Tips and Tricks

While the usage of caps lock is generally reserved for comment trolls and confused old folks, it can be very useful when used responsibly. The iPhone does have a caps lock mode built in, but it's disabled by default. To enable it, go to Settings > General > Keyboard and turn on "Enable Caps Lock." Now whenever you need to type in all caps, simply double-tap the shift key to engage caps lock.

Additionally, you can also use this method to enable CHOCK LOCK MODE OK.

By now most of you have probably accumulated a ton of apps, but you don't want every one of them to sync to your iPhone. You have it set up the way you want it now, but if you restore or sync a new device, iTunes will try to sync every app you have.

So the easiest solution is likely to deselect all of the apps you have an manually select the ones you want synced. To do this, go to the applications sync tab in iTunes and command-click (control-click on Windows) the checkbox next to an app. This will tell iTunes to uncheck every app, not just the individual app you clicked on. From there you can check the apps you want. It works in reverse too, but for this example we're assuming you don't want to select them all. Enjoy!

You know that iTunes app on your home screen? Some people completely ignore it while others sometimes use it to download music and podcasts. What you might have forgotten though is that you can actually rent and download movies, TV shows, and music videos over the air, right from your iPhone.

Yes, this is definitely a "no duh" for some of you, but I'm betting that quite a few of you totally forgot about this feature. And while I tend to agree with David Lynch about watching movies on your iPhone, it'll certainly do in a pinch.

Anyone who's had an iPhone or iPod touch for a while knows that sometimes apps just stop working. In some cases a single app will stop working while the rest seem just fine. The first step is reboot your phone, but sometimes that doesn't work. In that case, the solution is generally to delete the app from your iPhone and the re-download it.

However, in some rare instances, all of your third-party iPhone apps can stop working, even after a reboot. I'm not 100% sure why this happens, but it seems to be an issue with the FairPlay DRM database becoming corrupted. I've found that the best solution is to download another app from the App Store.

I recently ran into an issue where my iPhone would take an inordinate amount of time to sync but I couldn't figure out why. The step it always seemed to hang up on was "Verifying iPhone," but why? After doing a bit of investigating, I found out that this step is actually a part of iTunes' backup process. So to solve the problem, I deleted all of my iPhone backups under the "Devices" tab in the iTunes preferences. After doing a full backup, my iPhone syncs nice and fast!

Enjoy!

You've been able to directly download podcasts on your iPhone for quite some time now, but to download anything over 10MB requires that you be connected to WiFi. However, it's incredibly easy to get around this arbitrary limit. Instead of tapping the "download" button on a podcast, simply tap the episode. Your iPhone will begin playing it right away, completely ignoring the limit. If you're streaming audio, you can continue listening even if you exit the iTunes app.

Enjoy!

One of the great things about the iPhone is that its headphones come with a handy little microphone with an integrated button. The button of course allows you to answer and end calls, as well as play and pause your music. You've also been able to double-click them to skip to the next song, but in iPhone 3.0 you can actually triple-click to rewind and go back to the previous track! It's a little tough to do at first, but it's a handy little addition that's sure to help out with your daily iPhone use. Enjoy!

Ever since my first iPhone, there was always one feature I thought Safari was lacking; the ability to open links in a new page. I mean, Safari for iPhone let you have multiple pages open, but there was never a way to explicitly open a link in a new page! Every competent desktop browser can do this. Thankfully this feature was finally added in iPhone 3.0. To make it work, simply tap and hold a link to bring up a nice little dialogue which allows you to open the link in a new page. Hooray, perfect for Google searching across multiple sites!

Piggy-backing on yesterday's tip, I have yet another Voice Control tip for you guys. Although Voice Control is fairly limited in its abilities, it can read more than just a contact's name. Specifically it can read from the nickname field as well. This means that you can tell your iPhone to "call Dad," instead of having to refer to your father by his proper name.

But wait, it gets even more entertaining! Voice Control will understand just about any nickname you assign to a contact. For example, instead of saying "call Jeff Gamet," I say "call Mr. Cuddles" because he's a cuddly guy. The possibilities are endless, and frankly the comical uses will likely outweigh the practical ones.

As many of you already know, the iPhone 3GS comes with an awesome feature called Voice Control. It lets you make calls or play music just by telling your iPhone what to do. To activate Voice Control, you press and hold the Home button. But what if you want to do something via Voice Control without looking at your iPhone?

Starting with iPhone 3.1, you can now use a Bluetooth headset to activate the feature. To do this, simply press the answer/end button on a paired Bluetooth headset while not on a call (be sure a call isn't coming in). Voice Control will be routed through your headset so that you can start a call without looking at your phone. Awesome! You can also do the same to begin playing music.