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Decisions, decisions. Apple revamped their entire line of iPods yesterday and introduced a new model, the iPod Touch. The iTouch, as I call it, is the iPhone, without the phone. To me that translates to “everything I wanted in the iPhone without losing my Blackberry and switching carriers”. And speaking of the iPhone, they officially discontinued the 4GB model in favor of the 8GB model, then lowered the price by $200. iPhone now costs $399 which is very attractive but also at the $399 price point is the new 16GB iPod Touch.

iPod Touch:
I haven’t been this excited for a product in awhile. In a previous post I stated I would pass on the iPhone. My dependance on my Blackberry and switching to AT&T were really my only reasons not to purchase one. Otherwise I thought the iPhone was amazing. Now Apple has all the amazing without any of my worries. Without a doubt, I’ll be picking up the iPod Touch the day its released. I went as far as to pre-order it from Apple.com last night but when I seen they charged me sales tax, I said screw it and I’ll just pick one up at an Apple store when they are available. I’m all about instant gratification. Its just my luck that the only product that wasn’t in stores already was the iPod Touch. Apple’s site says it ships by Sept. 28th. That’s along time to wait when you want something today. That’s around the same time the T-Mobile Blackberry Curve is rumored to be released so I should have some new toys to play with at the end of this month.

iPod Nano:
The Nano’s got a major overhaul with a new design, interface and video support. Unfortunately it seems the Nano is the sleeper product of the day being overshadowed by the Touch and the iPhone price drop. If the Touch wasn’t released, I would have ran to the store to pick up a new Nano without a second thought. $199 gets you a 8GB Nano that plays video. That’s epic.

Afterthoughts:
The 2-3 week wait for the iPod Touch is actually good for me. It will give me time to sell off my G1 Nano and my AppleTV to make room for the new iPod. My decision to sell my AppleTV stems more from my currently living situation than the new iPods. My HDTV has died and only have access to an SDTV so the AppleTV will do nothing more than collect dust for the next few months. With the Xbox 360’s support for SDTV, h264 and the help of Connect360 for my Mac, I don’t lose much from not having my AppleTV. Don’t worry little AppleTV, we may one day meet again.apple

Setting your Blackberry 8100 (Pearl) to work with Gmail is pretty straight forward. There is two methods you can use but I’m only going to cover the one I’m currently using. I’m going to assume you have the Unlimited Data plan and its working and have already set up your blackberry.net address. This instructions are geared towards T-Mobile users but should be easily modified to fit your provider.

Gmail Setup

1) Log into Gmail and goto Settings
2) Click on the Forwarding and Pop tab at the top
3) Check “Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on”
4) Save Changes

Blackberry Setup

1) Log into T-Mobile
2) Under Messaging, click on “Set Up Blackberry Internet E-mail”
3) Click “Setup Account”
4) Enter your @gmail.com address and password
5) You should now receive a TXT message saying your account has been successfully setup

You should now start receiving your Gmail emails almost instantaneously.

Filters

One small problem you will notice with Gmail is that every time you compose a new email or reply to one, you receive a copy of that email on your Blackberry. Its annoying to say the least. We can fix this with a Server side filter.

1) Log into T-Mobile
2) Under Messaging, click on “Set Up Blackberry Internet E-mail”
3) Click the Filters icon under your Gmail account
4) Click “Add Filter”
5) Create a Filter name. This can be anything, I call mine “Gmail Sent”
6) Choose “From field” in the Apply Filter when:
7) Type your gmail.com address in the “Contains Field”
8) Select “Do Not forward messages to handheld”

You should now no longer receive replys on your Blackberry.

Finally got away from the PDA / Cellphone combo I always carried around with the purchase of my new Motorola MPx220 Smartphone. The MPx220 runs Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003SE software which virtually replaces my iPaq 2215 and Nokia 3650. This is how to setup a new MPx220 to work with Push based Activesync over T-Mobile’s GPRS network. What this means is every time a new email, appointment or contact is added to your Exchange the server will “push” it to you phone in a matters of minutes without you having to sync manually. This is done by the Exchange server sending out a SMS message that the phone receives (and deletes immediately) and this initializes a server Activesync connect. With this in mind, i highly suggest you get the $19.99 Unlimited Internet plan with a 1000 SMS bucket for $6.99 from T-Mobile.

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Exchange 2003 setup:

1: Install Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 if you haven’t already
2: Follow the registry edit in this KB article
3: Install this hotfix
4: Start Exchange System Manager
5: Open Organization > Global Services
6: Click Mobile Services
7: Goto Action > New > Mobile Carrier
8: Type in T-Mobile as the carrier name
9: Type “@tmomail.net” for the SMTP Domain
10: Close out all windows

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MPx220 Connection Settings

1: Start > Settings > More > Data Connections
2: Press Menu > Edit Connections
3: Go down to GPRS Connections
4: Menu > Add

Fill in as following:
Description: T-Mobile GPRS
Connects to: The Internet
Access Point: wap.voicestream.com
Leave the rest blank

5: Hit Done Twice
6: Goto Proxy Connections
7: Menu > Add

Fill in as following:
Description: T-Mobile GPRS
Connects from: The Internet
Connects to: WAP Network
Proxy: 216.155.165.50:8080
Type: HTTP
Leave rest blank

8: Click Done until your back at your Homescreen
9: Start > Internet Explorer > Menu > Options > Connections
10: Select Network : WAP Network
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Setup Activesync on MPx220

1: Start > Activesync
2: Menu > Options > Server Settings > Connections

Fill in as following:
User Name: [your exchange username]
Password: [your exchange password]
Domain: [your windows domain]
Check Save Password
Server Name: [your server ie mail.yourdomain.com]
Check Use SSL Connection

3: Click Done until your back at the Active Screen
4: Menu > Server Settings
5: Click Inbox > Check Sync Inbox with a Server then set your options as you see fit
6: Click Calender > Check “Sync Calender with a Server” then set your options as you see fit
7: Click Contact > Check “Sync Contacts with a Server”
8: Click Done to your back to Activesync screen
9: Sync - Hopefully it should connect and sync for the first time.
10: Menu > Options > Mobile Schedule
11: Change the “Peak time sync” to “When new items arrive”
12: Change the “Off-peak time sync” to “When new items arrive”
13: Sync again
14: Menu > Options > Server Settings > Connections
15: Scroll down to Address device using

Fill in as follows:
Address device using: SMTP Address
Service Provider Name: T-Mobile (should be auto-filled)
Device Phone Number: [your mobile number] (should be auto-filled)
Text Message Address: [yourmobilenumber]@tmomail.net

18: Click Done til your at Activesync screen
17: Sync