When you sync contacts from more than one source (i.e. Exchange and MobileMe, on-device and Google Sync, etc.), and there are duplicates, rather than showing the same contact twice iOS 4 will instead create a single, linked contact. This works on any iOS 4 device, including iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, recent iPod touch, etc.

When you look at a linked contact, the header will show Unified Info at the top so you know it’s linked. At the very bottom of the contact it will show you the source of the links (i.e MobileMe, Google). Tapping on the source lets you see the original, non-unfied info from just that source.

If you don’t like the idea of your contacts being linked, you can tap edit and hit Unlink. If iOS 4 missed linking a contact that ought be linked, tap edit, scroll down to the bottom, tap Link Contact and choose the contact you want linked.

[Thanks T.J!]

iOS 4 feature: Linked contacts is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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So how’s iOS 4 Active Sync working for you? iOS 4 allows multiple ActiveSync accounts, meaning iPhone users can finally have their work Exchange setup alongside Google Sync, for example.

I’ve got both Exchange (2003) and Google Sync (Google Accounts) set up on both an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS, and both mail and calendar are working fine (I don’t sync Exchange contacts, never mind the mess that is Google contacts — I use MobileMe for that).

Some users over on the Apple Support forums aren’t having as much luck. Calendars in particular seem to be giving them problems where they weren’t under iOS 3.x.

I did notice that, on my iPhone 3GS, the first time I added the second ActiveSync account the phone got hot and the battery started to drain so I deleted it, rebooted, and added it back and it hasn’t happened again — battery life has been surprisingly good.

What’s your experience with ActiveSync under iOS 4?

[discussions.apple.com, thanks Sagar!]

How’s iOS 4 ActiveSync (Exchange/Google Sync) working for you? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Over the weekend, if you are using Google Sync to synchronize your email on iPhone, you probably experienced a synchronization problem with Google and failed to retrieve your email. You may not aware of the problem as there is no error message shown when synchronizing the emails. But when you access your Gmail account on desktop, you probably notice the emails you received are not in-sync with your iPhone.

As explained by Google, the problem is preventing iPhone, Windows Mobile and S60 users from synchronizing contacts, calendar and email with the Google cloud. Here is the response from Google that further explained the issue:

As many of you have noticed, Google Sync is having some difficulties due to an extended problem with one of our datacenters. This has been going on over the weekend, but it’s got significantly worse today, so I’m just letting everyone know what’s happening.

None of your information has been lost, and you will still be able to get your data through Sync, but you will find that Push isn’t working very well. This is because we’re batching up fetch requests to be able to cope with the traffic we’re seeing while this problem is ongoing. As soon as we’ve got the problem fixed, push should seamlessly start working properly again

We’re working flat out to get this fixed, but unfortunately we don’t have an ETA at the moment. We’re doing everything we can to improve the situation in the meantime, and I’ll post here again when I have more news.

Despite there is no official announcement about the status of the fix, it seems like the Google Sync problem is resolved. I have just tested on my iPhone, it just works! Love to see Google Sync is back. If you still experience the problem, remember to leave comment and let us know.

Tip: For those who are still experiencing the sync problem, you may use the mobile version of Gmail at the mean time. Simply point your Safari to m.gmail.com