With iOS 5, Apple introduced a split keyboard mode for the iPad, so we could more easily type with our thumbs when holding the iPad in both hands. If you already use the split keyboard, you know it provides one of the best touchscreen typing experiences on any tablet. But did you know Apple built in "phantom keys" to make typing with the split keyboard even faster and easier?

How to activate the split keyboard

If you're not familiar with the split keyboard, it's easy to enable.

1. When the keyboard is visible, tap-and-hold the Shuffle Slider button on the bottom-right hand corner of the keyboard.
2. From here, a popup menu will let you activate the split keyboard, or just slide your finger up to split the keyboard into two sections.
3. Adjust the keyboard placement to your liking.

Bonus tip: Once you get the hang of it, you can simply "pinch to zoom in" (like you would to make a photo or website bigger) to split the keyboard, and "pinch to zoom out" (like you would to make a photo or website smaller) to join the keyboard back up again.

How to use the phantom keys

It turns out, when using the split keyboard, the empty spaces on the inside edges actually function as if the missing keys were actually there. So, for example, if you want to type 'H' you can just tap the empty space next to 'G', and your iPad will subsequently output 'H' without actually requiring you to tap the key. (And vice-versa.)

This is a great feature for those of us who type based on muscle memory and expect keys to be where we're used to them being. Most of us don't have thumbs long enough to reach entirely across an iPad screen, but when we're typing fast we're certainly apt to reach a little, anticipating an extra key to be there.

By making "phantom keys" available, but invisible, Apple provides the best of both worlds. Our eyes see where we should be typing, but the system catches us if our thumbs inadvertently overreach themselves.

It's thoughtful user interface design like this that's makes typing on the iPad even faster and easier than it otherwise might be.

Check out the video above to see it in action.

• More iPad typing tips

Source: Finer Things in iOS

Tired of filling out one tedious web form after another, and wondering how to get Safari on iPhone and iPad to automatically fill them out for you? Luckily, deep within the settings of Safari there is a way to setup AutoFill, something which allows you to automatically input your personal data on sites that permit its use.

• If you haven't already, create a contact for yourself in the Contacts app.
• Open up the Contacts app
• Select the plus sign in the top right corner

• Add in your personal information

• Hit Done
• Open up your settings app

• Tap on Safari

• Tap on AutoFill
• Toggle "Use Contact Info" to on

• Tap on My Info and select the contact you just created or the one you already had
• Now when you visit a site that needs your information, as soon as you select the first text box your keyboard will pop up and there will be an option called AutoFill

• Tap on AutoFill and Bob’s your Uncle, all your details will be automatically filled in for you

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@imore.com.

Curious how to enable iOS 5's Assistive Touch accessibility feature? Whether you have trouble using the physical controls on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, or the controls themselves have simply stopped working properly, Assistive Touch can give you a great, software-based alternative.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Accessibility.
4. Scroll all the way down and tap AssistiveTouch then toggle it on. (You'll know its working, when you see a floating button appear on your screen.)

Turning on AssistiveTouch causes a semi-transparent button to appear. Tapping this button gives you access to the same functions as the hardware buttons, such as volume up or down, as well as several gesture types, like pinch to zoom. You can even set custom gestures.

BONUS: If you don't wish to constantly have AssistiveTouch on your screen, you can set AssistiveTouch to your "Triple Click Home" function and call upon it when required.

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@imore.com.

If you are a user of iTunes in the Cloud and only keep part of your music collection on your iOS device and all of your collection in iCloud, you may want to retrieve some extra music from iCloud or even delete some music on your device. It is all very simple to do, keep on reading and we will show you how.

How to Download Music from iCloud

• Open up your Music app

• You will see the complete list of music that is available in iCloud. If the track or album shows a cloud icon next to it, this means it is not on your device but is on iCloud
• To download the music from iCloud, select one of the tracks or albums with the iCloud icon

• You will now see the tracks with individual iCloud download labels, clicking on one will download just that track to your device

• If you want to download a whole album, scroll down and you will see a Download All button. Click on that and all the tracks will download to your device

• When it’s finished downloading, you will see that track or album no longer has the cloud icon as it is now on your device and it can be played instantly

How to delete music from device and leave it on iCloud

• Open up your Music app

• You will see the complete list of music that is available in iCloud. If the track or album shows a cloud icon next to it, this means it is not on your device but is on iCloud

• If it doesn't have a cloud icon, it means the track is stored on your device
• To remove the track or album from your device and leave it in iCloud simply swipe right to left along the album or track

• A delete box will appear, click on it and you will see the cloud icon immediatey appear next to the track or album

• This means the album is no longer stored on your device but is available to download again from iCloud.

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.

Curious about how to make it easier to insert Emoji icons into a text message, email or iMessage? Switching between the normal keyboard and the Emoji keyboard, navigating to the emoticon you're looking for, then switching back to the normal keyboard to resume typing can be tiresome. Luckily, you can use Emoji much more efficiently thanks to keyboard shortcuts in iOS 5.

Before getting started, you'll have to enable the Emoji keyboard from within the Settings app.

1. Tap the Settings app on your Home screen
2. Tap General settings
3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard
4. Next, tap International Keyboards
5. Tap Add New Keyboard
6. Now, just scroll down a bit until you see the option for Emoji and tap it

At this point, your keyboard setup will allow you to switch over to the Emoji keyboard by tapping the small globe next to the 123 button.

All you have to do next is setup your own custom keyboard shortcuts for emoticons now that you have the Emoji keyboard enabled.

1. Tap the Settings app on your Home screen
2. Tap General settings
3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard
4. At the very bottom of the Keyboard settings pane, tap Shortcuts
5. Tap the '+' button in the upper right-hand corner
6. In the Phrase field, call up the Emoji keyboard (see above for instructions) and select your desired emoticon
7. Input the specific shortcut you'd like to use for the corresponding emoticon

That's it! This tip saves boatloads of time when trying to input Emoji and it's a total no-brainer with the new keyboard shortcut feature in iOS 5.

Thanks @kcmon for the tip!

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.

Curious how to set up the new accessibility feature in iOS 5, namely the custom vibration patterns? Custom vibrations patterns let you set up uniquely identifiable series for contacts in your address book -- a handy feature to say the least!

Turning custom vibration patterns on

To get started, you'll first need to turn on custom vibrations from the accessibility settings:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap 'General'.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and select 'Accessibility'.
4. Set the Custom Vibrations option to 'ON'.

Now that custom vibrations is enabled you'll be able to record your own custom vibration pattern. Follow these quick steps to record your own vibration, or just check out the video at the top of this post.

Recording your custom vibration pattern

1. From the Settings app, tap 'Sounds'.
2. Scroll down to the very bottom and tap 'Vibration'.
3. Under the 'Custom' section, tap 'Create New Vibration'.

At this point you'll be presented with a recording screen asking you to tap anywhere in order to begin recording you custom vibration pattern. Custom vibrations have a maximum duration of 10 seconds, but you can simply tap 'Stop' when you're done recording your own vibration if you want something short and sweet.

Now just hit 'Save' and you'll be asked to name your new vibration pattern. Once you've done that, you'll be taken back to the Vibration settings pane with your new pattern automatically selected as your custom vibration.

Setting up your contacts

You can even set custom vibration patterns for individual contacts!

1. Launch Phone or Contacts
2. Select your desired contact,
3. Tap 'Edit' and scroll down until you see the vibration option.

All contacts will be set to the default vibration you've selected from the settings app, but you can manually select your newly-created vibration pattern for any contact this way. You can also set a specific contact to only ring instead of vibrating at all.

That's it! Although Apple supplies you with five built-in vibrations, it's great that they've given users the ability to set their own custom vibration patterns in iOS 5. As always, let us know if we missed anything in the comments below, and enjoy your new custom vibration patterns!

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.

Just hear about Google+ Pages for brands and businesses and want to know how to set up one of your very own -- just like TiPb's done? Google makes it stone stump simple to do, so launch your favorite web browser, get a beverage ready, and follow along.

1. Log in to your Google+ account
2. Head on over to http://plus.google.com/pages/create
3. Choose the type of brand or business page you want to setup - Local Business or Place, Product or Brand, Company, Institution, or Organization, Arts, Entertainment, or Sports, and Other.
4. Each type has many sub-types so read carefully and choose the one that applies best.
5. Fill in the name, website address, and agree to the terms of service.
6. Choose a profile picture for your page and use the draggable handles to crop it just the way you want.
7. Give you Page a tagline. Something short and snappy that conveys what it is and piques interest.
8. Share your new Page with your personal account's circles, if you want.
9. Start a conversation on your new page, connect it up to your website, and tell the world about it!
10. And... you're not done. Creating a Google+ Page is just the first step. Now you have to share, hang out, and get all social with it!

Have you created a Google+ Page for your business or brand? Tell us about it in the comments and let us know if you have any tips on getting the most out of them!

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…)

Curious about how to remove the photos that iCloud stores in your Photo Stream? Maybe you have a few controversial pictures you need to clear out of the stream before letting a friend use your iPhone or iPad?

With iOS 5 and iCloud, Apple introduced Photo Stream to keep your photos synced between devices. By default, photos are automatically deleted after 30 days or after you cross the 1,000 photo threshold, but what if you need to manually remove them? We'll show you how after the jump!

Getting Started

To get started, you'll need to navigate to iCloud.com from the desktop in order to access advanced iCloud preferences. Once you're there, just follow these quick steps to reset Photo Stream and clear out your pictures.

1. Once you're at iCloud.com on the desktop, click on your name in the upper-right hand corner.
2. From the Account Settings pane, click on 'Advanced'.
3. Now, click 'Reset Photo Stream' to begin the process.
4. Finally, you'll be asked to confirm before iCloud erases all contents in your Photo Stream.

And that's it!

I'd run a quick check on your iPad or Mac to make sure all the photos have been fully removed from the Photo Stream before handing over your iDevice to a friend, but this process should do the trick if you're looking to clear out or reset your Photo Stream 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. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Apple hasn't (yet?) added posting to Twitter to the tricks in Siri's bag, but if all you want to do is tweet out a quick status, you can add it yourself.

It's simple: Navigate to Twitter from Mobile Safari, jump into the mobile settings panel and make sure you have your mobile phone number setup with the service. Twitter will then spit out a number for you to text message Twitter updates to. For confirmation's sake, send a quick status update to the number to make sure the text is pushed to your Twitter timeline.

For more, see Clay Russel's write up below.

Source: iPhone Addict

Wondering how to use iOS 5's new built-in editing ability to crop your images right in the Photos app? It's easy to do, and includes handy features like aspect ration constraints and even a grid to help you with the "rule of thirds." Here's how.

1. Open Photos app
2. Tap on the photo you wish to crop.
3. Tap Edit in the top right corner (if the header has disappeared, tap the photo once to bring it back)
4. Tap the crop symbol in the bottom right corner
5. To choose a specific aspect ratio, tap Constrain and select from the list of nine options
6. Now move, scale, and rotate the photo to how you wish the final crop to look. Some may find this counterintuitive as they want to manipulate the box in order to adjust the crop, but this is not how it works. You must manipulate the photo to fit in the box. To do so, use the standard pitch to zoom gestures as well as rotating.
7. If you don't care about aspect ratio, then you can skip step 6 and stretch the corners of the box to select your crop.
8. When you are done, tap Crop.
9. This brings you back to your editing screen. Once you're done with all other edits, tap Save.

Notice that in this example, I chose to place the sun at the intersection of two grid lines, utilizing the rule of thirds in both directions. I also chose to crop to the left because cropping to the right would have centered the tree; since it's also a strong element of the photo, I did not want it centered. Had I been a smarter photographer, I would've composed the photo better from the beginning, because this tight crop has significantly lowered the quality of the photo.

One thing to keep in mind when cropping a photo is the "rule of thirds". The crop screen will show a grid with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. Each lines is exactly one or two thirds down or across the photos. It is argued that in most cases, a photograph is more aesthetically pleasing when important compositional elements (like the subject itself, or horizons) fall on one of these lines. This is the so-called "rule of thirds".

The other thing to keep in mind is that the tighter you make your crop, the more damage you are doing to the quality of the photo. This is where the iPhone 4S has a greater advantage to previous iPhone models because it is equipped with an 8MP camera.

Bonus tip: If after saving your crop, you realize it was a bad decision, you can re-enter the crop menu and redo or clear your crop. This could be great for, say, profile pictures: crop a group photo to just include just you, upload it to Facebook or Twitter, then go back and clear the crop without any permanent destruction done to the photo.

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…)

Annoyed by the iPhone Auto-Lock feature on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and wondering how to alter it or turn it off completely?? I know I am! I put the iPhone down for a minute, the screen goes off and I have to slide to unlock to get back to where I was again, it’s all a little bit annoying. The good news is that Apple has provided us with a way to customise the time it takes for this feature to activate or if you really hate it, turn it off altogether.  

Here's how to configure Auto-Lock

1. Open up Settings
2. Tap on General
3. Tap on Auto-Lock

You will now see a list of times, these represent the time lapse between you not touching the screen and the screen turning off and requiring you to turn it back on with a slide to unlock. It is always set as standard to one minute. Here you can change that time to a maximum of five minutes.

The final option is “Never” be careful with this option as it will leave your iPhone screen on and active; unless you physically turn it off. This will cause a huge decrease in battery life and no doubt lead to a lot of pocket calling.

That's it, once you have chosen your time setting, that’s how it will behave in the future. I have mine set on two minutes, makes more sense to me than one minute!

Also realize that, if you use a Passcode Lock for security, this will delay or prevent it from activating. Convenience and security are always at odds and you need to find the balance that works best for you.

[Daily Tips](http://www.imore.com/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…)

Still have a working original iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G (or an iPod touch 1 or 2) and wondering how to get iOS4 features like Multitasking, Folders or Tethering? If you're willing to Jailbreak with WhiteD00r, you can enable most of these new features with a simple install. We'll show you how after the break!

Steps

1. Head over to whited00r.com and select your device from the “firmware download” page.

2. Extract the .zip file (make sure that your unarchiver/unzip utility doesn’t extract the contents of the .ipsw as well!)

3. Plug your iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, or iPod touch 1 or 2 into iTunes

4. Once detected, hold down the ALT (Mac OS X) or SHIFT (Windows) key, and then browse to unzipped .ipsw on your computer.

5. Be patient! It can take between 10 and 15 minutes for your iPhone or iPod to to activate.

6. That's it! You'll now be able to enjoy such features as Multitasking, Folders, custom wallpapers and more.

Additionally, your phone is now jailbroken, so you can install the vast library of Jailbreak apps.

Unfortunately, there are some things missing in WhiteD00r, like access to Game Center, the auto naming of Folders, your video camera comes in a separate app, and doesn’t save to the camera roll without some minor post-installation tweaks. However, for a unofficial hack, it works very well.

It certainly gave my old iPhone a new lease of life, and if you have any additional suggestions for getting more out of your old devices, let us know!

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...)

Jailbroken iOS 5 and curious how to get custom Notification Center widgets up and running? Right now, Apple has only included weather and stocks widgets and hasn't shown any signs of extending an API to 3rd party developers for building their own. However, as soon as iOS 5 was jailbroken a few developers started tinkering around and found it was rather easy to build their own custom widgets, and we're already starting to see some interesting things come out of developers. We'll show you how to add them to your custom Notification Center... after the jump!

To get started, first check out our iOS 5 jailbreak how to and then fire up Cydia. Note: these widgets are fairly new athere are still some bugs that need to be worked out, but for the most part they're interesting and useful.

The widgets we'll go over are developed by @qwertyoruiop, so you'll have to add his beta repo to get access. Just follow these quick steps to add the correct Cydia repository before getting started.

1. Open Cydia and tap the 'Manage' tab.
2. Tap 'Sources'
3. Tap 'Edit' in the top-right corner.
4. Tap 'Add' and input http://qwertyoruiop.com/beta/

The first widget is one I'd definitely suggest getting...

UISettings

UISettings is a great widget that offers most of your settings toggles right from within Notification Center. Much akin to SBSettings, UISettings lets you toggle WiFi or Bluetooth, respring, reboot, adjust brightness/volume and more. You swipe to reveal more toggles, and turning your WiFi or Bluetooth radios on/off is very fast.

The developer is actively working on improving UISettings and we're betting he'll keep up with Apple's iOS 5 betas as they roll out. The only issue (if you can even call it an "issue") is the icons used aren't the best looking, but they're currently a big step up from the initial release last week. We're also looking into the possibility of manually changing the icons via SSH and we'll have a guide up if we determine it's possible.

MusicCenter

MusicCenter offers now playing information in the Notification Center with playback options available by swiping to the left. It's great if you need more track identifier data over what's shown in the native app switcher when swiping left, and also comes with a Twitter option to tweet what's playing from the official Twitter for iPhone app.

I found the playback controls to be quite buggy, but I think it was more due to the button design than anything else. The playback control buttons are too small, making it difficult for those with larger thumbs to get the button press exact. Additional bugs were noticed after my iPhone crashed into safe mode when I tried to disable the widget, and in one case I had to completely reboot my iPhone after disabling it.

This one needs a little more work, but the concept is great for quickly getting to track information on what's currently playing without going into the Music app.

BatteryCenter

BetteryCenter is a very simple widget to display your current battery percentage. BatteryCenter shows a battery icon on the left and the percentage on the right. It will also tell you whether the device is charging or unplugged.

For most, this widget might seem useless since the information it displays is also included in the status bar. But for some, it serves a purpose if you don't want the percentage displayed on the status bar, as some status bar icons tend to get "pushed" out of the way when too many icons are being displayed (including the percentage indicator). I personally use BatteryCenter for this very reason, and have since disabled the battery percentage in the status bar since it's no longer needed. I also ran into zero bugs with this widget.

RSSWidget

RSSWidget is a simple RSS reader for Notification Center that displays a single RSS feed, letting you swipe between recent articles with the post's title and first few lines displayed. Tapping an article takes you straight into Mobile Safari to read the full post.

I noticed a few small bugs with this one as well, in that some RSS feeds with links in the first few lines get displayed as HTML code, making it difficult to read without going into Safari to view the full post. This is very noticeable on blog posts that start with a photo (see above image). I also had occasional crashes to safe mode when enabling or disabling the widget, similar to buggy behavior in MusicCenter.

This is a great widget for getting news at-a-glance or keeping up with your favorite RSS feed, but it also needs a little work. Follow these quick steps in order to change the RSS feed displayed.

1. Download iFile from Cydia (link)
2. Open iFile and navigate to /System/Library/WeeAppPlugins/RSSWidget.bundle/
3. Tap on com.idevhaice.rsswidget.plist and open with the Text Viewer
4. Get into editing mode by tapping 'Edit' in the top-right corner
5. Scroll down until you find http://www.9to5mac.com/feed and replace the pre-existing address with your favorite feed. For quick reference, our feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/theiphoneblog

It would be nice if there was a shortcut setting to change the RSS feed a little quicker, but for now you'll have to do it through iFile or via SSH.

That's it! These new Notification Center widgets are looking good, and there's more to come from other great jailbreak developers. If we left anything out, or if you know of other cool Notification Center widgets for iOS 5 then 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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Curious about how to take better HDR (high dynamic range) photos with your iPhone 4? Maybe you've tried it out but the end result wasn't as good as you were expecting? Apple makes it pretty easy to take HDR photos, but for some pointers on how to take the best HDR photos possible just follow along after the break!

When Apple introduced iOS 4.1 they included HDR capability for the iPhone 4. This rather basic form of HDR works by combining 3 photos (under-exposed, normally-exposed, and over-exposed) for better overall detail and quality. So instead of the sky looking washed-out or shadows an inky mess, you're left with a better balanced photo that shows more in both areas.

How to enable HDR

First thing's first -- HDR is turned off by default, so you'll have to turn it on before getting started. It's as simple as tapping the 'HDR' option at the top of the viewfinder in the Camera app.

Better safe than sorry

You also have HDR options from within the Settings app, which let you change whether iOS will keep the original, non-HDR photo as well. Sometimes HDR compositions don't match up exactly and you get a bad picture. Keeping the original gives you a back up if it's something important you just can't take again.

1. Launch Settings
2. Scroll down and tap Photos
3. Toggle 'Keep Normal Photo'.

Now, on to the good stuff...

1. Keep it steady

When using HDR you'll want to make sure to keep your hand as steady as possible, otherwise your photo will look a little blurry or not properly aligned like mentioned above. Remember, when the iPhone snaps an HDR photo, it's actually taking 3 separate pictures and combining them together, but it doesn't take all 3 photos instantly. That means if your hand moves while it's capturing the pictures you're going to end up with a photo that Mr. Blurrycam would be proud of.

It's best to use a tripod if you can, but in those cases where using a tripod isn't an option, do everything you can to keep a steady hand for better results. Leaning up against a wall (if possible), or resting on a table or ledge, is a great way to help keep your hand still when taking HDR photos.

Bonus Tip: Another handy tip sent in from a reader is holding down the camera shutter button and releasing it when the moment is right, instead of tapping it when you're ready take the photo. When you tap the shutter button, you might be slightly nudging the iPhone which can affect the blur level in HDR photos. By tapping and holding the shutter button and then releasing when you're ready to capture the photo you can dramatically lower movement, thus helping to avoid blur. (thanks parabel!)

2. Focus on your subject

If you're shooting a specific subject in HDR, make sure your subject is properly focused before snapping the photo. When iOS combines the three images to make it an HDR photo, it has a more difficult time processing and combining the all the pictures to create a good looking HDR photo if the focus is off, so keeping your subject in focus is a great way to get better results.

Just tap on the person or object you want to be in focus. A white square will appear and the iPhone 4 camera will focus accordingly.

3. Keep movement to a minimum

Your photos might not look very good if you have moving subjects within your shot. For example, if you're taking a picture of a busy intersection like the photo above (thanks, Sion!), you're not going to get the best results because people and cars moving around in the shot aren't going to be captured at the exact same time across all three images.

This rule of thumb is especially true when working with HDR photos. When the iPhone does its job and combines the images into a single HDR, just like if your hands shake, the photo with moving subjects involved will likely blur or suffer from ghosting. Any movement within the shot should be avoided whenever possible.

Note: This can also result in artistic and unique HDR photos, so if that's you're intent, don't be afraid to play around a bit.

4. There's an app for that

Although the native HDR feature on the iPhone is pretty great, it's also somewhat limited when it comes to flexibility and customizing your settings. If you want more control over HDR photos, here are a couple of great HDR alternatives you can find in the App Store:

• Pro HDR ($1.99 - iTunes link) Pro HDR is an awesome alternative that lets you really drill down in terms of customizing your HDR photos. You can modify the exposure levels for each shot before combining them into an HDR photo, which is great for specific conditions where you need the added modifiability. It also has a proprietary image alignment algorithm that precisely aligns full-size images in seconds, and the app is very speedy in general when handling HDR shots.

• TrueHDR ($0.99 - iTunes link) TrueHDR is another great HDR app to take a look at. It has a lot of nice features and gives you a choice of 'Natural' or 'Enhanced' modes, with Natural for the most realistic look and Enhanced for slightly more vivid colors and contrast - pick the look you like! It also makes it easier to capture moments with an AutoCapture mode and gives you better control over exposure points.

So go out and put your new-found knowledge of HDR picture taking into practice and let us know how it goes for you! Have any additional HDR pointers or tips we left out? Also let us know of any other great HDR apps, tips or suggestions you have in the comments!

Bonus Tip: If you're jailbroken, here's how to enable HDR on your iPhone 3G or 3GS. The process isn't for beginners, and requires you to SSH into your iPhone to modify a plist file, but the end result is not having to upgrade to an iPhone 4 just to get into the HDR game.

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…)

Do you want to know how to authorize and deauthorize iTunes linked accounts? If you purchase your media content through iTunes and want to play it back on different computers in your home, you are restricted to a maximum of five Windows or Mac PCs linked to a single iTunes account. If you sell, re-install, upgrade or replace  a computer, you can soon run into the problem of not being able to authorize a new one, due to reaching your maximum of five. In this daily tip, we show you how to authorize a new computer, deauthorize an existing computer and also how to completely reset your five authorized computers. Read on to find out how!

To authorize a computer to play purchases using your Apple iTunes Account

• Open iTunes
• From the iTunes menu, select the Store section
• Click on Authorize this Computer

• Enter your iTunes username and password; if you are under the total of five computers, this one will be authorized and start to play the media.

• That’s it your done!

If you encounter a problem authorizing your computer and get an error message stating that you have already reached your five computer allowance, you will need to de-authorize a computer before you can continue.

To deauthorize a computer

• Open iTunes.
• Choose Store > Deauthorize Computer (In earlier versions of iTunes, access this option from the Advanced menu).
• Select "Deauthorize Computer for Apple Account" and enter your Apple ID and password.

Make sure you deauthorize your computer before you upgrade your RAM, hard disk or other system components, or reinstall Windows or Mac OS X. If you do not deauthorize your computer before you upgrade these components, one computer may use multiple authorizations.

If you have sold a computer or no longer have access to it, or if the hard drive died, etc. and you didn’t deauthorize it, all is not lost. You can reset every computer associated with your iTunes account.

Note: this is only allowed once a year, so keep that in mind!

To deauthorize all computers associated with your account

If you find you have reached 5 authorizations, you can reset your authorization count by clicking Deauthorize All in the Account Information screen.

• Click iTunes Store in the menu on the left side of iTunes.
• If you're not signed in to the store, click the Account button, then enter your account name and password.
• Click the Account button again (your ID appears on the button), enter your password, and then click View Account.
• In the Account Information window, click Deauthorize All.

Yes, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is annoying, and authorizing and deauthorizing computers is a hassle, but at least iTunes makes it a fairly straightforward process. If you have any other iTunes tips, share them with us in 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…)

Having problems with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad accessories and wondering how to troubleshoot them? Here are a few basic tips which will help you identify the issue. Stick with us after the break.

Check for defects

If you have another iOS device, or have a family member, friend, or colleague with an iOS device, try the accessory out on their iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. For example, if a earbuds don't plug properly into your 3.5mm headset jack, or a case doesn't fit quite right, see if it plugs in properly or fits better on theirs.

If there's a defect, you can contact the store or manufacturer and arrange for an exchange.

Search our Forums

Head on over to our TiPb Accessory Forums and see if there are any discussions already going on about your accessory. If anyone else has already had and solved the same problem, you'll save yourself a lot of effort by following the same steps yourself. If they haven't solved it, you can help crowd source a solution. If no one else has discussed the problem yet, you can start a new thread and get it going!

We have some of the best readers in the world and they will be able to let you know if there's an issue (or not).

Check for compatibility

First thing you should do is make sure that the item that you are using is fully compatible with your iPhone or iPad. To do this you can head over to our accessory store , or to the website of the accessory maker and double check to see which iOS devices are compatible.

You may find that some devices are only partially compatible with your iPad or iPhone. For example, some older car adapters may allow you to play music through your FM radio but won't charge your iPhone (a very common issue).

Bonus Tip: Our most awesome Managing Editor Rene Ritchie has mentioned that some accessories may also popup an incompatibility warning because they're not officially part of Apple's program (haven't paid the made for iPhone or iPad licensing fee), but still charge you iPhone fine. Either way, find out for sure.

Unplug and Reset

Take out the accessory. If the accessory has a off button turn it off and then restart your iOS device. When your iOS device restarts fully, try to plug the accessory back in. Here's [how to reset iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad].

Some accessories may require additional steps to start fresh. For example, Bluetooth headsets may need you to press certain button combinations to put them back into Pairing Mode. Check the instructions that came with your device, or check the manufacturers website for details.

Restore

If you know the accessory is not defective and that it's supposed to work with your iOS device, try to restore your device. Sometimes that will clean out any glitches and get you back to a fresh, default state.

Not sure? Here's how to restore your iPhone or iPad.

Update iOS

Some accessories may need to have the latest iOS software in order to function properly. For example, iOS 4 added Bluetooth control support that wasn't available in iOS 3. If your accessory isn't doing everything it should, make sure your software is up to date.

If you're not sure, here's how to update your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

(Note: if you are are jailbroken you may lose your jailbreak if you update.)

Hope you found this tip helpful. If you have any accessory trouble-shooting tips of your own please share them into 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...)

Jailbroken Verizon iPhone users on iOS 4.2.7 have been stuck on a tethered jailbreak until recently. Sn0wbreeze 2.6.1 will allow you to go from tethered to untethered quickly and easily. So if you used redsn0w to jailbreak your Verizon iPhone and you're currently tethered, hit the jump for a quick walkthrough on how to free your Verizon iPhone from its tethered state!

What you need

• Verizon iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.7 currently jailbroken via redsn0w
• Sn0wbreeze 2.6.1 via a Cydia download

1. Launch Cydia on your iPhone and tap on the manage tab.

2. You'll need to tap manage sources and then add the following source: http://cydia.pushfix.info

3. Cydia will refresh your sources for you. Next tap search in Cydia and search for Verizon Untether for 4.2.7.

4. Install the package and reboot your Verizon iPhone.

You can now enjoy being untethered on iOS 4.2.7! Let us know if you have any questions or how the process went for you in the comments. If you experience issues, you can always visit our TiPb jailbreak forums for help and the answers to many questions.

Have a broken or buggy iPhone Home Button and curious how to work around it? When Apple released iOS 4.1 several of our readers reported a bug with their iPhone Home Button, and for some of us, performing a restore or waiting for Apple to fix it in a software update hasn't paid off.

If you aren't near an Apple Store to swap out your iPhone, or you're out of warranty, here's something you can do to help circumvent the problem using Activator gestures to simulate a Home Button click -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Activator is a well-known jailbreak extension that integrates gestures into your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using a system-wide mobilesubstrate hook in iOS. You can designate a number of gestures to do things like launch apps, perform tasks, toggle WiFi on-the-fly and a lot more -- you can even map a gesture to the Home Button!

My personal iPhone 4 has had this issue for a while. Right now I just swipe up from the bottom of the screen in order to 'press' the Home Button, and swipe up from the bottom-right to call up the app switcher. It was a little awkward at first, but after a day or two my muscle-memory kicked in and I haven't been annoyed by the Home Button problem ever since -- simply because I never actually have to press it anymore.

If you haven't already jailbroken your iPhone then check out our jailbreak starters guide first. Then just follow these quick steps to get Activator set up to allow a custom Home Button gesture:

1. After installing Activator in Cydia (free) open the Settings app and select Activator from the settings menu.
2. Tap 'Anywhere'.
3. Now you'll have to select your desired gesture here. I chose the Slide In gesture but you can choose whatever you prefer.
4. Now swipe up to reveal the search bar and run a quick search for the Home Button.

You'll need to kill the Settings app for the gesture to kick in, and you can go through the same steps for setting up a gesture for the iOS app switcher as well.

That's it! Using a gesture to simulate the Home Button has taken away those random frustrating moments when my Home Button wouldn't respond, and we hope it helps you get around the problem too! Let us know what other suggestions and work-arounds you've come up with in the comments below!

Bonus Tip: @JBaby_9783 on Twitter suggested using rubbing alcohol to help clean dust and grit from areas around the Home Button. You'll need to wet a QTip with 91% rubbing alcohol and apply it on and around the Home Button after you've powered off your iPhone. Get the button area slightly wet (having a small puddle in the concave of the button is fine) and then press the Home Button multiple times while it's still wet, then let dry. You can quicken the drying process by applying a blow dryer to your iPhone for about a minute, but make sure it's fully dry before powering the iPhone back on. This should help address response issues with the Home Button but you won't see a change if your problem is bug-related.

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…)

Wondering how to make your iPhone camera launch faster? Often find that you've missed the perfect shot because the camera app took too long to open? It turns out there's a way to instantly call up the iPhone camera without any load time at all using a lightweight jailbreak tweak called Snappy -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Snappy is a jailbreak modification that lets you do a few different things with the Camera app, but its main function is having the camera available no matter what app you're in -- you can even use the camera instantly from the iPhone lockscreen!

(If you're not sure what Jailbreak is, then check out our jailbreak starters guide first.)

To get started, go into Cydia and search for Snappy. The app uses the Cydia Store and costs $1.99 to purchase.

After you've installed Snappy, Cydia will prompt you to respring before the modification can take effect. After that you should see the Snappy icon on your springboard, but I use SbSettings to remove the icon from my iPhone altogether. Snappy uses Activator gestures so you won't really need the icon once you've set it all up.

Once Snappy is ready to go, follow these quick steps to get Activator set to your needs:

1. Go into the Settings app and scroll down until you see an option for Activator.
2. In the Activator menu pane, select 'Anywhere'.
3. From here you'll see a number of options including gestures, button presses and tap commands. We're going to set Snappy to activate whenever you tap and hold anywhere along the statusbar, but you can choose whatever gesture you prefer.
4. To quickly find Snappy just swipe up to reveal a search bar, run a quick search and then choose whether to default to photo or video taking once Snappy is activated.
5. Now close out of the settings app completely (tap once to go to homescreen, double-tap to call up the app switcher then tap and hold the settings icon until it starts to wiggle to kill the app).
   
6. Enjoy instant access to the camera from anywhere on your iPhone!

That's it! No more waiting around for the Camera app to load and no more missing those perfect shots while on the go!

Bonus Tip: Snappy has a few other nice features including the ability to set the volume buttons as the camera shutter, making it even more convenient to take photos on your iPhone. To do this, activate Snappy and make sure the option for 'Volume shutter button' is on under settings. You can also set Snappy to use your current location or snap a quick photo upon launch.

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…)

When Amazon announced their Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music services earlier this week they didn't mention whether or not it would work on the iPhone, or any other iOS device for that matter. While there's no app (yet?) and the full site doesn't seem to want to work on Mobile Safari, single song playback works just fine on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch via Apple's built-in Quicktime X Player. Just hit the jump to find out how it's done!

To get started, first visit www.amazon.com/clouddrive and log in to access your free 5GB of storage. From there you can upload music files in MP3 or AAC format for playback on virtually any device with a web browser.

I've gone ahead and uploaded a few of my favorite tunes to test playback on my iPhone 4. Just follow these simple steps to get the service running on your own iDevice:

1. Open Mobile Safari and navigate to Amazon's Cloud Drive website here, then select the Music folder on the left navigation menu.
2. Choose the song you'd like to play by selecting the checkbox next to the track name.
3. Tap 'Download' above the track selection list.
   
4. Put in your earbuds and enjoy the streaming music!

As I mentioned before, Safari won't actually download and store the MP3 to your iPhone, but will instead launch the built-in Quicktime player for streaming playback. The drawback here is that you can only play one song at a time and must go through the steps for each track you'd like to hear. Additionally, Amazon doesn't have Cloud Drive set up for the iPhone specifically, so navigating the service directly from your iPhone isn't an enjoyable experience to say the least.

But, as demonstrated, playback works perfectly on any iOS device. Let us know if you plan on using Amazon's new service or if you'd rather hold out for a more elegant option from Apple, and as always post any issues you run into 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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Brand new to iPhone and wondering how to set a ringtone? This is a great way to personalize your iPhone to reflect you, especially if you make your own custom ringtone. To find out how, follow along after the break!

Setting a new default ringtone

1. Launch Settings
2. Tap "Sounds"
3. Tap "Ringtone"
4. If you have any custom ringtones, they will be listed first, followed by the 25 standard ringtones
5. Tap the ringtone you would like to use or listen to (Warning: when you do this, the ringtone will be played through your iPhone's speakers, even in silent mode)
6. A checkmark will appear next to the selected ringtone

Setting a new individual ringtone

To set a personalized ringtone for an individual contact:

1. Launch the Contacts app (or Phone app and choose the Contacts tab)
2. Scroll to the contact you want to personalize
3. Tap on their name to bring up their contact page
4. Tap edit
5. Tap on Ringtone
6. Choose a new tone

There you have it! Now you know to set a new ringtone on your iPhone. If you have any questions, 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...)

Jailbroken and curious how to get rid of the album art displayed on the lockscreen whenever you're playing music or listening to a podcasts? Rather look at the wallpaper than album art? If so, we'll show you how to do just that... after the break!

You need to be Jailbroken to do this. If you're not sure what that is or means, stop reading this and head on over to Ally's Jailbreak Starters Guide for more.

We're going to show you how this is done on a Windows-based machine and from the device itself, but there are similar SSH tools out there for Mac users as well. Before getting started, you'll need to download WinSCP and also make sure you have OpenSSH installed on your jailbroken iPhone. You'll also need the device connected to the same WiFi network as your PC for SSH purposes. Once you're ready to go, just follow these quick steps:

1. Make sure SSH is turned ON from your iDevice before continuing. You can turn SSH on/off via an SBSettings toggle if installed.

2. Start WinSCP. Upon loading WinSCP you'll be asked to input the IP address, login and password for the device you're attempting to SSH into. To find the IP address of your iPhone, go into the settings app under WiFi and select the network you're connected to. The default login/password will be root/alpine unless you've changed it manually.

3. Once you've successfully SSH'd into the device, navigate to /System/Library/SpringboardPlugins and locate the folder titled 'NowPlayingArtLockscreen.bundle'. Rename this folder to 'NowPlayingArtLockscreen.bundle.backup' or something similar so the system no longer recognizes it

4. Respring your iDevice to see the changes take effect.

That's it! Now you'll no longer see album art displayed on the lockscreen when music or podcasts are playing!

Bonus Tip: Cut out the need for a PC or Mac by installing iFile on your iPhone or iPod Touch! iFile will allow you to navigate the iOS file system and make changes to files or folders, among other things. Farbod chose iFile for his App Pick of the Week recently and went over some of the other great functionality of this app, so be sure and check it out! To make the change using iFile, just launch the app and navigate to the path mentioned in step 3 to make the appropriate changes to the required folder. iFile is available in the Cydia Store for $4.

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…)

Have trouble making out the small icons and tiny text on iPhone or iPad and curious how you can zoom in for a better view? We've previously told you about 2 of iOS's accessibility features and how you can use them, like reading White text on Black and using VoiceOver to read your messages and audiobooks. After the break, I'll be showing you how you can zoom your iPhone or iPad screen as well.

If you find it difficult to see the screen on your iPhone or iPad or if you want to focus on a particular area of the screen then you can use the built in zooming functionality.

To Enable Zooming

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Accessibility
4. Tap Zoom
5. Turn Zoom to 'On'

To Use The Zoom

• Double Tap your screen with 3 fingers
  • Scroll Up To Zoom In
  • Scroll Down To Zoom Out

To Move Around The Screen While Zoomed In

• Scroll around the screen with three fingers
• Drag one finger to the edges of the screen.

There is an additional setting to turn your accessibility features on and off using the home button.

To Turn Zoom On and Off using the Home Button

• Be sure that accessibility options, 'Triple Click Home' is set to 'Ask'
• Triple click the home button to bring up your options. From this menu, you can also turn on "White on Black" and "VoiceOver".

Do you find this tip helpful and will you be using it? Let us know by commenting.

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...)

Just get a new Verizon iPhone, or a new iPhone on any network, and curious how to get to your Facebook account? If so, we're going to show you how dive into the mobile-social wave with grace using the official Facebook for iPhone app. And although Facebook doesn't currently support an official app for the iPad, we'll show you a few alternatives to help you get started after the break!

There are umpteen millions of Facebook users and Facebook for iPhone is probably the most download app in mobile. Still, if you're new to social networking and don't yet have a Facebook profile, that's where you ned to start. Just head on over to Facebook.com and register an account before getting started.

Now on to some basic tasks using the Facebook for iPhone app...

Facebook for iPhone

Fortunately Facebook provides an official app in the App Store alongside their mobile touch version in Safari. The native app allows iOS users to view the news feed, upload photos and video, check in to places, view upcoming events and birthdays, chat with your friends and a lot more. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started using Facebook on your iPhone.

News Feed

The News Feed where you'll find all of your friend's status updates in one place. If your friends upload any photos or videos you'll be able to see them in a stream of aggregated updates. From the news feed you'll be able to comment on a status, jump into a photo or 'like' a status update you find interesting or compelling. If you see an interesting link in the news feed the app has a built-in web browser so you don't get kicked out of the app if you want to continue reading. You can also filter down the news feed to only show photos, notes, status updates etc if you want to cut down on the noise and get to specific updates.

Update your status, photos or location

To get started with the first tip you'll want to go back into the news feed. Here you will be given three options along the top: Photo, Status and Check In. You'll be able to post a quick status update, pull a photo or video from the iOS photo-picker to upload or check yourself into the nearest location and broadcast it to your network of friends. The process is easy and straightforward. If you're uploading a picture of a friend, you'll also be able to tag that friend from directly within the app!

Chat

Most of my friends use Facebook chat, so if I'm looking to communicate with one of my friends on-the-fly I'll usually jump into the chat instead of posting something on their wall. To use Facebook Chat on the iPhone just tap the Chat icon in the main section. Next you'll be taken to an alphabetical list of friends that are online, and from here you can tap a friend to begin chatting. If you don't want to be seen online whenever getting into Facebook for iPhone, just tap 'Go Offline' in the upper-right corner of the chat. The latest update to Facebook for iPhone fixed issues with inconsistencies in the chat, so don't worry about always having to go offline every time you launch the app if you want to appear offline most of the time.

Search

If you're quickly trying to find one of your friends all you have to do is tap the search field at the top in the main section of the app. From here you'll be able to filter down your list of friends and jump to any friend's profile. From the profile viewer, you can comment or 'like' your friends status updates and photos just as you can from the news feed. You can also search the entire Facebook user directory by selecting 'Everyone' below the search field, or 'Pages' to filter through different Facebook pages.

Notifications

With the latest update to Facebook for iPhone, Facebook has also redesigned the notifications section allowing for a much more aesthetically pleasing interface making it easier to sort through your latest notifications. Using the Notifications section is also a very easy process, as you simply tap your desired notification to be taken to the corresponding update. You'll be able to view any new comments or changes since the last time you were online from the notifications section.

Facebook apps for iPad

Unfortunately Facebook has yet to release an official app for the iPad -- they apparently don't view the iPad as a mobile device (say what?) -- so we've rounded up a few great alternatives to use until Facebook comes to their senses.

1. Friendly for Facebook is an app that recently went free, making it a great way to get started if your not looking to spend any money. This app is all around a great full featured way to engage with friends on Facebook and allows you to upload photos which is something you don't get in Safari. You can even get into limited profile editing and customize the color of the layout in the settings. Also look for its counterpart Friendly Plus for Facebook ($.99) which takes out the ads. [iTunes -- free]

2. FacePad was released last week and combines the look and feel of the official Twitter app for iPad, but it's for Facebook. It really doesn't get more simple than that. If you've ever used Twitter on your iPad then you'll probably be able to pick up the layout right off the bat. One thing you're not getting is the ability to upload photos or video and there are a few bugs that need to be worked out, but the app has definitely made a stir in the iPad community and has room to grow. If you like the Twitter app for iPad, check out FacePad today! [iTunes -- $.99]

3. Facebook Browser for iPad isn't one I'd personally recommend, but it does offer some nice features. I'm not a fan of the layout and design, but others might like it. You can do all the regular things like check your messages, view the live stream and comment on status updates. There are a couple of themes to choose from, but transitions are slow and the app feels more like a webpage than a native app, however it has some promise. Check it out! [iTunes -- $.99]

4. Facebook Touch HD has similar aesthetic qualities to that of Friendly for Facebook, but doesn't quite pull it off with as much grace. Although you can do things like upload photos and even save your friend's photos to your camera roll, the app doesn't have as much polish as I feel it should and crashed more than once while I was playing with it. There are a few things they need to work on given the price, but if all you care about is accessing Facebook outside of the browser then maybe this one is for you! [iTunes -- $2.99]

Remember that you can always get back to the familiar Facebook layout by using Safari, but you'll lose some abilities (uploading photos). Then again, you're also gaining other abilities ('liking' someone's comment within a status update), so it's really a give-and-take game until Facebook officially comes out with a killer way to use the service on the iPad.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or run into any issues and we'll do our best to help out in the comments. Also let us know what your favorite apps are for browsing Facebook on the iPad 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…)

Have a favorite website and curious how to bookmark it directly on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad home screen? Apple provides a WebClip feature that means you don't even have to launch Safari to get to your bookmark. We'll show you how after the break!

To add a WebClip bookmark icon to your home screen:

• Launch Safari
• Go to the web page you want to bookmark
• Tap the "action" button (+ button on older versions of iOS)
• If the web site has a proper iOS icon you'll see it here, otherwise you'll see a screen capture of the page you're bookmarking.
• Edit the bookmark name to whatever you like. Shorter works better.
• Tap Add

Its as simple as that, if you have any other websites that you visit on a regular basis, you can add them to your home screen and launch them like you would launch any application. Hope you found this helpful!

Bonus tip: Curious how to make a proper iOS WebClip icon for your site? We've got custom website icon creation tip ready to get you started. Check it out!

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...)

Installed some Cydia apps onto your Jailbroken iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and curious how to delete them? Tried the regular method of tapping and holding and making them jiggle but not seeing the handy App Store app "delete" icon in to corner? Don't worry, if your Cydia apps or extensions aren't working, are causing conflicts, or are simply no longer desired you can delete them as well. We'll show you how after the break!

With Cydia there's a few more steps involved in deleting an app than the App Store method but it's still rather easy

1. Launch Cydia.
2. In Cydia, tap the 'Manage' tab along the bottom toolbar.
3. Tap 'Packages' at the top of the Manage pane.
4. Scroll through the alphabetical list to find the app you want to remove.
5. Tap the app to be taken to its respective pane.
6. Tap 'Modify' in the upper-right corner.
7. From here you'll have the option to reinstall the app or remove it altogether. Tap 'Remove'.
8. Tap 'Confirm' in the upper-right corner.

Cydia will then perform some magic and wipe the app from your iDevice, and you'll no longer see the app icon on your springboard. If you'd like to reinstall the app, simply launch Cydia and search for the app you just deleted to reinstall.

Bonus Tip: If you'd like to remove jailbreak apps the same way you remove App Store apps, go into Cydia and search for CyDelete. CyDelete is a free extension and won't install any app icon, but instead allows the user to tap-and-hold Cydia apps on the springboard in order to remove them by tapping the 'x' once in wiggle-mode. We've tested CyDelete on 4.0, 4.0.1 and 4.1, but haven't confirmed it working on 4.2.1 yet so let us know if you have it up and running.

As always, if you have any questions or run into an issue, let us know and we'll do our best to help out 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…)

Ever been listening to a podcast on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad an wondered how to easily scrub forward or back? Or maybe you were watching one of your favorite shows but wanted to skip through a boring ad and quickly get back to the content?

When Apple introduced iOS 3 last year, they included a much needed addition to the iPod (Music/Video) app called audio scrubbing. In this tip we're going to quickly show you how to use this awesome feature and have better control over what you're listening to, plus a few other nice iPod tips you may have overlooked. Find out how after the break!

All you need to do is tap and hold the seek-slider at the top of the 'Now Playing' screen once you're in the iPod app. From here you can slide your finger left or right to adjust where you are in playback. Something people often overlook when scrubbing through audio is that you can move your finger down to get to different levels of scrubbing (Hi-Speed, Half Speed, Quarter Speed and Fine Scrubbing), giving you much more precise control. And that's that!

Bonus tip: You can also jump back 30 seconds by hitting the '30' button below the seek bar (see above picture). If you'd like to go back a full two minutes for example, simply tap the button 4 times and you're good to go! In addition to jumping back, you can speed up or slow down your audio by tapping the button on the far-right below the seek bar. This is great for users who need to get through long speeches or lengthy audiobooks more quickly. This feature isn't available while listening to music, however, and is replaced with the Genius feature.

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…)

Do you want to save a location that you've found on Google Maps? After searching for a place on Google Maps, you can save the results to Bookmarks or Contacts so you can easily come back to it later. Stay with us after the break and we will show you how.

Start

1. First, Search for the location in the search box.
2. When you find the location you want, select the ' > ' icon
3. At the bottom, select 'Add to Bookmarks'
4. Type in a 'location name'
5. Click Save.

To find the location later.

1. Select the ' book ' icon in the search box.
2. Select Bookmarks

You can also save a location to a contact for later viewing.

1. After selecting the ' > ' icon on a location.
2. Select 'Add to Contacts'
3. Here, you can either 'Create a new contact' or 'Add to existing contact'
4. Select the Contact, you want to save the location to.

To find the location later.

1. Select the ' book ' icon in the search box.
2. Select Contacts, and select the contact you want to view.

BONUS TIP: If you press and hold on any spot on the Map, you will 'drop a pin', which you can then save as a bookmark or to your contact.

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…)

Want to know how to add an additional phone number to an existing contact? Ever run across a situation where someone texts or calls you from a new or second number and you want to save it? Why bother trying to remember the number, or manually trying to add it to the existing contact, when there's a much easier way to do it. We'll show it to you after the break!

Add a number from Recent Calls

1. Tap the Phone app
2. Tap Recent Calls
3. Tap the blue arrow next to the number you want to save
4. You'll see a call info screen, at the bottom you see an option to Add to an existing contact, choose that option.
5. Your address book will pop up, scroll through and tap the contact you want the number to save to.
6. Change the type of phone or number if you like, and tap done!

Add a number from a text message.

1. Tap Messages
2. Scroll to the top of the conversation.
3. Tap add to contacts
4. An option will pop-up, select Add to existing contact
5. Scroll through your address book when it pops up and select the contact you'd like to add the number to
6. Make any changes you'd like and tap done!

These are 2 ways you can easily save additional contact numbers for one person without having to manually enter them. If you have any questions, or know any better ways, leave them in 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...)

Want to know how to track Santa on your iPhone or iPad with Google Maps? It's Christmas Time, and what’s one of the joys of Christmas? Having 'Santa' fall down your chimney and leave your presents under the tree, but where is he, exactly?

You can track him on your iPhone/iPad thanks to NORAD.

• Launch Google Maps
• Search “Santa”

Bonus Tip: If you click no the blue arrow at the location and click on the link, you will see a photo of the location.

It’s as simple as that. Santa’s location updates every 5 minutes, Now you can follow Santa as he delivers around the world this Christmas on your iPhone or iPad.

[NORAD]

Have a lot of different calendars arranged in your Google Calendar, and curious how to manage which calendars display across the different devices you sync to? Perhaps you use an iPhone primarily for work and an iPad for play? If you're syncing both devices to the same Google account, then knowing how to tell Google which devices should see which calendars is a necessity. Follow us after the break to find out how to do just this.

The default calendar app for the iPhone lets you only show certain calendars, but this often doesn't extend to 3rd party App Store apps that pull calendar data from iOS. Fortunately, Google has provided an easy and straight-forward way of doing this if you're set up through Exchange ActiveSync.

• After you setup Google Sync on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you'll want to go into Safari and point it to m.google.com/sync in order to manage your devices.

• From here you'll need to select your desired device. If you've ever synced other devices (including but not limited to previous iOS devices) you'll see them all displayed here with a time-stamp of your last sync.

• Tap on the device you'd like to manage and you'll have the ability to select any calendar you want synced to your device. De-select any calendar you'd like your device not synced with.

• Finally, tap 'Save' at the top and you'll be taken back to your device selection. Once you've saved the calendars you'd like to have synced, open up your calendar app and allow it a moment to sync up your new calendars. If you'd like to verify that only the specific calendars you selected have been synced, tap 'Calendars' at the top-left to see a list of all calendars.

That's it! Now you have full control over which calendars are synced to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad from Google Calendar. 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…)

Curious how to make iOS 4 multitasking on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad behave the way you want it to? If you're Jailbroken, you have several options to choose from to help you make multitasking a little less cluttered and a lot more efficient. We'll show you how after the break!

There's a couple of things you'll need to do before we get started. First and foremost, you'll have to jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad if you haven't alread (a very easy process). We've thrown up a few great how-to articles detailing the process using Greenpois0n, Limera1n and PwnageTool to help get you started. Once you're jailbroken you'll want to head over to Cydia and install the following packages:

• Backgrounder (free)
• SwitcherMod (free)
• Five Icon Switcher (free)

Backgrounder

Backgrounder is a system-wide extension that allows for full customization of which apps are allowed to continue running in the background after you return to the homescreen. The default way iOS 4 handles multi-tasking is completely reliant on the developer updating their app to support the different APIs Apple has made available. Unfortunately for older apps that haven't yet updated to support such features, iOS will kill the app when returning to the homescreen. Backgrounder fixes this by allowing all apps to run in the background by default. In addition, the app lets you choose which method of backgrounding to use (iOS native or Backgrounder's more traditional implementation). You can also use it to filter out apps that you don't want backgrounded.

Backgrounder will also put a small indicator badge on the bottom-right corner of any app that are backgrounded, making it easy to quickly tell which apps are multitasking. For the best results, we suggest using 'Auto Detect' across the board under the Global Settings pane.

SwitcherMod

SwitcherMod is an extension that lets you customize the app switcher in iOS, including letting you bypass the 'hold to wiggle' method for closing apps. Instead, when you bring up the app switcher with this option turned on, the close button will automatically appear over each icon, a much quicker and more efficient way of killing backgrounded apps.

In addition, SwitcherMod will let you change the behavior of how the app switcher displays apps that aren't actually running in the background. Something I personally find annoying about iOS 4 is when I see an app in the app switcher that isn't actually running in the background. Instead of thinking of the app switcher as a recently-used app launcher, I prefer using it as more of a place to go where I can see all of the apps that are actually open and running, which is a much more natural execution of the concept in general.

Five Icon Switcher

The last tweak you'll want to grab is Five Icon Switcher, which lets you set the amount of icons shown in the app switcher. You can set up to ten apps, but I prefer setting it to five in order to match the five icons in my dock.

Bonus tip: Users who want more than five apps in their app switcher can download Shrink from cydia ($0.99 cents), which does exactly what the name implies and shrinks down the icons in the app switcher with additional options to shrink icons in your dock and on the Springboard (iPhone Home Screen system) as well. This allows for a cleaner look when there's more than 4 apps in the app switcher.

Although Apple did a pretty amazing job with their multi-tasking system, we think these mods make it even better. Let us know if you have any questions or even better mods you know of 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…)

Ever wonder how to get your digital booklets into iBooks? All of us probably have some sort of digital booklet we received as part of an album in iTunes, right? To be honest, I never really viewed them because I would typically be on the go when the mood struck, not necessarily sitting on front of a computer.

Well, did you know you can "convert" your digital booklets in iTunes to make them viewable in iBooks? This is so easy, it should be illegal. We'll show you how after the break!

• First, find the digital booklet in your iTunes library
• Next, right-click to get to the "Get Info" option and click it
• Next, click on the "Options" tab
• Last, change the "Media Kind" to "Book"

In your device menu, go to books and make sure your booklet is check-marked and sync. That's it! If you want to place the digital booklet back into iTunes, just change the media type back to "Music" from the Books section in iTunes.

That's it. You're done! If you have any questions or know any addition cool iBooks tips, leave them 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…)

Apple rates the iPhone 3G's talk time at 5 hours over the high-speed 3G network. While the call quality seems vastly improved due to more data being passed through the 3G pipe, some of the more chatty among us may find that 3G isn't just fast -- it's non-user-replaceable-battery draining fast!

Don't care as much about speed and clarity as you do sheer volume of talk time? Or what if you're just in an area that's not (yet?) covered by 3G? You're in luck! Apple has provided a way to turn off the 3G -- and blazing fast broadband-like HSPA speed that goes with it -- and drop back down to 2.5/2.75G -- and the dial-up-eque EDGE that is turtle to the 3G hare.

Boom! 10 hours of talk time! (And for those of you in countries with more restrictive/ridiculous data caps, a way to help pace yourself and starve your data-hungry iPhone).

Just remember: slow data transfer, not as good call quality, no simultaneous voice and data (you can't talk and surf the web on EDGE at the same time).

Step-by-step instructions after the break!

From the Home screen, tap Settings, then tap General:

Then tap Network, and right on top you'll see a slider for Enable 3G. Set On/Off as desired, and you're good to go.