Category Archives: Tech Stuffs

All topics relating to technology

Windows 7 accessing file share error

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strange issue came up for me recently, my notebook running Windows 7, stopped to be able to connect to CIFS shares. I keep getting that the “network is not reacheable” error from Windows. Networking wise, it’s incorrect as I can ping the device and I can access the web services on the device.

Some research pointed me to the proliferation of the 6to4 adapters in Windows. These adapters help to route IPv6 over IPv4, and for some reason, I’ve got hundreds of these adapters in my system.

All I had to do is to remove them by disabling IPv6, and the problem got resolved. No root cause here yet, but at least there’s the fix.

So, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 and apply Fix #50409 & #50412. Both will need a reboot each time, and then my problem was resolved.

thumb friendly keyboard on the iPad with iOS5

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iPad Split Keyboard

one of the best improvement to the onscreen keyboard for the iPad is that it’s now movable and also thumb friendly.

The standard keyboard still exists, and you can easily switch between the new layout and the old. The special enabling key for this is the button on the bottom right of the keyboard. This used to be for hiding the keyboard. Now, in addition to hide, if you tap on the key and drag it upwards, the keyboard will transform to the split mode. This has 2 big benefits, both sides of the keyboard are now thumb friendly. I can comfortably hold the iPad and type away with both thumbs. And this is true for both portrait and landscape orientation for the iPad.

Second benefit, is that you can move the keyboard any location vertically!!

To get back the original keyboard layout, just drag the keyboard back to the bottom of the screen.

Way cool!

This works for both the original iPad and iPad 2.

Blueant V1 voice dialing with iOS5 is broken

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So, one of the first problems I have with iOS5 is voice dialing with my trusty Blueant V1. It works, but it dials the wrong entry in my favorites list!

I tried to reset the V1 and re-initiate pairing with the iPhone, but didn’t help at all.

I realized what the problem was, and it feels like an iOS5 bug!

I have contacts, in my favorites list, which have multiple phone numbers. e.g. my wife has 2 entries, one for her office number and one to her mobile number. And I’ve got this setup since pre OS3.0 days. So, this is not a new configuration for me. When I do the voice dial, it will not dial the number I’ve set as the favorite, but the first number listed in the contact view. But, if I manually touch the favorites entry, the phone will dial the correct number. So, the portion which allows bluetooth integrated dialing is broken some where.

The workaround is to split the contact into a few contacts. Each with the unique phone number you want to dial. So, for my wife, I have to create 2 new entries, one for office and one for mobile.

This is a really bizarre problem. Hope a fix appears soon.

iMessage how to use it?

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The first question I had was, where’s the app for iMessage? I was thinking that there could be a dedicated app, and it’ll probably function like having another “whatsapp” like function. I was wrong. In face, iMessage is integrated into the orignal “Message” app. Yes, the one you use for SMS and MMS.

So, how to start using it? There are 2 parts to it. Part 1 is to setup your iOS device, and part 2 is how to send an iMessage.

Part 1 – go to settings, messages, then look at addresses. These are what your friends and contacts will use to send iMessage to you, as a form of identification (like a userid). By default, your mobile number will be one of them, and the other is the iTunes or iCloud account you used when your first setup iOS5. You can add or change more contact information. e.g. your work email address. Add all the form of “identification” you want and save it.

Part 2 – just launch messages, and here’s the cool bit. Just add the contact you like to send a text to. The app will then do a check if the recipient is already registered with iMessages. Remember what you did in Part 1? The recipient’s contact information in your phone book will be used to check for iMessage “compatibility”. If yes, your “send” button will turn blue, and the text box will have a faint “iMessage” word, otherwise it will have a faint “text message”, and the “send” button will be green.

It’s that simple!

Now, I’m just a little curious about the warning that popped up once or twice to warn of carrier charges for sms sent to activate iMessage. I wonder how many messages will that consume.

iOS Upgrade fail with error 23 – the workaround

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So after trying iOS 5 myself, I’m feeling good to upgrade my wife’s iPhone 4.

Strange thing occurred that once I asked iTunes 10.5 to upgrade the iPhone 4, after the first dialog box that says something about backup, the next thing I get is error 23. Which actually means the phone has a hardware problem. Is there an underlying problem? I have no idea, phone seems fine.

So, what I did that made it work… or at least now it’s gone past that stage. Put the phone into recovery mode, and now iTunes 10.5 is downloading iOS5. Will know soon enough if it will work all the way.

*update* the workaround was successful!!

*update 2* to get the iPhone into recovery mode, do the following

  1. have your computer running iTunes 10.5, and the iPhone sync cable plugged into the computer
  2. don’t connect the sync it to your phone yet, and shutdown the phone
  3. after the phone is off, press and hold the home button (don’t let go of the button)
  4. keep holding the home button, and plug the sync cable into the phone (still, hold on to the home button, don’t let go yet)
  5. when you get to the recovery screen, you’ll see the iTunes logo and the sync cable show up on the phone, you can now let go of the home button
  6. iTunes will detect and report that the phone is in recovery
  7. Follow the wizard to proceed with the upgrade

iTunes 10.5 can sync 2 devices simultaneously

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Things have been different, and I didn’t have anything good to write about. Until now…

I’ve just updated my iPhone 3GS then my iPad to IOS5. The sync was taking quite some time and I decided to try to sync my 3GS while the iPad is being restored. Searched around a bit and found some old posts saying that Windows iTunes can’t sync simultaneously. Yea, that post is a little old, from 2009.

So now, I’m trying it myself. It works!! The improvement now is that for music, videos and app sync, the device doesn’t stay in the lock screen anymore. It’s more like a background process.

There’s more to be discovered with iOS5, hopefully some more good stuffs to write about!

Update to my Manila SUN Cellular Experience

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My earlier post was basically highlighting that if you are purchasing a Sun Cellular prepaid SIM for internet usage, you’ll have to get it activated before trying to apply and SBW load. Otherwise the load will be wasted, which was what happened to me.

The follow up experience to that was that I did get my GPRS (data) access activated within the 48hrs as mentioned by the call center help agent. There was no automated notification, I just had to keep trying to send “activate” to 2300. When it works, it will reply with the activation message.

Then I applied the SBW50 load and I was immediately online. The next thing I tried was tethering with my iPhone 3GS. The tethering didn’t work. In fact, the tethering option disappeared from the iPhone menu.

So what I did for the rest of the trip was to just use my E5830 to provide Internet access to my laptop and phone over WIFI.

I noticed for the E5830, in most places, there are good 3G signal, but for some reason the device will fall back to a slower speed. So I just forced the device to only use WCDMA to keep to the constant good speed. The drawback on this is when the 3G signal quality was bad, Internet access will be miserable.

IOS Devices : Automatic App Installation On All Devices You Own

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I didn’t stay up to catch the Apple WWDC, but it’s the first thing I checked out when I woke up today. One of the new features which has got all my thumbs up is the ability for your devices to automatically download purchased content. More details is in this Mac Rumors posting.

I haven’t tested this yet, but what I believe it’s suppose to do is this; Say you have an iPhone and an iPad. If you’ve purchased  content, Music/App/Book, from the Apple Stores, it will automatically make it available on both devices. That sure takes the hassle out to trying to keep both devices in sync.

Without this, I’ve been maintaining synchronization using iTunes, or just manual re-download. Now it’s all automatic! That’s cool!

The best part, you don’t need to wait for IOS5, all you need is the currently available IOS 4.3!

IOS Game – GLWG (Great Little War Game) – 5 Js

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GLWG! Came across this really fun turn based strategy game 2 days ago. The iPhone version was going for free, and the iPad (HD) version was $0.99. I bought both!

Did I say this is a War Game?

It’s turned base; you make your moves, then the AI moves. Each of your units get to move and attack (if in range) every turn. There are some advantages you gain from going on to high ground, or travel further by riding in a vehicle.

When you attack, the opponent automatically retaliates, if it survives.

Very addictive! Check it out!

Excellent PDF Reader for the iPad

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I’ve been working on deploying several large VMware environment lately. What has been very helpful to me is my iPad equipped with PDF Expert [iTunes].

It was one of the first few apps I bought on my iPad, and it is one of my best investments.

It supports PDF (duh), docx, xlsx, and more. But I primarily use it to refer to PDF documents. What’s really good about it is beyond fundamental book reader (for that, iBooks will do just fine).

It’s the ability to be able to annotate the pdf document… e.g. highlight, underline, strikeout, notes, add text and more. I can make corrections to the document, so that when I get back to my PC, I have an easy reference. Bookmarks are automatically placed when I annotate, so it’s easy for me to search later on.

What’s also cool is the ability for the app to send out the corrected pdf with either the annotations all flattened on to the doc, or still kept separate.

This app to me allows me to completely replace PDF print outs and scribbling corrections.

To up the ante, a recent update (can’t remember when), there has been new integration which allows you to connect to multiple DropBox accounts to download, and even sync!

I do recommend it to anyone looking for a tool that does this.