iPhone 3G - Essential Tips, Tricks and Advanced Techniques

So, you bought the new Apple iPhone 3G and you think you're done exploring all of its amazing features? You've browsed the App Store and downloaded dozens of inexpensive - or even free - games, utilities, and tools. You've configured your iPhone 3G to sync up with your multiple email accounts and calendars and have set it up to work with your home Wi-Fi connection. You've loaded your iPhone 3G with music and video from your iTunes library. And you've spent time with Google Maps on your iPhone 3G, marveling at the phone's new GPS capabilities.

But do you know all the little secrets the Apple iPhone 3G is hiding? All the cool little features they didn't tell you about? All the shortcuts and battery saving measures they didn't mention in the product guide? Below is a baker's dozen of helpful tips and tricks meant to enable you to enjoy your shiny new gadget more than you ever thought possible:

Forced application shutdown: If an application is freezing on you or isn't functioning like you think it should, there is a way to completely shut that program down (rather than having it hibernate like it normally would if you just hit the home button). Just hold the home button down for 6-8 seconds. This will cause the program to be completely released from memory allowing you to restart a brand new instance of it and actually slightly saving on battery life since the program isn't using any system resources.

Magnifying glass: When typing in an email message, URL, web page text box, or any other item that requires the keyboard, you may make a spelling error. To fix any errors that aren't at the tail end of the string you just typed, hold your finger over the text until a small magnifying glass appears. You will now be able to position the cursor at the proper location in order to make your change.

Handling incoming calls: If you would like to silence an incoming call, just press the sleep/wake button on the top of the phone. If, instead, you would like to send the call directly to your voicemail, press this button twice.

Safari scrolling: When using Safari, if you would like to get back to the top of a page, just tap on the top section of the screen where the time is displayed: the screen will immediately scroll back up. To scroll down, rather than dragging your finger up the screen, you can just double click at the bottom of the page.

Examining links in Safari: To take a quick look at the destination of links in Safari, just touch the hyperlink and hold for a couple seconds. The URL that the link points to will be displayed for you to examine. This also works for images that have been hyperlinked.

Google Maps zooming: When using Google Maps, there is an alternative way to zoom out and out rather than using the pinch maneuver. Just touch the screen with two fingers and the screen will zoom out in one step.

Saving images: To save an image from a web page or email to your camera roll, just touch the image and hold it. After a few seconds, a prompt will appear allowing you to save the image to your phone. Note: this will not work for hyperlinked images in Safari.

Accessing your favorites: To access your favorites list, just double click the home button. The double-click behavior on the iPhone can be changed in the Settings application but this is its default behavior.

Taking Screenshots: It is very easy to capture images of what is currently on your iPhone's screen. Just hold down the Home button and press the Sleep/Wake button. You will see the screen flash and a new image will be placed in your camera roll.

Easy domain completion in Safari: This trick will save you some typing when entering URLs in Safari. You probably know that you can hit the ".com" key to finish your addresses; what you may not know is that you can hold this key down to expose other common domain extensions like ".net", ".org", etc.

Create your own ringtones: If you'd like to create some customized ringtones on your iPhone 3G, you may be in for a rude awakening: it's not a straightforward task. On the surface, the only way to do it is to purchase the ringtones from Apple through the iTunes store (yes, even if you've already bought the song from iTunes) and sync it with your iPhone. There is another way, however that will save you money and give you more flexibility. It is as follows:
1. Go to http://audiko.net
2. Upload the .mp3 file of your choice
3. Choose the section of the song (keep it under 40 seconds or the iPhone will not be able to use it) that you want to use for your ringtone and hit the 'Create Ringtone' button.
4. Download the new file to your computer (It will have an extension of ".m4r")
5. Open iTunes and drag and drop the new file into your library.
6. Sync your iPhone, making sure to pay special attention to the Ringtones tab.
7. Enjoy your new ringtone!

Save your battery: Here are a few quick battery saving tips to help you go longer between recharges:
1. Disable automatic email updates
2. Turn off 3G and Wi-Fi whenever they're not being used.
3. Turn down your screen brightness to the minimum acceptable level.

Surf Safari in bed: If you happen to use your iPhone in bed and try to use Safari while lying on your side, you'll find that the screen orientation will automatically switch back to portrait mode rather than landscape. A clever workaround to this problem is to turn your iPhone 3G into landscape mode and then spin it so that the Home button is pointed upward towards the ceiling. This will cause the phone to stay in landscape mode even while laying on your side allowing you the best web browsing experience.