Contacts sync with iPhone

[Wakawaka]

How in the heck does this sync between the iPhone and iPad work??

If I understand correctly, if I put data into my iPhone, I need to do it under the "Exchange" google account. Basicly the contacts are saved on my phone, but also in the "cloud"??
And further more, this makes it possible for the iPad to view?

Most of my contacts are put directly into the phones memory..Any way to just copy its data, and import it onto the iPad without having to go through the exchange method?

Also I have a new company directory with a lot of phone numbers, ext, and emails. Most these people I'll never call, but good to have their numbers incase.

Any way to have different groups instead of everyones number in one group?

 

[Wakawaka]

figured as much..

 

[twerppoet]

Had a longer answer typed out, hit the wrong button and lost it all. This is going to be shorter. It's way past my bedtime.

You can not directly sync the iPhone and iPad. You'll either have to sync them to a computer or an internet service.

The computer is through iTunes and a contact manager on that machine. In OS X that would be address book. I believer you can sync with Outlook in Windows, but I'm not sure. Either of these will probably let you create and sync groups. I know you can on the iMac. I'm not certain about Outlook.

On the internet side the two big choices are MobileMe and Google. MobileMe would cost you about $99 a year, but it would sync groups with your contacts along with many other useful things. Nothing that you can't get for free elsewhere, but all in one place and well integrated with iOS and OS X. Unfortunately it's usefulness is curtailed if you use Windows.

Google is free of course, but it won't sync the Groups you create back to the iPad. You'll also have to set it up as an Exchange server, not GMail.

Here is the link to set this up: Set Up Your Apple Device for Google Sync : Mail, Calendar, & Contacts - Google Mobile Help

That's where I blew it last time, by the way. I went to fetch the link and than when I came back to the text box everything was gone.

I use a combination of all these services. None of them is perfect and even picking and choosing between them I still find things I can't do, or that I wish they would do better. So, if you run across anything ideal let us know.

There is a third option. That would be to just use m.google.com in a browser on both your iPhone and iPad. It's cheap, but you must have an internet connection, and the options are more limited than the full google web pages. (though you can use those on the iPad too.)

Well, that was longer than planned. Good night, and hope I at least gave you something to think on.