Via:Mashable

Trevor Ginn runs the online baby and nursery shop Hello Baby. Hello Baby’s first iPhone app, Peek-a-boo Baby Rattle, cost the company $750 and receives 3,000 downloads a week.

Many leading major brands, including Audi, Zippo, Orange and Cadbury, are using branded iPhone apps as a way to reach their target audience. It’s not hard to see why when more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded, and iPhone users are generally young and affluent. A branded iPhone app is a combination of product and entertainment, but most importantly, it cannot be perceived as advertising. When done right, it’s a great way to not only increase brand awareness but drive direct traffic.

These days, branded apps are not just for big corporations with money to burn. They are well within the reach of every small business. A simple, but effective iPhone app can be launched for as little as $750. Here’s how.

Step 1: Pin Down a Useful Idea

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your app has to be groundbreaking or fiendishly clever. Develop a simple app that has a real use for your target audience. For example:

• A world clock that converts multiple time zones (for a watch manufacturer or retailer)
• A customized MMS message generator to celebrate special occasions (for a gift store)
• A baby rattle (baby product manufacturer or retailer)

The app need not be revolutionary or unique, but should be visually attractive, easy to use and serve a useful purpose. The iPhone is designed to be simple and intuitive to use, so your app should be too.

Step 2: Write Up a Spec

Writing a specification document will focus your ideas. It is also the blueprint for the app, which is to be given to the development team. The better the initial specification, the more likely it is that the app will be a success. Never assume that a developer is a psychic and will automatically know what you want. A good spec should have the following elements:

• A functional description. Draft a detailed explanation of the functionality of the product. You should detail, for example, the navigation, functions of each screen and what happens when buttons are pressed.
• Diagrams (or “wireframes”) of the screens. This can be done using Google Docs, Visio or even PowerPoint.
• Style guidelines. To help the designer determine the look and feel, describe the target audience for the app and give examples of designs you admire. Remember, to cut costs, stock images can be cheaply bought from sites like iStockPhoto.

Step 3: Find a Developer/Designer

You can usually hire freelancers at a lower cost than an agency. Building an app will require both design and coding skills. You may not be able to find someone who is good at both, so hiring two freelancers is not uncommon.

Sites such as Elance and oDesk allow freelancers to be sourced from all over the world. By posting the spec on one of these sites and asking for quotes, you will receive multiple offers. Create a shortlist and ask these people for examples of work and references before making a choice. Finally, before staring the project, you should agree on a deadline and specific milestones. The freelancers may require an upfront payment before starting, which is normal, but don’t pay more than 50% up front.

Step 4: Design, Build and Test

Once you have selected your team, the project is ready to start. Each project will have three basic stages.

1. Design. The designer will turn the wireframes into a visual design.
2. Build. The coder will build the app based on the spec using the visuals.
3. Test. Testing should ensure that the functionality detailed in the spec is present and also that the app is robust enough to deal with real users.

Once the work has started, monitor the progress carefully and ask for frequent updates. Always encourage your team to talk directly to each other during the build as this will speed up the development process.

Step 5: Launch It

Apps are published in the iTunes store through a service called iTunes Connect. Once submitted, an app can take several weeks to be approved and be available for download.

There are numerous press and blog outlets that may be interested in covering the release and features of your app, so use the launch as an opportunity to get some PR for your business. Write a press release and distribute it to:

• Press release distribution sites
• iPhone app directories, review sites and blogs
• Publications in your industry

Also, don’t forget to talk up your app on your company’s own blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Being a musician can be expensive. With musical instruments, equipment and software you normally get what you pay for, and we want to sound good! So we pay, and pay big. But it’s good to know you can get some things for free. 

This article was previously published on the AudioJungle blog, which has moved on to a new format in 2010.

Of course, Windows has its own problems when it comes to recording music. It can slow down over time, is susceptible to malware that slows it down further, and doesn’t have the best latency out of the box. Next week we’ll look at some ways of tuning your Windows box for the best results.

In the meantime, here are 7 digital audio recording apps for Windows:

1. KRISTAL Audio Engine

License: KRISTAL Audio Engine is free for personal, educational and non-commercial use. A commercial license is available. Website: www.kreatives.org/kristal.

From the website, “KRISTAL Audio Engine is a powerful multi-track recorder, audio sequencer and mixer – ideal for anyone wanting to get started with recording, mixing and mastering digital audio. It is designed as a modular system. The main application provides a mixing console, while the audio sequencer, live audio input and so on are loaded as separate Plug-Ins”

The program records up to 16 tracks at a maximum of a 192 kHz sample rate. It supports WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and OGG Vorbis audio formats. It includes plug-ins for sequencing, effects (including KristalMultiDelay, KristalChorus, KristalReverb, Kristalizer), and for using VST effects in realtime.

The program is no replacement for a high end DAW, but should get you started in the world of recording digital audio.

2. Wavosaur Free Audio Editor

License details on the website are sketchy, but the program is free to use. Website: www.wavosaur.com.

From the website: “Wavosaur is a free sound editor, audio editor, wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur has all the features to edit audio (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record, batch convert. Wavosaur supports VST plugins, ASIO driver, multichannel wav files, real time effect processing. The program has no installer and doesn’t write in the registry. Use it as a free mp3 editor, for mastering, sound design.”

I haven’t tried the program, so it’s difficult for me to compare it with KRISTAL. I’d be interested in your comments. The specs on the features page indicate it may be a better program. Like KRISTAL, it has a sample rate up to 192 kHz and support for VST effects, but there is no mention of a track limit like KRISTAL has.

3. Audacity

License: GPL (open source). Website: audacity.sourceforge.net.

This well-known program was mentioned in Joel’s article, and also deserves a mention here. It’s an awesome light-weight dedicated audio editor capable of editing multiple tracks. It supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.

From some of the comments left on Joel’s article, it sounds like some of you use Audacity for just about everything. It’s the Swiss army knife of audio apps. I used it to MP3 my cassette collection years ago.

4. trakAxPC

License: Seems to be free of cost for any use. Website: www.trakax.com/software/pc.

Their website boasts, “TrakAx empowers you to create professional music and video mixes in an easy-to-use and fun environment. Whether you are creating a music track for your MySpace page or a video for YouTube, TrakAxPC is the most powerful FREE application on the web.” Features include beat matching, a drag-and-drop interface for mixing and adjusting tracks, and video editing features. Audio formats supported include WAV, MP3, OGG, and WMA.

Trakax.com’s website is very slick. If the software is comparable, it may just deserve a place in your software toolkit. It may be a great DAW to get started on. The site also sells royalty-free loops, beats and tracks for a price.

5. Aktiv MP3 Recorder

License: The software is listed as the “free version”, which is confusing, since I can’t find a version you pay for on the site. Website here.

This software doesn’t seem as professional as the other programs, and is described like this on the website: “Aktiv MP3 Recorder is an all-in-one audio software built to convey CDs, tapes, DVDs, live performances, TV, Internet radio, video games and any other sound source into audio files stored on your computer. The program supports a large variety of popular formats such as MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF.”

The program seems to be designed with home audio in mind: particularly converting records, tapes and TV shows to digital audio. It includes “smart silence detection”, which should help break music from records and tapes into multiple MP3 files automatically. The program may also be useful to musicians, especially those looking for a simpler program. If you try the program, let us know how useful you find it.

6. AVS Audio Editor

License: The software is listed as a “free download”. There is a registration cost to be able to use “all of their software”, but I don’t think that needs to be paid to use this program alone. Website: www.avs4you.com/AVS-Audio-Editor.aspx.

Update: WARNING! In the comments to the original article, Josh clarifies that the “free” version watermarks the output, and that the paid version only works on one computer and is not transferable. In my opinion these are deal breakers. Use at your own risk!

This program seems quite similar to Audacity. It is described on the website as a “feature-rich audio production software. AVS Audio Editor supports all key audio formats. It makes the program the complete tool for audio production. AVS Audio Editor will be interesting for professionals and amateurs, it is very easy to use, it enables you to perform a lot of operations without any difficulties.”

The program includes effects and support for VST effects, no limit to the number of tracks, and support for MP3, WAV, PCM, WMA, OGG, OGM and others. As a basic editor, it looks quite promising.

7. Quartz AudioMaster

License: Freeware. Website: Digital Sound Planet‘s Quartz page isn’t behaving, but you can download the program from the Shareware Music Machine.

Software description: “Quartz AudioMaster Freeware is a powerful though easy-to-use multitrack recorder and MIDI sequencer, and the best way to try the Quartz Audio Family software concept for FREE. It is intended for people who want to record, compose, mix, play and share music using a computer and a sound card. It features 4 stereo audio tracks, 16 MIDI tracks, effect plug-ins, per-track EQ, Aux buses, Video sync, Score, GM/GS/XG and “Piano roll” editors and all the functionalities required to easily share musical projects across the internet up to its multitrack compressed file format.”

The program looks fairly full-featured, and includes MIDI sequencing. Some users report some lag (I assume with MIDI), but overall seem happy with the product.

Windows may complain about a missing wmdvi.dll file. The missing file can be downloaded from here.

7. Quartz Studio Free

License: Freeware. Website: Digital Sound Planet‘s Quartz page isn’t behaving, but you can download the program from the Shareware Music Machine.

Another program from Digital Sound Planet’s Quartz range, but this time for those looking for a much simpler interface.

Software description: “Quartz Studio Free is an easy to use multi-track digital audio recorder, perfect for quick creation of music tracks or audio assembly and…. Free ! Moreover, it features the basic functionalities required to use the Digital Sound Planet Virtual Studios – also Freely available registering on the Digital Sound Planet site. The program also includes, among other features, 4+2 audio tracks, real-time processing effects (Reverb et Chorus) on each track, along with volume and pan, audio track data editing functions, a spacialization interface, Skin change, etc.”

Honorable mention: If you don’t mind spending a little more than zero, REAPER is an excellent multi-track audio and MIDI recording app with a non-commercial license for only $50. It’s not free, but it’s great value.

There’s a trend that’s been disturbing me lately. When the topic of modding or jailbreaking comes up — say, in the wake of the iPad announcement, or Sony’s restrictive PS3 update — there is an outcry. Who am I to tell Apple what’s best for their devices? How can I in good conscience urge others to void their warranties or break license agreements? And why should anyone care when only a small proportion of people hack or jailbreak their devices?

These questions are natural, because a few years ago they wouldn’t even be possible. What reason would you have for breaking open an first-generation iPod, or hacking an original Playstation? The question of “unauthorized software” on System 9 and Windows XP was plainly moot. But as the capabilities of the PC, console, and phone have expanded, so have their magisteria. And as their power grew, so did their chains. These chains were so light before that we didn’t notice them, but now that they are not only visible but are beginning to truly encumber our devices, we must consider whether we are right to throw them off. The answer, to me at least, seems obvious: no company or person has the right to tell you that you may not do what you like with your own property.

It really is as simple as that. But let me restate it so no one thinks I was just being deliberately dramatic or provocative. As long as what you are doing is restricted to the privacy of your home or person, no company, no individual, no designer or engineer, no manager, no CEO, can tell you what you may or may not do with a device which you have purchased legally. How could it be otherwise? It’s yours.

In other words, you may use your iPhone, PS3, Wii, iPad, TiVo, PC, and any other device you can think of as anything from home server to killer robot control core. Interestingly, it is for some reason far more controversial to oppose Apple’s wishes than, say, Microsoft’s or Sony’s, even when the nature of the opposition is identical (custom software running on a device, for instance). For that reason I’ll be using Apple as my primary example.

Now, this isn’t a license to do whatever you want, to whomever you want, at all times. There are several things that limit your freedom, and it is your responsibility to be aware of them: You may have signed a legally binding contract; the effects of your use may extend beyond what you can reasonably expect to be called your own home or person; there are laws governing certain kinds of use. Essentially, know that your device does not exist in a connective vacuum, and you do not live in a social or legal vacuum.

Let us say that you bought a hammer. The hammer is clearly designed for hitting nails, and it is sold at a hardware store, next to nails. Are you really restricted to using it for hitting nails? Do you need to buy a special license to photograph it, or use it to tenderize meat? Of course not. But if you stand outside hitting a bell with it all day, your neighbors may rightfully complain. And you can’t go around beating people with it, because that’s assault. I really don’t see why a more complicated device, more versatile, sure, but still a piece of hardware bought at a store, should be subject to fundamentally more stringent restrictions. Your use of the tool or device that you bought is limited only by law and your discretion. Acme Hammer company doesn’t get a say in what you do — and for that reason, they are not liable if you do decide to start hammering people.

That said, you may have signed (perhaps without noticing it) a legally binding contract. If you did so, read it. EULAs are meant to be not read, of course, because they are legal language presented to an end user, and the degree to which they are binding is probably going to be a topic for debate for years. Better to be safe: if you can’t read it, research it online and see what the gist is, or call support and ask. If you find that you have a reasonable chance of actually breaking a law and having that illegal act pursued by the company, reflect on that.

But also reflect on the fact that nobody thinks twice about crossing a street at 3AM when there are no cars, because jaywalking laws have no authority when the conditions they are meant to govern are not present. Can we say the same thing of license agreements? We can leave aside the complex philosophical debate that goes along with Law, Justice, and so on — we’re talking about simple cases here. Are you the kind of person who will wait at a “Don’t Walk” sign on an empty street? Then you probably live in Seattle (I see you people). Also, you’re probably not the jailbreaking type and you’re likely infuriated by what I’ve written so far. At any rate, the most extreme consequence for modding is usually a broken warranty and discontinued support. Oh no!

To illustrate this, here’s the relevant portion of the iPad license agreement:

You may not and you agree not to, or to enable others to, copy (except as expressly permitted by this License), decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, decrypt, modify, or create derivative works of the iPad Software or any services provided by the iPad Software, or any part thereof…

…This License is effective until terminated. Your rights under this License will terminate automatically or otherwise cease to be effective without notice from Apple if you fail to comply with any term(s) of this License. Upon the termination of this License, you shall cease all use of the iPad Software

Some will say that because of these you do not “own” the device you bought. But few will say what they mean, viz. that there is in fact no way for you to buy just the Apple hardware — you are actually prohibited from doing so, and are told told to please return the device for a full refund if you do not agree to the EULA for the software. Fortunately, such a flippantly restrictive license is as easy to ignore as it is to create. Make no mistake — such an act is surely “a violation of the rights of Apple.” A violation they will never know about, because there is no way they could ever know. They have as much effective jurisdiction over your home and person as they do over the dark side of the moon. Act accordingly. Many EULAs (Sony’s, for example) establish similar unlimited control, which one may (and often will, without knowing) also ignore with impunity as long as the license-granter or other users are not materially affected in any way. It is telling that the punishment for violating the license is effectively voluntary.

Although I just recommended a casual disregard for certain laws, you must remember that there are laws you ought to respect. Texting and driving comes to mind. That’s not “doing what you want with your device.” That’s putting the people and things around you in immediate danger. Likewise, it seems obvious that modders should refrain from behavior that strays beyond the bounds of their device or home. Have you broken your Xbox 360 to pieces, installed custom software, and are currently using it as a home media server? Great! Have you modded your PS3 so that it pulls extra packets in online games and causes everyone’s pings to rise? Not so great! Use discretion, and don’t be surprised if, when your practices affect more than just you and yours, you get taken to task for it.

Furthermore, don’t begrudge the companies their efforts to lock you out. It’s to their benefit, of course, to limit the use of their device to things they know work and which make them money. Apple’s a great example of this. Jobs has created a brilliant ecosystem of Apple-based services and devices which work best when working with each other. And by “work best,” I mean “work best for Apple.” If they also work best for you that way, great! You’re happy, Apple’s happy. But don’t tell me that I need to be the same way. And just because Apple works doggedly against people using their hardware for non-Apple-approved purposes doesn’t mean that it’s actually wrong or illegal to do so. Amusingly, many seem to think this is actually the case, for example the Apple store manager who called the cops when a customer showed him a jailbroken iPhone. It’d be funnier if this wasn’t such a popular delusion.

Finally, if you decide to hack or mod your device, you are essentially cutting ties with the company that makes and supports it. If that’s a problem for you, don’t do it. And if you do it, don’t complain. Your complaints will be ignored, as they should be. I hacked my PS2, and when it broke (I had resorted to using a SweeTart to keep one component at the right angle) I didn’t try to return it to Sony. I had made my bed, and I lay right down in it. You’ll have to do the same, even if you brick a brand new iPad while trying to flash its BIOS and install a second OS.

The reasoning and explanation above can basically be boiled down to a few basic laws. It seems to me that as long as you stay within these bounds, you should be free from prosecution and criticism.

Do no harm

Hacking your device should not affect anybody else’s user experience. If you break any laws, you should be the only potential victim.

Be informed

The risks you take are your own, and you should thoroughly research anything you’re thinking of doing. Don’t pretend cracking open your 360 or jailbreaking your iPhone is a trivial act.

Accept the consequences

You’re giving up your warranty and all the benefits that come with it. You may also be committing a crime.

But if you’re okay with all that…

Do what thou wilt

No one can tell you what to do with your property in the privacy of your home or on your person.

We’re on the frontier, here, which is why this debate is happening. It’s just a bit weird that people who were alarmed by Amazon sucking content off of Kindles are okay with Apple, Sony, and others dictating what you can do with a device you bought. It was only natural that they would try to extend their power to your living room once that was possible, but you can still shut the door in their face. Note that this discussion is not about content or piracy, although there are parallels. This is about the right to use a device as you will. Some of the same arguments apply, and just as information wants to be free, hardware is always at its best unfettered as well. But while there is legitimate dispute about the rights surrounding digital media, I don’t see any real objections to the hacks and modifications possible for your hardware and devices.

A popular objection is that one doesn’t have to buy the devices that happen to be wrapped up in restrictive systems or deliberately limited. Vote with your wallet, right? Sure, and even when you jailbreak or mod, you are doing just that. You bought the device most suited to your needs. With the iPad it’s the nicest tablet hardware out there and it has a big user base, which will prompt lots of interesting projects to develop — not all approved by Apple. And while the Apple-imposed limitations on the iPhone were less visible because of the highly-limited competition it leapfrogged, the iPad wears its chains on its sleeve with its lack of extra storage, single proprietary interface, and so on. The numbers of the curious and the dissatisfied will swell as the chains begin to weigh on them.

There are greater principles at stake here as well, but I think the simple utility of hacking our devices and the total lack of consequences for anyone involved are the only arguments necessary at this stage. I’ll leave the questions of property, privacy, and other rights to discussion by abler minds.

Lastly, I would like to humbly thank Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and all the others, for creating wonderful devices which I plan to enjoy to the fullest extent. But I humbly ask them, and everyone else, not to tell me what I can and can’t do with it once my purchase is complete. You should do the same.

Ringtones — They are the darlings of the music industry and the bane of anyone subject to hearing a bad one. If you’re sick of your plain old telephone ringer but don’t want to download a canned tone, you don’t need to spend extra money to turn your favorite song into a ringtone for your iPhone. There’s a way to create ringtones in iTunes from your existing music.

Once you’ve done it, you’ll be making ringtones faster than you can download them. It is not, however, the most obvious process. Here’s a how-to guide to help you out for both Mac and Windows users.

Simply follow the steps outlined here to create your own tones right from your computer. Let us know how you got on — and what songs you ringtoned — in the comments below.

Choose Your Song and Edit It

The first part of the process is more or less the same for both Mac and Windows users. In iTunes, select the song you want to use, right-click on the track and hit “Get Info.”

Select “Options” from the menu along the top, then change the “Stop Time” of the song to 15 seconds (or how long you want it to be — reports vary, but apparently ringtones can’t be longer than 30 seconds).

Now, in the “Advanced” iTunes menu, select “Create AAC version.”

You will now see a second version of the song. Be sure to go back into the original song’s “Get Info” options and delete your “Stop Time” setting, or else the song won’t play past this point in the future.

Converting the File for Mac Users

Mac users should right-click on the new, 15-second version and hit “Show in Finder” in order to change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r. This can be done just by clicking on it and overtyping. You also want to make the file name as short as possible too, so rename this in the same way.

Now, still in Finder, drag the .m4r file to your desktop and delete the version that is in iTunes. When this is done, you want to import the file back into iTunes. To do this, open the iTunes “File” menu and select “Add to Library,” find the song on your desktop and add it back in.

Converting the File for PC Users

PC users will do this last part a little differently. Once you’ve got the AAC version of the song, you need to find it on your computer. Unless your default settings have been changed, it’s likely you can find it by clicking through the following folders: My Documents, My Music, iTunes, iTunes Media, Music and then the relevant artist’s folder.

You need to change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r by clicking on it and overtyping. If you can’t see the file extension type (just the name) then you need to enable that functionality first. Go to your control panel and click “Folder Options.” Then, untick the option that says “Hide extensions for known file types.” Going back into the iTunes folder and you will now be able to see the extension to change it.

Once it’s changed, you need to import the renamed file back into iTunes through the “Add to Library” option in the “File” menu.

Getting the File onto Your iPhone

Now, both Mac and PC users will see the file under the “Ringtones” category on the left of your iTunes display.

To get the ringtone where it needs to be — on your phone — sync your iPhone to iTunes. If this is the first time you’ve added a ringtone in this way, make sure that the “Ringtones” tab is set to sync.

To change the ringtone on your iPhone to your chosen song, go to “Settings,” then “Sounds,” then “Ringtone” and you should now have a “Custom” list above the pre-loaded “Standard” list. Just touch the song you want and you can be free of that pre-loaded “Marimba” forever!

Double tap space bar for a period

When typing on your iPhone, double tapping the space bar at the end of a sentence automatically enters a period followed by a space. No need to press "123" to get to the numbers and symbols page where the period typically resides. I use this trick daily and it heavily increases my typing speed (especially when texting).

2.  Tap the bottom corner to navigate home screens

When on your home screen, try tapping the bottom right/left corner to switch between pages instead of swiping your finger accross the screen.

3.   Take out your SIM card during backup and sync -

We've all experienced it. You're backing up and syncing your iPhone, and the hour long back up is nearly complete. Then all of a sudden you get a phone call, and the whole back up/sync is null and void.

To avoid this happening, simply start the backup/sync, then pull out your SIM card. Do not worry, this does not damage your phone at all. Put it back in once everything is complete. This way, your backup won't get interrupted.

This tip is also useful if you need to make a phone call while your iPhone is backing up/syncing. Since unlocking your phone cancels the process, just take out your SIM card, pop it in your old cell phone , and call away.

4.   Move "dock" icons

You'd be surprised how often this tip is overlooked. The 4 icons located on the grey bar at the bottom of your iPhone - Phone, Mail, iPod, Safari - are movable, just like the rest of the icons. Just press and hold the icons, then drag them while they are shaking. Press the home button when you're done. You can put any 4 icons on your dock.

In the screenshots, note the difference between pic 1 and 2.

5.   Automatically capitalize and add apostrophes

The iPhone automatically capitalizes certain words ("I" when you type "i"). It also automatically adds apostrophes ("I'm" when you type "Im").

6.   Double tap a column on Safari to fit-to-page

When browsing the Internet on your iPhone's Safari browser, double tap any column, word, or picture to fit it's width to your iPhone's screen. This is extremely useful for reading blogs.

The first screenshot is the page when it firsts load. The second screenshot is the page once the main text was double tapped.

7.   Manually select the icon image for a bookmarked webpage

This one's a little more confusing. When you are browsing a website on your iPhone's Safari browser and want to add its icon to your home screen, press the plus sign and select "Add to Home Screen".

The image in the icon, however, is a screenshot of the page you were on. So if you want the icon to look a specific way, zoom in on a particular item on the page. Whether you want the website's logo, or some picture on the page, simply zoom in on that part of the page before you press "Add to Home Screen".

Note: This doesn't work with all websites. Popular sites like Google have special icons for the iPhone's home screen. 

Go to your website of choice.	Zoom in on your favorite part.
Press the + sign and choose Add to Home Screen.	Name the bookmark appropriately (Digg - Apple).
Now that exact part of the webpage is displayed in your icon.

8.   Your iPhone's headphones have a multi-function button!

You'd be surprised how many people don't know that the iPhone's native headphones have a button on the microphone.

Just squeeze the microphone together, and the button gets pressed.

The buttons functions:

In call...

•  
  • Press once to answer a call
  • Press twice to send the call to voicemail
  • Press once to hang up a call

In call while second call coming in... [thank you silver0fox]

•  
  • click once to hold current call and switch to new call
  • hold for 2 secs and release to ignore new call

Out of call...

• Press once to activate iPod and play song
• Press once to pause song
• Press twice to skip to next song

 

Send Full Resolution Photos Through Email

If you wanted to email photos taken with your iPhone, you’d hit the “Share” button on the lower left corner and press the “Email Photo” button. The photo will then be automatically added into a new email. Press Send and off it goes. Right? What Apple isn’t telling you is: the photo that you’ve just emailed isn’t at its highest resolution — it’s scaled down.
 

To send full resolution photos via email, open the photo in your iPhone’s camera roll, tap on it and hold until the “Copy” button appears.

Copy the photo, then compose a new email. Press and hold somewhere within the content section, let go and the contextual menu will appear. Press Paste to insert your full resolution photo.

To send multiple full resolution photos, get to the camera roll on your iPhone and hit the “Share” button on the lower left corner.

You’ll then be able to select multiple photos. When you’re done, hit “Copy”. Compose a new email and paste in your photos.

Unlearn words

The iPhone has the capability to learn new words if they are used often. But somehow, something went wrong somewhere — whenever I try to type “the”, my iPhone auto-corrects it to “Tge” instead.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to unlearn particular words. The dictionary can only be reset back to factory settings — it will wipe all learnt words and start from scratch. I figured that’s not as bad as getting “Tge” every time. Here’s how to do it:

1. Enter Settings
2. Hit General
3. Scroll down and tap on Reset
4. Tap “Reset Keyboard Dictionary”

   

5. A warning will pop up to confirm the procedure. Hit “Reset Dictionary” if you’re sure.

   

Sleep The iPod After A Certain Period Of Time

If you frequently listen to music on your iPhone before going to sleep, this is a pretty cool tip. You can set the iPod function to sleep after a desired period of time.

To set the sleep timer, launch the Clock. Select the Timer function. Set the amount of time you’d like to listen to your music before the iPod goes to sleep.

Tap on the “When Timer Ends” menu and you’ll be brought to a page where you’re able to select a particular alarm that is played when the timer ends. Scroll up and tap on “Sleep iPod”.

Open Link In New Page

There have been a lot of tips regarding Safari. A popular tip, if you didn’t already know, is tapping on the top of the screen to bring you back up to the beginning of a webpage. Another time-saving tip is to tap and hold a link then tap on “Open in New Page” to browse the link in a separate browser page.

When you’re done reading, just close it and you’ll be brought back to the main webpage. I find this tip very useful when reading blogs with multiple entries — I avoid pressing on the Back button and the need to reload the page each time.

Forget About .com Domain Extension

Here are some tips to use when typing in webpage address in Safari. If the webpage’s URL ends in “.com”, you can actually leave out the whole “http://www.” and “.com” bits. Just enter “makeuseof” to go to “http://www.makeuseof.com” or “tuaw” for “http://www.tuaw.com”.

If the webpage’s URL doesn’t end in “.com” this trick doesn’t work. However, you can easily type “.net”, “.org” and “.edu” by pressing and holding on the “.com” button until the other domain name extensions appear. Slide to the one you need and let go to insert it into the URL.

Create Silent Ringtones

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to announce that you’re getting a call, you’d have your iPhone on silent most of the time — I know I do. Sometimes, I do forget to flip the switch and my iPhone starts ringing notoriously in the middle of a lecture. Here’s how you can go one step further and make sure that it never rings — create a silent ringtone.

This is basically an empty AAC file that has been converted into an iPhone ringtone. I’ve made one that’s 20 seconds of pure silence. Download it here and double-click on the file to add it into iTunes. Sync it to your iPhone and enable it — boom, no more noisy ringtones.

Miscellaneous Tips

The rest of these tips may probably be widely known by most iPhone users but I’d like to share them anyway. Even if you think you may know everything there is to know about the iPhone, read on — you may be pleasantly surprised.

• To force-quit an application: OS 3.0 introduced a new way to force-quit applications. Press and hold the Sleep button (on top) until the “Slide to power off” slider appears. Then press the Home button until you reach the Home screen.
• To take a screenshot: Press the Sleep and Home buttons simultaneously. The screen will flash to indicate that a screenshot has been taken and saved in the camera roll.
• Enable Airplane mode while syncing: If a call comes through while your iPhone is syncing, the synchronization will be cancelled and you’ll have to start all over again. Enabling Airplane mode while syncing will prevent calls from interrupting the sync.
• Call timers: Added in OS 3.0, you can now find out how long you’ve been talking. Launch the Phone application, tap on the Recent call list and tap on the blue right arrow next to any contact to view the call length.
• Delete individual messages: In the SMS application, tap on a message thread then the Edit button on the upper right corner. Tap on the circle next to a message to mark it for deletion. When you’re done, press Delete at the bottom.
• Enable the scientific calculator: Launch the Calculator application and rotate it sideways to bring up the scientific calculator.
• Maneuver between home screens: Usually done by swiping left or right across the screen, you can also tap in the area left or right of the home screen indicators.
• Silent/Reject a call: To silent a call, press the Sleep button once. It will continue to ring without any indications (no ringtone, no vibration) until you answer or the caller hangs up. To reject a call, press the Sleep button twice.
• Customized Home shortcut: You can preconfigure double-clicking the Home button to quickly launch the camera, iPod, favorite contacts or Spotlight. Go to Settings -> General -> Home and set what you’d like the Home button to launch.
• Quickly return to the main home screen: If you’re at the 11th home screen, there’s no need to swipe through all the other home screens to get to the main one. Press the Home button to quickly be brought back to the first home screen.
• Caps lock: If enabled in the settings, double-tapping the Shift button will turn it blue, indicating that Caps Lock is turned on. Tap on it again to disable.

Put a call on hold with iPhone 4

This particular feature has actually seen some airtime recently, as a few people have pointed out that the iPhone 4's call controls now have the FaceTime button where the hold button used to be. At first, quite a few people (including Steve Jobs himself) pointed out that the hold feature didn't offer much over the mute feature, and suggested just getting used to using the mute button instead. While I can see where they're coming from, the two functions were slightly different, as placing a call on mute allowed you to still hear the other party talk (though they couldn't hear you), and placing the call on hold muted both sides of the conversation.

It turns out that, despite Steve's opinion that the hold button isn't necessary, Apple did include it in the iPhone 4 -- they just combined it with the mute button. So now to place a call on mute, you just tap the mute button once as normal. If you want to place the call on hold, tap and hold the button for a couple of seconds, and the icon and label will change to show that the call is now on hold. In either case, a single tap on the highlighted button will return the call to normal.

To me, the frustrating thing about this change is that it's not necessarily intuitive. Although it does make some sort of sense that both functions are related to mute, the FaceTime button is really only usable on certain calls where the other party has an iPhone 4. It seems like they could have taken an opportunity to tweak the call control screen so that FaceTime (and any other functions that are added in the future) might have potentially had a more suitable home, but I'm guessing some of the motivation for having the FaceTime button as part of the main controls stems from Apple's desire to see other devices taking advantage of the open protocols in the future.

The hold feature is now accessed by holding down the mute button until the icon changes.

One-click tracking of packages and shipments

I've always been a big fan of automated package tracking, and whenever I've been tasked with writing applications that deal with e-mail correspondence, I've always included an Easter egg of sorts: the ability to detect common tracking numbers in messages. To me, there's just something cool about reading an e-mail where someone provides a tracking number for a package, and having the application automatically recognize it and include tracking details.

While iOS 4 didn't take this to the extreme that I might have, it does include new Data Detectors with the ability to recognize tracking numbers and make them in to links, just like it does with phone numbers. Tapping on the number takes you directly to the carrier's website (such as UPS or FedEx), complete with tracking results. Now all we need is for those carriers to have iPhone-friendly tracking pages, and this would be really awesome.

It would also be really cool if developers could take advantage of this to launch a specific tracking app instead of going to the carrier's site, but I doubt we will see that in the near future.

iOS 4 automatically detects common tracking numbers and links them to the carrier's website.

More options for sending SMS & MMS messages

Remember when I said part of the problem was options that the user didn't know existed? This is one of them. Well, okay technically it's two of them.

The first option is called Group Messaging, and it appears to enable a form of threading if you send a message to multiple recipients by grouping their replies in one message window. Various discussions around the Internet about this feature suggest that it doesn't always work, particularly if you already have an open conversation with one of the recipients. Also there is speculation that the feature is intended to allow you to send messages directly to a contact group in your address book, eliminating the need to select individual contacts.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case, as the contact group doesn't show up in the list when you are typing a recipient, and tapping on it from the contact selector simply lists all contacts inside of the group. Still, it's a step in the right direction if you have a group of people and want to keep their responses together.

The second option might seem useless at first, particularly if you aren't familiar with size limits on messages. It's called Show Character Count, and quite simply, it shows a small counter next to the message box. As you type, the counter updates to show you how many characters you have typed. Due to limitations in the messaging protocols, each SMS/Text message has to be 160 characters or less. So the counter feature is intended to show you when you are approaching or going over that limit, which will typically cause the message to be broken up into multiple messages or sometimes rejected, depending on the providers involved. Note when sending an MMS/Picture message, the character count display is removed as MMS does not limit the amount of characters in the message.

New messaging options include group messaging and a display to monitor the number of characters typed.

Lock your device with an alphanumeric password

Another welcome addition to iOS 4 is the ability to specify a complex alphanumeric password in place of the 4-digit passcode used when locking the device. If specified, a full keyboard replaces the number pad that is typically displayed when unlocking the phone. All other settings, such as erasing the device after 10 unsuccessful attempts, will still work as expected.

Now if they would just let you specify a custom swipe gesture to unlock the device, I think many Android users would be happy.

Disabling the Simple Passcode option allows you to use a full alphanumeric passcode to lock the device.

Sync your Notes over-the-air with MobileMe or your e-mail account

This is quite possibly my favorite hidden feature of iOS 4 -- over-the-air syncing of notes. I'm guilty of using the Notes app on my phone to jot down random lists of stuff I want to remember. While this is great for making quick notes, it can quickly become troublesome if you then need to access those notes later from your computer or another iPhone. I never was a big fan of having my notes sync in to Mail.app on my Mac (I don't really use Mail.app anyways), so having my notes end up in there was a bit of an annoyance to me.

So imagine my surprise when I noticed a new accounts button in the Notes app, and tapping it revealed a list of all of my mail accounts. Notes are saved to a folder in your e-mail account as individual mail messages, similar to how a draft e-mail would be saved. Because of this, Notes can be synced to any Gmail-based accounts you have without any additional setup. This also should work with other types of mail accounts, but given the vast feature differences between different e-mail servers, it is possible that it won't work with all accounts.

Notes can now be saved under mail accounts, instead of only to the device. This allows them to be synced over-the-air

We all know that holding down an application’s icon on the iPhone will cause them all to wiggle“ thus allowing you to rearrange the icons  on your screen as well as delete 3rd party apps from your iphone 

Well, this is not entirely true, as I have discovered that yes, removing these apps IS possible (sort of), and it involves invoking the iPhone’s hidden 10th Home page . Here’s how to do it:

OK, first things first. In order to get rid of an Apple-sanctioned app, you will need
1 – An iPhone
2 – A Wi-Fi connection and itunes account

What?! Yes, you read right. You see, the main trick in deleting Apple’s apps is that you need to first fill the final page (page 9) on your iPhone with applications 

So, here’s how to do get rid of Apple’s apps:

Step 1: Move any Apple-branded apps you do NOT want on your iPhone (such as the itunes store)

the Camera, the Phone (who needs a Phone on their iPhone?), Weather etc. to the 9th page.

 

Step 2: Arrange the apps so that the ones you wish to delete are the bottom right-most apps on the page

Above: By dragging Urban Spoon from page 8 to Page 9, I have moved the “Phone” app to the hidden page 10.

Step 3: Now, the key to deleting these apps is that you are not really deleting them so much as you are “banishing” them to the hidden 10th page on the iPhone. Kind of the iPhone version of Superman’s Phantom Zone, this 10th page is a virtual storage area that Apple includes for holding apps that you download if you happen to already have all 148 spaces (9 pages) full of apps. In order to banish apps to the Phantom Zone, you simply need to start “pushing” the icons off the screen. As you may have noticed in the past, when you drag an application from one page to another, it pushes all the apps on that page down to the right 1 space. Well, that’s what we are going to do here. Begin by making sure Page 8 has at least 1 more application on it than the number of apps you want to delete on page 9. Now, press and hold an application on page 8, causing the apps to wiggle, and then begin dragging applications from page 8 to page 9. As you release each application, you will see the bottom right-most app disappear. Keep moving apps over, bumping apps to the hidden 10th page until you have gotten rid of all the apps you do not want.

Above: Who needs Phone, Stocks, Weather, Contacts, Calendar, App Store or iTunes?

Above: You can now consolidate pages.

Step 4: You can now rearrange your apps the way you’d like, consolidate pages back to a more normal number, and the Apple apps will not reappear.

OK, so, how do I get them back? Do I have to restore?

Oh, so now you wish you COULD use your iPhone as a phone, or you deleted “Camera” and now you want to take a picture? OK, well the good news is you need not restore your iPhone to get your apps back. All you have to do is power the iPhone off (hold the sleep button on top of the iPhone until the “Slide to Power Off” message appears, turn it off, then turn it back on (pressing the same button). All the banished official Apple Apps

Above: Just turn your iPhone off and on or sync it to make the hidden apps reappear.

So, why would I want to do this?

Well, normally you wouldn’t, but there are some situations where you might. Number one is of course to screw with your friend’s iPhone by “deleting” the Phone app (incidentally, you can still receive calls when the phone app is hidden, and you could in theory make them if you have a double-tap of the Home button set to bring up your phone favorites). Other times this may prove useful is if you wish to restrict app store access or hide your e-mail or Phone access while lending an iPhone to a child or other untrustworthy individual.

Sadly, this hiding of apps is not permanent, as the odds are you will sync your iPhone or turn it off at some point, causing the Apple apps will reappear, but if you go long periods without doing so and you for some reason hate seeing the Calculator or any other Apple app on any of your screens (and are scared of Jailbreaking your iPhone to achieve similar results), this work around should do the trick.

Everybody knows by now that to remove an app installed from the App Store simply touch and hold the app icon until all the icons jiggle.  Once the icons start to jiggle the non-Apple apps will have a black “X” badge in the corner of them.  Touch there to remove that app from your device.  But what if you want an Apple app removed?  There is no black “X” badge that appears for Apple apps, so that doesn’t work.

With the introduction of iPhone OS 3.0 Apple added Parental Controls called “Restrictions.”  Using the Restrictions function you can block access to all sorts of content on the device – including a few applications.  While not a surefire way to remove all of the Apple icons from the springboard, you can use Restrictions to block access (ie: remove) to a few of the Apple installed applications such as Safari, YouTube, Camera, iTunes and App Store.  You’re still stuck with the other Apple apps such as Notes, Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Mail, etc.  But for these few applications turning them off and hiding their icons is easy.

To use Restrictions to hide the icons of these apps you must first enable it in the Settings app. Navigate to Settings, select Restrictions,  enable Restrictions, and enter a passcode.  Now you can easily turn off the apps that you don’t want showing up anymore.  That’s it! You’re done!  If you need help on how to enable Restrictions via step by step tutorial: Tour of Parental Controls.

The answer to that question, at least in our opinion, is "NO!" There are still plenty of great reasons to jailbreak an iPhone. And here are some our favorites:

1. Wi-Fi Hotspot

As mentioned above, using the iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot is still the number one reason to jailbreak the iPhone. Oh sure, you could pay for tethering, but who wants to do that? MyWi is the app to get, and although it's buggy at times, once you get it up and running, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

There's a new version of MyWi for the iPhone 4 OS, which you'll need to grab from Cydia. The app is called, simply, MyWi 4.0. Our installation guide for MyWi is here, and for the most part still applies to the 4.0 install and setup.

2. FaceTime (and More!) over 3G

Another paid app worth checking out is My3G. This jailbreak app lets you do more things over 3G than you can on an un-jailbroken phone, including using FaceTime, which Apple restricts to Wi-Fi only. My3G users can also download TV shows and podcasts from iTunes over 3G or watch HD YouTube videos.

3. Unlocking the Phone

Unlocking is not the same thing as jailbreaking, although the two terms are often used interchangeably by those not following the issue closely. Jailbreaking allows you to install unapproved third party applications on your iPhone, but unlocking allows you to run the iPhone on a different carrier than its default. (For example, T-Mobile instead of AT&T in the U.S.) A carrier unlock for the iPhone 4 OS is now available as of this week.

4. Block Calls and Texts

Want to block calls, SMS or MMS messages from someone? The iBlacklist app (a somewhat pricey $11.99) makes that possible. Now iPhone 4/iOS 4 compatible, the app lets you select who to block and also offers parental controls for outgoing calls.

5. More Settings, More Customization

Go ahead and laugh, Android users, but poor iPhone owners who want to drill down deeper into their settings or further customize their devices beyond wallpaper backgrounds have no choice but to jailbreak. Yet once they do, there are options aplenty. A perennial favorite is SBSetttings, an app that puts quick toggles for the most heavily used features right at your fingertips (just swipe the status bar). Although iOS 4 allows for homescreen backgrounds, Winterboard lets you customize even more options, like the battery indicator and the icons on the lock screen. Other apps, like LockInfo, for example, let you customize your phone's lockscreen to provide info like email and SMS notifications, missed calls, calendar events and more. More plugins are available to add things like weather, Twitter or RSS feeds, and more.

6. New Reasons Still to Come!

Perhaps most importantly, outside of top recommendations like these, there are new reasons to jailbreak arriving every day. The jailbreaking community is full of innovation, even if Apple stifles what it accepts into its official App Store.

Case in point: The upcoming app called Infifolders will let you put as many icons into an iOS 4 app folder as you want, while Apple limits you to 12.

Or maybe you have a reason that's not listed here? A need that's not being addressed? There's likely a jailbreak app for that, no matter what it is. You can keep track of the jailbreak apps and their iOS 4 compatibility via this Google Docs spreadsheet. Maybe you'll even find some new apps to try out while reading through the list.

Jailbreaking is easier than ever before, thanks to the new jailbreakme.com website. You can jailbreak your phone in a matter of minutes. Although fearful owners may fret about voiding their warranty, we have to remind you that jailbreaking is not irreversible. You can always restore your phone to factory settings if you ever need to get support or return the device to Apple for repair. That said, if you feel icky just breaking the rules because they're rules by golly!, then you may want to leave well enough alone... or get an Android phone, which is more open and customizable right out of the box.

A well-known hacker on Sunday posted the first "jailbreak" for the iPhone 4.

The hack -- available at jailbreakme.com -- installs a program that lets iPhone 4 owners and others purchase apps from stores other than the Apple App Store.

To start the process, visit that website using the Safari browser on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Unlike other jailbreaks, this version reportedly can be installed from the Web, without the aid of another computer.

Hackers already had posted jailbreaks for previous iPhone models, but the jailbreakme.com site is the first jailbreak reported to work with Apple's newest model of smartphone, which went on sale June 24.

A blog called Dev-Team says a hacker named Comex contributed to the update. The news of the iPhone 4 jailbreak comes just days after the process of jailbreaking phones was ruled to be legal by the U.S. Library of Congress.

Before that ruling, the legal status of jailbreaking was murky. Jailbreaking an iPhone still can put you out of compliance with Apple's warranty.

After jailbreaking a phone, users can download apps that Apple has not approved for sale in its online App Store. Some of the more popular black-market apps include MyWi, which turns phones into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, and IntelliScreen, which lets users put e-mail and calendars on their home screens.

There are rumors online that the iPhone 4 jailbreak could allow users to conduct video chats over 3G networks instead of just on Wi-Fi as the phone does now.

Once a phone has been jailbroken, another set of apps can be used to "unlock" an iPhone. Unlocked phones can be configured to work on wireless networks other than AT&T, which is the only official U.S. carrier for the iPhone.

In the U.S., unlocked iPhones will work on the T-Mobile network, but, because of technical differences, the phone will not work on Verizon or Sprint even if it has been jailbroken and unlocked.

The iPhone 4 hack was reportedly so popular Sunday night that jailbreakme.com was having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Other users complained that the hack unintentionally disables the iPhone 4's video chat capability and creates problems with multimedia text messages.

Comex, the hacker who says he's behind the new jailbreak, said on his Twitter feed early Monday that he is trying to work through those issues.

On the Dev-Team blog's post about the iPhone 4 jailbreak, some users complained about these apparent shortcomings.

Others seemed overcome with joy about the new hack.

"I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH and i think I JUST CANNOT STAY HAPPY WITH SENDING A POST CARD FROM MY CITY!!!!!" one user wrote.

Apple, however, maintains that jailbreaking its products can diminish their performance.

"Apple's goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience," Apple wrote in an e-mail to CNN last week.