hoUsE oF bADnANa

Iphone Tips and Tricks

Have been using my Iphone 3GS for a while now, realise almost everyday there is something new to be learned, so yup, here is my summary of Iphone Tips and Tricks. I think if you google online, there are plenty of pages about this but I felt that they are not so “extensive”, always missing something here and there.

So here is my list, I will try to include everything that is useful to me

1. CAP LOCK*** - Yes! Most people using iphone will know what I am talking about. There is a UP arrow key that serves as a SHIFT but no CAP LOCK. Well, I don’t know why but you will need to enable CAP LOCK in “Setting>General>Keyboard>Enable CAP Lock” after which when you double tap on your SHIFT KEY, it become a BLUE icon. That is our CAP LOCK. I don’t understand why it is not made default, but it doesn’t really matter as long as there IS a CAP LOCK somewhere as when I am “scolding” or “shouting” in my SMS, i don’t have to stupidly tap on SHIFT before every single letter
2. CAPITAL LETTER/UPPER CASE* - Most of us will tap on Shift(UP arrow) and then tap on the alphabet. An alternative way is to tap on Shift and drag to the alphabet. Just thought that it is nice to know!
3. SCROLL TOP*** - If you want to reach the top of your list of messages, top of the long email or webpage, simply tap on the topmost clock in the middle. That will fly you back to the top..heee
4. SCROLL* – Scroll normally in Safari with one finger and scroll with two fingers for pages inside frames/boxes.
5. RINGTONE* – Iphone ringtone cannot exceed 30 sec. Select a song, go to its info, set start and stop time, back out and create a AAC version. Then you will get a dup of the song that is trimmed. Go to its containing folder and change its extension from .m4a to .m4r. Then import back into iTunes! Bingo!!! .
6. DISMISS SUGGESTED WORD* - Simply tap on anywhere. This don’t work for me. Please check!
7. SAFARI* - When you key in URL, there is a “.COM” on the keyboard for convenience. You can tap and hold on the .COM and get a list of other “dots”. (eg, .com, .net, .edu etc) Then again, it will probably be more convenient and faster to just key in yourself as it is only 4 letters
8. SAFARI: SAVE PICTURE** - On any photos that you want to save, simply tap and hold until a prompt for you to save the photo!
9. SAFARI-ZOOM** - double click on any where on a column to zoom to it’s width!
10. SNAPSHOT** -”Print Screen” is available on iphone! Just push the “Sleep” and “Home” button together!
11. PERIOD/FULL STOP* - Just double tap SPACE to get a ‘dot’ when messaging.
12. EXTRA CHARACTERS* - As you know, especially for non-english, there are some words that have an accent on top of them. For example, cafe should have the stroke on top. To get to those accented character(i.e. A, E, I, N), tap and hold on the letter. Likewise with the symbols, trial and error on your own
13. HOME BUTTON* - Tap on HOME(the round button on the bottom) to quit any apps and go into the main menu. Double Tap on HOME to go into the shortout that you had set (change setting in Setting>General>Home). Tap and hold HOME for a few seconds to go into voice control. When phone is locked, double tap on HOME to go into Ipod for music.
14. GPRS/WIFI****- For people who doesn’t have a data plan and is use Wifi, this is an important point. As the bill flies rocket-high if you accidentally used GPRS to surf the web. Some of you might realise that when using Wifi, the phone will switch to GPRS automatically when Wifi is disconnected. However, it doesn’t switch by to Wifi automatically. The best way to stop this is to change the setting for GPRS.
    To do this (I am using SINGTEL), go to Setting>Genernal>Network>Cellular Data, change the APN. For example, I have ‘e-ideas’, I changed it to ‘e-ideas-delete’, so that I do not forget the original correct name in case I need to use GPRS next time.
15. ARRANGEMENT of APPS** – Tap and Hold on any icons and you will find them shaking. Tap on X to delete the apps or drag them to arrange when they are shaking. The grey dock at the bottom can hold up to 4 apps to quick access. This allows you to arrange the apps in your own way. Tap on HOME when done.
    You are merely deleting the app from your iphone. You can sync them back in by using itunes anytime or download it again using app store. App Store remembers your purchases so you do not have to pay again.
    Currently I am classifying the apps(utilities, internet, games, tools) in different pages as Iphone do not allow for creation of folders like our computers. One other way is to jailbreak your phone(which I don’t really recommend) so that you can install this app called CATEGORIES. CATEGORIES allows users to create folders and thus it is easy to access everything from the first page.
16. SHARING of APPS*** – The only way to share paid apps is to have itunes authorise 2nd phone. Itunes can authorise up to 5 phones, however I do not recommend authorising too many phones as there will be problems if you reformat your computer.(i.e. will you ‘use up’ one user?) and also, authorising other people(i.e. friends) will disclose your personal details/credit cards details to them.
17. DELETE from LIST* – In the Mail/Messages/List of item apps, swipe quickly across the item like erasing it to delete. A delete prompt will show up for you to confirm your action.
18. IPOD* - When listening to ipod with the included ear-phone, double click on mic to go to next track, triple click to go back to previous track and once to pause the song.
19. IPOD VIDEO in POTRAIT MODE **** – Now, this is interesting, I guess some of you might already have found out that you could only play video in LANDSCAPE mode. And this is annoying when your phone is docked to the docking station or docked to speaker. Like myself, I use JBL ONSTAGE MICRO to play musics and video, but it is irritating when I need the speaker but the video is only in LANDSCAPE mode! Hehehe, I am being long-winded here, just want to complain!
    Luckily I found the solution to my problem! Just dump all your videos into a playlist and play the video from there. It shows in both POTRAIT and LANDSCAPE!
    Simply put, if you play the video from the video list, it will be in landscape, if you play the video from the playlist, it can play in both mode! CHEERS!!
20. CALCULATOR* - rotate the phone 90° to change to scientific mode.
21. LANGUAGE* - Iphone supports multi-languages. Go to Setting > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Switch on the language that you want.
    Chinese SMS: simply tap on the earth icon between the 123 and SPACE to change input language.
22. CAMERA* - Instead of tapping/release to take photo, tap/hold/position/RELEASE to snap!
23. APP PAGES* - Alternative to swiping across to next page, simply tap on the little circles above the dock.
24. LYRICS* – Info in the lyrics tags of an MP3 file will be displayed as a scrolling overlay over the album cover when a song is played.
25. CALL using CARD* - this is interesting. I found this so I will directly paste what the writer wrote. I didn’t try it myself for this as I don’t use cards.
    Surprised no one mentioned holding down the star key on the old-fashioned keypad to add a comma (pause) to a phone number. Using this trick, you can change your credit card phone number to 999-999-9999,0,0,0 (or whatever prompts you want) and get straight through to a person when you call.

That is about all, a very long list!

Then, I would also like to share some of the apps that I really like. Please go to app stores to read the review/details!

1. Flashlight
2. Shopshop
3. eBuddy
4. Facebook
5. 9-Toolbox
6. WordPress
7. iCED Free
8. FileAid
9. 万年历
10. Skype

1. Minesweeper
2. Bejeweled
3. Crazy Hotdog
4. Wild West Guns
5. StoneLoops
6. VirtualPool
7. ShapeBuilder(GREAT for kids)
8. Escaper
9. Blowfish
10. Wild West (pinball)

Ok! I am done! Hope you guys enjoy your iphone! For those who hasn’t got an iphone, what are you waiting for??