How to upgrade to iPhone 3GS from iPhone Original, 1G, 2G, and 3G

It was time. With the release of the new iPhone 3GS - available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB formats - coinciding with Ashley's birthday, it was perfect timing to get the new iPhone 3GS phone to replace her 1st Generation iPhone 8GB. The new features, the slightly different feeel, and the additional space were just a few of the reasons why she was excited.



Before upgrading, I did a little research to see what the process would look like and found a number of conflicting answers on how to go about it. On of the main keys of course is to be able to transfer all of your information, data, and settings over to the new iPhone. Any loss of information, apps, data, or ringtones is not something that anyone wants.

Some of the answers I found searching Google for"upgrade iphone to 3gs iphone" and "replace iphone 1g with 3gs iphone" included:

• Make sure and sync your iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G before heading into the Apple Store or AT&T to upgrade to the 3GS iPhone.
• Make a backup of your iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G before heading into the Apple Store or AT&T to upgrade to the 3GS iPhone.
• Make sure you upgrade your iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G to the latest Apple iPhone to the
• Do nothing at all and everything will be ok.

As you can imagine, with all the conflicting information, I was not sure which was the best way to go about upgrading your iPhone without losing any information. Now having successfully completed the upgrade process -- I can tell you exactly what to do and what to expect when you upgrade your phone.

First off, you can start off by doing nothing -- or at least that was the approach I went with. That way if you are just out and around town and you get the whim the upgrade your iPhone to the 3GS -- go ahead and do it, even if you have not backed up, upgraded to the latest iPhone OS version 3.0, or synchronized it.

However, you must realize that when you do pick up the new iPhone 3GS, it will be immediately activated. Your old iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G will stop receiving call, emails, and text messages and they will go to the new phone. And, depending on the queue at the Apple Store, you may wait up to 20 minutes for you new iPhone...like we did.

Now, once you get home -- you'll need to follow the exact steps below in order to transfer all data and settings to your new iPhone 3GS.

• First and most imporant -- connect your OLD iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G to your computer and iTunes.
  
• Synchronize your OLD iPhone to make sure you capture the latest settings and data.
  
• Make a manual backup of your iPhone, by right-clicking on your iPhone in the left pane and selecting make backup.
  
• Verify that you OLD iPhone is running the latest versions (3.0 at the time of this article) in iTunes by clicking on "Check for Update" under the version section. In some cases you may need to upgrade, like I did. Proceed with the upgrade.
  
• (if you need to upgrade) Once the upgrade completes, verify your information and settings are correct on the OLD iPhone and then take a backup one more time from your OLD iPhone.
  
• Disconnect your OLD iPhone.
  
• Connect your NEW iPhone 3GS to your computer and iTunes.
  
• Once the connection is initiated, you will be asked on whether to restore a backup. Say yes and/or perform a manual restore of the data from the OLD iPhone to your NEW iPhone 3GS.
  
• Once completed, your iPhone 3GS is now ready for use with all of your data.

Congratulations, you've successfully upgraded, replaced, and migrated the data from your old iPhone 1G, 2G, or 3G to the new iPhone 3GS. And if you're like me, you've also acquired an iTouch 8GB with the deactivation of the old iPhone. That's good news for both Ashley and I!

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Galaxy MGB Raid Pro Dies

I've done some posting on my Network Attached Storage device, the Galaxy MGB Raid Pro (link here). It's manufactured by Galaxy Metal Gear, a smaller company that makes a number of storage and multimedia solutions.

In general, it had been a pretty good device -- problem free with the exception of the occasional lock-up on the linux based storage system. I even had upgraded from the original 500GB drives to a couple of 1TB drive -- and it supported a number of functions including JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1. I had been using it mainly as a backup for the 4 systems I run to protect against major failures...and it had been doing a pretty good job.

But then a few weeks ago, as I normally do...I shut down most of the computers before leaving on vacation. A great way to save energy, but seemingly has bit me a couple of times that when I arrive back -- the hardware does not always start up as I might have expected. Something about changing the way things are running.

As you might have guessed by this point, when I returned from our trip to Washington, DC -- the MGB Raid Pro wouldn't start up properly.

At first, I thought as I heard was sound a little bit like clicking, but more of a surging that it must be a hard drive. That would make logical sense and part of the reason I had the enclosure and a RAID 1 configuration so I could protect against that kind of failure...on my PCs. The conventional wisdom says that since the NAS has very few moving parts, that it would not be the device itself.

I went ahead and moved the four screws to see what was happening with the device. First I unplugged it, plugged it back in and then started it up. I noticed immediately that the internal fan tried to spin up, but could not -- I knew something more serious was wrong.



As I listened the pulsating buzzing or humming sound I was hearing sounded like it was coming from the board or the led indicators on the front rather than the hard drives. The hard drives themselves were not even attempting to spin up. I started disassembling the rest of the MGB Raid Pro in order to remove the drives -- which are held in via 4 shock absorbant screws.

What I learned is once I disconnected all of the drives, the NAS device actually started up properly, the fan spun up and the OS and network loaded. But, that was the extent of it. Whether it was one disk drive, the other disk drive, the primary or secondary SATA connection -- the Galaxy MGB RAID Pro would not boot up with any sort of hard drive connected to it.

Which led me think that something significant was going on with the MGB Raid Pro -- and it was unrepairable. To boot, I was 3 weeks outside the 1 year warranty from the purchse, so if it could not be solved -- I was just plain out of luck.

I attempted to contact the Galaxy Metal Gear Technical support, but they were resistant to any sort of email support at all. In fact, they were only available in a technical support capacity from 9am-1pm PST for any sort of technical assistance, Monday through Friday. Which made it difficult for me with my work schedule.

After a couple of weeks, I was finally able to get a hold of technical support and they mentioned first I would need to fill out the RMA form before they accepted it for repair. In addition, I would have to pay shipping both ways for the repair of the product.

Here we are a couple of weeks later, with device siting opened -- I still have not filled out the RMA form. So, instead yesterday I was in Fry's Electronics and they had the D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure for only $149.99. I had been looking at the DNS-323 and the pretty high ratings since I started having the issues...so it was an easy choice. (Amazon has it for $157, plus there is a $30 rebate right now -- here's the link D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure)

I'm probably going to still submit the RMA (not hopeful it will be accepted) to see what happens -- but needless to say, I am a little disappointed with the quality and outcome given the enclosure itself (not the hard drives) only lasted just under 13 months. So, if you're considering the MGB Raid Pro...just beware that it may fail on you close to the end of the warranty period -- like it did to me

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Photo Blog: Beautiful Day in San Francisco

This weekend, we flew up to San Francisco along with Ashley's grandma Carol to meet some friends from Italy (Stefania and Danielle) for the weekend. We weren't sure what to expect weather-wise since it changed throughout the week; but we had resigned to the fact it was going to be cloudy.

On Sunday morning after we woke at the Westin St. Francis right in the heart of Union Square, we were surprised to see the sky to be clear and blue -- and it was nice and warm outside.

We ended up spending the most of the day walking throughout the city with friend, of which the Google Maps Distance Calculator showed that we walked at least 3.906 miles for the day.

I'm guessing it was closer to 4.5 miles, but we still had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the day...

From 2009_06_San_Francisco
Stefania, Danielle, Grandma Carol and Ashley enjoy a laugh while walking down Market Street.


Ashley and her Grandma catch up in front of the Farmer's Market.


Eating your way through the Farmer's Market is always a good thing!


After lunch at the Fog City Diner, we headed to Pier 39...


Fun photo with Alcatraz in the background at Pier 39.


Posing in front of Alcatraz as the sailboat goes by in the background.


Ashley and her Grandma watch the Sea Lions at Pier 39.


The scene at Fisherman's Wharf.


Ok, so the cable car trolley broke. Bang, followed by the conductor shouting...what was that. The cable car was off the track and we decided to instead take a taxi.


After the Zombie Art exhibit opening, nothing like a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the top of Macy's in Union Square!

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How to Download Telenav GPS Navigator for Blackberry

Every since I picked up my Blackberry 8800, I have enjoyed and enabled the TeleNav GPS Navigator at it's $9.99 or so per month fee. Not only was it with me all the time, but it saved a ton of cash since I find myself in Hertz vehicles at least 4 days a month with the $9.95 per day price tag.

Having become dependent on the TeleNav GPS Navigator, you could imagine my surprise when it was not included on my new Blackberry Bold 9000 Series. Checking the Blackberry App Store, I noticed it was not included there.

I figured I could just browse to the TeleNav website and that would make it easy. After about 4-5 minutes of searching for an easy download link -- I really started to wonder, "How do you download TeleNav GPS Navigator for Blackberry?" Specifically a download that would work with Cingular / AT&T.

So, I then turned to Google and after a couple of minutes I came to forum page which had a link to the direct file where you can download the file. Hopefully, in order to save you some time -- I figured I would publish this link in order to make everyone's life easy, so here it is:

http://ota.telenav.com/ota/tnatt/

All you need to go to is the Internet Browser, or the AT&T MediaNet Browser, enter the address and you can easily download the TeleNav application...

For other providers, here are some additional links:

Sprint / Nextel: http://ota.telenav.com/ota/sn/

Cingular/AT&T: http://ota.telenav.com/ota/tnatt/

AllTel: http://ota.telenav.com/ota/al/

Verizon: http://ota.telenav.com/ota/vz/

T-Mobile Blackberry 8100: http://ota.telenav.com/ota/tn/

Once I hit the link, I was able to download and install the application easily! Even better, I noticed a new upgrade to the TeleNav GPS Navigator version 5.5.31 -- which has a new UI, here are a couple of screen shots:

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Hidden Mickey: Disneyland: Tomorrowland: Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters: Ride Building Block

Welcome to another Hidden Mickey post from Disneyland, California! In this particular post, we'll show you both the location (including GPS coordinates!) and a picture of the block Hidden Mickey on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride in the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.

As a reminder, we used Steven M. Barrett's book, Disneyland's Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Disneyland Resort's Best Kept Secrets to help us on our adventures. You can buy it at the park, or if you want to go prepared, click here to purchase from Amazon.

For the full list of Hidden Mickey's we've found in Disneyland, click here.

To find this Hidden Mickey in Buzz Lightyear, once you get on the ride and enter the first show room you will have to look quickly to identify this hidden Mickey. To the left of the vehicle you will want to identify the block located just past the rotating wheel and left of a target of batteries. On the bottom of the block you will see a classic Mickey etched into the decoration with three different color circles.

Here is a picture of the Hidden Mickey:



Here is a Google Map with the exact GPS location of this Hidden Mickey in Disneyland, 33.81242° N, 117.9177° W:


View Larger Map

Good luck in finding it! If you've found it, please let me know with a comment!

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