I bought myself an LG Viewty in the summer last year, or at least I thought I did. It turns out Vodafone were selling the slightly less equipped KU990i, also known as the Viewty Lite, which along with no stylus pen also came without any software CD.

With my contacts list saved in Outlook, it would have been nice to import all of the contacts from the PC directly onto the phone, rather than having to put them all on the SIM card then back to handset memory (so that I can store multiple phone numbers per contact)

Today I decided that I'd have another look, and found the following works.

All credit goes to Dave Young who first posted this on the Vodafone UK forum

• Ensure that your phone is not connected to the PC via USB.
• Go to LG Product Support for KU990i
• Click the "Drivers & Software" tab and then the "Download PCSynch software for Windows" link and save the application (B2CAppSetup.exe) to your computer.
• Run the "B2CAppSetup.exe" application. When the application loads, choose "Customer Support" from the menu, then the "Application, Manual and USB Driver download..." menu item.
• The following screen will appear. Enter your IMEI number (just the numbers, no hyphens) and hit the search icon to the right.
  
• 3 files will be listed in the box underneath. Double click the links for the PCSynch and USB Drivers. You can also download the User Manual if you wish. These will automatically be saved in the following folder: C:\KU990IGO.

• From the C:\KU990IGO folder, run LGInstaller.exe. Choose your language (e.g.; English) and click the LG PC Suite button to start the installation. Optionally you can also install DivX for Mobile.
• Once installed, I'd recommend rebooting your PC before connecting using the USB Data cable.

Having done this, I have now been able to synchronise with my Outlook contacts as well as delete some SMS messages which is much quicker than trying to delete them on the handset!. It is not perfect, but using PCSynch is better than no connectivity at all.

It's been a while since I promised a few new features for the site. The release of the new version of CodeIgniter prompted me to rethink the progress I'd made, coupled with moving hosting to PHP5, so I decided the website and content management system (CMS) needed a rewrite.

I toyed with the idea of transferring over to Wordpress but decided I'd much rather try writing my own blog system into the CMS. It's worked out quite nicely but with family about to expand I have had little time to test it properly - and will have even less in the next few weeks!

Hopefully all the features of the site will work nicely. I've fixed several issues over the last couple of days since the site was updated - not least being a lack of dates in the RSS feed!

Behind the scenes, the CMS is due for a facelift and I need better control over the CodeIgniter application itself. I also have to re-introduce spellchecking into the blog system!

Well, this blog has come to an abrupt stop. There are a multitude of reasons, but mainly because my wife and I are expecting the arrival of our first child later in the year. Days I would have been sat in front of the computer are now spent visiting Mothercare, Mamas and Papas and all manner of other baby-related shopping experiences. Not that I'm complaining - life is very exciting at the moment!!

I'm also very busy at work (both in my day job and at home) swapping between development (home) and infrastructure work (day job). On the development side, I've just finished writing another couple of sections of my CodeIgniter CMS (the one that drives this site), which should make it easier for me to update the site on a more regular basis. Additionally, I've been doing some prep work for the next CodeIgniter for Intype screencast.

In my day job I've been involved in some work revolving around Windows 7 and MDT 2010. If I get the time in the next couple of months I'll write a full article on deployment of Windows 7, and the affect Microsoft's decision to pull IE8 from the European release of Windows 7 has on business deployments.

This site needs more blog posts!

A recent article on ProBlogger '7 Ways to Keep Fresh Content Flowing On Your Blog' has given me a few new ideas for blog posts and I'll be writing the first in a new series this week. I've had a few emails asking me if I've stopped updating this blog. Truth is, I've been so busy recently that I haven't had the time to devote to the site I'd like to.

Forthcoming Site Updates

1. Requested often is an update for the Intype bundle for CodeIgniter. Work on this is already under way on for the new Form Validation library and other changes in CodeIgniter 1.7.1. The new bundle will also include snippets for use with the built-in helpers, which I believe is an important addition. I will also be submitting my changes back to the originator of the bundle for Textmate.
   
   
2. I'll be adding some more functionality to the blog. I'm not using a product like WordPress so I'll be adding the updates in phases. First up will be enabling the overdue User Comments and RSS feeds.
   
   
3. New sections on the site, including Screencasts, Tutorials and Articles. Although not yet shown, these sections are ready to go and are just waiting for content. Currently I have ideas for a wide range of subjects - though I expect to focus on I.T. related issues at first.

Firstly I hope that everyone has had a great Christmas, and made the most of the holiday period.

As we go into what looks like being a worldwide recession, lets hope this year isn't all doom and gloom for the tech industry. As CES 2009 kicks off on the 7th, we should get a glimpse of what is to come, and see which gadget / technology will have the impact that the iPhone 3G had on 2008.

On a football note, it's great to see Liverpool up there leading the way as we turn into the new year. I just hope those few draws earlier in the season don't come back to haunt us!

I wish you all the best for 2009!