[ewthompson]

As I have mentioned in the past, I currently utilize a BlackBerry as my smartphone. Lack of an upgrade path (Sprint) has me eyeing other options for future purchases, specifically the new HTC One, which should debut next week.

The HTC One runs on the Android operating system. I have some questions that I would appreciate input on from those in the know:

Is it possible to fully use the phone while preventing it from storing my PIM data on Google's servers?
-- my understanding is that you must create, or link to, a gmail account in order to access the Google Play store (and possibly do other things on the phone). Doing so creates a means for Google to back up your calendar and potentially other data to its servers. Can I turn off the auto-sync function for the calendar(s) while still enabling my (non-gmail) email to automatically pull down mail periodically?

Can direct, local syncs between the phone and Outlook on my computer be performed (wifi/ bluetooth/ USB)?

Does the native calendar app accept and properly process incoming iCal invites (specifically those which would be sent by a BlackBerry), and can invites for events be sent using the stock calendar app when they are created?

Will have some other questions tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[spat]

As I have mentioned in the past, I currently utilize a BlackBerry as my smartphone. Lack of an upgrade path (Sprint) has me eyeing other options for future purchases, specifically the new HTC One, which should debut next week.

The HTC One runs on the Android operating system. I have some questions that I would appreciate input on from those in the know:

Is it possible to fully use the phone while preventing it from storing my PIM data on Google's servers?
-- my understanding is that you must create, or link to, a gmail account in order to access the Google Play store (and possibly do other things on the phone). Doing so creates a means for Google to back up your calendar and potentially other data to its servers. Can I turn off the auto-sync function for the calendar(s) while still enabling my (non-gmail) email to automatically pull down mail periodically?

Can direct, local syncs between the phone and Outlook on my computer be performed (wifi/ bluetooth/ USB)?

Does the native calendar app accept and properly process incoming iCal invites (specifically those which would be sent by a BlackBerry), and can invites for events be sent using the stock calendar app when they are created?

Will have some other questions tomorrow. Thanks.

I would have to look into some of your questions in more detail, I believe all the things you are asking are possible, I am not sure how easy they all are but they are possible (with the possible exception of the HTC native calendar, however the "native" calendar is not as tightly integrated w/ the OS as you are used to and I suspect that if you had to install an alternate calendar app to accomplish what you are looking for that once configured you would hardly even notice the vestigial "native" app.

I have a (cheap) android tablet that is so uncoupled from google that it cannot even access the google app store and must use one of the alternative app stores (the only reason I haven't connected it to the google app store is that I haven't missed it enough to bother, for this particular tablet doing so is not trivial)

So, Android can do what you want, I am not sure how difficult it will be to make the specific flavor on the HTC phone you are looking at do all of what you ask however. I suspect that 90% of what you are looking for wouldn't be very much trouble at all, and the remaining 10% may or may not be.

 

[ewthompson]

I appreciate the input, spat. I had not considered using a Play Store alternative. If it provides me a way to download the apps i need while providing a buffer to Google integration, it may be worth looking into.
I am also not bent on using the native calendar. My main goal is to keep my contacts/calendar data local, and be able to accept and send appointment invites, for coordination with those in my circle.

 

[av8r]

Android without a Google account isn't Android....and it's the reason I've stayed with more vendor agnostic systems like iPhone.

Using Android phone without Google account | Mrt M

I believe the ICS shortfall has been corrected to some degree

Gmail lets you add .ics calendar events directly to GCal with a single click

Since MS owns Active-Sync you'll likely need a 3rd party app (or sync your Outlook with a Google account...see how they keep bringing you back to that?) Android-Sync | Sync Android with Outlook via USB to sync to Outlook correctly.

Remember, Google is a marketing company. They want ALL the data and they have figured out ways to get it.

 

[ewthompson]

Thanks av8r, that is just the info i needed. One question: assuming i am willing to only use the default apps, and skip registering a gmail account when setting up the phone, can you foresee any basic operational problems arising from that? I will do some further research into that as well, just wanted to see if anything comes immediately to mind for you. I am going to look into whether a non-Playstore download option exists for some of the major media apps out there (Netflix, Pandora).

ETA: it looks like the Amazon app store is an option, no?

 

[av8r]

Thanks av8r, that is just the info i needed. One question: assuming i am willing to only use the default apps, and skip registering a gmail account when setting up the phone, can you foresee any basic operational problems arising from that? I will do some further research into that as well, just wanted to see if anything comes immediately to mind for you. I am going to look into whether a non-Playstore download option exists for some of the major media apps out there (Netflix, Pandora).

Without rooting the phone I think the functionality without a google account is going to be poor. There are some articles online that speak to this.