Tom's Two Cents

(Note: This blog post is meant to be read while listening to Midnight Oil’s “Sell My Soul.”

Dear Google,

I just want to say thanks for the wonderful Buzz you have given me. Not that you haven’t already cached and parsed every tweet I ever made on Twitter, but Buzz has helped me to recognize and accept my sole reliance on you. You know who I email. You know who my friends are. You know where I am all day long thanks to the GPS in my Android phone. I’ve sold my digital soul to you in every possible way (except photos — Flickr is still better). Now I’ll be coming to you every few minutes for the Buzz I need to get me though my day. Finally, I look forward to the day when you will use all the information I have happily given you to serve me ads for all sorts of wonderful things — before I realize how much I need them. I thank you in advance for this. You already know how much I hate shopping.

Your Truly,

Tom

PS – I am not kissing up because my Gmail storage is more than half full. Of course, if you magically added, say 10 gigabytes, it would help me to know that you are really listening (or parsing, at least).

Related Posts:

• The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail
• Presenting TwHistory at International Seminar of UNESCO Chair in E-Learning
• Historical Reenactments – Teaching with Twitter
• 10 months with an Android
• Betting on trends in the Twitter backchannel

Google, Random Thoughts Buzz, Google, microblogging, twitter

OK, so maybe this isn’t a “complete” guide, but it brings together many of the bits and pieces of tutorials I have found for importing contacts into Gmail from several of the major email and address book applications. Feel free to add or suggest additional ones in the comments, but as I have mentioned in other tutorials, I am only posting to be helpful (use at your own risk, etc, etc). This does not make me your technical support for life.

Introduction

With the release of Verizon’s DROID, and with several other new Android phones on the way, more and more people are making the switch from older PDAs and smart phones to Android. A big part of this involves moving contacts (names, addresses, and emails) over to Gmail, which syncs with Android. Many of us have accumulated contact information over time using other applications such as Outlook or Palm Desktop. This guide is meant to help people import contacts easily into Gmail, which will then sync automatically with their Android devices. Gmail offers a way to import contacts from other email applications and address books (up to 3000 contacts at a time).

The entire process can be divided into two main parts: (1) exporting contacts from the old program, and (2) importing contacts into Gmail. Part 1 depends on which program you are exporting from. Part 2 will be the same for all programs.

Part 1: Exporting contacts into a CSV file

Read more…

Related Posts:

• Moving contacts from Blackberry phone to T-mobile’s G1
• 10 months with an Android
• Dear Google…
• Upgrading Android G1 From Older CyanogenMod Versions to 4.2.3.1
• B&N Nook: I run Android!! Please root me!!

Android Address Book, addresses, Android, calendar, contacts, CSV, email, Gmail, Google, import, Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook, Palm Desktop, sync, tutorial, vCard

Back in October 2008 I started using Google’s first Android phone, the T-mobile G1. By the end of January 2009 there were 800 Android apps compared to over 15,000 iPhone apps. Of course, the iPhone had been around for well over a year at that point. But I think 2009 will be the year that Google Android really comes into its own as more than a dozen new models of Android phones are introduced. There are definite pros and cons to going with an open platform like Android, and I hope I can offer a realistic view of the good and the not-so-good that I have experienced with my Android G1 phone so far.

New Favorite Apps

I am still very happy overall with my G1. Especially now that I have root access to my phone I can do even more, like tether my laptop to my phone’s Internet connection via wifi. At the 1-month mark I made a list of my top 20 Android apps. That list has changed quite a bit, so here is my new list of top 20 Android apps. Interestingly, only 5 of these apps were on my first list 9 months ago. They are marked in bold. All the apps below are free unless marked otherwise.

1. Where – Displays movies, weather, etc. based on your location. It also has voice recognition and Yellowbook search, which presents you with address and phone numbers of businesses based on your location which you can then call or look up on a GoogleMap with a click or two.
2. BeyondPod ($2.99) – A Podcast app that allows you to manage podcasts and even update them over wifi. (So iPod Touch, why can’t you do this?)
3. Sky Map – Allows you to see stars, planets, and constellations just by holding your G1 in the direction you want to look (including the ones beneath the horizon). The digital compass, accelerometer, and GPS to move your phone around and see different areas of the sky. A very cool example of what augmented reality (AR) apps can do.
4. Wikitude – This is another great augmented reality app, but this one lets you “see” cities and landmarks close to you by holding the phone in front of you and turning in any direction. Selecting the names on the screen pulls up the web page for that city or point of interest in wikipedia.
5. Places Directory – Google’s version of Where. I can’t decide which one I like best so I use them both. Places uses you location to look up restaurants, shops, parks, and other points of interest. You get addresses and phone numbers you can use to locate or call whatever it is you are trying to find.

   Read more…

Related Posts:

• The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail
• How To Root Your G1 Android Phone (and why you might want to)
• Dear Google…
• Upgrading Android G1 From Older CyanogenMod Versions to 4.2.3.1
• B&N Nook: I run Android!! Please root me!!

Android, Gadgets, Google, Instructional_Technology, Reviews, Tech Tools Android, G1, Google