Tips: October 2008 Archives

The highly-touted Genius function comes not only to the iTunes 8.0, but to iPhone 2.1 software. To install it, however, you must have Genius downloaded it onto iTunes using your iTunes account. The iPhone must then be synced to that iTunes. Again, iPhone Genius does not automatically download with iPhone 2.1 software, but with syncing of a Genius-enabled iTunes. (And we discussed Genius on regular iTunes in the second-to-last column.)

Once you're set up, Genius is added as one of the iPhone Playlists. Touch the iPod icon, then the Playlist tab.

Genius will now be the first option. Hit Genius and your music collection with be shown, in alphabetically order, listed by song. Select a song you would like to use and the software will make a playlist for you with comparable songs, just like the big brother version on the PC/Mac.

There are a couple minor differences between the iTunes Genius and the iPhone Genius, the first simply because of size.

Don't panic when someone sends you an SMS, instant or e-mail message that seems to be written in a foreign language. This list will help you decipher the lingo so you'll know you asp from your EMA.

It's simply to add an extension to a telephone number. Simply place a comma between the ten-digit phone number and extension number. When you tap on that contact to place a call, the comma will pause dialing between the phone and extension numbers, allowing the receiving end to accept the extension for what it is. So there's no need to enter the extension manually ever time you call a particular contact that requires one in your iPhone's address book when you get a comma involved. See iPhoneHacks for details.

Below are a few tips from iPhone Alley on how to quickly silence your iPhone when receiving an incoming call. They also show you how to send those calls to voice mail.

 

press sleep/wake (top) button to silence iPhone

 

or press volume button (either one) to silence iPhone

 

quickly press sleep/wake button twice to send incoming call to voice mail

 

quickly press button on iPhone headset twice to send incoming call to voice mail

[via MobileAppsToday]

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

iPhoner resolves problem pairing first-gen model with Bluetooth peripherals after firmware upgrade.

 

I installed iPhone software 2.1 on my first generation iPhone. iTunes asked me if I wanted to, so I did. Pretty please. The software download went flawlessly. Afterwards my phone worked – the same as before. And that was good – “do no evil” – although some 3G users say that there is better battery life. I noticed no difference with the 2.1 update.

I plunked the phone in my pocket and went off on a business trip. For two days the phone worked well. When I got home, I hopped in my car and no Bluetooth connection to the audio system. I kept getting a message that the Bluetooth couldn’t connect. The phone seemed to pair, but the keyboard that is used to enter the pairing passkey never appeared.

After fooling with this for 30 minutes, I put in a call to iPhone – 1800-MY-IPHONE. After a 30 minute wait (“due to the high volume of calls…”) I got through. No prior documentation of the problem, so we tried restore from backup (control-click on iPhone name, or right-click on iPhone name). That didn’t work. Then we just did a “Restore” from the iTunes page. That took some time – all the content had to be reloaded into the phone.

But the next time I got in the car, Bluetooth worked! No idea what happened – perhaps a faulty software download.