iPhone Lover

A while ago, we wrote about a way to shorten the time that your iPhone running the 2.0 software takes to sync. In this method, you cancelled the part of the sync in which your iPhone was backed up. While this most certainly does improve sync times, you won’t be happy with yourself when you’re forced to restore your iPhone and you don’t have that backup.

However, iPhoneFreak has discovered another way to improve your times. By default, diagnostic data from your iPhone is sent to Apple every time you sync. (This data does not contain any personal information, only crash logs and the like.) Apparently, this takes a good bit of time as well. Follow the steps after the break to disable this.

1) When your iPhone is connected to your computer, open iTunes and select your iPhone in the sidebar. Uncheck the “Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected” option.

2) Unplug your iPhone, and then plug it back in.

3) Select your iPhone in the sidebar again, and right click it. Then select “Reset Warnings.”

4) Sync your iPhone.

5) You will receive a pop-up message. Uncheck the box in the message, and then click “Don’t Send.”

Note that you can now have your iPhone launch iTunes and be automatically synced again.

1.Terrible Battery life

The iPhone 3G’s life is pretty meager, lasting only about 200 minutes when web browsing with 3-G, according to testing by AnandTech. To save battery life, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when they’re not in use, calibrate the battery in its first week, carry around extra chargers and be conservative with surfing on 3-G.

2. No Bluetooth Data Transfer
You can’t transfer files over Bluetooth with iPhone. Lame.

3. No Full Outlook Sync Support
Though iPhone 3G syncs with your Outlook contacts and calendar events, it doesn’t sync notes or to-do lists.

4. No Cut-and-paste
No explanation necessary. (However, this may be implemented soon).

5. Camera Needs Pimping
The iPhone sports a crappy 2-megapixel camera. The least it could include is a flash.

6. No Packaged Data Download Manager
This isn’t applicable to U.S. iPhone owners, but in Australia, Aranez was required to purchase an additional, limited data package. He wishes there were a download manager to tell him how much he was downloading.

7. No Voice Dialing
Nope — as high-tech as iPhone is, there’s still no voice dialing (although it could be coming soon).

8. No Front-face Camera
This would be useful for video conferencing (although this would probably make the battery life even worse.)

9. Lack of Handwriting Recognition
If the iPhone is controlled with a touch screen, why not include handwriting recognition? (It’s available for Chinese, so maybe an English version will come eventually? )

10. No Turn-by-turn GPS Software
IPhone 3G’s GPS is a 2D map that spits out textual directions; it isn’t true turn-to-turn navigation like most GPS devices today. (Although this may be changed soon ).

       
And here are Gadget Lab’s additions to the list:

1. Still Can’t Type Horizontally for Non-web Apps
You still can’t type in landscape mode in applications other than Safari. At least incorporate that into e-mail and text messaging…

2. No Multimedia Text Messaging
One of the oddest omissions on a device as sophisticated as iPhone. Seriously, what gives?

3. IPhone 2.0 Is Buggy as Hell
Out of all the bugs, the most annoying is general lagginess when doing a lot of things — like writing a text message or loading the App Store. Argh.

And the rest of our list would overlap with the complaints about meager battery life and lack of copying and pasting/voice dialing.

via http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/cheat-sheet-mr.html

If this is real (and it probably isn’t) a lot of you can relate to the pains of tech support with less than knowledgeable parents. For a few minutes, you know what it is like to be John Mayer…meh.

Since iPhone 1.0, tapping the “Status Bar” in Safari would scroll you instantly to the top of a web page. With the iPhone 2.0 update (available for the original iPhone and pre-installed on the iPhone 3G), Apple’s added the same functionality system-wide. Tapping the status bar (the topmost bar where the clock resides) in nearly every application will now scroll you immediately to the top of a list or page. This is especially handy for scrolling through contacts, songs, or anything else with a particularly long list of information.

Just a few days after Pwnage Tool launched as a Mac-only first jailbreak application for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software, there is now a Windows solution as well.

Winpwn 2.0 is the answer for Windows users looking to jailbreak iPhone 2.0 / 3G models.  Among its features are:

• Support for both 1.1.4 and 2.0
• Custom Image Support
• Custom Payload Support
• 3g iPhone support

More details and Winpwn download are at:

http://www.winpwn.com/index.php/Main_Page

Can’t find an iPhone 3G? Well, TopMuffin has created a site that checks Apple’s store inventory every 15 minutes. According to the site, Apple updates the inventory throughout the day. TopMuffin’s site parses the feed (feed link) and shows iPhone 3G availability by Apple Store.

TopMuffin doesn’t just post availability info, they also do some statistics to find the percent available. When we checked the page, Apple had 45% availability for 8GB black iPhones, 53% availability for 16GB black iPhones, and 41% availability for 16GB white iPhones.

This site does not list availability for AT&T stores, and only lists stores located in the U.S. A disclaimer is posted on the page lets viewers know that the best way to check iPhone availability is to call your local store. You can view the site by clicking the read link.

via http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/26/get-iphone-availability-updates-every-15-minutes/

looks like a Cocoa framework will come out during the fall for the iPhone that allows developers to work with Facebook Connect. This will most likely be in SDK form, and iPhone app developers will be able to use it. What’s neat about this is developers will be able to use the Facebook platform and integrate users right into the applications.

t will be interesting to see what sort of applications are born out of this. And since founder Mark Zuckerberg calls Facebook Connect “Facebook for the rest of the web,” I think we will be in for a real treat with this added iPhone compatibility. With all of that Facebook user information at their fingertips, developers will no doubt have a field day with the possibilities. 

It’s an exciting time for watching technology change and grow into these newer platforms. 

via http://www.iphonebuzz.com/iphone-will-get-facebook-connect-in-the-fall-253468.php

The fact that my wife and I both have iPhones is a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because well… we both have iPhones. But it’s also a curse. It has become another gadget to upgrade, to pimp up and gulp- to depreciate quickly . We were both going to get the 2nd generation iPhones but after weighting in the fact that the original ones are upgradable via software, it became hard to justify the cost of a whole new phone. Sorry, 2 new phones. So we opted for the software update, which gave us in a lot of ways a new phone. The upgrade was free, but the mostly inexpensive apps add up. This got me thinking about Fairplay, Apple’s DRM technology used throughout the iTunes store for music and now applications as well. Fairplay allows you to register up to 5 computers and unlimited iPods/iPhones synced to those computers. So… it should be easy for my wife and I to share iPhone apps with each other as long as both our iTunes are authorized to use them. All we need to do is authorize both accounts in both computers and re-download the apps. This could work in Windows, but why would I right?

Here’s a step by step tutorial on how to do it.

Scenario

I have 2 Macs, 2 iPhones, 2 iTunes accounts.

I used one account to buy a game, and another account to buy another one. The goal is to have both games playable on both phones legally with no hacks.

Solution

Have each computer be authorized for both accounts. Re-download apps on 2nd computer with 1st computer iTunes account.

Step 1: Authorize Computers

I step into my wife’s mac, launch iTunes, log out of her iTunes Store account and log in with mine. 

Step 1: Log Out and In

Still inside iTunes,  I go to the app store and click the Buy App button on the application I had bought in my computer.

     

Step 2: re-download

iTunes knows I already paid for this and just let’s be re-download it without charging me again.

Step 2: Confirm

The app then begins to download.

    

Step 2: downloading

Once the download is complete, it now shows in the Applications section of iTunes. 

    

Step 2: downloaded

I can now log out of my iTunes Store account and log her’s back in.

Step 1: Log out and in

Step 3: Sync & Play

I can plug her phone in now and sync.

Step 3: sync

The app should transfer without any fuss.

Step 3: syncing

Once synced, it shows on her phone ready for playing.

Step 3: play

And now both our kids can take over our phones and drain those batteries out. 

Step 3: playing

Enjoy.

via http://allforces.com/2008/07/22/share-apps-between-iphones/

One of the nifty features of the 2.0 software is taking screenshots by pressing the Home and Lock buttons at the same time. There are lots of ways to make use of the feature: screenshots for an app review, capturing your home screen to show to your friends, or grabbing a page in Safari to look at later.

However, there’s one quite useful feature of it discovered by James1292 on the Apple Discussions board. It’s a way to crop photos on your iPhone, a feature that has been frequently asked for. It’s simple to do; just zoom in on the portion of the image you want to crop, and take a screenshot. There will then be a new image of the area you selected. Of course, this won’t result in the highest quality image, (quality will decrease as you zoom further) but it’s a start.

via http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/07/23/quick-tip-crop-your-photos/

GearLive reports that Apple has seeded a beta version of iPhone 2.1 Firmware (Beta 1, Build 5F90) to developers.

According to the site, Apple has included new Core Location features that might suggest that turn-by-turn GPS could become a reality. Core Location can reportedly track your direction and the speed at which you are traveling.

Along with the new firmware, Apple has also seeded a new version of the iPhone SDK but the new SDK can not be used to submit Apps to the current App Store. There have been earlier reports that Firmware 2.0.1 had been spotted in the wild, but a 2.1 upgrade would presumably introduce more than just bug fixes.