Q: Contacts - where are they stored?

Thanks Rockmyplimsoul!

It did finally take!  Think I will just stay away from iCloud all together... I don't see any purpose in using it for contacts, calendar, notes, etc.  Maybe documents later on, but no need now.  I wish contacts could be grouped... but I can just do that in gmail as needed for historical or as need based.

As well as the Google Apps app, it doesn't gain me anything.

With iCal I've read a lot that it is not good with multiple timezone events, i.e., flight departing at 4pm MST, arriving 9pm EST, but only 3 hour duration.  And a need for "floating events" &/or TZS issues.  Maybe this won't matter if I continue to just do this through gCal and it will sync to my iPhone without issue.  Any quick take on this?

Although I do prefer Google Maps, as it works seemlessly with me adding addresses & gps coords into my calendar events for work, Apple Support pages say defaulting to Google Maps is not possible.  My first couple tests of letting iMaps find the location, went so so.  Hmm, testing now, addresses work, gps coords don't carry over though. oh well.. maybe there's a fix, as gps I use a lot for foreign travels.

Again, thanks!

Sorry, hopefully one final question.

Any suggestions of an app to "backup" SMS/iMessages & why not, Whatsapp messages to gmail like SMS Backup did on Android? Doesn't matter if free, just want it functional.  I see this asked in Apple Support, but the first answer was "backup in iCloud & iTunes".  Not very helpful, especially as they are only archieved there, and you can't access/read unless you restore them to your phone or export to a text or word doc.....definitely not the same.

Thanks!

I use PhoneView (Mac) but TouchCopy (Mac and Windows) is also often recommended. Both allow you to archive your messages in text or PDF files.

iCloud is where you would backup your messages for later restoration to your phone.