Archive: Business & Technology

Dr. Digit 'Splains It All

While I love gadgets, I hate carrying things around. Part of what I don't like about shopping is that you have to carry your purchases around until you get to your car. And geek though I am, I don't like hanging things on my belt -- at least one thing my Mother taught got through to me!

So I've been eying Susteen's Data Pilot software for months, because it can get my phone numbers and appointments from Microsoft Outlook on my computer into my cell phone. Since cell phones are small, I don't mind carrying one. Well, not so much as I mind carrying a PDA or a little black book.

Using software for your phone book is a lot easier than putting your contacts on a cell phone by tapping on the dial pad. You can type them into the computer using a full keyboard and then upload them all to the phone. It's even better if you use Outlook, because many programs are written to synchronize with it, or, as in this case, import from it. An added benefit is that you have a backup if your phone looses its juice, and you can put your phone book on multiple phones if you have them.

Not only that, but some phones can hold an appointment calendar, pictures, ring tones -- even videos. Many carriers charge for you to email these things back and forth to your phone, but if you get the right software you can do it directly, only paying the one-time cost of the computer program.

A few weeks ago I took the plunge. I had seen the software at Best Buy in a package that includes cables for plugging every imaginable cell phone into the USB port of your computer. I already had a cable for my Motorola phone, so I went to the DataPilot Web site and just bought the software. I could get it less expensively, download it and install it on my computer that day.

I can't say that my on-line purchase was the most instantaneous, trouble free one that I've ever made, but it was reasonable enough and I downloaded and installed the software a couple of hours after buying it. It comes with a phone book manager, calendar manager, image manager, ringtone composer, SMS manager (for text messaging) and a program that turns your phone into a modem. Not all programs work with all phones, but Susteen claimed that my phone would work with the phone book, calendar and picture programs.

All of these are accessed either by themselves or through a nifty "Launcher" program that looks like a cell phone. Instead of numbers, each button on the dial pad launches one of the utility programs.

First I tried the phone book manager. Within a few moments I had figured out how to import my contacts from Outlook. A few minutes later I had imported them into my phone. The only minor problem was that I like to keep some of my numbers on speed dial. At first I didn't understand how to reorder the numbers in the manager so that my most used contacts would be assigned to the first nine speed dial numbers. I wish the program could remember my speed dial preferences, but it is really not hard to reorder things. Just drag them where you want them in the list and choose "Renumber" from the "Phone Book" menu.

Next I tried the Calendar manager. It uses a similar interface to import appointments from Outlook and then upload them to my phone. Wow! With appointments on my phone I could forget about carrying a PDA or making printouts of my calendar!

The one problem I have is this: I like Outlook to ring an alarm on my computer so that when I am completely engrossed in geekly pursuits it reminds me that I have someplace to go in the real world. When you have alarms set in Outlook, they are also set in your phone. I started noticing my pocket was beeping at embarrassing times in meetings. Not good. I searched for a way to turn them off in the Data Pilot software, but there isn't one. So I had to turn off alarms altogether.

All in all I was pleased with the phone book and calendar programs, so I tried the image manager that is supposed to be compatible with my cell phone. There is a camera in my phone, and I didn't want to have to pay Verizon to get my pictures off of it. No go. There was a connection error every time I tried to download a picture.

So I contacted technical support. Using a handy web form I asked them about the error, and while I was at it I mentioned that alarm thing. That was two weeks ago, and still no answer. Now the good news is that you can get an expansion memory card for my phone, and if you save your camera pictures to the card, you can plug the card directly into the computer and get the pictures off without using the software. The card is smaller than my thumbnail, but it works great. But no response from tech support is bad news. I haven't tried calling them yet, because I have the memory card. But I'm not thrilled with companies that don't respond to support requests.

Because of that, this is a mixed review. While I am thrilled with the phone book and calendar managers, and use the latter almost every day to update my appointments from my computer, I'm less enthusiastic about Susteen's problem handling, or lack of same. Still, the $34.95 was money well spent, because it is so easy to keep my phone book and calendar up to date as well as backed up. That saves my pockets from sagging. So I give the software a grudging thumbs up.

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