Sparrow for iPhone is an email client for iPhone that offers many more features than Apple's built in Mail app such as the ability to add attachments when composing a message, a multi-pane navigation layout, and custom signatures. The main new features in today's update is landscape composing, the ability to edit and create labels/folders, and easier navigation between messages. Unfortunately, the biggest feature that users have been waiting for, push notifications, is still absent from Sparrow.

The folks at Sparrow headquarters have been hard at work to bring push to their users. Sadly, their first attempt used a VoIP process that was entirely inappropriate for push email (it's meant for apps like Skype) and Apple rejected it. So, like instant message apps have been doing for years, Sparrow will have to handle Push Notifications on their end. But here's the catch - push will not be a free upgrade. It won't even be a one-time in-app purchase. Push for Sparrow will be integrated as a yearly subscription.

You were more than 16 000 helping us on our Apple quest to get the VoIP privilege. We can’t thank you enough for your support. Unfortunately, Apple has confirmed that they are not willing to do any exception to the rule and that Sparrow will NOT be granted with the privilege.

This means we’ll have to do Push on our side and that it will be integrated as a yearly subscription into Sparrow’s future update.

There's no word yet on how much the subscription will cost.

How much would you be willing to pay to have push included with Sparrow? Personally, I'll wait to see if Apple has any surprises for the built-in Mail app in iOS 6 before committing to a subscription with Sparrow. But if Apple doesn't address some basic needs like adding attachments and custom signatures, I'll jump ship to Sparrow in a heartbeat -- I already have for Mac.

$2.99 - Download Now

Source: Sparrow

More often than not, email just simply “works” on your iPad. You input your account information when you setup the iPad and email is received flawlessly.  Occasionally, however, problems do arise and need to be fixed.

Sometimes, it is an issue with the email server, sometimes it is a connectivity issue and sometimes you are just missing a key piece of information in the account setup.

Usually, the solution is simple like a wrong password or switch. We will try to walk you through potential problems and their fixes.

The iPad can’t get your mail

iPad gives an error message when trying to retrieve mail

Sometimes, you will start up the Mail app and receive an error message that your mail could not be retrieved.  If this happens to you, the first thing to do is to make sure you are connected in some way to the internet.

Look on your home screen for the WiFi logo and/or the 3G/4G indicator or LTE indicator, depending on what type of connection you're using. If you do not see either of these then:

1. Go to your Settings app
2. Touch Wi-Fi (for Wi-Fi only iPads) and make sure that Wi-Fi is ON
   1. Then, make sure that there is a check mark next to an available Wi-Fi network.
   2. If there is no checkmark, touch an available Wi-Fi network and “join” the network.
   3. Input a passcode if prompted.
   4. On 4G iPads, touch Settings and then Cellular Data
      1. Touch View Account and make sure that your login information is correct

Verify that Wi-Fi is ON and that you are connected

If you are still having trouble getting email or getting an error message, it is time to go to the actual email settings for the account in question.

1. Touch the Settings icon
2. Touch the Mail, Contacts and Calendars tab
3. Touch the specific email account that is giving you trouble.
4. Touch the Account tab on the next screen.
5. Verify that the Email and Password fields are correct. It is sometimes easiest to simply retype them and see if in the verification process this fixes the problem.

Make sure user name and password are correct

When you re-input your Email and Password, you should either see the word “Verifying” at the top and then, hopefully, see some checkmarks saying that the account is working.  If you get another error message or if the screen seems to hang on “Verifying” you will  need to perform the additional steps.

1. Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendar tab as you did above.
2. Touch the Account that is giving you trouble.
3. Make sure that your account is listed as ON if it is a POP 3 account (like Comcast)
4. Make sure that Mail is turned on in IMAP accounts (like Google.)
5. If you still can’t get mail – try to Delete the Account and then re-set up
   1. If the account is a Google or other IMAP account, all your messages are saved on the server and they will be reloaded when the account is set up.
   2. After re-setting up the account, make sure that you see the “Verified” check marks during set up and you should be fine.

Account is verified, so problems should be fixed

The iPad can’t send your mail

iPad can't send mail

Sometimes, your iPad will receive mail fine, but it won’t send mail.  This is a different kind of problem that involves the SMTP – or outgoing Mail server. To try to fix this issue, do the following:

1. Touch the Mail, Contacts, Calendars tab as you did above.
2. Touch the Account that is having trouble sending mail.
3. Touch the tab that says SMTP under Outgoing Mail Server.
4. Make sure that the primary mail server associated with the email account in question is turned On
5. If it is turned Off, touch the tab that says Off and turn the switch to On.
6. If there are other mail servers listed, you can always try to turn one of them On and retry sending your mail.  Usually, if mail is unsuccessful in sending from one server, it tries the other listed servers.
7. If the serer is On and you still have trouble, touch the Primary Server listed and see if in the greyed out field you can see that there is a Host Name, User Name and Password listed. We will show you how to adjust these in the next section.

If SMTP server is OFF, try turning it ON to solve the problem

If you have verified that your account is set up and your SMTP server is On and you still can’t send mail – then we need to dive into the Advanced settings to see if there are any more adjustments to be made.

1. Touch the Account from the Mail, Contacts, Calendars tab as you did earlier.
2. Touch the Account tab and then touch the Advanced tab under the SMTP tab.
3. If the Use SSL switch is OFF, turn it ON
   1. Consequently, if it is ON, try turning it OFF
   2. Touch the Authentication tab and set it to Password
   3. Look at the number next to Server Port
      1. For Gmail, this is usually set to 993
      2. For Comcast and other POP email accounts, this is often set to 110
      3. Other servers use 995 or 587 – check with your ISP if you are not sure.
      4. For iCloud accounts, you won’t even see this listed.
      5. Make sure that the S/MIME switch is set to OFF. This is for Secure/Multi-Purpose Internet Mail extensions used by government agencies and some high tech companies. Chances are, that if you need this to be ON you know what it is and that you need it – most of us don’t.

Check the Advanced settings if problems persist

Once you make changes to your settings, touch the Done button and you should be all set to go. Go back to your Mail app and try to fetch your email and then try to send a new one. Hopefully, you will be fixed and working.

If you still have trouble sending or receiving email, it is possible that either the port settings or one of the other advanced settings needs to be adjusted according to the settings for your ISP.

Source: Motorola Global

Did this solve your problems? Are you still struggling with email settings? Check out out this forum thread for even more advice.

Many of you have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sparrow for iPhone, myself included, so I'm excited to report that it's here! Sparrow is a popular mail client for the Mac that focuses on providing the perfect email experience. That experience is now available on your iPhone.

Sparrow is particularly great for Gmail users because it handles labels extremely well. You are not restricted to Gmail, though. Sparrow offers full iMAP support including Gmail, Google Apps, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, Mobile Me and custom IMAP accounts. It does not support POP or Exchange accounts.

Some of the favorite features of Sparrow include using Facebook to assign avatars to your friends, ability to add attachments while composing a message, a very well designed pane navigation layout, pull to refresh, alias support, and custom signatures for each email account.

Unfortunately, Sparrow does not support push. Not by choice, however; Apple made them remove it. At least for now.

I've been using Sparrow for Mac over Apple's Mail client for over a month now and have been extremely happy with it. I'm very excited about Sparrow on my iPhone and even though I've only spent a moment with it, I'm already impressed. Without push, however, it may be hard for me to make the switch from the native Mail app. We'll see.

2.99 - Download Now

Sparrow iPhone from domleca on Vimeo.

New to iPhone and wondering how to change your signature to something a little more custom and personal than "Sent from my iPhone?" Luckily, it's easy to do and it can save you a lot of time when you are writing your emails. It also will reduce the chances of making contact detail errors. Here's how.

1. Tap on the settings application on your home screen. 2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars. 3. Scroll down to Signature. 4. Enter whatever details you would like.

Note: This signature will be on all your outgoing mail so make sure it's appropriate for all your contents!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

The Mac Security Blog warns of a new phishing scam in circulation that tries to trick users into updating their Apple ID billing information, in hopes of stealing it for nefarious purposes.

A vast phishing attack has broken out, beginning on or around Christmas day, with e-mails being sent with the subject “Apple update your Billing Information.” These well-crafted e-mails could fool many new Apple users, especially those who may have found an iPhone, iPod or iMac under their Christmas tree, and set up accounts with the iTunes Store or the Mac App Store for the first time. The messages claim to come from “appleid@id.apple.com.”

The email looks pretty legitimate, but upon hovering over the link you'll notice it points to an obviously fake Apple website asking you to enter your Apple ID credentials, and it's all downhill from there.

As always, never click on links in an email -- type them in yourself in a browser. When you get phishing emails, mark as spam and wash your hands of the worry. Done and done.

Source: The Mac Security Blog via CNET

Thinking about getting your child an iPad or iPod touch and wondering how to safely give them limited email access on iOS? Email is a handy way to share things like pictures they've taken with the Camera app. I've chosen to use Hotmail (Windows Live) for my kids because of the level of parental control they provide. Here's how I've set things up.

1. Go to live.com to begin
2. Click the Sign Up button.
3. Use a random assortment of letters and numbers to create a username only you (the parent) can relate back to your child.
4. Create a strong password that only you (the parent) knows.
5. Use your (the parents) email address as the alternate.
6. Leave everything else as non-identifiable as possible.
7. Click on Profile > Privacy Settings > Advanced
8. Turn all privacy options to the maximum (most stringent) possible.
9. Go to the Options dropdown and choose More Options
10. Select Exclusive, so everything is sent to Junk except for safe senders. Click Save.
11. Go to Safe and Blocked senders, click on Safe Senders.
12. Add only the people you absolutely trust to the Safe Senders list (mom, dad, perhaps siblings or grandparents), click Add to List for each one.
13. Send an email via the web interface, just to prove you aren't a bot

Once this is setup, you can add the email account to your child's iPod touch or iPad. I also recommend adding it to your own iPhone or iOS device so you can monitor what's being sent and received and adjust (or shut down) accordingly.

You can also go to Settings, General, Restrictions on your child's iOS device and toggle Allow Changes: Accounts: to "Don't Allow Changes" to prevent anything from being altered.

It's not perfect, and if your children are really young you may want to forgo email entirely. But if you want to slowly get them used to using email, and you want to do it as safely and securely as the technology allows, this is the best setup I've found to date.

If anyone else has any better or alternate ideas, please share them in the comments!

Curious how to change the amount of lines shown on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch email preview? If you get a lot of email, it is really handy to see a preview  of the first few lines to know if it is important enough to read and deal with. If you're concerned about privacy, you may prefer to display nothing at all. Out of the box, the iPhone and iPad only show the first two lines of text from an email but that can be changed to show much more, or nothing at all.

• Click on Settings
• Click on Mail, Contacts and Calendar

• Scroll down to Preview
• Click on Preview
• You will now see a screen that lists the number of lines of text you will see in an email preview

• If it is set on two lines, this is how it will look

• Change the setting to your preferred amount of lines, four in this example
• When set at four lines, you can now see much more of the email message without opening it.

That is all there is to it, simple but a very handy tweak.

Daily Tipsrange from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Have a ton of unreal messages and wondering how to just declare email bankruptcy and mark them all as read? iOS 5 still doesn't give you that magical "mark all" button but it does let you mark multiple messages as read in the Mail app, which can help save a lot of time when you're crunching through emails on-the-go.

1. Launch the Mail app
2. In the Mail app, tap Edit in the upper-right hand corner.
3. A bullet list will appear on the left allowing you to select emails individually.
4. Tap each email you would like to mark as read
5. Tap Mark in the lower-right hand corner.
6. Tap 'Mark as Read' from the menu list.

Now, all of the emails you selected will be marked as read and, if you're using iCloud, Exchange, or IMAP, will reflect as such across all email clients you have connected to your email service. It's as simple as that!

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

A new phishing email scam is arriving in email inboxes targeted at Apple MobileMe users. The email is supposed to be from Apple and is asking users to upgrade their MobileMe accounts to iCloud. The email has been based on an earlier email that Apple sent to MobileMe users after the WWDC iCloud introduction.

Please sign up for iCloud and click the submit botton, you'll be able to keep your old email address and move your mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks to the new service. Your subscription will be automatically extended through July 31, 2012, at no additional charge. After that date, MobileMe will no longer be available. Click here to update iCLOUD

This phishing email is one of many currently doing the rounds, it is not that well done to be fair but it is worth mentioning as it appears to be a widespread problem. Stay well clear!

[MacRumors]

Double At is a new jailbreak tweak that is dead simple but extremely useful. If you're tired of entering your e-mail address for everything and you're jailbroken, you may want to give Double At a try.

You can define your e-mail address within Double At and when you need to enter it into a form, double tap the "@" symbol on your keyboard and it automagically inserts your e-mail address into the field.

It's simple but definitely helps if you're the type of person that either constantly has to fill in forms with your e-mail or send your e-mail address to people via Twitter, e-mail, or whatever means you find necessary. Hit the link below to check it out!

Double At

Have a email account with multiple aliases and curious how to send email from those aliases on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? While Apple made this easy on Mac by letting you simply type a comma and string the aliases together, iOS doesn't allow you to enter commas, so no easy aliases. Luckily, however, we have a work around! To find out how to get your mail aliases working, follow along after the break!

In this example, leanna@smartphoneexperts.com is the main email address and leanna@tipb.com is the alias.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars
3. Tap Add Account...
4. Select Other (Do not select Gmail! This is key.)
5. Select Add Mail Account.
6. In the Address field, enter the alias you wish to use and fill out the rest of your information. Tap Next.
7. Make sure IMAP is selected.
8. For the Incoming Mail Server, enter the following (if Gmail):
   • Host Name: imap.gmail.com
   • User Name: your main Gmail address (not your alias). In our example, that's leanna@smartphoneexperts.com
   • Password: your password
9. For the Outgoing Mail Server, do not enter your Gmail information. You must use a different server in order for your sent emails to show as from your alias. I used my ISP's (Comcast) outgoing server information.
10. Tap next.
11. Wait for account to verify.
12. Select if you want to sync mail and notes.
13. Tap Save.

Now you can send emails from your alias! However, with this current set up, you are not able to send emails from your main address. If you want that ability, follow these next steps.

1. Open the Notes app.
2. In a new (or existing) note, type a comma, followed by a space and your main email address. For example:
   • , leanna@smartphoneexperts.com
   • If you have more aliases, you can add those too.
3. Copy the text string.
4. Go back to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tap on the account you just added.
5. Tap account.
6. In the IMAP Account Information section, put the curser at the end of the Address field.
7. Paste.
8. Tap done.

There you go! Now you can send emails from your alias or main address! Take note that whichever address you listed first in the Address field is the default address for this account; however, Mail will choose the correct address when replying to emails.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

There's some debate as to whether or not Apple will keep the MobileMe web apps, like Mail, Contacts, and Calendars around after the transition to iCloud. Some have heard no, that Apple will trash them and go 100% apps. Others have heard yes, that Apple will keep them around.

No one outside Apple seems to know for sure. For our part, TiPb has heard there will indeed be web apps in iCloud. At the very least, you'll need a way to access Find my iPhone, Find my iPad, and the forthcoming Find my Mac over the web. Apple has also poured significant resources into the SproutCore-powered Mail, Contacts, and Calendars app -- including a major update to Calendars recently -- and it's hard to imagine them flushing all that effort.

Whether Photo Stream will take over for Photo Galleries, whether Documents in the Cloud will replace the wishy-washy iWork.com, and whether or not the App Store and iTunes store get Web-to-Device push remains unknown.

Even if the native iOS and Mac apps are used far more often, having the web apps as backup is a pretty important feature. We expect Apple to clarify before iOS 5 launches and iCloud comes out of beta this fall.

Have multiple email accounts on your iPhone and wondering how to get custom signatures for all of them? There's little app in Cydia called Mail Enhancer that allows just that. You can have custom signatures for each individual email address as well as set different sounds for mail within the settings panel. Hit the jump for a quick walk-through!

[$2.99 - Cydia Link]

You won't see an icon for Mail Enhancer on your springboard. You'll have to go into your settings and then you'll find it. Once you're in it, simply toggle it to on. You'll now see a ton of options for customizing and tweaking mail settings further than stock iOS lets you. You can also choose to have Mail Enhancer auto-recognize HTML as well. This is nice if you want to send richer e-mail than just plain text.

If you'd like to use custom sounds for mail, you can use any iOS sound file on your device as well as import your own into iTunes ringtones. (If they don't show up after making them or downloading them, simply re-spring and relaunch Mail Enhancer).

Any signature changes you make via Mail Enhancer will automatically flow through to the default mail app. Simply toggle between your mail accounts and choose the e-mail you'd like to send mail from. The signature will automatically change to whatever you have pre-defined in Mail Enhancer.

This is personally a tweak well worth the $2.99 it goes for in Cydia. If you've tried it out or use it, let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

If you use MobileMe, Windows Live, Yahoo!, or AOL for email, then you can have Ping search your contacts for friends who are also using Ping as well as send annoying invites to those friends who are not using ping. Here's how:

1. Go to Ping in iTunes and in the "Find People" box in the right column, click "email" in "invite friends by email"
2. A box will pop up asking you to list out the email address of those you would like to invite. Ignore this and notice the logos for MobileMe, Windows Live, Yahoo, and AOL at the bottom of the box.
3. Click the appropriate logo.
4. Sign in.
5. The window will divide into two sections: the top will list your contacts who use Ping but whom you don't follow, complete with avatars, and the bottom will list the names and email of your contacts who do not use ping.
6. Use the checkboxes and deselect/select all links to send follow requests to those you'd like to follow and email invites to those you'd like to invite.

Ping has been off to a rocky start and this may help, but probably not enough. Personally, I only found 8 more friends using this search feature. Ping is also integrated with Twitter, but I don't see Ping even having a chance to take off until Facebook jumps on board.

What do you think? Does the email search help make Ping more relevant?

[Apple]

Have more than one email account set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and curious how to change the one you're sending from? It's simple to do if not obvious, but we'll show you how after the break!

Sometimes Mail may use your default email address for a new message and you'd rather use a different one, or sometimes you might be replying to an email and want to change your sent-from address. Here's how:

• Tap on your email address in the From: field
• You'll see more options open up (like cc: and bcc:).
• Tap on your email address again
• A selector will pop up listing all your addresses, with a checkmark next to the one that's currently set.
• Scroll through the selector to find the alternate address you want to send from.
• Tap to set the new address.
• Tap on the Subject: field (or anywhere off the selector) to get back to your mail.

That's it, you're done! If you have any other mail tips, or any questions about this tip, let us know in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Ever wonder how to mark an email message as unread on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Maybe you don't have time to respond right away and want to make sure you check the message again later, or maybe you just want plausible deniability (hey, I never read your message, I swear, look!). Either way, we'll show you how after the break!

Marking an email as unread is actually rather simple, yet just as simple to miss, especially if you've hidden the header information details in the Mail app.

• Tap on the email you want to mark as unread.
• Look at the far right of the Subject line for small text that reads "Mark as Unread" and tap on it.
• If you don't see "Mark as Unread", go up to the From line and look for small text that reads "Details". Tap on it.
• Now go back to the Subject field and tap "Mark as Unread"
• That's it!

Bonus tip: If you hide details you get to see your contact's picture in the subject line. If you show details, you lose the contact picture but get the "Mark as Unread" and CC lines.

Hope the little tip helped you out. If so, let us know in the comments below!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

Earlier today we told you how network air printing was rumored to be removed from iOS 4.2. According to MacRumors one of their forum members decided to shoot Steve Jobs an email to find out what is going on with regards to this issue.

The email to Jobs:

As a release-day purchaser of an iPad, I was elated when you revealed iOS 4.2 would support AirPrint. Now comes reports AirPrint support has been pulled from 4.2. Between announcements/assurances of the white iPhone, and now the pulling of AirPrint, is Apple going to lose credibility and become known for announcing "vaporware"?

Jobs' reply:

AirPrint has not been pulled. Don't believe everything you read.

However, this email exchange doesn't really clear anything up. The fact that Steve Jobs said AirPrint has not be pulled does not indicate that network shared printers is still included. This could merely mean that if you have an AirPrint capable printer such as those that HP makes that you will still be able to print from your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Ultimately we will find out as soon as iOS 4.2 is released and people will either be angry or deal with it by purchasing a compatible printer if they want to print right away.

Which way are you leaning?

[ MacRumors ]

CNET is reporting that Microsoft's Hotmail will finally gain support for... Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Sure, even Google's had that for a while now, but better embarrassingly late than embarrassingly never, right?

So Hotmail users, very soon you'll be able to type in your username and password as an Exchange account and enjoy full push support and client/server synchronization. On iOS 4, you'll even be able to set it up alongside your work Exchange and Gmail ActiveSync accounts, if you have them, and really push things to the limit. (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Will you be using it?

[CNET via PreCentral.net]

Pottery HD is a unique virtual clay pottery app that can really only be done on the iPad. It shows what an enterprising developer can do with a large multitouch interface. This game is fun and relaxing.

When the game first launches, I was caught a little off guard as I had no idea what to do. You have a "Create" button and that is it. So, I started to create, experimenting with the controls. You can make the clay taller and shorter, wider and thinner. That's about it. So, I made a pot and fired it up in the kiln. When it was done, it gave me an option to sell it. I thought to myself, "Who is going to buy it?". As it turns out, no one regretfully as it is all virtual. Once I sold my pottery I earned some virtual money. At the main menu a new feature appeared, "Shop". Now I had access to paints and brushes. I had a new feature appear as well, "Inbox". So it appears that as you play the game you are given different objectives; unique pieces of pottery to make. You can reference the photo given to you and once you make it, you can send it off to the virtual requestor. You can play Pottery HD independent of the virtual quests and just have fun adding lots of different pottery creations to your collection. If you like, you can even share these creations with friends via email.

I have had a lot of fun with this game, however, I left it me wanting so much more. For example, I would like a way to regulate the spinning of the pottery wheel; it stays at a constant speed. Also, you can't add or remove clay either. It would be great to add globs of clay to truly make your pottery any size you want, but instead, you are limited by the vertical size of the screen. The biggest enhancement I would like to see is the ability to share online. The marketplace is limited to a virtual settings, you can't see other users creations. This is such a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

Overall I really enjoyed Pottery HD, but it's glaring lack of features and options lend me to recommending only for the most casual of users.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Pottery looks beautiful
• Sensation of actually making pottery
• the Inbox adds hours of creative fun if you are stumped on what to make

Cons

• Not completely fleshed out with features (missing ability to control clay wheel rotation)
• No Internet- based way to trade with others

How does a photographer use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s JustinHammondPhoto's answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!

I'm a professional photographer from Massachusetts. I have the wonderful job of photographing some of the most beautiful women in the world in the coolest locations all over the country. Models, celebrities, NFL Cheerleaders, it goes on and on. My work has been in magazines, advertisements, Maxim, websites... the works! I love my job!

I honestly realized for the first time when reading this contest how much I actually use my iPhone on a day to day basis for what I do. It's a lot! Especially now that I have my iPhone 4, it's been even more. Here's when:

• I own a studio, but I'm very often on location shooting, which means no wifi (on the beaches, bars, outdoors, etc). So having a 3G connection is great. I often pull up Safari in the middle of a photoshoot to come up with a pose idea, or sometimes girls want to show me a picture of a shot they really love so it's easy to Google image search some ideas! It helps out a lot during a shoot!

• Also, because I do travel to photoshoot, I'm always using Maps! Maps is so crucial to getting around because I barely know areas well. It's definitely got me out of so many jams or has even helped find shooting locations! I remember this one time I was doing outdoor shooting and I pulled up my map and noticed a large pond nearby so we walked toward where it was and got some really beautiful shots by the water at a place I would have had no idea about if it didnt show up on the gps.

• It works great in times of urgency! Even last night, the "model light" on my strobe died (lights the model so you can auto-focus on her when there's low light/lights off). Well, I pulled out my iPhone, opened the new trusty video camera, turned on the new amazing light from the iPhone, and my assistant held it to the model! It was perfect! I was so happy about having the new iPhone 4 last night.

• Also with the new video feature, being HD, I have decided to do some "behind the scenes" videos that I will be posting in the near future of my photo shoots. This is really great for my website and facebook page as a lot of models/fans follow my work, and it's real fun at photoshoots. I am beyond excited about that. I may even start video blogging and doing tips/pointer videos for photography.

• I also use it for networking with models and clients or even friends with my photography. I save all of my edited photos to my iPhone so when I am out and about, when someone asks what I do, I just open up Photos and show them my work right from my phone - they look amazing on the new retina display! It really allows me to have a portfolio with me at all times. Such a perk in the industry! It's like carrying my book with me in my pocket!

Then obviously the basics! Calendar for booking shoots/remembering what I have to do that day, and Email for keeping up with everything going on in my life in and outside of photography.

iPhone tip: Always keep it charged/charge every night! I use my iPhone so much, so my battery tends to go fast. I do have multiple chargers to make sure I am never without it. The iPhone really is my personal assistant. If it could only bring me coffee and water and move around lights, I wouldn't need to hire my real assistant anymore!

Favorite apps: Safari, Calendar, Mail, Photos, Maps. These are my most important and all Apple created! Thank you Apple!

You can see some of Justin's work at Justin Hammond Photography. Are you a photographer? If so, what apps do you use to help you with your job?

In the latest email from Steve Jobs we are seeing a kinder and gentler individual who actually had something positive to say regarding Adobe. MacStories reader Josh Cheney shot off the following in a email:

“Do you hate Adobe and their products (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) or do you just hate their view on Flash?”

Jobs then responded with some more than usual kind words:

“I respect and admire Adobe. We just chose to not have Flash on our devices.”

See, Steve does have a heart but we all know deep down he wants to bury Adobe with every chance he gets.

[MacStories]

PushMail [$2.99 - iTunes link] has just gone 2.0. For those unfamiliar with PushMail, its a middleapp that creates an account for you to forward email, and when it's alerted to that new email, it sends out a push notification to your iPhone. New features this time around include:

• 25 sound options
• Set silent periods (e.g. during the time you typically sleep)
• History, to view past notifications
• Customize notifications (choose what info you want to display, and what you want to keep private).
• View button to open message in PushMail, Mail, or Safari
• Configuration help and trouble-shooting
• Profiles to let you override certain settings based on specific criteria. (e.g. don't push any email from the mother-in-law!)

Both the history and the profiles options sound terrific. For those who want GoogleSync-style push Gmail but are already using their only ActiveSync slot for Exchange, this is another option.

If you try it out, let us know what you think!

Apple has begun emailing registered developers with the following:

As a developer actively working with iPhone OS 3.0 beta, we would like your help in testing the Apple Push Notification service. We have selected a pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 to create a high-volume test environment for our servers.

Great move on Apple's part, provided they recruit enough developers to really test the scaling of their iPhone 3.0 Push Notification system. After last year's disastrous MobileMe launch, Apple needs to make sure their infrastructure is as bullet-proof as possible before they pull the push lever... even if they are planning some limited multitasking as well...

Full text after the break:

Help test the Apple Push Notification service

Dear [redacted],

As a developer actively working with iPhone OS 3.0 beta, we would like your help in testing the Apple Push Notification service. We have selected a pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 to create a high-volume test environment for our servers.

To participate, we ask that you follow these steps:

1. Download the pre-release version of the Associated Press app for iPhone OS 3.0 from the iTunes Store via your desktop by entering this unique redemption code in the 'Redeem' section of iTunes, found under the 'Quick Links' section: [redacted] This unique redemption code and the functionality of the application will expire in seven days.

2. Install the application on a development device running iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 by synching it to iTunes. Make sure to accept notifications when prompted after installation. This application can only be installed on devices running iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5.

3. When you first run the app, choose U.S. English as your region when prompted. The U.S. English region will receive alerts, the Canadian English region will not. For purposes of the test, AP will be sending a high-volume of real news alerts.

4. If you do not receive notifications from the app within 48 hours after installation, let us know.

We appreciate your assistance,

iPhone Developer Program

Looks like iPhone 3.0 Beta 5 doth giveth a little as well. That tiny email icon present in the top navigation bar of podcasts was decorative only until Beta 4, when it began to allow you to email the iTunes Store link for a friend for any podcast you'd downloaded over-the-air (at least for some it did). Now, with Beta 5, that tiny email icon is powered up and working for podcasts synced over via iTunes as well.

Earth shattering? No. But if you're enjoying a great episode of Phone different, GDGT, TWiT, YLNT, or whatever else floats your audio boat, and you want to give a friend easy access to equal entertainment, it's certainly a great convenience.

[Thanks anon for the tip!]

Following hot on the heels of last Tuesday's monster iPhone OS 3.0 announcement, Apple wants developers to know that there's never been a better time to develop for the iPhone:

With a rich set of over 1,000 new APIs, iPhone SDK for iPhone OS 3.0 beta provides you with an amazing range of technologies to enhance the functionality of your iPhone and iPod touch applications. New APIs also provide support for applications to communicate with hardware accessories attached to iPhone or iPod touch.

Any devs previously sitting on the fence finally decide 3.0 is finally enough to push you over?

We get it: Apps are the new Internet. If the recent TV commercials weren't hint enough, if redesigning the Apple Stores to put them front-and-center wasn't crystal clear, Apple has sent out an email reminding us that the iPhone Apps, they are good!

Over 15,000 (20,000 but most counts), Apple focuses on ZAGAT TO GO, Flick Bowling, Allrecipes.com, Weightbot, and iHandy Level.

Apple has long said that software, not hardware was their key differentiator, and they're certainly making sure everyone else knows it as well.

Is it working? Are Apps hooking new buyers the way "just the Internet"-focused advertising hooked previous ones?

Here is yet another case of a 3rd party developer picking up the slack for Apple. Sorry, we are not here to tell you that you can now have true MMS like the Portuguese! But we are here to let you know that you can now send multiple photos in a single email with Aqua Eagles new app, Multi-Photo. [iTunes Link] Read more after the break!

This app is a no brainer for anyone looking to email multiple photos, and for the low price of $0.99 you can not go wrong. More importantly, Multi-Photo is simple to use. First you need to setup your mail account within the app. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you simply choose an existing account on your phone but it does automatically setup certain account types such as MobileMe. Enter in your username and password and you are good to go.

While sending photos, you have the option to select photos from your Camera Roll or Photo Library. Simply tap "Add Photo" on each photo you'd like to send, type in or select a recipient (You can use your address book) for your email, enter a subject line and any text you may want, and finally hit send. You've just sent multiple photos in a single email on a Apple iPhone!

*It is important to note, in the settings you have the option to compress the images or not. It is set to on by default.

Welcome to iPhone 101, our help and how-to series for brand new and beginner iPhone users. If you're moving up from a feature phone, you may be surprised to discover one feature the iPhone is missing: MMS. Whether it's still coming, inexplicably omitted, or a callous way to force users into platform and device independent protocols, currently the only way to send a photo from your iPhone is via good old Email. After the break, we'll show you how!

To send a photo, you need to be in either the Photo application or the Camera Roll inside the Camera application.

If you're in the Photo app, first choose the album that contains your photo. If you're in the Camera Roll, you're already good to go.

Either tap the photo you want to send, or swipe sideway to browse through the album and find it. Once you have your photo, if you don't see the menu bar already, tap the screen once to bring it up. On the bottom left, tap the Send Photo icon to slide up your options.

Choose the Email Photo. (If you have MobileMe, you'll see you can also send your Photo directly to your web gallery -- more on that in a future post).

Your photo will shrink a bit and a blank email message will slide up behind it.

Tap on the To: field and start typing to bring up email addresses from your contacts. As as many as you like. You can also tap on the CC/BCC field to copy additional contacts or add blind copies, and to change your Sent From: address if you have more than one email account set up on your iPhone.

Tap Subject to give your email a title, and tap above the photo in the body of the email to add any descriptions or messages you want to go along with your Photo.

When you're happy with your email, hit Send and presto! your email is on its way.

Note: Presently you can only send one photo via email at a time, so you'll have to wait until it finishes sending the email to repeat the process (how long this takes depends on the speed of your connection: fast for WiFi, fast-ish for 3G/HSPA, and slooooow for 2G/EDGE). The email option will be ghosted out while your iPhone is busy, so if you see it available, you'll know you're good to go to send the next Photo.

Let us know how it works for you, and if have any extra tips for new users, please drop them in the comments!

In case you haven't read it already, our editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, has an outstanding article up at sibling-site WMExperts highlighting his top 5 reasons Twitter is better than SMS (and vice versa).

There's a lot of intertube fuss about SMS lately, as a recent New York Times article once again shone the spotlight on the disgustingly dirty price gouging (and potential fixing) that goes on when it comes to SMS rates in North America. Basically, SMS (at 160 bytes/characters) is ridiculously cheap for the carriers to transmit, no matter what the scale, and yet the prices have doubled from $0.10 to $0.20 on many networks over the last few years. Voice, by contrast, involves much more data and is much more "expensive" in terms of infrastructure costs. North Americans will pay ludicrous sums of money for "cheap" SMS but not for "expensive" voice, so the carriers take advantage.

Dieter points out that the cost, community, compatibility, control, and context of Twitter give it a clear advantage of SMS, even as the discoverability, dilution of quality, dropping 20 characters, downtime, and potential delays in notification (outside the US) make it still far from perfect.

Flaws and all, Dieter is moving towards Twitter (@backlon) and away from SMS. Am I going to do the same? I already have (@reneritchie) and without really considering it. But here's the thing -- I have considered that not only should I not have to consider it, I don't think any iPhone user should. (Or any @theiphoneblog follower either!)

I mentioned in my return to the iPhone 3G Round Robin final review that one of the things I'd like to see for the iPhone is a Mobile iChat app, but really taken to the next level. BlackBerry PIN messenger is what puts the "crack" in CrackBerry.com and an always on, multi-tasking Mobile iChat client would go a long way to putting some in the iPhone as well. Beyond that, however, Apple is famous for being the one company that really understands something truly significant for consumer end users:

The interface is the application.

There's already an SMS client on the iPhone, and guess what? It already kind of looks like iChat. If Apple stuck a Mobile iChat client on as well, it could look functionally identical. So why, then, would Apple need to add that client? Some Twitter clients looks functionally very similar to iChat already as well. Why, then, would we need separate Twitter clients?

From a user-perspective, abstracting an application away from the pipes that feed it is a huge win. Take Mobile Mail for example, you can setup a Gmail, Exchange, MobileMe, or other email account, yet the app itself looks and functions the same regardless. Add one account, take another away, and the user experience doesn't change. This means that, behind the scenes, you can pretty much muck around with the pipes, improve them, swap an old one out for a new one, drop a troublesome one for a reliable one, all with very low impact on the front end -- maybe even no impact at all. It's transparent to the end user.

Now imagine there was a presence client on the iPhone -- I'll stick with calling it Mobile iChat to keep it simple. You set up your SMS account, your Twitter, your AIM, MobileMe, Jabber, Google Chat... whatever and then you have one consistent UI that elegantly handles and presents your conversations to you. If one pipe disappears, like Pownce, you just delete that account or foward to another. If a new pipe shows up, like BlackBerry announces PIN-like messenger for the iPhone (breathe Kevin, breathe!) you just add it in.

There are, of course, a bunch of reasons why this isn't likely to happen, and lots of people who prefer to keep their cookies all in separate jars anyway. My personal belief remains, however, that this is the future, and the iPhone is the device that's going to bring us the closest and the fastest to that future.

Of course, there will always be a place for "better" dedicated client apps that provide unique, rich features focused on a single protocol, but who knows, with push email, maybe all inter-personal text communications could eventually fold into a single unified, consistent, experience. It would, at the very least, be nice to have as a hyper-productivity meets connectivity option. wouldn't it?

Update: Wide Email developer Patrick Barry comments below that, according to Macrumors, FOUR landscape email front-ends popped up on the App Store last night, including his own.

We are finally getting closer and closer to the perfect iPhone no? If Apple will not give it to us, 3rd party developers are our only hope. (Whether it is via jailbreaking or Apple's official App Store.)

TouchType (iTunes Link) is a new app available now in the App Store for the low price of $.99 -- a small price to pay for those of you just craving some landscape email action. Now all that is left is some SMS landscape love.

Here's a brief overview of how it works: Open the application and you get a landscape mode keypad, get your email groove on, tap the send button and it automatically sends it to the email application. Type in the email addresses and you’re all set.

Is it ideal? That depends on you. It may be, may not be... but it is just one step closer to the perfection we all seek.

[Rene: And if you're asking how this slipped by the Apple rejection police when MailWrangler got given the boot... Our guess is Apple is fine with an App handing off text to MobileMail to send, just not doing the sending/receiving themselves...]

[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post -- or any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Note that you must post with a valid and real email address so we can send you your prize -- no switching!]

More and more people are switching to the iPhone. They’re switching from Palm and Windows Mobile and Blackberry smartphones to the iPhone. They’re switching carriers to get the iPhone. And now that the next-gen iPhone 3G is all but upon us, and more and more regions are announcing their plans and pricing, the switching is only going to get faster and more furious.

To celebrate the switchers, those who dare to phone different, the iPhone Blog wants to help you get your content off your old, perhaps restrictive and outdates systems, and onto your shiny, new iPhone.

We've already gone over how to move your music, movies, and other media to iTunes, so now it's time to get with the data: contacts, calendars, and email.

Read on to find out how!

This article assumes you’re switching from another smartphone, like Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or Palm, and are new to the iTunes + iPod (and iPhone!) ecosystem. It also assumes you're a dedicated Windows user or someone who just recently switched from Windows to the Mac and needs to transfer content to an iPhone.

Since longtime iPod (and Mac) aficionados will almost certainly already be using iTunes and the typical Mac applications, your iPhone will sync your content via iTunes the same as it would any other iPod. And, hey, if you’re a Linux (or any other *nix) user, I figure you’ve kept your content open from the get-go, and already know 18 different ways to get it onto your unlocked, jailbroken iPhone hax0red with Open Moko anyway...

"Push" First: Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Apple MobileMe

With iPhone firmware 2.0, everything changes. Why lead with this? Because if you intend to use either Exchange and/or MobileMe with your iPhone, you can read this section and you're pretty much done. (Or at least you can skip ahead to photos at the end -- though be sure to download iTunes anyway for your media). With Exchange and MobileMe (billed as Exchange for the rest of us), iTunes data sync is eliminated, cables are eliminated, and intermittent syncing becomes a thing of the past. With these "push" solutions, everything is automagically updated wirelessly (via WiFi or EDGE/HSPA cell network). Change something in Outlook and a few seconds later, your iPhone will show the same changes. Tweak some data on your iPhone, and a few seconds later, MobileMe's website will show the same tweak.

(Not using ActiveSync or MobileMe? No worries. Skip to the next section and we'll start setting up iTunes for local sync!)

So, to simply and easily set up most of your syncing using iPhone 2.0: tap Settings, tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars (Just Mail if you're doing Exchange on iPhone 1.x), tap Add Account, and then select the type of account you would like to add.

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

ActiveSync makes its debut with iPhone 2.0, and doesn't function on the older, 1.x firmware, so if you intend to use it, make sure you have an iPhone 3G or have updated your original iPhone (2G) to the latest firmware as of July 11, 2008. To setup Exchange ActiveSync, tape the logo for it. If you're using Exchange 2007 on the back end, you may be able to automatically set up your account. If you can't, or are using an old version of Exchange -- or just in general due to the complex and fussy nature of setting up an Exchange account in general -- you're best practice is to check with your Exchange administrator (or hosted service provider).

Apple MobileMe (formerly .Mac)

MobileMe, Apple's replacement for .Mac and it's "Exchange for the Rest of Us". It will sync, wirelessly, over the air (OTA), contacts, calendars, mail, and photos between the iPhone and your Mac (with the aforementioned Address Book, iCal, Mail.app, and iPhoto) and/or PC (with Outlook). MobileMe will debut on July 11, 2008 alongside iPhone 3G and the 2.0 firmware, and should "just work" once you enter in your MobileMe username and password (previous users of .Mac will keep the same credentials, and will be able to use either user@mac.com or user@me.com interchangeably).

Local Sync: Getting iTunes

What Data Does iTunes Sync?

If you already have your data in Outlook, you're good to go for the iPhone. If you have it in another application, or scattered among a few applications... well, we'll get to that in a moment.

On the Mac side, iTunes "just works" with Apple's default applications, Address Book, iCal, Mail.app, Safari, and iPhoto, or with Microsoft's Entourage. Since sync services, contacts, calendaring, etc. are all "CoreServices" handled at the OS level, once you check the appropriate boxes in iTunes, the automagic process is almost transparent. You can even sync to Microsoft Office Entourage (Outlook's ugly step-sibling on the Mac side) by syncing Entourage with the default apps via CoreServices.

Similarly, if you don't have your data in these Mac apps yet, or have it scattered elsewhere, we'll also get to that in a moment.

Now let's break it down...

Syncing Your Contacts

These three protocols are all supported from directly within iTunes. If you have your contacts in one of them, simply choose the appropriate program from the drop-down in iTunes and your information will be moved right over to your iPhone.

From Apple OS X: Address Book, Yahoo! Address Book, and Google Contacts

On the Mac version of iTunes, you can check both Apple's Address Book and Yahoo! Address Book if you so choose. (I keep things simple -- and fear duplicates -- so I recommend picking one and sticking with it.)

If you're running OS X Leopard 10.5.3 or later, you can also sync your Gmail Contacts with your iPhone, using a more round-about method: launch Address Book, select Preferences from the Address Book menu, and check the box next to Synchronize with Google. Once set up, this will sync your Google Contacts to your Address Book, and then iTunes will sync them from Address Book to your iPhone.

From Everywhere Else: Thunderbird, Windows Live, Google Contacts

If you have your contacts in anything other than the above-mentioned programs or services, you'll have to move them over before you can sync them with the iPhone. Many programs/services allow you to export CSV files or vCards, including: Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Windows Live, and Google Contacts.

Once you've got your export file, simply import the contacts back into Outlook, Address Book, Yahoo! Address Book and you're golden.

Syncing Your Calendar

For reasons known only to Apple and Microsoft, Outlook is your only calendar/event choice for syncing with the iPhone. (The drop down is so far only a merciless tease at options yet (maybe never?) to come).

From Apple OS X: iCal

Like Windows, OS X provides only one option for calendar sync: iCal (and not even a drop down to tease more.) Check it and go.

From Everywhere Else: Google Calendar, Windows Calendar, etc.

Many popular Calendar programs are compatible with the iCalendar format, which allows you to publish and/or subscribe from one program (and even platform) to another. Using this feature, you can try to move your data over your iPhone. Here's an example using Google Calendar:

You can subscribe to Google Calendars through Outlook on Windows, or use the Google Calendar Sync utility. Unfortunately the iPhone thus far doesn't reliably sync from anything besides the Outlook default Calendar, which means the subscribed Google Calendar doesn't get moved over unless you use a commercial product like the Paul Thurrott referenced SyncMyCal.

For Mac users a one way (Google to iPhone) work-around involves subscribing to your Google Calendar. From Google Calendar: Click on the Calendar Settings drop down, click on Private Address, and click on iCal to generate a private address for your Google Calendar especially designed for iCal. Copy the URL and open iCal. Inside iCal: Select the Calendar menu and click on Subscribe, then paste in the Private Address you copied from Google Calendar. Next time you sync, iCal will feed your Google Calendar to your iPhone. For bi-directional sync (Google to iPhone and iPhone to Google), there's the commercial Spanning Sync, and you can try the demo before you buy.

Theoretically, you could also try exporting and importing XML, CSV, or another cross-program file, although in my experience this often requires a vast amount of work (and Googling, and message board begging...)

Syncing Your Email

Two options for Windows users, the ubiquitous Outlook and Windows Mail (which I believe is an "upgrade" to the horrible Outlook Express rather a desktop version of the far superior WIndows Live Mail -- tsk tsk to both Apple and Microsoft).

From Apple OS X: Mail.app

Still only one choice from Apple OS X users, however: Apple's default mail client, the eponymous Mail.app. Again, just one checkbox, to keep with the ultra simple groove. (Usability over options is a mantra).

From Everywhere Else: Google Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Microsoft Live/Hotmail, etc.

Yahoo! Mail can be setup as an IMAP email account on your iPhone, which means your Yahoo! Mail folders on your iPhone will exactly match your folders on Yahoo!'s website and vice versa. Also, Yahoo! provides "push" email for the iPhone, meaning changes to one will be reflected automatically and near-instantly in the other, just like Exchange ActiveSync and MobileMe (but without the calendar and contacts sync).

You can also set up your Gmail account, including the new Gmail IMAP service which works like Yahoo! Mail -- but without the "push" -- keeping your web, local client (i.e. Outlook, Mail, etc.), and web-based views synchronized at user-definable intervals (manually, every 10 minutes, etc.).

Unfortunately, since they don't (to the best of my knowledge) surface any open, standard protocols like IMAP or POP, Microsoft Live/Hotmail accounts can't easily be synced with the iPhone. Your options include signing up for a Yahoo! or Gmail account and manually moving the messages over to your new, IMAP-happy account, or you can try this free solution and see if it works for you.

For any ISP mail, you can simply set up the iPhone as a POP (or IMAP if they offer it -- much better!) client.

Syncing Your Bookmarks

iTunes supports syncing over all your bookmarks from Internet Explorer (hopefully the much more secure and standards friendly IE 7, right?) and Windows Safari (Apple's own browser). Hierarchies will be preserved, so think about how you'll use your booksmarks both on the desktop and the iPhone, and organize a good middle ground.

From Apple Mac OS X: Safari

No choices here. Check Safari and move along.

From Everywhere Else: Firefox, Opera, etc.

If you're using Firefox, Opera, or another Firefox-like (Mozilla Gecko powered), or Safari-like (Apple WebKit powered) browser, is to try and import your bookmarks into Internet Explorer or Safari (export first via HTML if you have to).

If you want to keep using Firefox (or another browser) for desktop use, there's no way to keep your bookmarks synced, unfortunately, but you can delete the IE or Safari bookmarks (since you're not using them) and re-import a fresh, updated set whenever you like.

Syncing Your Photos

For Windows users, the procedure to sync photos to the iPhone is as simple as it is non-powerful. Put all the photos you want to sync in a folder (or hierarchy of folders if you want to separate them out, e.g., Family, Friends, Birthday, etc.) and then select that folder in iTunes.

From Apple Mac OS X: iPhoto and Folder Sync

For Mac users, in addition to the folder sync described above, you can also chose to sync from Apple's iPhoto application, either your complete library, or from selected sub-libraries.

From Everywhere Else: Yahoo! Flickr, Facebook, Google Picasa, etc.

If you keep your photo collection online (i.e. Flickr, Facebook, Photoshop Express, Windows Live, etc.), you're going to have to target a desktop backup, or download the photos you want on your iPhone to a local directory. Put all the photos you want to sync in one folder, and make sure you note down the location of that folder (e.g. iPhone Photos). This will be the folder you target inside iTunes as described above.

For Picasa, make sure you organize all the pictures you want on your iPhone into one folder, or a hierachy of folders, and then that will be the folder your target from inside iTunes, also as described above.

Wait! Help! My Data is Stuck On My Phone!

From the Original iPhone (iPhone 2G) to iPhone 3G

Apple provides excellent directions for upgrading to the iPhone 3G.

From RIM Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Palm Treo (Windows Mobile OS)

Blackberry's are data monsters. Data -- all of it, all now, all the time -- is the only reason for a Blackberry. It's why RIM invented the Blackberry. Windows Mobile, whether running on a Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Palm, or whatever device, is made to integrate with other Microsoft products like Exchange, ActiveSync, and Outlook/Entourage. (Note: Always make sure you have the latest/greatest firmware, patches, updates, etc. from your phone carrier and platform provider).

From a Blackberry or ActiveSync perspective, pretty much all business users will have an Exchange server of one kind or another available to them. Just use ActiveSync on your new iPhone 2.0 and you're good to go. (Check with IT if you have to, especially for the settings information).

If you don't have a business Exchange server but you do have access to a Windows computer with Microsoft Outlook on it, sync your Blackberry to Outlook, then Outlook to your iPhone.

For Mac users, check out Markspace, which provides a variety of phone-specific syncing solutions especially for the Mac. They're not free, but the time and effort they'll save you are well worth it. (I used to it get my data off a Palm OS Treo 680 into the default Apple apps and it worked seamlessly).

If you don' have any of the above available to you, try a hosted Exchange service, even temporarily. Sync your Blackberry data to that, then ActiveSync it to your new iPhone, and cancel the hosted Exchange service.

From Palm OS Treo

Palm OS (Garnet) Treo's can work similarly to the above if you have ActiveSync installed (or download it from Palm's website -- warning, direct file link!) and access to an Exchange server (business or hosted). 

Similarly if you have access to Outlook. If you're stuck in Palm Desktop, you'll first have to find your Palm install CD and go through the setup again, choosing Outlook instead.

(Mac users, see Markspace, above).

From a Feature Phone

If you don't have a smartphone, but are coming instead from a standard consumer feature phone (candybar or flip phone from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, etc.) and have data on there you really don't want to retype, you can try looking for a data transfer kit that matches your phone. These vary widely in form, availability, and functionality, and will cost you money and time, but if you have both check out Howard Forums or even Google. Search and ask around. Be key word specific (i.e. "transfer data nokia model# outlook". Best of luck, and please share what you find in case others are trying out the same.

Conclusion

Well, there they are, my tips and tricks for getting your data off the old and outdated just in time for your brand new iPhone 3G/2.0. But try as I might, I know our readers — the real data ninjas — have a whole host of sneaky black magic all their own.

What are your best tips and tricks? Drop a comment and let us know!

No need for double-takes. You didn't click the wrong link. Just breath, dig deeply, and stick with me for a moment. Yes, you really are still reading the iPhone blog.

For a 1.0 device, the iPhone knocked the ball -- if not out of the park -- soundly into the fence, and sent a complacent industry fumbling and flurrying to catch it. But no device, not even from Apple, could get everything perfect the first time at bat. Now, I've pretty much staked my turf here by playfully poking a little bit of fun at the competition but, truth be known, when they're not wasting their time on iClones every platform and handset has some great -- even killer -- features to recommend it. In that spirit, here's my top 5 list of what Apple should seriously consider stealing... er... learning from the competition if they want to hit a home run with 2.0 and beyond...

5. Blackberry's Email Management

RIM is the undeniably #1 in smartphone market share, but they come in at #5 on my list for the simple reason that, while what they do well they do phenomenally well, as a platform I think that very maturity has led to little innovation, and hence little (and narrow) potential to mine for iPhone improvements.

That said, they are the email monster for a reason. With one major caveat, nobody does email bigger or better than Blackberry and while Twitter, IM, VoIP, video chat, and other technologies old and new battle it out for communication domination, email remains the mainstay of the mainstream, business and consumer alike, and in that regard Apple has something important to learn from Blackberry.

What Blackberry Does Right

Blackberry does email to the point where the two are almost synonymous. Push notwithstanding, when it comes to managing email, the Blackberry is a beast. It's simply the best there is at what it does.

What Apple Could Do Better

RIM uses a centralized Network Operations Center (NOC) to handle all Blackberry messaging everywhere, providing true, near-instantaneous "push" to thousands and thousands of Crackberrians each and every moment. But here's that major caveat: it's a single point of failure. Outages, from carrier to regional to network-wide have increasingly plagued the service, as have privacy and security concerns.

With the upcoming 2.0 update, the iPhone will support the ActiveSync "push" technology Apple licensed from Microsoft. ActiveSync eschews the "one NOC to manage it all" and instead simulates "push" between local Exchange Server and mobile client -- in this case, the iPhone. If someone else's Exchange Server -- even Microsoft's in Redmond -- goes down, it effects your iPhone service not one bit.

That just leaves the iPhone MobileMail app itself. Fairly easy to set up and use, it still remains a challenge to manage multiple accounts and messages. Better mass-mail handling, especially for important functions like delete, is imperative (and is rumored to be coming with 2.0 as well).

Beyond that, however, better organization is needed. A single, unified inbox, like the one on the desktop Mail.app would be a great first step, followed by the ability to hide selected, seldom-used IMAP folders to clear up some clutter.

Speaking of IMAP, since MobileMail can "see" IMAP folders for Calendar, Apple Mail To Do, etc. better integration with the iPhone Calendar and Notes application (and dare we dream -- Task app?), seems natural given what's been done in OS X 10.5 Leopard's Mail.app.

And since the spammers seem intent on mail-bombing the internet back to the stone age, some client-side anti-spam filters would also be most welcome.

Taken together, these improvements would go a long way to making the iPhone king of the next email generation.

4. Palm's Click Counting

We want powerful, we want beautiful, and -- dangit! -- we want drop dead easy to use. Great design is functional design, great user experience is intuitive, almost transparent experience. Apple nails this to a large degree. I've said it before, but my two-and-a-half year old godson can pretty much navigate his way around the iPhone, from pictures to camera to notes (his ABCs) to calculator (his 123s) which unbelievable ease and accomplishment. But there remain a few problem areas.

Palm OS, dinosaur that it is, has legendary ease of use. Rumor has it that early Palm developers, like co-founder Jeff Hawkins, literally counted each and every "click" it took for a user to accomplish a task, and did everything possible to optimize and minimize that number. It has failed miserably to keep up with the times, but in a few key ways (no pun intended!) it's still timeless.

What Palm Does Right

Palm understands moving around a mobile device like nobody else. Almost every task can be accomplished with just a few touches, clicks, or key presses. Brian has already covered the ease of entering appointment/calendar data on in the constantly-saved model of the Palm OS, and I'd add past innovations like photo speed dialing (which seems a natural for the iPhone, and ironically was a Palm innovation for their first Windows Mobile device, and requires a 3rd party add on for Palm's own OS!). TreoCentral.com no doubt has many more examples. Though perhaps not as practical on an all-touch device, even little things like typing to begin a contact search or call are all time-saving techniques mastered by the Zen of Palm, and a spirit the iPhone could easily learn.

What Apple Could do Better

In addition to being so old its joints creak and crack every time it turns around, the Palm OS lacks the power to deliver a modern user experience, and bizarrely lacks standardization even across its own device platform (besides the aforementioned lack of photo dialing on the Palm side, GSM and CDMA phones have sported different dialing apps, some modernized while others are left to languish in whatever layer of hell 1990 monochrome aliased bitmaps are condemned).

Adding photo dialing to the iPhone would be trivial. All the Quartz and Core Graphics/Animation services are there, just begging for an Apple take.

Likewise improved calendar entry: tapping on an empty slot should bring up a New Event editor the same way tapping on a filled one brings up a viewer. And data should be saved automatically unless specifically cancelled. The mobile world is both more prone to interruptions and less forgiving of them, after all.

The sideways flick currently used to move between photos, Weather app cities, and other information surfaces could be leveraged more widely as well to speed up functionality. Let me flick between album lists while a song is playing, or email folders from one account to the next.

Digging down into, and backing up out of stacked screens is so iPod Classic.

3. Windows Mobile/HTC Speeds, Feeds, and Divergent Needs

As any WMExpert would tell you, Windows Mobile -- in Microsoft's most favoritist model -- is not a product but a platform. So, I'm adding in stalwart hardware manufacturer HTC to round out the reference. Before we get too deeply into that, however, it's worth remembering that the Microsoft model makes for an almost diametrically opposed situation to Apple's. At the time of this writing, there is only 1 iPhone model, from 1 manufacturer, on 1 US-based carrier. Last count, there were 3.2 gazillion Windows Mobile phones across a plethora of OS variations (standard, smartphone... er... purple?) and innumerable manufacturing SKU's not only from HTC, but Palm, Motorola, and even Symbian co-founder Sony Ericsson, among others, which run on every carrier and it's multitude of resellers.

But Apple's end-to-end control of the device, while giving it an undeniable edge in stability and user experience, comes at the cost of variety and individual configurability.

Back in the dark days of tech support we used to joke that if you were in Mac support, every question had a simple "yes, here's how..." or "no, sorry" answer, while if you were in Windows support, every question inevitably started with "maybe" and led to hours and hours of digging, tweaking, and testing. And in many ways, the same holds true with the iPhone today: One feature set and a limited range of settings. And in very narrow ways, that leaves room for Apple to learn something from Windows Mobile.

What Windows Mobile Does Right

Again, I'm including HTC in this equation, and from that standpoint, they deserve credit for upping the game with a VGA quality screen and a release schedule that allows them to continuously field the latest and greatest mobile processors.

On the Windows Mobile side proper, the beast is so infinitely tweak-able it might as well be a hobbyist kit. Dig deep enough, and you can find settings for how you'd like your settings, and settings for those settings as well.

What Apple Could Do Better

While my heart remains set on a Nano-esque 202dpi screen (the current iPhone is 160dpi) bringing 720p to the mobile world, I would realistically expect VGA's 640x480 in the next revision. The iPhone, with the video-out cables, is already capable of pumping 640x480 to your TV, why not to the iPhone screen? And while a yearly, single product release cycle doesn't give much room for proc bumps, going beefy from the start, and getting the new chips early like Apple does with their laptops and desktops, would keep up the cutting-edge tradition and reputation, and help see devices healthily though their annual life cycles. (This might even be something proprietary chips via the recent PA Semi purchase could help with...)

On the configuration side, while Windows Mobile has 'em, they've also left them pretty much scattered every which where but under under a unified Settings area, which is precisely where the iPhone sorts them. However, though its certainly understandable that Apple is focusing on the casual user, surfacing some lower-level options a la Windows Mobile, organized and implemented with Apple's fit and finish, would go a long way to appeasing power users who currently turn to jailbreaking in a desperate attempts to get closer to the metal. On the Mac side, there are 3rd party apps that create GUIs for otherwise Terminal-only settings, and while I'm not suggesting (though maybe pipe dreaming a little...) that Apple should provide an official way to get Terminal up on the iPhone, an Advanced button that allowed for more options and deeper tweaking would be a happy medium for many users.

(What, you thought I'd beat the dead horse of cut and paste?)

2. Nokia's Mobile Video Creation

"I'm streaming live right now, come chat!" is pure Twitter bacon (like spam, but you opted in to it). Many tech pundits, who are also iPhone users, love the Web 2.1 ability to stream video from anywhere and everywhere, whether it's Robert Scoble shoving a camera in front of economic powerhouses, or the infinitely better looking Cali Lewis demoing Wii fit for the good of the masses, or the first lady of Apple (and self-confessed Jobstalker) iJustine zooming down the highway, live streaming video, especially live streaming mobile video, is the latest IT thing.

Many (most?) of these bleeding edge technojournalists are also Apple fans and devoted iPhone users. So, the fact that they're all using N95's to stream their mobile videos shows that Apple could learn something from Nokia.

What Nokia Does Right

Say what you want about Nokia's Soviet-military design aesthetic and their rather pathetic North American release schedules, they know how to throw a camera at a smart phone. The N95 sports a massive 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and DVD(ish) caliber video capture. This compares to the rapidly obsoleting 2 megapixel cam on the iPhone, which also fails to enjoy any Apple-provided video capture (which means jailbreaking and loading unsupported third party apps are your only current option).

So, while Apple and the iPhone's built-in iPod rules the roost when it comes to consuming mobile media, the N95 can't be touched when it comes to creating that media on the go. This is why all those aforementioned iPhone toting blogerati, when they clog my Twitter feed with their live streaming announcements, are streaming live via the N95.

What Apple Could Do Better

There have been rumors of an upcoming iChat Mobile application, and even video conferencing, and that's a start. Apple, however, stands alone in 360 degree spherical integration, and while they don't have as massive a footprint in most of them the way Microsoft might, they at least have a toe in all of them, from hardware, to software, to services, from production, to processing, to deployment, to consumption. You can fire up Final Cut Pro on your iMac, create a movie, upload it to .Mac and sync a copy to your iPhone. Imagine that power harnessed around mobile media creation?

Right now, QIK and Nokia need each other to produce streaming video (while the N95's battery lasts, that is). Imagine an iPhone with a decent camera and video capture that could stream live via, or send recorded clips to, .Mac gallery. And imagine if Apple took the much-needed step of enabling support for UstreamTV, stickam, Flickr, and YouTube.

Coupled with seamless integration with the Mac, iMovie 08, and higher end apps, and -- BOOM -- the king of mobile media consumption becomes the king of mobile media creation as well.

Everyone could be a life-caster.

1. Android's Cloud and Location Based Services

I know. Android is still somewhere between vaporware and the eternal beta tag that hounds so many of Google's initiatives. How could they be my #1? Here's the thing: with a few notable exceptions (we'll get to those in a paragraph or two), they're batting nearly 1000 on all "cloud services" right now. And the cloud is the future.

What are cloud services? Most of us run applications locally on our computers. We buy software, install it, and use it to save files on our hard drive. Cloud services change that game entirely. They run applications on servers (often huge data centers) that we access via our browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox), or through a dedicated client (iTunes, Sidebar Objects, Dashboard Widgets, etc.). Instead of buying them, we get them for free, sponsored by advertising, or via paid subscription. And instead of saving files locally, we have the option of saving them on the same servers (and data centers) the services themselves run on. We may lose some potential privacy and control, but we gain the advantage of multiple backups scattered over many geographies to preserve our data. If you think this doesn't sound too different than the old server-client model, or the Sun and Oracle predictions of the network being the computer, you're right. Just on a far greater scale.

What are location-based services? According to Google, the next gold rush. It's tying the cloud in to your current location, based on WiFi, and better yet -- GPS coordinates.

Apple provides some of these services already, with .Mac mail, iDisk storage, .Mac galleries, Back-to-my-Mac, and Sync, and rumors indicate they may be amping it up with IMAP IDLE-style "push" email and PIM sync, and maybe even a complete revamp with the next release, but they still could learn a lot from Google.

What Google Does Right

Confession: I'm a .Mac subscriber. Yes, it's buggy and overpriced, but Back-to-my-Mac and the Sync features alone were enough to lure me in. Nevertheless, Google owns this space. They're predicted to earn more than Microsoft's Windows + Office monopoly soon, and some say that's only the beginning. Indeed, the entire raison-d'être for Android is to give away an OS in hopes of getting Google's services onto more phones and thus, into more hands.

They want you to meet an old friend over one of their Open Social powered networks, use their email to contact the old friend, their search to find a great diner near the both of you, their calendar to schedule a lunch, their Docs suite to get some work done while you're waiting, their Blogger to write up the event, and their Picasa gallery to store pictures of your reunion. (All with tasteful text and banner ads, tuned per your interests and location, served up along with your results and data)

What's more, many of their cloud services allow for easy collaboration. You can share your calendar, work on your spreadsheet along with some colleagues logged in back at the office, and publish everything online for the world to see.

And the most important piece -- indeed the missing link up until recently -- Google Gears allows for offline persistence; you can keep using many of your cloud apps and cloud-stored data even when you don't have a WiFi or cell connection. If you have to get on a plane to see your old friend, you can keep typing away, and when you land everything will sync back up.

What Apple Could Do Better

Where Google strikes out is integration. Their offerings are a disjointed and sometimes disoriented mishmash of homebrews and buyouts, with nowhere near the cohesive user experience or inter-offering leverage Apple could provide. Until recently, some services didn't even work under a single login. There are also huge holes in their offerings, like Amazon S3- or Microsoft Skydrive-like storage (yes, you can rig up gDrive, but I'm talking official offerings here).

Apple already has some of these holes filled (iDisk), but are missing many more pieces themselves. There are suggestions Apple doesn't "get" social networking (or doesn't want to get it). But an easy to use blogging service built into .Mac and the iPhone would be an excellent start. And given Apple's existing "Cult of Mac", a social network tied into that admittedly snobbish demographic would be an easy sell as well. Tie it into the location-based services (opt-in, of course) and suddenly the cloud network takes on physicality as well. Instead of "Steve's Twittering: Meet up at the Mothership after Keynote", Steve can see how many of his friends and contacts are already at Keynote, and tying into search, calendar, IM, and other services could make for a very easy workflow to set up the meet.

This brings me back to the integration. The way Contacts flows into the Apple client for Google Maps gives a hint at how it should "just work". The iPhone Maps app in general shows that Apple can make hybrid client/cloud software better than anyone on the planet. Imagine that leveraged across the device?

Get an email with a spreadsheet, and instead of just a preview, you could launch iWork Online, make your edits, and have them available to all team (or family -- Apple's consumer focus!) members instantly. Still working when you get on that plane? Newer versions of WebKit promise offline modes with database support for just such an eventuality, and WebKit is the foundation of the iPhone's MobileSafari browser, and much of its data rendering in general).

And once the iPhone scales, and iPhone data starts to get aggregated and leveraged (with firm privacy and security policies!) for the benefit of other iPhone users, watch out. Today's social networks and sharing proof-of-concepts will looks positively anemic.

Apple (or an Apple/Google alliance even?) could get an immediate edge going into the next great paradigm shift in computer technology.

Conclusion

So there you have them: better Blackberry-style email management, Treo-centric focus on click counting, Windows Mobile-ish configurability, Nokia inspired mobile video production, and Google Android beating cloud services are my top 5 things the iPhone could learn from the competition.

Is Apple already thinking along these lines? We'll have to wait for WWDC -- and likely Macworld 2009 -- to know for sure. How about you? If Apple could take 5 things from the competition to improve YOUR iPhone, what would they be?

Updating yesterday's story about .Mac getting the push-email treatment in iPhone 2.0, TUAW's tipsters are back with this little gem:

According to our anonymous tipster, .Mac will undergo a complete revamp that will coincide with the iPhone 2.0 launch (which everyone expects to occur at WWDC 08).

Again with the asking and receiving, eh?

Rumored highlights for the updated .Mac include full wireless (cell + wifi?) calendar, contacts, and email (an Apple Exchange anyone?) and .Mac support for -- you guessed it! -- Windows.

First El Jobso gives PC users a cool glass of iTunes and iPhone, and now a possible consumer-centric push service.

Did I mention how June can't come fast enough yet?

A strange thing happens around the corporate office when I whip out my iPhone and check email, place a call, or browse Safari. There is first silence, then Also Sprach Zarathustra (theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) slowly builds to a crescendo and my office colleagues gather like early man around the mysterious black monolith.

You see, like most offices across the land, we use mostly Blackberries. Now, I'm not sayin' that these BB toters are Neanderthal, pre-man or apes; I mean, they have to have opposable thumbs to work the keyboard, right? I'm merely pointing out that my iPhone is the ONLY iPhone on the premises and somehow I get my work done and keep track of my schedule, contacts and email, just like everyone else. Read on to see if your iPhone can survive in a hostile work environment!

Will It Work?

If you read a previous article of mine, Trippin' with my iPhone, I discussed the merits of the iPhone as a great travel companion and a multi-functional consumer's dream device -- truly a little slice of heaven. Writing that article really got me thinking about how I could effectively use my iPhone at work -- no jailbreaking, no SDK, just the pure, unadulterated Jobsian iPhone fresh out of the box. Could I compete with my BB denizens?

Some of the criticisms I've endured at work go something like these:

• "You don't have true push email."
• "Where's your task list? How will you get anything done if you don't have a task list?!?"
• "You can't receive and accept important meeting invitations." --- hmmmm. Not sure this is a BAD thing. I'm-not-saying-I'm-just-saying.

Even with the much-anticipated 3rd-party apps and forthcoming Exchange support, I've found my iPhone to be a worthy business phone. Although I am sometimes scoffed at by my BB toting peers, I remind them of the aforementioned iPhone upgrades and tell them in my best John Lithgow's Dr. Lizardo of Buckaroo Banzai fame voice: "Laugh-uh while you can, monkey-boy!"

Can the iPhone compete in its current incarnation as a business phone? There are several reasons why I believe it can. I'll now go into further detail about each of those reasons.

Let Me Pencil You Into My Calendar App

In my experience as a Palm user, WM dabbler and a little time on my brother's Blackberry, I've found the iPhone's Calendar to be at least on par with the rest. I can enter the Title and Location, Start and End time for the appointment or activity, set it as a repeating event, set an alert to remind me, and even enter some additional notes. My only gripe is the redundancy required when saving an appointment. There are a few times I've entered everything and forgot to touch "Done" when I was finished. Unlike most of the competition, the iPhone saves nothing unless you tap that "Done" button.

The other drawback is the inability to accept appointments and meetings. The way I work around this is accept (or decline) the meeting on my desktop, then when I sync my iPhone, it's all there in the Calendar. Easy as pie. For me, the iPhone has worked fine for my business and personal calendar.

Visual Voicemail - Anything Less Is SO Twentieth Century!

Even the concept of Visual Voicemail; the ability to see my voicemail graphically, then pick and choose which ones I wanted to listen to, delete, or call back in any order; sold me from the start. I used to dread voicemail and tolerate it as a necessary evil. I have never enjoyed skimming through all of my voicemail to get to the one that is REALLY important. Now, it's a breeze on my iPhone. Tap, listen, delete. Tap, listen, do nothing = saved. Voicemail is now painless and, dare I say, fun. That feature alone has made me the envy of my colleagues.

Make Contact with your Contacts

The iPhone makes even something as mundane as your Contact list a joy to work with and browse. I just flip my finger and scroll along, or even easier, just tap the letter corresponding to my contact's first or last name (depending on how you've arranged your contacts). It's also extremely easy to add a photo to a contact -- either take a new photo on the spot or choose an existing photo from your iPhone's Photo Albums. Contacts on an iPhone and contacts on anything else (BB, WM, Palm, etc.) are all pretty much the same regarding content, but the iPhone's interface just seems to do it all with a bit more style and panache. Again, a worthy Contact app for the business world. If I need to accept a virtual business card, I just do it on my desktop and sync.

Email - It's Not Just For BB Anymore

Let's face it. The BB is an emailing machine. When you think corporate email, you think Blackberry. This has been THE greatest shortcoming of the iPhone being a competent business device, particularly on the enterprise level. With that said, are you wondering how I am getting my corporate email without a BB? I have an answer for you. Gather around; listen carefully; I shall whisper softly this marvelous secret.

Ah, shucks. It's really not a secret, it's just more about schmoozing your I.T. department than implementing some kind of secretive technological wizardry. I merely asked I.T. if they can change a setting on the server to forward a copy of all my work email to my .mac account (or you can go with AOL, Gmail, etc.). Presto! I now get all my work email on my iPhone by virtue of my .mac email address. This does create some redundancy (email at both my desktop work email account AND on my iPhone), but I don't mind. If I delete an email on the desktop, it updates my iPhone, and vice versa. With all due respect to my BB Email Monster toting cohorts, I don't feel like I'm really missing anything. If autocheck every 15 minutes isn't soon enough, then the person trying to reach me can text or call me.

Without A TASK List, How Do You Get Anything Done??

I must admit, I miss the native task lists I can create on my WM and Palm devices. Notes on the iPhone just doesn't cut it. However, there IS a workaround on this point too (bet you figured I had one, eh?). For me, it's as simple as creating a Calendar entry for a task needing completion. I just look at my Calendar, and there's the reminder. Once I've completed the task, I delete the Calendar entry.

Conference Calls the iPhone Way

Yes, other devices can be used for conference calls, and the iPhone is no different in function. Like many other things, however, its not about what the iPhone does, but HOW the iPhone does it. Recently I hosted a conference call with a colleague in California, two in Utah, and an attorney in the Philippines. I was sweating it a little because it was an important call and I had yet to use the iPhone's Conference Call features. The request for me to host the call was a last-second decision and I hadn't even read up on conferencing with the iPhone. Fortunately, user interface is really where the iPhone shines.

I called the main number for the conference and entered the access number for "host". With the three State-side colleagues now on the call, I placed them on hold and dialed the attorney in the Philippines. Once getting him on the line, I just tapped "Merge" and we were now all on the same call together. I used "Speakerphone" and could hear and was heard loud and clear. It was a smooth and seamless conference call experience, all handled from my iPhone. That, my friends, is good business.

Wrapping It All Up

Is the iPhone a perfect business phone? No. IS there a perfect business phone? No again. However, I've found that I can use my iPhone at work and still perform pretty much all the basic business functions that my other phones can perform. I would argue that the iPhone is superior in some areas, like the ease-of-use in setting up a conference call. When in the business world, I want something that just plain works and does it in the easiest way possible so I can save time and, therefore, money.

Even now, the iPhone is a worthy player in the business world. I am very excited to see how much more useful the iPhone will be at work once the 3rd party app and Exchange floodgates are open.

Until then, leave a comment (or two!) about your work-related iPhone experiences or what you think the future will be for the iPhone in the workplace!

Have a question about your iPhone? Email us with "Ask PD" in the subject line!

Patrick writes in:

I updated to 1.1.3 and love it but now I am being asked for my email [...] all the time when I click on mail and it isn’t storing it.. also it isn’t storing the voicemail password.. can you help me out please so I don’t have to go back to 1.1.2

Eep. Looks like you're one of the many to experience weirdness with 1.1.3, my sincere condolences.

When it comes to fixing weird bugs like this I am personally fond of the brute force methodology. Plug in your iPhone and sync it up. Next step, make sure you have all your email sitting safely on your desktop email client. Then, in iTunes, click that scary "Restore" button under your iPhone's "Summary" settings. This will erase everything (including your music) and then you can re-sync it. I'd then recommend setting it up as a "fresh device" instead of telling it was the previous device. You should then be able to re-set everything up, from your music to your contact list to your email.

If you're not fond of the "brute force" method above, the other thing to try is to just delete that email account on your iPhone and re-set it up. As for your voicemail, well, I guess I'd try to do the same. Honestly, though, I'm going to pitch this one to the Phone different community.

Somebody have a better fix for Patrick that doesn't involve a full restore?

(p.s. This is not strictly related to your question, but I'd also recommend maybe switching your email away from your current address to Gmail or Yahoo. The benefit is that you will be able to use that even if you switch ISPs. Yahoo will give you instant push, Gmail will give you sweet sweet IMAP support)