Contacts Sync for Google Gmail // Organizing Contacts into Groups

When I did my series on {Almost} Paperless, I mentioned an iMac app, Cobook, that I used as an Address Book on my computer.  They made an update to the app and changed their interface.  I didn't like it, and I didn't like how they imported my Facebook friends into the app resulting in many contacts with little data (just links to their Facebook profiles which is not useful to me at all).

I did some searching and found an app that has worked really well for me.  Contacts Sync for Google Gmail is an app that syncs the contacts in my Gmail address book with the Mac app Address Book as well as with iCloud.  This results in my iPhone, iPad, and iMac all being synced together.

Contacts Sync for Google Gmail has apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.  If you have a Mac computer, then you only need the app for the Mac.  You can use the resident app Address Book to organize your contacts into groups, and then use Contacts Sync for Google Gmail to sync them to your gmail account.  You may have to go to your gmail account (on the web) to find and merge duplicate contacts.  The initial setup can take a while while you tweak everything, but after that, it works like a charm!  You do not even have to have Contacts Sync for Google Gmail up and running all the time (although you can since it does offer Auto-sync).  If you do not use Auto-sync, be sure to sync every time you make changes to your address book or to your iPhone contacts.

If you do NOT have a Mac computer, then you will use the app for your iPhone or your iPad.  I can't help you any further with setting up groups.

Organizing Contacts into Groups (using the Mac app Address Book)


For best results, I set Address Book up to only show my iCloud contacts.  Here is the Preferences window:

When I enabled my Gmail accounts, it showed duplicate contacts (since they were all synced together).  Having only my iCloud account enables just makes it easier.

Below is a screenshot of my Address Book app showing how I have organized my contacts:

I have several main categories:  Business, CBC - my church, Christmas Cards, Church - other people/organizations besides my church, Family, Friends, Miscellaneous, OCC (Operation Christmas Child), and OtMP (my photography business).  Most of these are further subdivided into subcategories.  (The My Contacts category is one that Gmail generates on its own every time I add a new contact on my phone. It's somewhat useful for finding new contacts that need to be put into my groups.)

First, I put every contact into a main category (Ex: Business - all) and then I also put them into the appropriate subcategories.

The only thing I do not like about Address Book is that it does not tell me on the Contacts view all of the groups that the selected contact is in.  I have to go to gmail.com to see that.  I have not yet checked all of my contacts to make sure they are in the correct groups, but I know it will be somewhat tedious to use gmail.com and Address Book; however, once it is all set up the way I want it, I shouldn't have any problems after that.

One final piece of advice:  while you are reorganizing your contacts and are tweaking your groups, make sure you save a backup of your contacts before, during, and after the process.

App Review: Beginner's Bible

Handlebar Marketing approached me about reviewing the iPad app for The Beginner's Bible.  In return (for being among the first 100 to respond), I will receive a free print copy.

The Beginner's Bible App by Zondervan ($1.99) is divided into two sections:  Read and Play.

The Read section has six different Bible stories with illustrations.  When the story is being narrated, each word is highlighted.  You can turn off the narration if you wish.  Each of the illustrations has some sort of interactivity with it which encourages the child to engage with the picture and relate to the story.

The stories are easy to read and to follow.  My one big complaint that the only way you can hear any of the sound is to plug in headphones.  This rather freaked me out because I worried that something was wrong with my iPad.  After checking the sound with the Netflix app, I determined that the sound is ok and that it is an app problem.

Additional stories can be purchased through an in-app purchase for $1.99.  It includes 6 new stories (The Visitors, A Bride for Isaac, Isaac's Blessing, Jacob's Dream, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph's Robe), 3 new coloring pages, 2 new puzzles, and 1 new bonus activity.  I'm sure there will be more Story Packs available as they develop the app.

The Play section has six different games to play which correlate to the stories available on the app.  The Beginning, Noah's Ark (shown below), and A New Home are coloring pages.  There are 7 different colors available to use to color the app, as well as a magic button that allows you to swipe the picture and it will automagically color it the way the original artist has it colored.  I liked that feature.  Catchy (but somewhat annoying) music plays in the background while you color.

For Adam and Eve and The Tall Tower, there are puzzles for you to put together to form the picture.  The pieces are easy to manipulate and I like that the "tolerance" for how close you have to hover the piece is very lenient for young fingers.  My daughter liked this pretty well, but wasn't quite into it enough to want to do the whole thing herself.  I find the background music annoying, but it's probably very catch for kids.

The Sneaky Snake game (shown below) is a lot of fun!  Apples float up like balloons and you have to swipe to pop them.  As you progress, more apples float up faster and faster.  (Hint: the trick is to do one long swipe to bust as many apples as possible rather than short swipes for each apple.)  I really got into this game myself, and my daughter liked doing it as well.

Overall, this is a good app.  Gracie (who is 2-1/2) has a typical attention span for a toddler and enjoyed listening to some of the stories, but not all the way through.  She enjoyed interacting with some of the illustrations.  The best way for her to enjoy and benefit from this app is for me to do it right along with her.  I will gladly let her wear the headphones because I really do not like the music.  I do wish that the audio could be heard from the speakers (for the reading).  I just think that should be the norm on all apps.  The app is well made and is very easy to use.  I do think that $1.99 is steep for each Story Pack.  I'd rather see the Story Packs run for $0.99 or at least have twice as many stories and activities available.  To purchase enough for the whole Bible will run a pretty penny.

A note for Handlebar Marketing:  I did a review on the App Store, but I have no idea how to get the url for it.  My user name is MrsKinsey.  Here is a screenshot of my review: