Since I got my iPhone I’ve been really enjoying its slick user interface and ease of web browsing, but I started to notice that Safari was for some web sites loading pages very slowly. In fact for some web sites Safari would not load pages at all.

I found that if I switched WiFi off I could load these stubborn pages no problem over GPRS/EDGE. I thought I had found the iPhone Achilles Heel; WiFi browsing was just not all that it was cracked up to be. I could browse these web sites just fine using Firefox or IE on my Sony Vaio Laptop over the same WiFi connection. It had to be the iPhone that was at fault.

Resetting the Safari cache, cookies and history made no difference. I tried turning off Javascript too, to no avail.

Now my WiFi network router is an old Buffalo unit I’ve had years. I wondered if it was somehow not compatible with the iPhone, but it supports 802.11g so why should that be the case? Most odd.

I started going through the configuration for the WiFi router one setting at a time and considering how it might affect the iPhone differently to my Laptop. Nothing jumped out at me, until I got to the network settings.

No DNS information!

My network looks like this: Broadband Router –> CISCO Firewall –> WiFi Router –> PCs/Laptops/Consoles etc (either using WiFi or hard wired into the WiFi router).

Once I had filled in the IP address of the Broadband Router into the WiFi Router’s configuration, it resolved my problem. Safari on the iPhone was browsing any web site I liked at full speed.

I’m curious to know why none of our WiFi laptops or Nitendo Wii etc have had a problem with this, but I guess the iPhone is just very sensitive to DNS information.

So If you are experiencing slow page load times in Safari over WiFi on your iPhone, double-check ALL the DNS settings throughout your network.

via  http://www.timskipper.net/blog/internet/using-iphone-safari-over-wifi-is-dns-sensitive/

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

Whether you’re learning guitar or you’re a skilled player in need of a quick reference tool, you now have a super-fast library right in your pocket. Say goodbye to leafing through books and making sense of confusing programs - our chord library does it all with one click. Easy to read, easy to select - chords as user-friendly as your iPhone or iPod Touch.

To use on your iPhone or iPod Touch open the link in Safari:
http://www.waterstoneguitars.com/chords/

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is meeting with Japan’s #1 (DoCoMo) and #3 (Softbank Corp.) mobile operators for the right to carry the iPhone. This is big news because well, Japan is the world’s 2nd largest economy and has a culture geared towards gadget-obsession - and of course the iPhone has been many’s pick for gadget of the year.

Apple has had previous deals in place with SoftBank including the promotion where when you bought a cellphone you got a free iPod Mini, but DoCoMo is now said to be the first choice for such a deal that will no doubt hinge on which gave Apple a better revenue sharing percentage.

Interestingly enough DoCoMo doesn’t have an EDGE network, so any iPhone there would have to be 3G - which makes sense anyways since I doubt the Japanese public would take a second look at an iPhone if it only ran at EDGE speeds (whereas we over in the U.S. are used to our crappy connection speeds).

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »

If you want to personalize your iPod Touch (or iPhone) further there is a Toolkit called appropriately “Customize version 1.20″ which is free.

It allows you to many different tweaks such as:

- Toggle hiding applications.
- Ability to choose number of icons on the dock.
- Preset capabilities, which allow quick reordering
- Change icon images and backgrounds
- and much more

You can download the Customize Package here.

Download new system sounds for your iPod Touch (or iPhone) from here.

For custom images for your iPod Touch (or iPhone) from here.

Now that you have the tools, dont forget to protect the exterior from scratches. I bought a thin film that goes on my iPod like an invisible skin, you dont even notice it, and it keeps your brand new iPod looking shinny and new against unnecessary scratches and dents. Dont wait until its late. Its cheap to buy and you’ll thank me for it later.

ast thing I wanted to mention, if you want to create your own icons and images, make sure that they are in the following image format, filename and size.

Dock Background Images

Width: 320px Height: 91px

Carrier Images

Width: Variable as needed Height: 20px

Notes: Save the image that will look good on a black background as mycarrier.png, and the one that looks good on white background as mycarrier-1.png. Use arial font for this graphic.

WiFi Images

Width: 20px Height: 20px

Notes: The WiFi image set consists of 8 images as follows:

Badge Images

Width: 29px Height: 30px

Bar Dialer Image

See This Tutorial for information on how to create a custom keypad dialer.

Battery Images

Width: 264px Height: 129px

Notes: The battery image set consists of 17 images, named yourname.png, yourname-1.png, …, yourname-16.png. Because I think it would look better (you’ll see) yourname.png is actually the 17th image, and all the other numbers correspond.

Sound Images

Width: 87px Height: 88px

Chat Balloons

Width: 43px Height: 32px

Slider Images

Width: 70px Height: 47px

Notes: The sound image set consists of four images whose names are described here:

Posted on December 18th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

NC on the iPhone is a thing of beauty, allowing you to view the screen of and control your Mac or PC. Unfortunately, solutions up to this point have been clunky: Web-based monstrosities that respond poorly even on a fast WiFi connection or native applications that are error-prone when attempting to scroll around the screen or perform any worthwhile control. Now VNSea, a native iPhone VNC client extant for some time, has matured to the point where it is usable.The change in functionality that affords this new-found usability seems insignificant: “double-tapping on the system status bar will now switch back and forth between the normal active mode and the view-only mode where you can scroll with a single finger (but cannot click or type).” However, after you’ve accidentally tapped the “send” button on an incomplete instant message or accidentally closed a window for the tenth time, the value of an easily accessible, one-finger navigable interface becomes clear.

VNSea can be setup via the following steps:

1. Download, install and configure a VNC Server for your Mac or Windows PC
2. Get your iPhone ready for unofficial native apps (jailbreak) if you haven’t already.
3. In Installer.app, find VNSea in the “Network” category and install it.
4. Launch VNSea and tap the “+” button on the “VNC Servers” screen.
5. Enter any name for the session, then enter the IP address and password you configured for your Mac or PC VNC Server, then tap “Save.”
6. Back on the “VNC Servers” screen, tap the session name you just created and you should be automatically connected.

Using the client takes some practice, but remember that tapping the top of the screen (near where your iPHone displays the current time) will toggle between interactive and pure scrolling mode. When you’re in scrolling mode, move around with one finger and pinch-zoom to expand or contract the image. When you’re in interactive mode, tap once to click on items and use two fingers to scroll.

Posted on December 18th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Tips | No Comments »

PartFoundry is working on an actual GPS module to plug into the iPhone’s dock connector. At present, the hardware is still under development and the software interface is primitive. It is able to pull longitude and latitude coordinates from the GPS module and then display it on Google Maps.

A YouTube video is also available demonstrating its current functionality.The product is not expected until February 2008 and they do plan on placing it in a stylish plastic enclosure. It will require a Jail Broken iPhone and software will be open source.

Posted on December 18th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »

According to a report by Canalys, the iPhone has grown massively in market share in North America. The study took a look at smartphone market share for Q3. The results show that in a surprisingly short time, the iPhone has managed to push it’s way into second place at 27%

Smartphones running Symbian, Linux, and Palm OS are all behind the iPhone. Worthy of note is the fact that Symbian did not publish a findings report on their home page detailing why their awesomeness this year. According to the chart, their numbers are far lower than the iPhone’s. At this rate, the iPhone is likely to overtake the forerunners soon.

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »

Up until now, most native iPhone games, excepting some great emulators (NES and Gameboy Advance), have been less than entertaining. There are two relative newcomers, however, that beyond showing off the iPhone’s touchscreen and accelerometer potential for gaming are actually fun.

The first is iBlackJack. All you need to know about this game, aside from it being blackjack, are: double-tap to hit, swipe down to double down, swipe right to stand. It works like a charm, and has some of the most polished graphics we’ve seen yet in any native iPhone application. If only this game were linked to an online gambling site; we could be losing hundreds from anywhere!

The second is a Spy Hunter clone called “ContraSense”. All you need to know about this game: It’s Spy Hunter, and you tilt the iPhone to steer. This title, though very simple, gets kudos for its excellent use of the accelerometer and genuinely fun gameplay.

Both of these titles are available under the “Games” section in Installer.app

Thanks http://www.iphoneatlas.com/

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Game | No Comments »

iNdependence version 1.3 was released yesterday with the new ability to jailbreak iPhones running software v1.1.2. The software requires that you start with a downgraded iPhone at version 1.0.2. It will then allow you to upgrade to a jailbroken state using the latest iPhone software version.

This latest version of iNdependence hasn’t been tested using an iPhone that came pre-loaded with version 1.1.2 so it’s unknown if those phones will work. If you have one of these phones, let us know how it goes!

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »

So how do you know if Apple has made a big policy change and snuck it through the back door? Is it because:

1. Porcine aviation establishes itself as a viable transportation mechanism.
2. Chicken entrails begin to dance and rearrange themselves into oracular shapes while you’re fixing up some nice korma.
3. Apple sneaks in a new technical support page adding a “Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes” option to Garage Band.

The answer is, if you’ve been playing along at home, three. One more blow against the official iTunes extortion and shakedown store.

via  http://www.lvpmagrq.tuaw.com/2007/12/14/apple-relents-sanctions-custom-ringtones/

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News | No Comments »