Ever annoyed by your phone going to sleep when you’re in the middle of a task? Daniel shows how simple it is to set the phone’s auto-lock function to whatever you want — from 1 minute to “never.”

Flash videos. As iOS users, they’re the bane of our existence. Well, at least there’s one way to get around the imposed limitation of our platform: Grab Flash videos from your desktop and put them on your device. It’s not elegant, and some pre-planning needs to happen, but at least it’s do-able.

In truth, the following method of loading vids onto your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad will probably serve users best for keeping valued content with them at all times — not for casual viewing of random clips. Still, if you’ve been baffled by how to load whatever content you want onto your device, including Flash vids, take note of the following:

To start, you’ll want to download a Flash video (or .FLV file) from a vid hosting site. There are tools available you can use to make easy work of this, like Orbit Downloader. CNET even posted a handy article called “Three ways to save video from the Internet” here.

Safari users can also do the following: Open the video webpage and press Command + Option + A That will bring up a list of everything that’s running in your browser. Then doubleclick on the video file. It may or may not show the .FLV file name extension here, but the vids you’re looking for are usually at least a few MB. Most of the others listed will be just a few KBs.

Once you’ve got a vid, you’ll need to use a video converter program. iSkysoft offers a free trial, after which you pay $19. There are also other programs available, like Handbrake. It’s a free open-source desktop application that converts vids into iTunes/iOS compatible formats. This is actually the one I use to convert Flash videos and more, like TIVO recordings, personal movies and other vids.

It can take a little while, depending on the conversion that has to be done, as well as the length of the vid and the file size. For longer videos, I usually let it run overnight.

Whatever you use, if the program isn’t set to automatically import the vid to iTunes, then you’ll need to load it in there yourself. (But first, doublecheck the video by playing some of it. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve got content, only to discover that the audio doesn’t work or the vid quality suffered too much. So check that before you import it into iTunes!) Once there, plug in your device and make sure the video is set to sync.

This pretty much outlines the methods I use to import video content to my iOS devices. What do you use? If you’ve got a great tip to share, weigh in below.

Via: iSmashphone, plus additional reporting

When iOS 4 launched, the thing I looked forward to the most was app folders. Swiping through 11 screens, trying to find what I wanted, almost had me jumping ship. Now with these little marvels of organization, I’m cruising along with just three or four screens of alphabetized groupings. My inner type A nerd is pleased.

But what makes my inner design nerd happy was learning this neat little tip: By using an Emoji keyboard, you can input those special graphical characters into your app folder names!

If you don’t know Emoji, you should — especially if you spend a lot of time texting other iPhone pals, or want a graphical keyboard to jazz up notes and stuff. They’re basically tiny little images (actually, emoticons) that can be inserted, copied or pasted in line, just like text.

These have been popular for a long time here at home and in Asia (where Emoji has exploded!). Today, we’re going to use these fun add-ons in an “off-label” way — inside your app folders.

Here’s how:

1. Download an Emoji app, like this free little wonder in the App Store. Follow the instructions for enabling the keyboard, just like any international keyboard you might want on your device. (For this app, you’d enable it under Settings, then General, Keyboard and International Keyboards.)
   



2. Launch your Emoji app, then just click on the ones you want: little smiley faces, vehicles, food items, apparel, you name it. You’re going to copy them, all in a row. (It’s easier this way.) Be aware that if you have a dark wallpaper, dark Emoji will have a hard time showing up, so try pick light ones if you can (or if you’re using a light background, conversely, you’d use dark Emoji).
3. Hold your app folder till it jiggles, then click on it to rename it.
4. Paste in the Emoji wherever you want it, and delete the rest. When you’re done, click out of the folder and go to the next one. Repeat.

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That’s it!

Thanks to the good work of iPhone J.D., a site geared for iPhone-using attorneys, we’ve also got another option: If you want to have additional symbols, like the Apple logo, there’s a web app for that!

Just point the Safari browser on your device to http://mrgan.com/gb/ and make it a homescreen bookmark. By launching it there, you’ll have a few more symbols to copy and paste into your app folder names.

We’ve got a super useful tip today that iOS users will be able to sink their teeth into. It only requires a few minutes of your time to make sharing or saving online content from your device soooo much easier. Today’s topic is the humble bookmarklet, and the tip is how to add them to mobile Safari.

If you’re already familiar with bookmarklets, then you know how handy those little javascript tools of joy are when you’re desktop browsing. If you don’t use them, you may want to give them a shot. With a click of a mouse, you can share an interesting vid on FaceBook, Digg a blog post, add things to your Evernote or Google Reader accounts, and more, simply and easily.

On your computer, adding bookmarklets is a snap; you just drag them from the webpage right to the browser toolbar. Unfortunately, you can’t tap and drag them into Safari on your phone or tablet, though. Many people wind up adding them to Safari on their desktop, and then just sync them (along with all the other bookmarks) to their devices.

Facebook offers a bookmarklet that makes it easy to share blog posts, images or vids you find on the web — that is, if you're using it via a desktop browser.

But not everyone uses Safari on their computers. And adding them directly to the iPad or iPhone manually can be quite a pain in the neck — especially when there were multiple ones. Thanks to user Chris Bray, however, it’s a little easier now. He compiled the most popular bookmarklets and put them in one easy-to-use list. (Not a javascript pro? Don’t worry — you don’t have to muck around with this. You basically just copy and paste the code into your device’s bookmarks. See below for the tutorial.) Bray collected the code for the following services:

• Share on Posterous
• Shorten with bit.ly
• Add to Google Reader
• Bookmark on del.icio.us
• Instapaper: Read Later
• Share on Facebook
• Clip to Evernote
• Share on Tumblr
• Ping.fm
• Translate to English
• Digg This
• Reddit
• Stumble Upon
• Site Info
• Show Images
• Validate HTML

For the how-to on adding these (and other bookmarklets) to your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, hit the next section.

Via: Mobile Content Today, Chris Bray

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How to add bookmarklets to mobile Safari (courtesy of Chris Bray)

Thanks to the ingenius work of Bray, we have a one-stop resource for adding many of the major bookmarklets to mobile Safari. Here’s what you do:

1. Create a new bookmark: Open this page in Safari on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, and then tap the “+” symbol. Choose “Add Bookmark.”

2. Copy the javascript code on this page (below): In mobile Safari, choose a bookmarklet that you want from the list below and copy its corresponding code.

3. Edit the new bookmark (to turn it into a bookmarklet): Open your bookmarks, scroll to the one you made in Step 1, tap the “Edit” button and select it. Delete the title and URL contents, then retitle it and paste the code (which you copied in Step 2) into the URL field. Hit “Done” when finished.

4. Repeat for each bookmarklet you want.

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If you need one that’s not included below (like *Amazon’s Universal Wish List tool, which adds products from any website into your Wish List), you can still add it with just a couple extra steps.

First, add the bookmarklet to your desktop browser and then copy the “URL” (which is actually the javascript code). You’ll need to get this over to your device. (An easy way to do that is to paste it into an email to yourself.) On your mobile, just copy the code and follow the steps above (minus Step 2). That’s it!

Here the javascript that Bray compiled:

Add the Share on Posterous Bookmarklet

javascript:var%20b=document.body;var%20POSTEROUS___bookmarklet_domain=’http://posterous.com’;if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement(‘script’));void(z.type=’text/javascript’);void(z.src=’http://posterous.com/javascripts/bookmarklet2.js’);void(b.appendChild(z));}else{}

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Add the Shorten with bit.ly Bookmarklet

javascript:var%20d=document,w=window,enc=encodeURIComponent,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),s2=((s.toString()==”)?s:(‘%22′+enc(s)+’%22′)),f=’http://bit.ly/’,l=d.location,p=’?v=3&u=’+enc(l.href)%20+’&s=’+enc(d.title)+’%20′+s2,u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.*\.)?tumblrzzz[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);tstbklt();}catch(z){a%20=function(){if(!w.open(u))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else%20a();}void(0)

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Add the Add to Google Reader Bookmarklet

javascript:var%20b=document.body;if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement(‘script’));void(z.src=’http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js’);void(b.appendChild(z));}else{location=’http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)}

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Add the Bookmark on del.icio.us Bookmarklet

javascript:(function(){f=’http://delicious.com/save?url=’+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+’&v=5&’;a=function(){if(!window.open(f+’noui=1&jump=doclose’,'deliciousuiv5′,’location=yes,links=no,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,width=550,height=550′))location.href=f+’jump=yes’};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)){setTimeout(a,0)}else{a()}})()

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Add the Instapaper: Read Later Bookmarklet

javascript:function iprl5(){var d=document,z=d.createElement(‘scr’+'ipt’),b=d.body;try{if(!b)throw(0);d.title=’(Saving…) ‘+d.title;z.setAttribute(‘src’,'http://www.instapaper.com/j/VIbChxExXDOZ?u=’+encodeURIComponent(d.location.href)+’&t=’+(new Date().getTime()));b.appendChild(z);}catch(e){alert(‘Please wait until the page has loaded.’);}}iprl5();void(0)

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Add the Share on Facebook Bookmarklet

javascript:var d=document,f=’http://www.facebook.com/share’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p=’.php?src=bm&v=4&i=1271771052&u=’+e(l.href)+’&t=’+e(d.title);1;try{if (!/^(.*\.)?facebook\.[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);share_internal_bookmarklet(p)}catch(z) {a=function() {if (!window.open(f+’r'+p,’sharer’,'toolbar=0,status=0,resizable=1,width=626,height=436′))l.href=f+p};if (/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else{a()}}void(0)

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Add the Clip to Evernote Bookmarklet

javascript:(function(){EN_CLIP_HOST=’http://www.evernote.com’;try{var x=document.createElement(‘SCRIPT’);x.type=’text/javascript’;x.src=EN_CLIP_HOST+’/public/bookmarkClipper.js?’+(new Date().getTime()/100000);document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(x);}catch(e){location.href=EN_CLIP_HOST+’/clip.action?url=’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title);}})();

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Add the Share on Tumblr Bookmarklet

javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f=’http://www.tumblr.com/share’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p=’?v=3&u=’+e(l.href) +’&t=’+e(d.title) +’&s=’+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.*\.)?tumblr[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);tstbklt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,’t',’toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=450,height=430′))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0)

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Add the Share via ping.fm Bookmarklet

javascript:location.href=’http://ping.fm/ref/?link=’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title);

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Add the Translate to English Bookmarklet

javascript:var%20t=((window.getSelection&&window.getSelection())||(document.getSelection&&document.getSelection())||(document.selection&&document.selection.createRange&&document.selection.createRange().text));var%20e=(document.charset||document.characterSet);if(t!=”){location.href=’http://translate.google.com/translate_t?text=’+t+’&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=’+e;}else{location.href=’http://translate.google.com/translate?u=’+escape(location.href)+’&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=’+e;};

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Add the Digg This Bookmarklet

javascript:location.href=’http://digg.com/submit?phase=3&url=’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title)

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Add the Reddit Bookmarklet

javascript:(function(){location.href=’http://reddit.com/submit?url=’+location.href+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title)})()

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Add the Stumble Upon Bookmarklet

javascript:(function(){var%20a=window,b=document,c=encodeURIComponent,d=a.open(%22http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/%22+b.location,’StumbleUpOn’,'location=1,status=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,alwaysRaised=1,width=800px,height=600px’);a.setTimeout(function(){d.focus()},60)})();

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Add the Site Info Bookmarklet

javascript:void(window.open(‘http://builtwith.com/?’+location.host));

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Add the Show Images Bookmarklet

javascript:n=”;for(i=0;i%3Cdocument.images.length;i++)%7Bn+=’%3Cimg%20src=’+document.images%5Bi%5D.src+’%3E%20′+document.images%5Bi%5D.width+’x'+document.images%5Bi%5D.height+’%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E’%7D;if(n!=”)%7Bdocument.write(‘%3Cp%20style=font-size:11px;font-family:verdana,sans;%3E’+n+’%3C/p%3E’);void(document.close())%7Delse%7Balert(‘i%20see%20no%20images’)%7D

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Add the Validate HTML Bookmarklet

javascript:void(open(‘http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=’+escape(document.location)))

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Got another TiP to share or one you’d like us to look into? Hit the TiP Us link abve, and let us know!

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*By the way, here’s the code for the Amazon Universal Wish List tool. I find this one indispensable:

javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20w=window,l=w.location,d=w.document,s=d.createElement(‘script’),e=encodeURIComponent,x=’undefined’,u=’http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/add’;if(typeof%20s!=’object’)l.href=u+’?u=’+e(l)+’&t=’+e(d.title);function%20g()%7Bif(d.readyState&&d.readyState!=’complete’)%7BsetTimeout(g,200);%7Delse%7Bif(typeof%20AUWLBook==x)s.setAttribute(‘src’,u+’.js?loc=’+e(l)),d.body.appendChild(s);function%20f()%7B(typeof%20AUWLBook==x)?setTimeout(f,200):AUWLBook.showPopover();%7Df();%7D%7Dg();%7D())

Although some users are still reporting problems with the iOS 4 software update, there have been others who have successfully managed to load and operate the shiny new OS. (If you fall into the former category, hit this link to share your fixes or simply cry on someone’s shoulder.)

As for the rest, we finally got our long-awaited, much anticipated iOS 4. And now, there are a whole new group of people receiving their iPhone 4s early. That’s a lot of new iOS 4 users!

So here are some tips and hints we’ve discovered so far to help you get the most from this new upgrade.

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Multitasking bar

(1) Double tap the home button to launch the multitasking bar. If you have apps that don’t support multitasking, they’ll still show up here if you launched it recently. This is handy, if you just want to use this as a quick-launch dock for your most recently used apps.

(2) Swipe the bar from the left to the right, to see a much longer list of recent apps, in order of when you launched them. (Not sure if there’s a maximum number. Per screen, there’s only four, but swiping scrolls through several apps. We’re still checking to see if there’s a limit. Haven’t hit it yet.)

(3) To switch to another running app, launch the multitasking bar and hit the desired icon. You’ll resume where you left off.

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(4) To quit a running app, press and hold the icon in the multitasking bar until it jiggles and a delete symbol pops up (a red circle with a strike) in the corner of the icon. Tap the red circle to close the app. (Apple claims that users won’t really need to fuss with this too much, since the handset will manage it for you. I prefer handling it myself, but your mileage may vary.)

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(5) Slide the bar all the way to the left, to reveal iPod music controls.

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(6) The iPod controls change if you’re in Pandora, tying them to that app instead. (Still testing to see if this works with other music apps.)

(7) The portrait lock is directly to the left of the iPod/music controls. The button looks like a circular arrow. There’s no landscape orientation lock, but at least this will prevent iBooks and such from flipping around while laying down and reading.

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Home button taps

(1) If you’re in an app, one tap brings you back to the homescreen. If you’re not in an app, the single tap brings you to your first homescreen. Once there, another single tap brings you to Spotlight Search (just like always).

(2) Two taps brings up the multitasking bar (whether you’re in an app or not).

(3) On the lockscreen, if you’re listening to music, two taps will bring up music controls for the iPod (or Pandora, depending on what you’re listening to).

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Auto-Correct/Spell Check

(1) Type a misspelled word, and iOS 4 suggests a replacement, like always.

(2) Spell check for emails and texts: If you type a misspelled word and don’t immediately replace it with one that iOS 4 suggests, then a red underline shows up under it. Double tap the underlined word, and you’ll get an option called “Replace” which offers alternate words you might have wanted instead. (If you find it annoying, you can shut if off completely by going to Settings, General, Keyboard and switching off the Auto-Correction toggle.)

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Spotlight Search

(1) You can customize your spotlight search by going into Settings, General then Spotlight Search. From here, you can tell your iPhone to search everything but Mail, Calendar or other area.

(2) “Search Web” and “Search Wikipedia” will now show up in Spotlight Search. Just swipe to the left of the first homescreen, and enter a search term to get these options.

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App Folders

(1) Just press and hold an icon on the homescreen until it jiggles, then drag it on top of another one to form a folder. If they’re tagged with the same App Store category, it will be auto-labeled as such. But you can change the name to whatever you’d like. (Be careful not to accidentally hit the “X,” or you’ll delete the app from your device.) Just drag other apps to the folder to add them, up to a maximum of 12.

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(2) Homescreen bookmarks can also go into app folders. (You can add a homescreen bookmark from Safari by hitting the “+” sign, and choosing “Add to Home Screen.” It will pop up on your phone like an app, with an icon.) Adding a homescreen bookmark to a folder is the same as adding apps — just press and hold it, then when it jiggles, drag it on top of another bookmark or app (or directly into an existing folder).

(3) To see the contents of an app folder, tap the folder to get an expanded view.

(4) To remove an item from a folder, just tap and drag it back out onto the homescreen.

(5) To delete a folder, delete or drag out all items in the folder.

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(5) You can also manage your app folders in iTunes. Just plug in your iDevice, launch iTunes and go to the Apps tab. From here, you can drag items in and out of folders, or move entire folders. (And remember to hit “Apply” or your changes won’t take.)

(6) Hot TiP: I never use the built-in Weather, Stock, Notes or Voice Memo apps that my iPhone came with. And it always drove me nuts that they took up screen real estate. Using app folders, I can combine these, along with any other built-in apps I can’t remove, but don’t want on my homescreen.

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E-mail

(1) The unified inbox view shows all the new mail in all inboxes of your email accounts. To locate it, launch the Mail app. If it’s not immediately visible, you may already be inside one of your email accounts. You’ll need to back out to the main screen (which reads “Mailboxes” at the top), and then choose “All Inboxes” for the unified view.

(2) You can delete messages within the “All Inboxes” view. Not only that, but you can move them to another folder (or in Gmail’s case, label) within the same account the message is in.

(3) Users can’t directly go into individual folders (or labels) from the “All Inboxes” though. To access those, back out to your main Mail screen again. Once there, pick one of the options under “Accounts,” and tap on the folder.

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(4) You can enable threaded message views via the Settings app. A threaded email view, which gives you all related messages in a conversation, shows up in Mail via a small number on the right side designating the number of messages in the thread. Tap that, and an you’re in a new screen with all the related emails in a row. This view also lets you delete or move the entire conversation easily from that screen.

(5) Now you can delete or move messages directly from within search results. When you’re in a mailbox, scroll all the way up to the top, to reveal a search window. Put in your terms, and the results appear. Now there’s also an “Edit” button on the bottom right. Click that to reveal new options to move or delete (in the case of Gmail, it shows up as “archive” instead of delete).

(6) Last but not least, you can set up multiple exchange activesync accounts via Settings. Now you can sync mail, contacts and calendars from more than one account.

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Wallpapers

(1) Go to the Settings app and select Wallpaper. From here, you can either choose one of the pre-set options, or a pic from your photo gallery. You can set it as for your home screen, lock screen or both. (Alternately, you can go straight into your photo albums, and set an image as a wallpaper straight from there. Just choose an album, and then photo, and tap the “send” icon on the far left corner. A “Use as Wallpaper” option comes up!)

(2) If you have a large image in your Photo gallery, you can move and scale it around inside your wallpaper settings. Just drag it around until you have your favorite part in frame or pinch/zoom the whole image.

(3) WARNING: Once that black wallpaper background is gone, you can’t get it back. It’s not one of the presets. What you can do, however, is snap a pic of a black wall or a dark room. Not elegant, but at least it works.)

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Camera

(1) 5x Zoom: Tapping to focus brings up the onscreen zoom slider in the Camera app. Don’t zoom in too much though — this is a digital zoom, so the quality will suffer if you go in too close. Note that zoom does not work in vid recording mode.

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(2) Tap-to-focus: It still works like a champ in the still camera. Now it works for the camcorder on the 3GS. You can also focus on different things in turn, all while in the middle of recording. Just tap on the light or dark, near or far elements that are viewable in frame, and the camera will automatically adjust.

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SMS Search

(1) Just scroll to the very top in your main Messages window, and a search field shows up, just like email search.

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Notes Syncing

(1) Services like Gmail, Yahoo and MobileMe offer online notes, and iOS 4 users can now do OTA (over-the-air) notes syncing with them. You can enable it in your account via Settings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

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Photo gallery

(1) You can organize pics by Events, Faces or Places, but only if you have this feature turned on in iPhoto or Aperture and sync to that, via iTunes. On the handset itself, though, you can still view images (if they were geotagged) on a map. Just click “Places,” then hit the pins to see images by location.

(2) If you don’t like the geotagging feature, you can turn it off in Settings app. Just go to “General,” then “Location Services” and switch the camera toggle to “Off.”

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iPod

(1) You can now create a playlist on the device apart from the “on the go” playlist that used to be the only alternative for mobile music management. Just launch iPod, go to Playlists and tap “Add Playlist…” You can title it whatever you want.

(2) Pop-up iPod controls are gone now, but you can still control your iPod by accessing the Multitasking bar and then sliding it all the way to the left. (On the lockscreen, you can also double tap the home button to bring up music controls.)

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Bluetooth keyboards

(1) Pair them as you would any Bluetooth product. Power up the keyboard, switch on Bluetooth, and your phone should discover the keyboard. (You’ll need to make sure Bluetooth is on under Settings, General, then Bluetooth.) After it discovers the accessory, you just enter a pairing code, and that should be all.

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iBooks

(1) It’s an app, and it’s available in the App Store here. It can sync purchased titles and even bookmarks across iDevices, though it looks like syncing them to iTunes is necessary. We’ll check it out and get back to you. (Anyone tried this and succeeded? Let us know.)

(2) Search works like other Apple apps, by scrolling to the very top to access the search field.

(3) The iBookstore is accessible from within the iBooks app, by hitting “Store” on the upper right. Many titles, including classic works of literature, are absolutely free. (To find them, go the “Store,” click “Browse” and at the top of the screen, choose “Top Free.”)

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Safari

(1) You can now choose your default search engine from Google, Yahoo or Bing. Just go to Settings, Safari, then Search Engine and pick your fav. (We’re sure there’s more to Safari than this, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface, so stay tuned for more.)

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Data network

(1) You can shut off your phone’s data use via Settings on the handset. That’s handy, if you’re traveling abroad or on a cruise, with no signal at all. Turning it off guarantees your device can only use Wifi for data, thereby saving money or battery power. Just hit Settings, General, then Network, and toggle the Cellular Data option to “Off.”

(2) Tethering: Yes, you can do it. No, it’s not free. But if you absolutely have to share your iPhone’s data plan with a tablet or another device, it’s compatible via USB or Bluetooth. You’d have to sign up for the tethering plan on A&T first, which is only for Data Pro users and costs an extra $20 per month. Then come back to Settings, General and Network to switch it on.

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Push messages

(1) No more multiple push messages knocking each other off the screen. Now they stay put, filing in line on top of each other. Just close one, and an earlier one will show up.

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Got any other helpful iOS 4 hints or tips to share? Let us know below.

Anxious to see what iOS4 will look like when it drops tomorrow via iTunes? If you’re a future iPhone 4 owner or soon-to-be iOS4 user, here’s your sneak preview at the new software, courtesy of longtime friend and TiP reader Joey.

Ever experienced lag when launching or running apps? Or a crazy number of crashes? (Perhaps after you download an app, for example?) Well, there’s one thing you need to do that can help resolve the issue dramatically. It’s simple, basic, and absolutely no expertise is required.

Turn that device off! Seriously, you can do without it for 12 seconds, can’t you? When you power it back on, you may find that it runs more smoothly.

It’s like rebooting your computer — actually, that’s exactly what it is. Restarting your phone helps clear up the built-in memory, allowing programs to run more efficiently. Here’s the longer explanation, as explained by a developer:

“When you install an app (or update it), the unzipping of that app requires about 3x the size of the app in disk space to install, and the installer itself uses a lot of memory that it doesn’t give back properly. So if an app’s going to crash from memory problems, it’s invariably after an install of any app… Also, if you don’t power cycle once in a while you end up with fragged memory from Mail, Safari, iPod etc.”

If you’re wondering if the same scenario applies to both the iPod Touch and the iPad, the answer is yes. In fact, when it comes to the tablet, rebooting is even more crucial. The tablet’s memory is on par with the 3GS, yet it renders quadruple the vid resolution, meaning it uses four times the memory. Seriously, you’ve got to clear that out once in a while!

I know, it sounds like a “duh” solution, but it’s almost shocking how many users rarely (or never) manually turn off their phones. So if you didn’t already know this, be sure to take note. And if you did know, take it as a friendly reminder.

Now, if only a reboot was all it took to make the AT&T network smoother and more efficient too…

Via: Geek Culture

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UPDATE: You’re not going to believe this, but when my hubby read this post, he actually had to ask me how to turn off the iPhone. He’s had his for two years, and has never manually shut it down! And he’s a tech geek, so he has no excuse. (Love ya, honey!) So in case you’re in this boat too, just hit that button on the top right (the one to lock/put the screen to sleep), but instead of a quick tap, hold it down until you get the “slide to power off” window on the screen. Then just slide that, and your device will power down.

Photo via Taptaptap.com

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