iPhone by Steve

For the past decade or so, Microsoft Outlook has been the standard in personal information management. As a Windows Mobile user, I also used Outlook Mobile on my Treo 700wx. Actually, in combination, the desktop version and the mobile version of Outlook work pretty well, but there were a few quirks that bugged me.

Whenever I synced using Activesync, phantom alarms would appear. Sometimes I’d get undesired alarms in tasks, and these alarms would sound at the most inopportune times. I’d change my settings or fiddle with the defaults, but to no avail. I don’t know if this is a common Outlook problem, but I could never solve it. In general, I had problems getting tasks to sync exactly as I wanted them to. I also didn’t like the mobile interface. Too many steps necessary to make tasks and appointments for my taste. Finally, I’ve never liked being tethered to my desk with Outlook. If you use the desktop version and a mobile phone, then you’ve got to sync them by plugging the phone into the computer. In today’s wireless world, it just seems to me that over-the-air syncing is a better way. When I owned my Windows phone, I used Goosync to handle wireless calendar syncing for me, that still left tasks and notes to be synced at the desktop.

What is the solution to all of this? For me, it is to use web-based programs that can be accessed both from your desktop web browser (I use Firefox), and also from your mobile phone (in my case it’s now an iPhone). By using a few different applications, the iPhone can become your personal information nerve center.

Here is my “almost” solution:

For contacts and mail, I use Gmail. Check out this post and also this post for my views on this subject. Gmail works great for me because I own a small business and we don’t have an exchange server. If you are a corporate type, you might want to check with your IT department on this one.

For appointments, I use Google Calendar. The main limitation here is that only one Google Calendar can be used (can’t use several calendars with fancy color-coding). I hope this will be addressed by Apple, Google, or by an independent developer. But I go this route because I’m confident that the Gcal and the iPhone will just keep getting better.

For notes, I use PogoNotes. There are several iPhone web apps for note taking, but I like the interface of this one the best, and it’s free. Of course, the iPhone has its own notes application built in, but at present it can’t be synced to your computer and that limits its usefulness for me.

For tasks and to-do’s (and mine are pretty extensive), I use Remember the Milk. Again, if you google, you’ll find several applications that work, but RTM is my favorite, and they have an iPhone version for a fee.

I like my “almost” solution for a few reasons:

1. The combination of these programs replaces everything that I ever used in Microsoft Outlook. I haven’t used Outlook for months and don’t miss it at all.
2. Calendar and task sharing is very easy with Google Calendar and Remember the Milk. My wife and work colleagues stay on the same page pretty well with this set-up.
3. The programs I’ve chosen are all very easy to use. I like the interfaces and I like how they work on the iPhone.
4. All of these programs are web based, so synchronization between my computer and my iPhone isn’t necessary—it’s automatic. If I use one of the programs from my computer, I know I’ll see my work on the iPhone, too. I don’t have to synchronize anything (almost).

Almost? Why do I keep using the word “almost”? Well, because Gmail contact sync is not quite ready. Both Spanning Sync and BusySync are working on it, though, and it should be here soon. Finally because there is still no way to sync contacts over-the-air with the iPhone, my system can’t be called a total solution. If Google would put together an iPhone contacts app, ala Funambol, then I’d be all set. (Google, are you listening?)

It’s going to take a third party developer to work out the over-the-air syncing issue, if in fact the iPhone hardware is even capable of it. That issue is for a blog more technical than this one. Regardless, I’m willing to put up with manual contacts syncing because my solution gives me everything else.

If you’re ready to break away from Microsoft Outlook, you can give this a try even if you don’t use the iPhone. Your Windows Mobile phone can do it, too, but since this is an iPhone blog, I dare say that I think my iPhone does it with a lot more style.

In future posts I’ll go into more detail about Remember the Milk, PogoNotes, etc., but for now, I just want to say a big thanks to you for stopping by at iPhone by Steve. See ya around the Net!