Let me start by saying that I got my first iPhone a week after they hit the street. I LOVED it. It was the best phone I had ever used. Years ahead of anything that was on the market at that time. The network sucked, but I could live with it because everything about the phone was perfect. I upgraded to the 3G when available skipped the S and was waiting for the iPhone 4. However lately the AT&T network has really started to be an issue. I noticed this the most as I purchased a Verizon Wireless MiFi last fall and love it. I often have it on and am using the WiFi tether on my iPhone because the AT&T network sucks so bad. And having the proverbial apples to apples comparisons of the AT&T network to the VZW network has really opened my eyes to how bad the AT&T network truly is.

Let me start with the negative. The things that the Android is lacking that the iPhone just does better:

• not integrated well – Apple did a phenomenal job with the iPhone interface. No instruction manual is really necessary for someone with a bit of a technical aptitude. It doesn’t take a geek to add apps, browse, search, email, setup, etc. The HTC sense UI downloaded a bunch of contacts from Facebook (like high school friends) that I don’t want or need in my contact list.

• not very slick – it just seems a bit clunky. It’s not really the resolution, but it just looks kind of glued together. Icons too small, text is a bit too tiny. Having to scroll through the “all programs” I’d tedious.

• Keyboard – the touchscreen based QWERTY keyboard isn’t near as fast as the iPhone. The keys are slightly smaller and I fat figure much more frequently. I’m getting better, but it’s still not as polished as the iPhone keyboard.

• BATTERY!!! – OMG the battery SUCKS!!!  My first day of heavy usage netted me 4 hours and 19 minutes. Next day about 5 and a half. Best to date has been less than 24 and that was with light to moderate usage and turned off while on a plane. I already have battery/charge anxiety … This may be the show stopper for the incredible for me.

• Mobile me and address book synchronization – I’m missing my contact list big time. Looking for some alternative synchronization capability (like plaxo), but the iPhone with MobileMe is such a killer.

• No iTunes – this is a blessing and a curse. iTunes and synching your iPhone to your computer is a hassle, but a blessing in disguise. Making it mandatory is the hassle part, the fact that a new device can’t be used until the initial sync is a pain. I have an iPod so i never really used my iPhone as a music or video device, so i could live without the music synchronization, but apps, backups, photos taken on the phone, etc are great to synch with iTunes. And without MobileMe the synching of contacts and calendar entries is vital.

Here are the good and sometimes great things that Android and Verizon do that the iPhone does not (and some of these are fixed in the upcoming OS upgrade):

• coverage and data speed – noticeable on my very first use. Even more noticeable as I drive around in areas where I previously had NO data and often not enough of a signal for a voice call. The VZW network is just better. Hands down. And if the device is only as good as the network it is on… I really don’t think i can stress this point enough.

• Multi-tasking – though this will be moot for 3GS and iPhone 4 users this week, this is a substantial delta.  Being able to listen to your streaming media (Pandora, NPR, Stitcher) while continuing to use other applications and browsing is such a huge thing. Likewise, keeping Skype or IM running while doing other tasks is vital.  I’m surprised that Apple has not already come up with multi-tasking prior to iOS4.

• voice transcription – is a beautiful thing.  It even makes up for the crappy screen based keyboard as I can send SMS and chats with Skype without relying on the keyboard. I think this will be more and more noticeable as i use it while driving. I try not to drive and text often, but sometimes I slip up and the voice transcription will be a valuable safety tool.

• google voice – I am an avid Google Voice user.  I use it for business as the dialing from the computer and keeping track of incoming and outgoing calls is great.  Hiding or masking my called from number is also a great feature.  Avoiding SMS charges is a bonus, but since i went with an unlimited plan not all that necessary (but having a record and continuity between a chat / SMS session on your phone and on your computer is a huge benefit). Granted you can use google voice from an iPhone thanks to the Ajax web app, but it isn’t like dialing natively like it is on Android .

• integrated Skype – i didn’t think this would be such a bit advantage, but it is.  The free Skype to Skype calling actually uses a voice call to a Skype server and then Skypes your contacts. We use Skype for work so this is a great addition.  Having the Skype application running in the background (multi-tasking) is great because i get notified of an incoming chat even if using another application.  I did discover two problems with the integrated Skype.  One is that you have to disable WiFi to run Skype, which since the VZW network is so much better AT&T it might not be a big issue (until they do away with the unlimited data plans).  The other is that using both the free Skype to Skype and Google Voice is not possible if you have selected to force all calls out of google voice.  The dialer dials some Google Voice number and then calls the Skype number which never completes the outgoing call.

• Friends and Family (combined with Google Voice) – all outgoing calls are free!!!

• No iTunes – as i mentioned this is a benefit and a curse as the iTunes synchronization had some great features.  There is a disk that came with my Incredible, but it only runs on Windoze (and I use OSX or Ubuntu as my preferred desktop OS and only boot Windows XP when I have to (which is getting less and less frequent)).

I’ll post more and/or add comments as I discover more things or when I have something to update (like Froyo).

I’m drafting this on Pages on the iPad. I’ll port this to my blog using a cut and paste into the dashboard, then will touch it up and add links using the dashboard on a PC.

We took a trip last week. I intentionally did not bring my laptop as I wanted to use the iPad as a prime device and didn’t want to have the option of falling back on a PC. Lack of multi-tasking is still obvious, which after this coming week and the iOS4 upgrade should not be an issue. App developers can also fix this by opening up the app with the same view in the same location where it was ended. It amazes me that some apps still don’t do this.

Lack of Flash is still an issue. I also was traveling with my Android phone which supports basic flash and on a few instances grabbed the Android and opened up the URL that was not available on then iPad. Over time, if Apple has it’s druthers, flash video may be phased out on mainstream websites (and replaced with YouTube?), but other sites that rely on flash will require a flash supporting device. I missed my yahoo chess!

(the irony of this with Apple and Google going at each other like cats and dogs makes me chuckle)

Using outdoors is also difficult. My wife and I went to a park to do some reading. I had downloaded a few e-books (using e Kindle app as we like to share books). She pulled out her Kindle and I pulled out the iPad. The very first thing I noticed is that I couldn’t see jack. The iPad in portrait mode can not be viewed while wearing polarized sunglasses (opposite from the iPhone which is fine in portrait but unusable in landscape). Just for a comparison, my Android is visible in both portrait and landscape. Even in landscape mode it is difficult, so I ditched the sunglasses, but still found myself squinting to view even on maximum brightness. After an hour I had a headache from squinting and the overall brightness outside as I was not wearing my sunglasses.

The battery life is phenomenal. I only charged when it was convenient. Even now I’m working on a charge from the hotel over 24 hours ago after using moderately yesterday surfing the web in the airport and reading e-books on the plane.

Pages is great. I can actually edit, format, and move around in a full size document. I can read (and edit) Pages documents and Word documents with ease. I have used Numbers as well and for a tablet it is a very functional spreadsheet app. Starting from scratch to create a useable spreadsheet is a slow process, but opening up one from e-mail and making quick edits works quite well. I had a pretty through loan calculator that I had created with Numbers on my Mac which was quite easy to use on the iPad to change values and observe results.

So I’m still happy with my purchase. I’m loving the iPad.

Next post … Later this week … My Android vs. iPhone experiences.

I’ve had it about 24 hours and I have so say that they live up to the hype (so far). I told my wife I’d lose the Netbook if I got an iPad (as the eeePC was a constant presence with me around the house and usually was wedged between the couch pillows).

I went with the 64GB WiFi Model.  I don’t really think I’ll need the 64GB, but it was the only model they had left. I figured I’m fine with the WiFi as I already have a Verizon Wireless MiFi, so I didn’t need the 3G and I am ditching AT&T anyway as it pretty much sucks and our new home has NO AT&T coverage.

The lack of multi-tasking is obvious, but I think that’s due to certain apps (if you need to go to another app to cut and paste something … say into a tweet when you reopen the app you wanted to work in, you may have to navigate back to where you were). Regardless, multi-tasking is coming up in a few weeks so it will be a welcome improvement. Lack of Flash is not as obvious unless you are trying to watch video in some random website (like Comedy Central or TPM (on the opposite end of the spectrum) that hasn’t grasped the whole youtube phenomenon) or online gaming (like Yahoo Chess which I am totally addicted to).

I didn’t think I would notice the native iPhone apps versus the iPad apps, but it’s very noticeable and quite annoying that even expanded the apps are pixlated.  The lack of a decent Twitter app is my biggest headache.  Tweetdeck has a native iPad app, but it crashes if in landscape and just seems like a rushed job.  I am waiting for the Twitter (Tweetie) app as that was by far my favorite iPhone Twitter app.  Ironically, I use Tweetdeck on the computer and if it didn’t crash all the time it would be an excellent iPad Twitter application.

Typing on the iPad is fast.  Not as fast as a keyboard, but faster than a QWERTY phone and much faster than the touch screen interfaces.  I typed two blog entries on the iPad, one using the WordPress Dashboard running in Safari and another using a WordPress app.  Both allow you to post text, but lack any ability to post images, edit images, and due to multi-touch using the WYSIWYG editor isn’t possible.

I’ve only had it for about 48 hours now (I started the post a while back) and battery life is great, screen is crystal clear and bright, it feels good in your hands, and is fast(er than an iPhone). It’s a bit heaver than our Kindle and I do have some books on it, but haven’t really had the marathon reading session yet to see if the weight and/or screen is an issue however, late last night I was playing with it and my wife asked me to turn off the light which I couldn’t have done with the Kindle (future post about the new 2.5 Kindle OS).

Favorite app so far is the Netflix app which allows you to watch your “Watch Instantly” queue. I watched a few episodes of Friday Night Lights and was very impressed with the streaming video through the app. Email is nice on the larger screen (than the iPhone) and may actually be more than just a crutch (which is how I feel about e-mail on an iPhone or Crackberry).

So this was a pretty rambling review of my first 24 (ahem 48) hours with the iPad. So far, I’m digging it.  Great new addition to the geek family.

It allows you to insert photos, but you can not select where they will end up in the post, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to delete then (hence the off topic and random attachments on this post … at least until I log on and delete them through the Dashboard using a computer with a full browser).

OK. Enough of this post. I will post a more through review of the iPad and my first 24 hours with it later.

The keyboard is much faster than the iPhone keyboard, but not as fast as an actual keyboard. Text navigation is also a bit slower than on a computer with keyboard and mouse, but still doable.

Using the Dashboard HTML editor it is also laborious to create links. However, it can be done manually (as opposed to using the GUI). Same thing goes for more advanced text editing features, you can do them, but not as easy or as fast as the WYSIWYG way of doing things.

Tagging and other post features are really no different than on a computer.

Enough of this post. I’ll write another with the WordPress iPad app later today and maybe another with some more solid review of the iPad itself at a later date.

I upgraded to the 3G iPhone the week it came out (even though there was no 3G where I lived (yet)) and I’ve still got my eye on a WiFi iPad.  I just can’t wait until Christmas to see if Apple and Verizon can come to terms (and if Apple will build a CDMA version or if they will wait for LTE).

Eventually, the AT&T network in Blacksburg, VA improved, I could use the phone in my house if I stood by the window in the dining room or our bedroom (but not where my home office was).  We moved to Raleigh, NC last summer and there was decent coverage out where we live in Apex.  There were still a few places where I didn’t have any service that were regular travel destinations (a few clients in VA and NC). I used open WiFi an Skype when I needed to make a call, but eventually broke down and bought a Verizon Wireless MiFi which works just about everywhere with higher speed (and allows me to make Skype calls from my iPhone to boot).

I was still on the fence since we are moving to a new location near Ithaca, NY and our new landlord said that the only network with any signal out where we are moving is Verizon. I considered the $150 (and no extra fees) network extender, but that would only work in and around my home … what about the drives to the grocery store, or drives to and from town?

The coup de gras was just the other day on a pretty big road between Raleigh and Chapel Hill, in the suburbs. I couldn’t make a call while my wife was gabbing away on her Verizon phone.  I had to ask her to get off the phone (with her mother) and make my call from her phone.  Later that day, even with signal (that was flipping between Edge (2G) and 3G) I couldn’t use my phone for any data. My contract is coming due so this seemed like the appropriate time.

I don’t have my Android yet, but I just ordered the HTC Incredible from Verizon Wireless and it won’t ship for a few weeks. I will do my best to post unbiased reviews and comparisons when I get my new phone. I will admit that I’m a huge fan of Apple products.  I bought an iMac when the Core 2 Duo processor was introduced, I have a MacBook Pro, Airport Extreme and Express, two iPods, my wife also has a MacBook Pro and a Touch, and I’m itching for an iPad. So the Android has a high bar to get over.  I will have my 30 days of evaluation to determine if I can live with the phone (and if Steve makes some unexpected announcement at WWDC).

I’m sad to have to do this, but the phone is only as good as the network it is on and I’m finally fed up enough with AT&T that I’m moving on.

On the up-side, I have a lot of paid iPhone apps.  I may just be forced to purchase an iPad to run all those apps I own .

On my Macs I’ve been mostly happy with Firefox, but I have to admit that it is slow.  When Safari 4 came out I tried the beta and was pretty happy with it and only had a few unexplained crashes and only one of those caused me to lose some work (ironically, I was editing a WordPress entry when it crashed). I found myself using Firefox for the extensions (namely Delicious). Since the official release of Safari 4, it has become my primary browser on my Macs. The reason being speed; it is noticeably faster than Firefox. I even downloaded it on my PC so when I happen to have booted to Windoze, I run Safari.

I recently discovered DeliciousSafari and a few other extensions which work on my mac so I’m moving even further away from Firefox.

If Firefox wants to win me back, it’s got to do something about the speed. I notice it more and more now that I’m used to how fast Safari starts up, renders pages (cover flow, hot sites), etc.

On the anti-Microsoft movement, more recently than what I described in the first paragraph, I’ve tried to ditch Microsoft more and more (even though I am using Apple’s products, I just don’t get the evil vibe from Apple (but it may be coming)).  For instance, I have several computers in my office and only run Windoze when necessary. My PCs are running Ubuntu and my Macs are running OS X.  I do have to boot to Windoze on my gaming machine to play games, but that’s really the only time I’m running Windoze.  I don’t use MS Office as there are alternatives (iWork, OpenOffice, Google Docs) that work well and only open documents in MS Office if I’m concerned that an export for a co-worker or client may have gone amuck.

For a brief introduction, Google Voice is a telephone number that is supposed to be your last and final telephone number. You set up Google Voice with your other phone numbers and then you can control how and when you accept calls from who. Sounds great, but let me provide an example which may make more sense. You set up your Google Voice number to send everyone in a “Work” or “Coworkers” group to your office phone number and your cell phone number during week days from 8am-7pm, but not your home number, but you have one particular work buddy that likes to call you on weekends so you make an exception for that individual, but only for your cell phone. You never give out your cell phone number (or any other number) and Google Voice “screens” your calls.

It also has some cool features like

• transferring calls between your phones (say you are on the phone at work, but have tickets to a Bob Dylan show and need to transfer that call to your cell phone so you can finish the call in the car (not that you should talk on the phone while driving)).
• transcribing voicemail messages and sending you a SMS
• announcing your calls when you answer the phone and allowing you to accept or not (again depending on groups, or individuals) and allowing you to send a caller to voicemail (and even listen in on their message and interrupting (remember the good old days with old school answering machines that did that and we used to talk to them (“If your home, pick up.”)))
• recording calls in progress
• sending/receiving SMS messages
• making international calls for decent rates
• when using a computer, you can make calls from Google Voice by entering a number or clicking on a contact and the phone of your choice rings, you pick it up, and then the number you are calling rings…the Caller-ID they see is your Google Voice number
• the interface is very much like gmail, and I expect when it’s opened up, it’s a simple process of selecting your number and it will be fully integrated in gmail (and since Talk is already integrated it’s only a matter of time)

So, why would I have beef with AT&T and Apple? I’m getting to it, but what’s happening is that Google Voice is basically commoditizing voice (like yahoo, hotmail, and gmail commoditized e-mail and unchained you from your ISP) or at least commoditizing how to reach you. If you don’t have to give out your cell phone number (or home phone, or office phone) ever again then there is nothing that tethers you to their services (yeah yeah, I know about number portability) and you can switch carriers or use alternative channels (like your home phone or even VoIP (which I’m sure is in the works for Google Voice (Talk?)).

From what I understand, “there’s an app for that.” It’s already written and I’ve even seen a demo of it on an internet video site. However, AT&T and Apple have blocked the app. It works something like the web page and it would drive your address book and initiate all your calls through the app.  You would click on a name or number and it would dial that and present your Google Voice Caller-ID to the recipient.  But it’s still using the cellular network so it’s not really about the voice minutes. Rather, I think Apple is concerned that someone else is driving the “dialing experience.”  I think that is the perceived threat to both Apple and AT&T.  It’s aggravating because for all the appearance of “openness” this app didn’t pass the muster of either AT&T or Apple or both.

There are some of the tech savvy who think this is a big enough rub that they are leaving the iPhone and going to Android or Palm Pre or even Crackberries as there are apps for all of those (I’m not certain on the Palm Pre, so leave a comment if you know of one). Personally, I still love my iPhone. I honestly think it’s an awesome phone, and with all those apps and other features, I still haven’t seen anything that’s close. The Palm Pre is up there, but it’s still lacking in some areas (namely apps which if it has a Google Voice App is kind of ironic). I will be one of those who complains (like this blog and it’s subsequent tweet) so hopefully AT&T and Apple will get the message (and I’m sure it’s already being aired in the Apple boardroom).

Don’t have Google Voice? Just request an invite. It will come in a week or so.

I took a screenshot and there were the auto saves, so I didn’t lose much text. However, I did have to re-type a paragraph or two.

It’s what you get for using a beta so I’m not really complaining, I’m just warning others.

What I really wanted was alerts. I can’t tell you how many times I missed a conference call or was late to a meeting that was on my company calendar that wasn’t on my iPhone. I just wanted it to ping me 5-15 mintues before a meeting, is this too much to ask for?

The background of my situation is that I have a laptop (so not something that is always on), use Mobile Me for address book and personal calendars synchronization and I wanted to have access to my company calendar.  You would think, since I have Mobile Me running on my laptop that I would be able to see my calendar entries on my iPhone. But for some reason that I still haven’t been able to find out, that’s not the case. You would also think that since I’m running an OS X laptop (Apple), an OS X Server (Apple), Mobile Me (Apple) and an iPhone (guess who) that it would be out-of-the box functionality. There are lots of rumors that that functionality is coming in Snow Leopard (OS X 10.7), but we’re running our server on an old Quicksilver (PPC) which won’t run Snow Leopard (Snow Leopard will be Intel processors only) so there was no relief coming.

What came across is a script that creates a duplicate of your server based calendar to a local calendar. Mobile Me picks up that local calendar and keeps it in sync with my iPhone. I made several changes to include the alarms (which the initial script didn’t get). I’ve pasted the script below.

To use it:

1. copy all the text and paste it into the Script Editor (in Applications -> Apple Script).
2. Change the names of the two calendars to the name of the server calendar and a new .local or .copy entry to be your local one (the first time you run the script the local one will be created).
3. Save it as an application and run it every time you want to sync your CalDAV calendar to your local calendar.
4. Uncheck the .local or .copy calendar in iCal so you won’t see duplicate entries. One drawback which I can live with is that on my laptop I get two alarms simutaneously.
5. If you don’t like the dialog box at the end just comment the last line
   out.
6. If you wanted this to run periodically, you can create a crontab
   or run it via the scheduler, or even run it as a calendar entry itself.

If I really wanted to, I bet I could get the reverse sync working so that entries created or modified on the iPhone would sync to the CalDAV calendar, but I just haven’t wanted to go there yet. Bug me and I may work on the reverse.

(*
Script to duplicate Calendar orgCalendar into target dupCalendar
E.H. 12.9.2008
S.B. 02.20.2009 (my birthday   )
*)

property myCopies : 0
property myUpdates : 0
property myObsoletes : 0
property orgCalendar : "Server Calendar [PUT NAME OF CALENDAR HERE]"
property dupCalendar : "[PUT NAME OF TARGET CALENDAR HERE].local"
property dupEvents : {}
property myDeletes : {}

set myCopies to 0
set myUpdates to 0
set myObsoletes to 0
set dupEvents to {}

tell application "iCal"

	-- set theCalendars to every calendar
	set theCalendarNames to title of every calendar
	set theOrgCalendar to a reference to calendar orgCalendar

	if theCalendarNames contains dupCalendar then
		set theCalendar to a reference to calendar dupCalendar
	else
		set theCalendar to make new calendar with properties {title:dupCalendar}
		--set theCalendar to make new calendar with properties {title:dupCalendar, color:"{65535, 0, 0}"}
	end if

	set the eventList to uid of every event of theOrgCalendar as list
	set the eventCount to the count of the eventList

	repeat with theUId in eventList
		tell theOrgCalendar
			set theEvent to (the first event whose uid is theUId)
			-- set theProperties to the properties of theEvent as record
			set theDate to the start date of theEvent
			set theSummary to the summary of theEvent
			set theStampDate to the stamp date of theEvent
		end tell

		tell theCalendar
			try
				set theOldEvent to (the first event of theCalendar whose (start date) is theDate as date)
				set similar_found to true
			on error
				set similar_found to false
				set theEndDate to the end date of theEvent
				set theAllDay to the allday event of theEvent
				set theLocation to the location of theEvent
				-- Funny construction to work araund the fact that location may be missing a value
				try
					if theLocation is equal to "" then
					end if
				on error
					set theLocation to ""
				end try
				set theDescription to the description of theEvent
				try
					if theDescription is equal to "" then
					end if
				on error
					set theDescription to ""
				end try
				if theAllDay is true then -- work around a funny bug with all day events
					set theDate to (theDate as date) + 2 * hours
					set theEndDate to (theEndDate as date) + 2 * hours
				end if
				set newEvent to make new event at end with properties {summary:theSummary, location:theLocation, start date:theDate, end date:theEndDate, allday event:theAllDay, description:theDescription}
				-- make new event at end with properties theProperties

				-- sid's effort

				set sidCount to 1
				try
					repeat
						set theAlarm to item sidCount of sound alarm of theEvent
						set alarmTime to (trigger interval of theAlarm)
						set alarmSound to (sound name of theAlarm)
						set newAlarm to make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms of newEvent with properties {trigger interval:alarmTime, sound name:alarmSound}
						set sidCount to (sidCount + 1)
					end repeat
				end try

				-- end sid's effort

				set the end of dupEvents to (the uid of newEvent)

				set myCopies to (myCopies + 1)
			end try
		end tell

		set second_necessary to false
		if similar_found is true then
			set theOldSummary to the summary of theOldEvent
			if theSummary is not equal to theOldSummary then
				--is there a different one?
				try
					set theOldEvent1 to (the second event of theCalendar whose (start date) is theDate as date)
					set theOldSummary to the summary of theOldEvent1
					if theSummary is equal to theOldSummary then
						set theOldEvent to theOldEvent1
						set the end of dupEvents to (the uid of theOldEvent)
					else
						-- cycle repeat ?
					end if
				on error
					-- beep
					try
						set theEvent1 to (the second event of theOrgCalendar whose (start date) is theDate as date)
						set second_necessary to true
					on error
						set the end of dupEvents to (the uid of theOldEvent)
					end try
				end try
			else
				set the end of dupEvents to (the uid of theOldEvent)
			end if

			if second_necessary is true then
				set theEndDate to the end date of theEvent
				tell theCalendar
					set theOldEvent to make new event at end with properties {summary:theSummary, start date:theDate, end date:theEndDate}
					-- sid's effort

					set sidCount to 1
					try
						repeat
							set theAlarm to item sidCount of sound alarm of theEvent
							set alarmTime to (trigger interval of theAlarm)
							set alarmSound to (sound name of theAlarm)
							set newAlarm to make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms of newEvent with properties {trigger interval:alarmTime, sound name:alarmSound}
							set sidCount to (sidCount + 1)
						end repeat
					end try

					-- end sid's effort

				end tell
				set the end of dupEvents to (the uid of theOldEvent)
			end if

			set theOldStampDate to the stamp date of theOldEvent
			if theStampDate is greater than theOldStampDate then
				-- update the event
				set summary of theOldEvent to theSummary -- capitalization may have changed
				set theAllDay to the allday event of theEvent
				set allday event of theOldEvent to theAllDay
				set theEndDate to the end date of theEvent
				if theAllDay is true then -- work around a funny bug with all day events
					set theEndDate to (theEndDate as date) + 2 * hours
				end if
				set end date of theOldEvent to theEndDate
				set theDescription to the description of theEvent
				try
					if theDescription is equal to "" then
					end if
				on error
					set theDescription to ""
				end try
				set description of theOldEvent to theDescription

				-- sid's effort

				set sidCount to 1
				try
					repeat
						set theAlarm to item sidCount of sound alarm of theEvent
						set alarmTime to (trigger interval of theAlarm)
						set alarmSound to (sound name of theAlarm)
						-- add new alarm?
						try
							set oldAlarm to item sidCount of sound alarm of theOldEvent
							set oldTime to (trigger interval of oldAlarm)
							set oldAlarmSound to (sound name of oldAlarm)
							if oldTime is not equal to alarmTime then
								set trigger interval of oldAlarm to alarmTime
							end if
							if oldAlarmSound is not equal to alarmSound then
								set sound name of oldAlarm to alarmSound
							end if
							set sidCount to (sidCount + 1)
						on error
							set newAlarm to make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms of newEvent with properties {trigger interval:alarmTime, sound name:alarmSound}
							set sidCount to (sidCount + 1)
						end try
					end repeat
				on error
					--delete alarm?
					try
						repeat
							set oldAlarm to item sidCount of sound alarm of theOldEvent
							set oldTime to (trigger interval of oldAlarm)
							delete oldAlarm
							set sidCount to (sidCount + 1)
						end repeat
					end try
				end try

				-- end sid's effort

				set myUpdates to myUpdates + 1
			end if
		end if

	end repeat
end tell

-- Delete obsolete events

set myObsoletes to 0
set myDeletes to {}

tell application "iCal"
	set myUIDs to uid of events of theCalendar
end tell

repeat with myUID in myUIDs
	if dupEvents does not contain myUID then
		set the end of myDeletes to myUID
		set myObsoletes to (myObsoletes + 1)
	end if
end repeat

tell application "iCal"
	repeat with myDel in myDeletes
		delete (every event of theCalendar whose uid is myDel)
	end repeat
end tell

-- delete duplicates

set myDeletes to {}

tell application "iCal"
	set myStarts to start date of events of theCalendar
	set mySummaries to summary of events of theCalendar
	set myUIDs to uid of events of theCalendar
	set myLength to length of myUIDs
end tell

repeat with i from 1 to (myLength - 1)
	set thisStart to (item i of myStarts)
	set thisSumm to (item i of mySummaries)
	repeat with j from (i + 1) to myLength
		set thatStart to (item j of myStarts)
		set thatSumm to (item j of mySummaries)
		if thisSumm is equal to thatSumm and thisStart is equal to thatStart then
			set the end of myDeletes to (item j of myUIDs)
			exit repeat
		end if
	end repeat
end repeat

set n to count of myDeletes

tell application "iCal"

	repeat with myDel in myDeletes
		delete (every event of theCalendar whose uid is myDel)
	end repeat

	-- set the visible of calendar theCalendar to false

end tell

display dialog (myCopies & " records duplicated, " & myUpdates & " records updated and " & myObsoletes & " obsolete ones deleted") as text