iPhoned.com.au » Tips and Tricks

iPhone Earth Hour App sets new standards for environmental responsibility, irony

Logan Hesse — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:58:30 +0000

iPhone Earth Hour App sets new standards for environmental responsibility, irony.

Earth Hour, founded by the World Wildlife Fund, has been steadily growing in participation since its Sydney inception in 2007. With 50 million participants it has become a global statement for the sustainability movement. And now, with a completely straight face, the WWF and the Leo Burnett group have released 60+, the official Earth Hour iPhone app.

The goal of the app is to help encourage everyday people to do more for the environment and extend Earth Hour beyond a simple annual event. Just because you turned off the lights for an hour doesn’t mean you should stop thinking about the environment by using an electronic device.

Like many location-based services, the app uses to-dos and checkins. You can check in actions you’ve taken to help reduce the human impact on the environment. The app provides you a list of such actions including using more natural light, changing the air-con setting or installing a water-saving showerhead. Oddly enough, not charging your iPhone doesn’t appear on the list.

Checking in actions nets you achievements which can then be shared across larger social networks.

The WWF will also use the app to track global and individual checkins to help measure Earth Hour’s impact and participation levels. Game Centre support is forthcoming so that you can have empirical proof that you are, in fact, Greener Than Thou.

The app looks very cool and rustic on your high-tech screen, since all of the design elements are actually taken from hand drawings. The designs were done on recycled cardboard and paper and the badges were hand-sewn. And then turned into pixels and beamed to you across a network of transmitters from massive computer servers all over the world.

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Telstra offers Visual Voicemail, inadvertently saves customers money

Logan Hesse — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:29:12 +0000

Two years ago, Vodafone offered ‘Visual Voicemail’ for iPhone users and, with a quicker reaction time than usual, Telstra is now offering the same service to its subscribers. But it wouldn’t be Telstra if they actually offered something to their customers; nope, you’ve got to shell out 5 bucks a month for the service, which they call Message Bank Plus, even though it’s free on Vodafone.

Despite this charge, it can still be a cheaper way to check your voicemail from overseas. Check voicemail the normal, i.e. calling your inbox to listen to your messages can quickly end up costing you a fortune since you have to pay exorbitant rates for international calling – just under 4.50/minute on Telstra (or just under 3 bucks on Vodafone) from China for example.

But visual voice mail is a little different. Instead of dialling your voice mail, visual voice mail sends your messages to you as highly compressed data files. A 30 second message ends up being about 85kb. The practical upshot is this – when travelling outside of Australia, instead of paying for international calling rates, all you pay for is the fee for the data transfer. Yeah, its still at international rates but since the files are so small, it’s still cheaper. Telstra charges 1.5 c/kb (Vodafone is once again cheaper at 1c/kb) for casual data roaming; do the math.

Better yet, let me do it for you. A 30 second message played back from China on Telstra would cost abnout 2.25 (plus 40c flagfall, so its reall 2.65). On the other hand, downloading and then playing back that same message with visual voicemail would cost about 1.25. Even with the 5 dollar a month fee you still break even if you listen to six messages in a month.

If you travel for business or are planning a trip overseas, consider the visual voicemail option. You won’t save enough to buy a house except in Southeast Asia), but you might just pay for your airport reading with it.

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Yan Touch Black Diamond Dock

Logan Hesse — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:26:41 +0000

Style is what iPhones are all about and the new Black Diamond dock is nothing if not stylish. Rather than being designed purely for music, the Black Diamond appeals to another sense – sight. The dock is a partial sphere with a geodesic pattern on the front and an angled slot in the back for your iPhone. The base is a rubber ring to keep the thing from rolling off the desk. Two small holes that correspond to the iPhone’s speakers so that audio still plays clearly. The faceted facing is translucent so that the display of the phone lights it up when inserted.

To get the most out of the Black Diamond you’ll need the Black Diamond app. The app has four features. The first, Effects, allows you to select different psychedelic light shows to display. The shifting patterns light up the Black Diamond, giving it an ethereal, lava lamp-like quality. The effect is cool, but quite subtle. You’ll really only see it in the dark, which brings us to the Sleep function. This lets you select music from your iTunes library and set a timer for how long it plays. The Wake-Up function is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, or would be if it didn’t crash constantly. A bit more work needed there. The IM function alerts you whenever you receive an incoming message, provided that it’s an MSN message as other types are not supported yet.

Overall, the Black Diamond doesn’t do much besides look slick but it does that very well. With a bit more stability in the app, it would make a cool conversation piece and nightlight while you’re recharging your iPhone. Its an interesting idea – that docks don’t have to be boring but for the price you’d think that the supporting app would, you know, work.
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Skyfire Browser Allows Flash Vids on iPhone

Logan Hesse — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 05:38:21 +0000

With the ubiquity of Flash on the internet, the iPhone’s lack of support for the program has always been a pain for iPhone users. However, Apple has green-lighted a new add-on for Safari that should solve the problem. The add-on, developed in the US by Skyfire will make all Flash video viewable on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Previously, when Apple users attempted to view a flash video they would receive an error message but the new app promises to fix the problem.

Apple and Adobe have a history of bad blood, with Steve Jobs making a point of not supporting Flash on the iPhone, citing security and the fact that Adobe was a “closed proprietary” system.

“Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards,” he wrote in April 2010.

According to Skyfire CEO Jeffrey Glueck his company had to do a bit of “engineering magic” to get around the iPhone’s Adobe issues.

The “magic”, said Glueck, was that it wouldn’t put Flash on the device because that’s “not kosher”.

Skyfire solved the problem by remotely rendering Flash files that a user attempts to view on the go into the Apple-approved HTML5 format.

“It’s a browser for the iPhone that solves that pesky problem when you encounter a Flash video and you get that ‘Flash missing’ error message and you can’t watch it,” he said.

“We’re bringing a technology – a browser – that allows you to see all those videos which we translate in to Apple-approved formats on the fly so that you can on your iPod Touch or iPhone see billions of videos that were previously unavailable.”

The browser only supports Flash videos and not Flash games or Flash apps and not all websites are supported. To check if the Skyfire browser supports your favourite websites, go to http://www.bit.ly/site_check. Even so, with so much internet content built in Flash, this workaround is a welcome relief to frustrated browsers. The current version of the browser is 2.2.1 and it’s a free download.

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3 apps to tune your mind

Logan Hesse — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 05:31:28 +0000

Sometimes you just need to take a few minutes and do something mindless and fun. There’s an app for that. Actually, there are hundreds. Here are three ways to take a small mental holiday.

Oz Punch

One thing people of all political shades can agree on: sometimes you want to punch your elected officials in the face. With Oz Punch you can do just that. If you’re tired of hearing Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott exchange barbs on TV and want to watch them finally get down to brass tacks, Glide PTY’s Oz Punch lets you select one of six Aussie politicos and duke it out against the computer or another player.

Sleepmaker: Rain

Ah, the power nap. Find a hidey hole and get your head down for a few. But getting to sleep can be tough when you’re in the middle of the city. Or maybe you just need to take a moment and re-centre yourself. The solution is Sleepmaker: Rain Pro. This app consists of real recordings of rainfall in World Heritage listed Tassie forests. Featuring programmable sleep timers and fade outs and mulit-tasking functionality, this app lets you take a quick jaunt to Tassie whenever you need a break.

Oz Quiz

Want to test your knowledge of Australia fair? Oz Quiz contains over 600 questions and answers on topics like geography, sport, history and more. With version 3.0 or later you can compare your scores online or you could always play on your own.

There you have it. Whether its political frustration, insomnia or existential angst over lack of knowledge of your home country, these iPhone apps can clear out the mental pipes and get you back on track. All are available on iTunes for about a buck except for Sleepmaker, which is 4.99.
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The 12 Best iPhone Tips – Part 1

Design Lover — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:23:23 +0000

Even when instruction manual is printed and included in the box, most of us never bother to read them! So what happens when the manual not even in the box and you have a really beautifully designed and intuitive device? We wing it of course!

The first great thing about the iPhone is that it is so easy to use.

The second great thing about the iPhone is that there are many more tips and tricks that will allow you to do what you want better and faster.

So in the spirit of sharing we’ve decided to put together our list of 12 top tips that every iPhone user really should know.

We’ve divided this article into two articles, so without further ado here we go with the first of our two-part post on The 12 Best iPhone Tips.

Enjoy!

Tip 12. Yes, there is a “CAPS” Lock

First of all you need to go to “Settings” and select the “General” option. Scroll down the list and select “Keyboard” and then slide the “Enable Caps Lock” option to “ON”.

Once you’ve done this you are ready to go.

Try sending a text message or an email and if you want to write something in CAPS then simply double-tap the “Shift” key to activate caps lock.

Tip 11. Headphone controls

The microphone on the iPhone earbuds is also three buttons. To the top and the bottom are buttons that will control the volume, most people know this.

But the middle part is a button as well!

Squeeze it once to start playing music, squeeze it again to pause. Squeezing it twice will advance to the next track and squeeze it three times quickly to go back to the previous track.

If a call is coming in you can answer it by squeezing the middle button once. Repeat this to hang up!

Tip 10. Opening Links in a New Browser Window

When you are browsing a website on your iPhone and want to open a link without leaving the current page, simply hold your finger down on the link. After a second or two you will get a pop up option to either “Open”, “open in New Page” or “Copy” that link. Make your choice and off you go!

Tip 9. How to Take a Screenshot

By pressing the “Home” and “Power” buttons at the same time you can get a screenshot of your current screen. There will be a camera shutter sound and a brief flash of the screen. To see the screenshot just select “Photos” from the iPhone Home Screen.

Tip 8. Force Quit

From time to time you may find that an app will not respond. By pressing and holding the “Home” button for at least six seconds you can force quit that application.

Tip 7. Reset

When in doubt, re-boot! If force quitting won’t work (Tip 8, above) you can reset of your iPhone by pressing and holding both the “Home” and “Power” buttons for about ten seconds. After the iPhone has shut down you can power it back up and it should now respond.

Thanks for reading this far, Part 2 is Coming Soon!

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Instantly Accessing iPod Controls

John Bric — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:20:21 +0000

Imagine this scenario:

You are writing an email to a work colleague and listening to a podcast on your iPhone when your home phone rings.

You want to pause the podcast quickly. If you’re using headphones with a pause button then no problem, you simply hit the ‘pause’ button or even pull the jack out, causing to automatically stop.

Handily, there’s another quick way to pause the track. Just double-click the Home button, and a window pops up with iPod controls, allowing you to pause/play, as well as skip tracks and adjust the iPod volume:

You can also tap the iPod button in the window to go straight to the iPod.

By default, this trick only works if an iPod track is playing. However, you can change the behaviour of the Home button double-click action by going to Settings > General> Home Button:

Choosing Home means that double-clicking has the same effect as single-clicking: it merely takes you to your Home screen.

Phone Favorites – the default setting – brings up your favourite contacts for quick dialing, however, if you choose iPod then double-clicking takes you straight to the iPod app, regardless of whether a track is playing.

You can also use the iPod Controls setting to turn off the feature that displays iPod controls when a track is playing.

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Wi-Fi Connection Tips

John Bric — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:18:20 +0000

There is nothing more annoying than having you favourite mobile phone handset, but not being able to use it to its full capacity.

One function of the iPhone that regularly causes owners grief is the wi-fi capabilities, and the struggles many users go through to get connection at a commercial hot spot.

Here is a guide to help iPhone users understand how the Wi-Fi function works, and what you need to do to get connected:

First thing first: Check your WEP Password.

If you are using WEP encryption on your network, you have two choices, WEP Password, or WEP hex or ASCII. Notice the little bar at the top that says “WEP Password”. If you’re entering the Hexadecimal code for your WEP network, you need to toggle it to WEP Hex or ASCII.

If you’re still having trouble, it is recommended renewing the hot spot’s DHCP lease.

To do this you will need to tap Settings > Wi-Fi Networks, then pick the network you are trying to connect to. In the DHCP panel, click the Renew Lease button.

A common problem is when an iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection keeps reverting to EDGE. For instance, your iPhone looks like it is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, but goes to EDGE when you try to access a Web page–you may be experiencing a problem related to MAC address filtering.

This can happen when the wireless router is using MAC address filtering and the iPhone’s MAC address hasn’t been entered into the filter list, or if you’ve entered a WEP password incorrectly.

If you experience this and use a WEP Password, then go to Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap More Info ( > ) next to the Wi-Fi network name and tap Forget this Network. Then try accessing the Wi-Fi network again.

If you are experiencing a weak iPhone Wi-Fi signal then try turning your Wi-Fi off on the device so that the iPhone can use EDGE instead, this might help.

It can be an annoying and frustrating experience trying to get your Wi-Fi working, I hope this guide helps and good luck getting connected.

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iPhone 3.0.1 Jailbreak Version

John Bric — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:17:46 +0000

Good news for all iPhone jailbreakers with word the latest 3.0.1 iPhone version firmware that has just been released is now able to be unlocked.

The new 3.0.1 iPhone version, which updates the software and navigation on your handset, has a list of fixes for the numerous bugs and viruses that were common when the iPhone 3.0 came out.

The most important cure in the firmware, however, is the remedies it gives to the iPhone SMS text messaging service, which has for a long time been the weak link in the Apple mobile technology.

It was revealed recently that the new iPhone unlock 3.0.1 was just released by the iPhone 3GS Unlock team and is said to unlock and jailbreak the latest 3.0.1 firmware on both the 3G and 3GS iPhones’, without any post unlocking issues.

Unlocking the iPhone has been a popular method of using ones own phone carrier instead of the default AT&T contract, and now with the news the 3.0.1 version has been jailbroken, all iPhones will now be able to be updated.

The process of unlocking the 3.0.1 version is clear and simple, and a step-by-step video will soon be available to the public.

While there are benefits in having a jailbroken device, such as the ability to provide much more functionality than a standard iPhone, users are unable to purchase or download any applications or software updates via the apple store.

This has led to the increase in jailbroken versions for iPhone technology.

While there is a push by some parties to have Jailbroken versions banned, it seems it will only fall on deaf ears, with too much need and demand for them.

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iPhone 3GS:Detailed Battery Life Indicator

John Bric — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:40:23 +0000

Finally some good news for iPhone users who continue to stress about the battery life of their phone.

Apple has created a brand-new, nifty little feature that allows users to keep up to date with their phones battery life.

New for the iPhone 3Gs, owners can now display a percentage meter next to where the traditional battery life indicator is situated.

To enable it, head to Settings>General>Usage and flip the “Battery Percentage” switch on.

You should now be able to view the percentage of available battery left on your iPhone right next to the original battery icon.

The feature is currently only available on the 3GS, however with the right software, owners with jail broken, or older dated phones will also be able to use the application.

Give it a shot and rate it for yourself, if you end up hating it, or think it drains too much battery using it, you can always turn the feature off.

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