How To Import Cotacts From Comcast Account?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Just gave somebody a 7" Android tablet.

Now they want the contacts from their Comcast account available on the
Android device.

I'm guessing any kind of hot sync is out of the question, but figure
there's got to be a way to export the Comcast contacts and import them
into the Android device.

Would not be averse to setting up a gMail account for this person if
that's the path of least resistance.... but they would not be sending or
receiving mail through it.

Anybody been here?
--
Pete Cresswell

[Mike Yetto]

In a world where (PeteCresswell) <x...@y.Invalid>
posts to Usenet...

> Just gave somebody a 7" Android tablet.

> Now they want the contacts from their Comcast account available on the
> Android device.

The first thing to ask is, where are the contacts from their
Comcast account stored? Are they in a mail program on a Pc? Is
there a web mail site?

> I'm guessing any kind of hot sync is out of the question, but figure
> there's got to be a way to export the Comcast contacts and import them
> into the Android device.

In this situation I usually look for what export formats are
available for the existing contacts and any matching input
formats for the new MUA (mail user agent).

> Would not be averse to setting up a gMail account for this person if
> that's the path of least resistance.... but they would not be sending or
> receiving mail through it.

Then you would have the same task of exporting/importing to
Gmail and then to the unnamed app on the unspecified tablet.

> Anybody been here?

Everyone's been there, mostly. Try using vcards for the transfer.

Mike "generic answer to nebulous question" Yetto
--
“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he
does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

[Juan Wei]

Mike Yetto has written on 12/9/2013 12:33 PM:

> In a world where (PeteCresswell) <x...@y.Invalid>
> posts to Usenet...
>> Just gave somebody a 7" Android tablet.
>
>> Now they want the contacts from their Comcast account available on the
>> Android device.
>
> The first thing to ask is, where are the contacts from their
> Comcast account stored? Are they in a mail program on a Pc? Is
> there a web mail site?

Comcast webmail contacts can be exported to a CSV file.

>> Would not be averse to setting up a gMail account for this person if
>> that's the path of least resistance.... but they would not be sending or
>> receiving mail through it.
>
> Then you would have the same task of exporting/importing to
> Gmail and then to the unnamed app on the unspecified tablet.

I think that Gmail will import a CSV file.

[Mike Yetto]

In a world where Juan Wei <juan...@gmail.com>
posts to Usenet...

The final target is not Gmail, but 'a 7" Android tablet' that may
or may not support a CSV file with unspecified columns.

Mike "<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>" Yetto
--
"I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to
practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the
privacy of their own homes, but it is also necessary to protect
the young and innocent."
- Arthur C. Clarke

[(PeteCresswell)]

>> I think that Gmail will import a CSV file.
>
>The final target is not Gmail, but 'a 7" Android tablet' that may
>or may not support a CSV file with unspecified columns.

The contacts are in MS Outlook and they can be exported six ways from
Sunday.... no problem there.

Sounds to me like gMail is the path of least resistance.

Export from Outlook, import into a gMail account, tell the tablet to
synch Contacts with gMail, then either disable the gMail account on the
tablet or figure out how to make it the non-default account.
--
Pete Cresswell

[Juan Wei]

Mike Yetto has written on 12/9/2013 3:17 PM:

> In a world where Juan Wei <juan...@gmail.com>
> posts to Usenet...
>

>> Comcast webmail contacts can be exported to a CSV file.
>

>> I think that Gmail will import a CSV file.
>
> The final target is not Gmail, but 'a 7" Android tablet' that may
> or may not support a CSV file with unspecified columns.

That depends on the email app the person wants to use, doesn't it?

[John B.]

On Mon, 09 Dec 2013 12:11:28 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid>
wrote:

I have never had an "American" phone but what can be done here is to
install another SIM card - maybe from a discontinued account - and
copy the contacts that are in the phone memory to the SIM, then insert
the SIM into the new phone and copy the SIM data into memory and than
remove the "backup" SIM and insert the new account SIM.

Or just get a Google account and it all happens by magic :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

[Tilman Ahr]

I have no idea in what form 'the contacts from their Comcast account'
might be stored. But if you can get those into '.vcf' files, which
appear to have been a standard for exchanging contacts since pretty much
forever, android can import these without problems. Send 'em via
Bluetooth, copy the files to the android devices internal storage via
network, mail 'em to an account that you then access via the tablet,
copy them to a Micro-SD-card and insert that to the android – I've
actually done all of the above without braking a sweat. Worked ever
time.

[tlvp]

On Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:09:11 +0700, John B. wrote:

> I have never had an "American" phone but what can be done here is to
> install another SIM card - maybe from a discontinued account - and
> copy the contacts that are in the phone memory to the SIM, then insert
> the SIM into the new phone and copy the SIM data into memory and than
> remove the "backup" SIM and insert the new account SIM.

One speed bump on that road: no SIM for any GSM phone I've seen will accept
multiple sorts of data for a single contact, or email addresses, or
classify a number as fax or business of cell or home or other, etc.

Another: there's all the phones that are SIM-free (for Sprint or VZW use).

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

[John B.]

On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 13:37:19 -0500, tlvp <mPiOsUcB...@att.net>
wrote:

Yes, I have read that the CDNA phones in the U.S. do not use a SIM,
thus my statement that I never had an "American " phone.

And yes, a SIM can hold a very limited amount of information - name
and phone number.

One alternative is to have a Google account. I've used Gmail for years
and when I get a new phone and turn it on all my phone contacts
miraculously appear :-) But if I remember, the original poster didn't
want to use Gmail. So what is the alternate?
--
Cheers,

John B.

[Tilman Ahr]

John B. <sloc...@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 13:37:19 -0500, tlvp <mPiOsUcB...@att.net>
> wrote:

[...]

> And yes, a SIM can hold a very limited amount of information - name
> and phone number.
>
> One alternative is to have a Google account. I've used Gmail for years
> and when I get a new phone and turn it on all my phone contacts
> miraculously appear :-)

Yes. A feature I like very much. Although I can see contexts in which one
wouldn't want their contacts stored by google (mainly for business
phones).

> But if I remember, the original poster didn't want to use Gmail. So
> what is the alternate?

As has been stated repeatedly: .vcf files are a rather simple and
reliable option. How easy it would be to get „Comcast Contacts“(whatever
they might be) into that format is another question…

[John B.]

On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:02:39 +0100, Tilman Ahr
<tilma...@mailbox.tu-berlin.de> wrote:

>John B. <sloc...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 13:37:19 -0500, tlvp <mPiOsUcB...@att.net>
>> wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> And yes, a SIM can hold a very limited amount of information - name
>> and phone number.
>>
>> One alternative is to have a Google account. I've used Gmail for years
>> and when I get a new phone and turn it on all my phone contacts
>> miraculously appear :-)
>
>Yes. A feature I like very much. Although I can see contexts in which one
>wouldn't want their contacts stored by google (mainly for business
>phones).
>

That is something that I frankly don't understand as likely 99% of
the"business phones" are listed in public directories and since I read
it I've been thinking back over my business life and I don't believe I
can think of a single contact I had in my personal phone book that I
would, or the owner of the number would, have cared a bit if they were
trumpeted from the roof tops. In fact we used to carry business cards
with our contact details on them and pass them out to every one we
met.

>> But if I remember, the original poster didn't want to use Gmail. So
>> what is the alternate?
>
>As has been stated repeatedly: .vcf files are a rather simple and
>reliable option. How easy it would be to get �Comcast Contacts�(whatever

>they might be) into that format is another question�
--
Cheers,

John B.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per John B.:

> But if I remember, the original poster didn't
>want to use Gmail. So what is the alternate?

I was not averse to using gMail - just trolling for alternatives and
tradeoffs.

I wound up going the gMail route - although I have not disabled the
gMail account on the user's tablet, figuring the worst that can happen
is they get the occasional spam to the gMail account.
--
Pete Cresswell

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per John B.:

>>Yes. A feature I like very much. Although I can see contexts in which one
>>wouldn't want their contacts stored by google (mainly for business
>>phones).
>>
>That is something that I frankly don't understand as likely 99% of
>the"business phones" are listed in public directories and since I read
>it I've been thinking back over my business life and I don't believe I
>can think of a single contact I had in my personal phone book that I
>would, or the owner of the number would, have cared a bit if they were
>trumpeted from the roof tops. In fact we used to carry business cards
>with our contact details on them and pass them out to every one we
>met.

Can't speak for others, but my major reservation about gMail (which I do
use...) is somebody harvesting my phonebook for the purpose of spamming
the people who have entrusted me with their email addresses.
--
Pete Cresswell

[Juan Wei]

Tilman Ahr has written on 12/15/2013 9:02 PM:

>
> As has been stated repeatedly: .vcf files are a rather simple and
> reliable option. How easy it would be to get „Comcast Contacts“(whatever
> they might be) into that format is another question…
>

The Comcast addressbook exports to either VCF or CSV.

[John B.]

On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:18:18 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid>
wrote:

I did give some thought to what would happen if I lost a cell phone.
with a Google account enabled and I set up a new Google account and
linked my other accounts to it and used the new account for the phone.
If I lose the phone I can deactivate the account and cut off access to
my e-mail accounts which do, from time to time, contain information,
like my credit card numbers, that I would really not like made public.

--
Cheers,

John B.

[John B.]

On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:20:16 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid>
wrote:

I'm not disagreeing with you other than to say that in my experience
far more addresses are harvested through posts on Usenet than from
simply opening a gmail account :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

[Tilman Ahr]

John B. <sloc...@gmail.com> writes:

> On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:20:16 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid>
> wrote:

[...]

> I'm not disagreeing with you other than to say that in my experience
> far more addresses are harvested through posts on Usenet

Hello? This is 1999 calling. We'd like our usenet-spammers back, pretty
please?

Seriously: I've been using my old university mail adress for … well …
usenet and not much else for the last five years, and all the spam it
ever gets are the two or three good old well-known scams that the
spam-filter dutifully drops without notice…

The adress that's active on the www (googlemail, incidentally) gets more
interesting(CN) pickled pork. Although not more, strictly
speaking. Actually: It's less. Not by much, though.

I believe the days of spammers harvesting usenet for valid mail adresses
are well over. From personal experience, I'd also say that the good old
days[TM] of 20 legit mails plus 200 spam mails a day are also
history. But then, I'm not on facebook, and generally not a naive user
of so-called social media…

> than from simply opening a gmail account

Well, yeah. Just creating that account will generate zero mail-spam. It
probably won't even interact with your experience of youtube & co. Which
actually using it likely will. And for the two computer-literate people
who don't use adblock pro or its likes, it will also affect their
browsing experience…

> :-)

Yes, I know… ;->

[John B.]

On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 04:18:08 +0100, Tilman Ahr
<tilma...@mailbox.tu-berlin.de> wrote:

>John B. <sloc...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:20:16 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid>
>> wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> I'm not disagreeing with you other than to say that in my experience
>> far more addresses are harvested through posts on Usenet
>
>Hello? This is 1999 calling. We'd like our usenet-spammers back, pretty
>please?
>
>Seriously: I've been using my old university mail adress for � well �
>usenet and not much else for the last five years, and all the spam it
>ever gets are the two or three good old well-known scams that the

>spam-filter dutifully drops without notice�
>

I don't want to get into a war but I have a couple of e-mail accounts
that I use solely for Usenet and they do attract spam. So whatever
method someone used to obtain the e-mail addresses seems most likely
to be associated with Usenet.

>The adress that's active on the www (googlemail, incidentally) gets more
>interesting(CN) pickled pork. Although not more, strictly
>speaking. Actually: It's less. Not by much, though.
>
>I believe the days of spammers harvesting usenet for valid mail adresses
>are well over. From personal experience, I'd also say that the good old
>days[TM] of 20 legit mails plus 200 spam mails a day are also
>history. But then, I'm not on facebook, and generally not a naive user
>of so-called social media�
>
>> than from simply opening a gmail account
>
>Well, yeah. Just creating that account will generate zero mail-spam. It
>probably won't even interact with your experience of youtube & co. Which
>actually using it likely will. And for the two computer-literate people
>who don't use adblock pro or its likes, it will also affect their
>browsing experience�
>
>> :-)
>
>Yes, I know� ;->

--
Cheers,

John B.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per John B.:

>I'm not disagreeing with you other than to say that in my experience
>far more addresses are harvested through posts on Usenet than from
>simply opening a gmail account :-)

Seems like most of my spam comes to addresses I have specified when
making online purchases which, of course, I wouldn't *dream* of making
with my "real" address.

But in the last year, I have had contact with a half-dozen people who
have had their online email addressbooks harvested. So far, the
pattern has been that my "real" address - which I had entrusted to those
people - gets spammed for a week or two and then the spam dries up.

I can't say that any of them were or were not gMail users though.
--
Pete Cresswell