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central addressbook software for syncing everything with everything
superboyac:
Epicenter Server - Sync your Exchange GAL with BlackBerry,iPhone/iPad,Android (USD20/user)
http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57261-SKA (November 23, 2013, 07:53 PM)
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Wow! That looks really cool.
-Stoic Joker (November 24, 2013, 09:13 AM)
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Yes it does! I don't know how to make a GAL...but can I make a GAL that then gets shared with all my stuff? I'll let go of the live sync too. The important thing is the pictures...they need to get synced. I realized that if not for pictures, this whole problem here would be like nothing. There are a zillion ways to sync the information well without pictures.
superboyac:
OK, here's another convoluted solution.
The address book that comes with Mac is pretty good with the links. It has built in linkedin, facebook photo pulling and merging. So I can use the Mac address book as my central addressbook, and deploy it to my devices from there using the apple mobileme etc.
superboyac:
After some more research, the ONLY common format for exporting and importing contacts with pictures is vCard.
Stoic Joker:
Because what you are essentially saying is that your going to export and import stuff until you have in one location (exchange), and then you just modify that going forward. But it doesn't matter if it's exchange, google contacts, apple, etc. Because they're all the same as far as that goes. the syncing is what would distinguish anything for me. So then...what's the best one and why?
Also, if that was the case, then I'm willing to go for a third party contact manager and just divorce myself completely from the big boys. Especially if the third party offered nifty features. Otherwise my choices would be google contacts, exchange, windows live...in that order. Google contacts just because my phone is android and would make it easier.-superboyac (November 26, 2013, 11:16 AM)
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Sorry about the delay, I'm trying to get IT wound down to a dull roar for a 3 week Christmas vacation...and the staff seems intent on making that as hard as possible. Ggaaaaaaaa!
Anyhow.. I've been running an Exchange server for close to a decade now and as crotchety as the old one got right before getting decommissioned it was still reliable as hell. We have several flavors of Android, a few iPhones, and me still with the WP7. All of which are stone axe reliably connected to our Exchange (now 2010) server. The sales manager - who I hold personally responsible (just to be an ass) for killing our Exchange 2003 server with his 8GB mailbox - is constantly glued to his (Android) phone with all the ferocity of a teenage girl. Yet with the insane amount of information that he pours through the system... His phone, computer, tablets, and laptop all stay happily in sync.
I don't trust Google, and have had some very bad experiences with their IMO rather feeble attempt at a mail server administration interface. I gave it a good, fair, and enthusiastic attempt...and it just burned me over and over.
1. A freshly created empty mailbox should never corrupt. Test messages went through in both directions, were deleted, and from the next day forward mail could not be sent from that box regardless of what was tried.
2. Delete means delete (e.g. eradicate), not play peek-A-boo with me because it's not really gone entirely...as it's still there in "spirit"...which is why you can't recreate a fresh one with that name.
3. Telling me to "Just use a different variation and/or add a 1 to "resolve the issue" is an incredibly bad idea...especially after the client has just spent a fortune on letterhead (etc...) with the now burnt cookie address.
I finally gave up after a year of trying to get one of our customers Google hosted mail domain to fly straight, and let them go back to using Yahoo accounts.
3rd party solutions can be effective only if you self host. Yes that is my own prejudice speaking...but it really is next to impossible to get a good idea of exactly how large/stable a company really is on the internet. So I try to avoid betting-the-farm on solutions that may vaporize overnight.
Apple solutions are designed to work fine in iWorld, but the instant you try to stray from "the path", you end up getting tech support from Goldie Hawn (a cute vapid blond from the 60's/70's).
superboyac:
Because what you are essentially saying is that your going to export and import stuff until you have in one location (exchange), and then you just modify that going forward. But it doesn't matter if it's exchange, google contacts, apple, etc. Because they're all the same as far as that goes. the syncing is what would distinguish anything for me. So then...what's the best one and why?
Also, if that was the case, then I'm willing to go for a third party contact manager and just divorce myself completely from the big boys. Especially if the third party offered nifty features. Otherwise my choices would be google contacts, exchange, windows live...in that order. Google contacts just because my phone is android and would make it easier.-superboyac (November 26, 2013, 11:16 AM)
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Sorry about the delay, I'm trying to get IT wound down to a dull roar for a 3 week Christmas vacation...and the staff seems intent on making that as hard as possible. Ggaaaaaaaa!
Anyhow.. I've been running an Exchange server for close to a decade now and as crotchety as the old one got right before getting decommissioned it was still reliable as hell. We have several flavors of Android, a few iPhones, and me still with the WP7. All of which are stone axe reliably connected to our Exchange (now 2010) server. The sales manager - who I hold personally responsible (just to be an ass) for killing our Exchange 2003 server with his 8GB mailbox - is constantly glued to his (Android) phone with all the ferocity of a teenage girl. Yet with the insane amount of information that he pours through the system... His phone, computer, tablets, and laptop all stay happily in sync.
I don't trust Google, and have had some very bad experiences with their IMO rather feeble attempt at a mail server administration interface. I gave it a good, fair, and enthusiastic attempt...and it just burned me over and over.
1. A freshly created empty mailbox should never corrupt. Test messages went through in both directions, were deleted, and from the next day forward mail could not be sent from that box regardless of what was tried.
2. Delete means delete (e.g. eradicate), not play peek-A-boo with me because it's not really gone entirely...as it's still there in "spirit"...which is why you can't recreate a fresh one with that name.
3. Telling me to "Just use a different variation and/or add a 1 to "resolve the issue" is an incredibly bad idea...especially after the client has just spent a fortune on letterhead (etc...) with the now burnt cookie address.
I finally gave up after a year of trying to get one of our customers Google hosted mail domain to fly straight, and let them go back to using Yahoo accounts.
3rd party solutions can be effective only if you self host. Yes that is my own prejudice speaking...but it really is next to impossible to get a good idea of exactly how large/stable a company really is on the internet. So I try to avoid betting-the-farm on solutions that may vaporize overnight.
Apple solutions are designed to work fine in iWorld, but the instant you try to stray from "the path", you end up getting tech support from Goldie Hawn (a cute vapid blond from the 60's/70's).
-Stoic Joker (December 04, 2013, 08:15 PM)
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Thanks Stoic, this is really helpful. I was picking the brain of another friend of mine who is familiar with business tech and the corporate world, and like you, he also has a quite high distrust of google. I haven't had any bad experiences, but everything I do is just me or my tiny business, so for me the experience is basically logging into gmail and that's it.
I still really liked the Exchange solution. But I did not like how inconsistent MS was with the features for the address book, and the fact that some really cool things work online but NOT in desktop outlook. I hate that so much. Why force me to only enjoy the desktop online experience?
Office 365 online:
Good contacts manager, syncs with Facebook and Linkedin.
Windows Live online:
Also great. Not exactly the same as office365 but 90% the same (weird). Syncs with Facebook and linkedin, but only online.
Exchange or Outlook on desktop:
My preferred option for management. BUT, no facebook or linkedin support. And don't bother setting up linkedin/facebook online because it won't appear anywhere else anyway.
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