The setup process of Google Apps was very straight forward however the process of migrating email from one account to the other proved frustrating at best. Google Apps has a built in migration tool but because it was unable to verify the ssl certificate on the other server it wouldn’t continue the process.

Step 2 was to try an app on the Google Apps marketplace called Carbo. This was happy enough to connect to the other server and even started bringing in the emails, but after importing email 90/2878 I got an email saying it was complete. Trying to restart the process to try again proved useless as I had used my 1 and only free migration.

Back to the drawing board and I found a perl script which has been recommended called imapsync. While this was a little more manual than I would have liked, it actually worked beautifully and all mail was imported successfully. Below I’ll outline exactly what needed to be done…

Running it on Debian 7 was apparently ‘not easy’ according to the install notes. But in reality there were only a few commands that were needed to be run.

sudo apt-get install libauthen-ntlm-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdigest-hmac-perl libfile-copy-recursive-perl libio-compress-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libio-tee-perl libmail-imapclient-perl libmodule-scandeps-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libpar-packer-perl libterm-readkey-perl libtest-pod-perl libtest-simple-perl libunicode-string-perl liburi-perl

This will install all the perl dependencies that are needed.

cpan Data::Uniqid

We manually need to install this perl dependency because debian doesn’t have a package available for it yet.

Next either clone or download the imapsync zip from its github site.

git clone https://github.com/imapsync/imapsync.git
cd imapsync
sudo make install

And finally run the sync with the following (making sure you change the bits in <>):

imapsync --syncinternaldates --host1 <host1> --port1 993 --ssl1 --user1 <user1> --password1 <pass1> --host2 imap.gmail.com --port2 993 --ssl2 --user2 <user2@email.com> --password2 <pass2> --useheader 'Message-Id' --skipsize --noauthmd5 --reconnectretry1 1 --reconnectretry2 1

It’s as easy as that!

The post Migrating email to google apps first appeared on Devhour.

9 times out of 10 any website that you visit will have a contact section in some shape or form that will either have an email address or contact form encouraging you to get in contact if you have any questions or queries.

However, what I have found when using this method is that I get completely ignored or forgotten about. If that isn’t the case, then waiting 3-7 days for a response isn’t uncommon either.

For an example, late last month I went looking for a WiFI extender for a friends motherboard. I thought what I found to be a decent product on a fairly well known NZ  tech website. Not knowing the motherboard properly or knowing if the extender would fit, I hit the large ‘ENQUIRE’ button in the middle of the web page and asked if they were compatible. I sent that email on the 24th March at 9:46am. I got a reply on the 27th at 19:58. Three and a half days later. This from a store who is actually dedicated to computers.

Being in IT and using email as my main form of contact everyday this frustrates me to no end and will usually result in me taking my business elsewhere (which in this case I did).

What I don’t understand is, why is this the case? Technology is now almost everywhere and with the likes of smartphones and tablets email really is at your fingertips. I can understand that people are busy and not all businesses involve having someone sitting in front of a computer all day, but how hard is it to either send a quick reply saying ‘We’ll get back to you by the end of the day’ or even something as simple as flagging it to give yourself a note so that when you are next in front of a PC you know to email back.

Likewise, if you have dedicated call staff or in a shop-front (who usually have computers in front of them) why not have them set up with email in order to respond directly.

At the end of the day if I walked into a store front or rung directly I wouldn’t be ignored and I wouldn’t be waiting a week for a response. So, if you do use email as a form of contact, USE IT!

Do you agree? Not agree? Or just have a general opinion then feel free to comment, or hit me up on twitter @JAGracie

The post If you accept email, Use it! first appeared on Devhour.

Case in point. The recent success of Grand Theft Auto V is known to all, and those people who played the game (myself included) also know about the iFruit mobile app. While most people found it to be pretty pointless (looking after Chop the dog. Really?) it did include a nice feature to get yourself a custom number plate for your cars. Like most things online, the number plates were first in first served. Better download that app quick smart then right? Wrong! While the iOS version for the iPhone and iPad was released quick smart the Android app didn’t see the light of day until October 28th. A staggering 1 month and 11 days after the game was released. So much for that number plate…

Case in point number two. Recently in New Zealand the major satellite TV provider Sky announced that it’s customers can now watch Live and OnDemand TV on their phones and tablets. Heck yeah, I can finally watch the cricket on my commute every afternoon. Can you see where this is going? It’s currently only available on iOS and they have said for Android users to keep their eyes out for an Android version on ‘selected devices’ sometime in the New Year (so… only a month or so late).

As a person who uses Android (Tablet + Phone) this frustrates me to no end! Not only me but a lot of people. A simple google search shows the frustration of the hundreds of GTA users and looking on the SkyTV facebook page shows 11 out of the 30 comments (on the announcement of Sky GO) complaining about the lack of an Android App!

It also doesn’t make viable sense to the company. According to recent stats (Q3 2013) Android made up a staggering 81% of devices shipped. Compared to the 12.9% of iOS. That’s 4 out of every 5 devices! I will admit here however that Apple is still making the most money. In fact in the same time frame – (Q3 2013) – Apple made more money than all of it’s competitors combined by taking in 56% of the profits. So yes, if the company was to be releasing a paid version of the app, then it might make more sense to go for an Apple release first. But they’re not paid apps. They’re free!!

So if this post was to fall into the lap of the decision maker of X company, then please would you consider either:

a) Creating and releasing the Android app first in order to make the most of the many many users.
b) How about working on both and releasing them at the same time!

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment!

Also follow me on Twitter

Update:

There has been some good discussions on this topic (mainly over at /r/Android) and I think the two main points that have come up are:

1. Because there are so many Android devices running so many different versions of the OS + custom ROMs means that development time and testing is far more time consuming and resource intensive.
2. Even with 81% of devices shipped Android doesn’t touch iOS in terms of revenue generated.

These points are both valid and explain why those companies that release a lot of revenue gathering apps (ie that is their business model) choose to go for iOS first.

However, I think the point I’m trying to get across is a lot of companies are only ever going to release a single app, with the intention of putting it on both operating systems, and with a price tag of $0. With that in mind does it still make sense to focus primarily on iOS over Android?

PS. after writing this yesterday I got an email from Fly Buys (New Zealand’s largest loyalty program) with the good news that they now have an app… for iPhone.

The post Companies who release iOS apps before Android are frustrating first appeared on Devhour.

Bare with me as I try to catch up (may find it impossible as this part of the world moves at a rate of knots). I’ll probably be talking about pieces of code that have been around for some time now. Feel free to help out with a comment or 2 to help get me up to speed, as I’ll appreciate any help I come across.

The post The Dev Hour begins first appeared on Devhour.