I've got a syncing feeling this may not be possible.

October 13, 2009 12:19 PM

Are there any verizon non-smart phones out there that could syc via bluetooth (or some other non-internet way) with a google calendar?

Wife and I are looking at replacing our very old school verizon phones with new non-smart phones. we don't want any data plan or internet function on the phone but would like to be able to sync up the calendars on the phone with a google calendar we share.
Has anyone else tried to do something like this?
I'm not opposed to a hack of some sort to get it working, but the day to day syncing would need to be pretty straightforward or I think it would become an annoying burden.

Any and all advice welcomed and appreciated.
Thanks!

posted by dan g. to technology (5 answers total)

Mac or PC?

You're not going to be able to sync directly with google calendar via bluetooth, as I don't know of any web browser that has bluetooth sync integrated. It will have to be some sort of local calendar synced with google, then your phone synced with that. I've done this before on a mac with iCal syncing to google calendar and it has worked like a champ. As for the phone itself, you'd just want to make sure it is iSync compatible over bluetooth.

As for the phone itself, this should be a list of isync compatible devices, but it's not loading for me now.

If you're on a PC, good luck. :)
posted by CharlesV42 at 12:46 PM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

This doesn't bode well, however.
posted by CharlesV42 at 12:48 PM on October 13, 2009

We are indeed on a mac, and that second link you provided makes things look pretty bleak.
We also are on PCs at work, so a PC option synced up at work could be viable if it exists.
Thanks for the help!
posted by dan g. at 1:52 PM on October 13, 2009

In my experience with standard verizon phones, the calendar is crippled (like other systems of the phone) in that it won't keep a persistent event. It sucks to set an alarm to go off every week/day at X time for a crucial event and then one day you look on the calendar and it is just gone. You won't find much variation in their phones because they practically all have the verizon software on them.

The long and short of it is they screwed up the functionality so you spend more every month and get a smart phone. Have you considered an iPod touch? PDA functionality, 1 time price of $200, tons more features, WiFi
posted by ijoyner at 10:12 PM on October 13, 2009

This probably doesn't meet your "non-smartphone" criteria, but I've found an excellent solution for Symbian S60 phones (I use a nokia E63) - Google Sync can be set up using the Symbian-provided "Mail for Exchange" app, and if the phone has 802.11 (wifi) capability it will work without a data plan. I set mine up once, told it to only sync at night (when I'm at home, where the wifi is) and it has worked flawlessly since. Doesn't require any sort of data plan, and even does contacts.
The help pages suggest this will also work on iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and any device with SyncML capability.
posted by Tzarius at 3:11 AM on October 16, 2009