That's my iPhone, with a little help from Epilog Laser. More up on geek.com shortly...

I've been using Google Calendar as my primary calendar/scheduling tool for some time now, but I'm getting really tired of relying on SMS messages and my mobile view to access it from the road. My main goal- getting gcal to work better with my iPhone. Since I'm using Windows XP is looks like I HAVE to use Outlook (2007), which I hate and have not used in years, in order to get anything done. -- These are just my notes. I figured I post them here as I worked things out. I'm not an Outlook expert. -- Helpful link #1: Subscribe to gcal in Outlook It's worth noting that this is not syncing outlook with Gcal. This is just putting a single google calendar into Outlook. This creates an internet calendar in Outlook. I'm trying to figure out if this can be copied over to my iPhone- and no, it's not recognized by iTunes. If you click the ICAL button in Google Calendar (settings) you can open the .ics file with Outlook. This will create the Gcal calendar in Outlook. Despite having the iTunes Outlook Addin installed and active in Outlook 2007, iTunes does not recognize any of my calendars. Trying the iPhone Outlook troubleshooting tips from iPhoneAtlas. Using the second tip I found out that Outlook WILL sync with my main calendar. It just refuses to see any other ones. Nothing yet- iTunes still refuses to see any other calendars. I'm reinstalling iTunes 7.5. I really don't want to downgrade... this is getting ridiculous.

In case you hadn't guessed it already, using the iPhone in the cold is not fun. Right now it's 31 degrees F in NYC (feels like 23 degrees F) so exposing your hand and trying to dial might not be the user experience Apple was looking for. If you have gloves you have to take them off and dial as quickly as you can. If you don't wear gloves (me neither) your hands are already cold- so now trying to send a text message with your hands exposed and no tactile feedback. I don't know what it's like in Cupertino in the winter, but it must not be that cold. To be honest, I saw this coming as soon as I saw the first official image of the iPhone, but that was in what- June? Maybe May? It's hard to remember just how cold it gets when you are getting ready for the summer.

What to check after you do a iPhone restore. (In my case because I am afraid of 1.1.2)

1. custom wallpaper (when phone is locked)
2. contacts- are they all there? are contacts syncing with the right source?
3. photos- photos there? do contacts have the right photo ID assigned? syncing with correct folder? is your camera roll still in place? what about the photo library?
4. music/video/podcasts- is it there? (I had to upload it all again)
5. bookmarks- still there? (probably lost browser history though)
6. notes- these should have been restored from Itunes' backup. were they?
7. custom ringtones- are they there? and correctly assigned?
8. email- did this work proper? (I use mobile gmail through safari instead)
9. stock picks- are the right companies showing?

What won't be there-

• Apollo IM
• NES games

Overall my restore went really well, almost perfectly. I did have to manually tell the Itunes to put my music and photos on the phone and I had to set my contacts to Windows Address Book (it defaulted to Outlook), but past that things are looking good.