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So, tax season is around the corner and I just got my RRSP returns and I was able to get some money to get myself some new toys. I wanted to get a smaller keyboard that had an ergonomic layout along with a number pad that would sit on my left hand side (to allow space for the mouse). So, I decided to get a Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000! The keyboard set looked great, the size was a bit small but all-in-all looked decent and was for once decently packaged!

Then came the hard part, actually trying to get it to work. There was an issue with pairing the devices. I was able to pair them separately and they responded well. However, every time I try to use both devices at the same time, the previous device would stop responding. For example, I was using the keyboard and I turn on the number pad, the keyboard would no longer work. The keyboard would only work after I turned the number pad off! The same was try for the keyboard if I had the number pad on first!

Took me over a few hours and could not find anything. A lot of people had posted online that the way to resolve this was to pair the devices separately. Meaning to pair one, turn it off and then pair the second one. I thought, well, sort of makes sense, why not? I gave it a shot, but knowing how computers work, it is never that easy. The problem continued to stay!

I thought back and forth and couldn’t find a way until I thought, maybe this cheap Bluetooth dongle I bought at the local computer store was the issue. I went and took another dongle I had in the house and plugged it in. Right away, Windows picked it up as a Broadcom Bluetooth device and I thought to myself, well at least it doesn’t say generic Bluetooth device now! Next, I re-paired the devices and guess what? It worked right away!

So in the end, it was the dongle that was causing the issue. Long story short, if you are unable to use more than one device at the same time, take a look at the dongle that you have and try to get it replaced as a solution!

Have fun!

With the need to save money, I finally decided to take the plunge and try out Google Apps after a strong recommendation from a friend. Getting everything converted was simple enough, I just had to sign up for a Google Apps account, add my domain and away I go.

For those interested, when you search for Google Apps, Google will always bring you by default to their Google Apps for Business edition first. It is a bit of a maze to find the standard Google Apps, but it is there.

The main difference between the two is that you get 7GB of space instead of 25GB. Other minor stuff include Google Video, forced SSL and 99.9% uptime SLA. For that, you have to pay $50 per user per year. This is as opposed to getting 50 free users for your domain, not including any aliases you would like to use (known as nicknames in Google Apps). Another stated difference is that you are unable to sync with Microsoft Outlook and Blackberry Phones etc. This, however, I have been able to prove to be incorrect.

I have been able to sync up my Outlook and Blackberry through IMAP. True, it is not exactly like Exchange and you lose certain functionality – such as notes and journal. However, I would like to argue that overall, for someone or a company with less than 50 users, Google Apps is more than enough.

One thing to note though, the setup instructions that are available on Google’s site is incorrect. The following IMAP settings worked for me:

Username: user@yourdomain.com
Password: your password
IMAP: imap.googlemail.com
IMAP Port: 993
Encryption: SSL
SMTP: smtp.googlemail.com
SMTP Port: 587
Encryption: TLS

One other thing that I did do was to Unlock Captcha. Not sure if it is related, but I did this before I found the above settings so I can not comment if it was either due to the settings or both changes were required.

I will give this a go for a week or two before I fully terminate my old Exchange account. As always… hope this helps and remember to have fun!