If you are one of the lucky few who have bought an iPhone 3G, you must learn to use it properly. Or else you may find yourself joining the list of uninformed critics, cribbing that this device does not live up to expectations.

Remember, this is new technology. You will have to re-learn to use a mobile phone, only then will you get the most out of your iPhone 3G. Actually, it is a more than a mobile phone: it’s a computer that fits into your pocket.

The iPhone is data intensive. This means you will be using it for email, watching YouTube videos, checking the weather and the stock market, and finding directions with GPS. For all this you need an Internet connection on your phone.

Airtel is offering an attractive package of 500 MB free a month for the next 12 months on your existing post-paid plan. Vodafone has data plans of Rs 499 with 250 MB free usage a month and Rs 699 with 600 MB free usage a month. You will be charged 5 paise for every 10KB you download after that. Prepaid users too will be charged at this rate.

There are some very basic requirements that you need in your PC for the iPhone to work properly. You must have a Mac or a PC with a USB 2.0 port and one of the following operating systems:

Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later

Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later

Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition

Set the display resolution on your PC to 1024 by 768 or higher. Make sure you have a broadband connection or else you will be frustrated with the slow speed that might affect the registration process you will have to go through.

Transfer your Contacts

First, download iTunes from www.itunes.com/ download. If you already have iTunes, make sure the version is 7.7. You can easily check the version by going to Help and clicking on About in Windows.

Obviously, the first thing you would want is get all your contacts from your old phone to the iPhone. This is very easily done. Transfer all your contacts to the Address Book of your Windows PC. I suggest you use the Address Book of Outlook Express to store all your old phone contacts.

Refer to the software that was included with your phone. Many phones include applications that will sync contacts, calendars and other personal information with Windows XP or Vista. You can install this software to get the contacts and calendars off your old phone and onto your computer.

Next, plug in your iPhone with the cable to your computer’s USB port. When iTunes launches, select your iPhone under Devices in the Source list on the left. In the iPhone Summary tab, click on Check for Update. Click on Download and Install, and do not disconnect your iPhone till the update finishes.

The latest update for the iPhone 3G is 2.02. Click on update. This will take a while, depending on the speed of your Net connection. The 2.01 update was more than 250MB.

Now click the respective tabs on the top to specify what you want transferred to your iPhone. Click Apply in the lower right corner of the screen. Your computer syncs with the iPhone according to your settings.

The first time you sync your iPhone, you are asked if you want to merge data, replace data on the device, or replace the data on your computer. After that, anytime you connect your iPhone to your computer, iTunes opens and syncs with the iPhone according to your settings. You can adjust sync settings anytime the iPhone is connected to your computer.

App Store Account

There is one final thing you must do to get your iPhone working properly so that you can download some fantastic applications from the App Store icon that resides on your phone. In iTunes, go to the Store menu and click on Create Account. Just follow the wizard. You will be asked to provide your credit card details. Don’t worry, this is a very secure site and nobody will be able to steal your card details. Log out after you are through.

After you finish this final step, you’ll be able to download some amazing games, utilities and stuff that even doctors can use on their iPhone. There are hundreds of such applications and some good ones come for free.

Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com. The solutions will appear soon.