Transfer Contacts from Blackberry Torch to iPhone

I hate to say this, but nowadays more people are ditching their blackberries for the iPhone or Android devices.

I recently had a request from a user who had been happily using a Blackberry Torch. He had just bought an iPhone 4S and wanted to know how he could move all his contacts to his new phone. I took this to be an easy task to do, but as I found a few minutes later, this was going to be quite a challenge. I found that I could not bulk copy the contacts onto the sim and move the sim across to the iPhone. The Blackberry Torch did not have any option to bulk copy contacts!! With at least 200 contacts, I did not want to waste a few days just moving contacts around, so I decided to find a better solution.

And here it is.
1. Create a gmail account (unless you already have one)
2. Download Google Sync onto your Blackberry Torch.
3. Sign in to your Google Sync using your Gmail Credentials from step 1. above
4. You will then be asked to sync your contacts to Gmail. Change the frequency to Manual.
5. Do a sync of the contacts so that all contacts are uploaded to Gmail.
6. Once this is complete, login to your Gmail account
7. Go into Contacts. Under More, you will see the Export option. Click this.
8. Choose the following settings for Exporting Contacts

    - All Contacts
    - vCard format (for importing into Apple Address Book or another application)

9. Once you have done this, you will get a file with all your contacts in it.

Now we will import this into your iPhone. To do this, we will login to your iCloud account.
Please note that to get an iCloud account, you will need to be running at least iOS 5.0 on your iPhone. If you have not already done so, please create an iCloud account.

10. Login to your iCloud account using your browser by going to http://www.icloud.com
11. From the dashboard, click on Contacts (you might be asked to install the iCloud Web App Plugin) Click Install  for this.
12. Once you are in your iCloud contacts section, at the bottom you will see a spiked wheel icon. This is your settings icon. Click on it and choose Import vCard
13. You will then get a popup asking you for the location of the vCard file. Point it to the file that you exported from Gmail (Step 9)
14. Once the import is finished, Viola! Your contacts would have been uploaded to iCloud.
15. Ensure your iPhone has been setup to Sync its contacts with iCloud. If it has then all your imported Gmail Contacts will now show on your iPhone.

Yay!! How easy was that?

Week 31 Article 01 - Blackberry Pearl 8110 not supported on BES 4.1.4 !!!

Guess what. I just installed a BES 4.1.4 and thinking that everything will go smoothly went ahead to activate the user device .. which happened to be the latest Blackberry Pearl 8110. And the bloody thing wouldnt get detected!!

After spending about half an hour sieving through the googled results, i found that just a simple windows update (while the device is connected to the server) was all I needed to do to get the drivers for the 8110! How cool is that? (and dumb as well because its not on the RIM website!!! .. frustrating!!!)

Think about that.. Blackberry Pearl 8110 is a Microsoft supported device.

Week 29 Article 05 - Darn Blackberry!! User cannot send/receive emails from device after a few hours!!

Platform:
Blackberry Enterprise Service 4.x
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Symptoms:
After setting up a user for blackberry access, he/she can send/receive emails from the device fine till after a few hours. After a few hours, when he tries sending emails from the device, a red X is displayed beside the message, and an error message stating that the message was not delivered.

Troubleshooting Steps:
1. Checked permissions ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=912918)
2. From 1. above, found that the Blackberry account did not have the Send As permission anymore.
3. Had a look at the user account permissions and found that one of his group memberships was to an account with domain wide administrator access! This is a NO NO as per the KB article
4. Removed user from the group. Gave the Blackberry account Send As permission on the user account.
5. Restarted Microsoft Exchange Information Store, Blackberry Dispatcher and Blackberry Router service.
6. Tested sending of emails from the device.

Moral: RTFM! There is a reason why there is a KB article and set of steps to do things

Week 27 Article 03 - MobiPocket - RSS Feeds on your Blackberry, the cheap way

I bet many of you by now are aware what RSS feeds are. For those that still dont know, here is a wikipedia link on RSS

RSS feeds are quite handy when trying to see updates on a website. And even more useful when you have time to look at them, for instance during commuting, sitting in a waiting room, or just enjoying a cup of coffee out in the park. The most convienient device to have during these times is a smartphone. But as I have found, it can be quite expensive browsing the net over your carriers internet connection. Just a few megabytes can take you away from tens of dollars! During these times, every cent saved is welcomed. And with RSS feeds accessing data over the internet, this small excursion on the information highway can make your pocket very light.

But wait. Help is at hand. Have a look at MobiPocket Reader This fantastic software will download the RSS feeds onto your desktop or laptop, including the first page of every RSS article and then when docked, sync your smartphone over the cable! All you need to do is download the free Reader and install it. It supports Blackberry and most of the smartphones out there. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think and do tell me of any other software that do similar tasks. Have a great weekend.

Week 27 Article 02 - Installing a NON localised Blackberry Device OS [v4.5]

I started off with a Blackberry 7100v. For those of you that know this device,it looks like a brick but is one of the most robust phones I have ever had. Then I transitioned to a 8100 Pearl. This is less of a geeky and more of a fashion phone. Everyone wants one due to its sexy curves and sleek look . Check it out here

My Pearl came with OS v4.2.0.79 standard and when OS 4.2.1.102 was released by Blackberry, it was several months before Vodafone NZ released the firmware for its phones. This I believe is because they want to test the firmware to ensure it suits the local market and also to put in their own customisations/softwares etc. But many times the wait doesnt quite justify the end result. After upgrading to OS v4.2.1.102 I found the keys to be too soft. To explain this let me give an example. One of the buttons on the Pearl has got E,R and 1. So if you press the key once you get E, tap the key twice (if using multitap) you get R and if you use the SHIFT key, you get 1. I would press the key once but would end up with an R. This caused alot of TYPOS!! It took me months to get used to this ... the most frustrating few months of my life!!

Then came the release of v4.5 but this is only available for US carriers. Vodafone NZ is yet to release its own customised v4.5. Unable to wait, I decided to give v4.5 a try. Searching the Net, I found one from a Dutch carrier and dredging the shoals of google found me an article that revealed how to use another regions OS on your own device. So I am imparting this knowledge on to you folks.

PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD YOU KILL YOUR DEVICE. TRY THE FOLLOWING STEPS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ALSO THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE NOT THAT OF BLACKBERRY (as in the maker) OR THAT OF VODAFONE.

1. Download the OS that matches your device type (Pearl 8100 in my case).
2. Ensure you have the latest Blackberry Desktop Manager installed.
3. Unplug your device, if connected to the computer.
4. Install the OS by double clicking on it, choosing the relevant options etc.

Just before the install finishes, you are prompted with a tick box asking if you would like to start the Blackberry Desktop Manager to continue the install.Make sure you UNTICK this.

5. Once installed, look for and delete the following file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\Vendor.xml
6. Connect your device
7. Start the Blackberry Desktop Manager and use it to install the new OS (the OS has already been placed in the relevant uploading directories. All that is left is for the Desktop Manager to push it up to the device).
8. Once done, your device will reboot.
The first startup after the upgrade is very slow. Be paitent .. you havent screwed your device ... YET

One of the first features that won me over was the key presses. They were not has jaggedy as v4.2.1.102. They were really natural to use and didnt jump to the next letter. The Calendar looks far better and the display is crispier. There is a new notification screen when someone calls you among a bagfull of other goodies