Cell phone companies have made it easy to switch carriers. But one of the drawbacks of that flexibility is moving the stored contacts from one phone to another.
Re-entering the data manually can take a lot of time, but Intellisync Phone Edition $34.95, www.intellisync.com can make it a snap. The software syncs phones with the contact list in Microsoft Outlook (versions from 98 and up).
It's a fairly painless setup process. Installing the software is simple, though it comes with directions about handling error messages from Windows XP. (It works with XP, but the messages appear because Microsoft has not officially declared it XP compatible.)
Once the software is loaded, you connect the phone to the PC. The software wouldn't recognize the phone initially, though XP did. To get it to work, I had to hold the cable pressed into the phone by hand - annoying and tricky when you're also trying to navigate on a computer.
The user interface is good, selecting which contacts to include is a breeze, and the transfer is speedy.
There are a few catches: It works only with certain models of phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Sanyo and Sony Ericsson. You also need to buy the cable to connect the phone to a PC, adding another $34.95 to the cost.
But that may be a small investment for the convenience, as well as the protection of knowing the contacts are saved, even if the phone is lost.
