Here’s how I got over 100 “pay for” apps for free on my iPad (and counting)

Ever since I got my iPad 3 months ago I have been meaning to make my first purchase at the iTunes store – but haven’t got to doing that though.  Mainly due to the fact that I don’t really know how to do it – can I pay with credit card or PayPal or what?  The answer is probably both…

So, how did I get over 100 “pay for” apps onto my iPad for free?  Well, I’ve waited for “price drops” – that’s when the apps go from say $0.99 to free for a day or two (or sometimes more).  No, I don’t trawl through all the free apps in the iTunes store each day… I found 3 apps that do it for me:
In the order that I use them:
AppZapp HD
AppShopper
Appsfire

I then use the apps to filter and show the “Now free” apps.  I spot the really good apps by the star ratings, and the number of comments (in brackets), and the number of alerts that other people have set in the app.

(Remember to get your US iTunes account otherwise some of these apps won’t be downloadable)

Here are some examples of how I use the 3 apps:
In AppZapp: use the “Now free” view and look for the listed free apps to see which ones you fancy that have lots of comments and stars
In AppZapp: use the “Top lists” view then select the “Most alerts” list, then scan that list for free apps.

If an app that you really like isn’t free (yet) then add it to your “Watchlist” and use AppZapp’s “My AppZapp” view to monitor them.

In AppShopper: use the “Top 200” view and tick the “Free” and “Change (Biggest rise)” options to list apps that you might want to download.

In Appsfire: go to the “Deals” tab and look at the “Now free” list.

With a bit of patience and monitoring of these 3 apps daily, your collection of paid apps will slowly grow like mine has ;)

Blackberry Desktop Manager Sync Error 0x80040fb3 and 0x8004fceb [Solved!]

If you are pulling your hair out trying to get your Outlook calendar to sync to your Blackberry calendar then perhaps this will help you sort it out.

Here’s the problem that I was having with my Blackberry Bold 9700 (OS6) sync using Blackberry Desktop Manager (BDM) version 6.1.0.35:

An error popped up “Conflict Resolution - Calendar”:
   then:  
No matter which option I selected, it resulted in this 0x80040fb3 error message (and also 0x8004fceb):


At a later date I also got an error: "Blackberry Intellisync error 0x8004fceb - Flexible Web Services" 
The following forum helped with lots of options to try – but none helped.
I decided to play with the mappings and I noticed that the conflicts always failed when the “Attendees” field was listed…

So I tried UNmapping that field:
Organiser->Configure settings->Advanced->Map Fields-> then UNmap the ‘Attendees’ field as shown in the screen shots below:
  

(Note: The "Reset" button also works)

Retry the sync process and it worked! :) :)

If this doesn't work for you then perhaps this info from the Blackberry Forums will:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/rim-software/137009-help-dm-sync-error-0x80040fb3.html

For more info – when the sync was failing the following appeared in the log file (not that it helped me much!):
The log file: "c:\Users\{YourName}\AppData\Roaming\Research In Motion\BlackBerry\Intellisync\{YourBB_PIN}\RIM.Log" contained the following info and error:
”
Field mapping used for translation:
   Microsoft Outlook                 Device
   Subject ------------------------- Description Title
   Start Date ---------------------- Start Date
   Start Time ---------------------- Start Time
   End Date ------------------------ End Date
   End Time ------------------------ End Time
   Alarm Date ---------------------- Alarm Date
   Alarm Time ---------------------- Alarm Time
   Reminder Set Flag --------------- Alarm Flag
   Body ---------------------------- Notes
   Show Time As -------------------- Free Busy
   Location ------------------------ Location
   Private ------------------------- Private
   Meeting Attendees --------------- Attendees
Unable to write application data record.
Translation Canceled!
”

Control your Android phone from your PC

I have been playing with an Android phone and decided to try and use a real keyboard rather than the (small) touch screen virtual keyboard.  I found a wonderful tool that allows you to take control of your Android (or SonyEricsson) phone.  It is called MyPhoneExplorer and connects to your phone via USB cable, Bluetooth or infrared. So, I can now send WhatsApp messages using my real keyboard… and more:

You can also use it to sync your contacts (address book) - with direct sync to Outlook, GMail, Windows contacts, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Lotus Notes and Tobit David
You can also use it to sync your calendar and direct sync to Outlook, Google, Sunbird, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Windows calendar (Vista), Rainlendar, Lotus Notes, Tobit David and net shared calendars (WebDAV, FTP, local)

You can also use it to send SMSs and also back them up to your PC.
There’s a file browser with a cacheing system to minimize data transfer.
The phone’s date and time are also sync’d to Internet time and more.

See here for the software (and why not donate some $s too) [4MB]: http://www.fjsoft.at/en/downloads.php

To use your computer’s keyboard: Install then once connected go to the “Extras” menu option and select “Phone keypad”:

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This is what my phone looks like on my PC: