Google Sync Now Supports PUSH Gmail

Earlier in the week, Google enabled Gmail to push to your iPhone by using Google Sync.

I had been using Google Sync to autosync my calendar and it worked great.

iPhone already had the fetch ability but it only fetches at certain intervals. Push allows you to get an e-mail the moment it comes in.

If you already have Gmail and/or Google Sync set up on your iPhone, you must delete those accounts and start over.

Here's instructions on how to set up your iPhone for Google Sync and don't forget to enable Mail.

It takes a while to get Google Sync working with Gmail but once it's done it works well. I set my iPhone to play sound the moment I get a new email. Now, just a reminder - setting push e-mail and maybe even a sound will affect the life of your battery. For me, I'll forgo battery life for the convenience of getting your e-mail when it comes in. I'm really glad I didn't buy an app for this.

iTunes Updates This Week

iTunes 9.0.1 is ready for updating right now. It's mainly a bug-fixing update. You can find a list of the bug fixes here.

AT&T has also announced that on its Facebook page that MMS for the iPhone will be updated through iTunes late Friday morning, Pacific Time. That means it should be ready in the early morning hours here in Hawaii.

For me, the earlier the better. I go on a trip to Portland this Friday and I need to be at the airport by 11:30 a.m. I hope to get the MMS update before I go. Although I'm not a big fan of MMS, I still would like to have the option. Before I had the iPhone, I used MMS once with my old dumbphone.

Genius Mixes

Here's another great feature of iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1: Genius Mixes.

If you want this feature on your iPhone, you'll have to start with creating the mixes on iTunes first.

When I updated iTunes to version 9, it didn't create Genius Mixes for me automatically. I had the Genius turned on before the update and it was the same after the update - no Genius Mixes.

So, what I had to do was disable the Genius first and then renable it. That allowed the Genius Mixes to come out. What iTunes does to create mixes is look at your entire iTunes library and create playlists of the different genres you already have. It also should be picking songs that are similar to each other. I haven't listened to each mix to really test that out. But, so far it seems to be pretty good.

Now, to get the mixes on your iPhone is easy. All you have to do is sync it to your iPhone like a playlist. I suppose you also have to enable Genius on your iPhone, which I already did when turning on the Genius for apps.

Just to let you know, one of the funky things my iPhone does is that it doesn't always display the correct album cover for each song. I hope that can get resolved eventually. So, in the picture to the right Expose isn't really in this rock mix.

I'm really going to test out this feature when I go on my trip this Friday.

Genius For iPhone Apps

One of the best features of iPhone OS 3.1 is the new Genius tab in the App Store.

Previously, the only ways you could view apps on your iPhone is to look at what's new, what's hot, the top-selling paid and free apps and browsing through categories.

Now that there are about 75,000 apps it's getting harder and harder to find which apps you may want.

The Genius function in the App Store takes a look at the app you have on your iPhone and makes recommendations based on them. It's not a foolproof way to find the best apps, but any help we can get is definitely needed.

First of all, you need to turn on the Genius function on your iPhone. Go to you App Store and the Genius tab is in the upper right hand corner.

Then, you have to click on the button that says "Turn On Genius."

On the picture to the right, I posted my initial Genius screen for apps. Becuase I have BeejiveIM, it recommended me an instant messaging app. However, it is an IM app for Russians. Like I said, the system is not perfect.

Overall though, it seems like a good way to help me find apps that I want.

In my next article, I'll go over Genius Mixes.

iPhone OS 3.1 Is Out!

iPhone OS 3.1 is now available on iTunes! Before you update your iPhone, remember to update iTunes to version 9 and backup your iPhone in case something wrong happens during the download.

There's a lot of updates in this one, but I have a feel there are a few hidden gems.

I'll report on them as I find them.

Apple Store Heist In 31 Seconds Flat!

Check this video out:

I'm in the television news business and all the while I was thinking to myself, "That's pretty neat how they showed the surveillance video in the screen of an iPhone."
Well, I'm pretty sure these guys will be caught since we know that Steve Jobs has a kill switch on all iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks that will instantly KILL them. No, that was a joke.