LG Viewty

Not going for the iPhone because I want a better camera and LG have brought out the fab (if weirdly named) Viewty.
Of course it's not mac compatible with iSync so I may be posting in the wrong place.

LG's support people were quite rude when I tried to find out if it would show up as an external flash disc or if there was any other way of porting photos taken on it to a Mac or even if it had Pictbridge. The answer (at premium phone rates) was a very curt "No!" to everything, no attempt to even pretend to be helpful. I later found out from a review site (there is currently nothing useful on LG's site) that actually it does have Pictbridge so at least I can connect to a printer but LG's "support" staff don't seem to know this.

If anyone gets one of these and has any success getting the photos onto a Mac can they post about it?

I wouldn't bother normally, particularly with LG's bad attitude to people trying to actually BUY their goods, but I really want a camera that's also a phone rather than a phone with a bad camera and this seems the best around at the moment. I looked at the new Sony-ericcson K850i but it was rather disappointing and didn't take anything like such good photos in the shop.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Nov 1, 2007 7:31 AM

83 replies

Nov 7, 2007 2:09 AM in response to Davies

That's what I'm after too! The best way would be for some who knew what they were doing to write an iSync plugin. I have contacted Nova Media ( http://www.novamedia.de/sync/) who write iSync plugins, and am waiting for their response.

I tried those other two apps mentioned above, but I don't think they are Leopard compatible.. they both freeze and even killing their processes didn't stop them.. I had to reboot the machine :S (My first Leopard crash! :'( )

Nov 7, 2007 2:36 AM in response to Davies

Reply from NovaMedia:

"sorry, but we can create a plugins only for the phones with standardized
data exchanging protocols, like SyncML. For LG phones is not the case yet."

I'm trying to get some technical data out of them and/or LG so we can figure out where we stand. SyncML is one of just two standards which the iSync Plugin Maker supports, so hopefully this is only half our options lost. There is still a glimmer of hope?!

Nov 7, 2007 3:08 AM in response to Tom Medhurst

Good stuff dude, keep me posted if you get any further, let me know if i can help in any way.

Nov 7, 2007 3:19 AM in response to Burningdiver

Ive tried Bitpim before, i just tried it again, but it doesnt have the LG Viewty (KU990) on its list of usable phones. Upon trying Onsync, it too doesnt have the phone on its list, i guess programmers havnt caught up with the new tech, hopefully they will soon.

Nov 7, 2007 3:34 AM in response to Davies

Yeh and get them working with Leopard?!

Nov 7, 2007 3:51 PM in response to Davies

Right! If you are using GMail or Plaxo and you don't mind that the sync uses up some of your precious data tariff quota I have a solution! Ta da!

There is a solution called GooSync which was released very, very recently. It allows free SyncML access to GMail calendars (and £20, which I happily paid, for GMail contact access too) so you can use the Synch Centre (Settings > Phone Settings > Connection Manager > Synch Service Manager) to do a two-way sync from GMail.

This also works with Plaxo as Plaxo has the ability to sync with GMail, thus allowing indirect access to your Plaxo account (this works I have tested it!!)

I know it's a hack, but I was getting pretty desperate to get all my contacts on my phone and this is definitely the only way for now?!

Anyway, if you're not using Plaxo to sync/backup your address book on your mac(s) you should be!! 😝

Any thoughts?

Message was edited by: Tom Medhurst 2

Nov 7, 2007 4:02 PM in response to Davies

My phone arrived today - hats off to O2 for the **** quick delivery.

The camera and video are awesome (for a phone - lets not get too carried away). The interface still feels a little buggy with occasional lags and some minor annoyances like the flip scroll of a long list not always working/detecting 1st time. The jog wheel works pretty well for zooming the camera but not ideal for manual focus and totally impractical for scrolling menus. Havent had a chance to play with the online functionality yet as I'm awaiting my web package to be enabled.

I havent found a way of syncing the contacts to the phone but I have managed to get the contacts on the phone by exporting the mac address book as a VCard and then sending this to the phone by bluetooth. At least this saved me re-typing them all.

TVPAV

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2007 1:01 AM in response to manbytesdog

Can the phone make calls? I am moving from SE k800i which works perfectly well with my MacBook Pro. Is it worth going for this phone just for touch screen and a 5m pixel camera?

Did anyone tried sending text using Free EmitSMS widget?

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Dashboard-Widgets/Webcams/Miscellaneous/algoritmer- SendSMS.shtml

Pav

http://www.woodendude.com

Nov 8, 2007 1:56 AM in response to Davies

I moved from the Sony K800i also, that was an excellent phone. I would say that even though the phone on the LG is 5Mpx instead of the 3.2Mpx of the SEK800i, the quality of the photos taken by the K800i AND the xenon flash ARE superior. (Shocker I know!)

Saying that, a friend of mine has the new K850i phone and it's almost identical to the K800i, I really think that would be a disappointing upgrade.

The LG is a superior phone. As I said before, the user interface and input mechanisms (hand writing recognition, T9 or `snail` typing) are great, you just have to put up with the lack of sync support for the time being!

If you want a phone based on the camera and seemless integration with your mac; get the K850i. If you want a great user experience and a phone which opens files like: pdf, doc, xls, etc.. get the KU990, no questions!

Hope this helps your decision.

Nov 8, 2007 4:01 AM in response to Tom Medhurst 2

"you just have to put up with the lack of sync support for the time being!"

Unfortunately, I can say with almost 100% certainty, that you will be without iSync support forever, not just "for the time being" if the Viewty does not have SyncML. And even if it does have SyncML, that's no guarantee that it will be iSync compatible.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting info about whether this phone does or does not have SyncML. LGs own web-site makes no mention of it, and none of their earlier phones have it, the O2 Connectivity Specifications page explicitly says it does not have SyncML, but a couple of other mobile phone sites do list it as a feature.

If LG have decided to shun the industry standard SyncML protocol in this phone (unlike Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and even Samsung now), there is just no way you'll ever be able to use iSync to sync it.

In earlier phones LG have chosen to use their own proprietary and incompatible syncing method, and they don't they provide their own Mac syncing software with the phone, like they do for Windows users either.

Industry standards exist for a reason, but LG still refuse to use them.

Nov 8, 2007 4:12 AM in response to Davies

The Viewty does support SyncML to some extent.. as I mentioned in a previous post, there is a sync centre which allows two-way sync to an http SyncML centre.. I have used this with GooSync so I know it works.

I noticed the lack of specs about the LG's sync capabilities and am as suspicious of this as you are.. but if the http SyncML stuff works, the LG must have a SyncML client in there.. it's just whether or not it is accessable via bluetooth/usb?

Is there anyone out there who knows about this kind of thing? Is there any way of scanning the phone via bluetooth/usb and seeing if there is access to a SyncML client? Or anyway of checking the fireware?

Nov 8, 2007 4:32 AM in response to Tom Medhurst 2

SyncML for HTTP and SyncML for OBEX (Bluetooth/USB) are quite different implementations of the SyncML protocol.

There's lots of detailed tech info here: http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/affiliates/syncml/syncmlindex.html

With the Viewty paired, look in the Bluetooth system preferences pane and see what Bluetooth profiles it offers. Are there any that specifically mention SyncML and OBEX? These are the ones that Sony Ericsson phones use for iSync for instance.

Nov 8, 2007 4:50 AM in response to Davies

I've just paired the phone with my work PC and the only Bluetooth services are:

1. Business Card Exchange (LGE OPP)
2. File Exchange (LGE FTP)
3. Serial Port (LG Sync SPP)

So OBEX is out.. all hope is gone! The LG Sync SPP is a little interesting, although I have googled around and can't find any information about it; I am assuming therefore it is a Serial Port reserved for use with LG's own sync software (which doesn't work BTW!!!)

I guess the only other thing to do is to run Ethereal on a machine which the PC syncing software does work on and see how the sync is working over this Serial Port. :o(

TVPAV

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2007 6:08 AM in response to Tom Medhurst 2

More I read about here less I want this phone - and I was going to get it on Saturday (when the new stock arrives). There is new Sony W960 coming out in January. 2.8" touch screen.

This thing about not being able to sync is a big issue. I am too lazy to input every contact twice (phone and the address book) and there is too many of them.

What other iPhone Killer phones are there?

Pav

http://www.woodendude.com

Nov 8, 2007 10:58 AM in response to TVPAV

On initial setup you dont need to re-enter all your contacts. Open the mac Address Book - right click 'All' and select 'Export group Vcard'.

This will give you a single file of all you contacts. Send the file via bluetooth to your phone - accept the file on the phone and then agree to restore all contacts. This will populate all your contacts on the phone.

Its not syncing but it sure beats all that manual input.

The phone is fairly standard phone fodder with good touch input and the web browser works really well. Its the camera that really stands out. For me the images are much better than the K850i. I was going to go for the K850i but it was a really disappointing phone, esp coming from the K800i.
The K850i images are almost the exact same as the K800i in many situations and the phone itself only has minor updates (I'm ignoring the pointless tilt mechanism).

The more I use the Viewty the more I like it.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

LG Viewty