I’m going to tell you how I did it since I had to jump through a few hoops. My issue was that I sync and make backups for my iPhone on my PC although I do have a MacBook Pro. Well, the only way to get the OS4 update was to run it on iTunes on a Mac, so there was my issue, but have no fear, I’m going to walk you through the steps I took to make it all work out!

First, you’ll want to get the iPhone OS4 download.

That page will give you all the instructions if you’re doing it on a Mac to start with, and if you are then you’re good to go and won’t need to read any further. If you have your iPhone synced and backed up on a PC like I did, then continue reading as it should save you some time and headaches!

Before you do anything, you’ll want to run a current backup for the iPhone on your PC.

The update will only run on a Mac because it requires an update to iTunes that is apparently only available for the Mac, so you’ll want to get that and install it.

Next, you will want to spend $22 (trust me) on a fine piece of software called iPhone Backup Extractor. That is if you do not have your contacts synced with Outlook or something like that. I did not sync my contacts with anything, so that’s where I ran into some issues, as I assume some of you might as well.

You will run the iPhone Backup Extractor and it will extract everything from your current backup that you made, and in my case what I really needed was my contacts!

So, back to the Mac…

You’ve installed the new version of iTunes, so plug in your iPhone and follow the instructions from the first link above and that will restore your iPhone to the OS4 software package, but you’ll notice your phone is wiped clean! Not to worry, we’re about to cover how to remedy that.

After you’ve restored your iPhone, you’ll want to copy your iTunes folder from your PC and copy it over to your Mac and then add your music and apps back in through iTunes and then sync..so all your music and apps are back in place. That part is pretty straightforward and simple.

Next, was the contacts. What I did was run the iPhone Backup Extractor and it gave me a CSV file for my contacts (as well as all my photos, music, etc), but again, at this point all I’m concerned about is my contacts as I’ve already migrated everything else over.

I took the CSV of my contacts (from the PC) and imported them into the Mac Address Book. I then went to iTunes and selected my contacts to sync from the Address Book and bingo, there they were!

That’s it!

I had to set up my email accounts again, but if you’re using IMAP that’s not an issue as all your emails will come back just as they were. If you’re using POP then that’s a different story!

Also, I’m sure there are a million ways to do this, but this is how I did mine today and my iPhone 3GS is running OS4 beautifully and hopefully yours can be too.

The first link states that you can do it on the iPhone 3G as well, but I can’t verify as I don’t have one, but if it does work I don’t believe the multitasking feature will work.

So, I hope this helps you out and if you don’t want to jump through hoops, you only have to wait a couple of weeks, as the OS4 update will be available to all on June 21st.

From San Francisco, I’ll be traveling to Chicago to speak at CMS Expo on WordPress plugins. This event is shaping up to be pretty cool as well and on top of that, it’s the first year that WordPress has a track there. I’m very excited to be a part of this event and representing WordPress in a small way. I’ll be presenting on “WP Ecommerce and must-have WordPress plugins” on Tuesday May 4th. If you’re nearby and have not gotten a ticket to this event, you better go grab one now and come say hi.

After these events, I’ll be traveling to the Reno Tahoe WordCamp in June and probably several other events over the summer/fall, but plans are not definite, so those will be posted when I know what I’m doing.

So for now, you’re caught up and if you’re going to be at one of the events I have listed, make sure to stop me and say hi!

It’s supposed to fall into a category between the iPhone and a laptop, which it does perfectly. It basically has all the functionality of an iPhone or iPod touch, but other cool features (and size) that throws it into the laptop category…

Information available at this point says the iPad does not have a camera, which for most I think is going to be something that makes it less appealing.

I think that the app market will benefit from this though, as new and more powerful apps will become available for the iPad that are not now available for the iPhone or Ipod touch.

It can be held in any direction you want. It looks like a giant iPod.

It has a virtual keyboard. “A dream to type on,” according to Steve.

It has Google Maps, and of course is web-enabled. It’s lightning fast.

YouTube can be watched in HD. The Demo of Star Trek was pretty impressive, but it’s not widescreen, though.

You slide to unlock

The music player looks like a new version of iTunes.

• 9.7 inch IPS display, 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds in weight.

• MEMORY SIZE: 16, 32, or 64 GB solid state hard drives

• CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. It looks like they went in-house to build this thing.

• Wi-Fi: 802.11n

• BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours

• Includes Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Accelerometer, and compass

So my question is at this point – Do you replace your laptop? Do you keep your laptop, iPhone and now the new iPad? For me personally, I think this device is awesome but i don’t see myself purchasing one anytime soon. It’s just one more device to tote around and have to keep up with. Or will I eventually decide that the iPad will replace my MacBook Pro and move forward that direction?

The price I’ve seen so far is $499 (for the 16GB I’m assuming) and won’t ship for 2-3 months, so is the storage a deal-breaker for you? I love my storage space, so this is another reason I would not replace my laptop, but the iPad is quite tempting.

What do you think?

Will you be looking into purchasing an iPad?

If so, is it going to replace your current laptop or netbook?

Here is a nice photo gallery of the iPad from engadget.

First, let me say what a great event it was. It was held at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center and wow…what a place! They did not hold back when designing and building this place…it was as amazing as you can imagine! Just a gigantic piece of technology disguised as a building on the river. So for WordCamp…everything from registration, to presentations to lunch…everything was covered to the T by the organizers (Amanda Blum, John Eckman, Kurt Eng, Jake Goldman and others I’m forgetting). I received a text message 15 minutes prior to my presentation letting me know that my time slot was coming up and where to go…things like that were just amazing to me!

I met tons of cool people at this event (Josh Strebel and Boone Gorges to name a couple), made some great business contacts and overall had an incredible time. Boston is a great city and I enjoyed every minute that I was there.

My wife Abbie, took lots of pics on our trip, but I don’t want to double post, so if you want to see the pics, you can head over to her site and check them out.

I’m not much for going into a lot of detail, so this is about it…but I had a great time at WordCamp Boston and look forward to attending next year. To those of you who missed it, make sure and get a ticket early next year!

For those of you who might have missed my presentations, I have a page with info related to each.

WordPress & PHP & CSS, Oh My!

Selling Sh*t on WordPress

So, with that I’ll do a short wrap-up of what happened this past year and we’ll go from there.

January 2009, I go to Las Vegas for WordCamp and speak on WP Ecommerce. There I meet John Hawkins and Todd Huish.

June 2009, I go to Raleigh, North Carolina for WordCamp and you guessed it…speak on WP Ecommerce. I left from Raleigh and headed to NYC for a family vacation.

The rest of the summer was fairly uneventful..just normal stuff.

September 2009, I go to Los Angeles for WordCamp and again, speak on WP ECommerce. Seeing a trend here…but while I was in LA, I again met up with John Hawkins and Todd Huish and had some interesting conversations.

The following week, I go to Portland, Oregon for WordCamp and talk about our old favorite, WP ECommerce and again meet up with John Hawkins and do some more talking. This will start making sense soon, I promise.

October 2009, John, Todd and myself decide to start a new business venture which becomes 9seeds, LLC. See? I told you…makes sense. So 9seeds is born and we’re on our way.

November, I go to NYC for WordCamp. John does a presentation there and I hang out in the Genius Bar answering WordPress related questions…good times.

The holidays were pretty normal…and busy. 9seeds is doing well!

So that brings us to the present, and as I’m writing this I’m preparing for my presentation at WordCamp Boston on January 23rd, 2010. This time I will be speaking on how to edit/manipulate code for WordPress themes and plugins to get it to do what you want. I am self-taught so I thought a presentation on how I learned what I did would be good for others trying to accomplish the same thing.

This year is already shaping up to be pretty exciting, so check back often and see how things are going.

I love your opinions and comments, so don’t forget to leave me one below.