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Inconceivable what Google is doing to their users; this whole Google Apps transition to “full” Google Accounts is a real mess.

I have never been a fan of Google, but when they launched Google Apps I thought it was a great idea: Leveraging Gmail (the king of web-based email at the time) for your own domain. So I opened a Google Apps account for my main personal domain, and later opened several Google Apps accounts for my current job, friends, etc. I even considered Android as an alternative for it’s great integration with “cloud” email and calendaring services (that was, of course, before the release of iOS 4).

But now that they’re “granting” incomplete Google Accounts features to every Google Apps domain, they have this Conflicting Accounts concept, and using a Google Apps user with the same email address as your personal Google Account it’s becoming a headache.

I noticed it because I use Google Reader, but I’ve read that YouTube, Blogger, Picassa and Checkout users have worst problems than mine. What can you do when the landlord of half-internet sends you a new contract and you don’t agree?

I found this thread some months ago, and I was particularly impressed with this post:

I’ve been a Google fangirl since Google debuted. I’m a loyal Android user, plus use Google Apps for two domains’ email. This move to the new infrastructure is not just painful, it’s excruciating. Why on earth would you make things so difficult for apps users? We’re your most loyal crowd, aren’t we? YouTube’s new incompatibility with my apps account causes my Android phone not to work right unless I constantly log out and back in under different accounts. I depend on my phone to work well, and it can’t now.
…
-Gardenwife

So I decided it was time to move on. My personal email and calendaring solution has been Google free for a while now, and I’m looking for alternatives to Reader.

As Mac OS X Lion slowly finds its way onto my Mac Book Pro, I gave a read to Ars Technica’s very comprehensive review by John Syracusa and thought it would be a good idea to share the links to the specific sections I believe will be of most interest for Mac-geeks, a read of 30 to 40 minutes.

A good mood-setter for the reading is this line from Syracusa’s conclusion:

…the content of the operating system itself clearly marks the start of a new journey. Seemingly emboldened by the success of iOS, Apple has taken a hatchet to decades of conventional wisdom about desktop operating systems.

File system: Bad things, nice improvements and hopes

• What’s wrong with HFS+
• File system changes in Lion
• File system future

Files / documents recovery

• Document revisions
• Mobile Time Machine

System configuration

• System Preferences
• About This Mac (I love the iTunes-esque Storage tab).

User interface

• Here’s to the crazy ones

I managed to install WebSphere Portal 6.1.5 (with a DB2 database, not Derby) in Ubuntu Linux 10. Now I can (almost*) say goodbye to the Windows VM I used to work on WebSphere projects.

It was not a straightforward, easy task for a novice like me. The good news is I have documented the full procedure, and you can read it in the Base22 wiki.

I will attempt the same setup for WebSphere Portal 7, and of course will be posting my results.

* The sad truth is, if you work in the web industry, you will not be completely Windows free for a long time, thanks to that web cancer old browser called Internet Explorer.

I live in México, and here the carrier who sells the iPhone is Telcel. Telcel doesn’t explicitly forbide its users to use tethering on the iPhone, but the iPhones they provide don’t come with the Internet Tethering option available.

So after the release of iPhone OS 3.0 I found this guide about enabling tethering in countries where it is disabled by the carrier’s default configuration, and it has worked really well (I have an unlimited data plan, by the way).

With the release of iPhone OS 3.1 yesterday, rumors and early adopters say the firmware update would disable Internet Tethering on iPhones where the carrier doesn’t officially supports it.

I updated to iPhone OS 3.1 with certain precautions, and Internet Tethering is still functional for me.

So if you want to update to 3.1 without loosing the tethering capacity, this is what you should do:

DISCLAIMER FIRST: This worked for me, but I don’t have any way to know if it will work for you. Proceed at your own risk. If you already have enabled Internet Tethering and it is critical for you, I would recommend you to not follow any unsupported method like this.

Before updating to iTunes 9 make sure you have the last version of your carrier’s provisioning bundle:

1. On your iPhone go to Settings / General / About, and look for Carrier version. Take note of the version number. Mine was Telcel 4.4.
2. Download the list of iPhone OS updates from here, and find your carrier’s latest provisioning bundle available.
   My Carrier is Telcel México, so I found their last provisioning bundle is this:
   Telcel_mx 3.0 BuildVersion 4.4 BundleURL http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/CarrierBundles/061-6937.20090803.3er5t/Telcel_mx.ipcc

   So, I’m up to date.

If you have the latest version of your carrier’s provisioning bundle you’re free to go; if not, you should first update it while you have iTunes 8.2, and possibly re-enable tethering using the aforementioned guide.

To install the iPhone OS 3.1 update:

1. Download and install iTunes 9.
2. Connect your iPhone, so iTunes 9 can search for updates. When iTunes says there’s an update for your iPhone DON’T UPDATE, choose to ONLY download the new firmware, but don’t install it just yet.
3. Sync your iPhone, so it is ready for upgrading (the backup can take several minutes sometimes). Then disconnect it from your computer.
4. Wait for iTunes to finish downloading your firmware update.
5. When the download finishes, enable Airplane Mode on your iPhone (first option of Settings). This will disconnect your iPhone from your cellphone network and WiFi.
6. Reconnect your iPhone and update your firmware (the one iTunes just downloaded). The operating system will be upgraded and your iPhone will restart. Don’t disconnect your iPhone until it shows up in iTunes, and you are sure it has upgraded to 3.1.
7. Disconnect your iPhone from your computer, disable Airplane mode and wait for your iPhone to reconnect to network.
8. Go and check in Settings if you still have Internet Tethering available as an option.

I have done this in two iPhones: First in my wife’s (she doesn’t use tethering, so I taught it was a good idea to test first on her iPhone) and later in mine.

Both iPhones showed the same carrier version after the firmware upgrade, but after a restart mine shows a different one (5.0). Anyway, tethering is still functional.

I suppose Internet Tethering option may disappear one of these days (when Telcel sends a new carrier configuration file to Apple), or they will start charging extra money, but in the mean time it is working well.

Good luck if you decide to upgrade.

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided AS IS, use it under your own risk. I’m not responsible if you broke your iPhone, or if your carrier charges you a lot of money, or if someone sues you.