<p>I am an Apple person so am out of my league when it comes to windows, Blackberry and Android. My son and I have convinced my husband that his aging BB needs to be put to sleep; my son thinks the Samsung Galaxy 3 is the phone for my husband and not an iPhone. The thought was my husband can shift away from Outlooks and put all contacts and calendars into Google. While my husband HATES change, he is willing to try, although he is not happy!</p>
<p>Looks like we can just have his contacts exported from Outlook to Google, although we have read about some difficulties doing so. There are programs that say they make the conversion easy, yet you then read reviews of all the problems. We may be worrying for nothing and all could go well, but if his contacts get messed up, I might have to sleep in the doghouse ;)</p>
<p>Has anyone gone from Outlook to Google that could offer words of wisdom? I think we are going to try to export the contacts and calendar to Google before messing with the phone; if there is a problem, he will still have all his contacts in Outlook. Once he plays with Google for a while, then we will attempt the phone!</p>
<p>The people at the cell phone store can transfer his contacts and whatever else he wants from one phone to the next. If you are with verizon, have him sign up for backup assistant which also saves his contacts online (or have your son do that for him :D).</p>
<p>I have my Outlook and Google G-mail “talk” to each other via the Google Calendar sync. It seems to work fine.</p>
<p>I helped my H transition from Blackberry+Outlook to Android/Google two years ago – first to a droid pro with keyboard (he was not ready to go touch screen) . As mentioned above, the Verizon folks helped with the transfer of contacts, etc/ Then this summer I got a Galaxy S3 (which I absolutely love) and H played with it a bit and was ready to upgrade. I bought him a stylus and he was totally converted (acts now like it was all HIS idea. LOL)</p>
<p>My son said if my husband would export his contact and calendars to CSV files, he would actually take care of getting them all into husbands Google account. There was some concern with all the notes my husband has under many of his contacts not saving in Google, but my son insists it won’t be a problem.</p>
<p>We are with ATT so my husband will have to have them transfer whatever is on his sim card to the new sym card; the Galaxy has a micro sim and his BB has a full size sim.</p>
<p>While having to learn a new phone causes my husband to panic as he has no patients for things that don’t come easily for him, his biggest concern is not knowing how to access his contacts. When it comes to electronics you would never know he was a very educated and smart man; he becomes very hard headed!</p>
<p>As I type he is attempting to export his contacts; lets see if he can successfully accomplish it :)</p>
<p>snowball–add my husband as a triplet to you and orchestramom :D. He thinks “higher” electronics are all stupid and pointless–mainly because he won’t take the 10 seconds to learn how to work them Contacts on a smart phone are easy, it’s the big button that says “people” under it :D.</p>
<p>Well, not only did my husband successfully export his contacts to a CSV file (with the step by step instructions with pictures I emailed him,) he decided to try to import them all by himself! He went into Google and hit the import and low and behold all his contacts arrived into his gmail account I had him check to see if the notes where there, and on quick look, they are. He was a bit concerned that the contacts were alphabetized by first name, but I showed him how to change then to last name ;)</p>
<p>He decided to stop while he was ahead for the night and will deal with his calendars this evening. </p>
<p>SteveMA, my husband loves electronics, he just doesn’t want to spend a moment trying to learn them! When we bought our first HD tv a few years ago he really seemed to be having trouble understanding that in order to watch the same channel in HD you added a 1 or 10 in front of the old number for cable. For example, ESPN is 602, but for HD it is 1602; simple, right? I would walk into the room he is watching a game and it is obvious he has it on 602 as there is a huge different in the picture. I question why he is not watching in HD, and he replies he does not know the channel. Of course even if his brain can not remember to add the 1, the cable does have an on screen guide, but that would take effort.</p>
<p>If I didn’t watch this man go through college, medical school and residency with ease, I might understand. He is also able to repair most anything in the house, as long as it isn’t an electronic ;)</p>
<p>LOL Getting a chuckle from the stories above. My H has this incredibly annoying habit of stubbornly refusing to consider any new technology innovation – until suddenly once he’s tried it, he wants to take credit for the discovery.<br>
c. 1998: “Why do we need e-mail? I have a fax machine.”
c. 2002: “Did you know you can sort Word documents into these electronic versions of manila folders to organize them?”
c. 2006: “Why can’t I find floppy disks anymore? What am I supposed to drive with my thumb drive?”
c. 2007: “Why on earth would anybody who’s not in college want to be on Facebook?”
c. 2008: “I like my flip phone. Isn’t a blackberry a fruit?”
c. 2010: “I like my blackberry. I need a keyboard. Isn’t a droid a robot?”
c. 2012: “I’ve just signed up for this Skype thing…”</p>
<p>my patient, wifely answer to each of the above: “Really, dear?”</p>
<p>I’ve learned that with DH, for any larger purchases, I need to think about a year in advance. I need new kitchen appliances, ok WANT new appliances. I’ve been mentioning that for about a year, DH finally just said, “we should get new appliances before the kids graduation party”. It’s his idea you know :D. Working on new cars for the two of us next year :D.</p>
<p>I’m still in love with my Galaxy S2! I have never bought anything that so quickly improved my life. I don’t like change much either, so tell your husband to hang in there!!!</p>
<p>Very timely – I have limped along with a Blackberry – not sure what to get next. I view my phone more as a tool than a toy. The kids like the iPhone – but they’re not running a business from it. I’ll check out the Galaxy.</p>
<p>D has a Galaxy Nexxus and S1 just made the switch from iPhone to the Galaxy 3. They both love their phones, although S1 does say that “it’s really quite large”! Me, I just got my new iPhone 5 yesterday and couldn’t be happier with it. After two years of fighting with Android devices, S1 suggested that I try an iPhone because “they just work” and he was so right, but to each his own. More business people in the EU use iPhones than any other phone and that might still be the case here…
Google stores your information and it should be easy to download it to a new phone, but why not save yourself the hassle and go to the store (Verizon, AT&T, etc) and let them do it for you? Try to avoid Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but you can hand them the device and grab some coffee while the transfer takes place.</p>
Contacts on a smart phone are easy, it’s the big button that says “people” under it :D.</p>
I had him check to see if the notes where there, and on quick look, they are. He was a bit concerned that the contacts were alphabetized by first name, but I showed him how to change then to last name ;)</p>