Merging iPhone contacts into Google contacts - semi manual

Having made the decision to keep all my contacts with Google (see my earlier blog) I have come across a maintenance problem. I still occasionally want to add contacts using my phone. I found when I added them it by default adds them to the "On My iPhone" group. But what I want is for them to be added to my
"Google" contact group on my iPhone so they will sync to the cloud.

As it turns out this is easy to fix. you just have to make your default contacts the Google group. Settings-> Mail,Contacts, Calenders->Default Account="Google"

Unfortunately I was a bit late doing this and I am also faced with needed to move 10 contacts from the "On My iPhone" group to my Google group. The iPhone doesn't offer a simple function to merge groups. Though I note there are apps out there the claim they can. There is however quite a simple mechanism to achieve this that is better than re-entering them.

1. On the iPhone select each of the contacts in the "On My iPhone" group and then touch "Share Contact" and email the contact to your gmail account.
2. Login to the Web portal for gmail and open the emails one by one and import the contact into your contact list. - Delete the emails
3. Now go back to the iPhone and view the "Google" contacts (where they should sync in automatically). Now you can delete the contacts from the "On My iPhone" group.

All good. It would be even better if I could email a set of contacts but yay for at least a way of doing it that doesn't involve typing or finding and trusting an app that can do the job.

Cloud based storage

Over the last 5 years f so there has been quite a bit of talk of "Cloud computing". Initially practical applications seemed a bit vague to me. You could do "stuff" in the cloud instead of on your local device. This implication was that at least one aspect of this service was to outsource the CPU load. Web based spreadsheets and word processors were also offered but are just not as responsive as the local version. Cloud web service resources are offered from providers such as google - but there are not that many commercial adopters of this service.

But now I am seeing a big uptake in cloud computing, not for the generic processing, but for the central data storage. This is going mainstream, millions of people are starting to entrust what once was personally managed data locally to the Internet.

Last year I made the (what I thought at the time) big step of entrusting all of my mail archive to Google. It was a great move and I have not looked back. I could work on a cached copy of my mail with my PC client, or my phone. Filing and reading it from anywhere, gone was the preview on one device but filing and archiving on another.

Earlier this month I got sick of partially loosing some of my contact information from my mobile phone as I reset it yet again. So I made the step of putting my contacts in google too. Now I sync them with my phone and my outlook at work. No problems and I haven't looked back.

With the trend emerging, I have now made another step adding "Evernote" to my list of cloud based storage. I have a copy of the client on my phone and on all the PCs that I use. Now I have notes happily replicated everywhere. I am even now starting to eye up "Dropbox" a personal file storage utility of the same elk. My copy has been dormant from use since the last time I could only transfer a file via the Internet for a server I was needing to work on.

I think it would be a good time to be in the online backup storage business. I think it is going to boom.

Comparing MySky HDi and Tivo

I love DVR technology. I rarely watch TV, and now I practically never watch live TV. Since my family has both mySky HDi and a Tivo unit unit I thought I would write up a small comparison.

In my view DVR's are a revolution they enable not only scheduled recording, but live pause, and convenient and rapid selection for playback.

I don't think the online content is a draw card for either right now because there just isn't enough content available to bother searching it for something to download.


The facts:

The subjective stuff:

Pros for the Tivo:

• The Tivo is cheaper (but you don't get the content)
• The Tivo is better for fast forwarding ads (once you get used to it)
• The Tivo interface is better to browse your content because it groups programs together by series
• The Tivo Network  software is cool, it can transfer material off the Tivo and back on again. It transfers about twice the normal play rate and you can watch the content while it is transferring. It will also automatically convert to portable format in the background. Sky content is encrypted and cannot be extracted off the unit.
• If you ever need to replace your box the Tivo content can be transferred off and then back on the new one via the network (I think this is the reason for the high retention Sky have on there units - customers don't want to loose their recorded content).
• If you are with Telecom (and most people are) The download content is free
• There is a free iphone/ipod app that controls the Tivo over the wifi (an Internet remote control)
• The rating system is intelligent and learns from what you choose to record
• You own the unit whereas with mySky it belongs to sky.
• You can upgrade the harddrive, or plug in an external one if you need more space locally.

Pros for the Sky Box:

• Sky has the best content and it is best consumed by the mysky box
• I think the sky interface is easier for kids to use (<8 years)
• The dvr box looks nicer and is quieter
• Doesn't need an Internet connection
• The Tivo EPG doesn't list the programing for sky's free channel "prime". Which means you can not conveniently schedule recording of Prime from a Tivo box (I think Sky is deliberately holding this back for commercial advantage).  

Heads Up Displays (HUDs)

I can imagine a workable heads up display for day to day use. It would take the form of ordinary glasses and overlay real time annotations and then localised information can be "offered" to the HUD. I am not talking about displaying it all the time - I think that would be too invasive. The user would of course need to be able to choose what and when the annotations would activate, in the same way I can choose when to look at my phone.

For this to come together making a revolutionary step in technology I think three things have to come together:

1. HUD technology to display data and images onto transparent material in a form factor that is comfortable and cosmetically acceptable.
2. Maps and databases that are indexed by GPS and image processing data
3. Powerful and intelligent video and image processing capabilities

It seems to me that these things are now materialising:

Samsung's latest mass produced 3D TV glasses are now  blue tooth enabled, rechargeable and have a lightweight form factor. Take these qualities and combine them with Sony's concept video glasses that overlay Video onto clear glasses and you are nearly there.

The real cleverness though is not the hardware, it is the software that can figure out wear you are (GPS) and what you are looking at (compass+database) for the static content like buildings. For this you only have to look at the brilliance of Google maps and Google streetview as applied to a mobile phone and combine this with image metadata searching  and actual image searching such as TinEye.

Then for the really hard (and cool) stuff you need image processing to analyse the dynamic content like people. Moving licences plates can be solved (automatic toll Bridges), so can moving faces (automatic airport security).

 

It is little wonder then that Google are looking at things like dynamic real time advertising on phones that is intelligent as to where you are - to lure you into the adjacent shops. And online purchases, not to clip the ticket but for the data. It is not much of a jump to get that phone to also relay the precious information to the glasses which know which way you are looking? Ooh scary thought they might want to track where I was looking too!

Why Blog?

I use to wonder why people blogged. To me it always seemed to be somewhat egotistical, perhaps even soapbox yelling rude. But recently I have started to think that there might be something more to it. I mean people choose whether they will read your materal, or follow the Google search link that takes you there. And perhaps I might just have a thought that is interesting to someone else? A thought that might trigger a cascade of dialogue, perhaps even one day leading to something grand ... or maybe just pose some interesting reading to enjoy.

So here goes it my first blog post, I don't know where this will lead, or even if a theme will develop. But right now I have a firm belief that I should write down some of my thoughts. This will be kind of like a diary of ideas and experiments that will at worst be of interest to me in reflection, and at best provide a small contribution to the wealth of internet knowledge we all enjoy