I have been quite content with just having a plain old phone for the longest time. No data plan, no texting plan, and didn't even have games on my phone. When Bell went to their next generation cellular network last week, I decided to get an iPhone.

Needless to say, I am very enthused with everything I can do on my phone. Email, my google contacts come down, my calendars from Google and my work's Microsoft Exchange server come down, tons of applications, and other things I'm find out day after day.

I'm also finding the limitations of the iPhone. I realized most of them before I purchased it and it was a fairly weighted decision between iPhone and an Android phone (phone that runs Google's Android operating system), but a few decision weighed in and I went with iPhone. Most notably, I can't run some of my apps in the background, I can't develop apps for my phone without a Mac computer, and there are some illegal apps out there that I want that the AppStore rejected.

In the next while I will fill you on my iPhone findings and what I'm doing with it.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

Note: This article is now outdated as iPhone OS 4.0 allows for multiple exchange accounts.

I have found two ways that I have used to download my Google Contacts list onto my iPhone. For those of you who don't know what Google Contacts is, it is basically a big address book on-line. Entries get created automatically when you email people using your Gmail account, but you can add tons of other information like phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, profile pictures, and even categorize them into groups.

If you are like me, it is quite developed and very handy to have on-line as well as on your phone. Both methods I have used will synchronize both ways, meaning that changes you make on your phone or on -line will then move to the other device too.

Free Way to Synchronize Your Google Contacts

The free way is to configure your email on the iPhone to work using the Exchange settings when you initially do the setup. Most people use the "Gmail" option as it is the most obvious, but it will only sync your mail.

There are specific instructions on Google's Google Sync for iPhone page.

The downside with this is that the iPhone only allows for one Exchange account to be set up at a time, so if you have another email account using this, then my paid option below might work for you better.

Please note, with this method you also get push email which means your phone will show your email as soon as it is delivered to your account. It otherwise checks the server on a predetermined interval (could be 10 or 15 minutes) to check for new email.

Paid Way to Synchronize Your Google Contacts

I found an app called Sync in a Blink that will synchronize your Google Contacts to your iPhone. It is quite a bit more powerful as it will let you specify more settings and only sync certain groups if you've defined them in your Contacts.

Basically, it allows you to not have to use your Exchange account on your iPhone if you are already using it for another account.

Word of warning, play around with the settings first for Sync in a Blink, because if you sync more contacts than you really wanted to (like I did) it is a bit of a pain to wipe the contact list so you can sync again. There are some tutorials on-line on how to do it though.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

I have owned an Acer Extensa 5420 for basically 2 years now. I wrote an Acer Extensa 5420 Laptop Review and another article in regards to a Black Screen On Startup.

I had a new problem today. The power jack was pushed back further inside the laptop. When I tried to connect my power cord, it fit really loosely and the battery charging light would not turn on. I have seen power jack problems before, so had a pretty good feeling this was the problem.

Anyhow, I turned the laptop over and remove the small panel on the bottom where you gain access to the memory. I then removed all the large screws on the bottom have of the plastic case so that I could detach it. I was still unable to remove it, so I remove the top piece above the keyboard where the power button is and the power lights. Underneath there are two screens that hold the monitor to the upper half of the body. If you remove these, it also allows to pull back the bottom half.

Sorry if the instructions are confusing. I don't have pictures either. Basically, try to remove as many screws as possible that look like it holds the two halves together though.

When I looked inside where the power jack was, the tiny little plastic ridges that the power jack held against had bent back and/or broken off. My solution was to push it back into place, insert the power cord into the jack fully, duct tape down the power cord on the outside of the laptop so it stays in a good place and doesn't place any more strain on the power jack, and then apply as much super glue via toothpick around the surface contact areas that were plastic between the power jack and the laptop case.

Afterwards I put everything back together and left the power cord taped to the laptop to give it as much time to cure the glue as possible.

Hopefully it lasts for a little while. A new power jack definitely wouldn't have helped as the problem was with some plastic pieces on the inside of the laptop body.

Post a Comment ... (6 Comments)