Category Archives: iPhone Tips & Help

Apple iPhone changed the smart phone industry for ever, and introduced a functional touch screen phone that worked, for the first time. Using the iOS operating system We have all the latest tips and tricks for you – making your iPhone easier to use.

iMessage Guide

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iOS 5 Tips and Tricks

iOS 5 Tips and Tricks

iMessage will allow you to send unlimited free picture or text messages to another iPhone, iPad or iPod touch user, assuming they have activated the service and are using iOS 5. Remember these messages count towards your data allowance, so make sure you have a price plan before using it.

The most interesting thing about iMessage, is you don’t need to know how to use it, you just need to make sure it’s turned on. Once it’s enabled, use the Messaging app as normal, if the other person has iMessage enabled on their iOS device, your device should know this automatically and use it to deliver your message.

iMessage or SMS?

iMessage will tell you if the other person has iMessage enabled

  • By changing the text in the message field from “Message” to “iMessage”. Type in the address first and tap into the message filed, and see if it changes.
  • The send button will be blue for iMessage and Green for normal SMS. Again you need to type in the address and tap into the message field to see if it changes colour.

How to make sure iMessage is enabled

  • Make sure you are running iOS 5.
  • Open the settings app and select ‘Messages’. The first option is iMessage – ‘on’ or ‘off’. Select ‘on’. Scroll down to “Receive at”. This will allow you to add e-mail an address at which iOS can recognise you as an iMessage user, in addition to your phone number. Add your apple ID email address here too, if you wish.
  • The ‘send as SMS’ option is set to ‘on’ – this means, if for any reason iMessage cannot send the message, it will use SMS (or possibly MMS) meaning you will be charged the network rate. This button seems confusing, when I tested it, it made no difference and sent the message anyway!
  • On a iPad, the settings are more or less the same, but there is no SMS option. This is the first time the iPad has a messaging app, so it does open up functionality. Even if it is limited to iOS.

What is the correct iPhone 4 wallpaper size?

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The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory

I got this e-mail from a friend!

How do I edit my own picture so it is formatted to the correct size to be used as a wallpaper  on my iPhone 4?

I wanted to tell him to use Google, but instead I decided to write this quick blog post. Let’s see first what Apple has to say about the iPhone 4 screen to get an overview:

  • Retina display
  • 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
  • 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
  • 800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
  • 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)

The iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3Gs have completely different pixel resolution. The  iPhone 3GS has a resolution  of 480×320 pixel and iPhone 4 has a pixel resolution of 960×640.  The answer is to  use your favorite software  to crop your image to 640 X 960 and you should get a reasonable enough looking custom wallpaper!

If you are looking for a free editing tool give Gimp  (windows) a try. I edited the above promotion picture for the TV show The Big Bang Theory to the correct size as an example – for the iPhone 4. Try it on your iPhone and let me know what you think!

 

How to get your iPhone to forget a Wi-Fi Network

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Forget

Forget

If you connect to a Wi-Fi network that you have not used before and feel it may not be safe, it might be advisable to stop your iPhone from connecting to it in future, to prevent possible unauthorised access to your data.

For example, recently I noticed a wi-fi network at my local café called FREE Wi-Fi Public – having connected to it, I found there was actually no internet access available on the network, and decided it would be better to stop my iPhone from using that network. While you should always be careful what Wi-Fi network you choose to connect to, you may sometimes come across a time when you have connected to a network  and would rather not connect to it again.

It is actually simple enough to ‘forget‘ that network.

  1. Open the settings app and select Wi-Fi.
  2. From here you will see the Wi-Fi network you are connected to, select the blue arrow beside this network, to view the properties.
  3. Choose ‘Forget this Network’. You will be prompted to confirm.

As your iPhone has forgotten this network, it will now see it as a new wi-fi connection.

How to set up Gmail Exchange on your iPhone for instant Mail, Contacts & Calendar

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Exchange

Exchange

The first question is why would you want to set up  Microsoft exchange  for Gmail over the built-in Gmail option? The advantage to using Microsoft exchange, is that it has Push services.  Push is a not so fancy way of saying; when an e-mail hits your Gmail account, it is immediately also pushed to your iPhone, so  instead of checking periodically for new mail every 10 minutes, you get it asap.

Using exchange you also have the added advantage of syncing your Gmail contacts, so you have a backup for when you need it. It’s actually pretty straight forward (and free) to do this.

Before you continue, you need to have least iOS 3.0 to set this up. Back up all your iPhone settings, and sync before you start this process. Always nice to have a backup in case things don’t work out!

1. Open the settings app, and navigate to Mail, select ‘add an account’.
2. Instead of ‘Gmail’ select ‘Microsoft Exchange’.
3. Enter the details, as requested. Type in your Gmail e-mail address. Leave domain name blank. Type in the username, which is your FULL email address, and also type in your password. You can also enter a description if you wish. Select Next.

Gmail

Gmail

4. When the screen reloads enter the server address “m.google.com”. Tap next.
5. You can now select what you would like to sync. iOS 5.0 will allow you to include reminders, when it launches  later this year. Make your selection and press save. You may be asked some sync questions if you already have iPhone contacts, make sure to select “Keep on my iPhone” unless you want those deleted.

How to share your iPhone internet connection with Personal Hotspot

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Using your iPhone 4 with ioS 4.3 it is possible to share your iPhone data connection with other devices wirelessly, such as a laptop or an iPad. A few things to note on this, if you have an iPhone 3GS you can still do this but only via USB or Bluetooth, also you cannot share your wifi connection, only your cellular data connection, so make sure your data network has you set up on an appropriate plan for this, some providers include this data plan automatically some do not. Check first. Continue reading →

Understanding iPhone status icons

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As iOS get’s more powerful the number of iPhone status icons has increased. These can be more important than you might think, they may indicate data connection types, rotation lock, battery levels and so on. We have decided to break these down, into a handy reference guide. If you think of any more, be sure to comment and we will update this post!

Status icons

Status icons

  • Airplane Mode icon:  If you see this icon, its because you have enabled Airplane Mode and when this is active all communication protocols will be disabled. This mean’s you cannot use a data connection or make a call, but can you can still access apps like your iPod and apps that don’t require a connection. It was probably designed to allow you to use your device on flights, it is just as handy for some DND time.
  • Orientation lock icon: This icon shows that the orientation lock has been enabled, apps will not rotate if you tilt your phone to landscape. Very handy if you are looking at your phone at an different angle and don’t require an orientation change. Disable it via the ‘fast app switcher’.
  • Battery level percentage icon: Self explanatory, you can also enable and disable the percentage level for the battery.
iPhone Status icons

iPhone Status icons

  • ’3G’ icon – You are currently connected to your cellular 3G network, this allows you to surf the internet at a reasonable speed.
  • ‘E’ icon – Edge This is 3G’s slower cousin. Your iPhone will use this if there is no 3G connection available or you have disabled the 3G function in the settings.
  • ‘o’ icon – A GPRS connection, which is an older way to connect to the internet and extremely slow.
  • WIFI  icon- This will show when you are connected to a wifi network. If you have enabled wifi, it will not show, you must actually be connected to a wifi network.
iPhone status icons

iPhone status icons

  • Play icon – This icon will show when you are playing music via the iPod or a music app.
iPhone status icons

iPhone status icons

  • Location tracking - This icon will appear to let you know the application is using your current location. An application has to ask you to do this, but you can always deny the application this privilege from the settings app.

Any more suggestions?

How to delete/uninstall iPhone & iPad apps – iPhone 101 series

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Delete?

Delete?

It’s possible to remove applications once you no longer need it from either your iPhone or iPad. This is very simple to do, and necessary if you are a iPhone app download junkie. It is also particularly useful if you don’t use folders. Removing them is very easy, thank’s to Apple’s way of thinking!

  • Hold your finger over the application you wish to remove until it starts to ‘giggle’ you will see a small ‘X’ to the left of the icon tap it you will then see this message: “Deleting this application will also delete it’s data”
  • Select ‘delete’ to remove the application from your device. It really is that simple, remember if you remove an application from your iPhone or iPad you are also deleting the associated data, as per the above alert. It’s always a good idea to sync apps you have bought first with iTunes, but of course you can always re-download them for free once you have bought them!
  • Note: If your are in the process of downloading a large application such as a graphics intensive game, which you no longer want, and it  is not finished downloading, you can use the same above process to cancel the download/install!

iPhone 101 is a series of blog posts by iPadiPhoneBlog.com that makes no assumptions. If you are new to smart phones, iPhones or mobile phones, you will find this guide straight forward to use.

    How to edit app notifications – iPhone 101 series

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    iPhone notifications menu

    iPhone notifications menu

    You might ask a particular application  not to alert you, only to change your mind at some point! How do you reactivate those notifications again? It’s actually very simple, you don’t need to open the app itself, as notifications has it’s own management area in the settings app.

    Here are a few simple steps to amend the notifications on your iPhone. For this example we have selected Angry Birds as the app we would like to change the notification settings, of course this can used for any app you wish. Continue reading →

    Turn off simple Passcode on your iPhone for better security – iPhone 101 series

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    How to lock your iPhone with any password

    How to lock your iPhone with any password

    If you think think it’s a little too easy for someone to guess four digit numeric password, you might want to consider disabling “simple passcode”. Disabling simple passcode means you can use a full keyboard to create a password of your choice. If you have iOS4 running on your iPhone then it is easy to do this.

    Password Lock

    Password Lock

    1. You need to open the settings app on your iPhone, under the General heading select “Password Lock”, if this is currently enabled you will be prompted for your current password, enter it.

    Simple Passcode

    Simple Passcode

    2. You will now see the “Simple Passcode” which is turned on by default, if you switch this to off, you will be prompted for a full keyboard password, you will need to confirm your old password first if you had one.

    Passcode

    Passcode

    3. Select your password, and confirm it. You are now using the more secure password of your choice. You can also change the “require password” time for a length of time that meets your needs. There is more on using passcodes in this post.

    iPhone 101 is a series of blog posts by iPadiPhoneBlog.com that makes no assumptions. If you are new to smart phones, iPhones or mobile phones, you will find this guide straight forward to use.