The OS is nice, I upgraded to the OpenEclair ROM to give 2.1 a try. It was way to slow on the Magic but it gave me an appreciation for where google is going, and I would love a Nexus One. I also tried rolling my own android ROM and it was surprisingly easy.

I installed the Cyanogen ROM. It was nice. Fast and Stable. My problem is simple. The Magic has a fairly small screen and the default Android fonts are tiny. I can’t use it. After 5 minutes, my eyes hurt and I can no longer focus them. My eyes are crap, but I have no problem using the iPhone. So for the moment I am sticking with my iPhone. When the Nexus One finally makes it to Australia, I will get one I think.

For an easy to install Ubuntu package use this PPA, from pmcenery.

Supposedy blueman can do this very easily (www.blueman-project.org). To install blueman just run:
$ sudo aptitude install blueman.

My experience with blueman has been very hit and miss however, the connection appears to be made via bluetooth but I can rarely seem to get NetworkManager to make a network connection. Sometimes I have success pairing the devices again.

Using the older pand binary I have had a lot more success. If you are not scared of the terminal, it isn’t difficult and appears far more reliable

Install the older bluez tools:

$ sudo aptitude install bluez-compat

$ hcitool scan

Find the address of your phone from the list

$ sudo pand --connect 00:25:00:96:13:BB -n

This command will pair you phone to your computer and create a pan device. Of course replacing the MAC address with the address of your phone. This command will re-pair you devices each time it is run. If, like me you have an iPhone, you need to have you iPhone in the Bluetooth System Preference app to accept the pairing.

$ sudo dhclient bnep0

You are now tethered.

To kill the tether:

$ sudo pand -K

But following the first post I now have bluetooth working great, and tethering to my iphone (3.0) working as well. It is brilliant.

It wasn’t the storage which interested me, and I am happy with picassa over Apple’s equivalent. But I use multiple computers, and I wanted the same calendar and mail on each computer and my iphone, and mobile me seemed the best way to do it. But now with Apple’s Address book able to sync with google, and Google Sync for the phone. I have all of my computers and iPhone syncing with the Google cloud, and staying in sync with each other.

Google Sync is also good news for linux users, allowing syncs without itunes. I think I’ll write a howto for linux users soon.

Read on for a how to.

First Steps

• Sync you iPhone to you Mac. Both now have the current Address Book and Calendar data.
• Turn off Address Book syncing and Calendar syncing in iTunes. We will no longer be syncing our data this way.

iCal Sync

This is probably the easiest step.

• Export your ical calendar to a .ics file on your computers
• Log in to Google Calendar go to your settings and import your just exported ics file. Your Google and Off-line calendars now match.
• Setup your ical to sync with Google Calendar. To do this I simply folowed the instructions here.
• You should now have 2 calendars setup. When you are happy that the Google one is correct you can delete the old one.
• Now all of your events entered in iCal will be stored on Google’s calendar server.

Address Book Sync

This one is a little more difficult. For a computer you have plugged an iphone into for syncing you can simply tick a box in the Address Book preferences. The point is I want this to work for computers who do not sync to my iPhone normally. Also it can only be initiated by syncing the phone.

• Open a Terminal and type:
  $ defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod Devices -dict-add foo '{ "Device Class" = iPod; "Family ID" = 10001; }'
• Now open Address Book. Now under Address Book preferences you can select to sync with Google.
• Back at the terminal type
  $ sudo defaults write /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Resources/ClientDescription Type server
  This changes the way the sync behaves.
• Add the Sync Menu Bar app. Open the Finder and run: Macintosh HD -> System -> Library -> CoreServices -> Menu Extras -> Sync.menu
• Run a Sync from the Menu Button, You Google Address Book is synced with you Mac one. Clean it up, and sync again.

On The iPhone

• Follow Google’s instructions here.
• When asked, allow the iPhone to delete the existing contacts and events, otherwise you will have doubles of everything.

All Done! Now a change online, or from any computer or iphone will be synced to all others. Admittedly not quite as simple as MobileMe, but free is good.

I found this: http://www.andrewgrant.org/2008/03/30/how-to-sync-an-iphone-with-two-or-more-computers.html

Played with Skype on the iPhone today. Very nice, would be nicer if it could keep me logged in to receive calls, but still nice.

Its a simple recpe:

• Bottle of Distilled (De-mineralised) water
• Water damaged iPhone
• Rice (probably not necessary)

Wash iphone in distilled water. To insulate against the metal of the oven tray place iPhone on bed of rice. Bake for at least 4 hours at about 60 degrees centigrade .

Hopefully your iphone will again work, if not, throw iPhone away and eat rice.

The above worked for me, My iPhone still has some weirdness though. Camera is stuffed, as is the GPS. If the phone had been off when it was damaged I imagine that these problems wouldn’t have occurred. And the screen has some permanent water damage, a cloudy pattern which is always visible. Still better than a brick.

I don’t think a gadget breaking has ever made me actually sad before.