my contacts were exported and set up using apple contacts (I could manually go and re-do all of the pics if necessary. I wouldn't really expect those to come over as well).

You will not see any difference. That's the way it is.

 

[Leonard1818]

Excellent!

Good info. Thank you.

As I understand it, there are some contact apps that will provide more visual contact lists... I haven't done any searching or read anything about them. I'm really not *that* concerned with it, I just wanted to know if there would be any difference in how frequently I see the contact pictures if I reverted from google contacts and the answer is "no"

 

[silverblack]

Excellent!

As I understand it, there are some contact apps that will provide more visual contact lists...

Contact apps? I am not sure.
But there are sms apps, for example, whatsapp messenger, that will show the contact photos.

 

[Leonard1818]

Contact apps? I am not sure.
But there are sms apps, for example, whatsapp messenger, that will show the contact photos.

ahhh cool. I will look into it. Thanks for all your help. Most helpful experience on these forums yet!! ha!

 

[BiggAW]

I've been on Android/Windows for awhile, and trying to go back to Apple after a 15 year hiatus. In any case, I have a 4S and MBA, currently using Gmail for mail and contacts and Exchange for my work mail, contacts, calendar and tasks. I've installed Office on my MBA so I use Outlook there but I don't necessarily have to. The MBA is my only computer (personal AND work). I'm browsing on Chrome.

Any suggestions for trying to use something else to make things a little more cohesive? For example, iWork, iCal, address book, etc. I'm trying to take a leap of faith here and give the full ecosystem experience a fair shot. I'd like to keep my gmail account, just because I've had it for awhile. But other than that I don't care too much about my "status quo". I just want something as seamless, integrated and cohesive as possible, even if it means changing some things or tacking a learning curve on new software. Thanks!

----------

Just thought I would add, I'm specifically interested in a more cohesive experience with my contacts (having to open my browser to view my contacts on my computer seems cumbersome), and perhaps my Office docs as well. But, I'm interested in everything really. Thanks for the help...

Don't change over. GCal, Google Contacts, etc are better.

 

[takeshi74]

Any suggestions for trying to use something else to make things a little more cohesive?

Are you insistent on sticking with your work calendar? It's going to be difficult to have anything cohesive if that's a sticking point.

But I'm wondering if I should abandon Gmail contacts entirely and just use something more Apple-centric. Apple and Google play very well together now, but who says it will always be that way?

I'd suggest just syncing with your Google account as others have. No point in worrying about a problem that doesn't exist. Apple likes to do some things their own way but they're going to alienate the millions of Google users out there.

 

[McSh5]

Are you insistent on sticking with your work calendar? It's going to be difficult to have anything cohesive if that's a sticking point.



I'd suggest just syncing with your Google account as others have. No point in worrying about a problem that doesn't exist. Apple likes to do some things their own way but they're going to alienate the millions of Google users out there.

I don't think I have a choice for sticking with my work calendar. It's my work email address, I get meeting notices to it, so unless I use some convoluted agent running in the background syncing my Outlook calendar with another calendar then I'm more or less stuck with it.

So it sounds like I should just continue using Gmail for mail and contacts, and Office for apps/work email to ensure PC interoperability with my co-workers. Hmmm. I'm now wondering if I should just use Outlook for all my mail. But of course the search function in Gmail is an absolute must and Outlook search is essentially non-existent once you've moved your email to a PST file...

 

[BiggAW]

I don't think I have a choice for sticking with my work calendar. It's my work email address, I get meeting notices to it, so unless I use some convoluted agent running in the background syncing my Outlook calendar with another calendar then I'm more or less stuck with it.

So it sounds like I should just continue using Gmail for mail and contacts, and Office for apps/work email to ensure PC interoperability with my co-workers. Hmmm. I'm now wondering if I should just use Outlook for all my mail. But of course the search function in Gmail is an absolute must and Outlook search is essentially non-existent once you've moved your email to a PST file...

iPhone works fine with exchange.... Everything else can stay the same...