iPad/iPhone Contacts Sync issue w/Yahoo Contacts

Happy New Year to all!

I have been digging but I cannot find my particular issue in the Forum...

Situation:
1. iPad 2 & iPhone 3GS, both running iOS5
2. Yahoo mail (by way of att.net)
3. Contacts on iPad & iPhone tagged as iPhone (where applicable) vs. Mobile
4. When syncing the phone number is not showing in Yahoo Contacts as Mobile (or anything else)
5. Only options in Yahoo Contacts are Home, Work, Mobile, Pager, Fax, Other
6. When I put the contact in Yahoo Contacts and choose Mobile changes the iPad/iPhone Contact to Mobile.

Arrrrrg!

As you know, the iPhone tag on the iPad/iPhone allows for iMessage vs. Text Message.

Anyone have a solution short of stopping the syncing function and relying on the iPad/iPhone Contacts only?

Thanks!

I am also having problems with messages. On my iPad, I can message my son who has an iPhone. But on my husbands new iPad, it does not recognize the iPhone number as registered.

why don't you use the iCloud as a means of tranfer of contacts between your iDevices instead? I guess the iPhone number type is only intended to be recognized by Apple-based products/services.

You can not send Messages to an iPad via it's phone number. You have to use the email address of the iCloud ID your husband used in his Messages settings, or some other email address he adds in the same place.

Excluding jailbreaking tweaks, the phone number on an iPad is for ID purposes only. It will not act as an actual phone, SMS, or other communications address.

I found about this the hard way when I tried to transfer a set of contacts from my iphone 4s to my ipad via Yahoo. Indeed the phone numbers originally showing under the type "iPhone" did not show up in Yahoo as this type since Yahoo does not feature an iPhone category. I tried transferring the contacts via Windows Contacts too. Guess what - now the contact numbers which appeared under iPhone got moved to the "Notes" section. With regards to icloud - i keep a separate contact list on my iphone as opposed to my ipad. As a result i cannot transfer only a set of contacts as enabling icloud contact sync on both devices will virtually sync all contacts and bring all my iphone contacts to my ipad (albeit with the correct "iphone" type set to my contact numbers).