Help with Phones: Smarty or Not¶

I run into a lot of people who aren’t using their phone in a way that suits them.

For one thing, most don’t think about backing up until their high-tech repository of personal info is under the bus.

But, let’s start at the beginning:

Choosing a Phone¶

You may already have a phone, but this is still good to think about.

Modern smartphones can do any number of things, mainly: call, send messages (sms/txt/picture), take pictures, and get location-based information.

& Of course there are a million more, but which are most important to You?
Also, some of the most useful features you might not think of are: save and synchronize contacts and mail/calendar data.

Why?

Syncing can show and update your address book contacts, keep track of which emails you’ve read, replied to, or tagged, and keep a common calendar which you can have and change on the go.

Syncing combines the usefulness of a portable device, with the power available on a full-featured computer.

Plus, you’ll never have to re-enter numbers if your phone is lost or broken.

Do you have a Computer?¶

If yes, make sure you can sync your phone to your computer.
If no, do you have a smartphone? Smartphones can act as a mini computer, and be used in conjunction with many of the above services.
If you have a “dumbphone”, you can still transfer info from bluetooth or a SIM card and if you want to stay that way, you can usually transfer direct from a SIM card to a new phone. You may need to have your provider help with this process.

Do you even need one? – you may not want to think about this, but think again when you go on vacation…

Setting up Sync with a Phone¶

You can use a number of ways to synchronize your data between your phone and computer or device/service.
I’ll get into this more later, but ideally, we want to set this up to happen automatically.

Please Let Me Help You Back Up Your Phone!¶

That is all.

What Is This?¶

This is part of What Can I Do For You? a project of Forrest’s. You can ask a question, answer, and grow this knowledge exchange!