Interested in selling or giving away your old iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad but need to know how to make sure you've erased all your personal information from the device first? Luckily Apple makes it easy to securely wipe all your data. We'll show you how after the break.

Although we highly suggest performing a full firmware restore and setting up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as "new", if you're not near your computer you can still get the job done:

1. Tap the 'Settings' icon
2. Tap 'General'
3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap 'Reset'
4. Tap 'Erase All Content and Settings'

If you have a passcode setup, you'll have to verify your credentials before being asked one last time that you're positively sure you want to dispose of everything on your iPhone. The process can also take some time depending on how much music, video, apps, etc. you had stored on the iPhone, and Apple is writing over the data multiple times for security's sake.

Once it's done you're good to give away or sell your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad without having to worry about anyone getting into something you may have left behind. Let us know if you have any questions 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…)

I don't know if you have tried this (I have), but if you attempt to sync your iPhone with any computer other than the one you originally synced with your iPhone, you will receive a warning that your iPhone is "synced with another iTunes library."  Your only choice at this point is to "Cancel" the operation or "Erase and Sync" because your iPhone can only be synced to one iTunes library at a time.  Or CAN it?

Thanks to a set of most excellent instructions from the Shiny Things blog of Andrew Grant located here, you can sync your iPhone with one or more additional computers. Read on to learn more!

As I said before, Andrew Grant has posted excellent instructions to sync your iPhone with computers other than your original. Rather than go into repeating all the details of this method, I will instead provide an overview of the steps that Andrew has put together and refer you to his blog for the detailed, play-by-play so you can do this yourself!

In order to sync to more than one computer, there are some needed modifications to iTunes that will then let you sync different data on your iPhone with more than one computer. For example, you may want to sync contacts and calendar items on your work machine, but sync all your media (songs, podcasts, movies, etc.) on your home computer.

According to Andrew Grant (thanks for your hard work on this, Andrew!), the first thing you want to do is backup "iTunes Music Library.xml" and "iTunes Music Library" (Tunes Music Library.itl on a PC) to a safe location on the computer you want to sync with. You will modify these files so you can safely sync with this computer.

On the computer you currently sync your iPhone with, find your iTunes Library ID. Andrew has posted instructions on how this is done. The idea here is that you want your second machine to have the same iTunes Library ID that the original has so your iPhone won't know the difference. Again, this process is explained in detail by Andrew.

Once you have followed all of Andrew's instructions, you should be able to plug your iPhone into the second machine, select "Manually manage music and videos", you will NOT be prompted to erase any data, and you are ready to roll! Again, special thanks to Andrew Grant for posting this handy tip on his blog. Make sure you go to his blog and follow the steps precisely.

The iPhone is an excellent traveling companion, whether you are still sporting the iPhone 2G or loving you some GPS-equipped iPhone 3G. Google Maps, music, movies, and apps are several of the features that make traveling more sublime, but all this functionality requires a lot of juice, and if you haven't noticed by now, you can't swap your iPhone battery when you've run it dry. What to do? Read on for this week's Tip!

Following are some suggestions for the road warriors and frequent flyers who must conserve power and/or be opportunistic about charging their iPhones!

1. Carry a spare battery. Ha, just kidding. Unlike most other smartphones, the iPhone does not have a user-replaceable battery. Instead, you have to be prepared to charge at anytime, anywhere. Carry your iPhone's power adapter with you (the new ones are quite small, but apparently pose a risk of breaking and electrocuting -- be careful, and trade it in for replacement as soon as you can!). Airports have power outlets scattered throughout and if you have a little spare time before or after your flight, plug in to juice up your iPhone.
2. If you are in a meeting or conference, try to arrive early enough that you can sit near a power outlet, if possible. You can also charge your iPhone via USB connected to your laptop. When you need power, it doesn't hurt to get creative!
3. If you have an iPhone 3G, try disabling 3G under "Settings" to conserve power. The 3G network is faster, but just like a car using more gas the faster you drive, so goes the battery life of your iPhone when on the 3G network. Unless you really, REALLY need speed while surfing the net, drop down to EDGE for a while to save your battery.
4. Dim your screen. The brighter your screen is, the more power you are using. If you can handle a dimmer screen for a while, then save your battery life by adjusting the brightness to a lower setting.
5. For convenience, take along something like the Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger. Hotel rooms are sorely lacking in available power outlets, so if you have a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with you, you just added THREE power outlets and two USB charging ports to hopefully meet all of your power needs. You can get it here in the iMore Store.

It seems like ages ago that our iPhones were updated to allow moving icons around and, lo and behold, even to a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) screen! Back then, it was gratifying to have the capability to do it, but unless you had a ton of web pages bookmarked and web apps galore, there wasn't much need to go beyond screen #2, maybe to screen #3.

Now, everything has changed. With the advent of the iTunes App Store, there are a bazillion apps available for download, many of them FREE! If you are like me, you've already downloaded like crazy and now you're staring at an iPhone with apps occupying six screens of real estate and threatening a seventh. Feeling more and more like a hoarder every day, I need to get organized! How so on the iPhone? Read on for this week's Tip!

The iPhone isn't your grandpappy's phone. Nosiree! There are no "categories" to sort your apps into. One thing I miss when I'm using my iPhone is the feature found on a basic Palm device - categories. Sorting apps is easy if you can put them in their own "bucket". With the iPhone, we're pretty much left to our own devices with respect to organizing our apps. Perhaps this is so because, aside from bookmarked web pages and web apps, 3rd party apps were not considered at first.

Now, we have to make some choices with respect to organizing the growing number of apps on our iPhones. I've decided to include a couple of the more obvious methods, and then I'm throwing this problem out to everyone else - "everyone else" is YOU, faithful reader. Leave your comments and/or get cracking in the forums if you haven't done so already!

Here are some sorting methods in my order of preference:

1. Popularity - place the apps you use the most on the first couple screens. Don't be afraid to move some of the default Apple apps off the front page, especially the ones you seldom use. You'll create more instant access to your prime-time apps!
2. Categories - although there is no way to designate categories on the iPhone, you can sort them in categories of your own by memory. For example, your first screen could be your most accessed apps, your "home" screen. The next screen could be apps that you classify as "utilities", then "media", "web apps", "games", and so on. If one category is far and away larger than the rest, put it at the end so you have room to add more!
3. Alphabetical - simply A to Z; could be challenging for some, but ask a friend for help if you get stuck.
4. Chaos Theory - just don't worry about it and let them all fall where they may. The nice thing about the iPhone is the ease of flipping to the next screen. All the apps are large icons for easy finding. No worries.
5. WARNING: this method is NOT tested by TiPb and you're on your own with this one. Peter Ha over at CrunchGear has posted a method for moving apps to a mysterious and invisible 10th screen. Apparently, you can push apps into the iPhone Ether (a virtual storage area when the number of apps on your iPhone exceed 148. Wow.)

This week's Tip brought to you with thanks to clayrussell over on Twitter. 

On the eve of the much-anticipated iPhone update 2.1, this Tip is timely and will hopefully help you avoid much pain and suffering. As I said before, my iPhone sync times are somewhat horrendous. Although you can manually cancel a backup, my iPhone always defaults to performing an automatic backup before syncing my data, and the backup time is long.

Most of my syncing is uneventful, but sometimes a call comes through in the middle of a sync and effectively torpedoes the process. I could eat breakfast during my first sync attempt and, if interrupted by a call, I could have lunch over my second sync attempt (I kid, I kid!). Seriously, though, the last thing you want is a phone call during your sync. To avoid this problem, there is a very simple solution.

1. Tap "Settings" on your iPhone
2. Slide "Airplane Mode" to "On"
3. Sync as normal
4. Enjoy!

We've covered the "what to do with your old iPhone" question before in a previous Tip. Although you could feasibly use your old iPhone as an iPod Touch, backup phone, paperweight, doorstop, etc., money can have a strange way of changing attitudes and behaviors. If you have a strong sentimental attachment to your old trusty 2G iPhone and want to keep it that way, stop reading now and continue your 2G love-fest. If you think you can handle an extra $500 or $600 bones in your purse or wallet, then this Tip is for you.

The venerable Erica Sadun over at tuaw.com posted about this very subject about the steady rise of first-gen iPhone prices. She wrote the following:

From easy-unlocking to contract-free usage to eco-consumerism, consumers are looking for those original units and paying premium prices to get them. A majority of phones are heading outside the US for resale while growing demand at home keeps resale prices high.

It's just the good old-fashioned basic economics of supply and demand. New iPhones require a contract with AT&T and, unlike the first-gen iPhone, they can't be bought off the shelf for later activation. The 2G iPhone can be bought, unlocked, and used contract-free. Just a quick browse on eBay and you will find that 2G iPhones are selling for about $500 for the 8GB model and $600 for the 16GB model, respectively. Obviously, the better the condition, the more likely you'll fetch a higher price.

As I write this, I'm staring into my open nightstand drawer at my 2G iPhone. Do I see an older, unused iPhone or do I see a stack of Benjamin's? Needless to say, it's very tempting right now to take advantage of the current market conditions where you can get top-dollar for your used iPhone. What are you waiting for? If you won't sell, then what are you doing with your old iPhone?

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and make sure you let eBay know where you got this Tip -- I want a piece of the action!). 

It's late at night and you can't sleep. Your significant other has already called it a night and you're bored out of your mind.

In both scenarios above, you desperately want to catch up on your DVD backlog, but who has the time? Well, read on for this week's Tip on how to turn your iPhone into your very own silver screen!

You are probably well aware of the ability to watch videos on your iPhone. You can connect to iTunes and rent movies, download to your iPhone, and enjoy. You may not know, however, that you can squeeze your own DVD collection (or at least several titles from your collection) onto your iPhone to watch whenever you wish.

In order to watch movies on your iPhone, the video file needs to be compressed. There are numerous applications out their on the web that you can purchase for a nominal fee and start "ripping", or compressing, your movie collection. However, one app that I'm fond of that just so happens to be free of charge is Handbrake. 

Handbrake is easy to use. Just load your DVD, start up Handbrake, and it scans your DVD for the files it needs to compress. Just make sure you select the proper format for your movie; Handbrake will rip your DVD in the format you preset, i.e. iPhone or iPod Touch, iPod Classic, etc., depending on the screen size. Once the scan is done, you click "Start" and your movie file will be compressed in about an hour or so. Once compressed, just copy the file to the "Movies" section of your iTunes Library and then sync your movies to your iPhone. You are now ready to take your DVD library with you wherever you go!

Keep in mind that you should only compress movies that you OWN (ahem). Now you can plug in your headphones and watch a movie on your plane ride or with your head propped up on a pillow in bed without disturbing anyone. The sound quality is great with the headphones and the picture quality is surprisingly good too. Whether it's your favorite movie or television series, try it out today!

That's it for this week's Tip. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and please only watch movies on your iPhone when in a seated position -- and NO, driving a car doesn't count as a "seated position"). 

To your right, you'll recognize a familiar sight - Visual Voicemail. You will notice that I took the liberty to remove (rather sloppily, I might add) sensitive information to protect the names of the innocent (and even not-so-innocent). This is your best friend when you can't answer a call, but when traveling abroad can be a pain in the hind end (more specifically your wallet or purse).

With thanks and due credit to Iljitsch van Beijnum's article at arstechnicha.com (which I recommend you reading), the method of voicemail retrieval is explained. The way voicemail is handled results in excessive international charges.

Essentially, the visual voicemail that ends up on your iPhone makes a criss-cross journey that would make UPS envious. This is how it works:

1. A call placed to you first travels via your country of origin - no matter where a person is in the world when they call you, the call will FIRST go through your home network.
2. The call is then forwarded to the roaming network you are connected to, seeking you out. You now incur international charges ($).
3. If the call is not answered or if you are not available on the network, it will be routed to your voicemail. This is where it gets fun. The call will now RETURN to your home network, incurring more international charges ($$$). Get the idea?

That's it for this week's Tip.  Thanks again to Iljitsch van Beijnum of arstechnicha.com for his article. Check it out! If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and don't forget to clear your schedule, take a deep breath, and call AT&T Customer Service AGAIN to reactivate your voicemail when you get back). 

The iTunes App Store is faring well and apps are flying off the virtual shelf, but lest we forget, web apps used to be the only game in town for anything 3rd party on the iPhone (unless you jailbroke your iPhone - you rapscallion you). There is a plethora of web apps that iPhone owners use day-in and day-out. The internet is a big place, but fortunately people like Kelly Sonora are happy to share tips like www.NursingDegree.net, where writer Christina Laun has posted "iFit: 50 Coolest Fitness and Health Apps for the iPhone."

There are numerous apps listed, including categories like fitness Tracking, Calculators, Diet and Nutrition, Working Out, Relaxation and Inspiration, Medication and Diagnosis, and Miscellaneous Health. Some links may be broken, but for the most part, Christina Laun has compiled an impressive treasure trove of fitness web apps that are designed for access from the iPhone.

Check out web apps like MyNetDiary and FitReach for keeping track of your workouts, diet, and manage your weight goals. BMI Calculator and Daily Calorie Calculator can be used for approximating your Body Mass Index and the number of calories you should be ingesting each day. Food Information Database and iPhone Diet are apps you can use on your iPhone to get nutritional information from your favorite restaurants and manage your diet and monitor your nutritional intake.

With Pump10, you have access to view numerous workout videos on your iPhone; view workout videos while you are at the gym. FitSync is a good way to keep track of your workouts online and select workout programs. These are all just a few of the 50 apps listed; visit the site from your iPhone and try them out for a more healthy you!

That's it for this week's Tip.  Thanks again to Kelly Sonora for the lead and Christina Laun of www.NursingDegree.net for the article. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and working your iPhone's accelerometer in one hand and eating a Twinkie in the other do NOT "cancel each other out"). 

Fortunately for those of us with BiSSD (Bloated iPhone Slow Syncing Disorder), there is a solution, brought to you by Michael Sitarzewski of Zerologic.com.  In response to Michael's step-by-step procedure, another contributor to the Mac/iPhone community, Hendrik Holtmann, has also addressed this issue with a small app posted at eidac.com.  Thanks to Michael and Hendrik, slow backups could be a thing of the past.

First, let's take a look at Michael Sitarzewski's method found at zerologic.com. Michael provides fair warning that his method will DISABLE the backup feature for your iPhone, meaning that when you sync, your data WILL NOT be backed up.  He also suggests that backing up your personal data can be accomplished via MobileMe over-the-air syncing (and we all know how well MobileMe has been working, right?) or Time Machine.

In his own words, let's have a look at Michael's step-by-step from zerologic.com:

Seems easy enough.  If you prefer to avoid making changes using Terminal, then Hendrik Holtmann's app may be more to your liking. You can read more about it and download it from eidac.de here, allowing you to enable or disable backing up your iPhone with just the click of your mouse.  A link is also found on his site for PC users.

Armed with this knowledge from very knowledgeable contributors to the iPhone community (many thanks to both of you, Michael and Hendrik!), you can now proceed to sync your iPhone without fear of a lengthy, time-consuming backup. Backup when you WANT to.  At least you now have the option.

That's it for this week's Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and please remember -- using the Tip above will result in NO BACKUP of your iPhone's data.  You were warned! Caveat Emptor, baby!).

It took a little while for me to get used to the iPhone's "soft" keyboard -- large hands + tiny keyboard = baby elephant playing piano.  Even though I've become rather proficient with the iPhone's keyboard, I'm always on the prowl for anything that will help with my speed and accuracy.  This week's Tip is all about some keyboard shortcuts, brought to you by and with special thanks to George by way of Adam Pash's article at lifehacker.com.  Keep reading for some helpful keyboard Tips (and check out Adam's article for yourself)!

Unless you are building aircraft, skyscrapers or bridges, shortcuts/cutting corners are a GOOD thing.  Take typing on the iPhone, for instance.  There are a number of time-saving (and finger-tapping) ways to maximize your iPhone's keyboard.

When entering a web address, and you need something other than a .com (.com key already provided on your iPhone), then just tap and hold on the .com key and three other common domain options will appear.  Just tap the one you need and you are on your way.

Similarly, if you are entering an email address, you'll notice that you don't even get the .com key on your keyboard.  I believe this is a serious (VERY serious) oversight on Apple's part, but at least they provided a solution by enabling a pop-up list of domain options when you hold down the period ( . ) key.  If you get in the habit of using this shortcut, it's just a matter of time before you are, well, saving time!

For those sending out Spanish language texts, emails, etc., did you know that if you hold down the " ? " key or the " ! " key, you can invert those characters?  Give it a try!

Finally, what if you need to accent a letter?  The name "Chloe", for example, may need an "acute" accent above the "e", like this: "é".  To do this, just hold down the "e" key and a pop-up will give you several options to choose from, as illustrated above.

Try experimenting on your own with the iPhone keyboard and see what kind of surprises may be waiting for you.  This experiment can be particularly handy and satisfying while waiting in the long line at the DMV.

That's it for this week's Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (but it could be fun adding accents to everyone's name that you know.  Kinda weird... but fun).

When I picked up my shiny black iPhone 3G last Friday, I knew I was going to have to pay the inevitable rate increase for data (another $10 smackers a month).  I also knew I would (hissing a curse under my breath) lose my built-in 200 text messages per month.  AT&T's SMS packages offer a laughable range of offerings:  $5 a month for 200 messages, then an Olympian leap to $15 for 1500 messages and $20 for unlimited.  What, no room for $10 a month for, say, 750 or 1000 messages?  But I digress.

The basic idea goes thusly: AIM (and thus your AIM app on your iPhone) is able to send free text messages by sending them to +13522225555 (or whatever the phone number is).  There's a bit more to it, of course, so be sure to click on through and read Carlson's walkthrough.

(Post updated since publication by request)

Speaking of time -- it's time for this week's Tip, so take a little of your time now and read on about using your iPhone Clock!

You see that little Clock icon on your iPhone every time you power it up.  If you are like me, you haven't used it much and rely more heavily on the time displayed when you turn on your iPhone, just before sliding to unlock.  Or, you simply take notice of the tiny time display along the top center edge of your iPhone screen.

If you are feeling adventurous, tap on your Clock icon now and take a gander at the four options you are presented with.  By default, the Clock app will open to whatever app you were using last.  So, if you had the Alarm tab open, then that's exactly where you will return the next time you open the Clock app.

Along the bottom, the options available are World Clock, Alarm, Stopwatch, and Timer.  In World Clock, you can add as many locations as you wish.  From Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates to Zurich, Switzerland, you can search for the city you desire and add it to your World Clock list.

As you can see on the right, the World Clock even works up in Canada (just a little tribute to my esteemed colleague, Rene Ritchie).  You get the benefit of both analog and digital.  Military, or 24-hour time, is also displayed if you make that selection in Settings.

If you watch closely, you can observe the red second hand ticking away when you open World Clock.

Now things start getting more fun.  There's nothing quite like the buzzzzzzz of the alarm clock in the morning, eh?  What about using the Alarm feature of your iPhone?  Then, at least you can awaken to the pleasant sound of "Marimba" or the "Bark" of a dog (oh, sorry, your neighbor already helps you with that one?).

Additional options within the Alarm app include Repeat (choose what days of the week the alarm will repeat), Snooze (On or Off), and even the label.  Rather than the plain 'ol generic "Alarm", you can get all fancy-pants and name it whatever you want.  For instance, "Stop Playing WoW and Join Real Life" might be the customization you are looking for.

The Alarm app will allow you to specify the time right down to the minute, so you can be as precise as you want to be.  Like different locations in World Clock, you can add as many Alarms as you wish.

Use Alarm to remind you of important appointments or tasks.  Set the Alarm to remind you to move clothes from the washer to dryer, finish up an appointment, or even drop more money in the parking meter.  Or, just use it to wake you up in the morning.

Moving on to Stopwatch, I'll show you how it just keeps getting better and better.  The Stopwatch keeps time to the tenths of a second (hundredths would have been nice, but how many of us are competitive downhill skiers?).  The Lap feature is nice as well to compare time differences between multiple laps (running, swimming, competitive power walking, etc.).  

Personally, my favorite feature about the Stopwatch is the amount of time and energy it saves me.  How does it save me time and energy, you may be asking?  It's simple.  If you have children that are still young enough to think that being timed for anything is like a game, then the Stopwatch app is invaluable.  "Let's see how fast you can go to the mailbox, get the mail, and bring it back to me!"  Genius.  My hat is off to Jobs-O and company for including Stopwatch.

Finally, last but not least, is the Timer app.  With all of these other options, you might think that all your timekeeping needs can be accomplished with the World Clock, Alarm, and Stopwatch.  This may be true, but the Timer provides a way to specify the number of hours and minutes, then perform a countdown resulting in your choice of sound when the countdown ends.

The number of uses for the Timer is as varied as your creativity.  The Timer is useful if you have a time-sensitive job, like attorney or therapist.  Use the Timer for cooking or as a reminder to feed the parking meter.  The Timer may come in handy if you are a member of the Bomb Squad or, once again, if you have kids that really dig the challenge of getting a glass of water for you before the alarm sounds (this used to work, but my kids are older and wiser now -- ahhh, those were the days).

Thanks again for stopping by for this week's Tip.  Come back next week.  Maybe now you'll think to set an Alarm to remind you to check out the Tip on TiPb.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@phonedifferent.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (but you can at least try the Stopwatch or Timer with your kids.  Yes, they may be twenty-five years old, but the eye-candy of the iPhone is hypnotic).

How many times has Elizabeth Taylor been married?  Where was Planet of the Apes filmed?  Is Harrison Ford really turning 66 this year?  Indy is a senior citizen??  These are the kinds of questions (and more) that can be answered using the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com).  If there is something you want to know about your favorite actor, movie, director, character, etc., the IMDb is a great place to find it.  Now, courtesy of Nolan Brown, we have Mobile IMDb for the iPhone and this week's Tip!  Please read on!Being a fan of film and trivia, I have often used IMDb online to learn more about interesting movies, television shows, actors, directors, and anything else connected to the entertainment industry.  At times, it's been a great way to settle an argument or win a bet!

Now, thanks to Nolan Brown, you can access IMDb on your iPhone via Mobile IMDb.  This version has been formatted specifically for the iPhone and provides a very simple interface for the best user experience.

Unlike the full version of IMDb.com, using Mobile IMDb on your iPhone allows you to avoid ads and get straight to the information you are looking for.  Try it today and you just may want to add Mobile IMDb to your Home Screen!

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and we don't recommend that you use Mobile IMDb to stalk Chuck Norris.  After all, he IS Chuck Norris, and he knows Kung Fu).

One huge benefit of the iPhone's superb web browser are all the web applications that have sprouted up since the iPhone's release.  Just like in Field of Dreams, if you build it, they (developers) will come.  Among the plethora of web apps available, several social networking sites have popped up and this week's Tip is about a unique angle on this genre.  Floort at Floort.com is a site that boasts "We know what you're thinking", and as a matter of fact, they DO!  Read on for this week's Tip and how you can give someone else (or even the world) a piece of your mind!

After you register as a member of Floort (it's free!), you can create a mini-blog about any topic, telling the world what's on your mind.  Other Floort members can then respond and tell you what THEY think about what YOU think.  This can create dialog and possibly some bad feelings (then again, maybe some GOOD feelings too!).  In this manner, you can interact with other members and maybe make a like-minded (or polar opposite) friend or two.

Floort is now also a front-end for other social blogging sites such as twitter.  You can receive Floort updates via iPhone and text messaging.  Your Floorts are automatically posted to your twitter account.

So, fire up mobile Safari on your iPhone and give Floort a spin.  If you are opinionated or just bored and want to stir the pot by responding to the opinions of others, Floort may just be the place for you.

Thanks for checking out this week's Tip, and if you have some tips of your own about the iPhone that you wish to share, drop me an email at: brian.hart@phonedifferent.com.  I'll do my best to give your tip a voice right here!

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and we accept no responsibility if your email box overflows with hate mail because of some of your crazy coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs opinions).

Can your iPhone be an electronic wallet?  Maybe you are one of THOSE people that carries a massive, 2-inch-thick wallet stuffed with numerous credit cards, membership cards, fast-food punch cards, license, insurance card, etc.  What if you could carry your iPhone instead of your wallet?  Read this week's Tip to find out how!

Thanks to Lifehacker.com's "Wallet-Slimming Tips" and Albert Albert's blog on tisgoud.nl expanding on this article, we have our Tip o' the Week (and Dieter, a "rabid" anti thick-wallet guy who will soon have fewer victims upon whom he can to mete out his scorn and disdain).

Albert Alberts explains his method.  By scanning your various cards into iPhoto, you can import these scanned cards as photos directly into your iPhone via syncing with iTunes/iPhoto (photos of scanned cards courtesy of www.tisgoud.nl).

It is recommended that you scan your cards front and back.  Some of your cards may have bar codes on them.  According to Albert Alberts, the bar code on your card images may be scanned.  For example, if you have a gym membership card with a bar code, it's possible that a gym employee can scan the bar code from the photo on your iPhone -- can you already feel your wallet getting thinner?

You may have to proceed on a trial-and-error basis.  Try scanning a few cards and see if the images on your iPhone are accepted by the issuers as valid - just double tap the photo so it fits the screen.  You may get some funny looks, but that may be a small price to pay for a skinny wallet!

So go ahead - make your iPhone your iWallet.  Even if you are unable to convince store employees to accept the mere image of your card, you can put your wallet on a diet by removing unnecessary cards and carry the information as digital photos.  Then, you still have the information available to you (i.e., credit card numbers, membership numbers, etc.) without having to manually input every bit of information into the Notes app on your iPhone.

Want another reason to scan your cards and slim down your wallet?  Think of the money you'll save on your chiropractor bills because one of your butt cheeks isn't riding 3 inches higher than the other every time you sit down.  Now THAT'S a Tip!

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and we make no guarantees that your friendly neighborhood police officer will accept your driver's license scanned onto your iPhone).

The iPhone is sensor-ific. It can sense if it's turned sideways, held up close to your face, and whether or not you are in a dark room or out in the sunlight. This week's Tip o' the Week is a simple way to exploit one of the sensors on your iPhone to save you some steps and power at the same time. Curious? Read on for the Tip!

There are three sensors in your iPhone with three distinct functions, all of which provide a better user experience. The accelerometer detects the orientation of your iPhone - rotate your iPhone sideways and the screen is in landscape mode. The accelerometer is particularly useful when browsing on Safari, scanning Cover-Flow in iPod, and while flipping through your Photos.

Hidden behind the dark glass above the earpiece of your iPhone are the other two sensors, the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor. The proximity sensor deactivates the touch sensitivity and illumination of the iPhone's screen when the phone is placed against your head, but only during a call. The ambient light sensor detects lighting conditions when your iPhone is unlocked, dimming the screen in dark places and brightening the screen in sunlight to make the display easier to see.

This week's Tip focuses on taking advantage of the ambient light sensor. You can manipulate the brightness of your screen while waking up your iPhone (unlocking it) by covering the sensor above the earpiece with your thumb. The ambient light sensor checks the lighting conditions just once per wake-up, between the time you wake up your iPhone and slide to unlock. If you cover up the sensor, your iPhone will think it's dark and your display will be dimmer than normal. Just cover up the sensor area while unlocking your iPhone and the screen will dim.

Tricking the ambient light sensor provides two advantages: 1) Saving power - a dimmer screen = less juice; and 2) Saving taps - no need to tap 'settings', 'brightness', and adjust the brightness slider; use this shortcut instead! This Tip is ineffective if your display brightness is set to the maximum (as far as I've been able to test).

Try outsmarting your smart sensors today and save some steps and battery juice. Stay smart and drop by here next week for another Tip!

Disclaimer: Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and we certainly don't promise an extra 5 days of talk time and 2 months standby time by using this Tip).