Feature: February 2008 Archives
Author: Damon Brown
In August, Apple started holding classes in its Apple Music Stores to help people operate the iPhone. As many of you know, the iPhone doesn't come with an instruction booklet. Instead, there is a little pamphlet (see top picture), twelve or so pages, with drawings like something from IKEA (see: finger rubbing on the phone). A National Public Radio program interviewed me about the phenomenon—Apple teaching classes instead of just including instructions like everyone else— but I was never able to attend the classes myself. It may have been for the best, the author of the first book on the iPhone sitting in.
In all honesty, even so-called experts are learning more about the iPhone every day. Apple updates the iTunes and/or iPhone software as often as twice a month, so the capabilities are literally evolving as they are learned. There is plenty little hidden goodness within the iPhone, inluding tips and tricks that are undocumented and often undiscovered.
Some of these you may already know. All of them are simple.
Silence is Golden
Like many cell devices, the iPhone has a silent/buzz function. Unlike other companies, Apple doesn't actually tell you about it. Take your iPhone and look on the left side. There is a small, all black switch above the volume buttons.
Flip the switch and a red dot will appear. The iPhone screen will show a bell with a line through it a la Ghostbusters. 
Now all calls will buzz, not ring. Flip the switch again and the screen will flash a regular bell, indicating that rings are normal now.
Battery Power
Another area that has not been discussed is battery power.
Some users err on the paranoid side, wary from all those short battery life concerns six months ago, and connect their iPhone to a nearby power outlet as soon as the "20 percent power" warning flashes. (I would be in this category.) The iPhone will warn you twice, at 20 percent and again at 10 percent. It will then shut down. No beep. It will cut off a phone call or any other activity immediately.
The phone will not function at all until it is charges for roughly 15 minutes. 
Press any button and a Mac-like set of icons will appear on the screen: the current battery power followed by a powerplug and an arrow pointing to a lightning bolt. Expect to see this screen for about an hour.
Call it poor design, but once the iPhone juice runs out, it requires a long time to power up again. (Connecting it to the computer doesn't help, either.) Consider investing in a car charger if you're planning a long road trip.
Music @Home
There is "Home", the square button located at the bottom of the iPhone's face. Its main purpose is to take you back to the default menu screen, but it can also make controlling your music easier.
Let's say you are listening to one of your favorite songs on the iPhone, for instance, James Brown's classic "Funky Drummer". Press the sleep button at the top of the iPhone to make the screen lock. 
It will say "slide to unlock" at the bottom, along with the current time and song. Now double tap the "Home" button. The music controls will appear immediately under the time (see just below).
Press rewind, fast-forward or pause as you would normally do, or use your finger to adjust the volume by sliding the silver ball along the blue line below. 
A similar "Home" technique can be used on the main menu screen. Press the "Home" button to get to the main screen. Now tap "Home" again. Music info will pop up, including performer, song and album, as well as the volume ball. Unlike the previous mode, you remove the information—by hitting the onscreen Close icon—or move to the actually iPod menu - by tapping the onscreen iPod button.
iPod Mode
A simple, often neglected music control is actually in the iPod mode. Press the iPod icon on the main menu, find a song and press play. The album art will appear as the music starts. (If it has no art, a grey music note will appear instead.) Now tap the center of the album art. A nice list of options will pop up at the top of the art.
The first icon is a loop. Press the loop once and the current playlist or album will repeat. The icon will turn blue. Tap it again and a small "1" will appear on the bottom-left corner of the loop. Now the current song will repeat.
In the middle is the current song number within the current album or playlist (4 out of 14, for instance). Above the song number is the song time elapsed, song time remaining and a silver-and-blue line identical to the other menus. However, the line here represents the song track. Move the ball with your finger to rewind or fast forward the song.
The last icon is two arrows twisted together. Tap it once to randomize the current album or playlist.
Last But Not least
As a final hidden goody, look in the upper-right hand corner when in iPod mode. You'll see a series of three lines.
Tap it.
The icon will "flip," turning into a miniature version of the current album art, and the large album art will turn into a list of the current album songs. (It will always list the current album, even if you are playing from a playlist.)
Click on another song to hear it.
The list icon is always available in iPod mode.
Author: Damon Brown
At Apple's biannual MacWorld Expo in San Francisco last month, big cheese Steve Jobs rattled off a number of new innovations, such the MacBook Air and a deal to allow movie rentals directly onto desktop, iPod or iPhone. The most important announcement to us, however, is a cool iPhone update, the first significant one in a few months. In this post, author Damon Brown describes and explains how to use some of the iPhone's new features.
iPhone’s Faux GPS System
First off, Apple has managed to patch up a feature originally rumored to be in the iPhone: a GPS system. However, it's still a virtual global positioning system (GPS)—a real one at this point would probably require a change in your actual iPhone hardware.
The iPhone uses a technique called triangulation, which essentially measures your distance from different cell towers rather than GPS satellites to determine your approximate location.
Go to the Maps section and press the Directions button. In the "From:" section, instead of typing in your current address, press the little Bookmark icon to the right (the one that looks like an open book). At the top of your bookmarks will be "Current Location". Click on it to return to the map screen, then type in the desired location in the "To:" area as you normally would do. Press the Route button and it will give you directions.
The system can also track your progress as you get closer to the destination. Notice the new target icon in the lower-left hand corner? Press the icon and, after a brief loading, the iPhone will create a large purple circle overlay around your current location. It will move as you move. That said, the iPhone won't recalculate directions unless you redo the "Current Location" bookmark described in the previous paragraph.
We tested "Current Location" in the most unruly of places - downtown Los Angeles - and it was accurate within a few city blocks. It was much more precise in less congested areas, as in down to the current building location. 
The iPhones new faux-GPS system is definitely useful.
Home Screen Management
One update that really should have been available six months ago and is now is movable icons. This allows you to reconfigure the order of the icons so as to better manage the iPhone's home screen.
press and hold one of the icons with your finger. All the icons will begin to wiggle. Now you can hold any icon and use your finger to place it in another place on the screen. The iPhone will automatically swap or move the icons as you manipulate it.
Furthermore, you'll now notice two dots at the bottom of the menu screen, just above the final row icons (which, by the way, can also be individually moved around). 
Press the Home key, the indented button with the square at the bottom of your iPhone, to get out of movable icon mode.
SMS
Damon will cover more new iPhone features next month.
