Tips: April 2008 Archives
Author: Damon Brown
Apple has updated the iPhone's Maps system, the Apple Music Store and so on, but it hasn't made any noticeable changes to its smartphone's picture mode.
While this may change a little with the iPhone 2.0 firmware update due for release in June, the camera, the photo libraries and related elements have remained the same since the beginning. This may be for the best, at least for now, as the picture setup can be a little complicated to the uninitiated.
In this article, we explain everything you'll need to know to get the most out of your iPhone's camera and photo management system—from taking, e-mailing, and syncing pictures to setting a image as wallpaper, associating a photo with a contact and more.
Get the full lowdown on the iPhone photos after the jump.
If you need to add an accent mark to your text message, email, or note - he’s a slick feature. Just type the relevant letter and hold that key down – a selection of accented letters will pop up. Chose the accent you want. And voilá, you’re good to go.
Apple has posted a series of tips to help you manage Wi-Fi connections with an iPhone or iPod Touch, which is essentially the same as the former, but without phone features and some other functions.
The first tip offers advice on what to do when you’re having trouble connecting with a wireless connection to a paid commercial hotspot, such as the ones available at Borders and Starbucks. It suggests renewing the hotspots DHCP lease. To do that:
1. Tap Settings > Wi-Fi Networks, then pick the network you are trying to connect to.
2. In the DHCP panel, select the Renew Lease button. 
Picture From Apple Web Site
If that doesn't work, see iPhone Basic Troubleshooting or iPod touch: Basic Troubleshooting.
It then leads into a couple of tips that involve the iPhone's cellular-data EDGE capability.
For example, Apple explains what to do if your Wi-Fi connection keeps reverting to EDGE. That's when your iPhone looks like it is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, but goes to EDGE when you try to access a Web page.
This can happen when the wireless router is using MAC Address Filtering and the iPhone's MAC address hasn't been entered into the filter list or when you've entered a WEP password wrong.
Here's what Apple suggests:
If MAC Address Filtering is enabled on the wireless router, make sure iPhone's Wi-Fi address (in Settings > General > About) is entered into the router's filter. See the documentation that came with your wireless router for additional information.
If you experience this and use a WEP Password, on the iPhone tap Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap More Info ( > ) next to the Wi-Fi network name and tap Forget this Network. Then try accessing the Wi-Fi network again. Alternatively, turn off WEP encryption on the wireless router.
Additional tips include what to do if there's a weak iPhone Wi-Fi signal, you recieve the "unable to join Network Failure (error -3)," and when there's no Internet access when switching networks. Click on the Get the Full Story link below for these tips. +
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
Sometimes the iPhone just gets stuck - it won't respond to finger taps, responds slowly, or just doesn't work like it did a few days ago. There's may be nothing wrong with your phone, it just needs to be restarted.Here are a few things to try:
1. Restart phone - Try restarting the phone - press the Sleep/Wake button on the top of the phone until the red slider appears. Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPhone. To turn iPhone on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. (I turn my phone off and restart it once a day.) 
2. Restart application - press the Home button for 6 seconds until the application closes. Start the application again.
3. Reset phone. Press the sleep/wake button and the home buttons at the same time, until the phone turns off. 
4. Remove Content - Sometimes content from calendars, contacts, songs, photos, videos and podcasts may cause your phone to freeze. Try removing the content, one type of item at a time. Attach your phone by the USB cable to your computer, and in iTunes change the synch settings to selectively remove content for one item. For instance, click on the podcast tab, and uncheck the "Synch" box. Then synch your phone.
5. Reset phone settings - From home screen - Settings > General > Reset All Settings. This will reset all settings but data and media will remain unchanged. If this does not solve your issue, try erasing al settings. Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings. This will delete data and media. All setting will be reset.
6. Restore - Attach the phone to iTunes and click Restore in the Summary tab. This weill delete and media. Before doing this make sure you synch your iPhone with iTunes so that these data and settings can be transferred back to your phone later.
I love the alarm on the iPhone. It has a nice snooze feature, and you can set several different alarms - one for each day of the week - to help you wake up to that day's routine. I've gotten into the habit of plugging my iPhone into a charger right next to my bed. The next morning the phone wakes me, and it's fully charged.
Here's how to use the alarm:
First go to the alarm (Clock > tap Alarm).
Tap the "+" at the top right of the screen. Set the alarm up:
Click Save in the upper right corner
On the main alarm page, you can turn an alarm off or on.
On the main alarm page, you can also tap the Edit button to edit or delete and alarm.
NOTE: The alarms only work when the iPhone is turned on. If you turn off your iPhone at night, the alarms will not work.
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
Remember that old yellow pages add? It went like this: By searching the phone book, moving your index finger up and down the columns, you could find everything you need - eliminating the need to go store to store. You use your fingers to get around the iPhone too. Here are a couple of tricks to help you become even better at it.
Sometimes Bigger Is Better
Unlike the Yellow Pages, you can make iPhone type size larger. Almost every iPhone user knows that by moving your two fingers apart you can enlarge the text, but here's an even faster way. When browsing in Safari, two taps with a finger instantly enlarges the web page to fill the screen. This works when your iPhone is either vertical or horizontal. And it works in reverse too: a double tap will shrink the page on your screen.
Getting to the top
Suppose you are reading a rather long article on your iPhone, and you want to get back to the top of the story to reread or refresh it, or to enter another URL. You could scroll up by dragging your finger up the screen. But you can get there more quickly by tapping your finger at the top of the screen - where the time is. You'll be at the top in an instant. You can refresh, or if you tap again, you'll get the Google search screen.
Touch Typing Tutor
Although the touch keypad is intuitive and easy to use, picking up typing speed requires practice. A typing tutor for the iPhone is available as a free web application. Just go typingweb.com. There's an option to login as an anonymous user or you can sign up and typing tutor will track your progress. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels with plenty of opportunities to practice capitalizing letters and typing punctuation. 
Author: Philip L. Graitcer
One of Apple's recent software revisions (1.1.3 from January 2008) allows you to add a clip in the form of an icon of your favorite Web site to your iPhone’s Home Screen. Simply tap the thumbnail to launch Safari and be lead to the page you’ve saved.
Here's how save a Web Clip:
(To remove the icon, touch any thumbnail or icon on the Home Screen until all of the thumbnails begin to "wiggle." Then tap the red "X" at the top left corner of the thumbnail and hit the Home button.)
Last month Apple released the iPhone SDK (software development kit) to much fanfare and relief. Up until then, the iPhone was a black box, a powerful handheld computer and smartphone that had its internal workings figuratively welded shut.
The SDK, a group of computer routines that tap into the inner workings of the iPhone, will allow skilled programmers to legitimately get inside the iPhone and write specific applications for it. I say legitimately because many have already been creating unofficial native programs (e.g. not approved by Apple) through what’s called jailbreaks, a system that cropped up shortly after the iPhone’s release last June
Developer are very excited about the SDK, already about 100,000 have downloaded it, because they'll finally be able to develop programs for the iPhone without having to be concerned about Apple plugging up their access, as it does every now and then to the unofficial jailbreak system.
iPhone 2.0
Sometime in June, Apple will introduce a new software update for your iPhone that you'll download and install through iTunes during synching, just like you've done before with other firmware upgrades.
Apple will also launch the iPhone App Store, a Web-based application on the iPhone where you'll be able to purchase and download newly developed programs for the iPhone. The App Store will be the only source where you can purchase Apple-approved programs for the iPhone. 
Until the App Store comes online, web applications are the one way you can get new programs, at least officially, to use with your iPhone. These so-called Web 2.0 applications don't do anything to the internal software of your iPhone; they're Web sites that work interactively with your phone.
On your iPhone Safari Browser, just type in the URL of the application and it downloads. From there follow the instructions for each individual program
Where Do I Find Web Applications?
You'll find the most comprehensive list of Web 2.0 apps at www.apple.com/webapps. Right now there are more than 1,300 applications that you can play with.
There are games, productivity, social networking, sports, news, and almost a dozen other categories of applications. Check 'em out!
For starters, I suggest you try a typing tutor application located at iphone.typingtutor.com or you may want to head ver to iphone.toughturtle.com to give a few other Web apps (StockWatch, Pinpoint, uWhere? and iSlide) a go. 
