Syncing contacts between Outlook for Mac (2015) and Google Contacts

I fixed this by manually setting the "middle name" to "A" on all Outlook contacts, then synced with the iPhone, then manually deleted all contacts without an "A" middle name on the iPhone, then removed the "A" middle names in Outlook and then synced with the iPhone again.

Drawbacks: lots of manual work and loosing the middle name content (luckily not used in my contacts).

Using the middle name is good because it is shown in list view on the iPhone, so one can quickly see what must be removed without looking at details.

I've been extremely happy with iCloud syncing between MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. Once set up it works flawlessly and reliably unlike MobileMe which I had for years and was useful but never totally trustworthy. iCloud really is a great solution for syncing address book and calendar and reminders. I'm also enjoying it's syncing of bookmarks and other safari browser data.

My only caveat about it is that some MobileMe users have had some issues in doing the move. None of these issues to my knowledge have been unsolveable but there have been some bumps. For users with an Apple ID and no legacy of MobileMe use it's extremely smooth to set up.

All iOS devices need to be running iOS 5, Macs need latest version of Lion.

http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/