LG

I have a VX8350 and can't understand why NO LG phones are compatible with iSync. My Motorola KRZR works. Isn't syncing a ubiquitous phone feature? How has LG left this off every phone they make? Isn't this like a CD player not being a standard feature in a car?

I can understand your frustration with Isync not being supported on LG Phones. I will reach out and find out if there are any potential changes on the horizon with this compatibility. In the meantime you should be able to transfer your contacts from the Mac address book, you can drag your contacts onto your desktop and then send them to the phone with Bluetooth file exchange.

I really love these new LG phones, but you can add me to the frustrated list at well.

I have spent hours searching for this and have come across many posts from disappointed LG customers that use Apple computers. The unanimous response from Apple seems to be that "it's LG's fault" for not implementing the standards that most other vendors have on their handsets (namely syncml/obex).

Whether this is the case or not, I don't know but I really wish someone at LG would communicate with Apple engineers, and customers and figure it out. It really shouldn't be that hard. I know the LM900 does have an isync plugin that appears to have been written by LG engineers so it does look possible with at least one phone.

Personally, I wouldn't mind putting in some effort myself at trying to write a plugin using xcode/plug-in maker, but after visiting the LG Developer website there is insufficient data on the phone's (in my case 2 lotus lx600) capabilities, and basically no documentation, sample code, etc at all. It's really an empty shell of a website. Again, if there is any way to get more documentation/methods there are people like myself that will put effort into it.

Another thing I would like to see is documentation for "theme" development on the developer site.

I am a Mac user as well, and obviously an LG user. I did reach out to our development team to find out if there is any news of Mac compatibility in the future. It doesnt look like it right now. I appreciate the feedback and I will send your post in a report this week. I am in the same boat as you and appreciate you bringing attention to this

This appears to be an issue with PC's as well. Is there any easy/automated way to synchronize this device's contacts, calendar with a computer at all? (perhaps something I'm not aware of?) That is the heart of the issue - if not, somebody seriously took some shortcuts on the firmware if this usage wasn't considered. If the phone allows some method of address book/calendar sync, then it should simply be a matter of some developer (such as myself) to write an application or driver for mac or PC to access the phone. And again, there are people out there that will do it, free. All I want from LG is the ability for the *phone* to do this. I don't expect them to write software on the Apple or PC, although if they did that would make a lot of people happy.

It boggles my mind that a device that was made to communicate, with a full keyboard for messaging, does not allow any method of accessing/adding/removing/synchronizing the people you can communicate with! It's like building a web browser with no ability to save bookmarks. This is the first LG electronic device I have bought, and I did so because I find the hardware design to be among the best on the market in my opinion. However, 90% of the user experience is provided by software.

I don't want to sound like I'm "trashing" LG, in fact I want to help make it better. I ***rarely*** spend my time to help a company do this. When you find a device that you really like, you want to put some effort into it and give some constructive feedback. And as a user you, of course, really want the device to work for your needs. It's so close it is frustrating! Bluetooth is there, the data is in the phone, set it free, please.


(FYI if anyone from Sprint watches this forum (I am also a member of the Sprint developers), "One click" sucks!. It was the very first thing I disabled on my phone. The default "LG Theme" is superior. From a product management perspective, I really appreciate what you're trying to do to build a simplified, and consistent user experience, but please allow customer to disable it in the default phone settings without jumping through hoops. I also think it's great to have all the UI guidelines in place for application, themes, etc to keep a consistent user experience and those should stay in place.)

LG Product Pro:

Thank you very much for your follow up on this topic, providing a channel between customers and the company is very important, and you are an asset to LG!. I don't know you're exact role or the dynamics of working in LG and I'm sure it is unique, but I have worked in engineering for years and I am very aware of the process of considering customer feedback, bugs, enhancement requests, and working cross team between support, marketing, and engineering on what/when/if things should be integrated in product roadmaps, maintenance releases, etc. I'm also very aware that engineering does not want to divert attention away from new product development to look at released products such as this, and generally set a low priority for anything other than critical bug fixes unless people yell loud enough. I would imagine having such a globalized staff only adds to the challenges.

Perhaps if you make some internal phone calls to a few different engineers/groups and do some probing and digging, there may be some relatively low effort solutions to this with device firmware maintenance releases. If there are overwhelming technical roadblocks in the way, believe me, I do understand.

That being said, I think LG is missing a big opportunity here. While LG may not have heard enough "direct contact" complaints from the field on issues such as this, I can assure you from the research I have done, that this is an area that has affected many customers and left them very frustrated. In many cases, people in this area do their own research and technical testing and give up frustrated without ever contacting LG. They often go through other channels such as Apple, 3rd party software forums, etc. A little more pro-activeness on LG's part should be in order here and this should be a higher priority on the roadmap. Don't wait for customers to get upset. Find out what they want to do with the device and enable it, before they complain, instead of watching your competitors do it first. The fact that LG is trying to emulate the iphone with devices such as the dare, vu, etc is a perfect illustration of this "catch up" effect. Customers want the ability to USE the device in an open manner. That means access to their data and getting things in and out of the device effortlessly.

I would like to make a point here that I believe the hardware design is -excellent-, and this appears to me to be a matter of needing to enable this type of functionality in the phone's software.

Sorry I missed the part of which phone that you are using. Okay, with the Lotus I know that there was talk of an application to allow the calendar and contacts to sync up with a pc. (LG phones will not work with Isync at the time). I have been made aware that the release for the application that would allow you to sync up with your PC is not going to happen. I know that with Verizon Wireless there is a program called Remosync that allows you to pretty much use your phone as a PDA. If that changes I will post it here. Sprint does have a contact backup system available in the meantime.

LG Product Pro,

Thanks for the reply. Well, that's disappointing. Sprint wireless backup doesn't offer the functionality I'm talking about such as automatic two way syncing of computer/phone contacts. It's only really useful if you lose your phone and don't have a backup of contacts, plus you have to pay a subscription..for something that is free on most devices.

I guess I'll have to live with some type of one way push script-sync hack, and will be much more alert next time I buy a phone.

I would sure like to be able to sync my env Touch with iCal and Address book on the Mac.  It is very disappointing that this functionality is not available.

I was able to sync my iCal and Address Book contacts with my Optimus S (Sprint) by using Plaxo. Plaxo is a free service that automatically updates your information across multiple email accounts. I had already synced it to my primary email account, and I just added the phone's gmail account to the list, and voila, all my contacts and calendar entries appeared on my phone. The calendar takes a couple extra steps. Plaxo has to be installed on your Mac; go to www.plaxo.com. I still can't hook up my phone to my Mac or my iPod touch via bluetooth or USB. I do think LG is being idiotic by not providing Mac support. It would help them compete against the iPhone.

I just bought a LG E900 Windows 7 phone and I just found that I am not going to be able to iSync my 1,500 contacts with my new phone. This means I'm not going to use this phone and that I wasted 400 (!) euros. This is appalling. I do not have words to express my frustration. I will never even consider to buy ANY LG equipment in the future and I will make sure to spread the word. I just can't believe it. I just can't.

Posted by scalpha on 15 Feb 2011 17:55 PM:

I just bought a LG E900 Windows 7 phone and I just found that I am not going to be able to iSync my 1,500 contacts with my new phone. This means I'm not going to use this phone and that I wasted 400 (!) euros. This is appalling. I do not have words to express my frustration. I will never even consider to buy ANY LG equipment in the future and I will make sure to spread the word. I just can't believe it. I just can't.

Hey scalpha, trust me I understand your frustration as I am also a Mac user.  This is a struggle with ALL WP7 phones, not just the ones made by LG, so please don't hate on us too much.  This is pretty much a struggle with any non-iDevice, Android has the same struggles syncing to mac and many times it's a 3rd party to the rescue to fill the gap.  There are some really great ways to sync your Mac to WP7, you just have to let Google help you find them...or read on and I'll point you in the right direction.

In the case of contacts the best way to get them onto WP7 (or Android) is to use gmail or another email/contact service that is supported by your phone.  I recommend gmail because it works on both WP7 and Android, but feel free to use hotmail or yahoo or others supported by your phone.  Check out the How To article I just wrote that explains how to sync Mac Contacts to gmail contacts...doing this step is 90% of the work...but don't worry it's not that hard.

I'm sure you would like better instructions that that, but rather than type them all I'm going to suggest you check out this page where a Mac user did a pretty good job at explaining all the struggles he had with WP7 and how her resolved them...I'm sure you'll find this article very helpful!

Link to "Three weeks with Windows Phone 7 - a Mac users perspective"