If you're like me and have no use for the Stocks application, I'm sure you've wished of a method to remove it so it doesn't take up home screen real estate. A few months back, I searched for a method but I found none that suited my needs. I wanted something that would not require a jailbreak, and I wanted the change to be permanent. I remembered that disabling an application through the Restrictions panel removes it from the home screen, so I figured adding Stocks to the list of restricted apps should have the same result.

Note that this hint requires connecting your iPhone to a Windows machine, either directly or through a virtualization application such as Fusion or Parallels.

Let me preface this hint by explaining the use for the Navigon Connect Bookmarklet on my iPhone. I understand that there are apps out there that already connect to Navigon's MobileNavigator; this is just another option if you find yourself on Google Map's site in Mobile Safari and want to quickly open MobileNavigator with the destination you found on Google. With that said, lets get to business...

1. Drag this bookmark to your Bookmark Bar in Safari and sync your bookmarks to your iPhone through iTunes: Navigon Connect
2. On the iPhone, find a destination on maps.google.com in Mobile Safari.
3. Select the Navigon Connect Bookmark from Mobile Safari.

That's it; MobileNavigator will then open with the Longitude/Latitude coordinates from the destination in Google Maps.

Tips: This only works from the Google Maps web site. For best results, make sure that your destination is in the middle of the map. Also, as it's only one line of Javascript code, it's really easy to add it to Quix, too. Be sure to check the Quix site for syntax.

I originally posted this tip on my blog, where you can find screenshots and a bit more detail, if you want it.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]

On jailbroken iPhones where sbsettings is installed (nearly all of them) and the 'autolock' toggle is also installed, there is a chance of getting permanently stuck in a lock screen loop. When you slide to unlock the iPhone, it unlocks for a 10th of a second, then locks again.

The problem is that this unlock-lock loop stays through a restore. Try as you might: DFU mode, restarting, restoring from backup, etc., all will end with an iPhone in the same loop. This problem is caused by a bug in sbsettings' autolock toggle.

This is how I fixed mine when it happened to my phone last night...

This AppleScript will add the current track you are playing to a play list (currently named street) on your iPhone (or iPod). It will also make a backup of this added track to a playlist on the iTunes local playlists (also named street). The script also checks first if a song exists on the playlist, so as to not duplicate any tracks. This script is inspired by the Add Selected Tracks to iPod and Backup from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]

The latest version of the iPhone OS allows you to have 11 pages of 16 icons, plus the four permanent icons at the bottom of the screen, for a total of 180 apps. You can actually have more than 180, though only 180 icons will be visible.

To get to the invisible apps, just do a search (press Home from the home screen), and type part of the non-visible app's name. I don't know how many of these invisible apps you can have, as I have not tried more than three so far.

[robg adds: As far as I know, the limit is simply based on the available space on your device. Long before that point, though, you may run into a limit with your ability to remember the names of all the invisible apps.]

I used to have a mobile phone which I synced all the time with iSync, where there was an option to only sync contacts with phone numbers. After getting an iPhone, I noticed this didn't exist. So why not use a Smart Group to do the job? Because they don't sync with the iPhone. But I also wanted everyone's emails and other details.

So I wrote up an AppleSript that updates a regular Address Book group with only people who have phone numbers. This worked great, then after a while, I wanted some numbers to not show up (people you want to keep in your phone but will never call, or whose name you don't want to see every time you scroll down your list). I created a group called Not Phone, and modified my script so that they are removed from the Phone group.

This script will create the groups for you. Warning: if you have a group called Phone already in existence, I suggest renaming the group (or changing the group name that the script uses in the first line), as that group will be modified. Here's the code: So now I can just leave the iPhone set to sync the Phone group, and I have no problems.

[robg adds: This worked as described for me in OS X 10.5.]

If you want to save a photo from the Flickr iPhone app as your wallpaper image, here's an easy way to do it. Find the photo you'd like to use in Flickr, tap it to view it on a black background, and then use the iPhone's screen shot feature (hold down Home, then tap the top button) to save the photo to your photo library.

Finally, open the Photo app, find your saved image, tap it, and set it as your wallpaper.

[robg adds: You can use this same method to easily convert any photo in any other app to wallpaper, as long as you can display it such that it takes up the entire screen.]]

Want to wake up or be alerted by a friendly voice? In OS 3.1, use the Voice Memo app to record your own wake-up or alert message. Sync the iPhone to your computer, then look in your iTunes Library under Voice Memos.

The recording will have a nonsense numerical string, followed of the ".m4a" suffix, for a name. Copy the file and change its name to Whatever_You_Want.m4r, and drop it into Ringtones in iTunes. Presto -- you've got a personalized alert to use for ring tones, Alarm Clock, and any other app that has access to the ring tone list.

Have you discovered that using the iPhone's SMS app in landscape mode, while laying down, isn't all that you wanted it to be? I've found a simple fix that only requires you to have five or more SMS conversations in the app.

Open the SMS app, open any of the conversations, and scroll up and down. Repeat for the other four or more conversations. This will lock the screen from rotating when the iPhone goes on its side.

Before iTunes 9, when you wanted to organize the order of the photo albums on your iPhone or iPod touch, you could simply drag the photo albums up and down from within iTunes when your device was connected to your computer.

Now, with iTunes 9, you can no longer drag the albums around from within iTunes. You must rearrange the albums to their desired display order in iPhoto, and that order will be reflected in your device.

This tip has been tested in Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6).