macosxhints.com iPhone tips

Delete digits in iPhone OS 3.0 Calculator

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:30:02 -0700

For all those missing the backspace key in the Calculator (to remove a number you just tapped), just think like Apple: a little swipe over the display will do it.

Seems quite consistent to me, as you also do this to delete stuff in other parts of the UI, like lists. I don't really understand why this isn't mentioned in the User's Guide -- are they betting on when someone finds out? ;-)

[robg adds: I don't know if this worked in iPhone OS 2.x]

Define which MobilMe account is used for iPhone uploads

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:30:00 -0700

After upgrading to an iPhone 3GS, I was pleased to see the new option to send photos and movies to MobileMe. I have two MobleMe accounts configured in Mail on my iPhone: my 'primary' MobileMe account, and a MobileMe sub ('family') account. The primary account is set to only sync Mail to my iPhone, and the family account is set to sync Mail, Contacts, Calendars and Bookmarks (since you're only allowed to fully sync/push one MobileMe account on the iPhone.)

The problem I found was that when trying to send a photo or a movie to MobileMe, the account that the iPhone insisted on using was my primary account. I searched settings and could not find anywhere to change this. I called Apple iPhone tech support, and although they understood the problem, they did not have a solution. (I called the day after the iPhone 3GS release, so they were understandably swamped!)

I just could not believe that the iPhone would not allow me to choose a different MobileMe account. Frustrated, I...

Create spoken caller ID ringtones for iPhone via AppleScript

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700

For a long time, I've wanted the ability for the iPhone to speak the name of the caller, based on matching the inbound number to the numbers in Contacts. I waited and waited for iPhone OS 2.x ad then 3.x to do this for me, and do it better, but got sick of waiting. So instead, I wrote an AppleScript app I call Contact Caller ID + Sound Ringtone Maker [44KB download; Mac OS X Hints mirror (v 1.1)]. I've used this script to generate over 100 in-use ringtones, and use it to customize a ringtone for a contact or two almost daily now.

This AppleScript will generate a spoken name file, optionally looking for first, last, and nicknames, for selected Address Book Contacts. For example, "Jennifer Frickin' Connelly is calling....". It will optionally add a traditional (or other) ringtone of your choice to either the beginning ...

Fix for slow-responding taps on an iPhone 3GS

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:30:01 -0700

When I got my iPhone 3GS, I played with all the new features, like everyone else. Then they wore off and I was back to normal use. While playing games, specifically Wild West Pinball, it seemed like all the taps weren't registering properly. Also, when I pressed both flippers at the same time, there was a slight delay.

I thought this was a glitch in the game. But as I used more multi-touch games, it seemed something was wrong with my phone. Before resorting to complaining to Apple, I thought of what could be different from using my old iPhone. Of course, I had turned on the Zoom feature (in the Accessibility section of General Preferences) for no reason other that it was cool that I could do it.

When I turned off the Zoom feature, the taps went back to normal and the multi-touch taps respond quickly again.

Restore SMS history from one phone to another

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:30:02 -0700

Imagine you've purchased a new and shiny iPhone 3GS. Imagine as well that you had an equally-shiny iPhone 3G since day one of its introduction (more or less one year). You set up your 3GS as a new phone in iTunes, in order not to mess with settings and whatnot, only to discover that one year's worth of SMS are lost in your new unit!

Well...fear no more, as you can easily restore the SMS database into your new unit, starting from the backup of the old unit. Read on for the how-to... First, disable the option Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected in iTunes before starting this procedure (assuming it's enabled in the Summary tab of your iPhone). Then follow these steps:

Navigate to the folder ~/Libary » Applications Support » MobileSync » Backup.
In the folder found above, there will be n subfolders containing your n iPhone backup sets (those iTunes makes when you connect your iPhone to your computer). In my c...

Tap Voice Memo mic for a virtual mic test

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:30:01 -0700

This hint doesn't accomplish anything, but if you tap the graphical representation of the mic on the screen in the Voice Memos App on the iPhone (OS 3.0), the VU meter registers just like it would if you were tapping on a real mic. It doesn't register anywhere else on the screen, though; just on the mic.

Use Find my iPhone/Mobile Me on an iPhone/iPod touch

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700

I was reading a story on tuaw.com about a guy who tracked down his lost iPhone using the new service Find My iPhone. In the post, the iPhone owner wished he could have logged into the the me.com Accounts page and used the service from a friend's iPhone to help track the movements of his lost iPhone, rather than lug a laptop around.

In fact, you can login to the me.com site via the iPhone/iPod touch, but you need an app that uses its own web browser rather than the Safari.app that is on the device. I have done this with an app called iStorage, which uses it own browser rather than switching to Safari.app. It looks like you can also use the browser in IM+ lite 3.0, which is free.
...

Partial push chat sync between Mac and iphone

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700

I've been using push notifications with the Beejive app on the iPhone, which got updated recently and it works great. But when using AIM on a Mac, it can be kind of frustrating since you cannot be logged into two Machines at the same time with AIM. So, if you are logged into the iPhone (even in the background), and you connect with iChat or Adium on the Mac, then AIM sends you a message at both places asking you which Machine you want to be connected from.

To me, it would be ideal to only receive notifications on my Mac when I'm using my Mac, and only receive notifications on the iPhone when I'm using my iPhone. This seems to be pretty much attainable when using Google chat (over Jabber) instead of AIM (and thus requiring Beejive instead of AIM on the iPhone). If you are logged into Jabber from two Machines, and someone chats you, it will send the messages to all machines that a...

Copy Calculator results on iPhone OS 3.0

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:30:02 -0700

Well, this is not really a hint, but a nice bit of info I didn't read about anywhere: the new Copy function even works in the Calculator app! Just tap and hold your finger over the calculator's results area and select Copy from the pop-up menu. You can then paste the numbers in the app of your choice, of course. Very handy!

Sorry if this was obvious to some readers. I think it's the kind of thing that could have been overlooked, but Apple once again proves they do pay attention to detail. This new copy/paste thing works really all across the board.

Disable iPhone 3.0 Hotspot login on jailbroken iPhones

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:30:01 -0700

iPhone 3.0 contains a log-in overlay that makes logging into many WiFi hotspots easier. Unfortunately, the implementation makes logging into some WiFi hotspots impossible. When you connect to a WiFi network, the iPhone tries to connect to www.apple.com. If the hotspot uses a captive portal (meaning that apple.com would redirect to the captive portal), the iPhone launches a WebSheet that loads the captive portal, which usually allows you to log into the network.

On some networks, however, the captive portal page may not provide a way to login. In my case, the page simply provides instructions saying that I need to connect to the VPN to access the Internet. There's no apparently way to exit the HotSpot login without also disconnecting from the WiFi network, which makes it impossible to connect to my VPN.

If you have a jailbroken phone, a workaround to disable the login is to edit /etc/hosts (using a text editor such as nano) and add this line:

0.0.0.0 www...



Input non-Roman characters on iPhone OS 3.0's keyboard
Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:30:02 -0700
I discovered this by accident on my iPod touch. When entering text, hold down one of these keys...



A C I L N O S T U Y Z



...to open a submenu allowing you to choose a modified (with accent, umlaut, etc.) version of that character.



[robg adds: This is mentioned in the iPhone User Guide (11MB PDF), but not in detail. There are extra characters on the two symbol keyboards as well -- nearly every symbol is available in at least two forms, but the following keys have additional extra characters in their pop-up definitions: . ? ! ' - $ " % _. If I've missed any, please post!]


Use a shortcut to reach iPhone 3.0's search screen
Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:30:01 -0700
I haven't seen this documented anywhere, so here goes: If you tap the Home button while on the Home screen, the new OS will display the Search screen.



[robg adds: As you can also press the home button once from any screen to get back to the Home screen, you can quickly reach search from any screen by tapping the home button, waiting a small amount of time, then tapping it again.



This feature is documented in the new version of Apple's iPhone User Guide (11MB PDF), but as I know that's not necessarily widely read, I thought I'd go ahead and run this one. I may do similar things with other documented 3.0 features if they haven't been widely discussed.  ]


Change a note's font in Notes on iPhone 3.0
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:30:02 -0700
I just upgraded my 3G iPhone to 3.0 yesterday, turned on Notes syncing in iTunes, restarted Mail.app and presto, my Notes are now in Mail.app. Great, but they're displayed in Marker Felt.



I went to one of my notes in Mail.app, selected all the text, brought up the font panel (Command-T) and chose Arial. It gets displayed in Mail.app in Arial, and guess what? When sync'd back to the iPhone, that note is no longer in Marker Felt -- hurray!



[robg adds: You can even edit the note on the iPhone in the newly-chosen font. For those interested, this hint still works in iPhone OS 3.0 to switch the font of a note while still on the iPhone.]


Force iPhone 3.0 to correct portrait/landscape orientation
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700
The one thing that really bugs me about the iPhone is that every now and then it gets hung in the wrong orientation. I have found, though, that tapping on the screen with iPhone OS 3.0 will reorient the device, no matter what is causing the hangup.

Saves a few seconds of waiting here and there.


About duplicate contacts and calendars on iPhone 3.0
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700
When I synced my iPhone after the iPhone 3.0 OS upgrade, I wound up with double contacts and calendar entries. Checking every Mac in the house, as well as MobileMe, though, revealed no duplicate entries. They were only on the iPhone. As I dug into the problem on the iPhone, I discovered that these weren't actually true duplicates (i.e. the same event is entered twice on the same calendar), but rather I had two distinct groups of calendars and contacts.

In both apps, when I tapped the Groups button, I saw that there were two groups in each app: On my iPhone and MobileMe Account (or something like that, indicating my MobileMe account). I then started digging around in both the MobileMe and iTunes sync settings. As it turned out, I had the phone set to sync via both iTunes and MobileMe. I've had it set like this forever, but it seems iPhone 3.0 allows you to have both sync types active at once. When you do, you get a group for each.

Once I figured out what was going on, I...


Reply with only selected text quoted in Mail on iPhone 3.0
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700
The title pretty much says it all, with a tip of the hat to John Gruber's tweet on the subject:If you select a portion of an email before replying, only the selected portion is quoted in the reply.
This is how Mail on the Mac behaves, and is a welcome change in the new iPhone 3.0 OS. This tip is not mentioned in the updated iPhone User Guide, which you can download from Apple's iPhone Support Page.


One way to create YouTube 'QuickLists' on the iPhone
Wed, 27 May 2009 07:30:00 -0700
I like to chill and view a number of Youtube videos at the end of the day using my iPhone. Until Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0 and updates the YouTube app to let you log in to your account, you can't use QuickLists to mark videos on your Mac for later viewing on the iPhone. So I created a simple workaround.

I have a Mobile Me account which updates my bookmarks regularly. So I created a bookmark folder on my bookmarks bar on my Mac, and simply drag in the YouTube video URLs of those clips I want to watch later. 

Later, on my iPhone, I simply open the Safari app and open the updated folder. Rough and ready, but it does the job until the Youtube app gets updated. Happy to hear if others have better solutions to this problem...


Easily quit running apps on a passcode-locked iPhone
Mon, 11 May 2009 07:30:01 -0700
If you are running an app (e.g. Pandora, Simplify Music) while your passcode-protected iPhone is locked, you can easily quit the app by tapping the Emergency Call button on the bottom left of the screen.



This saves you the trouble from having to enter in your passcode to quit an app that is running while your iPhone is locked. 



Note that this hint only works with the iPhone; it does not work with the iPod touch.


Easily set domain in iPhone's Contacts and Mail
Wed, 06 May 2009 07:30:01 -0700
It always struck me as odd that the iPhone never had a .com key for entering e-mail addresses like it does for entering URLs in Mobile Safari. But it turns out it does: hold down the period key when entering an email address in Mail or Contacts, and you'll be presented with a pop-up list of standard domain suffixes.



[robg adds: I can confirm this works on an iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 2.2.1.]


Use an external microphone with the iPhone
Mon, 04 May 2009 07:30:01 -0700
I wanted to use an external microphone with my iPhone, so I could record audio from an event. Unfortunately, there aren't any cables that give you a real microphone input jack. Fortunately, I was able to find an unexpected solution: the Mini A/V cable that came with my digital camera!



On one end, it has the three standard RCA plugs found on the front of every TV. On the other end, it's got a four-conductor mini plug that's the same as the iPhone's headphone jack. Just plug the cable into the iPhone's headphone jack, and use the RCA jacks like this:

White/Black: Audio out (L)
Yellow: Audio Out (R)
Red: Mic level input

Now, with the right adapters, you can use professional microphones with your iPhone, or feed it audio from a PC or mixing board! Just remember to add a line level attenuator before you do that, because line level will be waaaay too loud. This comes in very handy with audio recording ...