25 iPhone Power Tips

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25 iPhone Power Tips

Posted 08/28/2007 at 2:14:03pm | by Leslie Ayers and Roman Loyola

19. Discover New Music

Just as the “full-size” Web has Pandora.com, the iPhone has SeeqPod.com. Essentially, SeeqPod is a beta site that lets you search for music that’s lurking in all corners of the Internet using keywords, or you can browse playlists alphabetically by name - which, because of the crazy names people have for their playlists, essentially amounts to a completely random discovery process. It’s certainly one way to stay entertained on your next long bus ride, especially if for some reason you’re sick of all your own iTunes music. SeeqPod works best over a Wi-Fi connection, but music generally plays without interruption on an EDGE connection too.

20. Get MS Entourage (Exchange) Email

The only way to access corporate email from an Exchange server on the iPhone is if your company’s IT department has enabled IMAP - and even that basic requirement is not as simple as it sounds. Many companies don’t want to simply switch on IMAP for a host of reasons, one of which is security. There is a solution - and the best part is that it means you don’t have to get your IT department involved. Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway 3.0 (free 30-day trial) will allow you to receive Exchange messages on your iPhone by first accessing the Web-based email service that most companies have enabled, retrieving those messages, then routing them to an account you’ve configured on your iPhone. (For the steps required to sync your Entourage contacts and calendar to your iPhone, check out our online how-to, “Sync Entourage Contacts and Calendar”.)

21. Satisfy Your Twitter Fix

Since your iPhone is, after all, a mobile phone - presumably with SMS text message capability, depending on your plan with AT&T - you can create new Twitter posts by sending a text to 40404. However, you can also access Twitter the way you might normally do on the Web (you know, while you’re supposed to be working), thanks to PocketTweets (pockettweets.com). Bookmark it in your iPhone’s browser and go there to update your Twitter status, view direct messages, view the Public Timeline, and more.

PocketTweets interface

This is how you Twitter from your iPhone - no SMS charges need apply!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

22. Use It as a Flash Drive

This is a handy option if you just can’t stand to carry more than one device around - even if that “extra” device is a tiny USB thumb drive. iPhoneDrive from ecamm network ($9.95) lets you drag and drop files onto your iPhone so you can use it to shuttle them from point A to point B. Keep in mind, however, that you can’t access these files from the iPhone - you need another computer at the other end, presumably your home or office Mac, which must also have iPhoneDrive installed on it.

iPhoneDrive interface

Drag and drop files from your hard drive into iPhoneDrive to put them on your iPhone. You need iPhoneDrive installed on whatever Mac you will transfer them to as well.

23. Check for Dead Pixels

Longtime iPod users—and, really, anyone who’s owned an Apple product with a screen - know that pixels sometimes die. That is, you sometimes get pixel-size “dead spots” on a display. Here’s wishing all your pixels a very long life - but if you want to check for dead pixels, visit iphonedpt.awardspace.com on your iPhone and follow the prompts.

24. Replace Your iPhone's Battery Yourself

Disclaimer: This voids your iPhone’s warranty. On the other hand, we sincerely hope that your battery doesn’t die much sooner than the warranty’s one-year term. To prepare for the worst, you might as well check out how it’s done before you need to do it. That way, when it’s time to replace the battery, you can decide if you want to spend $20 on the kit and do it yourself, or pay about $85 to have Apple do it for you.

25. Don't Be a Sucker

In your search for the latest iPhone apps, you might have run across websites that allegedly offer you instant access to hundreds of the latest apps - all for a low, one-time membership fee of $49.95. These sites include www.iphonenova.com, www.iphonecyclone.com, and www.iphonedownloadpro.com. Trouble is, these sites are scams. We ponied up 50 bucks for membership to iPhoneNova, which claims to be the “world’s first iPhone download service.” Guess what it really is? It’s a BitTorrent-like site for downloading illegal content you can view on your iPhone or iPod. Your $50 membership gets you a BitTorrent client called Tomato Torrent and links to download two more already-free apps that help you convert existing videos and rip DVD content to view it on your iPhone/iPod: iSquint and HandBrake Lite. You also get links to a mere five Web-based iPhone games and a huge, disorganized list of illegal downloads like The Simpsons and Transformers movies.

COMMENTS: 18

TAGS: iphone

COMMENTS

Does this article really
Submitted by alex cutter (not verified) on Tue, 2007-08-28 12:56

Does this article really need to be spread over so many pages?

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What's with the two page article spread over 10 pages?
Submitted by Dave (not verified) on Tue, 2007-08-28 16:18

This is plain silly. I use ad block so I may be missing some blink-o-licious ads, but the whole click and reload the whole page 50 zillion times doesn't fool anybody

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Why is there no print version of this article?
Submitted by JimH (not verified) on Wed, 2007-08-29 04:37

How hard could it possibly be to make a "format for printing" version of all these pages? Who wants to keep clicking Next and printing seperate pages?

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Add my voice to the growing chorus asking why so many pages?
Submitted by Hano (not verified) on Wed, 2007-08-29 06:58

Add my voice to the growing chorus asking why so many pages? Who's silly/goofy idea was that? How about a "Print" version so people don't have to cycle through so many pages?

The tips may be great, but who's going to want to cycle through so many to get to them? Very poor presentation.

-- Hano

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Guiltless page-spreading
Submitted by Dan (not verified) on Wed, 2007-08-29 07:59

It's great that you've posted an article of potentially useful iPhone tips. No, I won't load your site eight-plus times (giving you unearned page-views) for one article. I wanted to read this article, but you won't cheat advertising revenue through me. Show more respect for readers and post articles on a single page.

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GSM Buzz at desktop
Submitted by Skookum (not verified) on Wed, 2007-08-29 09:41

Thanks for the aluminum foil idea for isolating the iPhone from the GSM buzz while driving...but what about at the desktop?

I have desktop Harmon Kardon speakers plugged into my Mac, but whenever I put my iPhone into its cradle I have to turn the speakers off, or else I get a godawful buzz. Is there any way to solve that problem?

jta

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RE: GSM Buzz at desktop
Submitted by khansen on Wed, 2007-08-29 10:30

I don't really have a good answer for this one, but you might try asking by submitting that question to ask@maclife.com

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GSM buzz
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2008-01-21 03:29

Put the phone into aircraft mode?

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You forgot my favorite
Submitted by Pete (not verified) on Thu, 2007-08-30 08:24

You forgot my favorite iphone game, BattleFleet!:
http://www.iphonebattlefleet.com

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TOOOO Manyyyy clickkksss
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2007-08-30 12:23

Sorry folks. I'm removing your site from my bookmarks. Your article requires just TOOOO Manyyyy clickkksss.

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Looooooooooooooosers
Submitted by Sanjay (not verified) on Thu, 2007-08-30 23:57

Multi-click articles are soooooooooooo amateur. And so is your website. Giv us some credit, okay? Treat us like something other than click providers?

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Great article
Submitted by Brad (not verified) on Sun, 2007-09-02 04:23

I really enjoyed this article, especially the tin-foil trick, I'll definitely remember that one! I was a little disappointed you didn't mention Launchrz as a great source for finding iPhone web apps and managing the links to the ones you like. Many of the apps you mentioned can be found there. Regards!

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Re: How do you update your Ipod
Submitted by fujiyato on Thu, 2008-10-30 22:04

ipod nano video converter supports convert movie to ipod nano so that you can watch your favriout movies on ipod nano at any time.

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are you still selling the item
Submitted by revhall000 on Thu, 2009-04-30 16:12

Dear Seller,

My son birthday is at hand and he surf through and come across your item as his favorite, which he want me to present to him as a birthday gift.but it is unforturnately that i dont have it in my store for now, His currently studying in Africa and I would have like to buy it directly and send it to him but my job won't permit me to do such cos I'm a busy person due to the nature of my job.

I will make an immediate offer of your price in USD and give me the total cost for the item including shipping and handling charges to Africa and if you are to busy to do that i can arrange for pickup so if you are interested in selling this item to me kindly forward to me your PayPal details e-mail address so that i can send out the payment through my PayPal account or Money order immediately.

Regards,

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great posting iLouis Vuitton like it ..

Good to see the film, in the past I have read

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