Macs All-in-One for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter II.3. Syncing Your Mobile Phone or PDA with iSync

In This Chapter

• Connecting your mobile phone or PDA to Mac

• Synchronizing your contacts and calendar data

• Considering other mobile phone syncing solutions

Many people I know laboriously type contact names, phone numbers, and other information into their mobile phones one thumb-numbing keystroke at a time. Such a waste of time and energy when they could simply connect their mobile phone (or PDA) to their Mac and transfer their Address Book contacts, iCal calendar events and other information in a matter of minutes using iSync, which comes preloaded on every Mac. What's more, anytime you add, change, or delete information on your Mac or on your mobile device, you can run iSync again so that the two sides are always on the same proverbial page, so to speak.

Connecting a Mobile Phone or PDA to a Mac

Many people store names and contact information on their mobile phones or personal digital assistant (PDA) handheld devices. However, such mobile, handheld devices create two main problems. First, if you already store names, contact information, and appointments using iCal and Address Book on your Mac, you probably don't want to retype this information into your mobile device. Second, if you lose your mobile phone or PDA, you could wind up losing all of your important contact information.

To prevent both of these problems, your Mac comes with a program called iSync. By using iSync, you can connect and transfer data between your Mac and many ...