The Doppler Effect » Tips

The Definitive Guide to Syncing Blackberry With Mac OS X

B. Tan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:49:11 +0000

For a long while, Mac users had to rely on third-party applications such as PocketMac or MissingSync to populate their BlackBerrys with contact, tasks, calendar data and media. RIM’s release of BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac brings first-party support for synchronizing data between Macs and Blackberry. The process however, isn’t always so simple. My personal experience syncing my Storm and my MacBook Pro had its share of seemingly inexplicable errors. After some fairly extensive research, I’ve found the answers to my two biggest problems.

1. My BlackBerry won’t mount on my Mac as a Mass Storage Device
Mass Storage Mode allows your phone to mount as any USB hard drive or flash drive would thus allowing you to copy files back and forth between the phone and your computer. Firstly, the phone needs to have Mass Storage Mode enabled. This is done by going into the phone’s options menu and then selecting “Memory.”

Media Card Support: On
Encryption Mode: None
Media Transfer Protocol (MTP): On
Mass Storage Support: On
Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode When Connected: Yes or Prompt

If you have these settings and your phone still won’t mount, the likely cause is a carrier unlock. Unlocking your phone disables Mass Storage Mode. To remedy the problem, iCrack has a patch to re-enable it. However, the patch runs on Windows only and doesn’t work in all circumstances. To manually enable Mass Storage Mode, you need to enter what’s called the Engineering Screens. Follow the directions from BerryReview to access the escreens:

To access the escreen, access the device “Help Me!” screen. For QWERTY devices, perform the key combination Alt+Shift+H on the home screen. For SureType devices, type Alt+EACE on the home screen. For SurePress devices, hold the Escape button, and tap the screen upper left, upper right, upper left, and upper right corners in that sequence.

The “Help Me!” screen contains the application version, PIN, and current up time. Without leaving the “Help Me!” screen, enter that information into the generator. The generator will give you the 8 digit code for the current “Help Me!” screen. If you close the “Help Me!” screen, the device uptime will no longer match the uptime used to generate the code.

Type the 8 digit code into the “Help Me!” screen. You will not see the digits as you type them, but once all 8 correct digits are entered, the escreen will activate. Make sure to use Alt for the numbers on QWERTY devices. Make sure to use multitap to enter the digits on SureType devices.

Once activated, the escreen will replace the “Help Me!” screen for the duration specified when generating the code. You can close the escreen earlier by setting your device clock ahead past the expiration time, reactivating the “Help Me!” screen, then setting your device clock back to normal. Note: Devices with a vendor ID of 1 (RIM engineering sample devices) will always have the escreen open.

Obtain the 8-digit code with this generator.

Once you’re at the escreen, click “OS Engineering Screens” and then “USB.” Select the seting for “Mass Storage (MS)” and click the BlackBerry button and choose “Toggle MS.” Now your BlackBerry should connect to your computer with no problem.

2. My BlackBerry experiences random sync errors telling me to “Retry Sync”
I really don’t have a good explanation for this one. Sometimes syncing contacts (or anything else) with BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac works, and other times, the sync fails telling me to retry. When you are receive an error message, hold down the option key and click on the sync services icon in the menubar and select Reset Sync Services. If you don’t have this menubar icon, go to System Preferences>MobileMe>Sync>Show Status in Menubar. Doing so will probably prompt you to reconcile some sync conflicts but hopefully you’ll only have to do this once.

I hope this helps any other BlackBerry and Mac user who’s experienced the same problems.

AT&T Wi-Fi Part II

B. Tan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:02:14 +0000

The session window for AT&T Wi-Fi

For those of you who frequent Starbucks, you surely know about the free 2 hours of Wi-Fi access you get as a Rewards member. I was always dubious about the 2-hour limit; the access was provided by an AT&T account you sign up for and thus it didn’t appear as though Starbucks had any sort of control over the network. The account you sign up for doesn’t come with any sort of identifier as being associated with Starbucks Rewards either.

Today I spent a good chunk of time there working on various projects and had the opportunity to test what would happen to my Wi-Fi access after two hours. Apparently nothing. Awesome .

AT&T Wi-Fi

B. Tan — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:51:26 +0000

A while back I wrote about Starbucks’ Rewards program. Any registered member of the program receives “up to two hours of free AT&T Wi-Fi service, everyday.” I was previously under the impression that this meant you needed to purchase something to get wi-fi access, however it appears (upon closer inspection of the terms and in real-world trials) that no purchase is necessary.

This makes things more convenient for road warriors. I would suspect that this trick works at any AT&T Hotspot. Of course anyone with an iPhone or other qualifying AT&T plan automatically gets hot-spot access and you can even enable automatic login with iPhone OS 3.0:

Anyways, if anyone has confirmed that with Starbucks Rewards, you can use AT&T Wi-Fi at any AT&T hotspot, be sure to share in the comments.

Check out more about Starbucks Rewards at http://starbucks.com/cardrewards.

Old vs. New

B. Tan — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:29:13 +0000

Owning two sexy Apple computers, it’s not always easy deciding which one I want to use as my primary machine. The contenders’ general specifications are as follows:

MacBook Pro (Mid 2008):

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor/2GB DDR2 RAM at 667 MHz
160 GB hard drive @ 7200 rpm
256 MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT
15.4″ matte LED-lit display
Illuminated Keyboard
2 USB/1 Firewire 400/1 Firewire 800

Unibody MacBook:

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor/2 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066 MHz
160GB hard drive @ 5400 rpm
nVidia GeForce 9400M chipset
13.3 LED-lit glossy display
Glass multi-touch trackpad
2 USB ports

Ultimately, the performance is nearly identical. In real-world usage, the MacBook boots faster than the MacBook Pro, but I attribute this to the fact that there is significantly less occupying its hard drive. It’s hard to give up the MBP. While the unibody construction is sleek and very durable, the sentiental connection I have with my MBP is hard to get over.

The old MBP does have a few extra perks as well such as an ExpressCard slot. For most average users, this is hardly a point of significance. I can’t remember the last time I used any card-slot peripherals.

For those of you with older MBP’s considering a new laptop, I generally agree with what’s been said at Wired, and here. The conclusion seems to be that if you actually use more advanced features (card slot, firewire, do heavy film editing), stick with the pro. Otherwise, the new Unibody MacBook has closed the gap between pro and consumer models in a good way; save yourself some dough and go for the regular MacBook.

Explanations “In plain English”

B. Tan — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:11:53 +0000

In light of Cornell’s launching of Google Apps for Education, dubbed CMail, there has undoubtedly a slew of questions about how it works. For many people, the concept of “cloud computing” is pretty novel. Trying to explain this to a tech-newbie can sometimes be difficult.

Enter Common Craft. Common Craft is a company that specializes in explanations. They’ve produced plenty of videos that make sense of products or services that aren’t quite so obvious. Two of my favorites are Twitter in Plain English and Google Docs in Plain English.

Other topics include blogs, phishing scams, online video sharing and many more.

Trimming start-up time

B. Tan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:50:05 +0000

If you’re like me, you like having your computer boot-up as fast as possible. There’s not much worse than turning your computer on in the morning, going grabbing some coffee, and returning only to find your computer still chugging away, loading your desktop. This isn’t necessarily a problem for those lucky enough to have enormous amounts of RAM and excess processing power, however for most of us, loading numerous programs at start-up takes longer than desired.

This is a problem that users of all platforms share, however here I’ll be focusing on what I did for my MacBook Pro. On my Mac, there are a few programs I always have running besides Mail, my web browser and any documents I may be working on. These include Dropbox, Quicksilver, and Twitteriffic. One solution would be to disable all these programs from running at startup. Doing this would mean that every time I turn on my computer, I would have to open all those programs manually; something I’d rather not spend time doing.

I had seen Windows applications that allow you to specify a time-delay for startup programs so your system doesn’t get bogged down trying to launch everything at once. I didn’t find a program like this for Mac, however the Mac Tips and Tricks blog pointed out how you could write your own such program easily using tools already included with the OS.

Their solution was to use either Applescript or Automator to force applications to start after a pre-set delay. I won’t repeat the instructions as they are available here. Currently, I am using the Applescript solution as the Automator (while easier to do) resulted in my apps’ menubar icons being placed awkwardly in the middle of the menubar as opposed to their usual spot near the system clock.

All in all, I think this is a pretty cool trick and has prompted me to play around a lot more with Automator and Applescript. Any ideas or suggestions?

Keeping tabs on your wallet

B. Tan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:53:01 +0000

In todays rough economic times, it’s always good to play it on the safe side when it comes to your finances. A little while back, I wrote about Mint, a great way to manage and see you finances across all your accounts and assets. Another favorite of mine, is BillShrink. While it’s credit card recommendation tool is similar to Mint’s, they also have a great tool for figuring out the best cell phone plan based on your current usage.

While both those sites are a great way for you to get a sense of your money, it’s also important to know how companies view your financial situation. By law you are entitled to a free credit report every 12 months. You can get this report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus at sites like annualcreditreport.com. What is lacking from this report however, is what most people are really interested in; that is the actual credit score. A site i found (via the Mint blog), is CreditKarma. Upon (free) registration, you will have access to your actual credit score and see how it compares to other demographics. They also provide a bunch of tools to help you calculate how different factors (such as taking out a loan or applying for another credit card) would immediately impact your score.

Having good credit will only make things easier down the road so these sites are definitely worth a look. For more information on all the credit report and credit rating business along with tons of other useful personal finance information, be sure to check out the Mint blog!

Mac N00bs

B. Tan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:45:16 +0000

Here’s some must-reads for all the new Mac-philes out there:

Cult of Mac: Advice for Mac-toting students
The Apple Blog: Mac Tips
TUAW: Back-to-School
TUAW: Mac 101

Cure for the “Butt-Brick”

B. Tan — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:15:40 +0000

All guys who carry wallets surely have to deal with the “butt-brick,” a condition where the wallet creates an unsightly bulge in one’s back pocket. It certainly annoys me because a fat wallet is also uncomfortable and according to the BBC, a serious health risk. Not wanting to live with the butt-brick and the risks that came with it, I started searching for a solution. My search lead me to Koyono’s Slimmy wallet dubbed “The slimmest front-pocket wallet on earth.” Koyono’s brand targets

The adventurers of the urban wilderness, globetrotting jetsetters and new business thrill seekers have lifestyles that demand high-performance. These people are on their own mission in the world and must maintain a high level of effectiveness with style, ease and fun.

That being said, I instantly became fascinated with the Slimmy and after doing extensive research, I found only good things being said about this little wallet. One thing that sets the Slimmy apart from traditional bi-fold or tri-fold wallets is that the Slimmy is meant to be carried in your front pocket as opposed to your back pocket. This way, you’re not reaching for your butt every time you need your wallet or more importantly, sitting on an uneven surface resulting in damage to your spine. While some people opt for a card carrier, I liked the Slimmy because it had room for cash and other miscellaneous items.

Satisfied with what the Slimmy had to offer, I opted to purchased a Special Edition Slimmy for some extra flair. Because I ordered from Amazon, processing my order took a few extra days but shipping was quick. An added benefit from ordering off Amazon came in the form of a free magazine offer in which you can sign up for a free year subscription Lucky, Teen Vogue or GQ. The subscription is totally free, in fact the publishers don’t even get your credit card information and the subscription does not auto-renew. If you’re not a fan of any of those magazines, you can also opt for a $12 credit to your account.

As soon as I received my Slimmy, I transferred contents from my old wallet to it to see how it fared. Koyono claims the Slimmy can hold 8 cards, 5 bills and a few receipts. I was able to fit 7 cards and a decent mix of receipts and business cards with no problem. It is important to keep in mind that the Slimmy is not designed to carry all of your stuff; it forces you to reconsider what is and is not essential for your wallet which is a big part of reducing your wallet’s size. For those of you who think you’ll have a hard time dealing with the reduced payload of the Slimmy, printing yourself a card from Just One Club Card may do the trick; it allows you to consolidate up to 8 store rewards cards on to just one. With all my essentials tucked in my new Slimmy, it was the same thickness as my old bi-fold wallet when it is empty and roughly the same thickness as my 80GB iPod. The quality of the leather and the construction of the wallet are both top-notch however I do find the price tag a bit high considering how simplistic the Slimmy is.

In the short time that I’ve had it, I already know that I (and my back) will throughly enjoy using the Slimmy. The Slimmy also comes in a few varieties as well as other stylish wallets and money clips. I find Koyono’s product line very tempting (espescially the Cableyoyo) as they blend equal amounts of design and functionality.

I think only Art Lebedev rivals Koyono in terms of shiny things I will likely waste my money on. Any other cool stuff you think I should know about?

Web Apps Galore

B. Tan — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:11:17 +0000

It seems nowadays, there is a web application for everything. In a few short years, we’ve seen explosive growth in a movement called Web 2.0. This has resulted in a shift towards spending more and more time in our browsers, and less time in standard desktop applications. With so many new web applications popping up left and right, you will invariably see clones and companies trying to best each other. It can definitely be overwhelming trying to keep track of them all. The following are the web apps that make the cut for me. Those who know me well, know that I am extremely particular about the technology I use so I hope you will find these sites as useful as I have.

I’ll start off with a name everyone recognizes. Google. Aside from Google search, Google provides a number of staggering number of services ranging from Picasa and YouTube, to Google Docs, and Grand Central. However, Google’s shining star (aside from their search of course) is Gmail. In the free webmail arena, Gmail is the clear cut winner, scoring major points for innovative features and UI and also keeping everything free (you have to pay Yahoo for anything “advanced”). Another strength of Gmail is that you can port it for use on your own domain name. Anyone who’s used the webmail interface provided by their web host can appreciate Google Apps. I’m assuming most people have already experienced for themselves the power of Gmail; and since I have enough to say about Gmail to merit its own post, those who are unfamiliar can read up about Gmail at Lifehacker.

Mint Logo

Right in line with the usefulness of Google’s apps, lies a website known as Mint. Mint is a financial tool that allows you to consolidate all your financial information presents it in an easy to understand format. It lists all your transactions across all your credit and debit cards and generates graphs of your spending trends (so you can see your financial mistakes in pie chart form ). Also, Mint keeps track of your interest rates on your credit cards, and bank accounts and suggests offers from other banks to help you save. There are also notifications (via email or SMS) that you can setup for your accounts (ex. have Mint txt you about a low account balance). Mint also recently added a feature for tracking investment portfolios, student loans and mortgages. Naturally, having all this sensitive information in one place is a reason to be wary. However, Mint does not store your personal data and uses bank-grade encryption. If you’re still skeptical, Mint has been featured in the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, BusinessWeek, CNN Money, The NY Times…the list goes on and on (read: Mint is pretty legit). In the future, Mint plans add feature such as bill pay making it an even more powerful tool. Like every good web app, they have demo video which you should definitely check out.

The next app, Dropbox (still in private beta but I have a few invitations available…) is one of those tools that you’ll wonder how you lived without. In my quest for a free iDisk alternative, I found this nifty app that seems to be much better implemented than services such as Box.net and free unlike SugarSync. Another plus is that the developers seem extremely in tune with the user community, in terms of addressing concerns, feature requests and being active on the Dropbox forum. It’s sort of hard to explain exactly how Dropbox operates, so I’ll just let you watch yet another screencast (I promise it’s worth it).

While those are the web apps I use on a daily basis, there are still many helpful apps out there I haven’t mentioned:

http://epassportphoto.com/ – Essentially free and instant passport photos
Pandora – Must have if you like music (who doesn’t?)
Hulu – Free, fast and legal web TV.

As you can tell, I basically live on the internet; computers do everything for me. But hey, what’s wrong with that? I hope you find these web apps useful, or if you know of any better ones I’d love to hear suggestions. Do you have any favorites I missed?