alex in a nutshell

Since my Dopod d810 died as a result of an accident, I needed to get a new smartphone. The choice is obvious - iPhone 3G. It’s a nearly perfect device, however iTunes sync is sub-optimal. I couldn’t get it to sync consistently at work, where I have Outlook 2007 with Exchange 2007 Server.

Sometimes it would sync, sometimes it wouldn’t. After hours on the phone with Apple support I’ve narrowed down the problem - if Outlook doesn’t talk to Exchange, everything works. As soon as Exchange is in the picture, it becomes an issue. I couldn’t get my iPhone to sync with Exchange directly due to security policies at my workplace.

On top of that, sync with Outlook usually means that my Exchange calendar will contain both business and private events, which is rather sub-optimal, I’d rather keep my work environment business-only.

So ideally I want the following:

• Don’t keep any personal info at work machine
• Keep one central repository of all contacts and calendars (outside of work)
• Sync iPhone with contacts on my home laptop (backup reasons and in case I don’t have an Internet connection for some time)
• No wires and as automated as possible

After some digging around and talking to several colleagues, I’ve came up with an optimal way of addressing all my sync needs. Take a look at the high-level diagram of the solution:

I already have a Google account, and Google Calendar is an awesome tool, BUT iPhone doesn’t sync with it directly. Here comes NuevaSync. It’s a free service that provides Exchange interface to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Plaxo.

You need:

1. Create a Google Account. It’s free.
2. Download Google Calendar Sync utility to synchronise your Outlook/Exchange with Google Calendar. It’s free.
3. Create a NuevaSync account. It’s free.
4. Configure your NuevaSync account by providing your Google Account credentials.
5. Configure your iPhone to work with NuevaSync:
   • Click Settings >> Mail, Contacts, Calendar
   • Add a new Exchange account with NuevaSync credentials. Click here for full instruction (requires login on NuevaSync web site).
6. In Settings >> Fetch New Data uncheck Push email to save your battery. Instead select Fetch time more appropriate for your needs. I started with 15 minutes, but found 1 hour to be heaps better for battery life.

That’s about it.

If I get a meeting request in my work inbox while I’m away from my desk, the request trickles through to my iPhone within short time and I can still make it.

Ad-hoc sync with my MacBook Pro works great via iTunes whenever I connect the iPhone to it. Apple did a fabulous job of syncing the iPhone with multiple machines, something I could never get my Windows Mobile phone to do.

I don’t use email sync. I get too many emails at work and I don’t feel like getting them on my iPhone. I get all my personal emails on the iPhone, however. In order to do that I’ve set up all my mailboxes in Google Apps (you can bring your own domain as well) and enabled IMAP via Google Control Panel. iPhone works with IMAP mailboxes very good and I found myself using iPhone mostly for all my email needs. As I do it in small intervals throughout the day, I don’t need to allocate a huge chunck of time every evening to clear my Inbox.

This tip will also work if you have a Windows Mobile device.

Previously I’ve blogged about my favourite Windows Mobile applications. Now it’s time to write about my favourite software for OSX. Even though my Macbook Pro came with a whole bunch of useful software, there were few gaps required attention.

• Quicksilver. While OSX built-in search facility, Spotlight, is pretty good, Quicksilver simply kicks arse! It’s super fast and finds everything.  Amazingly, it’s free. Google for Quicksilver tutorials and you will discover why this is a must-have tool.
• Perian. If you watch DivX, AVI, XVID files on your Mac, it’s a must have, especially considering it’s price ($0). Integrates into QuickTime and I haven’t come across a fileit couldn’t play.
• VLC Player plays pretty much everything and it’s free.
• MacTheRipper is good for grabbing DVDs.
• Toast Titanium is an equivalent of Nero in Mac’s world.
• TextMate is a fantastic text editor. Not free, but worth every penny.
• Cyberduck is a FTP client for Mac. Good. Free.
• Read eBooks in CHM format on your Mac? Chmox is the best (and free) tool.
• Adium is the best chat client I’ve found. It supports AOL Instant Messenger (Including ICQ and .Mac), Jabber (Including Google Talk and LiveJournal), MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger (Including Yahoo! Japan), Bonjour (Compatible with iChat), MySpace IM, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, QQ, Lotus Sametime.

Links back to the Windows’ world:

• VMware Fusion is heaps better than Parallels. I use it to run Windows XP and it’s fast enough to bother with BootCamp.
• Remote Desktop Connection for Mac. I use it to connect to any Windows box, but mainly my desktop machine.

If you use any other Mac software worth mentioning, please leave a comment here or contact me.

I’ve been complaining about Firefox being a memory hog earlier, so I decided to try new Firefox 3 beta 2. It’s been a lot less aggressive in its memory consumption and is quite stable, which is a fantastic result for a beta. On the down side, most of my add-ons stopped working. I can live without many things, but I can’t live without Yahoo del.icio.us and Web Developer add-ons.

Luckily I’ve found this neat trick to enable your old Firefox 2 extensions in new Firefox 3:

1. Navigate to about:config address
2. Right-click and select New >> Boolean
3. Name it extensions.checkCompatibility
4. Set it to false
5. Restart Firefox

All your old add-ons will try to work and most of them will. At least both Yahoo del.icio.us and Web Developer add-ons work just fine for me.

I use Firefox every day, I was sold on its speed, leanness and extensibility, but it looks like the Firefox team is loosing the plot. My friend James Crisp recently posted the following:

Finally, last week, after Firefox hung yet again using 100% of processor and over 300mb of memory, I decided to give Opera a go.

300MB? How about 1.5GB? I’ve left my Firefox v2.0.0.11 running overnight on my office machine with 3 tabs open and discovered the following in the morning:

WTF, Firefox team? Is it time to give another browser a go?

One of the annoying problems of OS X Leopard upgrade was Firefox’s problem of presenting Russian characters - all buttons, text boxes and other controls contained question marks instead of characters while web pages were presented well.

This is how you fix this:

Quit Firefox. Go to Applications folder and Right click on Firefox. Select “Show Package Contents” from the menu. Navigate to Contents -> Resources and rename en.lproj directory to ru.lproj directory.

Now that I mentioned my Dopod d810, I decided it’d be great to share few things about software I use and recommend to any user of a smartphone under Windows Mobile 6.

• Spb Mobile Shell. It’s a surprisingly good piece of software that changes your screen totally. I really like Now screen that pops up every time I switch the phone on. It gives an instant view of what’s on.
• Spb GPRS Monitor. My phone supports HSDPA, I get really fast Internet connection on it, so I can easily get carried away with browsing and, potentially, downloading more than my provider’s 500MB per month limit. This little app does exactly what I need - it shows usage stats and warns me if my usage approaches the limit or goes over it.
• TomTom Navigator. This app saved us a number of times during our latest trip to Europe. Now with GPS built-in, it’s a definite install.
• Skype. My provider offers 1000 minutes of fre Skype-to-Skype calls per month. Why not call for free?
• eWallet. Smartphones are great because you can carry lots of information with you. However, some of that information is commercially sensitive or private and I can’t risk loosing it if I loose my phone. eWallet helps me keep my private info on the phone due to its 256-bit RC4 encryption. It also syncs with its desktop version, so I keep two copies of the info and can easily recover from loss of one copy.
• Total Commander. I use Windows version of Total Commander for over 10 years, so it’s natural for me to use its Windows Mobile version. It has a number of advantages over standard File Explorer. For example, FTP client, registry editor, Zip/UnZip, etc. It’s free too.
• CHM eBookReader. Allows reading eBooks in CHM (Windows Help file format). CHM is the best format for eBooks and this app makes it even better.
• HAALI Reader. Some books are available in plain Text format. HAALI Reader is the best and free app for reading this kind of books. Check Project Gutenberg site for some 1700 free books.

These apps will cover pretty much everything. If you have any other apps worth mentioning, please share with me.

With my beloved HP rw6828 being sent back to HP for refund, I started to look around for its replacement. The choice is obvious: Dopod d810 is pretty much the best phone on the market. It has every single feature you may need - 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, built-in GPS, easy buttons navigation, scroll wheel and it has constant attention from Dopod. Recently Windows Mobile 6.0 have been released for Dopod d810.

Battery lasts for about 2-3-4 days, depending on usage. I read e-books on mine, as well as browse Internet a bit,use Google Reader actively use to-do list and contacts, make calls over Skype, use TomTom and Google Maps for directions, etc. I’m yet to try video calls, can’t comments on this feature.

However, there are few things to complain about. GPS sensitivity isn’t great comparing to my Bluetooth GPS BT-338. Also its shiny black case is a fingerprint magnet.

But overall it’s a very, very, very good phone that covers all needs of an IT professional or any busy person with lots of contacts. Highly recommended!