Ricky Says

So you're a proud owner of a new iPhone 4 - maybe you were even in the same line I just stood in to get mine this morning.

But now you realize you have a considerable investment in apps and music sitting on your old iPhone 3G or 3GS, and don't know how to transfer them over to your new iPhone.

The trick is to first backup your old phone to iTunes, and then you can restore this backup to your new iPhone, which will transfer everything over.

Here's how to transfer purchased apps and songs from your iPhone 3G/3GS to your new iPhone 4 in 5 easy steps:

1. Connect your old iPhone to your computer and open iTunes.

2. Transfer your purchases by right-clicking your iPhone in iTunes and selecting "Transfer Purchases" from the shortcut menu.

You'll see iTunes transferring your apps and songs from your old iPhone to your computer:

3. Backup your old iPhone.

Right-click on your iPhone again in iTunes and select "Back Up" from the shortcut menu.

4. Connect your new iPhone 4 (after disconnecting the old one of course).

5. Restore your iPhone 4 using the old iPhone's backup.

Right-click again on your iPhone 4 in iTunes and select "Restore from Backup".

Choose the backup you created in the 3rd step above:

Click "Restore" and wait for iTunes to restore from the backup (which also transfers over your purchased apps and music):

According to Apple only a "very small number of iPad users have experienced issues with Wi-Fi connectivity", and that a patch is on the way, yet I see articles all over the web that indicate the problem is much wider spread.

Sure enough, the iPad I brought home just yesterday was also having problems connecting to the same Wi-Fi network that my other devices and computers have connected to for months without problems.

The only reliable, guaranteed fix for connecting my ipad to my Linksys home wireless network was to disable security.

At first I was able to get my ipad to connect to my Linksys WRT120N Wi-Fi router without problems, but not when I tried it again after the iPad had been on stand-by. It recognized the wireless network and would appear to connect, but then would lose the IP address within a few seconds (instead giving me a bogus address of 169.254.108.158).

You can check your ipad's network settings by tapping Settings -- Wi-Fi and then tapping the blue arrow next to the Network you're connecting to. You will typically see an IP address that starts with 192.168 instead of 169.254, and most of the other network fields should have values (Subnet Mask, Router, DNS, etc).

I tried several things that I've listed below, but the only thing that really worked was to turn off wireless security for my Linksys router. It's not as big of a risk as you might think, because my wireless router signal hardly even makes it out to the edge of my small backyard.

To turn off wireless security, you'll need to log into the administration web page for your wireless access point (http://192.168.1.1 for my Linksys from a computer that's connected to the router). Once logged into your Linksys, click "Wireless" and then "Wireless Security" and choose "Disabled" as the security mode. Be sure to save that screen before moving on.

I bought a Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G this week and used it on the way into work to watch a streaming movie with Netflix.

Don't worry - I wasn't WWD (watching while driving). I commute about an hour into downtown Portland on the bus, and having wifi internet access on the trip is a must for me since I have an iPhone 3GS, a Macbook Pro, and an iPad. The Sprint Overdrive supports up to 5 wifi connections at a time, so I'll be wired no matter which device I'm using.

I use the wireless access for more than just watching movies too - I actually get quite a bit of work done during my commute, and now I'll be able to get even more done, thanks to the fast (and unlimited) 4G speeds of the Sprint Overdrive.

Sprint unfortunately caps their 3G data plans at 2 GB a month, but 4G connectivity is unlimited and way faster too. Even at a low 20% signal strength I was able to watch a streaming Netflix movie with no pauses or frame drops, and without having to worry about exceeding the 2 GB limit that Sprint places on 3G connectivity.

The trick is to ensure that you're only connecting to the 4G network, which is fortunately one of the settings that can be easily configured on the Sprint Overdrive.

Here's how to force your Sprint Overdrive to only connect at 4G:

1. Open the Overdrive's admin console.

The admin console for the Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G is a web page located at http://192.168.0.1. You can open this link in a web browser from any device that's connected to the Overdrive's wifi network.

2. Log in as Admin.

Enter your admin password and click OK to access the Overdrive's setup screens.

Hopefully you wrote the password down somewhere when you first configured your Overdrive, or you can also find it in the original contract you received from Sprint (which they also sent to my email address).

3. Set WAN Mode to "4G only".

Phones that let you send text messages have been around for quite some time, such as the Motorola RAZR (or really any phone that has a text messaging plan). That's because each phone number represents a series of letters, and when you're in text mode you can press each number multiple times to cycle through the letters associated with that number.

But that's the hard way to text, or at least a very SLOW way to text.

Enter the Querty keyboard that you find on iPhones and Blackberries. These keyboards give you the full alphabet along with other characters like commas, exclamation points, and quotes. They also let you use both of your thumbs to bang out a text message in a few quick seconds.

The drawback with iPhones, Blackberries, and most other Qwerty devices is that you usually are required (at least if you're using AT&T) to purchase a data plan that includes web browsing and email.

These data plans cost about $30 extra a month, in addition to text messaging support that can range from $5 a month to $20 a month depending on your phone carrier and whether you have unlimited texting or just a couple hundred texts a month (which is very easy to burn through in just a few days).

If all you want from your phone is text messaging, but want to be able to text quickly and easily using a full Qwerty keyboard, then take a look at the LG Xenon from AT&T.

The Xenon comes with a full slide-out Qwert keyboard for fast texting, and also gives you a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash and video recording capabilities, GPS navigation, calendar, contacts, games... essentially a full blown Smart Phone.

Question: hi i have question, i just downloaded facebook mobile onto my blackberry and my friends have facebook on their blackberry but they get a little icon with an f on the top of their screen when they get a notification or friend request or message and i just get a text from a code. How would i be able to recieve that little blue f icon on the top of my blackberry and not just recieve a text from a 5 digit code? Please help me out!!! thank youu!!

Answer: I received some great tips from a couple people who deserve the credit, so please read their answers below.

Many thanks to Dennis for the step-by-step instructions and also to @powerwheelz.

If you're wondering where to get the Facebook app for your Blackberry, here's the link, and here's the Blackberry Facebook User's Guide.