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I've bought a new computer because I can't hold up my work while I wait for my older MacBook Pro to return from Apple's repair shop. In the meantime, I've not backed up my iPhone 3G for a week. I plan to sync my iPhone to the new MBP. There's a good discussion of migrating an iPhone to another in a different question -- but it's built on the idea that the old computer is around and involved.

So -- what will I lose or what side effects will I suffer if I just plug my iPhone into my new computer and sync to iTunes?

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You'll need to authorize the new computer to your iTunes account. Then you can re-download any applications you purchased.

As for connecting to the new computer and syncing, you may get a warning about it, but to my knowledge the settings (mail, calendar, etc) are from the computer to the phone, not the other way around. You may need to create the calendar and email accounts on the computer first, or if you're using a provider such as Gmail or Yahoo, configure that on the new computer before syncing.

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jtimberman is correct. Just because you connect an iPhone to a new computer, doesn't mean you have to sync it. You will get a warning before syncing because that will erase the data on the phone, but syncing isn't mandatory. I connect mine to my laptops at work and at home all the time to charge it without issues. However, I don't think non-MobileMe accounts have any bearing or are affected by iPhone syncing. –  Philip Regan Aug 25 '09 at 10:33
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When you sync an iPhone to another PC, you can do the following for the Contacts/Calendars:

  1. Sync and MERGE the Contacts/Calendars (under the Info tab) between PC and the iPhone.
  2. Do not modifying anything on the iPhone by not choosing to sync any info from PC
  3. Do a one way WIPE AND SYNC PC Contacts/Calendars info by choosing "Replace information on this iPhone" (also under the Info tab)

For the multimedia contents such as Music/Photos/Podcasts/Video/Application, you can only sync FROM the PC to the iPhone.

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