agentsquirrel.com

Transfering Data to New Gadgets!

Posted by Agent Squirrel on July 27, 2009

You know one of the biggest problems with upgrading gadgets? For me it isn’t the cost or the trouble with researching new products or even learning how to use the new ones. No, my biggest issues is having to convert data from one device to another.

I guess I’m thinking about this right now because I recently upgraded three devices that required transferring data. While it is a pain to upgrade and move data, there can be a slight plus in the end.

First was my BlackBerry. I went from the BlackBerry Curve to the BlackBerry Bold. This was the easiest of all the devices to move data to because of the BlackBerry Desktop Software. I just had to hook up my Curve, sync it with the desktop and then sync the Bold and all of my data was there – expect for my BlackBerry Messenger conversations .

Garmin StreetPilot Series

Second was my Garmin GPS. I went from one of the older StreetPilot series to the Nuvi series. Turns out that there is no way to copy over all of the places you saved to your “Favorites” on the StreetPilot to the new one. Not even with MapSource (which is a program I promise myself I’ll one day really learn how to use). I had to sit there for a while re-entering in any of the favorites I wanted on my new GPS. From what I understand, if I use MapSource to export my data from my new GPS, I could import it to a new one in the future. I guess I’ll find out in a year or so.

My third upgrade was my new iPhone 3GS. This wasn’t the typical upgrade. I didn’t have an older version of the iPhone. What I did have was a Palm Lifedrive. Maybe I should preface some of this part here…

When I first got a BlackBerry a couple of years ago, I didn’t really transfer over most of my data to it from the Palm because the apps on the Palm were/are far superior to anything on the BlackBerry. In fact, I swapped my first BlackBerry for the Palm Treo within my 30 day return policy with AT&T because I really missed having all my Palm apps and was determined to carry only one device – I’ve learned this will never really happen for me. The problem was that I hated the Palm Treo. I know some were good but mine sucked. It was a great Palm device but it was the phone part that gave me problems. Anyway, it was easy to transfer most of my Palm data from my Palm Lifedrive to my Treo so I didn’t have any real issues there. When I finally had enough of the Treo, I went back to a BlackBerry. Again, I missed my Palm apps. So, I was carrying around both my BlackBerry and my Palm Lifedrive. Even the BlackBerry Bold didn’t give me any more features in the apps department that the Palm did.

iPhone & Palm LifeDrive

This is where the iPhone comes into play. Prior to buying my iPhone, I was carrying around my BlackBerry Bold, my Palm Lifedrive (and a bunch of other gadgets we won’t go into here). I quickly realized that I could get an app for the iPhone that did just about everything my Palm did, with one major exception. I loved Agendus for the Palm by Iambic. They have a super lame version for the iPhone that isn’t even worth discussing, though I am hoping that maybe they will improve it in the future. Anyway, even though I still couldn’t have my beloved Agendus Calendar/Contacts/Task/Notes, with a little time and money, I was able to get an app for my iPhone to do just about everything my Palm did. Within a few week, I felt comfortable enough to leave my Palm Lifedrive at home.

The problem was that I spent a good two days transferring information from data in my Palm to my iPhone. I never used Outlook for my calendar with my Palm and since there was no way to move all my Agendus data, I had to add all my appointments from scratch. The same with my contacts. What was even worse was when I found a program to store passwords on my iPhone. I had been using DataShield on my Palm for years! There isn’t a desktop version of DataShield so I had to open up the app on my Palm and write down every single username, password, url and any other data I stored in there. That took about 10 hours. I did go with a password app that also has a desktop version so maybe in the future this won’t be that much of a problem. I also decided it was time to use Google to store my calendar and contacts and sync them with my iPhone. This is also compatible with my BlackBerry.

There were also other things like notes that were on my BlackBerry that I wanted on my iPhone among a few other things. All of this took time. It made me realize why there are a lot of times when we don’t make the most of our gadgets; it takes time to learn how to use them and then there is the process of transferring data. In the end, there is no real good shortcuts to doing this.

At the beginning I did say that there can be a slight plus to doing this and here it is. I cleaned out a lot of data that I really don’t need. My Palm contained contacts from the last 10 years. The odds that I am going to need someone’s phone number from 10, or 8 or even 5 years ago, with me on my current cell phone is pretty slim. I did backup all my old contacts from my Palm to the Palm desktop and exported them so if the need were to arise, I would have them. But I went from about 200 contacts on my Palm device to about 35 on my iPhone. My calendar app also stored appointments going back about 10 years and I didn’t need those either. Even my Garmin GPS had a bunch of “favorites” that are places I don’t plan to ever visit again. So, in some ways, buying a new gadget forces you to do some gadget spring cleaning. In the end, the time was worth it I think.

Now, learning how to really use the gadgets and get the most out of them is a post for another time.