While we’ve braved the elements, a few people have come up to ask us a few questions, including Engadget, CNN, Reuters, the New York Times, and Bloomberg. I’ll be posting links to their coverage of the iPhone 3GS launch, and well, us!

Engadget: iPhone 3G S line begins in NY, weather be damned

UPDATE: 6:30 PM EDT: Reuters: IPhone to hit stores as Apple awaits Jobs’ return Matt Dodd was quoted on the second page of the article, and our plans for camping out were mentioned.

UPDATE: 7:00 PM EDT: Fortune / CNN Money: Lines form for the new iPhone in New York and Tokyo

Reuters (Again): Braving stormy weather for iPhone: well, sorta

Pocket Lint: iPhone 3G S line starts to form in New York

UPDATE: 7:30 PM EDT: The following is a listing of posts and articals after we got home. Take a look!

Fortune / CNN Money: Live from the (relatively sedate) iPhone 3G S launch

Gizmodo: Why In Hell Are People Camping Out For the iPhone 3GS?

Touch Podium: Line Ups Begin Early June 18th, for iPhone 3G S in New York and Tokyo, Most Likely Other Places Too

UPDATE 6/22/09 7:00 AM: Bloomberg: Apple’s IPhone Draws Crowds as Competition Stiffens Talks about us under ‘Camping Out’

If this is your first time at The iLife, Welcome! Be sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed, so that you always get the latest, in-depth tech news!

Photo from Engadget. Thanks!

Palm and Sprint have finally announced the official release date and pricing for the upcoming Palm Pre. The Pre will be release on June 6th (2 weeks!) for $199 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100mail-in rebate. It will also require a Everything Data plan, which will run at $69.99 a month with450 minutes. This is on par with the cheapest iPhone plan, but it comes with a big advantage, namely unlimited texting. You can also get Sprint’s Simply Everything plan for $99.99 a month, which includes unlimited voice, text, and data.

So, overall the Pre is going to be running on par with the iPhone in terms of pricing, but it will be interesting how the release will pay out with it’s release being so close to Apple’s WWDC (Which is June 8-12), where Apple is expected to release iPhone 3.0, and possibly a new iPhone.

Say tuned during the next two weeks, this is going to be interesting.

UPDATE: Forgot to include this earlier, The Pre will be available at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com.  You can also read the full Sprint Press Release here.

Also, it was posted at Endgadget that the Pre will be $549 with out a contract acording to Sprint customer service.

WordsWorth is a fun unique game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Basically, its a combination of a solo player game of Boggle, and a ever changing word search.  Hexagonal tiles are spaced out along the board, and its your job to earn enough points to advance to the next level. It keeps getting harder, level after level, up to level 30. The game as two modes, Timed and Classic. I really preferred the classic mode, as a way to just relax and keep me busy when I had nothing else to do, since I always have my iPod Touch on me.

See more about WordsWorth, after the jump.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing WordsWorth, which was surprising because I usually dislike word games because I can never find anything. Luckily, WordsWorth has a handy scramble feature which will shuffle all of the tiles on the board. I really liked how you activated it, by shaking your iPhone, kind of like boggle. Even if you do play in a more relaxed classic mode, there are still some challenges. For example, there are timed tiles which appear every time you scrabble the board as a penalty, and also pop up as you progress through out the levels of the game. You have to be fast, and use these red tiles, because otherwise it’s game over.

The game also has other features which help keep the game interesting, like wildcards, and “buzzwords” where a random word is chosen and if you make it, you get extra points. Most of the time, the correct letter combination is not on the board, so you have to stay on the look out and selectively get rid of tiles so you can make them line up correctly, if you chose to go for it. there is no time limit or penalty for not completing buzzwords.

One thing that really annoyed me was the background music, which was pretty short (about a minute) and didn’t loop very well. So, every time the music restarted, you hear a “jump”. Luckily, you can either turn the music off in the settings, or play your own music and automatically override the background music.

I have to say, it’s great to have a game that you can always turn to, that you can always play more, and it keeps your mind active! And, even if you manage to make it to level 30, the game is completely different every time, but restarting might be a bit easy at first. It’s definitely worth the $1.99, and it’s available in the App Store (Need iTunes to view). You can also try out the “Light” version for free. The lite version only has 3 levels, and is clasic mode only, among a few other things. You can also get it in the app store.

Pros:
Ever Changing Game Play
Flex your brain
Two Game Modes

Cons:
Annoying Background music

P.S:  This game and review is real, and not an April Fools joke. Have Fun!

The entire Flip line is known for their ease of use, quality, and portability, but this is the first Flip to be High Definition capable, with a resolution of 720p. Since the Mino boasts a rather small size of 3.94″ x 1.97″ x 0.63″, and a light weight of 3.3oz, it’s really easy to throw into your pocket when you go out. It’s really great as a day to day video camera, when you just want to get together with some friends and throw something up on YouTube. It’s also a great starter camera for a tween, so that they can make their first home movies. It even includes some basic video editing and sharing software called FlipShare, which comes right on the camera. FlipShare is really nice, because it allows you to do some basic editing, like trimming and combining clips together, or adding a background audio track, and upload it directly to YouTube. However, if you want to use the clips in another program, like embedding a video into a PowerPoint, or cataloging them in Picasa, you will have to convert them first.

Overall, the Flip Mino HD was really fun and easy to use. All you have to do is hit the big red recording button, and you’re ready to go! You line up your shots, and playback your shots on the built in 1.5″ screen. Personally, I think it would have been nice if it was a little bit bigger. The camera also had battery life, you get about two hours of recording off a single charge, and you can record about one hour of HD video using the cameras built in 4 GB of storage.

Read the rest of the review, after the jump.

I wish the camera had a removable rechargeable battery, because the current recharge able battery is built in, and an SD card slot to expand the camera’s storage, or use an Eye-Fi card to wirelessly send your videos to your computer. I was very happy with the video and sound quality, but wish there was some built in anti-shake correction, or a way to smooth out video in the FlipShare software. No matter how hard I tried to hold the camera perfectly still it was impossible to not have any shakes in the footage. If you plan to buy one of these cameras, I suggest that you also get a small tripod, like this one from Amazon, since the Mino has a built in tripod mount. I also wish that there was a way to take still pictures directly on the camera, because right now the only solution is to use the still function in the FlipShare software which is really annoying, because you cannot be sure of how the picture is going to turn out until you go back to your computer, upload it, and look at the clip frame by frame. A still picture function would also make the camera more useful on a day to day basis.

I have to say, my favorite feature of the Flip was the built in USB plug, that is discreetly stored inside the camera until you need it, then you just slide a small lever and it flips out. The USB arm also has a small LED on it, to show when charging of the battery is complete, since the camera can charge over USB. One thing that I wish Pure Digital had included in the box, is a short USB extender, so if your computers’ USB ports are cramped together, you can still easily plug the camera in, since the USB arm on the Mino HD, unlike previous Flip models, has absolutely no flexibility.

Also, a great thing about the Flip Mino HD is that the design is fully customizable when you buy it online at www.theflip.com for $229.99. You can upload your own art work, such as a design you made, your logo, or a picture of your family, and have it imprinted onto a Flip Mino HD. There’s even a gallery of premade designs that you can choose from. You can also buy the black version at amazon.com for about $208, at the time of writing.

Included in the box along with the Flip Mino HD:

• Soft Carrying Bag
• Video cable, to hook the camera up to your TV
• Wrist Lanyard
• Quick Start Guide
• FlipShare software installer on camera

Check out some of the footage I shot with the Flip Mino HD below:

Video review of the Flip Mino HD:

Waiting for the subway (Most of video is me trying to hold the camera still, subway pulls in towards end):

On the Subway (Motion Test):

Pros:

• Small Size
• 720p HD Video Quality
• Rechargeable Battery
• Built in USB Plug
• Customizable Design
• Built in Software for basic editing

Cons:

• No Expandable Storage
• No Removable Battery
• Video Often Shaky, hard to hold still (at least for me)

Photo Gallery:

The Comcast Center is also home to “The Market at Comcast Center”, a area with a bunch of food stalls and shops, and “The Comcast Experience,” a 2,000 square-foot LED screen, with a resolution 500% greater than that of an HDTV. The Sony Style store / Comcast Labs is accessed through a large staircase in the main Comcast Center building, near the giant LED screen. You can see part of the entrance stairway and the LED screen the photo below:

You can also access it from the Market entrance, either way, you have to go underground, but it is wheel chair accessible.

We will take a look inside the store and lab, after the jump.

The Store / Lab is a unique combination of every Sony product you can imagine, from TV’s to Blueray Movies to the Sony Reader. There were also sections of the store which were displaying Comcast’s current and future products like, VOIP, Digital Cable and soon 100 Mpbs Broadband. There were demos of all of the Comcast products available, including the internet, where I conducted a speed test with both the provided Comcast speed test tool and DSLReports.com, but it turns out that DSLReports can not properly interpreted extremely high speed results, so I had to throw the test out (hell, It cant even correctly interpret my Gigabit university connection). Lets take a look at the Comcast results:

The labs also had Comcast’s next generation of VoIP systems, where you can have up to 5 different numbers going into one system. The system can operate over a wired connection, as well as a 3G card.

The rest of the store was mainly Sony products. And the best way to look at my trip is to go through the gallery, and look at my comments attached to every picture. Overall, the store had an open lay out which could be liked to three different “rooms”and the connecting space between them. One room had all of Sony’s Vaio laptops (P, Z, CS, FW, and AW lines) and a Playstation area, another with Sony’s cameras, both still and video, as well as the Sony Reader, and the third with home theater setups and TV’s. In between the home theater area and the other two store areas was a selection of blue ray titles and a blue ray player playing a demo. I was surprised to see that it was a wide arrange of titles, including some that were not from Sony Pictures Entertainment, like The Simpsons Movie, which is from 20th Century Fox. Another thing that I found interesting is that for any cables Sony thinks it should sell, but doesn’t make, it uses Monster brand cables.

Check out the Gallery to see everything inside the Sony Style Store and Comcast Labs.

This just in! Nuevasync has just gotten better!

Nuevasync has now released two of their most requested features, Selective Calendar Syncing , and multiple, separate calendars (which you can color code!). You can sync up to 8 separate calendars.

You can now also sync read only calendars, like holiday calendars or anything else your given share only access to.

Also, unlike using Exchange with Outlook, your secondary calendars can have alarms and reminders.

Take a look, after the jump:

The HTC FUZE is one of HTC’s (also maker of the G1) new smart phones. It’s pretty much a AT&T version of the Touch Pro which is available on both Sprint and Verizon. The smartphone features a  528 MHz Processor, 2.8 ” touch screen, touch sensitive controls, and slide out 5 row keyboard. Overall, the HTC FUZE’s hardware is great. I especially liked the keyboard, it was really easy to type on, especially on webpages and text messages. and although the smartphone does have word mobile, I still don’t think I could write anything of great length with it. The touch screen was clear and bright, and although it is a still a bit small at 2.8″ with VGA resolution,  I was still able to easily watch a video on it with out too much strain on my eyes.

The TouchFLO 3D interface was a nice touch on HTC’s part to make Windows Mobile more aesthetically pleasing, but every time you use an application you go back to the plain old boring Windows Mobile interface. There is one interesting exception to this. HTC included Opera Mobile and made it the default instead of IE Mobile. The Opera interface is very unobtrusive, and is also makes use of the FUZE’s “G-Sensor” (Accelerometer) to rotate the page as you rotate the phone (which is one of two apps that use the “G-Sensor” the other is a maze game (tilt the phone, move the ball, avoid the holes)), as well as a zooming gesture around the touch sensitive center button. As for music and multimedia capabilities, the FUZE does have a built in music player and can also play videos, but in order to use headphones (or even a wired headset) , you needed to use the included USB audio adapter. This is similar to the G1, which HTC also manufacturers.

I also thought the 3.2 megapixel camera preformed well, see bellow for some samples I took:

NOTE: All photos and videos have been resized

I really was not thrilled with Windows Mobile overall, i was glad for the TouchFLO interface, but it would be nice if there was a way to have add on, so not everything had to be run directly in windows mobile. Also, it would be really interesting to have a different OS, say Android (which is on HTC’s G1), to show off the phones capability’s. This would also be great for Android and the Open Handset Alliance, because it would bring a android phone to the other 3 networks (even if Verizon and AT&T are not members of the alliance).

Overall, I loved HTC’s hardware, and not so much love for Microsoft’s OS. It really ruined my FUZE experience, and I really, really, really would like to see the FUZE running Android.

The HTC FUZE Costs $349.99 after a new, 2 year agreement with AT&T
The Extremely Similar (Almost Identical) HTC Touch Pro costs $399.99 on Sprint, and $419.99 on Verizon; Both with a new, 2 year agreement

Special Thanks to Ricky Bird for letting us borrow the HTC FUZE to review.

See all of my unboxing photos below:

µTorrent is a free, light weight BitTorrent client maintained by BitTorrent Inc., who also maintains the BitTorrent Protocol. A study in PC World has shown that µTorrent is the number 2 peer to peer (P2P) client and the number 1 BitTorrent client.

This article will focus around using µTorrent for a beginner on a Windows system, although there is now a beta version of µTorrent for OS X.

Look for full setup instructions after the Jump.

First off, after you install µTorrent form their website (www.utorrent.com), µTorrent will ask you to for some basic information like your connection speed and a open port for your incoming connections. See the below screen cast:

Now let’s get a (legal) torrent to practice downloading with. I’m going to download the latest version of the Linux operating system, Unbuntu from their website.

After you click “OK” µTorrent will automatically begin to download the torrent, and will present you with a wealth of information regarding the progress of your download. Let’s take a look at the most important functions:

1. Delete selected torrent from list, this will not delete what you have downloaded
2. Start downloading a torrent on the torrent list
3. Pause downloading a torrent
4. Stop downloading a torrent
5. Increase a torrents priority in your download queue
6. Decrease a torrents priority in your download queue
7. The name of your torrent and a icon representing its status:
   • means the torrent job is downloading without issue
   • means the torrent job is waiting to be downloaded (queued)
     
   • means the torrent job was downloading, but there is a error
     
   • means the torrent job is finished downloading and is now uploading without issue
     
   • means the torrent job is finished downloading and is now waiting to be uploaded (queued)
     
   • means the torrent job is finished downloading and is now uploading, but there is a error
     
   • means the torrent job is paused
     
   • means the torrent job is stopped, but hasn’t finished downloading
     
   • means the torrent job is stopped, and has finished downloading
     
   • means the torrent job has a critical error
     
8. It’s priority in your download queue
9. The size of your download
10. Total percent downloaded, it’s also a progress bar that will fill up with blue in correlation with the percentage downloaded

11. Current status of the torrent; most often you will see:
    • Downloading: the torrent job is currently downloading.
    • Finished: the torrent job has been stopped after it has been completely downloaded
    • Paused: the torrent job is paused, but not stopped
    • Queued: the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish downloading before starting.
    • Queued Seed: the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish uploading before starting.
    • Seeding: the torrent job is finished downloading, and is currently uploading.
    • Stopped: the torrent job is stopped (not transferring, and not connected to any peers).
12. Number of people uploading the file (Seeders). The first number is the number of people you are connected to. The second number is the number of people in total who are seeders.
13. Number of people who are also downloading the file (Peers or Leachers). The first number is the number of people you are connected to. The second number is the number of people in total who are peers.
14. How fast you are downloading the torrent
15. How fast you are uploading the torrent

Remember, with BitTorrent, your download speed is limited by how much you share. You will start sharing as soon as you have parts of the file that other peers want. After you are finished downloading, you will begin to seed the file. You should always try to upload as much as you downloaded.


16. How much data you have uploaded from the job
17. How much longer until you will have the complete download
18. Your upload / download ratio, you should always strive to get this to at least 1.00 before you stop seeding the torrent.
19. The number of copies of the torrent available. If this is less than 1.0, its will be impossible to get the full download. The higher this number, the faster you will be able to download.
20. This is a user set variable. Each torrent can have 1 label, which you can set when you first start downloading a torrent, or by right clicking where the label would be and saying “New Label…” This has no effect on the download speed; it is only to help you organize your torrents.
21. This is your current network status and has three icons:
    • means everything is fine, and you are receiving incoming connections. Go on and download!
    • means no incoming connections have been received yet. If you see this for more than a minute, you probably forwarded your incoming port wrong.
    • means µTorrent wasn’t able to use the listening port. Generally, this means a firewall is blocking the port, but it’s also possible that another application is using this port, in which case µTorrent will inform you that there is a listening error.
22. Download statistics: Total download speed and the total amount of data downloaded this session

23. Date and time the torrent was added into µTorrent
24. Date and time the torrent finished downloading. Since this torrent still hasn’t finished, the field is blank.
25. Upload statistics: Total upload speed and the total amount of data uploaded this session

You can sort your torrent list by any of the fields by clicking on them.

After your torrent is finished downloading (and you should wait long enough so you can upload the files until your ratio is at least 1.00) you can stop the torrent. You can also access the files after the download is complete even while they are uploading. They are saved to the default download location (Win XP & earlier: My Documents > Downloads (the folder will be created automatically) Vista & Mac OS X: The downloads folder in your user folder)

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for the next part of Introduction to BitTorrent coming soon. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below or Contact Us via email or IM.

I love the fact that my RSS reader allows me to quickly browse through all the blogs I read,—plus it wirelessly syncs up with my iPod Touch (Thank you NewsGator/FeedDemon/NetNewsWire)—however, lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. A few feed publishers have begun offering only a short summary of their articles, requiring you to click a “Read More..” link(I’m calling you out Ars Technica), forcing you to open the page in a new window. The reason this bothers me so much is that the whole reason I use RSS is that I want all the content from multiple blogs in one place. Having to open up the article in a new window is frustrating, but it’s even worse on my Touch, where I can’t quickly switch back and forth between windows. Of course, to add insult to injury the article isn’t pre-fetched, slowing me down even further.

More importantly, I don’t understand why Ars would choose this format. They were never in print media; they started as a technology blog that caters to technologists who are on the go and want information quickly. Why would they want to slow down their readers, much less force them to work to access their content? Furthermore, even the newspaper industry, which has traditionally provided only snippets of text, is starting to relax its death grip on its content. For example, The Guardian has started releasing full text in its RSS feeds.

So, to all content publishers out there remember, readers want information on their terms, not yours. This includes letting your readers selectively subscribe to your articles, which has been a request by many readers on other blogs during this election season, who think that tech blogs and politics do not mix, (cough lifehacker cough). Really, just give the readers what they want.

Keep a look out for my next post coming up in the next few weeks.

Well, now you don’t have to. The easiest solution to this problem would be to hook up an exchange server to your iPhone so that it stays in sync, but unless you’re an enterprise user, you probably don’t have access to one. It’s not worth setting one up and, if you’re a Google user, you want your info synced there, not your work place. That is no longer a problem, thanks to a free service called Nuevasync. Nuevasync creates an exchange account running only the mobile protocol, and can sync your contacts and calendar with Google.

I originally found out about Nuevasync from a Lifehacker article offering Nuevasync as a Mobile Me alternative. I use Nuevasync with my iPod Touch, so no matter where I am or how I want to look at my data, I have access to it. It also makes it easier to enter a lot of data onto your calendar, and lets you easily import from web sources. Just add it to your Google Calendar and in about 5 seconds, it will show up on your iPhone (as long as you have service or Wi-Fi). This is especially helpful if you use shared calendars in a group setting, such as a family calendar or a group project calendar, by using Nuevasync you will always know that you have the most up to date version. The only catch is that currently, Nuevasync can only sync calendars that you have edit permissions for (there is a tool to help you figure out which ones those are, the link is after the jump) and they get merged all in to one calendar on your iPhone (they stay separated on Google Calendar).

Nuevasync was started in November 2007. Amazingly its creators David Boreham and Thomas Lackey never expected the high volume of users Nuevasync receives now. The original Nuevasync was designed as a Windows Mobile sync solution using Google Calendar and Plaxo (an online address book and social networking service) as data sources, but now Google Contacts as well as the other two are supported. Once Apple announced that they would be introducing Exchange server support with the 2.0 firmware upgrade, they got a beta copy of the firmware and began testing using an iPod Touch. They only expected a few iPhone users to be trying the service. Two days after the launch of the iPhone upgrade, Nuevasync’s servers were heavily hit, their user count had doubled. After that, Nuevasync began to drastically scale their code to support the new workload. Because of this, most of the planed new features had to be delayed. The two most requested new features are the ability to select which Google calendars are synced (including public calendar syncing) and for multiple calendar support. Both of these features are currently in development and is expected to be ready for testing within the next fe
w weeks. After that, the next feature to be released will be push email support from Gmail.

Probably the biggest reason people don’t currently use Nuevasync is that when you add an exchange server, all of your calendar and contact data on your iPhone gets erased, but the easiest way to avoid this is to sync your iPhone with Google via iTunes. I’ll walk you through the entire process to show you how you can have over the air syncing, without losing any of your data. Take a look after the Jump!

Setting up Nuevasync

The first thing you really want to do is sync your current data back to Google. Open up iTunes, plug in your iPhone (or iPod touch) and click on your device and go to the “info tab” and check the sync contacts (make sure you say “Google Contacts” and enter your account info!) and sync calendar tab.

Agree to the Google Terms of Service, and enter your Google Account Info. Then Upload your calendar info to the cloud using either the Google Calendar Sync Tool for windows or Spanning Sync for the Mac, or manually importing the events using an ICal file and then importing them on Google Calendar.

Now go to the Nuevasync website at www.nuevasync.com. Click “Signup”.

Fill in the account information and hit “submit”.

Go and check the email you put in and verify it. Now go back to the homepage and click “Login”

Enter your account info and click “Sign in”

Now, click on “change” next to “calendar”

Select “Google”, click “Change”. Then click the “Click to configure your service…” link. Enter Your Google ID with the @gmail.com or @yourdomain.com if you’re a Google Apps Customer, and click “Request Account Access”. You will then be redirected to Google and asked which account you want Nuevasync to access, choose and click “Continue”. On the next page click “Grant Access”. You should now get a message saying your changes have been saved. Click “Continue”.

There should now be a green dot all the way across from “calendar” on the right.
If you did not get a green dot go to this page. It will help you solve any configuration problems and tell you which of your calendars Nuevasync can use.

Now let’s sync contacts. Click Change next to contacts.

Select “Google” (you can also sync with Plaxo if you use that service), click “Change”. Then click the “Click to configure your service…” link. Enter Your Google ID with the @gmail.com or @yourdomain.com if you’re a Google Apps Customer and click “Request Account Access”. You will be then redirected to Google and asked which account you want Nuevasync to access, choose and click “Continue”. On the next page click “Grant Access”. You should now get a message saying your changes have been saved. Click “Continue”.

There should now be a green dot all the way across form Contacts on the right.

If you did not get a green dot go to this page. It will help you solve any configuration problems. It’s the same help page I mentioned above.

Before we move on to configuring the iPhone, it’s important to note that you can use this page to see which of your calendars can be synced and also help solve any configuration problems.

Now we’re done with the online configuration, let’s move on to the iPhone.
If you’re not sure what values to enter in the following fields, Nuevasync can generate the recommended settings for you, and give you their text based setup instructions at this page.

Go to the “Settings” menu then touch the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” button

Choose “Add Account…”

Choose “Microsoft Exchange”

Enter the Email, Username, and Password you set up at the Nuevasync site. Be sure to leave the Domain Field blank. Also add a Description, the default is the Email you entered in the email field, but I prefer “Nuevasync”. On the Nuevasync site they say “it is important that the e-mail address you enter when configuring the synchronization settings on your device matches the one you provided to sign up for Nuevasync.” I also found out that if you enter the wrong email address, then your events will show up as un-editable invitations.

Touch “Next”

A warning will pop up about the security certificate at “yourdomain.com” (Normally “gmail.com” or “yourdomain.com”, but I used my theiLife.com email address for the tutorial) Just so you know why this box pops up, on their website Nuevasync says “When you enter your e-mail address to sync, your device may warn you about a certificate being invalid. This is particularly likely if you use a Gmail address. It isn’t referring to our certificate or our service, so don’t be concerned. It is part of Apple’s auto-configuration feature as it tries to guess the appropriate server name based on your info. Our SSL certificate is valid and secure.”

Touch “Accept”.

The Server Box will appear. Enter www.nuevasync.com

Now, turn the “Mail” switch off. Nuevasync does not support push Mail yet, but they hope to in the near future. They suggest setting up IMAP for now. Nuevasync also says “turn off any other category you do not wish to sync. For example, if you want to sync only your calendar, make sure “Mail” and “Contacts” are both turned off. If you want to sync contacts and calendar, you should only turn off “Mail”, but if you are reading this article, you’re probably going to want to sync both. Touch “Save”.

Now the setup is complete. Nuevasync should show up as an account in the “Mail, Contacts, Calendar” page.

Go to the Home screen and touch Contacts. Your iPhone should immediately begin to sync with Nuevasync / Google. This first sync may take up to a minute, because it has to download all of your information. Future syncs will only take a few seconds. Afterwards, all of your contacts should appear. Go back to your home screen and repeat the process for your calendar. Again, the first sync may take up to a minute because it has to download all of your information. Future syncs will only take a few seconds.

That’s it! Now wherever you go with your iPhone or iPod Touch, you will always have your up-to-date Google Calendar and Contacts!

If you ever need to verify that your data was synced or the last time it was synced, you can use this page to look at your sync status. If there has been some error in syncing (Like Google not responding with your calendar events) then the problem will be displayed on that page.

Special thanks go out to David Boreham, one of the creators of Nuevasync, for providing information for the article. You can read Nuevasync’s blog at http://nuevasync.blogspot.com/ where you can keep up with the latest news about Nuevasync, including new features and scheduled maintenance.

My name is Keith Hobin, and I’m the managing editor here at theiLife. I originally joined theiLife back in June, but now I’m making my first post. I grew up in Montclair, NJ with Matt, Sidney, and a few of the other iLife writers. I graduated from Montclair High School this year and will be attending Drexel University as an Information Systems major. I prefer the Microsoft side of computers and plan on adding a little diversification into this blog. You will be hearing from me from time to time with new stories and information about the goings on of the blog. If you want to contact me, you can email me at keith@theilife.com . For my full biography, check out the about page section.

In getting ready for my attendance of Drexel, I have recently purchased one of Dell newest Laptop, the Studio 15. The Studio line is intended to have a mix of features from the XPS and Inspiron line at prices starting around $650 and around $750 for a decent configuration. For my Studio 15, I paid $ 1,839.94 with a 4 year warranty, accidental damage protection, and lojack, before tax and shipping. A PDF of the invoice / configuration will be posted along with this (Here). Just the price difference of $460 alone, a MacBook Pro being $2,300, is a good reason to consider another brand. But let’s delve into the features of each computer.

NOTE: All Comparisons made will be between MY Dell Studio 15 and the 15″ 2.5GHz MacBook Pro. However, I will note the optional features I selected for my dell and will note higher features that I opted not to get. When I discuss option prices, the price increase will be from the cheapest configuration available to the general public at the time of writing. To be fair, both of the base prices of the computers are with educational discounts and I received an extra discount for taking the 4 year warranty.

Operating System:

OK, this section is not to debate the quirks and features of Vista/XP and OS X. That is for its own post. This post is focusing on the hardware, but I will say this about the OS. Windows does open up more options for you as hardware goes; you have Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo, Acer, and even Apple, now that they run windows with boot camp. The major plus to this is that the more options you have, the more likely you are to get the computer that suits you. And who ever said that competition was a bad thing, it makes innovation happen.

Display and Keyboard:

Each of these computers has bright crisp displays, perfect for surfing the web around campus, writing a report or even a blog post! Both Computers have 1440×900 Resolution LED backlit displays; although I got mine as an option, and there is a $125 price increase (Resolution also goes from 1280×800.) There is also a 1920×1200 Full HD display, but it’s not LED backlit. Both of the Keyboards are also backlit, mine again being a $50 option. The only noticeable extra feature would be the ambient light sensors on the MBP, though I can live without them, I already think the LED display is bright enough on the lowest setting.

Processor:

Both computers have 2.5 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Of course, like almost everything on my laptop, it was an option, with a price increase of $350 (The base processor is a Dual Core Pentium at 1.86 GHz, eww). The 2.5 GHz on the Studio is the top processor available, and the MBP has a 2.6 GHz available for an additional $250.

RAM:

Each laptop can support up to 4 GB of RAM. The lowest available on the Studio is 1 GB, with the increase to 4 GB only $150 (about $50 a gig for 4 GB). The lowest available on the MBP is 2 GB with the increase to 4 GB only $200 (About $100 a gig for 4 GB)

Wireless Connectivity and Networking:

One of the best reasons to get a laptop in the first place is that you can have portable connectivity wherever you go. This is true especially for my Dell Studio 15, but I’ll get into that later. Both the Studio and the MBP have Ethernet 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Standard. For my Studio, this was a surprise to me because Dell never made a mention of it and it wasn’t an option when I was buying the laptop. I didn’t find it out till I was doing research for this article.

On the wireless front, both the Studio and the MBP have a/b/g/draft n wireless internet. It was an upgrade option on the Studio for $25.

Also on my Studio, I have a built in wireless broadband connection card from Verizon. This $150 upgrade lets me connect to the internet where ever I have cell service. You can either tie it to a monthly data plan or pay by the day. Sprint and AT&T also offer built in wireless cards.

Bluetooth 2.0 is available on both computers, of course it is an option on the Studio and for $25 it is worth it to me, just so I can use things like wireless stereo headphones and remotes.

Video Out:

Both laptops have digital video outputs. The Studio has a HDMI (High Definition Media Interface) port and a VGA port for added convenience. The MBP has a DVI (Digital Video Interface) port. In order to connect a VGA monitor or projector, you have to have the included DVI to VGA adapter. I personally find it annoying that you have to remember to have this adapter, as the Digital video port still aren’t as common as they should be. Most monitors and projectors still only have VGA ports.

Hard Drive:

Both of these computers use a SATA hard drive interface. My Studio has a 320 GB hard drive, with the default in the Studio line being 160 GB, the upgrade costing $75. I should also note that dell only offers one hard drive with an accelerometer to protect your data in the event of you dropping your laptop, its capacity being 200 GB and the upgrade price from the 160 GB being $150. The MBP has a 250 GB and although there is no accelerometer in the hard drive itself, they are located around the computer and provide the same functionality.

Size, Weight and Outward Appearance:

Both of the computers are about the same size, the Studio is 14″x1″x10.3″ and the MBP is 14.1″x1″x10.6″. Although, I must say that my Studio is a little thicker because I got the 9 Cell battery and it acts kind of like a mini laptop stand (hey, at least it makes typing a little more comfy). The Studio’s starting weight is 6.11 Lbs, although this varies by configuration. I would have to say my Studio weighs about 7 Lbs, which is fine for me. The MBP weighs in at 5.4 Lbs. This is probably the most significant difference between the two computers, besides the OS and brand.

One of the great things about the Studio is that you can customize the outside. The Studio comes in 7 different colors, a pattern called “graphite grey” (it reminds me of a topographic map) with the choice of 4 different trim options and 3 different designs by the artist Mike Ming. The default color is “Jet Black” which is what I have. Any of the other 6 colors costs $25 and the designs by Mike Ming cost $75. No matter what design you choose, you have some of the “graphite grey” pattern on the inside of the laptop. The MBP on the other hand only comes in one color, anodized aluminum.

Other Features and Goodies:

Here is a quick list of some other features that the Studio has but the MBP does not:

• Biometric fingerprint reader
• eSATA port (The MBP only has Firewire 800 which transfers data at 800 MB/S, eSATA is 3.0 GB/S)
• 4 USB ports (two on each side, the MBP only has 2)
• Touch media controls
• SD Card Reader
• Blue Ray player available for $200
• Microphone array (the MBP only has one mic, this is great because you can use built in software to remove background noise when you are using the mics)
• Right click BUTTON

It is also important to note that the MBP has these features that the Studio does not:

• Optical audio in/out
• Multi-touch Trackpad
• Right Click GESTURE (I prefer the button)
• Firewire 800 (The Studio does have Firewire, but it is only the mini 4 pin kind, like those found on cameras

Finally, it is important to note that both laptops have these features:

• 2 Megapixel Webcam / iSight
• No remote included, But supported (the Apple Remote is $19, the Dell is $22)

Wrap up:

Overall, I really like my Studio 15; it feels like an extension of me and my geeky personality. One of my main reasons for not getting a MacBook Pro was that I felt like I could not customize it enough, and although some people will say “Keith, you didn’t really customize your studio, you upgraded it to the level of the MacBook Pro! The Macbook Pro is more powerful and lighter” But it just wouldn’t be me and I felt I got a much better deal with my Studio. For those of you with Macbook Pro’s (which is almost everyone reading this blog) good for you, but I’m happy with my Studio.

I hope you enjoyed my first article, be sure to keep a look out for more from me and how I put my spin on the iLife.

- Keith Hobin

Sources:

Dell Studio 15 Page: http://www.dell.com/…/laptop_studio_15
Apple MacBook Pro page: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
Cnet review: http://reviews.cnet.com/…/dell-studio-15/….html
PCmag.com review: http://www.pcmag.com/….asp