Android phone: USB syncing with Outlook?

[Becky]

My beloved Blackberry Curve is getting long in the tooth, and it's time to consider a new phone. Currently, I find myself leaning towards an Android phone, but it's very important to me that I can easily sync it via USB with my Outlook calendar and contacts at work. Can I readily do this, and does anyone have any firsthand experience?

Syncing via Exchange aren't options, as it's my personal device, not a corporate one. Nor am I interested in syncing via Gmail, even though I would need a Gmail account for Android Market (or so I'm led to believe).

Thanks in advance!

[OakLeaf]

I don't think so, although I'm not 100% sure.

I switched to iCal from Entourage when I knew I was going to be getting an Android phone. I know Entourage isn't identical to Outlook, but it likely has the same capabilities/limitations. Although I don't love iCal, I'd already been having enough trouble with Entourage not playing nicely with my old PDAs that I wasn't really sorry to let it go.

[SadieKate]

I haven't even tried to sync directly without Outlook, but I do use Google Sync which syncs my Outlook calendar to a Google calendar which is then available on my Android phone. No USB required.

I have no idea about contacts because I don't want my work contacts sync'd to a personal phone.

[sadieme]

Check out www.android.net. LOTS of very smart people there who I am sure could answer your question, as well as any other android questions you might have.

Good luck!

[snapdragen]

I haven't even tried to sync directly without Outlook, but I do use Google Sync which syncs my Outlook calendar to a Google calendar which is then available on my Android phone. No USB required.

I have no idea about contacts because I don't want my work contacts sync'd to a personal phone.

^^this is what I do also^^^

[Becky]

I don't think I can use Google Sync because it appears to be Exchange-based for most phones. Anything direct-push isn't an option because of my employer's security parameters. It's local or nothing...

HTC has their own syncing utility called HTC Sync, which looks promising based on the documentation.

I find this all very confusing, and I appreciate the help and suggestions.

[bikerz]

I might be too late to this discussion to be helpful, but I use a program called Companion Synch and DejaOffice - together they work really well to sync my Outlook contacts and calendar to my Android using USB. I did NOT want *any* of my info in the google cloud.

I also use K-9 mail instead of the built-in Android email client, which allows me to bcc myself and then all emails I send from my Android end up in my sent folder in Outlook - pretty nifty, and an essential trail for my work communication (but it relies on a feature of my mail server which is a "smarter mail" provider - YMMV!).

Good luck!