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Tethering Briefly Comes To The iPhone, Tempers Flare

1Password Makes Secure Logins Easier on Iphones

iPhone/iPod touch only: Free application 1Password makes logging into secure sites much easier on the iPhone's mobile Safari browser by creating a double-protected mini-database of your passwords. The app won't auto-fill login forms in Safari, but provides its own mini-browser that plugs in your credentials into any site's login form. Great for checking your bank accounts or secure work data, but the big drawback is lack of a keyboard inside the mini-browser—so no further typing once you're in. Of course, you can just use 1Password as a memory-booster for your user/password combos, for which it works just fine. 1Password is a free download for iPhones and iPod touch devices only.

How to Sync Any Desktop Calendar with Google Calendar

As of yesterday's announcement of CalDAV support in Google Calendar, you can now sync your Google Calendar with virtually any popular desktop calendar for free. Not only can you enjoy your favorite desktop calendar software and still get the benefit of the web interface, but you can also sync any desktop calendar with any other across platforms using GCal as a go-between. Let's take a comprehensive look at how to set up bidirectional syncing between Google Calendar and your favorite desktop calendar—from Outlook and iCal to Sunbird and Thunderbird—for free.

Remember, this doesn't mean that you can sync Google Calendar with just one desktop calendar. It means that no matter what you're using—Outlook at work and iCal at home, for example—you can always stick to desktop calendars if that's what you prefer. Google Calendar now works as both a great web application and a dedicated syncing tool. It's the cloud, and once it's set up, you don't ever have to access your calendar through the web again if you don't feel like it. But when you're not at a desktop, you can fire up GCal from any web browser, make changes, and still be confident your desktop is completely in sync next time you fire it up. Let's get started.

Sync Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar

Syncing calendar events between Outlook and Google Calendar has been a cinch ever since Google came out with Google Calendar Sync, a free application that provides bidirectional syncing between the two. (It also supports one-way sync in either direction, if for some reason you don't want two-way syncing.) Assuming you're using a supported setup (Outlook 2003 or 2007 and either Vista or XP), here's how to get it working.

1. Download and install Google Calendar Sync.
2. Enter your Google account email address and password.
3. Select your sync method (most likely you want two-way syncing) and the sync frequency you prefer. It defaults to syncing every 120 minutes, which seems a little long for most.
4. Hit Save and you're done. Easy, right?

If you've added a new item to your calendar and you want to force a new sync rather than waiting for Google Calendar Sync to run its next sync, just right-click the system tray app and choose Sync. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Sync iCal with Google Calendar

As of yesterday, Google Calendar supports two-way synchronization with iCal through the CalDAV remote calendar standard. Setting up iCal with GCal varies slightly based on whether or not you're using your default GCal calendar or a secondary calendar. First, here's how to set up your Google Calendar default with iCal:

1. Open iCal, then fire up your iCal Preferences (iCal -> Preferences or Cmd-,).
2. Click on the Accounts tab, and then click the '+' button to add a new remote calendar to iCal.
3. Call the calendar whatever you want (I went with 'Personal' for my main calendar), then enter the Google account username (which is normally your Gmail address) and password.
4. Click on Server options to display the Account URL text box. For your default calendar, enter the following URL:
   https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/youremail@gmail.com/user
   ...replacing youremail@gmail.com with your actual email address.
5. Once you've done that, just hit Add and you're finished. Give iCal a few minutes to download all your events and you're good to go.

If you want to add a secondary calendar, the steps are exactly the same as above with one small difference. Instead of inserting your email address in the Account URL as described in step 4, you need to grab the calendar ID for that specific calendar. You can find it by opening GCal, clicking the arrow next to the calendar you want to sync, and selecting Calendar settings. In the settings, find the Calendar Address section near the bottom of the window, then just copy and paste the Calendar ID (which is formatted like an email address) in place of youremail@gmail.com in the URL above.

You can refresh iCal to make sure you've synced the latest-and-greatest at any time by selecting Calendar -> Refresh or hitting Cmd-R. (Original post)

Sync Mozilla Sunbird or Thunderbird with Google Calendar

Whether your using Mozilla's standalone calendar application Sunbird or Thunderbird with the Lightning extension installed (Lightning integrates Sunbird into Thunderbird), bidirectional calendar syncing between either application and Google Calendar is a breeze. The special sauce in this sync is the Provider for Google Calendar extension. Installing Provider in either Sunbird or Thunderbird is basically the same procedure, and here's how it works:

1. Download and install the Provider extension by saving it to your desktop, opening the Add-ons dialog in either Sunbird or Thunderbird, and dragging the file you just downloaded into the Add-ons dialog. Once installed, make sure to restart the application.
2. Now that Provider is installed, you have to add your new Google Calendar. In Sunbird, go to File -> New Calendar; in Thunderbird, it's File -> New -> Calendar when you're in the calendar view.
3. You're now looking at the Create new calendar wizard. Select "On the Network" and hit Continue.
4. Choose Google Calendar as the calendar type. The Location field requires the XML flavor of your calendar's Private Address, which you can get by opening GCal and choosing Calendar settings from the drop-down next to the calendar you want to access. At the bottom of the settings page you'll see the Private Address section. Copy the XML link and paste it into the Location field in Sunbird or T-bird.
5. When you hit Continue, you'll be asked for your Google Calendar username (again, your Gmail address) and password. Enter it, give your new calendar a name, and hit Continue. You're done.

From now on, any event you add to that calendar will automatically sync to GCal and vice versa. You can reload the calendar to get the most up-to-date information at any time by clicking the Reload button in your toolbar. (The button is installed in the toolbar by default in Thunderbird, but you may have to customize your Sunbird calendar to add it to the toolbar.)

Sync Your Mobile Device with Google Calendar

If you're interested in syncing your mobile device with Google Calendar, you've also got a ton of great and free options. BlackBerry users can check out Google Sync, a BlackBerry app made by Google specifically for Gcal-to-BlackBerry syncing.

Alternatively, the free, open-source application GCalSync does bidirectional syncing between Gcal and tons of supported phones. (Original post)

If you're an iPhone or iPod touch user, you can set up automatic, two-way syncing between your Google Calendar (and Gmail contacts) with web site NuevaSync. (Original post)

Finally, if your phone supports SyncML, web application GooSync can handle Gcal syncing without installing anything.

Other Options

If you're not happy with the methods detailed above—which I selected because each represents the easiest and cheapest (read: free) option—there are still tons of other tools to sync Google Calendar with your desktop calendar. First, we've covered how to sync Google Calendar and Gmail contacts with the more technical GCALDaemon. Also, the cross-platform Calgoo just went free, with both Outlook and iCal syncing capabilities.

On a somewhat unrelated but still useful note, you can also now sync Google contacts with your Mac OS X Address Book.

credit - http://lifehacker.com/399407/how-to-sync-any-desktop-calendar-with-google-calendar

Turn Off Crash Reports to Speed Up iPhone Sync

Any iPhone or iPod touch running the 2.0 firmware can use a little speed boost when it comes to syncing, and some intrepid tweakers have found at least one no-pain way to boost syncing time, at least a little bit. To disable iTunes taking the time to send error or crash reports to Apple every sync, turn off automatic syncing (if enabled) on your phone/iPod, right-click on the unit in iTunes, and click "Reset Warnings." The next time you sync, your system will ask if you want to send the reports. Un-check the "Do not ask me again" option, hit "Don't Send," and you're good to go. It's not going to eliminate the longer lags for application syncing, but it might help move things along. (Screenshot via Gear Diary)

How to Transfer iPhone Voicemail to Your Computer

When your five-year-old nephew sings happy birthday to you on your voicemail, you want to keep that message to play back to his friends when he's in college. If you've got an iPhone, there are a few ways to save voicemail audio files to your computer. If you've jailbroken your iPhone, you can SFTP into it and transfer the files to your local hard drive. If not, you can use your computer's line in and free recording software to manually record the message. Here's how.

File Transfer

1. First, if you haven't already, jailbreak your iPhone 2.0 (here's the Windows method). This will install an OpenSSH server on your device that lets you transfer files from it to your computer.
2. On the iPhone, under Settings->Wi-Fi, select the network you have joined to view connection details. Write down the phone's IP address.
3. Fire up your favorite FTP client. (I like the not-free but great Transmit, but the free FileZilla works, too.)
4. Using your FTP program, connect to the device's IP address with username root and password alpine (unless you've changed your password). You'll need to use SFTP (secure FTP), not plain FTP.
5. Once you're connected to the device, browse to /private/var/mobile/Library/Voicemail/ to view the list of VM files. They're saved as .AMR files, which QuickTime can play. Transfer them to your computer and you're done.

Manual Record

If you're not rockin' a jailbroken iPhone (or an iPhone at all), you can also utilize your phone's headphone jack and your computer's Line In. Connect the phone to the computer using an audio line and fire up recording software like Audacity. Play the voicemail and record the result with Audacity. See this handy guide for recording LP albums in this same way—but just replace the record player with the iPhone. Note, however, that not all phone have standard headphone jacks out—the first generation iPhone has the recessed jack, and other phones often use non-standard headset jacks, too. Worse comes to worse, you can also use a service like the previously mentioned GotVoice. Thanks to MetaFilter user wongcorgi.
credit - lifehacker.com

Should AT&T Be Advertising The iPhone's 3G Speed Where There Is No 3G Network?

Reader temporaryerror brings up an interesting point. Should AT&T and Apple be advertising the iPhone 3G as "twice as fast" in areas where there is no 3G coverage? He sent in the above advertisement from the local Wichita, KS newspaper. He says that the closest 3G network is 120 miles away in Topeka, and that the advertisement doesn't disclose this information. Is this ok?

I came across the attached ad in todays sunday paper here in Wichita, KS. The advertisement states that the iphone 3g is "twice as fast" and "on the nations fastest 3g network" It also gives the locations of the 3 ATT corp stores in town. The thing is, ATT has NO 3g coverage anywhere near Wichita, KS. The closest city with 3g is Topeka, KS, about 120 miles away. With the exception of the Kansas City and Topeka, there is no 3g available on the ATT network in KS, just EDGE. The ad has no disclaimer regarding this.

It may not seem like a big deal to some of us that are aware that the 3g coverage of ATT is limited and know to check the coverage first, but there is no guarantee that the good folks at the ATT store will let potential customers in on this, and (again) nowhere on the advertisement does it say that ATT's 3g coverage is quite limited and not available anywhere near the newspaper's reader's area.

It's interesting that they can customize the ad to list the local AT&T store locations, but not to advise consumers that the new phone will not run faster than the previous version until Wichita gets the 3G network. Very interesting, indeed.

Before you consider upgrading to the new iPhone, be sure to check the 3G coverage in your area. You can do that here.

credit - http://consumerist.com/5027182/should-att-be-advertising-the-iphones-3g-speed-where-there-is-no-3g-network

Add iPhone 2.0 to a Jailbroken First-Gen iPhone

If you're an original, EDGE-only iPhone owner who doesn't mind twiddling with hack-level software, you're in luck. Guides for adding the iPhone 2.0 software to your original unit have popped up on the APC Magazine and iPhone Hacks sites. Mac users should check out the link below, which utilizes the "PwnageTool," BootNeuter 2.0, and some manual hardware resets to enable Cydia, an Installer.app-type program that, well, doesn't have a lot available right now. If you're a Windows owner, head over to iPhone Hacks' guide, which is similar but requires a few more steps. We haven't had the chance to test either of these solutions yet on an original iPhone, but even if we had, we'd recommend syncing and backing up your iPhone before jumping into work-around hacks like these. Update: Here's what happened when we jailbroke the iPhone 2.0 software.

Take Psychedelic Pictures with Your iPhone

Wired's How-To Wiki demonstrates how to exploit the iPhone's unusual shutter to take distorted photographs. The trick? Just twist your camera as you're taking a picture.

The reason? The iPhone uses a CMOS sensor, which more or less "wipes" the shutter across the sensor like a scanner rather than the circular aperture of a traditional camera. The iPhone's CMOS scanner seems to be a bit slower than, say, the CMOS sensor on your Canon camera. Therefore, as the camera is recording the image, any changes over that small but significant amount of time are recorded.

Taking a psychedelic photo is actually just as easy as it sounds (works better in bright sunlight), but read on for a quick video demonstration.

QuickSend Sends Simple, One-Hand Emails from Your iPhone

iPhone/iPod touch only: Free application QuickSend creates and sends simple emails in a flash through a one-hand-friendly interface. When you fire up the app, you get two scrollable sections: the first with email addresses of your contacts and the second with messages. Line up the two you want and tap the Email It button. QuickSend launches a new email with the necessary fields auto-populated, and all you have to do is hit send. While it's a great app for one-handed emails, it could use some improvements. First, if you've got a lot of contacts, finding the right address in the unsorted list is a pain. Second, this really seems best suited for an SMS-integrated application, since these are the sorts of messages you want to send when someone isn't necessarily at their computer. Either way it's a good start. QuickSend is freeware, requires an iPhone or iPod touch running 2.0 firmware.