I will be getting a new laptop with Windows 7 Home edition. My current laptop runs XP. What is the most efficient and least painful way to transfer my personal files and programs?

A:

Windows 7 has a transfer assistant, but it moves only files and settings. LapLink has a program, PCmover (http://bit.ly/bETKDz), in versions ranging from $30 to $60, which moves everything. Parallels offers the program Parallels Desktop for Upgrading to Windows 7 (http://bit.ly/9L1Er9), which is either $40 or $50, depending on whether you want an included cable.

Q:

I have an iPhone but am contemplating switching phones. I have a MacBook and all my music is in iTunes. Is there another smartphone that will sync my music with iTunes?

A:

The Palm Pre and Pre Plus can work with certain versions of iTunes, though not necessarily the latest. Apple (AAPL) and Palm have gone back and forth, with Apple disabling Palm syncing as it brings out new versions. If you use an older version of iTunes, it may well work. There are products that will sync iTunes music to a variety of smartphones. One is doubleTwist (doubletwist.com). It runs on PCs and Macs and supports Android, Palm, BlackBerry and other devices. Another product that can sync iTunes music to various non-Apple phones is called The Missing Sync (markspace.com). Note that, as far as I know, even if you get iTunes music onto a non-Apple phone, any copy-protected tracks you own won’t play.

A: On the Nexus One, the Motorola Droid and other Android phones, there are two main types of memory: one internal, which is fixed, and the other external, in the form of removable memory cards, which the user can increase in capacity. In general, apps can be stored only in a small, restricted portion of internal memory, which on the Nexus One is a meager 190 megabytes. Although there are exceptions, apps can’t generally be stored on the roomier removable memory cards, though some files they rely upon, like graphics, can be offloaded onto the cards.

Google acknowledges this is a limitation, but says it designed the system to protect apps from being copied by merely removing the memory card and inserting it into a PC which could duplicate its contents. The company says it is working on ways to secure the memory cards to the satisfaction of the app developers, so that apps could be stored on them. Meanwhile, Android phones can’t hold nearly as many apps, especially sophisticated large apps, as some users might like.

AT&T and Verizon are each saying that they have wide areas of coverage. Can you tell me who really has the widest area of coverage for cellphone signals?

If you are comparing basic cellphone signal availability, each of the two leaders has a very wide footprint. However, Verizon claims a larger geographic footprint when it comes to 3G networks, which are currently the fastest widely deployed cellular data networks. AT&T claims its 3G is the fastest. But, partly because AT&T has the iPhone, which is both popular and makes heavy data usage very easy, its network too often seems overwhelmed in large cities, in my experience. Verizon so far lacks a specific phone with similar popularity which users employ to consume as much data, and thus network capacity, as iPhone users typically do. However, iPhone-class phones like the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One, if they sell well, will test the Verizon network’s robustness.

Any idea how well or badly the new Google Nexus One syncs with Macs for things like Calendars, Notes, Address Books etc.?

The Nexus One doesn’t come with software for syncing with computers, whether Macs or PCs. It is primarily intended to sync with online calendars and address books, not those stored locally on computers. It also lacks software for syncing even larger files, like music, photos and videos. Its method for transferring those files from Macs and PCs is to connect the phone via a USB cable, causing the phone to appear to the computer as an external hard disk. You then must manually drag and drop files onto the Nexus One’s icon. In other words, Google doesn’t supply any equivalent to Apple’s iTunes or the BlackBerry media-syncing software. However, the third-party program doubleTwist, available at doubletwist.com, is designed to function as a sort of iTunes for syncing Android, Palm and BlackBerry devices. It runs on Macs and PCs and even looks a bit like iTunes. But it only syncs media files, not calendars or address books.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Start-up DoubleTwist makes software designed to help users of devices other than Apple products, such as BlackBerry and Android phones, to organize and keep track of their music. Starting immediately, the DoubleTwist software will now let people buy music files from Amazon’s MP3 store in a more seamless fashion that replicates the iTunes experience by essentially integrating the Amazon store right into their software.

After signing into their Amazon accounts, people will now be able to browse songs, listen to previews and buy songs with just a few clicks. Sometimes Amazon is even cheaper than iTunes. For example, Lady Gaga’s “The Fame Monster” album costs $5 on Amazon, but $7.99 on iTunes (where it also comes with an extra remix song and digital booklet).

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To recap: the ad was designed to promote music-management software offered by doubleTwist, a startup formed by Johansen (known as “DVD Jon” for breaking the copy protection on DVDs). The company arranged to have the ad posted on a glass façade next to a stairway leading to the subway operated by Bay Area Rapid Transit, better known as BART. From some angles, the location made it seem like the ad was on the wall of Apple’s retail store.

The ad first went up June 5, three days before Apple’s closely watched developer conference (where this year the company unveiled a new iPhone and Mac laptops). But it was removed before the show; Johansen said that he was told that BART objected because it was too dark, blocking light from the stairway.

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“BART’s excuse for ripping down the ad was that it was ‘too dark’ and not letting through enough light into the BART exit. However, we have pictures that show there was plenty of light coming through the ad (the ad is printed on a clear plastic material). We then submitted the following revised ad with a white background. A white ad would have let even more light through. However, it was rejected for having a solid white background (!). At the ad agency’s request, we then made the background completely transparent. After complying with all their requests to change the ad, we still haven’t been given a firm date on when the ad will be back up. Apple is a major BART advertiser (in the past they’ve plastered entire BART stations with iPod ads). Apple’s WWDC conference ends on Friday. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here. I’m sure our ad will conveniently be back up after WWDC ends.”

— DoubleTwist co-founder Jon Lech Johansen on the mysterious disappearance of the “Cure for iPhone Envy” ad his company managed to have placed outside Apple’s San Francisco store