A look at business, law and life from a technophile.
Helpdesk
Android 2.1 Droid Update imminent on Verizon -maybe multitouch
0Motorola just announced on their facebook page today that the Droid will get Android 2.1.
My hope is that it fixes the corporate exchange email settings and IMAP bug. Engadget reports that the 2.1 update should add multi-touch to the web browser. But we shouldn’t expect to see all the Nexus One bells and whistles. However, we’ll have to wait and see.
Happy Updating. Oh and backup that phone.
–Ben
Fix – Page Numbering in Word 2007 Fails / Broken and gives MERGEDOCUMENT gibberish
0I just ran past a strange error in Microsoft Word 2007 on windows. A colleague and I tried to insert page numbers at the bottom of the document and got some strange text.
We were opening a microsoft word .doc file (word 97-2003) with microsoft word 2007 in compatability mode. The solution appears to me that you need to get out of compatability mode.
Here’s the fix:
- Revert back to before you put in the page numbers (IE don’t save it – just close the file and re-open or hit undo)
- Save the file as a .docx file (word 2007 document)
- Close Word
- Open the .docx file
- Add Page Numbers and continue editing
- If you need to go back to the .doc format, save the file as a .doc file (word 97-2003) format after you’ve made your changes.
Hope that helps you.
–Ben
(no sources, just trial and error here)
Fix – Droid MMS won’t send – Too many in queue
4So it appears I’ve hit the first major Droid bug. I tried to send a whole bunch of people MMS pictures of my new kiddo. For some reason, it got stuck on several messages and said that there were too many unsent MMS messages and that I’d have to wait.
Here’s the issue:
- If you contact has parentheses around the contact’s area code, then MMS might fail — and only MMS — texting and calling should work. (Wow. Talk about dumb bug)
Here’s the fix:
- Delete any thread (your conversation record) of anyone you want to send an MMS to. (If you don’t it will put it in that thread and pull the number from the thread)
- Remove the contact’s number and retype it in. The Droid will put the hyphens in, which is OK. Oh, and make sure you change it for each of the ways you store the contact (such as GMail and Outlook, if its in both).
- Reset the phone.
- Do the MMS message.
Hope this stops someone else from cursing at their otherwise awesome phone, like it did me.
–Ben
Source: Thanks to GearLive
Fix – IPhone app won’t start/launch/open
75A friend of mine’s IPhone would not launch apps that previously worked for him, which appeared to be 3rd party applications. Here’s a few potential fixes with notes:
- Download a new free app (like google earth) and once you enter your itunes password, all is fixed
Reason:
“Taken from another forum:
The reason this happens is because every time a downloaded app is opened it checks for your itunes password for validation that you are authorized to open that app (as it may contain personal info). From time to time the iphone “forgets” your itunes password. You can fix the missing password by syncing the iphone with itunes or downloading an app from the app store and entering your password that way.”
-
The solution for this situation was the Application setting tab at top when the iPhone is plugged in and iTunes is running. It seems when an iPhone ( the same may apply for iTouch also ) with 3rd party apps is plugged into iTunes , iTunes runs a backup to restore the 3rd party applications if needed. If the ‘ sync ‘ box ( for applications ) is unchecked and the sync is run , the apps are ‘ removed ‘ from your iPhone although they still appear on the iPhone ( similar to deleting a program but leaving the shortcut to it ). When starting the 3rd party app , it begins to run but then just exits.The fix for this was simply running iTunes , plugging in the iPhone and going to the Application tab and ensuring the ‘ sync ‘ applications box was checked ( along with all the applications it backed up under it ).
- The solution for this situation was the Application setting tab at top when the iPhone is plugged in and iTunes is running. It seems when an iPhone ( the same may apply for iTouch also ) with 3rd party apps is plugged into iTunes , iTunes runs a backup to restore the 3rd party applications if needed. If the ‘ sync ‘ box ( for applications ) is unchecked and the sync is run , the apps are ‘ removed ‘ from your iPhone although they still appear on the iPhone ( similar to deleting a program but leaving the shortcut to it ). When starting the 3rd party app , it begins to run but then just exits.The fix for this was simply running iTunes , plugging in the iPhone and going to the Application tab and ensuring the ‘ sync ‘ applications box was checked ( along with all the applications it backed up under it ).
- 1. Authorize, de-authorize and authorize again your computer in Itunes.
2. Sync all apps – chose ’specified apps’ and check them all for sync (the third party apps still won’t work at this point).
3. After syncing, with the IPhone still connected, delete one third party app (you’ll notice this app will lose its check).
4. Recheck this app in Itunes and (with all the other apps checked as well) sync again.
5. With the Iphone still connected, try opening the app you just restored. It should work fine, no saved data lost.
6. Test your other apps. If still not working, try repeating steps 3 – 5 with other third party apps until it fixes the problem. It took me 3 deletes/restores to get everything running again.
Hopefully one of these solutions works for you. I hear there’s good success with the install a new app solution.
–Ben
Source: Iphone App Ratings Forum
Free Droid Apps – Free Recommended Must Have Apps
7Just a quick List of my Must Have Apps for Droid
- (Jan/5/2009 UPDATE: NO LONGER FREE) Locale – Make your phone context sensitive – turn off alerts during sleeping hours, or use gps to turn off the sound, but vibrate when you’re at the grandparents. Totally worth it.
- WiFi OnOff & SilentMode OnOff – Widgets on your homescreen that quickly turn features on or off, rather than through settings or holding down the home button. Also show status.
- RingDroid – Make your own ringtones from your music. Talk about Finally!
- AudioManager – See the status and change the volume settings individually. Has caused my phone to hiccup a few times. May want to be careful. However the status screen of each volume setting makes it worth it.
- Jewels – Bejeweled clone that works great. However, it now comes with ads at the bottom of the menu screen. Skip if you can’t stand adds.
- Cestos – Funny multi-player ball game, as in over the internet. Addicting.
- Color Flashlight – Don’t tell me you’ve never used your cell phone to see in the dark.
- Where’s My Droid – Send your droid a text message and the volume will kick back on and start ringing. You can even text your phone and activate the GPS. So if you use lattitude, you might be able to find it.
- Speed Test – I wanted to know how fast Verizon’s 3G really was.
- Barcode Scanner – Comparison Shop by scanning the barcode of an item.
- Astro – File Manager and Viewer (why does droid not have this built in?)
- Toddler Lock – If you let your kids play on your Droid (really?), Lock down your Droid and let them fingerpaint and make shapes.
- Touch! 4Kids – Animal shapes fly across the screen and the kids have to touch the shape.
–Ben
Total Cost of a Droid vs. iPhone vs. Palm Pre vs. My Touch
0BillShrink.com has a good graphic they gave permission to repost on the cost and features of each “App Phone” as it seems that the new classes of phones are called. Personally I would get an iPhone or a Droid. I love my Droid except for the stupid back battery cover. The reason I have a Droid is that I’m stuck on Verizon because of the free mobile to mobile to family (switching them was out). Anyways, see below for the comparison.
Find the best cell phone plans and more graphics at BillShrink.com
–Ben
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Fix – Outlook 2007 won’t Search Tasks
0I don’t know what’s going on with Outlook’s Indexing, but it would miss tasks – even when I could see them by scrolling down by date. I had enough of it and disabled indexing. This forces Outlook to go back to the slow search method that actually works.
Here’s how you can do it
- Select Tools Menu item
- Select Instant Search submenu
- Select Search Options
- Uncheck the Data file that is missing stuff (or all of them, if you don’t know)
Hopefully MS will fix that painful issue. However, I don’t see a good fix in sight, even after a little digging.
–Ben
iPhone – check corporate voicemail problem fix
0One of the people in my office has an iPhone and was having problems in that the office voicemail system would only accept his password 25% of the time. It was getting really frustrating.
As it turns out, the iPhone mic may be interrupting your button presses being recognized, especially in a noisy environment. Here’s the fix
- Dial the office voicemail on the iPhone
- Mute the iPhone
- Dial your password
- Unmute the iPhone, if you want
Its a seriuosly simple fix, however, its not that obvious. We only got to the bottom of it because of inconsistencies between how often it would happen with and without a bluetooth earpiece.
–Ben
Droid – Unmerge a contact with a similar name
6So the facebook integration is nice, but I have a wife named Kat and a sister named Kate. Somehow, in Droid’s mind, they are the same person. Needless to say my sister got a strange response when she texted me and it came up as “Kat.”
After a mistake that left my sister howling, I researched the problem and the fix is easy. Just not well documented
- Go to contacts
- Select to the “merged contact” in the list (You should see all their contact information)
- Click the menu button (the one with all the lines)
- Click on the “edit contact” button
- Click on the menu button again
- Click on the separate button
There you go, the contacts are now separated. And my sister will not get any more messages intended for my wife.
On a side note: To join a contact, you follow the same instructions with one of the contacts to be joined. Instead of the last step of clicking on the separate button, you click on the join button. You then select the contact to be joined. However, I hear that you can’t join two contacts that were imported from the same source. So you can’t join two contacts that were imported from Gmail. However, you can merge a contact from Gmail and one from microsoft exchange. You can even merge the Gmail, exchange and facebook contact, if you wish. At least that is what I’ve interpreted.
Good Luck and Happy Veterans Day!
Program to Sync Droid to Your Music, Videos and Media – like iTunes for Droid
2The iPhone has iTunes, so what does Droid have?
If you dig deep enough, it looks like Droid has Motorola Media Link. I haven’t tried it, but I’m downloading it. However, since Motorola says it works with Droid, I’m apt to believe it. It even appears to transcode video to the right format! Woohoo!
Other people have suggested MediaMonkey. I may try that if I don’t like Motorola Media Link (Media Link also looks like a rebranded nero product).
I read that its like iTunes for Droid. We’ll see.
Look for an update and see if I have anything interesting to say after use.
On a side note. Droid rocks.
UPDATE: Emphasized that Media Link looks like the rebranded nero product not MediaMonkey.