[Q] Need suggestions on personal contact server software? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a XBMC based HTPC that is always on and would like to add a contacts server onto it for use with ICS based Android phones with HD Photos. Since Google is dropping the ball in this category due to lower picture quality and I want syncing due to constant rom upgrades and multiple devices that want the same pictures.
Does anyone know what I would need since I don't have experience in this specific category.
I will be using contacts only from this server email and calender isn't needed but I assume will come with any software that does contacts.
The HTPC is a Ubuntu Linux system and that is not going to change.

Doesn't anyone know what software I would need to make my own contacts server for use with Android?
I see the "server" option in add accounts and want to have my own.

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[Q] Help with Exchange email

Hey guys-
I had been using TouchDown Exchange to access my work email. When I first got android I asked my IT department if they could set it up for me but they replied that they "don't support Android, and because there are so many different android phones, they probably wouldn't ever support". Anyways, I found I could use the web-exchange server (http://xxx.xxxxxxxx.com/exchange/) as my domain on the android app and it would end up sync'ing my email to my phone.
I guess they eventually found out I was doing this somehow and they blocked it. They do support the iPhone, though, and through a coworker I was able to get the server and domain that they use.
Is there anyway I can trick the server into thinking I'm using an iPhone so it will allow me to connect and sync? I tried using the "ActiveSync Device String" and setting it to "iPhone" before connecting to the server, but that didn't work. I don't know much about exchange servers if you couldn't tell, but is there a way they can authorize only certain users to connect? Could I potentially borrow my girlfriends iphone, have them set it up on her device, and then once I get the login permissions, switch the info over to my fascinate?
Sorry to any IT administrators out there, I bet this post will annoy you haha. I just want to have email on my phone because I hate walking into work in the morning and getting blindsided by an email that was sent to me at 2am.
Thanks in advance for your help guys.
Our IT department also has a "no android" policy but I figured out that if I left the Domain blank and used the Webmail url as the Exchange server address everything would sync perfectly. I started out using Touchdown but dropped it for the stock email client.
They specifically denied your phone from syncing via ActiveSync? Even with Touchdown, which more fully supports the ActiveSync protocol than even the iPhone? Sounds like your IT guys are morons. I can fully understand not wanting to support Android phones because of all the variances. I know, because I work for an ASP hosting company that does just that. But really, if they wont support Touchdown, they're just shooting themselves in the foot, because that app will work the sane no matter what Android phone it's installed on, meaning you will have a standardized mail platform for Android that supports any and all necessary security features, including full encryption of the local mail database and any data it stores on the SD card.
I don't know if you'll get anywhere with it, but I would recommend showing the the feature list for Touchdown, including the security features, and ask them to support that one app. If you make the case that they only need to support one app for any Android phone, they should be willing to work with you on that.
Besides, every serious corporate user should be using Touchdown anyway. The stock mail client, no matter what Android phone you have, is lacking some of the most basic features, is buggy,and is essentially useless. And if days encryption is required, you're out of luck with the stock clients. Exchange syncing is really an afterthought by Google, and until they make enterprise features and data security a primary focus, things wont get any better.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate
Oh, and btw, I'm not an expert on the matter, but I know that mobile device syncing can be disabled on a per-user basis. What I'm not sure about is if it can actually allow only certain devices to connect or not.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate

Android and MobileMe compatibility?

Guys, I'm on the verge of jumping ship from an iPhone 4 to a One X (when released). But my only problem may be the fact that I have a MobileMe account - Mail, Calendar, Contacts etc - which I really can not afford to lose.
I need the possible new HTC to be able to do all that the iPhone does with MobileMe on the iPhone - Push Mail, Cal and Contacts. Is this possible?
I know some people have setup GMail accounts instead, but due to business needs I really cannot afford to change accounts right now.
Sorry guys. Have I asked a mega stupid question that no one wants to answer? Or is it because no one knows?
It's not gonna sync with iCloud and going from iPhone to Android is like downgrading from a BMW to a broke down scooter.
MobileMe is completely proprietary in the sense that it will only work with apple products nothing else, email has a chance of working but it will be fairly stripped down as it's not gmail. Also ignore the troll above me, not allowing you to use something you pay for on anything you want is just another one of the many many reasons to leave apple products.
cordell507 said:
MobileMe is completely proprietary in the sense that it will only work with apple products nothing else, email has a chance of working but it will be fairly stripped down as it's not gmail. Also ignore the troll above me, not allowing you to use something you pay for on anything you want is just another one of the many many reasons to leave apple products.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't pay for iCloud, it's free. There is no reason to leave Apple for Android seeing how the OS is a fragmented mess. You have a better chance of winning a pottery then getting a timely update from an OEM.
Thanks for the replies guys
I've been doing some research and have had some help from other places, and it seems that MobileMe can be sync'ed but with the assistance of other desktop apps.
If these work well, then I will take the leap.
Alex2792, I would have agreed with your "downgrade" comment a year ago. But having seen some of these new Android phones in full flow... well, no restrictions, far cheaper, far more modifiable - it makes sense to
how i got contacts from mobileme
this is my solution.
1. login to mobileme
2. go to address book
3. select all entries in your address book
4. under setting select export contact
5. connect your HTC phone to your mac in disk mode (found under setting within the connect to PC menu)
6. once connected, open finder and copy your vcards.vcf file from your mac to the mounted phone's downloads directory
7. after copy is completed, disconnect phone
8. restart phone (I had to do this for the storage device to find the file)
9. open contacts on HTC phone
10. open contacts settings (top right corner)
11. select to import contact from phone storage
12. import should begin and all contact will be found under under in contacts under "phone"
a status window popped up showing the percentage complete until all 350 contacts were added. I got pics, email addresses, and names without issue.
HTH
chris
I really don't understand this fragmented crap.
I have a 2 yearold HTC EVO4G which I've been completely happy with. It runs android 2.3.5, without any noticable bugs. I have decent battery life (newer phones have better due to better displays, and not using a 60nm chip), can run any app on the market, and can do all sorts of things that I can't do on iphone (such as change a freaking default browser). I use the go launcher, which is freaking pretty, and has all kinds of new fanciful effects. I don't even have the original launcher installed anymore. My contacts, photos and videos are automagically uploaded and backed up on google plus, dropbox, my desktop, and my netbook.
I have a very good experience on my "fragmented" phone.
Ignoring the obvious troll, I too have switched from android to iphone back to android and then iphone and am back to android. Since google backs up all your app data (who needs call logs backed up?) and there is an app to backup your texts, well I don't see any reason to blast google.
Also, do some research, there are some desktop appear that can help you switch everything over. Although it sounds like you've already done that.
For instance:
Dropbox will automatically upload your pictures to yourself and every device that has your account installed.
Google backs up all apps just like iOs.
You can most certainly have push email with android that is not gmail based. There are a ton of email clients in the play store.
sent from my nook tablet or sgh-i777, using string

[Q] An standalone - Outlook-like Application that works with linux

Hi!
I'm kind of sick of using the Windows Platform but im bound to the platform because of Outlook and im looking for an alternative.
I want an app that can be used on my Android device that has all or almost all the functions of Outlook.
I've look inside the market for the entire day for apps that could fit in to the description but i couldn't find any good.
It's called a planner, with calendar, to-do lists and all those things, Mail is not required.
The program needs to work for both PC(multiplatform) and Android.
Since i couldn't find anything properly myself since i don't know where to look, i'd thought i could turn to the experienced people at XDA-Dev.
So my question is if there is any proper alternatives, even outside the market or inside, that could replace Outlook, with the same functionality.
Also i'd rather also avoid cloud sync.

restricted user on phone / only read access to contacts

Hi, I will get a new router soon that supports SIP and IP-phones. So I want to use an Android Smartphone for landline calls. The Android dialer supports SIP accounts (I checked CM11, CM12 and 5.0 stock), so I want to use that.
Because the device is used as a phone, I want to sync all my gmail contacts with their phonenumbers. The phone is supposed to lie around for everyone to use, so there will be no security lock. But because I have all my stuff on my google account I don't want people to have access to more data than the contacts (read access / no write).
How do I manage this? With restricted users I could choose which apps are accessible, but as far as I know it's not available for phones, only tablets.
The easiest was is probably to do it without the sync and just import the whole contact list once every month or something. Then the write access would be no problem, because nobody can mess directly with my contacts.
Is there any ROM that brings restricted users to phones that I can try?
I have a HTC Sensation (CM12) with docking station which I want to use.
I also have a Nexus 4 (stock 5.0) with a partly not responding touchscreen that I could also use when there is a ROM with the needed features only for this device.

Native CalDAV/CardDAV support?

Lately I have been wondering why Android still does not have native support for CalDAV & CardDAV, when both have been the de-facto open standard for contacts and calendar sync for years. Is there no native support because Google wants it to make it more difficult to use alternatives to their services? (In my case: NextCloud/ownCloud, which I can add right away even to an old Iphone, but still do not work with android out of the box without something like DAVDroid) Or are there plans to integrate it into future versions?
What's the problem with installing an app? Android has a native API for contacts and calendars, so I guess they can't be accused of making it "difficult". They probably just don't want to make it "too easy".
One could also ask why 99,9% of app developers don't support APK distribution but require users to use GApps & Play Store …
xv22gk said:
What's the problem with installing an app? …
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is not answering my question whether it is planned to have native support for CalDAV/CardDAV.
CardDAV / CalDAV are open standards for data exchange just like IMAP, NTP, SMTP and so on. It would be only natural for android to support them

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