An Elegant Solution to an Old Problem of Saving Contact Information on a Phone

28 December 2006

Finally, there's a simple solution for a problem that has troubled phone owners for the last 10 years. You save valuable contact information on your phone, but it is very difficult to move it to another phone. A new service, Zyb, lets you back up the information from your phone, edit it on a web page, and sync it with any phone you want. You can use Zyb for backups, for keeping exactly the same information on two phones, and for sharing your calendar or contacts with friends and family.

How many times have you re-entered names and telephone numbers into a new phone that is replacing your old one? Have you ever wondered what would happen to your valuable contact list if you lost your phone? Would you want to use two phones – one for work, another for sports – and have exactly the same information in both? Would you like to switch to another product brand, but can't, because you haven't figured out a way to transfer the information from the old phone to the new one?

Zyb is a new service that lets you sync your contacts and calendar entries into your personal account on a Zyb server. You can also edit the existing information, add more details, and add new entries to your contact list and calendar. Other Zyb users can share their calendar or contacts with you, allowing you to view and copy information from them.

The service recognizes a large number of popular phones, including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and others. You don't have to install any software on your phone or use a computer for syncing. Only the initial sign-up requires access to a PC. The sync process is wireless, allowing you to update your information from anywhere you receive a mobile network signal.

We discovered Zyb was easy to set up and to transfer information between our phones. Here's how it went.

How to Set Up Wireless Sync for Your Phone

Launch the browser on your computer and go to www.zyb.com. Make sure your phone is compatible with the service. Sign up to create a personal account for your contacts and calendar.
You should receive a text message with a sign-up code. Enter the code into the web page.
You'll get another text message (Service Message) that includes the Sync settings for your phone. When you open the message and save it, you may need another code. You should see the code on the Zyb web page. Enter the code and save the settings on your phone.

How to Back Up and Sync Contacts and Calendar from Your Phone

Locate the Sync application on your phone. For example, on a Symbian OS/S60 device, you would navigate to Connect (or Tools) | Sync | Zyb Sync.
Push Zyb Sync and select your connection. Sync works well via slow connections, such as GPRS, because it transfers the updates only. Data transfer over 3G or Wi-Fi connection is so fast that you have to keep an eye on the screen if you want to know how many contacts and appointments are being synchronized.

Zyb is a new service, but they are already developing additional features for which they intend to charge. At the least, the abilities to sync with Outlook and iPod (a fee will be charged for these) are on their way. Before rushing into offering new features, we hope Zyb takes the time to make sure the service is robust and accessible. We had problems with the sluggish web pages when we tried to add new details into our contacts.

The capability to add new contacts and details, such as home address or e-mail, is extremely convenient since you can use a computer keyboard and large screen. Best of all, you can transfer the new details to your phone as well (depending on your phone's contacts application).

Zyb lets you share contacts or calendar information with your friends once they have signed up for the service. Sharing information could be more intuitive – you have to explore the web pages carefully to find a way to import information from shared calendars or contact lists.

Phone Sync Solutions

The Zyb service relies on SyncML technology for replicating information between devices. SyncML is available in many products because the technology has been specified by an industry group. The purpose of SyncML is to establish an information exchange between devices, or servers, so that the result is exactly the same set of data at both ends. SyncML is not necessarily used for syncing MP3 tracks between iTunes on a computer and an iPod. Rather, it is a solution for syncing the details, such as the addresses, e-mails, and names saved in a database.

There are other ways to sync or back up data saved on a phone. If there is a SIM card on your phone, you can copy the contacts from the phone memory to the SIM card. The drawback is that you can only save 250 telephone numbers and names – no e-mail or home addresses.

Some phone models come with a data cable and a piece of software, like ActiveSync or PC Suite. These products tend to be manufacturer-specific solutions that let you back up and sync information from the phone to a PC. That's fine. But when you want to switch to another phone, or worse, to another product brand, you're in trouble. If you can sync your phone with the Outlook application on a PC, it can act as the intermediate storage between devices. You may also purchase a data cable kit that includes a software application that is compatible with a number of phones.

If you have even once thought of transferring your contact information to another phone or backing it up somewhere safe, you can do that easily now. Zyb is more convenient to use than most PC sync applications, because it works anywhere where you have network coverage. The service itself is free, you only have to pay for the data transmission over the mobile network. Your subscription plan will determine if you have to pay anything extra or if the information transfer is included in your monthly plan.

Product reviews:

svejke 29.01.2007 10:32

You should try Internet Explorer. I had problems with Zyb and Firefox, but IE6 works fine.

AK 09.01.2008 00:33

You should try SEVEN application which on top of contacts and calendar delivers (syncs) emails to your phone! Try at www.seven.com (http://www.seven.com/trial/index.html)

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