Parallels is a software that will let you run Windows on your Mac. Different from Apple's Boot Camp, it runs within Mac OS. I.e., Windows application will run side-by-side with your Mac application!
I was planning to test out Parallels as soon as I get a Mac. Unfortunate for me, but fortunate for you Mac owners. Parallels is offering a $20 Apple gift card with a purchase of Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac
Actually, this does not seem to be the case for all users. I personally have verified this. One of my Gmail account still did not have the IMAP feature available. Nonetheless, this is something great to have and what many have been waiting for. Your Gmail will perfectly sync on your iPhone and any other computer/device you would access your email from.
On your iPhone, you will have to manually set it up by selecting "Other" instead of "Gmail" since the iPhone is still not aware of this change to Google. For detailed instructions, Google has a great help page with pictures.
I'm not sure what some accounts don't have IMAP available, but if this is the case, you will have to do with the old fashion POP3 style.
UPDATE:
I noticed that the iPhone will by default put your sent emails to "Sent Messages". This ends up creating a label "Sent Messages" in Gmail and tags all your outgoing emails. To avoid this, go to your mail settings on your iPhone and you can change the "Sent Mailbox" to "Sent Mail" under "[Gmail]".
Yes, the iPhone has a full browser and that is its strength, but who wants to browse every single web site in full size? Zooming in, zooming out, scrolling up and down, left and right... This is the last resort, not the main way of browsing. And finally Google is iPhone optimized. Well, more accurately, they recognize your iPhone. I'm happy, but I can't stop from thinking why it took so much time. Anyways, try these familiar links on your iPhone; pretty convenient.
URL for Google Services
- Gmail – http://mail.google.com/
- Calendar – http://calendar.google.com/
- Docs – http://docs.google.com/
URL for Googe Apps
Again, for Google Apps users, don't forget to replace "example.com" with your hosted domain name.
Enjoy!
I'm not sure why Google doesn't make this easy or provide instructions on their web site.
Previously, I posted an article on how to setup Google Apps' email on the iPhone mail application. This article is about how to access the web mail interface that has an iPhone specific UI.
Well, it's easy; it's just an URL you need to access from your iPhone.
http://mail.google.com/a/example.com/x/
Make sure you change the "example.com" to whatever domain name you are hosting on Google. This interface has already been available with Gmail. I just had hard time figuring out how I can easily get the same interface on Google Apps' email.
Let me tell you what I am trying to do this past couple months...
Shall I say "telecommunication 2.0"? It's the technology or the service of combining existing voice communication systems and the Internet; such as web 2.0 applications.
If you say telephone 2.0, that may be VoIP, but VoIP itself doesn't really have much appeal. True, in many corporate infrastructures, IP phones are becoming standard. But for most consumers, this doesn't really matter; VoIP is just an infrastructure technology. For the tech savvy, Skype and the sort may be cool, but it's not convenient as existing phones. Carrier backbones may switch to VoIP, but that again really doesn't matter to the consumers. So then, what am I trying to do? Not saying that I like the term "telecommunication 2.0", let me explain what this is about.
Recently, it's very interesting to see a lot of Internet applications that work with the public telephone network. They work with your land line phone or mobile phone and adds convenient features. It's not a replacement, but a complement. And it seems to be more attractive and useful than closed VoIP services which probably comes with bells and whistles. Here are the things I am trying out right now.
Probably there are more of these cool services. But I only brought up some that I thought were promising; plus, we don't want to over complicate here. Managing multiple services is not easy.
Just FYI, I don't have a land line and I'm using Gizmo and/or Skype for that purpose. This is another topic, but here, I consider them as land lines because all I need is a phone number. For mobile, I'm trying to make use of my iPhone but I'm not all happy with it yet. I've been contacting support of the service providers and sending them feedbacks and requests. We'll see how well they'll support the iPhone.
In the near future, I will post more details on each service and also discuss how it can well be used with an iPhone. And of course, your input is always welcome.
Some hot news from Apple. Things we've all been waiting for...
No, it's not about the $100 store credit from Apple. But honestly, you can get a $100 rebate and a free phone for your new iPhone. That is exactly what I got. Thanks to my wife for helping me out on this.
If you are new to AT&T Wireless, you can get a free phone and even a $100 rebate for it. I think you can go to Amazon.com, but in our case, my wife went to LetsTalk.com. Buy a new phone and sign-up for a plan. I bought a Nokia 2610. Yeah, yeah... It sucks, you should get a better one. But I wanted this because it has not camera, small, light; just really simple. This is going to be my sub phone when my iPhone is activated. For a plan, actually, we got 2 phones so we signed up for a family plan.
Now you got a free phone and you'll get a $100 rebate after a few months. Next, buy an iPhone. If you got a store credit, good for you! Use that as well. Activate the iPhone with your new AT&T number.
Don't worry. There are no tricks or gotchas. It works perfectly fine. Although when you do have problems, AT&T customer support may drive you crazy.
Did you know that Norton Anti-virus joined the super hero force?
For more details, go to NORTON FIGHTER's official website. BTW, this is an official Symantec website.
Just out of curiosity, I did some SIM card swapping experiments. Most of them are probably already reported by others. The test was conducted on the iPhone shipped on Sep. 28, 2007 and before any activation. I am uncertain of the firmware version at the moment.
So, I assume that the phone itself must be activated or unlocked to use it. SIM card has nothing to do with it. Especially #3 was surprising. So if you get a replacement iPhone, I guess it's not as easy as just swapping the SIM card...
Okay, experiments are enough. I'm going to activate the iPhone for real this time.
So, we finally purchased our second iPhone!
This was actually my first Apple Online Store experience. How was it? Not bad, but not too good either...
First, my wife got the $100 store credit for our first iPhone. That went smooth. Then, we went on to the Apple Online Store and purchased an iPhone along with some accessories; a total of approx. $480. We applied the $100 store credit and paid the rest via credit card. As soon as we finalized the order, the iPhone was on its way; from Shenzen, China via FedEx Air! My goodness, no wonder the iPhone is expensive... But it's amazing how fast things travel around the world nowadays.
While the iPhone was on its way, Apple notified me that the credit card did not approve the payment and that my order would be canceled. At the same time, my credit card company reported that they detected a fraud. Well, it turns out to be something frustrating. Apple wanted to charge things separately. Accessories and the iPhone w/ $100 credit. So it ended up my card being charged $333 for the discounted iPhone and 50 something dollars for the accessories; 2 separate lines. I'm not sure what caused it to detect as fraud, but just because of this, is was such a hassle calling Apple and the credit company and have each of them understand what was going on. I wonder if this had to do with how the $100 store credit was applied...
Anyways, I got my iPhone today, and my case should arrive tomorrow.
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