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How to replace a GSM/AT&T iPhone 4 speaker assembly and cellular antenna [Weekly mod]

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:37:31 +0000

Having speaker or cellular reception issues on your GSM/AT&T iPhone 4 and want to DIY repair it? iMore has you covered. We can guide you through the process and give you advice on where to get your parts and tools. Replacing the bottom speaker assembly or cellular antenna are both pretty straight forward repairs if you’ve got good instructions, the right tools, and quality parts.

Disclaimer: As with any repair, iMore nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It’s also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don’t feel comfortable opening your device, don’t. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

What issues this repair will address

Cellular reception issues – if your iPhone 4 can’t hold a cellular signal, won’t connect to 3G, or constantly says “Searching..” – you may need to replace your antenna. First try replacing your SIM or speaking with your carrier.
Bottom speaker doesn’t work when using speakerphone or playing music

What you need for a DIY speaker or cellular antenna repair

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

Please note the speaker assembly is the same across all models of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S but the antenna will be different.

GSM iPhone 4 (please note there ARE internal differences between the GSM and CDMA models)
New GSM iPhone 4 speaker assembly or cellular antenna (whichever part you are replacing) – iPhone 4 speaker assembly, GSM iPhone 4 cellular antenna
SIM removal tool (or a paper clip)
#00 Phillips screwdriver
Pry tool or spudger
Security screwdriver (only if your iPhone has 5-point security screws in the dock connector)

Power off your iPhone 4

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the back

First remove the bottom 2 dock connector screws in your iPhone 4. Use either your #00 screwdriver or the five point depending on whether or not your iPhone 4 has security screws in the dock connector. Almost all newer devices will have security screws.
To remove the back simply slide the back upwards and lift it off gently.
Set the back and 2 dock connector screws aside.

Remove your SIM card

Use a SIM removal tool or a paperclip to remove your SIM card and tray. Set them aside.

Remove the battery

To remove the battery you’ll need to remove the #00 screw holding the battery clip in place. Remove this screw located to the bottom left of the battery.
The metal clip on the battery is what clips the battery to the logic board. You’ll need to pop this clip up with your plastic pry tool. Simply stick the end of your pry tool underneath the clip and gently pull upwards until it unfastens from the logic board.
To remove the battery, I do not recommend using the plastic pull tab. There is quite a bit of adhesive underneath the battery and the tab will normally just rip off or you can bend the battery. Instead, run your pry tool along the right side of the battery and break the adhesive that way. Once the battery is free from the adhesive, you can pull the battery out of the phone. There are no other connectors holding it in.
You will notice a tiny grounding clip sitting underneath where you unscrewed the battery. Set this aside for replacement during reassembly. This is a grounding clip for your antenna. Make sure you put it back in place before reconnecting your battery.

Remove the dock connector shield and disconnect the cable

There is a shield held on with two screws covering the dock connector cable. Remove the two screws holding it in place and set the shield and screws aside, remembering where they came from.
Next, use your pry tool to pry up the actual dock connector cable. Be careful as there is adhesive holding the cable in place as well. Peel back the adhesive gently to free the cable.

Remove the top logic board shield

There are 5 screws holding the logic board shield in place. Remove the 5 screws holding it in place. Just be sure to remember which holes they came out of as the screws are different sizes. I always keep them in order of how they came out.
Next you’ll need to remove the shield. There is a tiny clip built into the shield holding it in place. (Refer to the photo above.) Pop it up with your pry tool and you should be able to slide the shield up fairly easily. Just take care not to bend it or break off a clip.

Disconnect the 6 cables from the top of the logic board

There is only one connector holding the camera to the logic board. Remove this cable in the picture above using your pry tool. Gently lift upwards and it will pop right off.
Next gently lift the camera out of the device. You’ll notice there is a tiny tab that is seated underneath the LCD and digitizer cables to the right.
Next pop up the LCD and digitizer cables to the right of where the camera cable was connected. You pop them up in the same direction.
The 3 cables further to the right will need to be disconnected as well. They pop up in the opposite direction.

Remove the logic board

Start with the 2 screws holding the logic board down in the middle and at the bottom left. Both use your #00 Phillips screwdriver. They are the same size. The one on the right of the logic board in the middle of the device has a water sensor over it you’ll need to remove.
The second screw is located where the logic board meets the speaker assembly towards the bottom left of the device.
The third and final screw holding the logic board in is located at the top of the logic board off to the right. It is the only cross-head screw in your device. Use a small flathead screwdriver to carefully remove it.
You should now be able to remove your logic board. Holding it at the bottom, gently pull it upwards. I use my other hand to lift up at the top where the rear facing camera used to be.
Take note that there is a small rubber piece that sits at the top of the logic board. You will need this for re-assembly so make sure it doesn’t fall off. If you lose this, you could see reception issues.

Remove the speaker assembly

To remove the speaker assembly you have one more #00 screw to remove. It sits to the right of the speaker assembly in the bottom right hand corner of your device. Remove it.
The second screw holding the speaker assembly into your iPhone you’ve already removed when you removed the logic board.
Gently lift the speaker assembly out of your device and set it aside.

Replace the speaker assembly

If you’re replacing the speaker assembly, you’ll just need to unscrew the cellular antenna and peel back the adhesive holding it in place. There are only 2 screws holding it in place. Place the cellular antenna carefully on the new speaker assembly and follow the instruction video for reassembly below.

Replacing the cellular antenna

Remove the 2 screws holding the old assembly down and peel it off the speaker assembly. From here you can apply the new cellular antenna to the speaker assembly. Most will come with adhesive already on them and ready for installation. Be sure to put any folds or creases where necessary as some come flat and you’ll have to work it into place.

Reassemble your iPhone

Once you’ve gotten your new speaker assembly or cellular antenna reassembled using the steps above, you’ll just need to reassemble your iPhone 4. We’ve put together a reassembly video you can watch above.

And… done!

Your bottom loud speaker should now work or your cellular antenna should be back in working condition. As a side note, once replacing the cellular antenna you may have to toggle 3G on and off in certain cases.

Have you done this repair yourself? Let us know how it went! Want to know how to perform another type of iPhone repair or modification? Send me suggestions to ally.kazmucha@imore.com or leave a comment in our brand new Mod and DIY Repair Forum!

For questions or to inquire about mail-in repairs through PXLFIX, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or e-mail us directly! Of course, you can like us and follow us just because you think we’re cool too!

How to tell if your iPhone 3GS has an older or newer bootrom [jailbreak tip]

Allyson Kazmucha — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:56:29 +0000

Want to jailbreak and unlock but need to know how to tell what bootrom your iPhone 3GS is running? There are two numbers in your settings that will be a dead giveaway as to what bootrom your phone has. You’ll need to know how to determine your bootrom in certain situations if you want to achieve a software unlock.

Open up Settings
Tap on General
Go to About
If you scroll down a bit you’ll see your serial number and your model number.

You can use one of these two numbers to determine if you have an older or newer bootrom.

Model number method

The easiest of the two is the model number. If your model number begins with MC, you have a newer bootrom. As you can see above, my serial starts with an MB. I have an older bootrom.

Serial number method

Another way you can check is by looking at the 4th and 5th digits of your serial number. If it is lower than around week 35, your bootrom is older. I’d say the model number method is the most efficient but you can use both to determine your bootrom version.

If you have other jailbreak questions or run into issues, check out our jailbreak and unlock forums as well!

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…)

Weekly Mod: how to DIY repair a broken screen on an AT&T/GSM iPhone 4

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:52:33 +0000

Have a shattered or unresponsive screen on your GSM iPhone 4 and need to know how to DIY repair it? If you don’t want to put out the extra cash for a new phone and feel pretty confident in your repair skills, we can walk you through how to fix your iPhone 4 on your own.

What you need for a DIY GSM iPhone 4 screen replacement

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

GSM iPhone 4 (please note there ARE internal differences between the GSM and CDMA models)
New GSM iPhone 4 LCD & digitizer assembly – GSM iPhone 4 LCD and digitizer assembly
SIM removal tool (or a paper clip)
#00 Phillips screwdriver
Pry tool or spudger (you may need a handheld razor blade as well)
Security screwdriver (only if your iPhone has 5-point security screws in the dock connector)

Power off your iPhone 4

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the back

First remove the bottom 2 dock connector screws in your iPhone 4. Use either your #00 screwdriver or the five point depending on whether or not your iPhone 4 has security screws in the dock connector. Almost all newer devices will have security screws.
To remove the back simply slide the back upwards and lift it off gently.
Set the back and 2 dock connector screws aside.

Remove your SIM card

Use a SIM removal tool or a paperclip to remove your SIM card and tray. Set them aside.

Remove the battery

To remove the battery you’ll need to remove the #00 screw holding the battery clip in place. Remove this screw located to the bottom left of the battery.
The metal clip on the battery is what clips the battery to the logic board. You’ll need to pop this clip up with your plastic pry tool. Simply stick the end of your pry tool underneath the clip and gently pull upwards until it unfastens from the logic board.
To remove the battery, I do not recommend using the plastic pull tab. There is quite a bit of adhesive underneath the battery and the tab will normally just rip off or you can bend the battery. Instead, run your pry tool along the right side of the battery and break the adhesive that way. Once the battery is free from the adhesive, you can pull the battery out of the phone. There are no other connectors holding it in.
You will notice a tiny grounding clip sitting underneath where you unscrewed the battery. Set this aside for replacement during reassembly. This is a grounding clip for your antenna. Make sure you put it back in place before reconnecting your battery.

Remove the dock connector shield and disconnect the cable

There is a shield held on with two screws covering the dock connector cable. Remove the two screws holding it in place and set the shield and screws aside, remembering where they came from.
Next, use your pry tool to pry up the actual dock connector cable. Be careful as there is adhesive holding the cable in place as well. Peel back the adhesive gently to free the cable.

Remove the top logic board shield

There are 5 screws holding the logic board shield in place. Remove the 5 screws holding it in place. Just be sure to remember which holes they came out of as the screws are different sizes. I always keep them in order of how they came out.
Next you’ll need to remove the shield. There is a tiny clip built into the shield holding it in place. (Refer to the photo above.) Pop it up with your pry tool and you should be able to slide the shield up fairly easily. Just take care not to bend it or break off a clip.

Disconnect the 6 cables from the top of the logic board

There is only one connector holding the camera to the logic board. Remove this cable in the picture above using your pry tool. Gently lift upwards and it will pop right off.
Next gently lift the camera out of the device. You’ll notice there is a tiny tab that is seated underneath the LCD and digitizer cables to the right.
Next pop up the LCD and digitizer cables to the right of where the camera cable was connected. You pop them up in the same direction.
The 3 cables further to the right will need to be disconnected as well. They pop up in the opposite direction.

Remove the logic board

Start with the 2 screws holding the logic board down in the middle and at the bottom left. Both use your #00 Phillips screwdriver. They are the same size. The one on the right of the logic board in the middle of the device has a water sensor over it you’ll need to remove.
The second screw is located where the logic board meets the speaker assembly towards the bottom left of the device.
The third and final screw holding the logic board in is located at the top of the logic board off to the right. It is the only cross-head screw in your device. Use a small flathead screwdriver to carefully remove it.
You should now be able to remove your logic board. Holding it at the bottom, gently pull it upwards. I use my other hand to lift up at the top where the rear facing camera used to be.
Take note that there is a small rubber piece that sits at the top of the logic board. You will need this for re-assembly so make sure it doesn’t fall off. If you lose this, you could see reception issues.

Remove the speaker assembly

To remove the speaker assembly you have one more #00 screw to remove. It sits to the right of the speaker assembly in the bottom right hand corner of your device. Remove it.
The second screw holding the speaker assembly into your iPhone you’ve already removed when you removed the logic board.
Gently lift the speaker assembly out of your device and set it aside.

Remove the vibrator assembly

Locate your vibrator assembly in the upper right hand corner of your iPhone 4 (assuming you’re looking at it from the back).
It is held in with two screws. Use your #00 Phillips screwdriver and remove them. The screw on the left will be significantly longer. Just remember which screw came from where.
Next, gently lift the vibrator assembly out of the device.

Remove the 4 screws in each corner

There are 10 total screws that attach your iPhone 4 LCD/Digitizer assembly to your frame. The 4 in the corners will need to be completely removed. They are all #00 screws.

Loosen the remaining 6 screws

These screws run along the sides of your iPhone and also have washers on them. I find it best to just loosen them opposed to removing them completely. The washers are not fun to put back in. Loosening them will allow you to remove the LCD/Digitizer assembly just as easily. About 2 1/2 to 3 turns for each screw should loosen them up enough to continue. If you feel the washer wobbling back and forth a bit, you’ve loosened it enough.

Remove the broken LCD & digitizer assembly from your iPhone

This is where it can get a bit tricky. Your screen is held in not only with the 10 screws mentioned above but also with strong adhesive. You will need to break this adhesive in order to remove the front panel.

Hold your iPhone in one hand with the screen facing you. Starting in the top left hand corner, run a pry tool or razor blade in between the frame and front panel. You’ll need to pry up quite a bit in order to break the adhesive. Be careful around the front facing camera and speaker area.
Next move your pry tool or razor blade to the bottom of your device and do the same thing, working your way around until the adhesive is broken and the front panel starts to come off. If your screen is cracked, additional glass may break off. That’s perfectly normal.
To completely remove the front panel – start at the top of your iPhone and gently pull the assembly away from the frame. Be careful to allow the LCD and digitizer cables to slip through the opening in the frame without getting caught up.

Remove any left over glass or debris from the frame

Before reassembling your iPhone, you’ll need to make sure there is no glass stuck to the remaining adhesive or inside the frame. If there is it could cause damage to the new screen or you’ll be able to see it through the new assembly, which can be annoying. Just make sure you do a thorough job of picking off all the glass on and around the frame before continuing to reassembly.

Reassemble your iPhone

Once you’re sure you’ve gotten all the glass and leftover debris out of your iPhone, you’re ready for reassembly. Watch our reassembly video above or repeat all the steps above in the reverse order.

And… done!

If you followed the above steps correctly you should know have a working and non-broken iPhone 4 again. Have you done this repair yourself? Let us know how it went! Want to know how to perform another type of iPhone repair or modification? Send me suggestions to ally.kazmucha@imore.com or leave a comment in our brand new Mod and DIY Repair Forum!

How to untethered jailbreak iPhone 4S & iPad 2 via Greenpois0n Absinthe

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:50:40 +0000

You can now untethered jailbreak your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 running iOS 5.0 or iOS 5.0.1 with Greenpois0n Absinthe. It’s been a long wait and we’re all more than ready to have all our jailbreak extras back in action.

Whether you’re new to jailbreak or a veteran, we’ve got you covered in our jailbreak forums. Hit the link below for a walkthrough of how to jailbreak your iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Forums Link: How to jailbreak iPhone 4S and iPad 2 via Greenpois0n Absinthe

Weekly Mod: How to replace the Home button on an AT&T/GSM iPhone 4

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:56:53 +0000

The iPhone 4 is known to have issues when it comes to the home button — all that double-clicking for multitasking seems to have come at a price! This is probably the reason they redesigned the home button assembly in the iPhone 4S. If your GSM iPhone 4 home button has become unresponsive or loose, a DIY repair is something you can perform with the right tools and about 45 minutes of your time.

What you need for a DIY GSM iPhone 4 home button replacement

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

GSM iPhone 4 (please note there ARE internal differences between the GSM and CDMA models)
New GSM iPhone 4 home button and flex cable (while you can replace one or the other, I suggest replacing both. Most of the time the culprit is the contact on the cable, not the actual button itself.)
GSM iPhone 4 home button (white)
GSM iPhone 4 home button (black)
GSM iPhone 4 flex cable
#00 Phillips screwdriver
Pry tool or spudger (you may need a handheld razor blade as well)
Security screwdriver (only if your iPhone has 5-point security screws in the dock connector)

Power off your iPhone 4

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the back

First remove the bottom 2 dock connector screws in your iPhone 4. Use either your #00 screwdriver or the five point depending on whether or not your iPhone 4 has security screws in the dock connector. Almost all newer devices will have security screws.
To remove the back simply slide the back upwards and lift it off gently.
Set the back and 2 dock connector screws aside.

Remove your SIM card

Use a SIM removal tool or a paperclip to remove your SIM card and tray. Set them aside.

Remove the battery

To remove the battery you’ll need to remove the #00 screw holding the battery clip in place. Remove this screw located to the bottom left of the battery.
The metal clip on the battery is what clips the battery to the logic board. You’ll need to pop this clip up with your plastic pry tool. Simply stick the end of your pry tool underneath the clip and gently pull upwards until it unfastens from the logic board.
To remove the battery, I do not recommend using the plastic pull tab. There is quite a bit of adhesive underneath the battery and the tab will normally just rip off or you can bend the battery. Instead, run your pry tool along the right side of the battery and break the adhesive that way. Once the battery is free from the adhesive, you can pull the battery out of the phone. There are no other connectors holding it in.
You will notice a tiny grounding clip sitting underneath where you unscrewed the battery. Set this aside for replacement during reassembly. This is a grounding clip for your antenna. Make sure you put it back in place before reconnecting your battery.

Remove the dock connector shield and disconnect the cable

There is a shield held on with two screws covering the dock connector cable. Remove the two screws holding it in place and set the shield and screws aside, remembering where they came from.
Next, use your pry tool to pry up the actual dock connector cable. Be careful as there is adhesive holding the cable in place as well. Peel back the adhesive gently to free the cable.

Remove the top logic board shield

There are 5 screws holding the logic board shield in place. Remove the 5 screws holding it in place. Just be sure to remember which holes they came out of as the screws are different sizes. I always keep them in order of how they came out.
Next you’ll need to remove the shield. There is a tiny clip built into the shield holding it in place. (Refer to the photo above.) Pop it up with your pry tool and you should be able to slide the shield up fairly easily. Just take care not to bend it or break off a clip.

Disconnect the 6 cables from the top of the logic board

There is only one connector holding the camera to the logic board. Remove this cable in the picture above using your pry tool. Gently lift upwards and it will pop right off.
Next gently lift the camera out of the device. You’ll notice there is a tiny tab that is seated underneath the LCD and digitizer cables to the right.
Next pop up the LCD and digitizer cables to the right of where the camera cable was connected. You pop them up in the same direction.
The 3 cables further to the right will need to be disconnected as well. They pop up in the opposite direction.

Remove the logic board

Start with the 2 screws holding the logic board down in the middle and at the bottom left. Both use your #00 Phillips screwdriver. They are the same size. The one on the right of the logic board in the middle of the device has a water sensor over it you’ll need to remove.
The second screw is located where the logic board meets the speaker assembly towards the bottom left of the device.
The third and final screw holding the logic board in is located at the top of the logic board off to the right. It is the only cross-head screw in your device. Use a small flathead screwdriver to carefully remove it.
You should now be able to remove your logic board. Holding it at the bottom, gently pull it upwards. I use my other hand to lift up at the top where the rear facing camera used to be.
Take note that there is a small rubber piece that sits at the top of the logic board. You will need this for re-assembly so make sure it doesn’t fall off. If you lose this, you could see reception issues.

Remove the speaker assembly

To remove the speaker assembly you have one more #00 screw to remove. It sits to the right of the speaker assembly in the bottom right hand corner of your device. Remove it.
The second screw holding the speaker assembly into your iPhone you’ve already removed when you removed the logic board.
Gently lift the speaker assembly out of your device and set it aside.

Remove the vibrator assembly

Locate your vibrator assembly in the upper right hand corner of your iPhone 4 (assuming you’re looking at it from the back).
It is held in with two screws. Use your #00 Phillips screwdriver and remove them. The screw on the left will be significantly longer. Just remember which screw came from where.
Next, gently lift the vibrator assembly out of the device.

Remove the 4 screws in each corner

There are 10 total screws that attach your iPhone 4 LCD/Digitizer assembly to your frame. The 4 in the corners will need to be completely removed. They are all #00 screws.

Loosen the remaining 6 screws

Remove the LCD/Digitizer assembly from your iPhone

Hold your iPhone in one hand with the screen facing you. Starting in the top left hand corner, run a pry tool or razor blade in between the frame and front panel. You’ll need to pry up quite a bit in order to break the adhesive. Be careful around the front facing camera and speaker area.
Next move your pry tool or razor blade to the bottom of your device and do the same thing, working your way around until the adhesive is broken and the front panel starts to come off.
To completely remove the front panel – start at the top of your iPhone and gently pull the assembly away from the frame. Be careful to allow the LCD and digitizer cables to slip through the opening in the frame without getting caught up.

Remove the old home button and cable

Flip the phone back over and look by your dock connector. There is a tiny bracket that holds the home button flex cable in place. You’ll need to flip up the clip on the bracket. Be very gentle as it can break easily.
Next, carefully back out the cable from the bracket.
You can now remove the home button flex cable by pushing it through the opening in the front of the frame. The home button and the flex cable will come off in one piece.
If you are only replacing the cable, peel the actual home button off the old cable and apply it to the new one.

Put in the new home button and cable

Starting from the front of the frame you’ll need to stick the flex cable through the opening just as you had taken the other one out.
Next you’ll need to gently wiggle the cable connector back into the bracket and clip it back down. The bracket is very small and it may take a few tries to get the cable seated all the way in.
Clip the cable back down.
Turn your iPhone back over and make sure your home button is aligned and straight. Push it down once or twice to make sure you are getting better feedback than before. You should hear a click and it should feel springy if it is installed correctly.

Reassembly

In order to re-assemble your device, follow these instruction in the exact opposite order or watch the reassembly video below.

Tip: When reassembling your front panel, make sure the LCD and digitizer cables come through and they are both the same height. They tend to crimp up occasionally and you’ll have issues snapping them down to the logic board if they aren’t even.

And… done!

You should now have a home button that’s a lot more responsive and be ready to go!

Weekly Mod: How to replace a battery in an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:54:31 +0000

If your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS is no longer holding a charge, and always running out of power, replacing the battery is a moderate level DIY repair. If you’ve got the right tools and parts, it shouldn’t be too difficult to swap out that old battery for a brand new one on your own. It’ll take a little bit of patience and about 30 minutes of your time.

Disclaimer: As with any repair, TiPb nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It’s also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don’t feel comfortable opening your device, don’t. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

What you need for a DIY iPhone 3G/3GS battery swap

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

A sad iPhone 3G or 3GS
A new battery – iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G
A #00 Phillips screwdriver
A suction cup
A pry tool or spudger
Sim removal tool or paperclip

Power off your iPhone

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the dock connector screws

Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the 2 screws located on each side of the dock connector.

Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly

This part can be a bit tricky so please do this with extreme care so you don’t tear any cables during the process. I highly recommend using the suction cup method unless your screen is cracked above the home button for some reason and you can’t get a proper seal with the suction cup.

Suction cup method (recommended):

The easiest way to remove the digitizer assembly is by using a suction cup.

Position the suction cup on the screen directly above the home button.
Using your other hand, hold down the frame while gently pulling up on the suction cup.
The goal is to get the bottom of the digitizer loose. Do not pull directly up. There are 3 cables attached in the top right of your iPhone. You do not want to tear these. Just pull up until the bottom of the assembly pops out.
After you have the bottom up you can remove the suction cup.

Spudger/razor blade method (only use this method as a secondary method):

ONLY use this method if your screen is cracked above the home button. If this is the case, you’ll need to use a razor blade or spudger in order to remove it. And while you’re at it, replace that broken screen!

Starting in the bottom left hand corner, insert a plastic spudger and gently pry up. Once the first side is starting to pop up, do the same on the bottom right side.
Run your pry tool along the bottom of the device in order to pop up the bottom of the assembly. Take special care around the home button area.

Remove the cables that attach the digitizer assembly to the logic board:

Once you have the bottom of your digitizer assembly popped up we can remove the cables attaching it to the logic board.

Gently lift up your digitizer enough to have a clear view of the 3 cables in the top right of your iPhone.
With your plastic spudger or pry tool, you’ll need to pry up the first two cables that attach the digitizer and LCD. They should be labeled with orange stickers numbered 1 and 2. Simply pop them off the logic board gently.
Underneath these cables you’ll see one other labeled as cable 3. This one is a bit trickier as it is clipped down. You’ll need to gently pop up the clasp holding it into the fastener. It is a tiny white clip. Simply pop it upwards and the number 3 cable should then slide right out.
Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly and set it aside.

Remove your SIM card

Using your SIM tool or a paperclip, either works, remove your SIM card and tray from your device.

Unclip cables from the logic board

Towards the top left of the logic board, use your pry tool to pop up the two cables labeled 5 and 6.

Towards the bottom of the logic board, 3G owners will only see one cable to the left labeled 4. 3GS users will see two cables (one on each side of the dock connector) labeled 4 and 7. 3G users will just pop up the number 4 cable while 3GS owners will need to pop up both the number 4 and 7 cables.

Remove your logic board

Remove the 8 screws outlined in the video that hold the logic board in place. One of the screws is under a Do not remove sticker at the bottom right by the dock connector. Obviously you’ll have to remove the sticker to get to it.

Make sure you place the screws in an order you will remember. They are different sizes in some instances so you’ll need to make sure you put them back in the correct order.

Notice the screw holding the camera in place has a metal bracket underneath it. Just take care not to lose this as you’ll need to put it back during reassembly.

Gently pop your camera up with your spudger or pry tool.

Insert your pry tool in the space between the dock connector and logic board and gently pry upward to loosen the logic board.
Gently grab the bottom of the logic board and slide it out downwards to remove it.

Remove the old battery

There is nothing holding the battery down but adhesive. Gently use your pry tool to loosen the battery from the back of the device. Run it along the sides and gently pry up taking care not to bend or damage the battery. They are secured with quite a bit of adhesive so you may have to use a little bit of force to remove it. Just take care not to bend the casing either.

Insert the new battery

Most replacement batteries will come with adhesive already on them. Simply remove the backing from the adhesive and place the battery in the device taking care not to trap any loose cables underneath it. Push down firmly to make sure the adhesive stays in place.

Replace the logic board

Make sure there are no cables in the way. I typically tuck the number 4 cable into the frame (refer to video) so it does not get stuck underneath the logic board.

Start by positioning the top of the logic board below where the SIM tray sits and start sliding it upwards into place.
Once the top is in place, you can place the bottom of the logic board into its place. Just make sure no cables are stuck underneath the logic board where they should be on top.

Insert your SIM card and tray

The easiest way to make sure the logic board is in place is to replace your SIM card tray at this point. If it slides in easily, you’re right on track. Don’t force it if it doesn’t want to go in. That means you don’t have the logic board lined up correctly. Remove it and try again. The SIM tray will also help keep the logic board in place as you replace screws in the logic board.

Reposition and snap down your camera

Once the logic board is positioned right, you can reposition and snap down your camera again.

Replace the logic board screws

Replace the eight screws your removed earlier that secure the logic board. Just make sure you replace the metal clip over the camera before replacing the screw that holds it in place.

Reconnect cables to the logic board

Towards the top left of the logic board, reconnect the two cables labeled 5 and 6.

Towards the bottom of the logic board, 3G owners will only see one cable to the left labeled 4. 3GS users will see two cables (one on each side of the dock connector) labeled 4 and 7. 3G users will reconnect the number 4 cable while 3GS owners will need to reconnect both the number 4 and 7 cables.

Reassemble the digitizer

Begin with the number 3 cable that clips down. Getting it seated can be a bit tricky. Use a plastic spudger to guide it in the opening if needed. Then push back down the clip that holds it in place.
Next push down the number 1 and 2 cables onto the logic board.
To snap the digitizer assembly back in place, start at the top and make sure it is lined up. Once the top is pushed down and flush, snap the bottom into place on each side of the home button.
Replace the two dock connector screws.

And… done!

If you followed all the steps above correctly you should be able to power on your phone and be on your way! I recommend you drain the battery completely and do one full charge. You also may notice you’ll need to reset the time and date on your device. Battery pulls tend to reset the clock.

Have you done this repair yourself? Let us know how it went! Want to know how to perform another type of iPhone repair or modification? Send me suggestions to ally.kazmucha@tipb.com or leave a comment in our brand new Mod and DIY Repair Forum!

Daily Tip: How to tethered jailbreak iOS 5.0 and 5.0.1 via Ac1dSn0w

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:27:52 +0000

If redsn0w isn’t doing it for you, and you’re a Mac user, you may be wondering how to Jailbreak iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1 using Ac1dSn0w. Ac1dSn0w is a newly released jailbreak tool that’ll allow you to tethered Jailbreak most iOS devices (unfortunately, still not iPhone 4S or iPad 2). It’s also a fairly straight forward process.

Currently supported devices

iPhone 3G/3GS
iPhone 4
iPod Touch 4th generation
iPad 1

What you need

One of the supported devices listed above
A Mac running either OS X Lion or OS X Snow Leopard
Ac1dSn0w – Download here

Jailbreak your device

Once you’ve downloaded Ac1dSn0w, open it.
Next connect your device to your Mac and power it off.
If you’ve already gotten your device in DFU (device firmware update) mode, just click Jailbreak. If you don’t, tick the checkmark box that says Show Assistant and a prompt will come up that will help walk you through putting your device in DFU mode.
Once your device is in DFU mode, hit the Jailbreak button on the main screen of Ac1dSn0w.
Let Ac1dSn0w do its thing.

Perform a tethered boot

After you jailbreak the phone will reboot which will require you to perform a tethered boot. Use the assistant in Ac1dSn0w to put your phone back in DFU mode.
This time instead of clicking Jailbreak, you’ll click on Tethered Boot.

You’ll need to perform a tethered boot anytime your phone is completely turned off. You can still install applications that require the springboard to restart as that won’t require a tethered boot. The only time you’ll need to tethered boot is if your phone dies completely or you turn it off.

While this program will do the same thing as programs like RedSn0w, feel free to use whatever program you find the easiest. If you do happen to try out Ac1dSn0w, let us know how it went. And if you run into issues or have questions, check out our TiPb jailbreak and unlock forums.

How to unlock iPhone 3GS on iOS 5 and 5.0.1

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:49:42 +0000

If you’ve updated your iPhone 3GS to iOS 5 or 5.0.1 and lost your unlock we can help you get it back. The actual jailbreak will be tethered but you’ll still be able to unlock and continue using your device in the mean time until an untethered jailbreak solution is released. iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S users should steer clear of this as it will not work.

Devices supported

iPhone 3GS

What you’ll need

RedSn0w 0.9.9b5 or later, we recommend the most current version which is RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 – Mac Link, Windows Link
A working SIM card (doesn’t matter what carrier as long as it’s activated and working)

Jailbreak with RedSn0w and Install the iPad baseband

You’ll follow the same steps are you would to jailbreak via Redsn0w except for one difference. Instead of just checking Install Cydia you’ll need to check off Install iPad baseband. RedSn0w will warn you that this can not be undone. Agree and continue the jailbreak process.

Boot Tethered

After jailbreaking you’ll need to perform one tethered boot before unlocking. Simply launch RedSn0w again and click Extras. Check the box for Just boot tethered right now. You’ll be walked through DFU mode and your phone should reboot.

Install UltraSn0w

After your phone reboots you’ll need to perform the following steps to unlock it:

Open Cydia and search for ultrasn0w

Install the ultrasn0w package to your device.

After installation is complete your phone should automatically ask you to reboot it. If it doesn’t, reboot it manually.

You’ll need to jump into RedSn0w one more time and perform a tethered boot like you did above.

Your phone should now be unlocked. It may say Searching… for a few minutes before finally connecting to the network.

Known Issues

A few users have seen issues where their phone will not obtain service after using ultrasn0w on iOS 5 or iOS 5.0.1. If you have this issue, launch RedSn0w once more and choose jailbreak again. Instead of going through the whole process this time, you only want to check Deactivate. Do one more tethered boot and you should be good to go!

If you need more help, visit our TiPb jailbreak & unlock forums for answers to many common questions and to ask your own!

Update: Some users are pointing out that using RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 is breaking GPS functionality again but using RedSn0w 0.9.9b7 doesn’t. So if you’re having that issue, try using the beta 7 version instead. Thanks to all that tipped this!

Daily Tip: How to tethered jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 with RedSn0w

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:08:38 +0000

If you’re currently running iOS 5.0.1, you can jailbreak via RedSn0w 0.9.9b8. This one is also tethered like the previous beta versions of RedSn0w for iOS 5. It’s also worth noting that unlockers should stay away from this one unless they’re okay with being tethered. iPhone 4 users should stay away from any newer stock iOS firmware versions altogether in order to preserve their baseband.

Be advised that not all jailbreak apps and tweaks have been updated to support iOS 5 yet. If you’re alright with running tethered and don’t mind a few bugs here and there, follow along for a quick walkthrough.

If you’ve used RedSn0w before, you’ll be right at home. It’s not too much different than jailbreaking any other firmware version you may have used it for previously.

Devices Supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone 4 (GSM)
iPhone 4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak any device but the ones listed above. iPad 2 and iPhone 4S users will have to sit this one out.

What you need

iOS 5.0.1 installed on your device
RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 – Mac Link, Windows Link

First Launch RedSn0w
This version and other newer versions of RedSn0w should automatically detect what version of iOS you are running. No need to manually browse to a firmware file this time. Just click Jailbreak and follow the prompts.
Next RedSn0w will prompt you to only continue when your device is powered off. If it isn’t already, power your device off while it’s connected to the computer.
Next you will be guided through putting your device into DFU mode. Follow the steps and RedSn0w will take care of the rest.
If you’re on 5.0.1, you will need to manually navigate to an iOS 5.0 firmware file (not 5.0.1). RedSn0w will fail to identify the build on iOS 5.0.1. So do this when RedSn0w fails just like you had to with all other previous versions that didn’t automatically detect an IPSW. Just navigate to an iOS 5.0 file for your device instead of 5.0.1.
Update: You can use redsn0w 0.9.9b9b for native iOS 5.0.1 support now and not have to point to a 5.0 IPSW. Download links for the newer version of redsn0w are here: Mac, Windows
After RedSn0w finishes doing it’s thing, you’re done!
Next you may need to perform a tethered boot. If you do, simply open RedSn0w again and click Extras and then Just Boot
Your phone will perform a tethered boot and you should be good to go!

RedSn0w has also thrown in a little bonus for Windows users. You can copy the redsnow.exe file to your desktop or anywhere you like and rename it something like justboot.exe. As long as you have the word “boot” in the file name you can just double click that file to perform a quick tethered boot with RedSn0w.

That’s it boys and girls. If you need any help, be sure to check out our TiPb jailbreak forums. Until next time, happy jailbreaking!

How to set up iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:28:29 +0000

So you’ve subscribed to iTunes Match and now you want to know how to set up your iPhone or iPad to use it? No problem, it’ just a few ticks and taps and you’ll be on your way to iCloud music goodness!

First you’ll need to jump into Settings and Music from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
You should see a new setting at the top for iTunes Match. Simply enable it. It will ask you to confirm as well.
Your device will now start to match your library in the background. You can also choose to show music on your device that you have the ability to download but don’t currently have on your device. I have this turned off but you can enable it if you’d like it to show up in your library.

That’s pretty much it! You’re now set up on iTunes Match. If you run into problems or issues during the process check out our TiPb Forums for answers to commonly asked questions as well as to ask new ones!

iTunes Match Forum thread

How to subscribe to and set up iTunes Match

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:01:58 +0000

Since Apple just recently launched their iTunes Match service for users in the United States, you might be curious how to subscribe? Luckily, subscribing to iTunes Match is just about as easy as making an App Store or iTunes music purchase. Once you’re all paid up — it’s $24.99 a year — and set up, you’ll be able to access an online version of your iTunes library via iCloud from devices such as your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and AppleTV without physically having a computer to stream from.

First launch iTunes on your computer and make sure you are running iTunes version 10.5.1 or higher.
Next you should see an iTunes Match section under Store in the left hand pane. Select it. (If you don’t see this, you can alternately go to the iTunes Store homepage and select iTunes Match from the Quick Links section on the right. This option was missing for me at first and then magically appeared… weird.)
Next you’ll need to click Subscribe to iTunes Match for $24.99. You’ll be asked to input your iTunes password. (You’ll only see the not taking subscriptions message when the servers are slammed. If you get this, just try subscribing later.)
Next click iTunes Match in the sidebar just like you did to purchase it and you should now see an option to add your computer. Do so by clicking the Add this Computer button.
iTunes will begin Step 1: Gathering information about your iTunes library. In this step Apple scans all your songs to see what’s in your library.
In Step 2: Matching your music to songs in the iTunes Store, Apple compares your library to the massive iTunes Catalog. Anything that already exists in the iTunes Catalog is immediately made available to you in standard iTunes format — 256Kbps AAC with metadata and album art.
Step 3: Uploading artwork and remaining songs takes any other music in your library — anything Apple couldn’t match with the iTunes Catalog — and uploads it to Apple’s servers so it will still be available to you from the cloud (albeit in its original format, if that format was worse than iTunes standard.)
That’s it, you’re all set up.

Troubleshooting iTunes Match

A few things you’ll want to pay special attention to:

iTunes Match can only handle 25,000 songs. If your library is bigger than that, iTunes will refuse to match it. About all you can do right now is create a new iTunes library on the same computer with a subset of your songs — no more than 25,000 — and use that library to set up iTunes Match. (Just make sure you don’t copy your music into new folders, leave it in its existing folders or you’ll waste a lot of disk space.)
iTunes Match isn’t currently doing a great job actually matching a lot of songs. It could be an issue with metadata, if the song information is really different between the iTunes Catalog copy and your local copy. You could try updating the metadata on your local copies before going through iTunes Match, but it can take a lot of time and results may still vary. (Anything iTunes doesn’t match gets uploaded to Apple’s servers, so you still have access to it, but in its original form, not the iTunes Catalog copy in 256Kbps AAC with “official” metadata)

That’s it! iTunes Match should be happily processing, matching, and uploading your library. In the meantime, let us know how the setup went for you, and if you have any issues, jump into our iTunes Match Forum and get some help!

iTunes Match Forum thread

Daily Tip: How to create a time-based reminder in iOS 5

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:26:20 +0000

Don’t need a fancy location-based Reminder in iOS 5 and just want it to tell you what time your task is due? No problem, time-based Reminders are perfect for those who care more about the when than the where, and couldn’t be any easier to set up.

Start by launching the Reminders app.

Tap the + sign in the upper right corner to add a reminder.
After you add the reminder, click Done in the upper right hand corner. Or just clicking Return on the keyboard will complete the reminder as well.
Next tap on the reminder you just created in order to enter the settings for it. By default reminders won’t notify you and function like a checklist of sorts. To change that, tap on the Remind Me option.
You’ll have two options to set a notification. On a Day or At a Location. Since we want to set a time based reminder, select the On a Day option.
Simply select the date and time you’d like to be reminded and click Done in the upper right hand corner.

That’s it! The Reminders app will now send you a push notification at the time you specified very similar to how the Calendar app already displays notifications for events. I’ve found myself using the built-in reminders app a lot more than any of the third party apps I used before due to the simplicity and syncing with iCal on all my Macs. Will you guys be using Reminders going forward or will you stick with whatever third party task app you used prior to iOS 5?

Daily Tip: How to add phonetic spelling to a contact for Siri

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:31:18 +0000

Wondering how to get Siri to better understand and pronounce your contact’s names? Sometimes adding phonetic spelling will solve the problem. A good example of this is my name. Siri is pronouncing it as A-lie, as in the cake is a lie. Here’s how to set up a phonetic spelling to a name.

You’ll need to go into whatever contact card Siri is having trouble with. In this instance, I’m editing my own.
Next you’ll need to tap Edit at the top of the contact card.
Scroll all the way to the bottom and click add field.
You will see two fields that allow you to add a phonetic first and last name. Fill them out. In this instance I put “Alley”. This seems to make Siri pronounce my name correctly.
Once you are finished click Done to finish editing your contact card. You should now see the phonetic spelling of the name underneath the contact’s actual name.
Try Siri again. Your name should be pronounced correctly now.

Has Siri had issues pronouncing any names for you? Did adding a phonetic spelling fix the issue?

How to remove a Siri-created relationship

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:14:56 +0000

If you have used Siri to add a relationship on your iPhone 4S(http://www.imore.com/iphone-4s) you may be wondering how to go about removing it. Maybe you had someone labeled as a girlfriend or boyfriend and need to remove that relationship. While Siri can’t remove relationships (yet) itself, we can walk you through how to do it manually.

When iOS adds relationships it simply remembers them via your own contact card. So we’ll need to edit that.

First go into your Address Book and find your own contact card.
You’ll want to tap Edit in the top right corner.
Now scroll down a little ways and you’ll see a relationships section.
Simply delete whatever relationships you don’t want anymore.
Scroll back up and click Done.

iOS should no longer remember those relationships. You can always use Siri or manually add relationships again anytime you want.

Daily Tip: How to create a location based Reminder in iOS 5

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:43:48 +0000

Installed iOS 5 and the brand new Reminders app that comes built-in, and wondering how to create one of those fancy new location-based Reminders. Luckily, once you’re inside the Reminders app it’s dead simple to add a task. From there it’s super simple to add a location based reminder.

Note: Location based Reminders only work with Lists in your iCloud Reminders account. Exchange Task List can’t use location based reminders. Make sure you’ve enabled iCloud and iCloud Reminders sync first.

First tap into the Reminders app and click the + sign in the upper right hand corner to add a new reminder (or you can simply use an existing reminder and add a location to it).
By default the Reminders app just functions as a checklist of sorts with no default reminder time. To change this, tap into the reminder you just created or an already existing reminder.
Under the reminder name tap into Remind Me.
From there you have two reminder options – On a Day or At a Location. In this instance, you’ll want to toggle At a Location to On.
You can choose to have that reminder set for your current location or you can tap in and use any address you’d like.
Once that’s done you can choose whether you want the reminder to notify you when you leave or when you arrive at the location you specified in the previous step.
Tap Done in the upper right hand corner and you’re good to go!

When you arrive or leave the location you specified, you should receive a push notification.

Now, in my experience location based reminders seem to cause a bit of battery drain considering location services has to check consistently for your position. Keep that in mind and use time based Reminders when you can instead.

Have any other Reminders tips to share? Smart ways you’ve figured out to use it? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Daily Tip: How to transfer data from Android, webOS or Blackberry to an iPhone 4S

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:46:16 +0000

Switching to an iPhone 4S from BlackBerry, webOS or Android phone and curious how to transfer your data over? We’ve already told you how to transfer data from an existing iPhone to the 4S, but crossing platforms can seem like a bigger headache. It doesn’t have to be. There’s lots of services available to help you transfer data from one device to another. Keep reading for some simple suggestions that can make the process of going from BlackBerry or Android to iPhone and iOS 5 just a little easier for you.

There are two main ways to move all your data over to iPhone: desktop sync via iTunes and cloud sync via Google, Yahoo!, Exchange, etc.

iTunes

If you want to move your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and other media over to your new iPhone and you already use iTunes on Mac or Windows PC then it’s pretty easy.

Just plug the dock cable into your iPhone and into your PC and your iPhone will show up in iTunes.
Go through the tabs and choose what information, media, and photos you want to sync.
Press sync

You can sync multiple iOS devices (if you already have an iPad or iPod touch) with one iTunes library or set up multiple iTunes libraries to keep things extra neat and tidy.

Google Sync

Here is a way to use Gmail or Google Sync to transfer your data. If you’re already using a Gmail or Google Account to sync your mail, contacts, and calendars, this process is dead simple. Just make sure you’ve done a sync on your current BlackBerry, webOS or Android device.

On your new iPhone tap Settings and go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
You’ll need to add your new account to your iPhone. Simply tap the new account and then Gmail option.
If you want full push, you can also set Gmail up as Exchange as well. Visit Google’s Exchange page for instructions on setting up this way.
After your account is verified, you can simply choose to sync what items you would like to sync by turning those options On.
If a message pops up asking what you’d like to do with the data, choose to replace your iPhone data or merge data. Whichever is appropriate to your situation.

After you’ve done this you can continue using Google Sync if you’d like or disable it and use iCloud going forward. Just delete the Gmail account or disable it. If asked what to do with the data on your iPhone, just choose to keep it on your device. Then sign in with iCloud and it will now sync everything up and everything new from here on out.

Note: One of our readers has pointed out that Google may have issues syncing your contacts unless they are in the “My Contacts” category in Google. He had some contacts listed in other groups and they wouldn’t come down. So make sure all your contacts are filed under the general “My Contacts” group if you’re having issues with your iPhone syncing into your Contacts app from Google. Thanks for the tip, Will!

Yahoo! Sync

To perform a sync with Yahoo!, you are essentially going to repeat the same steps you would for Google sync (see above), except you’ll choose Yahoo when you choose your new account type. All the options should be identical when it comes to syncing contacts, calendars, and email accounts. And again, when you’re done you can choose to continue using Yahoo! Sync or use iCloud.

Exchange and Hotmail

If you’re using Exchange at work, and/or Windows Live Hotmail at home, again the instructions are the same as above just choose Exchange ActiveSync as your account type, or hit the new iOS 5 Hotmail button and you’re set. (If you have problems with a work Exchange account, check with your IT department for the proper settings)

Transferring contacts and calendars from your computer with iTunes

If you don’t use any Google, Yahoo!, Exchange or any online service and you’re just looking to transfer your contacts to your iPhone, you can do that too. Whether you have Windows or Mac, you can transfer contacts from your current smartphone to your iPhone pretty easily.

Plug your old device into the computer and sync them with either Outlook, Exchange, or Mac Address book. This process is pretty easy but varies from device to device, so you may need to refer to your specific device instructions in order to do this. If you still have an issue doing this, head on over to the TiPb Forums for some expert switcher advice and help.
Once your contacts are already on your computer, you can plug your new iPhone into your computer.
Open iTunes and click the Info tab under your iPhone sync settings.
You will see a Contacts option. Select that and choose what contacts you would like to be synced to your phone.
Click sync and wait for iTunes to do its thing. When complete, your contacts should now be on your new iPhone.

Note: You may have noticed iTunes has native options to configure Yahoo! or Gmail sync. You are more than welcome to use these options as well. They are just as easy. You can also choose to sync calendars via iTunes as well. Use whatever process is going to be more convenient for you on an ongoing basis.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [PC users]

Simply sync or transfer the photos from your old device into your photos on your Windows PC. Whether you choose to do this with your actual device, or from removable storage like an SD card is your choice.
Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes and navigate to the Photos tab.
Navigate your way to where you save your photos to your PC when choosing what photos to sync and make sure to choose the pictures you’d like on your phone.
Click sync and wait for iTunes to finish. Your photos should now show up in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [Mac users]

Plug your old device into your Mac and open iPhoto. (If iPhoto doesn’t recognize your Android, webOS, or Blackberry phone, simply transfer the pictures from the removable storage in your device, if you have that option.)
Your device should show up in the left navigation pane of iPhoto.
Name your album and import the photos. Alternately, you could select just the photos you’d like on your new device if you want.
Open iTunes and go to the Photos tab. Select the albums or events you’d like to sync to your new iPhone.
Click sync and wait for iTunes. After the sync is complete, you should see your new Photos in your Photo app on your iPhone.

Next steps

The iPhone is a pretty easy device to transfer data to. Once you’ve gotten all your data from your other device into a cloud service or on your computer, it should be easy as pie. If you guys have any issues doing any of this, feel free to check out the TiPb Forums for answers to many questions.

For more on using your new iPhone 4S check out our iPhone Starters Guide, and then dive into our iPhone 4S Forums for help and community!

Daily Tip: How to update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:50:05 +0000

New to these giant software releases and wondering how to upgrade your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5? Luckily iTunes makes the process of upgrading painless. The best part is once you’re on iOS 5 you can start to receive OTA updates and you’ll never have to fuss with cables and computers again.

For now though, where you’re ready to update to iOS 5, here’s what you need to do:

Plug your current iPhone into your computer and open iTunes. Your phone should start to sync and backup automagically.
If it doesn’t start to sync automatically, click the Sync button in order to back up your device. (You can alternately right click your device name in the navigation bar and click back up as well. Either way will work just fine.)
iTunes may prompt you that an update is available. If it does just click update after you’ve backed up your device (iTunes will also prompt you to back up if you haven’t already.)
If it doesn’t, click Check for Update under the Version section.
The new software will start to download and then install. Your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will restart. Don’t worry about it. Let iTunes do it’s thing and update your device to iOS 5.
Once it’s done updating, iTunes should prompt you to do one of two things – set up as a new device or restore from a backup. Choose to restore from a backup and select the backup you just made.
Once the restore is done your device will reboot. When iTunes detects it again it will start to sync back any apps and games your old iPhone had installed.

After you’ve done the initial manual update to iOS 5 you’ll have the option to use iCloud backups in the future. Do it. It’s free and it just works.

If you have any questions or have issues, check out our TiPb Forums for all the help you could ever need!

Daily tip: How to manually transfer data from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 4S

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:13:48 +0000

Switching from an old iPhone to the new iPhone 4S and wondering how you can transfer your data over? Luckily, iTunes makes this process almost painless. After your initial transfer to your new device, iOS 5 and iCloud will make the process even easier from here on out. But if for some reason you still need to transfer your data manually, we’ve got you covered!

If you’ve ever had to swap an iPhone out at an Apple store, you’re probably already familiar with this process. If not, follow these easy steps to copy data to your new phone. This process will save all your contacts, camera roll photos, apps, and settings into an iTunes backup for you.

Plug your current iPhone into your computer and open iTunes.
If it doesn’t start to sync automatically, click the Sync button. (You can alternately right click your device name in the navigation bar and click back up as well. Either way will work just fine.)
Unplug your current iPhone and plug in your new iPhone.
You’ll be asked to register your iPhone if you haven’t already.
iTunes should prompt you to do one of two things, set up as a new iPhone or restore from a backup. Choose to restore from a backup and select the backup you just made.
Once the restore is done your iPhone will reboot. When iTunes detects it again it will start to sync back any apps and games your old iPhone had installed.
Let iTunes do its thing. When you come back, your new phone should have all the same settings and data as your old one!

After you’ve done a manual transfer you’ll have the option to use iCloud backups in the future. If you have any questions or have issues, check out our TiPb Forums for all the help you could ever need!

Daily Tip: How to Jailbreak iOS 5 GM with RedSn0w 0.9.9b3

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:53:54 +0000

If you’ve got the iOS 5 GM seed on your iOS device, you can now jailbreak via RedSn0w 0.9.9b3. This one is also tethered like the previous beta versions of RedSn0w for iOS 5.

Be advised that not all jailbreak apps and tweaks have been updated to support iOS 5. If you’re alright with running tethered and don’t mind a few bugs here and there, follow along for a quick walkthrough.

By this point, almost anyone jailbreaking is already familiar with RedSn0w and how it works. It’s not too much different this time except that RedSn0w has a nifty little tool to automatically detect the iOS 5 GM IPSW which makes the process a bit smoother.

Devices Supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone4 (GSM)
iPhone4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak it on any version of iOS 5! And if you rely on a software unlock and don’t have an older boot rom, stay away from iOS 5 altogether.

What you need

iOS 5 GM seed installed on your device from the Apple Developer Portal – Developer license required
iTunes beta 7 for either Windows or Mac from the Apple Developer Portal – Developer license required
RedSn0w 0.9.9b3 – Mac Link, Windows Link

After you have iOS 5 GM installed on your device, your device backed up, and your version of iTunes upgraded to the newest beta version, follow the steps below to jailbreak.

First Launch RedSn0w
This version automatically detects your IPSW unlike older versions of RedSnow. Just click Jailbreak and follow the prompts.
After RedSn0w finishes doing it’s thing, you’re done!
Next you may need to perform a tethered boot. If you do, simply open RedSn0w again and click Extras and then Just Boot
Your phone will perform a tethered boot and you should be good to go!

That’s it boys and girls. If you need any help, be sure to check out our TiPb jailbreak forums. Until next time, happy jailbreaking!

Daily Tip: How to regain access to a passcode disabled iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:51:49 +0000

Did someone get ahold of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and try to guess your Passcode Lock one (or a thousand!) times too many, and now you’re wondering how to regain access to it yourself in this lifetime? The screenshot above was sent to us by a baffled reader who’s small child got ahold of their iPhone. But don’t worry if you’ve actively been creating backups of your iOS device, you can still regain access — without having to wait 6 million minutes first.

To regain control of your iPhone, you’ll simply need to restore your device in iTunes.

1. First put your phone in either DFU mode or recovery mode. Either will work in this scenario. Most people will prefer recovery mode as DFU can be a bit trickier. If recovery mode doesn’t work, then backtrack and try DFU mode.

2. iTunes will prompt you that a device in recovery mode has been detected and that you’ll have to restore before using it. 3. Now go ahead and click Restore.

4. iTunes will do its thing and when it’s done it will prompt you to either Set up as a new iPhone or Restore from a backup. Choose whatever option you’d like and let iTunes restore your device.

You’re done and you didn’t have to wait six million minutes! Thanks to reader Tom for the tip idea and we hope this helps you get into your iPhone well before that timer runs out!

Daily tip: How to find your Cydia account number

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:59:28 +0000

Are you jailbreaker eager to test a theme or jailbreak app and need to know how to find your Cydia account number? Chances are if you’ve ever downloaded or purchased an app or tweak from Cydia, you have one. In case you ever need to know where it is and how to find it, we’ve got you covered!

Launch Cydia and go to the main Cydia tab.
Tap on Manage Account.
Cydia will ask you to log in if you aren’t already. Simply sign in with Facebook or Google.
Once signed in, you’ll see a screen that shows your Cydia account information. Underneath Installable Purchases you’ll see your Cydia account number in small font.

Simply make note of this number and give it to any developer you’re testing for. This will allow them to give you access to paid apps so you can simply install them without having to pay first. This is very similar to how official App Store developers utilize your UDID number. Once the developer adds your Cydia account number you’ll be all set to start testing their jailbreak apps. Just make sure you add their repository as well if you don’t already have it.

Daily Tip: How to Jailbreak iOS 5 beta 7 via Redsn0w 0.9.8b7

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:34:39 +0000

Currently running iOS 5 beta 7 and wondering how to Jailbreak? Well you’re in luck, you can now do so with the newest version of Redsn0w. Of course this one is also tethered like the previous beta versions of RedSn0w for iOS 5.

By this point, almost anyone jailbreaking is already familiar with RedSn0w and how it works. It’s no different this time.

Devices Supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone4 (GSM)
iPhone4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak it on iOS 5!

What you need

iOS 5 beta 6 and 7 IPSWs from Apple’s Developer Portal
RedSn0w 0.9.8b7 – Mac Link, Windows Link

After you have iOS 5 beta 7 installed on your device, your device backed up, and your version of iTunes upgraded to the newest beta version, follow the steps below to jailbreak.

First launch RedSn0w.

It should ask you to navigate to a firmware file. Simply navigate to the iOS 5 beta 6 firmware file instead of beta 7.
Once you click next, RedSn0w will take a minute to do it’s thing. You should see a patching kernel message and that Redsn0w successfully recognized your firmware.

Next select the options you’d like RedSn0w to perform. I typically only select Install Cydia. It’s worth noting that this is where you will perform a tethered boot if needed as well. You will just select Just boot tethered for now if you need to do this or your device reboots or dies.

Redsn0w will now walk you through putting your device into DFU mode

After you’re successfully in DFU mode, simply let Redsn0w do its thing and you’re done!

That’s it! The process is pretty much the same as the first time around. But if you do run into problems or have questions, make sure you check out our TiPb Jailbreak Forums. We’ve got tons of great members more than ready and willing to help!

[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…)

Daily Tip: how to create free iPhone ringtones in GarageBand (Mac only)

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:15:38 +0000

On a Mac and wondering how to get free ringtones for your iPhone? We all know you can purchase or create ringtones in iTunes but… they can be limited in functionality or selection. Luckily GarageBand, which is part of the the iLife suite, has the ability to create ringtones built right in.

The process isn’t too difficult and you can fine tune them however you like; including fade ins, fade outs, splicing sections together, and more.

After you choose the song you want to use, you’ll need to drag it into GarageBand. For iLife 11 users, you’ll need to do these steps first. If you’re using an older version of iLife, you can simply skip to the next section.

iLife 11 users, do this first

If you want to use a song that was purchased from iTunes (a .m4r file), GarageBand is picky about you dragging those in as of iLife 11, so you’ll need to change the format from .m4r to .mp3 before dragging it in.

Drag the file from iTunes you’d like to use for your ringtone to your desktop.
Change the extension from .m4r to .mp3
Finder will prompt you asking if you’re sure you want to change it. Click use .mp3
Now move on to the next section.

Making a ringtone

Drag your song into GarageBand, you should see something similar to above (if GarageBand opened a virtual keyboard, just x it out). I also go to the counter and change it to time instead of measures (located on the bottom). That’s up to you. It’s just personal preference.
Now expand the view by clicking the tiny scissor icon in the bottom left hand corner of GarageBand (it’s the third icon from the left in most versions of GarageBand.
The expanded view should look like the screen above. This view allows you to highlight and cut sections out as well as finer tune your selection.
Now comes the Apple loop part, next to your play/pause/forward controls to the right, you should see the button above. Click it and you will now see a yellow bar that you can adjust appear above your song in the top section of GarageBand.
Simply slide this bar back and forth to select the portion of the song you’d like to make a ringtone out of. You can increase and decrease the length by dragging it at the beginning or end as well. Just make sure it’s under 30 seconds total.

Those are all the steps to create your ringtone, the video also explains a few more options as far as fading in and out as well as cutting and splicing so be sure to check that out as well.

Import your ringtone into iTunes

Now all that’s left to do is to send the ringtone to iTunes.

At the top of GarageBand click Share.
Next select Send ringtone to iTunes
iTunes should pop open and import your ringtone automatically.
Now just sync your iPhone and the new ringtone and you’re done!

That’s all there is to it! You can create as many ringtones as you want this way without paying any additional money. If you run into issues, check out our TiPb forums for more help and suggestions!

Daily Tip: How to find the UDID or serial number of an iPad, iPhone

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:48:14 +0000

Trying to figure out where to find the UDID or serial number of your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone? There are many reasons you may need to look up your UDID, IMEI, or serial number of your iOS device. While earlier generations had the serial printed on the back casing of the device, many newer models don’t. There are still several ways you can obtain this information both natively on your device or via iTunes.

Follow along to find out how.

As a side note, a lot of information is taken out for privacy reasons. Obviously your fields will not be empty.

Serial Numbers

There are a few ways to obtain serial numbers. The most common in under Settings.

Tap Settings and go into General.
Now click About.
When you scroll down you’ll see quite a bit of device information including your serial number. (As a side note, users on 4.x will not see the UDID/ICCID number on your device like in the picture above. I believe this is a new feature in iOS 5.

If your iOS device will not boot and it has a SIM tray, you can also pull out the SIM tray and view the serial printed on it. As long as your SIM tray has not been mixed up with anyone else’s, it should be the correct serial number.

UDID numbers

To view your UDID number in iTunes, use the following steps –

Open iTunes with your device plugged in and you will see your device name and information. Tap where your phone number is a couple times and it will eventually show your UDID number (also known as ICCID). This is the number you have to have on file to test developer builds of iOS.
If you need to paste this number somewhere, simply go to the top of iTunes and click Edit and then Copy. This will paste your UDID number to the clipboard. From there you can easily copy it into an e-mail or text document.

To view your UDID number from on your device, use the following steps –

Download a UDID app from the App Store. There are several available and most are free. I use UDID by Sean White (Free – iTunes Link)
Simply open the program and it will give you all of your device information.
You can then copy it into an e-mail or just view it.

Viewing device information from programs like UDID are especially convenient if you aren’t home to plug into iTunes and need to access the information quickly.

But what if your device is stuck in restore mode and you can’t load this information in iTunes or on the device?

You can still pull the information if you have a previous backup file as the backups are saved as “UDID – Date”.

Simply navigate to the following location and view your UDID as the name of your backup –

Backup locations in Windows

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Backup locations in Mac OS X

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Have you used any of these methods or a different one? How’d they work for you?

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…)

Daily Tip: How to jailbreak iOS 5 beta 5 via RedSn0w 0.9.8b5

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:06:25 +0000

If you’re currently running iOS 5 beta 5 but just can’t live without your jailbreak, the Dev Team has already released RedSn0w beta 5. The only catch is, it’s tethered, just like the previous beta versions of RedSn0w for iOS 5.

By this point, almost anyone jailbreaking is already familiar with RedSn0w and how it works. It’s no different this time.

Devices Supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone4 (GSM)
iPhone4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak it on iOS 5!

What you need

iOS 5 beta 5 IPSW from Apple’s Developer Portal
RedSn0w 0.9.8b5 – Mac Link, Windows Link

After you have iOS 5 beta 5 installed on your device and your version of iTunes upgraded to 10.5 beta 5, follow the steps below to jailbreak.

First launch RedSn0w.

It should ask you to navigate to a firmware file. Simply navigate to the iOS 5 beta 5 firmware file instead of beta 2.
Once you click next, RedSn0w will take a minute to do it’s thing. You should see a patching kernel message and that Redsn0w successfully recognized your firmware.

Next select the options you’d like RedSn0w to perform. I typically only select Install Cydia. It’s worth noting that this is where you will perform a tethered boot if needed as well. You will just select Just boot tethered for now if you need to do this or your device reboots or dies.

Redsn0w will now walk you through putting your device into DFU mode

After you’re successfully in DFU mode, simply let Redsn0w do its thing and you’re done!

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…)

Daily Tip: how to enable push notifications in Tweetbot for iPhone

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:05:37 +0000

Using Tweetbot and wondering how to enable the recently added experimental push notifications? Tapbots just recently opened up tons more slots in the beta program so if you haven’t enabled it, there’s still a good chance you can snag a slot.

The most common question I’ve been getting is how to enable push notifications. Although Tweetbot is a gorgeous Twitter client, the push settings are in a bit of a weird place. Follow along for a quick guide on how to try and activate push in Tweetbot.

First launch Tweetbot and click the account icon in the upper left hand corner of your timeline.
Then tap Accounts & Settings.
You will see a page that lists all your accounts. Tap Settings at the bottom.
From the next screen select the username you’d like to try push notifications for.
Now select Notifications at the top.
Simply turn on the switches for each type of notification you’d like and your’e done!
If notifications don’t work for some reason, make sure you have Tweetbot push enabled from your general iPhone settings under Settings and Notifications.

As a side note, Tweetbot push is still experimental and they are only allowing so many users at one time. Most people seem to be getting it to work but if you get an error message, the testing slots could just be filled. Keep trying to turn them on occasionally to see if more testing slots have opened. Hopefully push will be available publicly soon!

Daily Tip: How to fix iTunes restore errors by manually editing host files on your Mac

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:25:06 +0000

Getting the dreaded “This device isn’t eligible for the requested build” error when trying to install an iOS 5 beta, and wondering how to edit your hosts file to get around the problem? Host files can often be used to resolve issues with an iTunes restore, even those that happen due to SHSH saves on jailbroken devices. Follow along for a quick walkthrough, and I’ll show you how.

If you’re getting an iTunes restore error message, first you’ll want to make sure your host file is the problem. As a side note, I am only demonstrating this on a Mac as I don’t have a PC but much of the same commands and edits can be done through command prompt on a PC as well.

Open Terminal
Type in ping gs.apple.com and hit Enter
If you see something other than 17.112.176.11: bytes=32 as the reply, you’ll need to edit your host file, so continue to the next section.
If you do see the above, you may want to try forcing your device into DFU mode and then restoring. Or try restoring from a different computer as that seems to work sometimes. Your host file is not causing your restore to fail. Something else is causing it.

If you “do” need to edit your host file, follow the steps below to do so.

Right click on Finder in your dock and select Go to folder…
In the prompt, type /private/etc and hit Ok
You may be prompted to enter your password while editing or accessing some of these folders. Simply type in your admin password if asked.
Drag the Hosts file from the /etc folder to your desktop and then open it with TextEdit or a simliar program
You will need to add the following text to your host file: 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com (refer to the screen above)
Save the file and drag it back into the /etc folder where you originally pulled it from (choose to overwrite or replace if asked)
Now we just need to flush the cache in order for the changes to take effect. Open Terminal again and type in dscacheutil -flushcache and hit enter. (The command prompt entry for Windows users is ipconfig /flushdns
You should now be able to restore your device in iTunes without any issues.

Daily Tip: How to tethered jailbreak iOS 5 beta 3 via Redsn0w 0.9.8b2

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:32:42 +0000

Since Apple recently released iOS 5 beta 3, you may be wondering whether or not you can jailbreak as you could with beta 1 and beta 2. Fortunately, beta 3 is also jailbreakable.

But again, we’ll warn you that beta software has its own qualms to begin with so if you’re not comfortable with a few more bugs, we urge you to stay away. Also keep in mind a lot of jailbreak tweaks and apps have not yet been updated to support iOS 5. If you absolutely need to get your beta jailbreak on, follow along for another walk-through.

Devices supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone4 (GSM)
iPhone4 (CDMA)

If your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak your device. So yes, iPad 2 owners will have to wait or jailbreak iPad via JailbreakMe on iOS 4.3.3.

First you will need to download Redsn0w 0.9.8b2 – Mac Link, Windows Link
Next you will need to make sure you have the iOS beta 1 firmware file from the Apple Developer Portal or wherever else you choose to find it.
Launch Redsn0w. You should be asked to navigate to the firmware file from the previous step. Select it and click next.
Once you click next, Redsn0w will take a minute to do it’s thing. You should see a patching kernel message and that Redsn0w successfully recognized your firmware.
Next select the options you’d like Redsn0w to perform. I typically only select Install Cydia. It’s worth noting that this is where you will perform a tethered boot if needed as well. You will just select Just boot tethered for now if you need to do this or your device reboots or dies.
Redsn0w will now walk you through putting your device into DFU mode
After you’re successfully in DFU mode, simply let Redsn0w do its thing and you’re done!

Have you jailbroken iOS 5 beta 3 yet? Let us know your results and about any bugs you find. If you’re having issues, don’t be shy! Ask for help in our official TiPb Jailbreak & Unlock forums.

Daily Tip: How to tethered jailbreak iOS 5 beta 2 via Redsn0w 0.9.8b1

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:56:41 +0000

Just get iOS 5 beta 2 and already wondering how to Jailbreak it? We recently showed you how to jailbreak iOS 5 beta 1 with Redsn0w. Fortunately, the process for beta 2 isn’t much different. You’ll simply need to use the beta 1 IPSW in order to jailbreak.

As always, betas are already buggy to begin with, and iOS 5 is no exception. The Dev-Team and many jailbreak devs are really only encouraging developers to jailbreak iOS 5 beta as of now. So if you are a developer (or a ninja who is afraid of nothing), follow along for a short walk-through.

Devices Supported

iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G
iPad 1
iPhone3GS
iPhone4 (GSM)
iPhone4 (CDMA)

And I can’t say this enough times, if your device is not listed above, please do not attempt to jailbreak it on iOS 5!

What you need

iOS 5 beta 1 IPSW from Apple’s Developer Portal
Redsn0w 0.9.8b1 – Mac Link, Windows Link

After you have iOS 5 beta 2 installed on your device and your version of iTunes upgraded to 10.5 beta 2, follow the steps below to jailbreak.

First launch Redsn0w.

It should ask you to navigate to a firmware file. Simply navigate to the iOS 5 beta 1 firmware file instead of beta 2.
Once you click next, Redsn0w will take a minute to do it’s thing. You should see a patching kernel message and that Redsn0w successfully recognized your firmware.

Next select the options you’d like Redsn0w to perform. I typically only select Install Cydia. It’s worth noting that this is where you will perform a tethered boot if needed as well. You will just select Just boot tethered for now if you need to do this or your device reboots or dies.

Redsn0w will now walk you through putting your device into DFU mode

After you’re successfully in DFU mode, simply let Redsn0w do its thing and you’re done!

How to untether the Verizon iPhone Jailbreak on iOS 4.2.7 via Sn0wbreeze 2.6.1

Allyson Kazmucha — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:18:48 +0000

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

Launch Cydia on your iPhone and tap on the manage tab.
You’ll need to tap manage sources and then add the following source: http://cydia.pushfix.info
Cydia will refresh your sources for you. Next tap search in Cydia and search for Verizon Untether for 4.2.7.
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.

Daily Tip: How to save your application data using appbackup [jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:40:19 +0000

How to back up application data is a question I get asked almost on a daily basis. This question seems to get asked even more frequently every time a new jailbreak is released. I never recommend restoring from a jailbroken backup, ever. It can bring all kinds of problems with it and cause crashes and freezes. I always recommend a new restore.

But what about all your game save data and other app data? If you don’t restore from a backup, it’s gone right? Not exactly. There’s tons of reasons why you may need to completely restore your device. Whatever the reason is, appbackup is a huge aid that helps bring your application data with you.

Hit the jump for a walkthrough!

Cydia plays host to a wonderful little app called appbackup. It’s free and will back up and save application data for any App Store apps you choose. As a side note, it will not save jailbroken data. There is another app lurking in the Cydia store that will aid you in doing that called aptbackup. We will look at that in a future tutorial.

What you’ll need

A currently jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
appbackup
iPhone explorer or an SSH client of your choice on your Mac or PC. I recommend iPhone Explorer as it is dead simple to use and it’s free.

Backing up App Store applications

Download appback for free via Cydia.
Launch appbackup. You’ll be presented with a huge list of all App Store applications currently installed on your device.
You have two options, you can save all application data or just choose certain application data to backup. I typically save only game data and data from apps that tend to be a pain when wiped clean. To save all, tap “All” in the bottom left hand corner. To selectively create backups, tap the name of the app you’d like to back up and click back up. Do this with all the apps you’d like to save your data from.
You’ll see the app save your data before displaying that it was successful. It’s also worth noting you won’t see a restore option until you have a backup saved for a specific application.

Obtaining your backups and transferring them to your Mac or PC

Plug your device into your Mac or PC after you’ve created backups for all the apps you care to save.
This is where you’ll need to open either iPhone Explorer or SSH into your device. If you’re not sure how to SSH, check out the guide referenced above. I still recommend iPhone Explorer, which is what I’m using in all screenshots.
appbackup saves your backups in a specific file path. That path is as follows: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/AppBackup
You will need to navigate to the above file path. After you’ve found the folder, you’ll need to make a copy of that folder on your Mac or PC. I typically keep them in a folder on my desktop called App Backups. However you choose to do it is fine as long as you save them in a location you’ll remember. After you’ve found the folder, all you need to do in order to copy it to your computer is drag it to whatever save location you choose.
You now have your backups saved in a secure location. Go ahead and restore your device as new and rejailbreak.

Restoring your application data to your device

After restoring your device and rejailbreaking, go back into Cydia and re-install appbackup.
Plug your device back into your computer and navigate back to /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/AppBackup
This time you will want to replace the AppBackup folder with the one you saved earlier. If iPhone Explorer or your SSH client prompts you, choose to overwrite or replace the file. Just make sure you are copying it in the correct directory.
Now launch appbackup on your device. In the bottom left hand corner, tap “All” and choose “Restore”. It will restore all your application save data from your backup.
You’re done! You can now enjoy playing Angry Birds and all your other games exactly where you left off!

If you guys try this, let us know how it works for you! If you run into issues, make sure to check out our TiPb Jailbreak Forums for answers to many common questions.

Daily tip: How to download and change themes for SBSettings [jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:39:44 +0000

SBSettings is a wonderful little jailbreak app that adds tons of quick toggles to your iOS springboard. The one thing I don’t care for in SBSettings is the default theme. It’s just downright ugly. I get tons of questions on whether or not you can theme SBSettings like you can the rest of your springboard. The answer is yes. It’s quite simple actually. Hit the jump to find out how!

Downloading SBSettings Themes

Open Cydia and tap on Sections.
Scroll down to themes and you’ll see a section for “Themes (SBSettings)”. Browse through all the available themes for SBSettings and install the ones you like.

Changing your SBSettings theme

Now open SBSettings (by swiping to the right or left on your top status bar). You’ll see a “More” option. Select that and you’ll see the window below.
Tap the “SBSettings Themes” option. You should see some default themes and all the ones you installed.
Tapping the blue arrows will let you see a quick preview of each theme.
Simply select the theme you’d like to use by tapping it.
Respring your phone and your new theme should now be active!

That’s all there is to it. Try it out and let us know which themes are your favorites in the comments!

iOS 4.3 for iPhone, iPad walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:54:45 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.3 software for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

iOS 4.3 is now in gold master and scheduled for release on March 11, 2011 alongside iPad 2 with new features like Wi-Fi personal hotspot for iPhone, iTunes home sharing, improved AirPlay, faster Safari and more.

If you want a quick look at the new software but don’t have a lot of time, check out the video above for everything you need to know about iOS 4.3 in just 5 minutes. For a more in-depth iOS 4.3 guide, read on after the break.

Note: We’re combining iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad walkthroughs below since, post iOS 4.2 grand-unification the size of the updates are roughly similar. If it gets more complicated later, we’ll split iPhone/iPod touch out from iPad like last time.

What hasn’t changed

iOS 4.3 looks to have interesting albeit far from numerous changes thus far. Since we’re only covering what’s new and improved, here’s a list of previous walkthroughs for those new to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad so you can learn about all the established features. Major releases in bold.

System-wide changes

AirPlay

AirPlay was introduced in iOS 4.2 and allows video and audio to be sent from iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iTunes on Windows or Mac to an Apple TV, or audio-only to a growing number of 3rd party speakers and other accessories. While iOS 4.2 only provided video-to-Apple TV support from the YouTube and iPod/Video apps, iOS 4.3 gives both App Store apps and web content the ability to send video to Apple TV. (Note: Apps like Hulu may well block this functionality due to Hollywood being catastrophically short sighted when it comes to the digital age.)

Video Mirroring (iPad 2 only)

With iPad 2 and either the old VGA adapter or new HDMI adapter, you’ll be able to mirror your device display on an external monitor.

Video mirroring, as the name suggests, means everything and anything you see on iPad 2, from Home Screen to apps, will be shown exactly the same on your external monitor or HD TV. (Hulu and similar apps might have a way to block this, we’ll have to test it and see.)

Previous devices like iPad and iPhone 4 will only be able to output video the way they currently do, if the particular app enables it. (like iPod, Video, Keynote, YouTube, Safari, Photos, and App Store apps that support it.)

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app that runs the home screen and overall interface in iOS, gets its multitasking dock UI tweaked once again on iPad.

Multitouch navigation gestures (iPad only, developers only)

Apple has introduced 4 or 5 finger multitouch navigation gestures in the iOS 4.3 for iPad but only for developers to test. They won’t be available to regular users. To get them to appear in Settings, you need to connect your iPad to Xcode and enable the device for development. (See our how to enable iPad multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3 article for more.)

The new gestures don’t replace the Home Button but do reduce the amount of times you need to single or double click it, which could reduce concerns of hardware wear and tear post iOS 4 multitasking.

The new gestures can be done with 4 or 5 fingers and resemble multitouch trackpad gestures available on Mac OS X since the introduction of the original MacBook Air in 2008 and expanded upon in the recent Mac OS X 10.7 Lion preview given by Steve Jobs at the Back to the Mac event. The gestures currently include

Pinch all fingers in to exit an app and return to the Home Screen (identical to single-clicking the Home Button).
Swipe up from the bottom bezel to reveal the multitasking Fast App Switcher Dock (identical to double-clicking the Home Button).
Swipe sideways from left to right or right to left to move between recently open apps (similar to double-clicking the Home Button to reveal the Fast App Switcher and tapping on an app icon immediately to right).

The sideways swipe is interesting in that it allows you to go left or right whereas the Fast App Switcher reorders the recent app icons so you always go backwards in “time” to the right. It seems perceptively faster for a single app-back movement since there’s no carousel animation, yet you can only swipe back one app at a time whereas you can tap on any of 4 immediately available app icons in the Fast App Switcher and swipe back 4 additional apps at a time.

Performance on the current generation iPad, however, is hampered by lack of RAM. With only 256MB many apps will need to reload when you swipe back to them (at least so far in the beta). If iPad 2 has at least 512MB — or better yet 1GB — it would fly with this system.

Mute widget (iPad only)

When iPad shipped with iOS 3.2 the hardware switch above the volume rocker was set to lock or unlock screen orientation. In iOS 4.2 it was changed to a mute/un-mute switch like iPhone. Uncharacteristically, Apple has now added a Settings toggle to let the user choose which function they want the switch to perform. Since iOS 4.2 added a software orientation lock widget in the multitasking Fast App Switcher dock, iOS 4.3 now also toggles between that widget and a software mute button to fill whichever function is no longer being provided by the hardware switch. (Hardware switch set to orientation lock means dock widget becomes mute button and vice-versa.)

Photos

As mentioned above, you now have the ability to send recorded videos out over AirPlay to Apple TV, something which was noticeably missing when the feature was introduced in iOS 4.2.

Notes

iOS 4.2 finally let us change the Notes font from Marker Felt to something — anything — else, as long as that anything else was Helvetica or Chalkboard. Well it turns out Chalkboard wasn’t long for this world as it has been replaced in iOS 4.3 with Noteworthy.

App Store

The App Store gets a new design for the Updates page.

Install buttons

Although it’s not an iOS 4.3 specific feature, App Store has also been updated recently on the server side with a few new features. On all devices, if you’ve already bought or downloaded an app but it’s not currently loaded on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, instead of the Free or price button, you get an Install button. (This doesn’t seem true in all regional App Store yet, but is working in the US App Store.)

Search filters

Also not iOS 4.3 specific but since the timing fits, on the iPad there are also new filters in place on the search page, including Category, Release Date, Customer Rating, Price, and Device, as well as a Reset Filters option. Since App Store, like iTunes is really just an app-wrapped, internet powered, WebKit UI Apple can make all sorts of changes without having to wait for a new iOS version to ship. Usually these are just content features, banners, etc. (or the addition of Ping…) but it’s nice to see new functionality sneak in every once and a while.

Also, if you leave a search to go to Featured or Top Charts, etc. and then tap the search field at the top right, you’re whisked right back the previous search results, sans keyboard.

In-app purchases

In-app purchases now always require a password. Previously iOS would remember a password for a short amount of time after it was last entered. This led to children purchasing huge quantities of Smurfberries and other “freemium” content, which in turn led to the new password challenge system. (Of course this does nothing to protect parents who give their children their iTunes password or use an easily guessed or observed password — be warned!)

iAds

For developers, iAds can now go full screen. That includes the big iPad screen, which Apple says allow for “immersive, interactive iAd experience”. They also say the new banner format is easy to implement.

HTTP Live Streaming metrics

HTTP Live Streaming, the technology Apple uses to stream high quality video including their own press conferences and events, now includes viewer engagement and performance metrics. This is intended to help developers fine tune and optimize their content.

iTunes

iOS 4.3 brings a new set of push notifications to the table — for Apple’s Ping social musical network. So if you’ve been dying to know what Phil Schiller — or Chad — has bought, liked, or commented on in iTunes as instantaneously as possible you’ll get your wish.

FaceTime (iPad 2)

iPhone 4 got FaceTime with iOS 4 and iPod touch 4 with iOS 4.1, and now it’s iPad 2′s turn with iOS 4.3. Just like iPod touch 4, there’s a dedicated — and newly redesigned — FaceTime icon so you can easily launch it (iPhone still launches from the Phone app). Since, also like iPod touch 4, there’s no phone number associated with an iPad 2, it uses Apple/iTunes IDs to map the connections.

Enter your credentials and you’ll be able to FaceTime with anyone on iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, iPad 2, or Mac.

[We'll update this when iPad 2 ships and we have a chance to test it.]

Photo Booth (iPad 2 only)

Photo Booth, like the Mac app of the same name, is a fun time-killer where you can apply effects to the live camera view and save the pictures for use in profiles or just to share with friends and family. Thanks to the new cameras in iPad 2 and the powerful A5 processor you can see 9 live video streams, with effects applied, in real time. Since iOS is multitouch enabled, you can also use gestures to manipulate the effects in real time.

[We'll update this when iPad 2 ships and we have a chance to test it.]

Settings

Not only does Settings hide the usually interesting tweaks found in any new iOS version but this time it’s home to one of the marquee new features — Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot.

Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot (iPhone 4 only)

Freshly sandwiched in between VPN and Notifications for iPhone users is the new top-level Personal Hotspot setting. (It also find it in Settings: General: Network: Personal Hotspot, where it replaces the previous Tethering setting, but why dig that deep when you no longer have to?)

When you tap Personal Hotspot you’re taken to a screen that lets you toggle it on or off (why can’t we do this top-level like Airplane Mode or VPN?) along with your — visible — current WPA access point password (with no choice to hide it). Instructions on how “to connect using Wi-Fi” have been added to the previous tethering instructions for Bluetooth and USB. As before with Bluetooth, if you don’t have Wi-Fi enabled you’ll get a popup asking if you’d like to enable it or if you’d prefer to tether via Bluetooth (if that’s enabled) or USB.

You can change your WPA password by tapping on it, and you’re warned the new password must be at least 8 characters long (we recommend something not easily guessed like “password”) and that changing the password will disconnect any currently connected devices.

When activated you get the same blue bar across the top of your iPhone that tethering presented under iOS 3 and iOS 4, though renamed Personal Hotspot and now indicating the number of devices connected (up to a maximum of 5 on Verizon, 3 on most GSM carriers like AT&T).

For iPhone 3GS users personal hotspot is there and in the same top-level position, but is limited to the old-style Bluetooth and USB.

Location Services

Location Services has also been promoted to top level in iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. (see iPhone screenshot above, iPad screen shot below)

Sounds

Mercifully, the new Text Tones for iPhone 4 introduced in iOS 4.2 have been made shorter as better fits Text Tones. Tragically, they haven’t been made any better. It’s bewildering.

Vibration has also changed for text/SMS alerts. Now you get two short vibrations for an SMS on both iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

General: Restrictions

If you don’t want your children discovering new, electronic hipster songs on Apple’s social music network, Ping, iOS 4.3 lets you disable it via the Parental Controls.

General: Use Side Switch to (iPad only)

The iPad’s hardware switch, originally released as an orientation lock/unlock in iOS 3.2 and changed to an iPhone-like mute/un-mute switch in iOS 4.2 now becomes user assignable in iOS 4.3. Yes, with a simple checkbox you can choose which way you personally like it.

As mentioned up top, whichever option you do not choose becomes a software control in the multitasking Fast App Switcher dock.

General: Multitasking Gestures (iPad developers only)

A simple toggle allows you to turn on or off the new multitasking navigation gestures (see the description under system-wide changes, above). These are intended for developers only, not end-users so you need to connect to Xcode to enable them. (See our how to enable iPad multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3 article for more.)

Messages (iPhone only)

The settings for Messages now allow you to choose how many times you want SMS/MMS alerts to sound, repeated at two minute intervals. Choices include:

Once
Twice
3 Times
5 Times
10 Times.

iPod

New to iPod Settings, you can scroll down and enter your iTunes username and password to enable Home Sharing (if you enter the wrong information, you’ll get a popup telling you it can’t be enabled).

Notes

As mentioned previously, Noteworthy replaces Chalkboard in the Notes settings.

Phone + Contacts

A minor but likely very welcome change in iOS 4.3 beta sees the addition of a wait button to the add contact phone number’s extended keyboard and the rejiggering of some of the other buttons like pause.

This can also be used to setup single-tap conference call dialing, with the pause to send passcodes.

Safari

Hopefully Apple’s comments about AirPlay supporting web content means we’ll be able to stream H.264 video from Safari to Apple TV as well under iOS 4.3.

In addition we’d expect Apple adds whatever other HTML 5, CSS, and Nitro (their JavaScript rendering engine) improvements they’ve made since iOS 4.2 shipped.

iPod

iPod gains Home Sharing under iOS 4.3, the ability to stream media from your Mac or Windows PC the same way Apple TV (2010) has been doing since last fall.

Home Sharing

Once you enable Home Sharing in Settings (see above) you can tap on More on the bottom tabs, select the new Shared icon at the bottom, and tap on the computer name you want to access under Shared Libraries

You’ll be taken “back” to the iPod app media list but you’ll now be seeing your PC’s library instead of your local device library (it can be a little confusing at first but the PC library name is written on top of the scroll list). Choose your music, TV, movies, or other media just as you would have previously, but it’ll now stream from your PC over Wi-Fi.

To change back to your local device library, tap on More, tap on Sharing, and select your local device from the top of the list (you’ll see a checkmark next to whichever library is currently the active one).

So it’s a little complex and it can be confusing, but it works and for media you only want access to occasionally, it can save you a lot of occasional syncing

Ping

Apple says you can also post and like songs on Ping directly from the Now Playing screen but I haven’t seen the controls for it yet.

Apple TV

Apple TV is also getting the iOS 4.3 treatment. Major new features include:

AirPlay for App Store apps and compatible web video
Dolby Digital 5.1 for Netflix
New slideshow themes
An improved keyboard
MLB HD streaming for MLB.com subscribers
NBA HD streaming for NBA league pass subscribers

MLB and NBA are built-in, just like Netflix.

Pricing and compatibility

iOS 4.3 is available free of charge to all compatible iOS devices. Compatibility, however, is so far even more restricted that iOS 4 — namely iPhone 3G/iPod touch G2 do not have beta versions of iOS 4.3 to date.

iPhone 4 (GSM), iPod touch 4 (2010): All features except display mirroring
iPhone 4 (Verizon): No update announced.
iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009), iPad 1 (2010): No features requiring iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, or iPad2-type hardware (i.e. front facing camera)
iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): not compatible
iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible

Conclusion

iOS 4.3 gives AirPlay some much-needed improvements, adds Home Sharing, begins to fix the horrible text-tones for iPhone, and provides the fantastic personal hotspot feature for iPhone 4. It’s not a huge update but it’s a good one.

If you were expecting more major updates, like notification SIRI-infused, OS-wide VoiceControl system, etc. etc. then you’ll need to wait for a more major update like iOS 5. (Which should be previewed this month or next.) For now you have a few more toys to play with in your iOS chest.

As always, If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments or send us an email and we’ll update as needed.

How to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 iPhone, iPad untethered via greenpois0n

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:16:41 +0000

Greenpois0n RC5 now allows you to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 untethered on most devices including iPhone 4 and iPad. The best part? You won’t need any SHSH blobs saved. redsn0w beta required you to have 4.2b3 blobs saved (and it was pretty unstable). Hopefully greenpois0n is going to be a much smoother experience for you guys. Hit the jump for a walkthrough on how to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 with greenpois0n and for the answers to some commonly asked questions.

What devices will greenpois0n RC5 jailbreak?

iPhone 4/3GS
iPad
iPod Touch 2G/3G/4G
AppleTV second generation

You’ll need to be running iOS 4.2.1 in order for this version of greenpois0n to work (4.1.1 for AppleTV second generation users).

Should I do a full stock restore first?

In short, most likely. If you’re already stock and haven’t been jailbroken, you’re fine. Still back up your phone first in case anything goes wrong.

If you are currently jailbroken on 4.1, yes. Do a full stock restore to 4.2.1 and restore as a new iPhone. After jailbreaking, I still don’t recommend restoring from a backup. Old jailbreak pieces can come with your backup and cause issues for you. Just my personal recommendation.

If you are currently tethered on 4.2.1 via redsn0w, you should be able to just run greepois0n right over your current jailbreak to untether. Some of the devs are saying if you have issues installing Cydia via greenpois0n after running it, simply run redsn0w again and let it re-install Cydia. Basically, as long as you aren’t running a Monte version jailbreak on 4.2.1, you should be able to run greenpois0n to untether.

Will this jailbreak iOS 4.3 beta?

No. You’ll have to wait a bit longer on a tested jailbreak for 4.3.

Jailbreaking iOS 4.2.1 via Greenpois0n

Download greenpois0n onto your Mac. (Some users have been reporting the servers being down. If you can’t get it to download right away, just be patient. Their servers are probably just lagging from all the traffic. There are a few mirrors out there so be sure to check the comments for the latest updates on those.
Plug your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or AppleTV in via USB (make sure the power is off) and follow the on-screen instructions to enter DFU mode.
Greenpois0n will recognize when your phone is properly in DFU mode and start to do its thing. After it’s done, you’ll see a Loader icon on your homescreen. Tap it and install Cydia. (Note: This only differs for AppleTV jailbreakers. You’ll be done but need to continue accessing and installing apps via Terminal and SSH.)
You’re done! Restore all your stuff (if you choose to or were stock before) and enjoy being jailbroken!

Note: Some users in the comments have been reporting sometimes the initializing error is a result of not holding the home button long enough when entering DFU mode. Even when the text is not greyed out anymore, continue holding the home button if you’re getting the Initializing error even after trying Greenpois0n RC5 version 2.

If you guys have already used this version of greenpois0n, let us know how it’s going in the comments! Have other questions? Check our our Jailbreak Starters Guide and jailbreak forums!

Daily Tip: How to install XBMC on Apple TV 2 [Jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:49:10 +0000

IAlready jailbroken your Apple TV 2 and curious how to install the nifty little XBMC add-on that allows you to stream and add even more content from your network? Since we don’t have Cydia for Apple TV (yet), the process of installing jailbreak apps is a bit different. Hit the jump for a quick walkthrough on how to get XBMC working on your jailbroken Apple TV 2.

First you’ll need a jailbroken AppleTV. If you haven’t done that already, check out our guide on jailbreaking the AppleTV 2 with Seas0nPass.

After you’ve done that, follow these steps.

Open a terminal app as you’ll need to gain SSH access to your AppleTV.
Type ssh root@apple-tv.local – if that doesn’t work for you, instead of typing apple-tv.local, replace it with your AppleTV’s IP address which can be found under Settings then Network on your AppleTV.
You’ll be asked for the password to your AppleTV next. By default, it is alpine. If you have changed it, enter the password you chose on your own instead. You may be asked if you’re sure you wish to continue, just type “yes”.
Once you are at the root menu, type (or copy/paste) this: echo "deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list and hit “enter”.
Next type (or copy/paste) this: apt-get update and hit “enter”.
A list of available apps will populate. Type (or copy/paste) this: apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2 and hit “enter”.
You’ll see the app begin to install and once it reaches 100%, you’re done. Your AppleTV should flash briefly and when the main menu pops back up, XBMC should be added.

As a side note, I had issues getting my MacBook to connect to my AppleTV via SSH. I kept getting connection refused or invalid host errors. There is a file on your Mac you can delete in order to stop these errors (not sure where it would be located on a PC if anyone wants to chime in here). You’ll need to unhide files on your Mac first. You can do that by following the steps below.

Open Terminal and type (or copy/paste): defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE and hit “enter”.
Type (or copy/paste): killall Finder

That should unhide all of the hidden files on your Mac. Now you should be able to navigate to /Users/username (in my case Ally)/.ssh and delete the file titled “known_hosts”. It should be the only file in that folder. Then try the above steps again. Only some of you may need to do this but I figured I’d throw it in there for anyone who has issues connecting via SSH to their AppleTV.

If you tried this or have installed XBMC, let us know how you like it so far!

If you have any questions or need any extra help, jump on in to our Apple TV Forums.

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…)

Daily Tip: How to configure VPN access on your iPhone, iPad

Allyson Kazmucha — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:59:05 +0000

Curious how to configure access to a VPN client on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? L2TP, PPTP, and IPSec VPN support are all built right into iOS and we’ll show you how to set them up after the break!

One thing to note is that you’ll need to make sure you have all the settings and information about your VPN service handy. Some companies will not allow mobile access to a VPN, and some carriers limit 3G VPN access to business accounts, so that’s another thing you’ll need to check on before attempting to add one.

These screenshots show iPhone setup but iPod touch and iPad are similar.

First you’ll need to configure your VPN by adding the settings for your VPN (in most cases, these are provided by the system administrator or IT person at your company).

To configure your VPN, do the follow:

Tap Settings
Tap General
Tap Network
Tap VPN
Tap Add VPN Configuration
Along the top you will see some tabs, you’ll need to select which type of configuration you need. In most cases, you’ll choose IPSec (unless your system administrator has told you different). For this example, I’ve used IPSec.
Enter the information for your VPN in the corresponding fields. If you used a proxy, make sure to enable it towards the bottom of the settings page.
Tap Save

You’ve now configured your VPN for use. Now you’ll need to turn it on.

From your homescreen, tap Settings
Under the main settings page, you’ll now see a VPN option, this only appears when you have a VPN configured. Toggle the switch to On
Your phone should connect to the VPN. If an error message pops up, go back into your VPN settings and make sure all your settings are input correctly.

That’s it! If you guys have ever used this, let us know your input too. Have any issues setting up a VPN? Check out our TiPb Forums to get helpful from many of our awesome community members.

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 . (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

iOS 4.2 for iPad walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:49:56 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.2 update for iPad

iOS 4.2 is the grand unification update, the software that brings iPhone, iPod touch, and for the first time, iPad all onto the same version number and at the same time. Yes, it’s the one firmware to rule them all.

Announced during Apple’s 2010 special music event, for iPad’s that have been running iOS 3.2 since launch back in April, the change is nothing short of a revelation. Multitasking, folders, and unified inbox from iOS 4.0 join Game Center and TV show rentals from iOS 4.1, and add in AirPlay video sharing and AirPrint wireless printing fresh to iOS 4.2.

Huge.

And we’re going to take you through it, after the break!

(Note, if you’re interested in iPhone or iPod touch, we’ve got a complete iOS 4.2 for iPhone walkthrough as well!)

What hasn’t changed

Almost everything has changed this time. Likely because there’s no weather or clock apps to ignore. Still, there doesn’t seem to be anything new in Contacts yet, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

Huge update, we told you.

Hardware changes

No, that’s not a typo. As you’re read below, Apple has added a software orientation lock to iOS 4.2 for iPad, similar to how it works on iPhone. That means the previous, hardware-based orientation lock is no longer needed, so they’ve made that a mute switch like on iPhone. Yes, they really changed a hardware button. Yes, it will make iPhone owners less confused but it will mess with existing iPad owners.

Either way, be advised.

System-wide enhancements

Many of the system-wide enhancements that came with iOS 4.2 for iPhone were already present in IOS 3.2 for iPad — spellcheck, text replacement, etc. And unfortunately, there’s still no sign of VoiceControl, which both iPhone and iPod touch have. There is, however…

AirPlay

AirPlay is an evolution of Apple’s AirTunes system that used to let you stream music between iTunes on Windows or Mac and Apple TV or Airport Express connected speakers. AirPlay takes that to the next level, letting you stream video and pictures as well as music from iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch) and the new 2010 Apple TV. Built-in apps like iPod, Video, and YouTube can stream, but unfortunately it looks like all other apps, including Apple’s own Safari and all App Store apps are currently limited to audio-only. Whether this is intentional or Apple simply ran out of time and didn’t finish making public APIs for video is unknown but hopefully this will be expanded upon in a future update.

You can tell AirPlay is an option when its icon appears to the right of the volume slider. It looks like a TV-style box with a triangle being inserted up into it. (Yeah, seriously). AirPlay compatible apps, when AirPlay compatible devices are present, will show the AirPlay icon as a button. Tap it and you get a list of devices you can stream to. Tap one and your video will switch from iPhone to TV. And since it’s called AirPlay and not AirView, here’s hoping Apple also expands the functionality in the future to project game video onto the big TV screen, leaving iPhone and iPod touch as a full on multitouch game controller. Hey, we can dream…

AirPrint

AirPrint is Apple’s wireless printing service. By the time it ships, it should be able to send pages to almost any printer on the same Wi-Fi network, or to certain printers directly (HP ePrint have already been announced). Needless to say, this answers one huge piece of previously missing functionality. (The one it doesn’t answer, and still isn’t answered, is easier file transfer and sync).

AVRCP Audio/Video Remote Control Protocol for stereo Bluetooth

Yes, you can finally — finally — control volume, skip tracks, and do pretty much anything your stereo Bluetooth headset allows. Unfortunately, at least in my tests, volume changes on the headset don’t show up on the iPhone’s volume slider — but they do work in both iTunes Store streaming and iPod apps.

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app that runs the home screen and overall interface in iOS, finally gets the iOS 4 crown jewels of multitasking and folders, but there are a few small changes to go through first.

The little northeast pointing arrow that indicates a location-based service is running, be it Wi-Fi mapping or aGPS, now shows up in the status bar along the top, just like iOS 4 on iPhone.

The red bar that shows background VoIP is here, long and thin though it may be. (And yes, tapping it does indeed take you right back to your VoIP/Skype call).

Spotlight

There’s more control inside Settings for Spotlight, but nothing in the search interface itself that we can find yet. If Apple were to create a true universal search, including for settings, app content, etc. like webOS 2.0 or BlackBerry OS 6, that would terrific.

Multitasking

While Apple’s built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since iOS 1.0 for iPhone and iOS 3.2 for iPad, with iOS 4.2 it finally comes to 3rd party App Store apps.

As to how it works, instead of a traditional “leave full apps running in the background” approach, Apple instead chose to implement a more restricted but, they felt, better performing and power friendly solution involving 7 specific background API (application programming interfaces.)

Local notifications

In addition to the existing push notification service from Apple’s servers, which provide sound, badges, and alert popups for everything from IM to VoIP calls, to game challenges, iOS 4.2 adds local notifications so something like an alarm-clock app could register an alert that would sit in the iPhone in the background until the proper time, then activate. That takes the online server out of the equation which is good for tasks that don’t need additional information from the cloud, and so don’t have to activate the radios.

Task completion

There’s another API for task completion so that, for example, if you’re uploading a picture to Flickr and leave the app, it can register a thread to keep uploading the picture in the background while you do something else. That means the entire app doesn’t have to keep running, freeing up memory and lightening battery load, and even the thread will terminate when the upload is done.

Fast app switching and saved state

Fast app switching deals with the perceptive speed that multitasking offers. With iOS 3.2 if you left an App Store app it would shut down completely. If you went back — regardless if it was a second or a week or later — it would usually restart not from where you left off but from the beginning. A few developers tried to add persistence on their own, saving your place when you came back as best as previous OS versions allowed, but most didn’t — especially games. Also, if you closed one app and went to another, you could theoretically be stuck swiping back or forth between 11 home screen pages. And with a 9.5-inch screen, that could be a lot of swiping!

Saved state is now built into iOS 4.2 for iPad. If you switch out, Apps have their currents state recorded to memory and if/when you go back, the app checks the memory save and resumes from that state.

To enable fast app switching, Apple’s created a new UI metaphor. Now, when you double tap the home button, the screen turns translucent and slides up, allowing you to peek at the apps running “in the background”. (Technically frozen with state saved and threads registered with the background API).

Apps in the fast switcher UI are sorted in order of last usage. That means, if you’re moving between a set of commonly used apps, they’re most likely right next to each other and not screens and screens away. These two elements combine together to make launching apps perceptively much faster, even though the apps don’t have to be running in the background consuming resources just for that convenience.

Positionally the fast app switcher replaces the space traditionally reserved for the Dock, so while it’s a tad confusing the concept of apps at the bottom of the screen being more permanent and easily accessible remains. Behaviorally, while they look like a secret Dock, they function like the Home Screen itself in that you can swipe from right to left to scroll through a several 4-icon sets of multitasking apps.

Given iPad has only 256MB of RAM, we assume Apple will discretely kill off the least-used app in the stack when things get tight or a certain amount of time passes. That means, yes, sometimes you will come back to that game and have it start over rather than resuming, but resources on mobile devices — they be constrained.

(Here’s also hoping iPad 2 gets 512MB of RAM like iPhone 4 did.)

iOS 4.2 helps users visualize what’s going on when switching apps by introducing a new, carousel-like animation. It’s a bit different than the carousel style used in iPhone and iPod touch, more like panels swinging around, but it works well. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you’re in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always.

Interlude: Task Killing

At the iOS 4 event, Steve Jobs likened task managers (in the multitasking, not to-do sense) to styluses — if you need them there’s something wrong. Initially this created confusion in iOS 4 when it was noted, if you hold your finger down on multitasking apps, they’d jiggle and bring up a delete icon that, if tapped, removed them. So um, yeah.

It appears like there’s a couple things going on. First, with built-in Apple apps, like Mail, if you “delete” it from the fast app switcher, the service will re-spawn immediately so you will still receive Mail (it doesn’t kill the background thread that checks, sounds/vibrates, and updates the badge). However, the respawn will sometimes fix issues of mail not loading properly, for example.

For App Store apps, if you “delete” them it flushes their saved state and forces them to reset and reload when next you launch them, i.e. they won’t resume from the previously saved state and their threads seem to be restarted.

And yes, you can still hold down the Sleep/Wake button until the red Shut Down slider appears, then hold down the Home button until you return to the home screen, and that will flush the RAM and give you a general reset.

Widgets

Just like to the left of the main home screen is a special Spotlight screen, to the left of the fast app switcher is a special widget dock containing a software version of the iPad’s previous hardware orientation lock control.

That’s right. The hardware orientation lock button has been reassigned as a mute switch, to match the iPhone, and now orientation lock is software based. Unlike the iPhone, however, you can lock in both portrait and landscape mode.

More over, there are three circular music controls to skip back/rewind, play/pause, or skip ahead/fast forward whatever audio is currently queued up (including streaming music). Whichever app is currently playing the music, be it iPod, iTunes or Safari (streaming podcasts, for example), or an App Store app (like Pandora or Slacker) is shown at the right so you can jump back to it and access further controls.

iPad 4.2 also gets something more than iPhone — it gets all the widgets in one dock, and it gets a brightness slider thrown in to boot. The extra screen real estate pays off with instant access to crank things down for reading or up for watching movies.

The presentation may not be as visually slick as Palm webOS’ Card view (which looks like iPhone Safari’s Page view) or Mac OS X Expose mode, but it keeps tens of millions of existing iPad users grounded in the interface they’re familiar with and that’s what Apple is prioritizing.

Background music, location, and VoIP

Speaking of streaming music, perhaps most famously, Apple is allowing apps to register three specific types of threads for persistent backgrounding (they can just keep running until you close them). Again, this isn’t the whole app running, just one thread from the app, so the idea is it won’t slow down performance, use up memory, or drain battery to the same degree. These API are for streaming music, location, and VoIP (voice over IP).

This means you can listen to Pandora, Slacker, etc. while surfing the web. Navigon, TeleNav,TomTom, etc. can keep using the GPS and alert you to directions while you’re on the phone, and to further save resources, non-critical location apps like FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt, etc. can be alerted when you change cell towers. Fring, Skype, Line2, etc. can answer calls and receive messages when you’re not in the app, making them more equal telephony citizens.

What’s still missing are background API for timeline updates, so that IM, Twitter, RSS, etc. could update like Mail does and have new messages ready and waiting when you return to the app. Also, there’s no API to let internet sessions like SSH, RDP/VNC remain active when you exit an app making it more onerous for network administrators and others to manage remote machines. Hopefully these can be added in future revisions.

Folders

There are umpteen hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store, tens of thousands specifically for iPad, and more and more every day. With iOS 3.2 on iPad we had 11 pages for 180 apps viewable, but you could install many more and use Spotlight as a way of finding and launching them. And Organizing them efficiently? Forget about it.

Enter Folders. A Folder is simply a grouped icon that holds up to 20 other icons inside it. (And for those keeping count at home, the new math means a whopping 3600 apps can be kept available at once. Super hudder).

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

To create a Folder, you begin by tapping and holding an icon to put it in jiggly mode, just like you did before to delete or move it. Then, drag it over and drop it on top of another icon to create a Folder. (This works better when icons aren’t at the right edge of the screen, as the “get out of the way” behavior sometimes supersedes the Folder behavior, causing the icon to wrap to the next line before you can drop on top of it.) Once created, iOS reads the apps’ category data and tries to name the folder for you, but you can easily edit it and change it to anything you want.

As you add apps to a folder, tiny representations of the apps icon appear inside the folder icon in a 3×3 grid. Since iOS 4.2 on iPad supports more app than the iPhone version, 20 instead o 12, as you add more than 9 apps, the grid of tiny icons scrolls up to show the new apps being added. Since 20 isn’t divisible by 3, when you hit 19 or 20 that row contains only 2 icons. Once you leave jiggly mode, the folder icon scrolls back down to show only the first 9 icons again. So, if you need visual reminded for certain apps being in certain folders, make sure you add them first so they’ll be visible.

To remove apps from a Folder, put them in jiggly mode inside the Folder and drag them out (or just delete them if you don’t want the app anymore at all). You can also move them around within the Folder to customize their order.

Folders can be put in jiggly mode and moved as well, but not deleted (they can only be deleted by removing all the apps from within them, and which point they self-destruct for you). You can even move them to the Dock, which means you could have 120 apps readily available at any time for quick launching.

You can also manage them from iTunes 10′s app interface if a mouse and keyboard helps you speed up the process. (Oh, the irony.)

And while you still can’t delete Apple’s built-in apps, you can take the ones you’re not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible.

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X’s Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

Calendar

Calendar app appears to be functionally identical to iOS 3.2 but for the color scheme. The shades are all pastel now, just like iPhone on iOS 4.1. Full on Miami Vice light purples and greens and peaches and tones only Prismacolor has names for. No idea what this change was about.

Notes

Notes finally — finally lets you change fonts. That’s right, if Marker Felt was never your thing, you can now jump into Settings and switch it to Chalkboard (essentially Marker Felt with a shave and a haircut), and Helvetica, used by the rest of the interface.

Curiously — and frustratingly — there doesn’t seem to be AirPrint support for Notes.

Maps

A minor tweak, but the current location/current direction button changes from the previous crosshairs to a north-east pointer to match the new location services icon used in the title bar, much like the iPhone’s did under iOS 4.0.

Video

Video, the app that unlike the iPhone but like the iPod touch houses all movie, TV, and video podcasts on iPad, enjoys AirPlay integration so all of the preceding should be able to easily stream to the 2010 Apple TV (and perhaps 3rd party AirPlay devices one day, if any offer video support).

YouTube

YouTube only gets a minor update this time, which is kind of disappointing given how great YouTube has been making YouTube.com work for iOS devices. In any event, if you’ve ever wished you could give a YouTube video the old thumbs up or thumbs down right on your iPad, the you’re in luck.

And, of course, the AirPlay is right there, giving us hope any HTML 5 video will be instantly transportable to the TV.

iTunes Store

iTunes store gets AirPlay too in case you want to stream a video podcast and shoot it over to your 2010 Apple TV. Speaking of streaming, thanks to iOS 4.2 background audio, streaming on iPad is now as rock solid as it’s been on iPhone since 4.0.

Most of the time you can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later — even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio — and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat. I almost never download podcasts anymore. That’s how good the streaming is now (especially if you’re mobile with an iPad 3G).

Ping

Ping isn’t exclusive to iOS 4.1 — it’s already available to iOS 4.0.x users — but Apple is touting it as a new feature and it’s being launched at roughly the same time, so it makes some amount of sense to fold it in here for easy reference.

A social music network, Ping debuted with iTunes 10 but only became accessible on iPad with iTunes 10.1 and iOS 4.2. You get to it via the double talk bubbles tab, bottom middle. If you haven’t yet synced your iPad with iTunes 10.1, you’ll get a Ping splash screen telling you to do so. Why it can’t just ask for your login like Twitter or Facebook and even Apple’s own Game Center is beyond me. Cut the tether already.

Once you’ve signed on, the Ping tab will come up with the Activities view. Activities show what’s going on with the people you’ve followed — status, pictures, and videos from recording artists like Lady GaGa, and comments, likes, and shared music from friends. It gives you the ability to like or comment on any of those things and, of course, instant access to preview and purchase the music being liked or commented on in iTunes. That also means there’s currently no way to share or discuss music that’s not in iTunes, specifically in your local country’s iTunes store, which can be frustration for Beatles fans in the US, and fans of far, far more artists internationally.

Actions are fairly simple. To like or add a comment to an activity, tap the appropriate button. To preview or purchase a song that was posted, tap anywhere on the song widget, from album art to title. To be taken to the song’s album, double tap on the title.

The People tab gives you a list of people you follow and people who follow you, as well as a featured button for a list of recording artists.

Tapping on a person gives you profile page with recent activity and an easy follow/stop following toggle. You can also switch to an info view that contains a short bio and buttons to see the person follows and who follows them. Similar to Twitter, people can either let anyone follow them or decide to approve followers on a person to person basis.

The My Profile view, as the name suggests, shows you your own recent activity and, at the bottom, has a button for My Info that shows you your own profile. You can’t (yet?) edit this info on iOS, however, and will need to go back to iTunes 10 on Mac/Windows for that.

I’m not sure if it’s the blank loading screen, but iTunes Store has never felt like the snappiest app on iOS and including Ping inside it likewise makes it feel less snappy than Twitter or Facebook. It also doesn’t seem to save state of, or cache, the tabs – perhaps because they’re web pages being re-loaded each time – which makes the experience of moving between apps seem sluggish. There’s also no refresh feature, you need to switch between tabs to check for new data, and sit through more reload screens…

At least Apple finally added social integration, albeit by way of Twitter and not Facebook as they’d originally tried. Most of that seems to live inside the desktop iTunes, where you can link your Twitter account, find people you follow on Twitter, and friend them on Ping as well. What you like on Ping then gets tweeted to your Twitter account. That could be to your liking or incredibly not.

TV show rentals

The other addition is TV show rentals. They’re only available in the US and from ABC (whose parent company, Disney, counts Steve Jobs as its biggest share holder), and FOX (whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, sees mobile devices as a way to save old media), and cost $0.99 per episode. You have 30 days to start watching and 48hrs. to finish once you start.

Ping

Ping hasn’t show up in iOS 4.2, but since the UI is web-based Apple can update it at any time, so it’s almost certainly will be coming to the iPad with this release. We’ll update when it shows up. It will be interesting to see what Apples does to balance the rather awkward iTunes Windows/Mac UI with the fairly standard iOS on iPhone UI.

App Store – iAds

App Store, like iTunes Store is mostly just a thin app container around constantly updated web content, but Apple has snuck something new in this time, if not for users than at least for developers. And yeah, we’re talking about iAds…

iAd

Okay, so iAd really shouldn’t be considered a feature, at least not for users, but it will be a feature of iOS 4.2 for developers, and it will go in apps, so we’re mentioning it here.

iAd will provide developers with an easy-as-Xcode way to place advertising in their apps, both paid and free. Apple is setting a high bar for their ads, however. No simple Google-style text, annoying punch-the-monkey, or jarring transition out of the app and into the browser, they claim to want great looking, highly interactive, emotionally compelling content that will connect with rather than alienate users. Served every 3 minutes…

Settings

Settings is a boring app that often contains a great number of terrific surprises when it comes to Apple iOS updates. iOS 4.2 for iPad is no exception.

Brightness & Wallpaper

iPad gets all the wallpapers that iPhone got with iOS 4, some of them re-rendered to look even sharper on the big 9.7-inch screen.

General: Location Services

Since Apple is, post Google-breakup, awfully serious about user privacy, Location Services get a new Settings tab that lets you turn them off completely, but also turn them off in each app separately if you like.

General: Passcode lock

iOS 4.2 brings alphanumeric passcodes to iPad by default (no more configuration file required). Turn it on and you can have a nice, strong, even gnarly pseudorandom string… if you can remember it.

And yes, you get the Vader-black keyboard standard if you flip that switch.

General: Restrictions

To the list of things you can lock down and lock out, iOS 4.2 adds Deleting Apps, no doubt to the cheers of parents with young children everywhere. You can also prevent changes to location services (so your kids can’t stop you tracking them, unless they’re hax0rs) and email accounts.

If you don’t want them playing multiplayer Game Center games, you can stamp that out as well. You can even turn off friend requests.

General: Keyboard

iOS 4 spell check causing more problems for you than it’s fixing? No problem, you can now turn it off.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Gmail is dead, long live Google Mail.

Inside MobileMe, Google Mail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there’s no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Because mail now supports threaded email messages, Settings now gives you the option to turn that feature on or off.

Notes

Notes now has its own Settings tab because, as mentioned previously, you can now change the font in Notes, and here’s where you do it.

You can also choose the default account for Notes sync if you have more than one IMAP mail account set up.

Game Center

Game Center, Apple’s social gaming network went live with iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch and comes to the iPad with iOS 4.2. As of this writing, Apple has a Game Center section set up in the App Store to help you find games that support it. To start off, you can create or login to an account, update your status, and add friends.

And yes, on iPad Game Center takes advantage of the full screen. You get a double column-view instead of single like on iPhone, and that means your lists (like friends) will on the left and the detail view (like stats) will be on the right.

Also, the sign in/welcome screen currently shows a number of app icons “dealt” card-like across Game Center’s game table style UI. Tapping them does indeed take you to the App Store to get the game.

You can also see a list of your games that support Game Center. Tapping on one gives you general info and the ability to hit Play and go straight to the game. Tapping on Leaderboards lets you see top scores for Today, This Week, and All Time.

Achievements shows everything you can earn for playing the game.

Safari

iOS 4.2 finally gives iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad the ability to find text on a Safari web page. This is similar to Windows or Mac, where you just hit CTL-F or CMD-F, type your text, and off you go. On iPad Safari you use the regular old search field (still confusingly labeled Google by default) and start typing the text you want to find.

Where previously you only got suggested search terms, now you get an additional section at the bottom to find the word on the page. Tap it and the first match on the page is highlighted in yellow and a set of buttons slide up on the bottom for “Next” and “Done”, as well as a counter for how many matches of the word there are on the page, and which one is currently highlighted (e.g., 7/16). Hit next until you find the one you want, hit done when you’re finished. If you want to change the find term, the search box is repositioned alongside the controls to make it convenient.

No more tedious manual scanning, no more javascript bookmarklet workaround. Just happy surfing.

The previous + icon, for adding bookmarks and Web Clips is gone, replaced by the Action button found in other apps. Hitting the action button gives you all the same options as before, but now also includes AirPrint.

AirPlay will show up inline for videos where compatible but is currently limited to audio only.

Behind the scenes, Apple has added support for the accelerometer and gyroscope and generally improved HTML 5 support. (That means the potential for more, better web apps in the future.)

Mail

iOS 4.2 for iPad Mail gets a unified inbox just like iPhone has had since iOS 4.0. For those with multiple email accounts whose previous iPad experience involved tapping into and out of those boxes many, many times a day this is a hugely welcome addition.

Unlike iPhone, the split column view of iPad lets you see your inbox choices on the left in landscape mode and in popover in portrait so it can be even faster to move around. The list includes all Inboxes, a specific account’s inbox (which is considered fast inbox switching), or into the complete folder and sub-folder system of a given account (how Mail has worked in iOS 3.2).

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

What is distinguishable are the carets (technically greater-than symbols) to the right of certain messages that indicate a message is part of a thread. A number, typically 2 or 3, accompanies the caret to indicate how many replies are in the thread.

Tapping on a message that’s part of a thread gives a second list of all messages in the thread. Tapping on one of them shows you the message in the main column.

A thread view contains a small vertical bar at the top with the subject of the thread and time of the most recent reply. A button to the top left of the message contains the name of the inbox you came from so you can back out again, leave the thread completely, and see all your messages.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Great news for heavy ActiveSync users, iOS 4 supports multiple accounts. So, for example, you can now have your work Exchange server and home Google account both set up to push through ActiveSync (which is what Google Sync users behind the scenes) at the same time.

Also for Gmail users, the Delete button has now been properly renamed as Archive (since Google really doesn’t want you deleting anything if they can possibly help it), and the trashcan replaced with a storage box icon.

Lastly, in iOS 3.2, when you wanted to abandon an email, you would hit Cancel and get options to Save (store the email in Drafts), Don’t Save (trash the email), and Cancel (go back to writing the email). The naming of these options was likely too confusing so in iOS 4.x they’ve been replaced with a big red Delete Draft button (to trash the email) and Save Draft.

Photos

Photos get a bump in the functionality department, primarily through the Action button getting AirPrint. Just tap, choose a compatible printer, and your photos go wirelessly from iPad digital to hardcopy ink or laser.

Photos also get AirPlay and you can swipe through them and watch them change on Apple TV. Unfortunately AirPlay for video isn’t supported.

iPod

iPod on iOS 3.2 for iPad was fairly well rounded already, so the bump up to 4.2 seems fairly minor at this point. You get AirPlay, so you can send music to Air Port express speakers, or video to the 2010 Apple TV.

Availability

iOS 4.2 is a free update currently in Gold Master (GM) for final testing, and unless anything major comes up, it should be released this week.

Conclusion

iOS 4.2 on iPad is a revelation. It’s the way iPad is meant to be. That’s not to say it’s perfect or has every feature on every geek’s wish list — it certainly doesn’t — but it has enough new functionality to make iPad much more valuable.

Like with iOS 4 on iPhone, multitasking and folders extend the existing UI in a way that gives power users what they need, but keeps casual users either grounded in familiar metaphor, and feature-phone types blissfully unaware it’s even there.

AirPrint addresses an important bit of functionality for home and business alike, and AirPlay has the potential to turn the TV video scene upside down.

Sure, non-obtrusive notifications, and glanceable, lock-screen widgets — and hey, AirEasyFileTransfer — would be grand, but iOS 5 beta is only 4 months or so away…

For now, we’ll just thank Apple’s iOS team again — this is one hell of an update. If you notice anything we’ve missed, send us an email or drop a note in the comments and we’ll add them to the next update.

iOS 4.2 for iPhone walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:12:41 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.2 update for iPhone and iPod touch

iOS 4.2 for iPhone is small update to iOS 4 and iOS 4.1 that adds marquee new features like AirVideo and AirPlay, fixes some bugs, but most importantly brings the iOS platform into grand unification, with iPhone, iPod touch, and — finally — iPad all on the same version number.

(Note, if you’re interested in iPad, check out our complete iOS 4.2 for iPad walkthrough as well!)

If you don’t have time (yet) to read this through this whole article and are eager to get the basics down now, there’s a video up top to tell you everything you need to know in just over 5 minutes.

We’re showing it off on an iPhone 4 and an iPod touch 4. Functionality is almost identical, just the telephony (i.e. text tones) don’t work on iPod touch 4, of course.

What hasn’t changed

We’ll be covering what’s new and improved below, so for what hasn’t changed be sure to check out our massive iOS 4 walkthrough and iOS 4.1 update walkthrough because we won’t be repeating all that here.

System-wide changes

AirPrint

AirPlay

You can tell AirPlay is an option when its icon appears to the right of the volume slider. It looks like a TV-style box with a triangle being inserted up into it. (Yeah, seriously). AirPlay compatible apps, when AirPlay compatible devices are present, will show the AirPlay icon as a button. Tap it and you get a list of devices you can stream to. Tap one and your video will switch from iPhone to TV. And since it’s called AirPlay and not AirView, here’s hoping Apple expands the functionality in the future to project game video onto the big TV screen, leaving iPhone and iPod touch as a full on multitouch game controller. Hey, we can dream…

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app that runs the home screen and overall interface in iOS, gets its multitasking dock UI tweaked. Now, after you double press the home button to bring up the fast app switcher, you can swipe left to get to the audio controls and orientation lock as before, but you can also swipe left again to get to a new volume slider and AirPlay control.

Since iPhone has hardware volume controls, it may seem a little redundant, but perhaps it will independently control AirPlay video in the future.

Messages

Messages gets an extra button at the very top of the threaded view that, right in the middle between call and contact info — FaceTime.

When you’re exchanging SMS or MMS, just tap it to launch into a FaceTime video call (if you’re both on an iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4, and on Wi-Fi, of course…)

Photos

Photos gets AirPrint now so you can quickly snap a shot and beam it to a nearby printer. Ultra-modern technology meets age-old media memories. Just tap the action button and, not surprisingly, print will be a new option at the bottom.

Print is also now an option when you multi-select.

What is surprising, however, is that there’s no AirPlay button in the Photo app when it’s playing movies. Since quickly recording a home movie and beaming it to our TV is one of the features we love most, that’s a bit of an annoyance. Hopefully Apple will add that in an update.

YouTube

YouTube gets AirPlay, of course, so you can beam YouTube videos to Apple TV… which has a built-in YouTube app already. However, the convenience of being able to play an already-found video on the big screen rather than having to look for it again is certainly appreciated.

Also, gone are the old star ratings and in their place are the cheesy thumbs up and thumbs down. From a scale of 5 to a scale of 2? It’s simpler and more YouTube, if missing the subtle iTunes-like gradations of the past.

Notes

Notes finally — finally! — lets you change fonts. That’s right, if Marker Felt was never your thing, you can now jump into Settings and switch it to Chalkboard (essentially Marker Felt with a shave and a haircut), and Helvetica, used by the rest of the interface. Here’s a mockup we created to show all three fonts together for comparison’s sake.

Curiously, there doesn’t seem to be an AirPrint option in Notes. It would certainly be handy.

Voice Memo

iOS 4.2 for iPhone brings with it a new Voice Memo icon and with it the most drastic redesign of a built-in iOS app icon to date. Sure, Calculator got a facelift recently, but it retained that pseudo-realistic look and feel Apple used for the other “utility” apps, like Compass and Camera. Voice Memo goes from faux microphone to strictly white icon, similar now to Phone or iPod, but without the diagonal pin stripe. If it was in the dock it might fit, but grouped in the default Utility folder, it kind of sticks out.

iTunes Store

iTunes store gets AirPlay too in case you want to stream a video podcast and shoot it over to your 2010 Apple TV. What, you wanted something as big as iOS 4.1′s Ping?

Settings

As always, Settings is the least glamorous built-in app in the lineup that just so happens to get a bunch of tweaks and changes to support new features added to the system and flashier apps.

Sounds

You can now prevent the physical hardware volume buttons from affecting ringers and alerts, if you so choose.

The good news for iPhone users is, Apple has finally increased the number of text tones. The bad news is, most don’t seem well suited for use as text tones, and while you can now set personalized tones for different contacts, you still can’t buy or create custom text tones.

New tones include Anticipate, Bloom, Calypso, Choo Choo, Descent, Fanfare, Ladder, Minuet, News Flash, Noir, Sherwood Forest, Spell, Suspense, Telegraph, Tiptoes, Typewriters, and Update. You can hear samples from each in the video at the very top of this walkthrough.

General: Restrictions

You can now prevent people (i.e. your young children) from deleting apps. It’s amazing how fast a 4 year old can yank everything from the dock and obliterate every app on your home screen. No longer. Parents of the world rejoice. You can also prevent the little tykes from changing Location Services (e.g. GPS) and email accounts.

You can also now prevent your kids from accepting Game Center friend requests, thus ensuring their online play remain strictly anti-social and (potentially more) secure.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Interestingly, when setting up a MobileMe account, you’re now presented with the opportunity to enter either your MobileMe or Apple ID credentials. We’ll have to wait and see what, if anything, this means.

Notes

Notes now has its own Settings tab because, as mentioned previously, you can now change the font in Notes, and here’s where you do it.

Phone + Contacts

In both Phone and in the Contacts apps proper, you can now choose to set a distinct text tone (SMS/MMS) for each contact. So if you want mom to remain good old Tri-Tone but dad to be Choo Choo, have at it!

Just tap edit, scroll down to Text Tone, and then choose from the same list shown in Settings, above.

Safari

iOS 4.2 finally gives iPhone and iPod touch the ability to find text on a Safari web page. This is similar to Windows or Mac, where you just hit CTL-F or CMD-F, type your text, and off you go. On iPhone Safari you use the regular old search field (still confusingly labeled Google by default) and start typing the text you want to find.

No more tedious manual scanning, no more javascript bookmarklet workaround. Just happy surfing.

AirPlay will show up when you’re playing videos in Safari but currently only supports audio.

Behind the scenes, Apple has added support for the accelerometer and gyroscope and generally improved HTML 5 support. (That means the potential for more, better web apps in the future.)

With this support, Augmented Reality is now possible as well, right in Safari.

iPod (Music/Video)

As we’re sure you guessed by now, the major addition to the iPod app for iPhone (and Music and Video apps for iPod touch) is airplay. So, you can send any music to Airport express speakers, or video to the Apple TV (2010).

iOS 4.2 pricing and compatibility

iOS 4.2 is a free update for iPhone users and for iPod touch users.

Compatibility should be the same as with iOS 4.

iPhone 4, iPod touch 4 (2010): All features
iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4-type hardware (i.e. front facing camera)
iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): No features that require higher processor or RAM
iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

We’ll update as soon as we find an official list from Apple.

Conclusion

While iOS 4.2 for iPhone and iPod touch is nowhere near as significant an update as iOS 4.2 for iPad, that’s only because iPhone and iPod touch have enjoyed iOS 4 features since June. From small but long missing features like Find in Safari, to annoyances like Marker Felt in Notes, to the start of individual Text Tones in Messages, Apple is continuing the steady improvement of iOS.

It’s still not perfect, it still suffers from the age-old gripes of poor notification handling among other things, there’s still no good, SIRI-infused, OS-wide VoiceControl system, etc. etc. but those are not the stuff of minor updates. iOS 5 will no doubt be previewed in 4 months or so and then we’ll see to the bigger issues.

For now iOS 4.2 not only does what it set out to — unify the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the same release — but with welcome additions like AirPrint and AirVideo — if it really takes off — it could be the beginnings of something transformative.

And as always, If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments or send us an email and we’ll update as needed.

How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 via greenpois0n [Jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:30:29 +0000

Wondering how to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 with greenpois0n? Jailbreakers have a wealth of options when it comes to iOS 4.1. We’ve already looked at how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 via limera1n and how to jailbreak via PwnageTool 4.1. Now we’re looking at the Mac version of greenpois0n. PC users shouldn’t have too much difficulty following along with any of these as the steps are generally the same. It’s really up to you what tool you decide to use. I suggest unlockers use PwnageTool 4.1 though, as it will preserve your baseband for future unlocking. And as always, we take no responsibility to any damage done to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

This version of greenpois0n will jailbreak the following devices:

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS
iPod Touch 4th and 3rd gen
iPad (iOS 3.2.2)

Hit the jump for a walkthrough and video!

You’ll need to download greenpois0n first. After that you’ll be able to launch it and it’ll walk you through how to put your phone in DFU mode.

If for some reason it keeps failing, try making sure iTunes is running in the background. I know some people were saying it would fail unless iTunes was running. You’ll know it worked when iTunes starts telling you you’re phone must be restored before it can be used.

greenpois0n should then do its job of jailbreaking your phone. You’ll see a lot of random text across the screen of the phone and it’ll reboot itself. If all goes well, when it reboots, you should have a loader icon on your homescreen. (For some users it seems to be the greenpois0n icon, for others it’s showing up as a white blank icon.) Either way is fine.

Open the loader and install Cydia. Once that’s done, your iDevice will reboot once more and you should now have access to Cydia. Pretty simple process.

But if you do have questions or issues, feel free to visit our Jailbreak Forums for help and tips.

How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 with PwntageTool 4.1 [Jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:22:16 +0000

PwnageTool 4.1 was recently released and a lot of jailbreakers have been waiting for this one. The main difference between some other methods and PwnageTool is that it preserves your baseband in most cases. Meaning for unlockers, they’ll still be able to safely upgrade and keep their unlock. We’ve covered how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 via limera1n and how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 via greenpois0n, and now we’ll look at how PwnageTool 4.1 differs and walk through this process as well.

PwnageTool 4.1 will jailbreak the following devices:

iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G
iPod Touch 4G and 3G
iPad
Apple TV 2nd Generation

As usual, we take no responsibility for what you may or may not do to your phone. If you’re okay with that, jump through for a regular and video walkthrough!

First you’ll need to download the torrent for PwnageTool 4.1 from the Dev-Team blog. There is an official and a couple mirrors. Once you’ve got it all unpacked, continue on.

When you first launch PwnageTool, you’ll be asked to select your iDevice model. You’ll also notice across the top you’ll have two modes, expert and simple. Simple will install Cydia and a few common addons. Expert will let you choose what custom applications and utilities you’d like to install. For this example, we’ll just use simple mode on an iPhone 3GS. If you guys have questions or need help with expert mode, jump over to our jailbreak forums and we’d be glad to help you out.

After you’ve selected your iDevice, you should click Next and be presented with a screen that asks you to select your firmware version. PwnageTool is normally pretty good about bringing up the correct one, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you can always click browse and navigate to your chosen firmware version. On the Mac, iTunes puts your firmware under Library\iTunes. My iTunes has a mind of its own and sometimes firmware doesn’t show up. I use the following site for past and present firmware versions quite often: iPhone Firmware Versions – Past and Present

Just make sure you select the correct firmware if more than one comes up. You’ll then receive this message followed by one asking you if you activate normally. If you’re unlocked, select no. Just follow all the prompts through and PwnageTool will then begin building a custom .ipsw for you that’ll save to your desktop.

Once that’s done, PwnageTool is going to walk you through putting your phone in DFU mode. If you’re unsuccessful the first time, that’s ok, it’ll let you keep trying until you get it. After that, you’ll simply open up iTunes and alt + option click on restore and navigate to your custom firmware on your desktop.

And that’s it! Once you’re iDevice reboots, you should be jailbroken!

How to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 via limera1n [Jailbreak]

Allyson Kazmucha — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:20:33 +0000

Wondering how to Jailbreak your iOS 4.1 iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? limera1n was updated to support Mac today and after testing, it’s a pretty painless process. Pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Geohot. So here’s your TiPb-style walkthrough. You PC users should be able to follow along relatively easily as well since both jailbreaks are pretty much identical in nature. We’ve also got tutorials on how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 withgreenpois0n as well as how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 with PwnageTool 4.1 as well. So feel free to pick your pois0n, er… ra1n.

But as usual, here’s the standard disclaimer first:

If you are at all hesitant about jailbreaking or don’t consider yourself an intermediate to advanced user, we recommend you pass this up. TiPb does not accept any responsibility for broken iOS devices (even though we’ll be happy to try and help if you run into any problems along the way). If you’re alright with all this, click on for a written, as well as a video walkthrough!

Visit limera1n.com and download the Mac version (or the PC version if that applies to you)
Plug in your iOS device (compatible versions: iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd and 4th generations, and iPad on iOS 3.2.2)
Launch limera1n and simply click Make it ra1n
limera1n will prompt you and walk you through putting your phone in DFU mode
once in DFU mode, limera1n will jailbreak and reboot your device
Once your reboot is done (you may have to turn your phone back on, it happened with one of mine) – simply click the limera1n icon and install Cydia.

Congrats! You’re now jailbroken on iOS 4.1! If you guys have any questions, concerns, or just want to share cool tips and tricks with the rest of us, check out the TiPb Jailbreak Forums. Happy jailbreaking!

iOS 4.2 beta for iPad walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:45:00 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.2 beta for iPad

Announced during Apple’s 2010 special music event, its in beta as of September 15, and will become available to the public sometime in November. For iPhone and iPod touch already running iOS 4.1, the feature list is short. For iPad’s that have been running iOS 3.2 since launch back in April, the change is nothing short of a revelation. Multitasking, folders, and unified inbox from iOS 4.0 join Game Center and TV show rentals from iOS 4.1, and add in AirPlay video sharing and AirPrint wireless printing fresh to iOS 4.2.

Huge.

And we’re going to take you through it, after the break!

Previously

iOS 4 is new to iPad but it’s not new to iPhone or iPod touch. To see what came previously in iOS 4, check out:

What hasn’t changed

Almost everything has changed this time. Likely because there’s no weather or clock apps to ignore. Still, there doesn’t seem to be anything new in Contacts yet, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

Huge update, we told you.

Hardware changes

Either way, be advised.

System-wide enhancements

AirPlay

AirPlay is an evolution of Apple’s AirTunes system that used to let you stream music between iTunes on Windows or Mac and Apple TV or Airport Express connected speakers. AirPlay takes that to the next level, letting you stream video and pictures as well as music from iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch) and the new 2010 Apple TV. Built in apps like iPod, Photo, Video, etc. can stream, but it looks like any App Store apps that use the built in video system can also stream if they so choose. We’ll have to wait and see if that functionality makes it out of beta, and which apps choose to implement it, but if apps like Hulu, Air Video, etc. integrate, it could be killer.

And since it’s called AirPlay and not AirView, here’s hoping Apple expands the functionality in the future to project game video onto the big TV screen, leaving iPad as a full on multitouch game controller. Hey, we can dream…

AirPlay compatible apps, when AirPlay compatible devices are present, will show the AirPlay icon as a button. Tap it and you get a list of devices you can stream to. Tap one and your video will switch from iPad to TV.

AirPrint

AVRCP Audio/Video Remote Control Protocol for stereo Bluetooth

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app that runs the home screen and overall interface in iOS, finally gets the iOS 4 crown jewels of multitasking and folders, but there are a few small changes to go through first.

The little northeast pointing arrow that indicates a location-based service is running, be it Wi-Fi mapping or aGPS, now shows up in the status bar along the top, just like iOS 4 on iPhone.

The red bar that shows background VoIP is here, long and thin though it may be. (And yes, tapping it does indeed take you right back to your VoIP/Skype call).

Spotlight

Multitasking

While Apple’s built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since iOS 1.0 for iPhone and iOS 3.2 for iPad, with iOS 4.2 it finally comes to 3rd party App Store apps.

Local notifications

Task completion

Fast app switching and saved state

(Here’s also hoping iPad 2 gets 512MB of RAM like iPhone 4 did.)

iOS 4.2 helps users visualize what’s going on when switching apps by introducing a new, carousel-like animation. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you’re in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always.

Interlude: Task Killing

Widgets

iPad 4.2 also gets something more than iPhone — a brightness slider. The extra screen real estate pays off with instant access to crank things down for reading or up for watching movies.

Background music, location, and VoIP

Folders

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

You can also manage them from iTunes 10′s app interface if a mouse and keyboard helps you speed up the process. (Oh, the irony.)

And while you still can’t delete Apple’s built-in apps, you can take the ones you’re not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible.

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X’s Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

Calendar – Now in pastel

Notes – Fonts they are a changin’

Maps – Button tweaked

Video – Airplay enabled

YouTube – Thumbs and AirPlay

And, of course, the AirPlay is right there, giving us hope any HTML5 video will be instantly transportable to the TV.

iTunes Store – TV Rentals, AirPlay, Ping (eventually)

TV show rentals

Ping

Ping doesn’t show up in iOS 4.2 beta 2, but almost certainly will be coming to the iPad with this release. We’ll update when it shows up. It will be interesting to see what Apples does to balance the rather awkward iTunes Windows/Mac UI with the fairly standard iOS on iPhone UI.

App Store – iAds

iAd

Okay, so iAd really shouldn’t be considered a feature, at least not for users, but it will be a feature of iOS 4.2 for developers, and it will go in apps, so we’re mentioning it here.

Settings

Settings is a boring app that often contains a great number of terrific surprises when it comes to Apple iOS updates. iOS 4.2 for iPad is no exception.

Brightness & Wallpaper

iPad gets all the wallpapers that iPhone got with iOS 4, some of them re-rendered to look even sharper on the big 9.7-inch screen.

Here they are in action:

General: Location Services

General: Passcode lock

iOS 4.2 brings alphanumeric passcodes to iPad by default (no more configuration file required). Turn it on and you can have a nice, strong, even gnarly pseudorandom string… if you can remember it.

And yes, you get the Vader-black keyboard standard if you flip that switch.

General: Restrictions

If you don’t want them playing multiplayer Game Center games, you can stamp that out as well. You can even turn off friend requests.

General: Keyboard

iOS 4 spell check causing more problems for you than it’s fixing? No problem, you can now turn it off. [9to5Mac]

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Gmail is dead, long live Google Mail.

Inside MobileMe, Google Mail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there’s no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Because mail now supports threaded email messages, Settings now gives you the option to turn that feature on or off.

Notes

Notes now has its own Settings tab because, as mentioned previously, you can now change the font in Notes, and here’s where you do it.

You can also choose the default account for Notes sync if you have more than one IMAP mail account set up.

Game Center

Achievements shows everything you can earn for playing the game.

Safari

No more tedious manual scanning, no more javascript bookmarklet workaround. Just happy surfing.

And, of course, AirPlay will show up inline for videos where compatible.

Mail

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

Tapping on a message that’s part of a thread gives a second list of all messages in the thread. Tapping on one of them shows you the message in the main column.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Photos

iPod

Availability

iOS 4.2 is currently in developer beta. There will likely be 4 or so betas before it goes Gold Master (GM) for final testing, and then is released to consumers in November.

It will be a free update.

Conclusion

AirPrint addresses an important bit of functionality for home and business alike, and AirPlay has the potential to turn the TV video scene upside down.

Sure, non-obtrusive notifications, and glanceable, lock-screen widgets — and hey, AirEasyFileTransfer — would be grand, but iOS 5 beta is only 6 months or so away…

As always this is a walkthrough and not a review, so we’ll save the pros and cons for when it ships. For now we’ll just thank Apple’s iOS team again — this is one hell of an update. If you notice anything we’ve missed, send us an email or drop a note in the comments and we’ll add them to the next update.

iOS 4.1 walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:30:56 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.1 update for iPhone and iPod touch

iOS 4.1 is now available from Apple for iPhone and iPod touch. A relative small update to iOS 4 that fixes some important bugs, adds a few new features, and powers the all new iPod touch 4.

Steve Jobs announced the headlines during Apple’s 2010 special music event and they include Game Center social gaming network, TV rentals, iTunes Ping social music network, HDR photography, and HD video uploads. (Yes, Apple is introducing not one but two new social networks.)

More importantly for some, proximity sensor misfires, Bluetooth woes, and the abysmal performance on iPhone 3G appear to be fixed.

We’ll be covering all of that and more below. For anything and everything that hasn’t changed, check out our massive iOS 4 walkthrough because we won’t be repeating all that here

Note: this walkthrough is based on the GM (gold master) version of iOS 4.1. We’ll continue to add to and improve it as needed, and update once iOS 4.1 release version hits, probably on Wednesday September 8.

If you don’t have time (yet) to read this iOS 4.1 walkthrough and are eager to get the basics down now, here’s a quick 5 minute video guide to get your started.

We’re showing it off on an iPhone 4, which should be similar to how it will work on an iPod touch 4.

What hasn’t changed

Most things haven’t changed with iOS 4.1, so again, check out our iOS 4 walkthrough to get up to speed on the far more numerous changes last summer’s update brought.

System-wide changes

AVRCP Audio/Video Remote Control Protocol for stereo Bluetooth

FaceTime app

iPod touch 4 gets a brand new, top left icon on the home screen just for FaceTime. (Which makes sense since there’s no Phone app from which to initiate a FaceTime call. There’s also no phone number associated with iPod touch so Apple/iTunes IDs will be used instead. (That means, if you want to call someone with an iPhone 4, they have to have updated to iOS 4.1).

Once it’s set up it works the same — that is, simply and elegantly.

Calendar – Now in pastel

Calendar app appears to be functionally identical to iOS 4.0 but for the color scheme. The shades are all pastel. Full on Miami Vice light purples and greens and peaches and tones only Prismacolor has names for. No idea what this change was about.

Photos – HD YouTube uploads

iPhone 4, and now iPod touch 4, can record 720p HD video but in iOS 4 those videos would be compressed down to SD when uploaded to YouTube. 4.1 fixes that. Just tap the action button at the bottom right and share HD straight up to YouTube.

Note: HD uploads require a Wi-Fi connection.

Camera — HDR photography

iOS 4.1 adds HDR photo capability to the iPhone 4 — but not iPod touch 4 — Camera app. HDR stands for high dynamic range and usually involves a photo with one or more identical photos that are over- and underexposed and then combined together so that far more light and shadow information is available than a single exposure would allow. These high dynamic range images can then be tone mapped to provide a far greater amount of detail, far more like what the human eye can see. So basically, you can see detail in the sky and in the shadow under the tree, rather than having one blown out or the other lost to black. (That’s my lay person, non-photo geek understanding of it anyway).

To enable HDR you simply tap the HDR button, much like the LED Flash button under iOS 4.

Note: HDR photography doesn’t seem to work on earlier iPhone models like iPhone 3GS.

Then, when you take the picture, iOS takes not only the regular shot but one overexposed and one underexposed. Shooting the picture seems to take roughly the same amount of time, but saving it takes noticeably longer.

So far, based on the results I’ve seen here and online, iOS HDR does a good job pulling color and detail back into what were previously blown out skies, but an only okay job revealing detail in shadowy areas.

For non photo geeks, however, all they’ll notice is better pictures with bluer skies and brighter people, which is probably why Apple added the feature in the first place.

Apple has also made the camera controls easier to use in landscape mode, rotating them along with the UI.

iTunes Store – Ping and TV rentals

The iTunes Store was originally introduced in iOS 1.2 (iPhone 1.2) as the iTunes Wi-Fi music store and that we’re about to talk about features accessible over 3G and involving video shows desktop iTunes isn’t the only version growing beyond it’s original moniker and focus. With iOS 4.1, new features include the social music network Ping and $0.99 TV show rentals.

Ping

A social music network, Ping debut with iTunes 10 but is also accessible on the iPhone and iPod touch via the double talk bubbles tab, bottom middle. If you haven’t yet signed up in iTunes 10, you’ll get a Ping splash screen telling you to do so.

The People tab gives you a list of people you follow and people who follow you, as well as a featured button for a list of recording artists.

TV show rentals

The other addition is TV show rentals. They’re only available from ABC (whose parent company, Disney, counts Steve Jobs as its biggest share holder), and FOX (whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, sees mobile devices as a way to save old media), and cost $0.99 per episode. You have 30 days to start watching and 48hrs. to finish once you start.

To access them, tap the videos tab at the bottom, then the TV Shows tap center top. Tap on a show and you’ll get the info screen with full season purchase price. If you want to rent a single episode, double tap the title and you’ll get the single episode info screen with rental option.

Double tapping is usually reserved in iOS for zoom, so it’s not the most elegant or intuitive way to get at rentals.

A discounted season rental price would be nice, but this is Hollywood, so baby steps. Tiny, tiny baby steps.

Note: if you rent on iPhone, only the SD version will be downloaded. If you rent on Apple TV, you’ll get the HD version. Given iPhone’s 3.5″ screen, SD is probably a better option to save on file size.

Settings

Add new features and you’ve got to add new settings for those features. Or, as is often the case, you’ve got to add new settings for features you added in previous versions of iOS. Sill, Settings didn’t get as big a bump in 4.1 as it has in the past.

General: Restrictions

You can lockout Game Center multiplayer games if you don’t want your kids social gaming with the unwashed denizens of the internet. Which you probably shouldn’t.

General: Keyboard

iOS 4 spell check causing more problems for you than it’s fixing? No problem, you can now turn it off. [9to5Mac]

Photos

With HDR photos, you can choose whether to save both the original and HDR version to the camera roll, or just the processed HDR image.

Game Center

Game Center, Apple’s social gaming network went live with iOS 4.1 and games continue to be updated to support it. (As of this writing, Apple has a Game Center section set up in the App Store to help you find them). To start off, you can create an account, update your status, and add friends.

Achievements shows everything you can earn for playing the game.

Games that support Game Center show a brief drop-down when they start.

Phone

New to the Phone app, if you choose to add a number to Favorites, and that number is mobile, and is an iPhone 4, you’ll be given a choice of adding the phone number proper, or adding it as a FaceTime connection.

Field test mode, missing from iOS 4.0, makes its triumphant return in iOS 4.1. If you’re not familiar with it, field test mode is a diagnostic mode that shows cell reception as actual, meaningful numbers as opposed to nebulous Apple and carrier rendered bars. [Gizmodo]

To enter field test mode, dial:

*3001#12345#*

To exit field test mode, click the home button.

Nike+

The Nike+ app update that was included in iOS 4 beta but missing from the public release returns in iOS 4.1 and looks like it’s here to stay this time. It allows you to sync data with the Nike+ servers directly from the iPhone rather than having to sync through an intermediary computer. About time.

[WhenWillApple]

iOS 4.1 pricing and compatibility

iOS 4.1 is a free update for iPhone users and for iPod touch users.

Compatibility should be the same as with iOS 4.

iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 (2010): All features
iPad (2010): Coming this fall with iOS 4.2
iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4-type hardware (i.e. FaceTime)
iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): No multitasking, custom wallpaper, and Bluetooth keyboard support.
iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

Conclusion

iOS x.1 point updates are relatively minor compared to the full version releases but this fixes some major bugs, adds a few great new features for iPhone users, and powers a whole new level of experience for iPod touch 4 owners.

Did we really need two separate new social networks in Ping and Game Center, or would a unified iOS/Apple social network have been better? Only time will tell.

If you were waiting on a new notification UI or widgets, well that’s not the point of the point release, but iOS 5 is only 6 months from beta so keep the dreams alive.

iOS 4.2, with wireless printing and AirPlay is scheduled for November, however, so there will be more to come for iPhone, iPod touch, and finally iPad users this year as well.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough. If you noticed we missed anything or got anything plain wrong, drop us a note in the comments and we'll update as needed.]

iOS 4 walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:24:31 +0000

Complete feature guide to Apple’s latest iOS 4

iOS 4 (previously iPhone OS 4 or iPhone 4.0) continues Apple’s relentless yearly mobile OS update cycle. If 2007 was the mainstreaming of the multitouch user interface, 2008 all about the App Store, and 2009 was filling in the feature list, then iOS 4 promises to be… well, that’s why we’re here.

(And yes, iOS. That’s the new name Apple has licensed from trademark-holders Cisco to represent the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — and maybe soon the Apple TV and who knows what else — family.)

Back on April 8 at the sneak preview event, Apple promised 7 “tent-pole” features and 100+ general user features overall, along with 1500 major new API for developers. We’re going to walk you through the ones that matter most.

Note: iOS 4.1 is now available. See our complete iOS 4.1 walkthrough for the latest on Game Center, HDR photography, Ping social music network, and the other new features.

See also our iPhone 4 review for more on hardware specific features.

iOS 4 in 10 minutes: video quick-start guide

If you don’t have time (yet) to read this massive iOS 4 walkthrough and are eager to get the basics down now, here’s a quick 10 minute video guide to get your started.

We’re showing it off on an iPhone 3GS, which should be similar to how it will work on an iPod touch G3. If you’re using the iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G you won’t get the multitasking and wallpapers. You’ll blame Apple. Apple will blame the hardware. The hardware will try to frustrate you into upgrading to an iPhone 4. You’ve been warned.

Note: If you haven’t updated yet, save yourself some time and potential hassles and go read our getting ready for iOS 4 post first first. Then once you’re good to go, sit back, relax, and hit play on the video below.

YouTube link

What Hasn’t Changed

As always, we’ll start off by telling you what hasn’t change so we can clear the deck for what has. For more information on any functionality that’s pretty much identical to past versions, check out our previous walkthroughs:

And here’s a quick list of the unchanged apps in iOS 4:

Stocks: Similarly, Stocks got landscape and a slew of swipe-able data last time, so the update love gets skipped this time.
Weather: Almost comedically at this point, it’s still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Not even a Calendar-style icon update to show current local weather. Nada.
Voice Memo: Introduced in iPhone 3.0, it looks pretty much the same in iOS 4.
Clock: With nothing but a lap feature added last time, we lose the “but” and keep the “nothing” for iOS 4.
Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, all Calculator gets this time is a slight icon tweak towards the red.

(We’re not counting getting a resolution bump for iPhone 4 Retina Display as a functional change.)

System-wide enhancements

Spell check

Spell check, which debuted in iOS 3.2 for iPad, is a system-wide addition to iOS 4 now as well. Words the OS thinks you’ve misspelled will be underlined in red (familiar to any Microsoft Office or Mac OS X user). Tapping on them will give you a popup containing a recommended replacement. Tapping the popup replaces the misspelled word with the (hopefully!) correctly spelled one.

Combined with the iPhone’s existing — and industry leading — predictive auto-correct, it’s a powerful combination.

Text Replace

Cut, copy, and paste also gets an iPad-debuting feature with “replace” now added to the popup options.

Additionally, if iOS 4 autocorrects a word and you immediately backspace, a popup will appear offering to replace the correction with the originally typed word.

VoiceControl

We haven’t found any specific documentation on this yet, and it doesn’t seem to be listed as one of the options flying by on the on-screen suggestions, but per the comments below asking “what time is it” will now have VoiceControl speak the current time to you. It’s possible other commands have been added as well. If you come across any, let us know.

Wi-Fi

iPod touch (and I believe iPhone) can now stay connected to Wi-Fi even when in sleep mode. This means background VoIP calls, push notifications, and other apps that require an active Wi-Fi connection can just keep working.

Virtual Keyboard

Instead of just hitting the globe key to cycle through languages on the virtual keyboard, you can now hold it down to get a popup showing all currently enabled international keyboards.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

You’re going to get tired of us saying “like the iPad” but remember when we told you spring’s influx of iPad news would be important come summer’s new iPhone news? You were warned for a reason. iPhone is getting iPad’s Bluetooth keyboard support. Thank goodness for that.

Over-the-air Carrier Setting Updates

Based on reports from Rogers/Fido users in Canada, iOS 4 adds the ability for Carrier Setting Updates to be pushed out over-the-air (OTA) to iPhones and installed on-device. (In previous versions iTunes would handle the update and sync it over).

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app behind the Home Screen gets an iOS 3.2 for iPad-style update to support custom wallpaper. Yes, the default background in iOS 4 is water drops on gray, which is not default but included in the iPad’s wallpaper gallery. Also like iPad, the Mac OS X reflective Dock (buh-bye grid) and translucent top bar have been brought over.

(If you get a new iPhone 4, or do a clean install of iOS 4, you’ll also note Clock, Compass, Calculator, and Voice Memos have been moved to a Utilities folder by default — more on Folders later).

In addition to the iPad wallpapers, Apple has also introduced a few new ones, all seemingly focused on livening up the home screen without being too visually distracting. Natural textures and muted patterns get an obvious focus here with stones, rocks, and textiles front and center.

(See all of them in our iOS 4 wallpaper gallery)

In addition to previous status icons, the top bar will now show a north-east pointing arrow to alert you that location-based services (GPS) are being used. (So you’ll see this in Maps and when using navigation, location-based social networks or games, etc.) An orientation lock icon will also show if you’ve enabled the widget to lock your screen in portrait mode (see below).

The color bands indicators across the top of the screen that highlight running voice or data connections (green for Phone, red for Voice Memo, blue for tethering) get expanded. Red now serves double-duty to indicate a VoIP app (like Skype) is active in the background.

How the SpringBoard has been once again extended to visualize new, core-level OS changes is where things get more interesting…

Spotlight

First, and strangely least, the Spotlight Home Screen introduced in iPhone 3.0 now gets to look beyond on-device data and reach for the clouds. Literally. Well, insomuch as the cloud here is Google and Wikipedia, which are very welcome additions. (Hopefully Twitter will be added in as well at some point). Tapping either will launch you into Mobile Safari and the appropriate search result page.

Multitasking

While Apple’s built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since 1.0. four years, many gripes, and stiffer Google Android competition than later, background multitasking comes to App Store apps. (At least for iPhone 4 and last year’s iPhone 3GS).

Why no iPhone 3G? Apple abjectly refuses to put their name on an implementation where hardware constrains software — see video recording last year — and that means iPhone 3G isn’t up to their multitasking standards.

Local notifications

In addition to the existing push notification service from Apple’s servers, which provide sound, badges, and alert popups for everything from IM to game challenges, iOS 4 adds local notifications so something like an alarm-clock app could register an alert that would sit in the iPhone in the background until the proper time, then activate. That takes the online server out of the equation which is good for tasks that don’t need additional information from the cloud, and so don’t have to activate the radios.

Task completion

There’s another API for task completion so that, for example, if you’re uploading a picture to Twitter and leave the app, it can register a thread to keep uploading the picture in the background while you do something else. That means the entire app doesn’t have to keep running, freeing up memory and lightening battery load, and even the thread will terminate when the upload is done.

Fast task switching and saved state

Fast task switching deals with the perceptive speed that multitasking offers. With previous versions of iOS, if you left an App Store app it would shut down completely. If you went back — regardless if it was a second or a week or later — it would usually restart not from where you left off but from the beginning. A few developers tried to add persistence on their own, saving your place when you came back as best as previous OS versions allowed, but most didn’t — especially games which was aggravating when phone calls pulled you unexpectedly out of them. Also, if you closed one app and went to another, you could theoretically be stuck swiping back or forth between 11 home screen pages.

Saved state is now built into iOS 4. If you switch out, Apps have their currents state saved to memory and if/when you go back, the app checks the memory save and resumes from that state. [Thanks Aaron]

To enable fast app switching, Apple’s created a new UI mechanic. Now, when you double tap the home button, the screen turns translucent and slides up, allowing you to peek at the apps running “under the hood”. (Technically frozen with state saved and threads registered with the background API).

Positionally the fast task switcher apps take up the space traditionally reserved for the Dock, so while it’s a tad confusing the concept of apps at the bottom of the screen being more permanent and easily accessible remains. Behaviorally, while they look like a secret dock, they function like the Home Screen itself in that you can swipe from right to left to scroll through a several 4-icon sets of multitasking apps.

Given even the iPhone 3GS has only 256MB of RAM, we assume Apple will discretely kill off the least-used app in the stack when things get tight. Whether or not that means the icon disappears from the multitasking UI we don’t know, but worst case you just have to go to the home screen, re-launch it (hopefully from saved state) and all you notice is a slightly longer start up time. iPhone 4 is supposed to have 512MB of RAM which should allow for significantly more threads to run in background without slowdown or other problems.

iOS 4 helps users visualize what’s going on when switching tasks by introducing a new, carousel-like animation. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you’re in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always (though the wallpaper in iOS zooms slightly as well, like on the iPad).

YouTube link

Interlude: Task Killing

It appears like there’s a couple things going on. First, with built-in Apple apps, like Mail, if you “delete” it from the fast task switcher, you will still receive Mail (it doesn’t kill the background thread that checks, sounds/vibrates, and updates the badge) but the app seems to do some sort of data cache refresh at times.

For App Store apps, if you “delete” them it does appear to force a reset when next you launch them, i.e. they won’t resume from the previously saved state and their threads seem to be restarted. [Thanks Justin!]

Widgets

Just like to the left of the main home screen is a special Spotlight screen, to the left of the fast app switcher is a special widget dock containing an software version of the iPad’s hardware orientation lock control (though it currently only locks in portrait mode). More over, there are three circular controls to skip back, play/pause, or skip forward any music (including streaming music) — and rewind or fast forward if you hold them down. Lastly, whichever app is currently playing the music, be it iPod, iTunes (streaming podcasts, for example), or an App Store app (like Pandora or Slacker) is shown at the right so you can jump back to it and access further controls.

YouTube link

The presentation may not be as visually slick as Palm webOS’ Card view (which looks like iPhone Safari’s Page view) or Mac OS X Expose mode, but it keeps tens of millions of existing iPhone and iPod touch users grounded in the interface they’re familiar with and that’s what Apple is prioritizing.

Note: Previously you could assign the double-click home button action to trigger Phone Favorites, Camera, or Spotlight. On iPhone 3G under iOS those options remain. On iPhone 3GS under iOS, in early betas you could double-click-and-hold the home button to trigger Phone Favorites, but this function doesn’t appear to have survive to the final release. Hopefully something will replace it and soon.

Background music, location, and VoIP

Speaking of streaming music, perhaps most famously, Apple is allowing apps to register three specific types of the threads for persistent backgrounding (they can just keep running until you close them). Again, this isn’t the whole app running, just one thread from the app, so the idea is it won’t slow down performance, use up memory, or drain battery to the same degree. These API are for streaming music, location, and VoIP (voice over IP).

Folders

There are over 200,000 apps in the App Store and likely a ton more by the time I finish writing the sentence. Literally. iPhone 1.0 had one Home Screen but with only the built-in apps available back then, it wasn’t even a limitation. With WebApps, it grew to 9 pages for a 148 app limit. With iPhone 3.0 we were given 11 pages, for 180 apps viewable, but you could eventually install many more and use Spotlight as a way of finding and launching them. Organizing them still wasn’t a real option.

Enter Folders. A Folder is simply a grouped icon that holds up to 12 other icons inside it. (And for those keeping count at home, the new math means a whopping 2160 apps can be kept available at once. Shudder).

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

To create a Folder, you begin by tapping and holding an icon to put it in jiggly mode, just like you did before to delete or move it. Then, drag it over and drop it on top of another icon to create a Folder. (This works better when icons aren’t at the right edge of the screen, as the move behavior seems to supersede the Folder behavior, causing the icon to wrap to the next line before you can drop on top of it.) Once created, iOS reads the apps’ category data and tries to name the folder for you, but you can easily edit it and change it to anything you want.

Folders can be put in jiggly mode and moved as well, but not deleted (they can only be deleted by removing all the apps from within them, and which point they self-destruct for you). You can even move them to the Dock, which means you could have 48 apps readily available at any time for quick launching.

And while you still can’t delete Apple’s built-in apps, you can take the ones you’re not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible (as Apple now does by default with the Utilities folder mentioned previously).

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X’s Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

YouTube link

The ability to manage Folders has also been added to iTunes 9.2, mirroring the creation, editing, and removal features found on-device.

Messages

Messages in iOS 4 gets the same built-in Spotlight search that Mail and other apps got with iPhone 3.0. It appears at the top of the main messages screen. (There’s no search within an individual Messages thread). [@justin_horn]

Messages (finally) gets a character counter so you’ll know when you’re getting close to, or going past, the SMS limit (which would cause a second message to be sent). It kicks in after you’ve typed 50 characters or so. [@iMuggle]

iOS 4 will now put an exclamation badge on the Messages app as a way to inform you when an SMS text or MMS multimedia message fails to send.

There’s also a new API to allow in-app SMS for developers who want to include the functionality in their own apps. While this might be similar to the iPhone 3.0 embedded email option, and whether or not it will let users reply to SMS without leaving an app, it doesn’t seem as elegant a solution as a global background messaging system.

Calendar

Calendar removes two long-standing gripes and adds something pretty much invisible from the interface but awesome in terms of functionality.

First, you can now show all or hide all calendars or individually check/uncheck just the calendars you want to see.

Birthday calendars have also been added to the option, something that was previously only possible to see under certain setup conditions.

Lastly (and most excitingly), Apple has finally added Calendar access for developers. What this means is you may soon see apps where you can buy tickets for a local movie and have the show time automatically added to your Calendar.

Photos

Photos, at least for Mac users, gets the same iPhoto ’09-based organizational features introduced with the iPad: Events, Faces, and Places.

If you have a Mac with iPhoto ’09 and you’ve let it automatically file your photos by time stamp (Events), through facial-recognition algorithms (Faces), and via geo-location (Places). All these join the previous Albums view to form the bottom tab bar.

Landscape mode is also now supported in album and gallery views [@antonioj].

Previous betas included a Rotate function under the action button that would turn a photo 90 degrees, but this doesn’t seem to have made it into the final. Hopefully it will return.

If you Email Photo, you now get the option of sending a small, medium, or large version (shrunken pixel dimensions and hence file size), or at actual size.

Lastly, developers have been given access to the photo and video library (not just the image picker as in previous OS versions).

Camera

Tap to focus, introduced in iPhone 3.0 for still photography, now gets expanded to video recording for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

Still photography maintains its leg up, however, via a new 5x digital zoom. When you tap the screen, a slider pops up allowing you to swipe to the right to increase magnification and swipe left to decrease.

With iPhone 4, there’s an additional control to swap between the beefed up 5mp back-facing camera, and the all new front-facing VGA camera (if you want to take a self-portrait/profile picture). There’s also an icon to show the new rear-mounted LED flash. This feature sounds like it’s automatic for still but can be turned on and left on for night-time video shooting, but we’ll have to wait and see when iPhone 4 ships.

Developers also get full access to and control of video playback and recording.

YouTube

You can now watch YouTube videos in portrait mode if you really want to. They’ll still default in landscape, so you may have to rock the accelerometer back and forth to get them to switch.

Maps

For developers, overlays can now be added to embedded maps to show extra data like routes or annotations.

Notes

When you first enter notes it looks unchanged from previous versions of the iPhone OS. However, there is now an Accounts button at the top left of the list page and tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s). Yes, that means over the air (OTA) notes sync is finally here — with the caveat that Exchange doesn’t seem supported yet.

(UI-wise this is similar to how you back out/left in Calendar or Contacts to toggle data sources.)

The way these show up in Mac OS X is via the built-in Mail.app client in the Notes tab.

On Gmail they show up as a generic label. In other IMAP clients, regardless of OS, they’ll show up as generic IMAP folders.

iTunes Store

The iTunes store itself is the same, however, audio streaming from the app has taken a huge leap forward. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you’ve been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn’t really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iOS 4 it’s rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later — even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio — and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

As mentioned previously in the multitasking section, when iTunes is using the background music streaming API (I’m assuming thats’ what it’s using) it gets the widget position in the fast task switcher interface, complete with widget controls.

Settings

This year, like every year, some of the more numerous and interesting changes Apple delivers in their new OS are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

General: Network

You can now choose to not only turn off 3G data or roaming data, but all cellular data.

General: Location Services

At the iOS event, Apple made a big deal about user privacy when it came to location (like a shot at Google). That manifests here with far more granular controls over which apps are allowed to access your location data (GPS, Wi-Fi mapping, and cell tower triangulation) and the aforementioned north-east pointing arrow that shows up when any app has used your location in the last 24 hours.

General: Spotlight Search

Since double clicking the home button is now a hard-wired to launch the fast-task switcher for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, the Home Button setting is gone and replaced by direct access to Spotlight Search preferences.

Since iPhone 3G won’t be getting multitasking those options remain under iOS 4 for that device.

General: Passcode Lock

Previously available only through an Enterprise profile, iOS 4 brings stronger, alphanumeric passcodes to all iPhone users. That means you’re no longer stuck with only a 4 digit pin, but can now create longer passcodes with far greater variation. Of course, longer, more varied passcodes are more of a hassle to remember and enter, but that’s the cost of good security.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

As previously mentioned, Notes will now sync over IMAP and the settings for that appear here. First, all the way at the bottom, you can choose which account to use as the default for note sync.

Inside MobileMe, Gmail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there’s no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Safari

When you tap into the Safari’s URL bar in iOS 4 and start typing, Safari starts to do a “keyword search”, i.e. display predictive results based on your bookmarks and history. Anything that contains the text you’re inputing either in the URL or history is listed below the URL field so the moment you see what you want you can just tap it and go.

This makes it easier to find something if you don’t remember the exact web page address or if you know you recently saw a site, and know what it was about, but don’t remember where exactly it was. Just start typing a few words you do remember and let Safari do the heavy lifting. Highly convenient and certainly “awesome”. [To misappropriate the term from Mozilla]

Also, welcome to iOS search options, Microsoft Bing.

Messages

Here’s where you can turn on that new character count option.

iPod

The iPod app now has an overlay that shows you information about songs and podcasts. While functional it’s not terribly attractive so it’s nice to be able to toggle it off right here.

App Store

iPhone 2.0 brought us the iTunes App Store, iPhone 3.0 added in-app purchases, and now iOS raises the mercantile stakes once again with…

iAd

Functionally these are built in HTML5 (no Flash need apply) and seem to work as apps-within-apps. Tapping on a banner brings up a full-screen ad-as-webapp and examples shown included plenty of animated UI effects and content that ranged from videos to freebies like wallpaper, to free and paid apps you could download from within the ad (no trip to the App Store needed). An exit button is persistent at the top left so users can quit the add at any time.

Apple will be selling and serving the ads, so all we can do is hope they’re unobtrusive and actually reach the quality levels presented. For paid apps that also try to include in-app iAds, that bar will rightly be very, very high.

Quick Look

Just like Mail can preview documents, Quick Look will allow developers to present the same functionality in their apps.

Accelerate

2000 hardware accelerated math APIs probably won’t be seen by users, but there’s not doubt we’ll feel them in the games. Zoom. Zoom.

File Sharing

Again it looks like the iPhone is finally getting in iOS what the iPad got in 3.2 with the file/document transfer feature now exposed in iTunes sync.

Now all we need is an elegant way to share and wirelessly sync those documents across multiple devices and users. MobileMe 2.0, souped up iWork.com 2.0, where are you?

Phone

The biggest addition to the iOS 4 Phone app is iPhone 4 exclusive — FaceTime. When connected to Wi-Fi and making a call to another iPhone 4 user, the Hold button gets replaced with a FaceTime video icon. (Where the hold option goes under these circumstances is as yet unknown.)

Tapping that initiates a FaceTime video call. During the FaceTime video call, the person you’re calling fill the screen, your own camera input is boxed in the lower left corner (you can touch and drag it to move it around), and mute, hang up, and switch camera buttons line the bottom of the screen. (Switch camera toggles between the rear-facing and front-facing cameras on the iPhone 4).

Mail

Mail gets a unified inbox. Let’s write that again — Mail gets a unified inbox. For those with multiple email accounts whose previous iPhone experience involved tapping into and out of those boxes many, many times a day this is a hugely welcome addition.

As with Calendars, Notes, etc. you can tap a button on the top left, in this case Mailboxes, to back into a selection screen where you can then go into All Inboxes, a specific account’s inbox (which is considered fast inbox switching), or into the complete folder and sub-folder system of a given account (how Mail has worked from iPhone 1.0 to iPhone 3.0).

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

What is distinguishable are the small carets (technically greater-than symbols) to the right of replies that indicate a message is part of a thread. A number, typically 2 or 3, accompanies the caret to indicate how many replies are in the thread.

Tapping on a message that’s part of a thread doesn’t take you to the message but rather to a second list-view, similar to the inbox itself, but containing only the messages from the thread. Tapping on one of them then takes you to the message. A thread view contains a small vertical bar at the top with the subject of the thread and time of the most recent reply. A button to the top left of the message that’s part of the thread also contains the subject of the thread and lets you back out and see the thread again. The button then switches to contain the name of the inbox so you can back out again, leave the thread completely, and see all your messages.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Like iOS 3.2 for iPad, you’ll be able to open email attachments in apps. Now there’s no iWork (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) for iPhone yet, but plenty of apps should support it as they push out the iOS 4 compatible versions.

Also for Gmail users, the Delete button has no been properly renamed as Archive (since Google really doesn’t want you deleting anything if they can possibly help it).

Lastly, in previous versions of the iPhone OS, when you wanted to abandon an email, you would hit Cancel and get options to Save (store the email in Drafts), Don’t Save (trash the email), and Cancel (go back to writing the email). The naming of these options was likely too confusing so in iPhone OS they’ve been replaced with a big red Delete button (to trash the email), Save as Draft, and Cancel. And yes, you can still cancel a cancel. (iPad, by contrast, still has Save and Don’t Save, but no Cancel since it’s in a popover rather than full-screen menu and you can just tap away to cancel).

Safari

More iPad to iPhone cross-polination means we get search auto-complete in iOS. As you type, suggestions appear in a list view below. And as with the iPad, while Google and Yahoo! branding remain in the search boxes (along with Bing now as well), they no longer get brand advertising on the keyboard — it simply remains labeled Search now regardless of which engine is set and default.

While HTML5 video would work under iPhone 3.1.3, it would launch the full screen QuickTime player to do so. Under iOS, it seems to play in-line as well [MobileGeekdom], like it does on the iPad.

If history is any indicator, Apple will likely also integrate whatever advancements WebKit and the Nitro JavaScript engine make between now and release this summer. However, there’s no sign of Safari 5 desktop‘s key new features — reader (think built-in Instapaper) and extensions.

iPod

When you have a song playing in the iPod app and you tap the album art, in addition to all the previous controls that popped up, you now get a dark overlay with white text giving you the info metadata of the song or podcast. This is another iPad bring-over, though not the most attractive one by a long shot. (Remember, it can be turned off in Settings).

Album art has been added to album views, jazzing up the track lists.

And in yet another iPad-like update, on-the-go playlists are dead, long live… just regular old playlists. You can add them via an item in the playlists list, at which point you get a popup that asks you for a name. Next, you tap on any songs you want to add, and when you’re done, you have a new playlist. If you’re not happy with it, or any playlist, just swipe to bring up the usual red Delete button and annihilate it.

Contacts

When you sync contacts from more than one source (i.e. Exchange and MobileMe, on-device and Google Sync, etc.), and there are duplicates, rather than showing the same contact twice iOS 4 will instead create a single, linked contact. This works on any iOS 4 device, including iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, recent iPod touch, etc.

If you look at a linked contact, the header will show Unified Info at the top so you know it’s linked. At the very bottom of the contact it will show you the source of the links (i.e MobileMe, Google). Tapping on the source lets you see the original, non-unfied info from just that source.

If you don’t like the idea of your contacts being linked, you can tap edit and hit Unlink. If iOS 4 missed linking a contact that ought be linked, tap edit, scroll down to the bottom, tap Link Contact and choose the contact you want linked.

Game Center (Preview)

Game Center is Apple’s entry into the social gaming network space (think Xbox Live or Playstation Network for iOS devices). With Game Center you’ll be able to invite friends to play, use matchmaking to challenge other players, gain achievements, and have your scores displayed on a leader board.

Game Center won’t launch with iOS this summer, but is scheduled for release “later” this year.

iBooks

Though not a built-in app (you’ll need to go get it from the App Store when it becomes available), as part of iOS Apple announced they were bringing iBooks to the iPhone.

Apple has announced new features, including notes and bookmarks, and that those along with highlights will automatically be synced across all the iOS devices logged into your iTunes accounts. (So you can have the same book, at the same place, with the same annotations on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

Also, iBooks will be able to add PDFs to a second book shelf and open them in the same iBooks interface.

Due to the fracture and regionalism in books, it’s going to take Apple a while to get deals in place with all publishers in all areas which means most countries won’t have paid content at first, only public domain books from the Project Gutenberg library.

Accessibility

Apple really doesn’t get enough credit for the outstanding accessibility features they build into their OS, both desktop and mobile. iOS 4 continues to lead the industry. VoiceOver supports 21 languages to read out loud whatever your finger touches on the screen, and a “rotor” gesture lets you temporarily change languages now on the fly.

Bluetooth support has been extended to more than 30 braille devices with tables for more than 25 languages.

Touch Typing lets you run your finger across the keyboard, hear the letter you’re currently over, and release your finger to type it.

The basic rotor has been made visible so sighted users can see it in action, and you can now add custom settings to move through content.

iOS 4 pricing and availability

Apple has announced that iOS 4 will be coming to iPhone and iPod touch on June 21, and iPad later this fall. In a huge departure from previous years, Apple is also making it a free update to all users, iPhone and iPod touch alike. (If you have a compatible device, see directly below).

iOS 4 device compatibility

Before we begin it’s important to note that not all iOS 4 features will be available for all iOS devices.

iPhone 4 (2010): All features
iPad (2010): Coming this fall
iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4-type hardware (i.e. FaceTime)
iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): No multitasking, custom wallpaper, and Bluetooth keyboard support.
iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

Yes, the original iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 don’t look to be getting iOS 4 at all — Apple considers them outdated. Second generation iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 are getting the update but no multitasking — Apple doesn’t consider them powerful enough (similar to video recording last year). And it should go without saying only iPhone 4 (and perhaps a forth generation iPod touch when it ships this fall) will be able to use hardware specific features like the Retina Display resolution or the front-facing camera.

Additionally, Apple’s own iMovie for iPhone will only run on iPhone 4 — apparently it needs the A4 chipset — so there might be other apps that go 2010-only. Legacy, right?

Conclusion

Apple is again rounding out their offering with iOS 4, which is the sign of the maturity of the platform. Since they’ve stated several times now that they’re using the iPhone to “educate” users about multitouch interfaces, they’re going to continue keeping changes evolutionary for now, and the UI broadly consistent across devices. There won’t be any huge, revolutionary changes again until they have to, and they don’t have to yet. Restraint can be a virtue.

Some functionality is still not present, like non-interuptive notifications, widgets beyond the limited fast task switcher UI, wireless sync/sharing, less painful file round-tripping, etc. but Apple is no doubt working on this the way they worked on copy and paste and multitasking. The question is how and when, not if. After all, it’s only 9 or 10 months until the iOS 5 sneak preview in spring 2011, right?

But this is not a review — our full rundown of the pros and cons will come after the official launch, when we’ve had a chance to spend some quality time with the final version on the new iPhone 4 hardware.

Congratulations to the iOS team at Apple, phenomenal work. Again.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough. If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments and we'll update as needed.]

Walkthrough: How to Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with Spirit

Allyson Kazmucha — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:25:40 +0000

So with the release of the Spirit jailbreak for iPhone, 3.1.3, it’s only appropriate to post a quick how-to, so here it is. And of course, with a jailbreaking tutorial, here comes the disclaimer:

If you’re not sure what you’re doing and have misgivings about jailbreaking, you probably should stray away. I will say, out of all the jailbreaks that have been released, this one is one of the simplest, and I’m talking blackra1n easy. Walkthrough and video after the break!

First, jump on over to download the Spirit jailbreak software onto your computer. The download can be found here. Download whichever version corresponds to your OS. For those wondering, this WILL work with any version of iTunes, up to the current 9.1.1 version (that’s what I have on both my Macs and it works just fine).

Before doing anything else, back up ALL your data via iTunes. I have had a few jailbreaks go downhill and it’s always good to have everything backed up just in case you have to restore or your phone gets stuck in DFU mode and you’re forced with no other option but a restore (and yes, it happens). Spirit has an issue early on that apparently deleted people’s photos. That’s supposed to be fixed by now, but I’d back up pictures just to be on the safe side.

Next, quit iTunes and launch Spirit. Just click the button and wait! After a minute you’ll see a status bar complete and you should be fully jailbroken! You’ll be able to tell when you see the Cydia app on one of your homepages. This is the icon you’ll want to look for:

For anyone who is new to the jailbreak scene, you’ll want to open Cydia and download a few key things to enhance your experience:

Winterboard (an essential for theming out your phone)
Themes! (check out our jailbreak forums for some suggestions)
Rock App (if you’d prefer it over Cydia, search “RockApp”)
SBSettings (allows a quick swipe to access all your main toggles)

There are a lot of neat apps and tweaks to download (including several plug-ins for SBSettings). Look for coming reviews as well as past ones for jailbroken app reviews. All the ones listed above are free to download. I personally prefer Rock over Cydia as Rock has a very convenient backup system within it to keep track of all your licenses and downloads. It was nice to not have to restore everything I had jailbroken and just click restore from backup. Cydia has ways to backup as well, I just find Rock’s interface much nicer. But again, it’s a matter of opinion.

If you’d like the ability to SSH into your phone and edit themes, as well as other files, you’ll also need to download Terminal and OpenSSH. I only recommend SSH’ing for those who have a pretty decent knowledge of the iPhone OS and how to SSH. Deleting certain files or altering them can be disastrous if you aren’t sure what you’re doing. So again, approach with caution. And as always, anytime you ever have software installed on your phone that allows remote access, change your root password! If you need help doing that, jump over to the TiPb jailbreak and unlock forums .

YouTube link

iOS 4 beta walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:55:17 +0000

iOS 4 (previously iPhone OS 4, iPhone 4.0) continues Apple’s relentless yearly mobile OS beta and release cycle. If 2007 was the mainstreaming of the multitouch user interface, 2008 all about the app store, and 2009 filling in the feature list, then iPhone 4 promises to be… well, that’s why we’re here.

(And yes, iOS. That’s the new name Apple has licensed from trademark holders Cisco to represent the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — and maybe soon Apple TV and who knows what else — family.)

Apple promises 7 “tent-pole” features and 100+ new user features overall, along with 1500 major new APIs for developers. We’re going to walk through the ones that matter most. As with previous years, Apple is likely to release a half-dozen or more betas, as often as every second week or so, leading up to a Gold Master (GM) seed on or around WWDC 2010 (date yet to be announced) for iPhone and iPod touch, and September for iPad.

Things can and will change. Features will come and go. And all sorts of iOS secrets will be discovered deep inside the code strings. We’ll update when any of that happens.

What Hasn’t Changed

iPhone 2.0
iPhone 2.1
iPhone 2.2
iPhone 3.0
iPhone 3.1
YouTube: Accounts were a big addition in iPhone 3.0, so iPhone 4 sits this update out, at least so far.
Stocks: Similarly, Stocks got landscape and a slew of swipe-able data last time, so the update love gets skipped this time.
Weather: Almost comedically at this point, it’s still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Nada.
Voice Memo: Introduced in iPhone 3.0, it looks pretty much the same in iPhone 4.
Clock: With nothing but a lap feature added last time, we lose the “but” and keep the “nothing” for iPhone 4.
Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, all Calculator gets this time is a slight icon tweak towards the red.

System-wide enhancements

Spell check

Spell check, which debuted in iPhone 3.2 for iPad, is a system-wide addition to iPhone 4 now as well. Words the OS thinks you’ve misspelled will be underlined in red (familiar to any Microsoft Office or Mac OS X user). Tapping on them will give you a popup containing a recommended replacement. Tapping that replaces the misspelled word with the (hopefully!) correctly spelled one.

Combined with the iPhone’s existing — and industry leading — predictive auto-correct, it’s a powerful combination.

Text Replace

Cut, copy, and paste also gets an iPad-debuting feature with “replace” now added to the popup options.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

Home Screen

SpringBoard app, the power behind the Home Screen gets an iPhone 3.2 for iPad-style update to support custom wallpaper. Yes, the default background in iPhone 4 beta 1 is water drops on gray, which is not default but included in the iPad’s wallpaper gallery (yet strangely not included in iPhone 4′s) Also like iPad, the Mac OS X reflective Dock (buh-bye grid) and translucent top bar have been brought over.

Apple has brought over some of the iPad wallpapers but also introduced a few new ones, all seemingly focused on livening up the home screen without being too visually distracting. Natural textures and muted patterns get an obvious focus here with stones, rocks, and textiles front and center.

(See all of them in our iOS beta 4 wallpaper gallery)

In addition to the previous color bands across the top of the screen that indicate running voice or data connections (green for Phone, red for Voice Memo, blue for tethering) red is used again to indicate a VoIP app (like Skype) is active in the background.

As mentioned, the Calculator app also gets a new icon. Where things get more exciting is how Home Screen has once again been extended to visualize new, core-level OS changes.

Spotlight

Multitasking

While Apple’s built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since 1.0. Now, four years, many gripes, and stiffer Google Android competition than ever, background multitasking comes to App Store apps. At least for the iPhone 3GS and the 4th generation iPhone Apple will more than likely introduce this coming summer. RAM limitations and Apple’s abject refusal to put their name on an implementation where hardware constrains software — see video recording last year — means iPhone 3G will get a lot of 4.0, but won’t get multitasking.

We won’t get into the saved-state, streaming music, location, and VoIP APIs, push and local notifications, and task completion that make up the 6 innards of the service because this is a GUI walkthrough. Fast task switching, however, is where we see background multitasking made manifest, and this is what it looks like.

You double tap the Home Screen and the UI turns translucent and slides up, allowing you to peek at the apps running “under the hood”. (Technically frozen with state saved an threads registered with those APIs, but we’re trying not to get technical here). Positionally the Fast Task Switcher apps take up the space traditionally reserved for the Dock, so while it’s a tad confusing the concept of apps at the bottom of the screen being more permanent and easily accessible remains. Behaviorally, while they look like a secret dock, they function like the Home Screen itself in that you can swipe from right to left to scroll through a several 4-icon sets of multitasking apps. We don’t know what the upper limit is yet (11 pages like Home Screen itself?) but it’s a lot.

Given even the iPhone 3GS has only 256MB of RAM, we assume Apple will discretely kill off the least-used app in the stack when things get tight. Whether or not that means the icon disappears from the multitasking GUI we don’t know, but worst case you just have to go to the Home Screen, re-launch it (hopefully from saved state) and all you notice is a slightly longer start up time.

In iOS beta 3, the fast app switcher UI gained a soft-version of the iPad’s orientation lock and audio controls. When you double click the home button to bring up the fast app switcher, you can now scroll all the way to the left to get the new orientation lock and audio controls. The default on the orientation is off but a tap will turn on, or turn off, the lock. (Home screen doesn’t sound like it rotates, however).

Audio controls include back, play/pause, and forward, with the name of the current track written beneath. If music is being played via the iPod app, the iPod icon will be displayed to quickly get you back to that app. If you’re streaming via the iTunes app (i.e. a podcast) then the iTunes icon will be displayed instead. We’re guessing iOS will show you the icon of whichever app is currently playing music using the new background audio API, and yes we mean Slacker and Pandora when they’re enabled as well.

YouTube link

At the iPhone 4 event, Steve Jobs likened task managers (in the multitasking, not to-do sense) to styluses — if you need them there’s something wrong. However, if you hold your finger down on multitasking apps to make the jiggle and bring up a delete icon that, if you tap it, removes them. Added to the list of things we don’t know — whether that kills their API thread or merely removes them from the Fast App Switcher interface. (And no, sadly you can’t re-arrange jiggling apps for fast switching, at least not yet — if you want your favorites close at hand, that remains a Dock thing).

The background for the app switcher (and for folders) has also changed from the rubbery, pock-mocked, dark gray of beta 1 and 2 to a new cross-hatched medium gray in beta 3.

The presentation may not be as visually slick as Palm webOS’ Card view (which looks like iPhone Safari’s Page view) or Mac OS X Exposé mode, but it keeps those 85,000,000 existing iPhone and iPod touch users grounded in the interface they’re familiar with and that’s what Apple is prioritizing.

Note: Previously you could assign the double-click Home to trigger Phone Favorites, Camera, or Spotlight. On iPhone 3G under iOS those options remain. On iPhone 3GS under iOS, you can now double-click-and-hold on Home to trigger Phone Favorites, but there doesn’t appear to be any mechanism to re-assign that functionality to Camera or Spotlight (see Settings, below). [@oliok] This appears to be gone under Beta 3.

YouTube link

iOS beta 2 introduced a new, circling, side-switching animation for multitasking fast app switching. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you’re in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always (though the wallpaper in iOS zooms slightly as well, like on the iPad).

YouTube link

Folders

There are 180,000 apps in the App Store and likely a ton more by the time I finish writing the sentence. Literally. iPhone 1.0 had one Home Screen but with only the built-in apps available back then, it wasn’t even a limitation. With WebApps, it grew to 9 pages for a 148 app limit. With iPhone 3.0 we were given 8 pages, for 180 apps viewable, but you could install many more and use Spotlight as a way of finding and launching them. Organizing them still wasn’t a real option.

Enter Folders. A Folder is simply a grouped icon that holds up to 12 other icons inside it. (And for those keeping count at home, the new math means a whopping 2016 apps can be kept on-screen at once. Shudder).

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

To create a Folder, you begin by tapping and holding an icon to put it in jiggly mode, just like you did before to delete or move it. Then, drag it over and drop it on top of another icon to create a Folder. (This works better when icons aren’t at the right edge of the screen, as the move behavior seems to supersede the Folder behavior, causing the icon to wrap to the next line before you can drop on top of it.) Once created, iPhone OS reads the apps’ category data and tries to name the folder for you, but you can easily edit it to anything you want.

To remove apps from a Folder, put them in jiggly mode inside the Folder and drag them out (or just delete them if you don’t want them anywhere anymore). You can also move them around within the Folder to customize their order.

Folders can be put in jiggly mode and moved as well, but not deleted (they can only be deleted by removing all the apps from within them, and which point they self-destruct for you). You can even move them to the Dock, which means you could have 48 apps readily available at any time for quick launching.

And while you still can’t delete Apple’s built-in apps, you can take the ones you’re not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible (not that that’s as big a deal now as it used to be…)

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X’s Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

YouTube link

Messages

Messages in iPhone 4 gets the same built-in Spotlight search that Mail and other apps got with iPhone 3.0. It appears at the top of the main messages screen. (There’s no search within an individual Messages thread). [@justin_horn]

Messages also (finally) gets a character counter so you’ll know when you’re getting close to, or going past, the SMS limit (which would cause a second message to be sent). It kicks in after you’ve typed 50 characters or so. [@iMuggle]

Calendar

Calendar removes two long-standing gripes and adds something pretty much invisible from the interface but awesome in terms of functionality.

First, you can now show all or hide all calendars or individually check/uncheck just the calendars you want to see.

Birthday calendars have also been added to the option, something that was previously only possible to see under certain setup conditions.

Lastly and most excitingly, Apple has finally added Calendar access for developers. What this means is, we’ll soon see applications where, by way of example, you can download a movie app, buy tickets for a local screening, and the app will be able to automatically add the show time to your Calendar.

Photos

Photos, at least for Mac users, gets the same iPhoto ’09-based organizational features introduced with the iPad: Events, Faces, and Places.

Landscape mode is also now supported in album and gallery views [@antonioj].

The action button now includes a Rotate function (yes!) that turns a photo 90 degrees counter-clockwise (to the left).

If you Email Photo, you now get the option of sending a smaller version (compressed dimensions and hence file size), or at actual size.

Lastly, developers have been given access to the photo and video library (not just the image picker as in previous OS versions).

Camera

Tap to focus, introduced in iPhone 3.0 for still photography, now gets expanded to video recording for the iPhone 3GS (and presumably the 4th generation iPhone).

Developers also get full access to and control of video playback and recording.

Maps

For developers, overlays can now be added to embedded maps to show extra data like routes or annotations.

Notes

(UI-wise this is similar to how you back out/left in Calendar or Contacts to toggle data sources.)

The way these show up in Mac OS X is via the built-in Mail.app client in the Notes tab.

On Gmail they show up as a generic label. In other IMAP clients, regardless of OS, they’ll show up as generic IMAP folders.

iTunes Store

The iTunes store itself is the same, however, audio streaming from the app itself has taken a huge leap forward. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you’ve been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn’t really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iOS it’s rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later — even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio — and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

Settings

This year, like every year, some of the more numerous and interesting changes Apple delivers in their new OS are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

General: Network

You can now choose to not only turn off 3G data or roaming data, but all cellular data.

General: Location Services

General: Home Button

Rather than gaining functions, the Home Button setting loses several. Since double-click for iOS on the iPhone 3GS (and presumably future iPhone hardware) is now reserved for launching the multitasking interface, gone is the option to assign it to launch Spotlight, Camera, or iPod. Also gone is the option to have it launch iPod when audio is playing.

Double-click-and-hold will now trigger Phone Favorites on the iPhone 3GS, but no options are presented yet to re-assign that to Spotlight, Camera, or iPod. So, the only thing that remains are the Spotlight search inclusion options. Looks downright barren now…

Since iPhone 3G won’t be getting multitasking (Apple cites hardware, i.e. RAM constraints) those options remain under iOS for that device.

General: Passcode Lock

Previously available only through an Enterprise profile, iPhone 4 brings stronger, alphanumeric passcodes to all iPhone users. That means you’re no longer stuck with only a 4 digit pin, but can now create longer passcodes with far greater variation. Of course, longer, more varied passcodes are more of a hassle to remember and enter, but that’s the cost of good security.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

As previously mentioned, Notes will now sync over IMAP and the settings for that appear here. First, all the way at the bottom, you can choose which account to use as the default for note sync.

Inside MobileMe, Gmail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there’s no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Messages

Here’s where you can turn on that new character count option.

iPod

The iPod app now has an overlay that shows you information about songs and podcasts. While functional it’s not terribly attractive so it’s nice to be able to toggle it off right here.

App Store

iPhone 2.0 brought us the iTunes App Store, iPhone 3.0 added in-app purchases, and now iOS raises the mercantile stakes once again…

iAd

Task completion

With iPhone 4, when you close and app and that app is still performing an activity, the OS will allow it to complete that activity in the background. For example, downloading or uploading content from the internet.

Streaming music, location, and VoIP API

The underside of the multitasking/fast app switching UI mentioned at the beginning of the walkthrough are three specific types of API that an app can register threads with when you close them out. These are intended for streaming music (Pandora or Slacker being the classic examples), location-aware (i.e turn-by-turn navigation, check-in games, social networks, etc.), and VoIP (Skype and SIP clients) to register with the OS when you exit the apps proper so that your music can keep streaming, location can keep tracking, and VoIP can still alert you of phone calls even when the app isn’t running.

There’s no time-line API for instant messaging (IM), Twitter, etc. to register their threads with, however. Apple believes existing Push Notifications are sufficient but that means once an alert is received and you tap View, the app still has to pause and load the timeline/messages before you can view them. This is unlike the built-in Mail and Messages (SMS/MMS) apps that have new messages loaded and waiting when you get there.

Local Notifications

Like Push Notifications in iPhone 3.0 but not requiring an outside, internet connected server, local notifications will let apps you’re using (and perhaps apps that have registered one of the three types of background threads mentioned above) send you popup boxes, sound alerts, and icon badges.

For the user, these should be functionally the same and perhaps indistinguishable.

Quick Look

Just like Mail can preview documents, Quick Look will allow developers to present the same functionality in their apps.

Accelerate

2000 hardware accelerated math APIs probably won’t be seen by users, but there’s not doubt we’ll feel them in the games. Zoom. Zoom.

File Sharing

Again it looks like the iPhone is finally getting in iOS what the iPad got in 3.2 with the file/document transfer feature now exposed in iTunes sync.

While the iPad version identifies document-friendly apps (like Apple’s own Keynote, Numbers, and Pages) and lets you find and sync over files, the iOS beta 3 version currently only shows Mail and Stanza and doesn’t really let you do much else. However, it stands to reason this will at least reach feature parity with the iPad when Apple releases iOS to the public later this summer.

Now all we need is an elegant way to share and wirelessly sync those documents across multiple devices and users. MobileMe 2.0, souped up iWork.com 2.0, where are you?

Mail

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Although not yet implemented in the current beta, like iPhone OS 3.2 for iPad, you’ll be able to open email attachments in apps. Now there’s no iWork (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) for iPhone yet, and the app Apple used to introduce this function doesn’t exist on iPhone yet either. Interesting.

Safari

More iPad to iPhone cross-polination means we get search auto-complete from both Google and Yahoo! in iOS. As you type, suggestions appear in a list view below. And as with the iPad, while Google and Yahoo! branding remain in the search boxes, they no longer get brand advertising on the keyboard — it simply remains labeled Search now regardless of which engine is set and default.

As usual, Apple seems to be increasing Safari’s HTML5 support. While HTML5 video would work under iPhone 3.1.3, it would launch the full screen QuickTime player to do so. Under iOS, it seems to play in-line as well [MobileGeekdom], like it does on the iPad.

If history is any indicator, Apple will likely also integrate whatever advancements WebKit and the Nitro JavaScript engine make between now and release this summer.

iPod

Album art has been added to album views, jazzing up the track lists. [Gizmodo]

And in yet another iPad-like update, on-th-go playlists are dead, long live… just regular old playlists. You can add them via an item in the playlists list, at which point you get a popup that asks you for a name. Next, you tap on any songs you want to add, and when you’re done, you have a new playlist. If you’re not happy with it, or any playlist, just swipe to bring up the usual red Delete button and annihilate it.

Nike+

You can now send you run data directly from the iPhone. [When Will Apple]. Under History, tap Send to Nike+ and you’re off and running (sorry). You’re then sent to Safari so you can login to Nike+ and see your data.

Game Center (Preview)

Game Center is Apple’s entry into the social gaming network space (think Xbox Live or Playstation Network for iPhone OS devices). With Game Center you’ll be able to invite friends to play, use matchmaking to challenge other players, gain achievements, and have your scores displayed on a leader board.

Game Center won’t launch with iOS this summer, but is scheduled for release “later” this year.

iBooks

Though not a built-in app (you’ll need to go get it from the US App Store when it becomes available), as part of iOS Apple announced they were bringing iBooks to the iPhone.

Not Concluded

This preview won’t be concluded until Apple concludes iOS with its final release this summer for iPhone and iPod touch, and this fall for iPad (unless that becomes iPhone 4.1).

iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS owners should get it for free as Apple’s 2-year accounting procedure allows. That there’s been no word about iPhone 2G owners could mean it’s either not going to be available for the oldest hardware, it won’t be free, or… there’s simply been no word yet. Likewise, there’s been no word on iPod touch pricing though it was $9.95 for iPhone 3.0. There’s been no word on iPod touch G1 availability either, however. Apple’s SDK agreement has revealed that iPad users who bought with 3.2 will get 4.0 for free but not subsequent major updates (i.e. iPhone OS 5 in 2011).

Again, there will be roughly 6 to 8 betas released on a roughly bi-weekly schedule from now until WWDC 2010 when we’ll likely hear about the final version, whatever extra features will come with the next-generation iPhone (current rumors suggest iChat video), and get a final release data — likely also to coincide with the next-gen iPhone release date.

We’ll update this preview as more and better information becomes available, so if you notice anything we missed or just plain got wrong, send it in or let us know in the comments.

Note on Using Beta Software

If you’re not a developer, don’t even think about putting iOS beta on your main iPhone. Betas are for testing purposes and could contain any number of bugs and performance issues, could stop working or require updates when you may not have access to one, or otherwise give you problems when used in a manner for which they’re not intended. Stay away.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough]

iPad Safari on iPhone 3.2 SDK Simulator Walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:19:43 +0000

9to5Mac has posted up a walkthrough of the iPad‘s version of the Safari web browser, running on the iPhone 3.2 SDK‘s simulator. Instead of sliding in new screens, iPad Safari uses Apple’s new popover menus to handle bookmarks, search, and other UI tasks.

We have to admit, it’s looking great to us and we can’t wait to get our geeky, multi-touchy hands on the real thing.

Video after the break!

iTunes 9 Software Walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:53:58 +0000

Along with iPhone 3.1 and the new iPod nano, iTunes 9 was the big news at Apple’s It’s only rock and roll but I like it annual music event. And for iPhone and iPod touch users — our focus here at TiPb — a large part of that 3.1 update (see our iPhone 3.1 walkthrough) comes from iTunes 9.

Last things first, no, it wasn’t re-written as a 64-bit app, or in Cocoa for the Mac. (Get of our iLawn!) However, with iPhone and iPod touch users firmly in mind, let’s take a look at the new features we did get…

Improved Syncing and App Organization

Syncing is more robust in iTunes 9, with more panels and more options within each panel (especially Applications).

The Summary tab, if you’re syncing an iPhone 3GS, now includes a “configure for universal access” option, which pops up something very similar to iPhone 3.1′s universal access menu if home button triple-click is enabled.

The Applications tab received the most stupendous make-over. Instead of a raw list with check boxes, you’re presented with a more useful list view on the left, showing app icons, category and the file size. You can sort by name, category, or date of download, and there’s even a handy search box. On the right is a replica of your iPhone home screen, along with thumbnails of additional home screens along the right hand side. (iPhone 3.x allows 11 home screens).

You can still add apps to the sync list by checking or unchecking them, but you can now also add them by dragging the icon directly to the home screen — and exact position on the home screen — you want them. To delete them, just select the app on the home screen and click on the X, just like on the iPhone in “jiggly” mode. (And no, you still can’t delete Apple’s built-in apps, sorry!) Likewise, you can move icons around on — and between the different — home screen representations, making it much easier and faster to get the exact iPhone layout you want (when you apply your changes and sync them over). You can also drag iPhone home screen pages around to re-order them, much like PowerPoint slides in thumbnail view.

The Music tab (yes, we’re skipping Ringtones, it’s fairly pedestrian) gives you a bit more control, as now in addition to the previous ways you could sync music, you can also choose to move across entire artists and genres. You can also choose to have iTunes automatically fill up any space you may have remaining on your (now potentially beefier 32GB iPhone and 64GB(!) iPod touch) with music. (We didn’t test this, but presumably it doesn’t do Genius fills… yet!). No album art deco, here, however.

The Movies tab has been liberated from the generic iTunes 8 “videos” catch-all to get its own space, and it uses it well. Poster art is displayed, along with run time, file size, and age-rating. You can choose to automatically sync, or just check the ones you want.

The TV Shows tab, similarly liberated, now has a two column view showing artwork and, in the epic win category, a second column where you can choose exactly which episodes of a given show you want to sync over (no more generic “last 3…” whatever! — though you can still choose to automatically fill that way if you like.)

The Podcasts tab allows for the same episode-by-episode custom syncing options as TV Shows. Did I say epic win already?

The iTunes U tab, independent now from Podcasts, nevertheless gets the same new features.

The Photos tab, for iPhoto users on the Mac, is a much more significant update than it is for PC users. If you have iPhone 09, you can now sync based on folder, event, and faces (if you’ve gone through the facial recognition process and set some up). You can also choose to sync and videos in iPhone, such as those you took with your iPhone 3GS. Once synced across, they’ll appear in the photo galleries on the iPhone just as they did in the camera roll on the 3GS. Great addition.

Bottom line, the syncing really is much improved, especially for apps.

iTunes App

Subtle differences the gradients in the iTunes chrome aside, there are a few changes worth noting in the iTunes app itself. First, the sidebar has been tweaked, with iTunes U broken out and iTunes Genius Mixes added (though you need to update Genius first to get it to show — more on that later).

Music gets new column displays, and better options for organizing them.

Apps are now full citizens in the iTunes interface, with list, “album”, and CoverFlow views, to help better manage all of our growing app collections.

For Music, Movies, and TV Shows (but strangely now Applications, Ringtunes, or other purchasable content), if your library is empty, instead of showing you that emptiness, iTunes will show you how to go about filling it.

If you let iTunes automatically manage your folders, there’s a new, better organized way of doing it. If you’re upgrading to iTunes 9, however, you have to manually tell it you want to switch to the new format (File > Library > Organize Library). The new format stops dumping movies, TV shows, and other video at the same directory level as music artists, and now puts the alongside the top music folder proper (though the overall folder is still, strangely, still called iTunes Music). Regardless, a great change and about time.

Speaking of about time, one of the new folders is called Automatically Add to iTunes, and iTunes will watch this folder and automatically add any new, compatible content to the library. (Incompatible content is isolated and flagged as such). So, if you get your content from a service other than iTunes, you can have it download here and iTunes will still see it and add it. Longtime coming, this feature. And — pow! — take that faux-monopoly pundits.

Lastly, on the Mac, the green widow button at the top left no longer switches between the regular iTunes window and tiny player. It now uses default Mac behavior of switching between full size and user-defined size. To get to the tiny player, you can alt-click the green button or use the menu or keyboard shortcut (shift+cmd m).

Genius Mixes

Added to Genius Playlists are Genius Mixes, though in a very un-Apple-like way, it’s not immediately intuitive where to find them. That’s because you can’t find them until you go to the Store menu and choose Update Genius. (Tip of the hat to TUAW).

Once that’s done, Genius Mix will pop up in the sidebar beneath Genius Playlists and… create a few mixes you can’t view a list of or edit or alter in any way (you can only see 4 album covers stitched together to represent the mix). Apple made them sound like radio stations, which aside from calling in requests, you have zero control over anyway, but still, this feature feels a little incomplete right now.

iTunes will create up to 12 Genius Mixes depending on how much music it finds and can work with. I got 4. 2 of those were soundtrack mixes with similar soundtracks. Apple says you might discover music you forgot you had. I sure did. Deleted some of it…

Your results will hopefully be better, and if they are, you can sync the resulting Genius Mix Playlists over to your iPhone or iPod.

iTunes Home Sharing

No, it won’t let you elegantly sync your iPhone or iPod from different, authorized machines. Unfortunately, that holy-grain of functionality still eludes us. (Granted, it may be complicated to properly sync when, for example, you have a movie in your iTunes library on a large desktop drive, but don’t happen to have it on your smaller laptop library — but we know you can do it, Apple!)

Home Sharing is, however, an improvement on the plain vanilla streaming that was provided in previous versions of iTunes. Now, once you’ve properly authorized your computer for Home Sharing (and you’re limited to 5 authorizations, as before) using your iTunes username and password, you can not only see and play media on other machines, you can copy it from one machine to another. What’s more, you can set up iTunes to automatically copy any new media from one machine to another, allowing you to keep that home theater machine in sync with the home office machine and laptop, for example. However, iTunes will only automatically copy content your buy over the iTunes store. If you get your media from somewhere else, it’s up to you to copy it over, manual-style. Also, display of a shared library is limited to list view, which is odd considering Back to My Mac can display network folders in icon or CoverFlow view just fine. Perhaps Home Sharing is another of those early introductions that will mature in time (with multi-machine iPhone sync, right?)

One really nice feature that is in place, however, is a handy Show drop down at the bottom. You can flip it from All items to Items not in my library, a perfect way to find content you may have missed copying over.

iTunes 9 Store

The iTunes 9 Store has a new look and feel. First of all, it’s whiter. The backgrounds, that is. Except where they’re black, in the Movies and TV section, and framed in blue for iTunes U. Way to nail down that consistency.

The new backgrounds, expect for iTunes U (which has been re-organized and separated out from Podcasts where it used to live), look both roomier and less well segmented at the same time. There’s also a new, almost iPhone-esque black menu bar which introduces the the drop-down to iTunes. It’s convenient, if a tad gauche at this point.

When you search, results share the new, breathable layout, and easy, iconified filters appear in a sidebar on the left.

Definitely more usable than before, though I’m not sure the little “buy now” with drop menus on the side will ever grow on me. You can, however, use them to gift, add to wishlist (yes, wishlists replace shopping carts in iTunes 9), copy the link, tell a friend, or share via Facebook or Twitter.

Social media integration was one of the big rumors preceding iTunes 9, with everything up to a “social app” and massive cloud-served, crowd-sourced recommendation engine said to be on the horizon. Turns out you can just autofill a Twitter form with the item in question. It’s a first step, to be certain, albeit a tiny little one.

A few of the larger changes, we’ll cover separately.

iTunes LP and iTunes Extras

iTunes LP, much gossiped about under the code-name Cocktail, is an attempt to either harness the nostalgia of by-gone days when vinyl records played on turn-tables and hours were consumed listening and pouring over cover art, liners, lyrics, and other assorted goodies, or dodgy scheme to get people to buy entire albums again instead of cherry-picking singles.

Likely its equal parts both. There are only 7 iTunes LP-format items available as of this writing, some for purchase (like the Doors), some as part of an iTunes Pass (like Dave Matthews). Four more are listed as available for pre-purchase.

iTunes Extras are the movie equivalent, similar to the extra features you could previously only find on DVDs. Like iTunes LP, there’s limited selection right now, and half of that is pre-order. And, what’s a deal-breaker for me, it doesn’t appear to be in HD (yet?)

There’s a lot going on under the covers (so to speak) with both iTunes LP and iTunes Extras, including more WebKit interactive goodness, and a refreshing lack of DRM (keep it up!), but the 720p format of some of the material makes us think it’s less intended for the iPhone (indeed, it’s iTunes bound right now), and more for eventual Apple TV and… iTablet use.

Says Apple’s support article:

The songs or featured movies can be viewed directly on iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple TV, but iTunes LP or iTunes Extras can only be viewed from within iTunes on an authorized computer. In order to view the complete iTunes LP or iTunes Extras, transfer the song or movie from your device to your iTunes library on the computer that contains the downloaded iTunes LP or iTunes Extras.

Like any new feature, or variation on a format, they’re going to squeak a little right now when they turn around too fast, but it will be interesting to see how they develop.

Conclusion

iTunes 9 is free and has enough great new features for iPhone and iPod touch owners, especially the new App Management interface, that it’s an easy upgrade to recommend. While not all of the new features appear fully mature yet, that’s why they’re new and hopefully Apple will continue to both evolve and refine them as they have with previously introduced features.

What will be especially interesting is watching Apple handle iTunes growth and — according to some, — bloat. The equal and opposite reaction to increased functionality is loss of focus, and iTunes going from a simple music player to a complex media and sync manager hasn’t come without a price. Apple will need to work hard to make sure it’s a price most users continue to be willing to pay.

As always, if any of you iTunes ninja notice that we’ve missed whole swathes of great new, if harder to find, functionality in the latest release of Apple’s media hub, let us know in the comments and we’ll update.

iPhone 3.1 Software Walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:36:05 +0000

On the fence about downloading iPhone 3.1? Wondering what’s changed since iPhone 3.0? Need a handy link to send your friends who may have questions? TiPb’s got your back with our complete iPhone 3.1 Software Walkthrough.

Previously, we took you through all three beta versions, now we’ll take you through the final release.

And we’ll get started, right after the break.

What Hasn’t Changed

A lot. Too much to list neatly this time around. When you finish reading this walkthrough, go back and read our iPhone 3.0 walkthrough. It’s a giant compared to this.

Still, there are a few talking points…

iTunes 9 Features

It’s also worth noting that a couple of new features touted for iPhone 3.1, like Genius Mixes, and App Management are actually contained in the simultaneously released iTunes 9. See our iTunes 9 Software Walkthrough for more.

Bug Fixes

Big .0 releases are typically followed up swiftly with quick .1 bug fixes. While the swift part here is debatable — though on par with last year’s update — the bug fixes aren’t. Among the issues addressed:

Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

Note, we’d heard iPhone 3.1 would also fix the Spotlight issue that displayed deleted emails, but Apple doesn’t list it, and we’ve heard reports it isn’t yet fixed. (Though it apparently was in iPhone 3.1 Beta 3. Strange.)

Home Screen

With the iPhone 3GS and its accessibility features, you can now enable triple-clicking of the Home Button to toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, and Ask (which then will pop up a menu offering Turn VoiceOver On, Turn Zoom On, Turn White on Black On).

Voice Control

Voice Control in iPhone 3.0, after holding down the Home button for several seconds, let you speak simple commands to place calls and control music. With iPhone 3.1, it will now also work over Bluetooth.

Just hold down the Bluetooth call button as you would the Home Button, let go, and Voice Control pops up. State your command into the BT mic, and Voice Control will “speak” the confirmation (whether it gets it right or not) through the BT earpiece.

MobileMe Find My iPhone Remote Passcode Lock

Expanding on the Find My iPhone remote tracking and wiping service that came with iPhone 3.0, you can now also remotely assign a passcode lock. This is a nice half-way ground between leaving your iPhone wide open, or having to wipe it clean, if you can’t find it but aren’t sure you’ve permanently lost it.

Messages

Still no MMS for AT&T users. That’s being released on September 25 (though whether it will require an iPhone 3.1.1 update, or just a new carrier file is unknown).

For those outside the US with working MMS, you can tap the action button at bottom, left to save them to the camera roll, just like you could previously do with pictures under iPhone 3.0.

Calendar

Calendar gets a minor tweak in iPhone 3.1. Now event alerts also display the location of the event in the popup. Presumably, this is now considered important glance-able information.

Photos

Video trimming is now non-destructive. Previously, if you trimmed a video, it was automatically saved over the original, meaning you could never undo or go back to the full clip. Now, a Save As… dialog gives you the option of preserving the original and creating as many version copies as you want (an short clip to email, a longer one to share to YouTube, and the full clip to sync and bring into iMovie, for example).

Maps

We haven’t seen this show up yet ourselves, but during Steve Jobs’ iPhone 3.1 overview, the slide behind him listed Sponsored Links in Maps as a… feature. (Maybe that’s why Google CEO, Eric Schmidt was there?). Not quite sure how we feel about this in a built-in app either, as opposed to a site we choose to navigate to in Safari…

Settings

Setting usually accounts for the longest list of changes in a new iPhone firmware, but this time it’s fairly short.

Settings: General: Usage now includes a separate meter for Tethering Data. Apologies again, AT&T users, but for those outside the US — if it proves reliable! — it could help avoid nasty overage charges if you exceed your data cap.

Settings: General: Accessibility includes that aforementioned toggle for the Home Button triple-click to enable quick Accessibility switching. Options include Off, Toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, or Ask which will launch a pop-up and let you choose between the above and Turn Zoom On.

Settings: Safari now, finally, has that toggle to enable Fraud Warnings for malicious web sites (like phishing sites, malware sites, etc.).

iTunes Store

iPhone 3.1 lets you display available iTunes account credit both iTunes Store, and in the App Store, and allows you to redeem gift cards and other promotional codes.

Also, iTunes U is now “better organized”.

In addition, displacing Podcasts (which moves to the other side of the tracks beneath the More tab) is Ringtones, displayed like music, and available ready-made for $1.29.

App Store

Since the App Store is closer akin to a local WebView, it’s fairly easy for Apple to update the App Store (or iTunes Store) without updating the firmware. Case in point, the night before iPhone 3.1 went live, the App Store was updated to feature “Top Grossing” as one of the view options.

Apple has extended their Genius technology to recommend apps as well in iPhone 3.1. The Genius tab appears under Featured, taking the left-most slot. Once you log in, activate, agree to the terms of service (twice!), Genius will crowd-source other iTunes App Store users with similar tastes in an effort to suggest apps you don’t have but might enjoy. (The app on which the recommendation is based is listed on top of the suggested app — nice touch).

As mentioned above, you can now also see your current iTunes Store credits in the App Store, and you can now also redeem iTunes gift cards, promo codes, and certificates here as well. Feature. Parity.

Phone

Copy and Paste comes to the Phone Keypad. Just tap and hold and the input area will change from dark blue to light blue, and the Copy Paste menu will pop up.

The iPhone Paste feature is “smart” enough to change alphanumeric phone numbers to pure numbers (i.e. 1-800-FLOWERS to 1-800-356-9377).

Contacts also get direct copy, so you can hold your finger down on a contact field, just like a picture in Photo, to trigger the copy pop-up menu.

Conclusion

Like the recently released Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, iPhone 3.1 doesn’t provide a lot of fancy user-facing updates (we likely won’t see those until Mac OS X 10.7 and iPhone 4.0 respectively). What it does is fix things that needed fixing, and fill in missing functionality that needed filling in. And, it throws in a couple small feature enhancements, just because.

Free for both iPhone and iPod touch 3.0 users (iPod touch 2.x users will still need to cough up $9.95 to pay the subscription accounting devil’s dues), if iPhone 3.0 was a must-have for the sheer magnitude of its new functionality, 3.1 is a no-brainer update to make the must-have that much nicer-to-have as well.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough, especially Justin, Jeremy, and James. If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments and we'll update as needed.]

iPhone 3.1 Beta Walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:13:38 +0000

iPhone 3.1 Beta 1 has just been released, and unlike the major new version that was iPhone 3.0, it’s still unclear how many features — compared with bug fixes — will be added. However, enterprising developers have already discovered at least a few things we can all look forward too.

So, here’s TiPb’s iPhone 3.1 Beta Walkthrough, and we’ll keep it updated as/if Apple releases future betas.

Home Screen

The jigglies — what Dieter lovingly calls the little dance icons do when you hold them down long enough to make them moveable and rearrangeable — now make the iPhone vibrate once to further indicate the change of state. Whether or not this will somehow factor in to the iPhone 3GS accessibility features is uncertain.

Voice Control

Voice Control, after holding down the Home button for several seconds, let you speak simple commands to place calls and control music. In iPhone 3.1, it will also work over Bluetooth.

The exact process isn’t clear yet, but it’s hard to imagine anything other than holding down the call button on a Bluetooth headset function similarly to how the Home button currently works.

Messages

After being present in iPhone 3.0 Beta 1 through Beta 4, before being stripped out in Beta 5, AT&T users will again find MMS functionality restored to the interface. However, it’s not functional without hacking the carrier file, and it’s unknown if it will survive until release or be stripped out again if AT&T still isn’t ready for the feature to go live.

Calendar

Calendar gets a minor tweak in iPhone 3.1. Now event alerts also display the location of the event in the popup. Presumably, this is now considered important glance-able information.

Photos

Phone

Copy and Paste comes to the Phone Keypad. Just tap and hold and the input area will change from dark blue to light blue, and the Copy Paste menu will pop up.

Reportedly, the iPhone Paste feature is “smart” enough to change alphanumeric phone numbers to pure numbers (i.e. 1-800-FLOWERS to 1-800-356-9377).

When Will it Ship?

If history is any indication, iPhone 2.0 was released on July 11, 2008, and iPhone 2.1 followed some two months and 4 betas later on September 12, 2008 hot on the heels of Apple’s Let’s Rock introduction of the 2nd generation iPod touch. Will we have to wait for another new iPod and music event before we see 3.1?

Our guess is Apple will try to get 3.1 out earlier to fix a few of the more onerous bugs, but as always, only Jobs knows for sure…

Note on Using Beta Software

Unlike iPhone 2.0 Betas, where access seemed much more limited and leaks were few and far between, 3.1 like 3.0 seems to be on every iPhone users want-now list. Also, unlike 2.0 when many devs were seasoned pros, now Apple is touting thousands upon thousands in the program, some seemingly happy enough to enable 3.0 access for the general user base.

However, betas are intended for developers to test and report back on. They’re not as stable, not as snappy, not as feature-complete and anyone trying to use them as a production OS on their main (or worse, only) device is likely to have something less than an ideal experience. People trying to use it as such may wish they could go back to iPhone 3.0 almost as much as they wished for 3.1. Think thrice before taking the plunge.

[Via Chris, Muero, WhenWillApple, and BGR. Thanks to everyone who sent in descriptions and screenshots.]

iPhone 3.0 Software Walkthrough

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:10:10 +0000

Waiting to download iPhone 3.0? Trying to figure out exactly what’s included in the new OS? Wondering what’s changed since iPhone 2.2.1? Need a handy link to send your friends who may have questions? TiPb’s got your back with our complete iPhone 3.0 Software Walkthrough.

Previously, we took you through all five beta versions, now we’ll take you through the final GM (gold master) seed. (And when it goes live on iTunes for one and all, we’ll update any changes we find as well, so consider this your one-stop-shop for everything iPhone 3.0).

And we’ll get started, right after the break.

iPhone 3.0 software offers a host of new features (100 according to Apple). However, not all of these are available on every hardware generation. Here’s a list of the differences, and we’ll mention them again, as appropriate, below.

2009 iPhone 3GS: All features
2008 iPhone 3G: no video camera, voice control, compass, or related features.
2007 iPhone 2G: no video camera, voice control, compass, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, or related features.

Also note: iPhone 3.0 launches 2 days before iPhone 3GS, so until we can get our hands on the new hardware and take proper screenshots, we’ve included captures from Apple’s video. We apologize for the lower quality and will swap them out as soon as we can.

What Hasn’t Changed

As has become our custom, we’ll start off by listing what hasn’t changed in iPhone 3.0. It’s amazingly short this time:

Weather: Still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D-style animations, and no landscape mode with more/different information. Nada.
Calculator: Previously upgraded for iPhone 2.0 with landscape-activated scientific mode, calculator doesn’t sport any additions this time around.
That’s it!

Home Screen

At first glance the SpringBoard app behind the iPhone 3.0 Home Screen seems identical to earlier versions. Sure, SMS is now labeled Messages, the Stocks icon has had a make-over, there’s a new Voice Memos icon and app and — exclusively for iPhone 3GS owners — a new Compass icon and app.

With iPhone 2.x, Apple introduced 9 Home Screen pages, allowing 148 apps total. iPhone 3.0 expands that to 11 pages, allowing 180 apps total (11 built in, leaving 159 for 3rd party apps and WebClip Safari bookmark shortcuts — rumor has it you can load more, but their icons won’t be visible).

Not much else looks different. There are still tiny dots above the dock that signify your additional app screen. However, there’s now an equally tiny magnifying glass icon to the left of them…

Spotlight

On the Mac, Spotlight is the system-wide indexing and search feature that allows you to find files by scouring through metadata and text strings. Apple re-purposes the name and icon here for a new, system-wide iPhone search feature that serves up Contact names, App names, iPod media file names, Email headers (from, to, and subject), and Calendar event names.

You can access Spotlight from the main/primary Home Screen by swiping from left to right, or by clicking the Home Button. When on the Spotlight Screen, you can return the main/primary Home Screen by swiping back from right to left, or clicking the Home Button again. (Yes, clicking Home will toggle you back and forth between those two screens).

Spotlight starts with a blacked-out screen with a search box on top and the portrait keyboard on the bottom (no landscape mode for Spotlight thus far). As you type, results begin to populate the screen, narrowing as you refine your search term. At any point, you can tap on a Spotlight search result to launch the app and/or take you to the resulting content within an app.

Hitting the blue Search button at the bottom right will slide the virtual keyboard away and give you full screen results. Or almost full screen. Since Spotlight is integrated into the Home Screen, the Dock is revealed along with the results so you can quickly launch any of your four docked apps (Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod if you’ve kept the defaults).

Voice Control

With iPhone 3.0 when used in conjunction with iPhone 3GS, holding down the Home button (or the center button on earphones) sounds a tone and launches Voice Control, which takes the VoiceOver feature introduced in the iPod shuffle to the next level by allowing you to talk to the iPhone.

Voice Control’s interface is simply a wave form with the various commands floating by, and a cancel button. Currently, supported commands include: call/dial [contact name], call [contact telephone number], play [playlist name, album name, artist name, song name], what [song, group] is this, play more songs like this (creates Genius playlist), shuffle.

A second tone is followed by VoiceOver (which is computer generated) repeating back your command and then your corresponding call or music starts.

(It’s not hard to see this eventually expanded to include things like: email Bob at work, launch app Peggle, take voice memo, etc. now is it?)

One of the most impressive aspects is how many languages will be supported by Voice Control at launch:

Chinese (Mainland), Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch (Belgian), Dutch (Netherlands), English (Australian), English (UK), English (U.S.), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Force Quit

Under iPhone OS 1.x and 2.x, holding the Home button down allowed you to force a frozen application to quit, clear the RAM, and return to the Home Screen. Since, as mentioned above, holding down the Home button now launches Voice Control on the iPhone 3GS — and does nothing on the iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G, Force Quit has be reassigned.

Now, to Force Quit an app you hold down the sleep button until the the red “slide to power off” control appears. Then hold the Home button down (it can take a while so keep holding!) and — presto! — the current process will be terminated, memory cleared, and you’ll be taken back to the Home Screen.

Messages

Messages is the new SMS, and is renamed to signify the addition of MMS (multi-media messaging service). It allows, in the case of the new iPhone OS 3.0 software, for you to receive, vCards (contacts), audio, location, and — for iPhone 3GS only — video to be sent using the Messages interface to any other smartphone or feature-phone that supports MMS and those file types.

Once you receive an MMS, you can tap the icon in the message bubble to get a better look at it. In the case of a contact, you’ll see a page similar to what you get when you call up a contact in Phone, except at the very bottom you’ll have extra, saving and sharing related options that we’ll cover later in the Phone app section.

Location opens in Google Maps as you’d expect, audio and video in iPod, and images pop up full screen where you can tap the share icon to Save Image — but strangely not re-share it…

Note: The details of MMS vary carrier to carrier. While many international carriers do have MMS enabled with the iPhone 3.0 launch, AT&T is the largest and most notable exception.

When it comes to sending MMS, only picture sending can be initiated from within the Messages app itself. Everything else starts a “share” function from another app (i.e. Share Contact is in Contacts, Share Location is in Google Maps, Share Audio is in Voice Recorder, etc.)

There are two ways to insert a picture into MMS. The first is to tap the camera icon, bottom right. A requester will ask if you want to Take Photo or Choose Existing. Take Photo will call up an embedded version of the Camera app. Frame your picture, tap the camera icon, look at the preview and either hit Retake to try again or Use to insert the picture into your MMS window. (If you want to erase it later, just backspace over it like you would a text character you want to delete)

Choose Existing will call up an image picker (like the Photo App). Pick an Album, pick a picture, and tap Choose to confirm.

The second way to insert a picture into MMS is to paste it…

The new, system-wide Cut, Copy, and Paste service has also been introduced into Messages. It works in a similar way to the implementation in the Notes app, and we’ll cover it more fully there. One difference is that double tapping a previous SMS will give you the Copy popup allowing you to duplicate the entire contents of the SMS to the clipboard. Tapping on an empty entry box will launch the Paste popup, so you can stick the contents back down in an message of your own. If the entry box already contains text, double tapping will select the closest word, and double tapping an holding will select the closet word and popup the loupe.

Again, we’ll cover this more fully in the section for the Notes app.

Messages also now includes line-item deletion and forwarding. Tap the Edit button at the top right, select the messages you want — as many of them as you want — and then hit the red Delete button at the bottom, or the blue Forward button beside it. Edit still isn’t the most elegant name for the combination of deletion and forwarding, mind you, but the functionality is consistent with the Mass Edit feature introduced for Mail in iPhone 2.0.

Lastly, Apple has also answered the call for pervasive landscape-style keyboards, and Messages is one of the text-entry apps that received it. For those who want a Cadillac-wide typing experience, enjoy!

(Note to Apple: a way to “lock” the iPhone in portrait or landscape mode would be appreciated, especially when typing while reclining and every little angle change sends the UI spinning.)

Calendar

Calendar appears largely unchanged from the perspective of the app itself. No landscape rotation for week view — still no week view of any kind.

There are, however, two very welcome new features for Exchange users. You can now add Invitees and set Availability when adding a new event.

Tap Invitees to open the Add Invitees pane, then start typing to search for contacts or hit the blue + icon to pull up the embedded Contacts picker. You can add more than one invitee.

Tap Availability to choose between Busy, Free, Tentative, and Out of office.

The other changes occur in the plumbing and are — somewhat counter-intuitively for us at least — hidden almost entirely away inside the Preferences app (see that section for more details). That’s a shame because they’re rather significant: support for CalDAV and Subscribed Calendars (i.e. holidays, sports schedules, etc.).

Once added via Preferences, however, here’s an example of how Subscribed Calendars look:

Photos

The Photo app receives an update in the form of integration into the Copy (no Cut or Paste here!), MMS, and — for the iPhone 3GS — video camera systems.

For iPhone 3GS users, the Camera Roll now also includes any videos you’ve shot with the device. Similar to how iPhoto on the Mac handles video thumbnails, they’re shown intermingled with still pictures, a transparent black bar along the bottom showing the video icon and the run time of the video. Tabs along the top let you switch from the All view to Photos only or Videos only as well.

When in the Gallery view mode (where pictures are tiled in four columns of thumbnails), tapping on the Action button at the bottom left corner will no longer slide up a menu, but will place two or three buttons along the bottom. For Camera Roll, these are Share, Copy, and Delete. For any other galleries, you’ll still get Copy and Share, but not Delete (yes, you still can’t delete synced photos, only ones you’ve taken with the camera itself).

Tapping on a thumbnail will select it (or de-select it if it has already been selected). Selected photos are labeled with a red check mark icon in the lower right corner, and number of photos selected is reported in parenthesis and continuously updated beside each of the buttons. However, if you select more than 5 images, Share will no longer be enabled (you can still copy them and paste them into Mail, however.)

Tapping on Share button will let you send the photos via Email or MMS, Copy will place them on the clipboard, and Delete (Camera Roll only) will trash them.

In single photo viewing mode, you can Copy an image to the clipboard by touching and holding. A Copy button will pop up just above you finger. Tap it and the image is copied.

Also in single photo viewing mode, the Action button now brings up a longer list of options: Email Photo, MMS, Send to MobileMe, Assign to Contact, Use as Wallpaper.

iPhone 3.0 also now presents the Action button in Landscape mode, though the list view isn’t as attractive for some reason. When in Landscape mode, f you choose to share via Email or MMS, for example, the Email or Messages app pops up in Landscape mode as well. Expected, but we don’t always get what we expect so it’s still nice to see.

Sharing to MobileMe now does double duty, publishing photos and video alike. For photos, you can choose any existing MobileMe gallery, but can’t create a new one. Video is similar, though adds YouTube to the list of supported targets. We’ll cover that at the end of this section.

For iPhone 3GS users, you can view and share videos in much the same way as photos. Tapping on a video in the gallery bring it up full screen, portrait or landscape, along with a big Play button in the center. Hitting the play button, of course, plays the video.

If the controls are up (tap the screen to reveal or hide the controls), you’ll see similar options to photos, though the play button here will play the video, not start a slide show. The biggest difference is the Trimming control along the top. Similar to how Voice Memo works (we’ll cover that later), you can drag to select a point you want to see in the video, or you can drag either end — at which point the outline turns yellow — to cut off part of the beginning or end of the video. Tapping the yellow Trim button will re-save just the selected part of the video.

Note: trimming video is current destructive — you save over the full clip with the trimmed clip, and can’t go back. iPhone 3.1 Beta, however, looks to provide a Save As function for non-destructive video editing.

Options for sharing video include Email Video, MMS, Send to MobileMe, and Send to YouTube, though video will be highly compressed for sharing, and file size limits may not let all videos be shared via all options.

Camera

For iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G, the Camera app gets a minor tweak. Now, after you take a picture, instead of the Camera Roll icon at the bottom right, you see a tiny thumbnail of the last photo taken. (Even if there are additional items in the Camera Roll, like screen-captures, only the last actual camera photo taken is shown).

iPhone 3GS gets the above tweak, and a major upgrade thanks to the new auto-focus lens. Now, Camera will try to focus on what it thinks is the most important element of your photo — even macro! If, however, you want to focus on something else instead, just tap the iPhone screen to re-focus. A handy square overlays the sweet spot, so you can make sure the lens is set exactly where you want it to be.

Perhaps the biggest addition for iPhone 3GS is the ability to shoot not only still pictures… but video as well. To switch from still picture to video capture mode, simply toggle the slider at the bottom right of the screen. When you do, the camera icon, used to take a still picture, is replaced with a red recording icon that stays dark when in standby mode but blinks when video is being taken (keeping the common vidcam metaphor alive and well). Like with still pictures, video can be taken in portrait or landscape mode.

YouTube

The big news for the YouTube app in iPhone 3.0 is account integration. You can now enter your YouTube login information for access to your Subscriptions and Playlists.

Stocks

The Stocks widget is still powered by Yahoo, and still lists your favorite stocks on top and a handy graph at the bottom. You can now swipe across that handy, however, to change it into a news feed or a more detailed set of information including opening price, high, low, volume, P/E, market cap, 52 week high, 52 week low, average volume, and yield.

Rotating Stocks to landscape mode now expands the graph to full, wide screen mode. But there’s more: youch a point on the graph and you get the exact price for that day, touch a second finger somewhere else on the graph and you get the difference in value between those two days (delta).

Maps

For iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G owners, Maps is the same as 2.1. Sure, under iPhone 3.0 developers can now embed the maps in their App Store apps, but from the built-in point of view — nothing. (Google Latitude will, apparently get support via the browser, go figure?)

For iPhone 3GS owners, however, Maps will now leverage the new digital Compass hardware. Tap the Get Location button to find your coordinates via GPS, then tap it again to get your directional heading via the Compass (shown as an expanding white spotlight effect extending out ahead of you).

Voice Memos

Following iTunes and App Store, Apple’s third new built in app since launching the iPhone is also it’s first new, non-Storefront app. Voice Memos is also the first new app to shove its way into the middle of the existing apps (iTunes and App Store were added to the end).

(Note to sticklers: Remote and Keynote, though from Apple, aren’t built in to the software and require download or purchase separately from the App Store.)

Voice Memos, from icon to main screen, pays homage to an old-style microphone (though, unlike Calculator, we don’t believe it’s one ever manufactured by Braun…). The bottom has buttons for Record and (a rather non-intuitive-looking stack of three horizontal lines) to access Voice Memos that have previously been recorded. In the middle is a sound level meter.

Tap Record to begin and the Record button becomes Pause, the More button becomes Stop, and the top of the screen flashes red to show you you’re recording and the duration of the recording.

When you’re finished recording, the More page shows Voice Memos in a similar fashion to Visual Voice Mail in the Phone app. Tap a Voice Memo to play or pause it, toggle Speaker on or off, or use the buttons along the bottom to Share (via email or MMS) or Delete.

You can also tap the blue circles at the far right of each recording to slide into an Info screen where you can further tap to slide across to a Label screen pre-populated with tags including None, Podcast, Interview, Lecture, Idea, Meeting, Memo, and Custom. Choosing Custom slides another screen over where you can input your own Label names.

Back on the Info screen, tapping on Trim Memo slides up a bare-bones editing interface for taking off any unwanted content from the beginning and/or end of your recording. Interestingly, Apple chose yellow for trim slider and Trim Voice Memo action button.

Share on the Info screen does the same thing as the Share button on the Voice Memos screen. Convenience through repetition?

Notes

First up, you can now “swipe to delete” notes from the main contents screen, just as you could “swipe to delete” email all the way back to the original iPhone OS. Consistency points!

Next, like messages, Notes benefits from the several system-wide — or at least multi-app-wide — improvements in iPhone 3.0. The first is the pervasive landscape keyboard. Just rotate and the accelerometer does the rest.

The big thing, of course, is Cut, Copy and Paste. It works similarly for text — though not identically — across all supported applications, so we’ll do the heavy lifting here.

To start, double tap on some text. That will highlight the word and pop-up buttons for Cut, Copy, and Paste (the last of which only appears if there’s already text in the clipboard). You can also tap on an empty area to pop-up buttons for Select, Select All, and Paste. (Select highlight the closest word to the current cursor position, and again you need text already in the clipboard for Paste to appear).

If you want to change the length of your selection, grab one of the blue dot’s that form the handles on the top left or bottom right of your current selection and drag them in or out to add or subtract text. As you move the handles, a magnifying loupe will appear, similar in function to the round curser placement loupe that dates back to iPhone 1.0. This loupe, however, is a wide, horizontal, rounded rectangle and lets you more precisely adjust your text selection.

Selected text can then be Cut or Copied to the clipboard, or replaced by Pasting over it with text from the clipboard.

Text can also be pasted at the current cursor location by double tapping to bring up the Select, Select All, and Paste pop up.

If at any time you either type or paste something in by mistake, Apple has added a gimmicky yet semi-cool undo feature — just shake your iPhone to call up an Undo, Redo, and Cancel dialog.

(Note: While the Mail app, discussed below, gets similar Cut, Copy and Paste functionality, so do most 3rd part App Store application that use standard text input controls. Awesome).

Finally implementing functionality that Steve Jobs listed off during his iPhone 1.0 introduction at Macworld 2007, Notes now sync via iTunes back to your Windows PC or Mac.

Lastly, predictive text in general seems to have been improved as of Beta 3. Or rather, the dictionary that tries to guess and replace words as you type seems to have been updated.

Clock

The Clock app gets a minor tweak — you get a lap display in the upper right hand corner of the Stop Watch. While the main stopwatch shows total time as always, the lap counter shows only the time passed since you last hit the lap button.

Settings

Apple typically tucks numerous changes, large and small, neatly away inside the Settings app, and iPhone 3.0 is no exception. Due to the volume of changes, we’ll break them down by category.

Wi-Fi

Auto-login increases the ease of logging into commercial-style Wi-Fi services (the kind that typically present a web-based password form for authentication, like at hotels or coffee shops). In Settings, you now have the option to toggle on Auto-Join, which saves passwords and then automatically uses it next time to return to the same network.

Also, when you login, you get a special slide-up window with some new controls and an embeded web-view — no more inconvenient app-jump to Safari.

An added benefit for fans fans of super-strong, pseudo-random passwords — the kind almost impossible to type by hand — paste works in the password field. This means you can copy it from an email or text file of any kind and paste it right in. Very welcome!

Notifications

Push Notifications gets its own top level button in Beta 3 and as of Beta 5 and Apple beginning Push Notification testing, not only can users globally or individually enable or disable Sounds, Alerts (text boxes), and/or Badges, but each app gets its own sub-screen to do likewise. (i.e. if you want Twitter to badge but not alert, IM to sound but not badge, etc. you can have it your way).

As with GPS on iPhone 3G under OS 2.0, Push Notification-enabled apps will ask permission on launch, and give you a chance to choose “Don’t Allow” or “Okay” on a per-app basis as well.

General Settings: Network

New to Network Settings is Internet Tethering. On supported carriers (and no, AT&T isn’t supporting it yet and there’s no word on when they will) Internet Tethering will display current status, Off or On.

Tap the button to go to the Internet Tethering Settings, then toggle the switch to On. If Bluetooth isn’t currently enabled, an alert will pop up asking you if you want to enable it, or to leave it off and tether via USB.

When tethering is on, a blue bar appears at the top of the screen, similar to the green bar that appears when a phone call is in progress. Unfortunately, unlike the green phone bar, it tapping the blue tethering bar doesn’t seem to send you back to the tethering Settings to quickly toggle it off.

General Settings: Restrictions

iPhone 3.0 now provide more in the way of Parental Controls. First off, iPod has been removed from the top menu and Location has been added. A secondary menu has now been added below to provide more granular control over iPod content, allowing you to select which country/region ratings you use, and then set Music & Podcasts, Movies, and TV Shows. Control for Apps is at the very bottom.

App Restrictions can be based on age-ratings. Currently supported options are:

Don’t Allow Apps
4+
9+
12+
17+
Allow All Apps

General Settings: Home

Additional options are now available for you to assign to a double-click of the Home button. They’ve grown from Home (i.e. same as single click), Phone Favorites, and iPod to now include Search (epic win for mobile accomplishers) and Camera.

A sub-menu for Search Results allows you to check on or off the exact types of information you want called up in a Spotlight Search. Options include Contacts, Applications, Music, Podcasts, Video, Audiobooks, Notes, Mail, and Calendar.

You can also tap and hold down the line icons on the right side of any category and drag them to change the order of how search results are presented (i.e. you could move Applications on top of Contacts, and Spotlight will then list Apps first).

General: International

Courtesy of BGR, it looks like Voice Control’s languages settings will be found here when iPhone 3.0 is running on iPhone 3GS hardware.

General: Keyboard: International Keyboards and General: International, Keyboards

Even more international language keyboards are now available in iPhone 3.0: Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. Good news for people in those regions eager to get their iPhone on. (And let’s see a hardware keyboard do that!)

Settings: Mail, Contacts, Calendar

You can add a MobileMe account, just like before, but now if you already have bookmarks, contacts, or other data on your iPhone (for example, if you synced it over via iTunes) and you enable MobileMe, a menu will slide up asking if you want to Merge the data, Not merge (i.e. replace), or Cancel.

Once you’ve added a MobileMe account, there’s now a new option called Find My iPhone. Turn it on, then go to www.me.com, login to your Account tab, and choose Find My iPhone from the sidebar. A map will show you the current, approximate GPS coordinates for your iPhone. There are also options to send a text and/or sound alert to your iPhone (e.g. a number where you can be reached if someone finds it), and to remote wipe your device if you think it’s been stolen or permanently lost and you want to protect your data.

As mentioned previously, also hidden here are the new LDAP (contacts directory), CalDAV, and Calendar Subscription, features under Add Account, Other.

Settings: Safari

Options can be found here for the new AutoFill feature, and a submenu for choosing who’s Contact Info you want to use for the fill, as well as an option to allow Names & Passwords to be stored and AutoFilled, and a button for Clear All to wipe the AutoFill database clean. This, at least, gives us some control as to whether we want the security of not storing and filling our passwords on a device that could be lost or accessed without our approval, or the convenience of saving us a lot of typing.

Likewise, the new anti-Phishing Fraud Warning can be toggled on and off. Keeping it on, of course, provides some level of safety when encountering malicious websites made to look like ones we trust, intent on stealing our login info and/or credit card data. Of course, no list of Phishing sites is ever complete or completely up to date, so keep surfing safely.

Settings: Messages

With the addition of MMS in iPhone 3.0, now, of course, Settings follow to includes an MMS Messaging On/Off toggle.

Settings: iPod

New to the iPod Setting is a toggle to enable the Shake to Shuffle option that Apple debuted with the latest generation iPod shuffle.

Settings: Store

Not as elegant as it looks in iTunes or App Store apps, but Settings give you a third, convenient point for on-device switching between iTunes store accounts. You can sign in, view account details, and sign out. Then you can sign in under a different account (i.e. spouse’s account, different country’s store, etc.)

Note: There was some confusion about whether or not Apple would let you re-download paid apps if you enabled multiple accounts (so you couldn’t log in as your buddy, for example, and get all his or her apps for free) but the restrictions that were in place during the beta period seem to be gone (for now?)

ITunes Store

As mentioned above, iTunes Store now allows management of multiple iTunes accounts. Scroll down to the bottom of a main page (i.e. before you’ve selected a specific piece of content to look at) and you’ll find a button containing your account username.

Tap on the button and you’ll be given options to View Account, Sign Out, or Cancel. Much more convenient than having to exit, launch Settings, navigate, switch accounts, go back, etc.

iTunes also adds to the previous music and podcast on-device download capability with support for Movie, TV Show, Music Video, Audio Book, and iTunes U content.

To make room, the tabs at the bottom lose Top Tens and Downloads and now include Videos (movies, TV, music video) and a standard More icon, which gives access to a screen offering Audio Books and iTunes U, as well as the displaced Downloads and relocated Redeem (for gift certificate codes).

Like with the iPod App, an Edit button lets you drag around tab icons to lay things out just the way you want them.

When you find a video you want to learn more about, tap on it and you get a detailed description. Like with music, you can sample before you buy. Tap the Preview button to see a short clip or trailer. Instead of just playing like music, however, iTunes opens an embedded iPod video player.

Also, like with video podcasts, music, and App Store apps, 3G isn’t an option for anything over 10MB — which for video we imagine will be almost everything — so have your Wi-Fi standing by.

App Store

App Store gets the same iTunes account management functionality as the iTunes store, above.

Also, Apple has also and again changed the way screen shots appear in the App Store. Now, you get full screen shots, side by side, with the ability to swipe through them. You can see additional screenshots on each side when more are available backward or forwards. (Similar to how you swipe through multiple Safari tab pages).

In-App Purchases and Subscriptions

Two other changes coming to the app store, in-app purchases and subscriptions, are more difficult to document right now because no apps that make use of them have currently been released in the App Store. So, we’ll base this for now on what Apple has presented and update it as soon as real-world examples go wide.

By way of example, if you previously wanted commercial E-Books, a developer had to wrap a reader app around each E-Book, and then sell each E-Book as a separate app on the App Store. This led to dozens upon dozens of apps that were just more books, or otherwise variations on the same functionality with different content.

With iPhone 3.0, a developer can now sell you an E-Book Reader app, and inside that app, they can sell you the individual E-Books. If you choose to buy another E-Book, the same type of iTunes confirmation and password requester will pop up as when you buy a stand-alone app, and the same iTunes-side billing and processing happen.

This can also work to buy additional levels or extra content in games, and theoretically map packs for navigation apps, etc.

Yes, Apple just invented the $0.99 “scaleware” model. Buy the low-price, entry-level version of an App, and if you like it, buy more. It’s not a demo, it’s not shareware, but it does let developers a way to create a cheap evaluation model for users to try before they buy… more of it.

Why $0.99? To avoid user confusion, Apple won’t let developers sell additional content to apps they gave away for free. If you want to charge more later, you have to charge at least something up front. Otherwise, “free apps stay free.”

Subscriptions, for their part, seem to work just like In-App Purchases, with the pop-up advising you are purchasing X issues of Y content for Z dollars. (e.g. 6 months of iPhone Monthly for $1.99).

Push Notification

Perhaps the highest profile addition to third party apps, if not the App Store proper, is the release of the-anticipated Push Notification service (PNS).

This service is supposed to replace some forms of background multi-tasking support, which Apple allows for their own apps like Mail, Phone, and iPod, but sites battery life, stability, and complexity of management as reasons not to grant third party (App Store) apps the same privilege.

So, under iPhone 2.0, if you exit an Instant Messenger (IM) app, you no longer have anyway of knowing when a new IM comes in unless and until you deliberately relaunch the app. (Sure, there are work around over SMS and Email, but the app itself is dead).

Under iPhone 3.0, if you exit an IM that supports PNS, the developer’s servers will alert Apple’s PNS which then “push” an alert to your iPhone. (Similar to how MobileMe already pushes alerts for email).

If you have IM, Twitter, a news app, etc. Apple’s servers will handle all of them, so theoretically your iPhone only has to listen to PNS instead of each one separately. One instead of many is supposed to save battery life.

PNS currently supports 3 kinds of alerts: badges (like Mail uses to show you unread messages), custom sounds (like a beep or bell or anything already built into the app by the developer), or modal text alerts (like the kind that pop up to tell you about a new SMS).

With the text alerts, if an alert comes in, it will stay up until you dismiss it or act upon it (e.g view an IM). If a second (or third, or more) text alert comes in, however, it replaces the previous one, and that previous alert is gone forever. In other words, if nine alerts come in, you’ll only ever see the ninth one and dealing with it gives you a blank screen, not the eighth — or previous — alert. (Badges, if used and enabled, would still show you 9 messages had come in).

If your iPhone is in sleep mode, alerts will still pop up, but the “swipe to unlock” will dismiss them, but not send you to the alerting app. Less than ideal, but perhaps the best solution given the limited notification handling the iPhone currently employs.

Dock and Bluetooth Accessory Connection

Potentially the biggest and most exciting development for iPhone 3.0, if not the iPhone in general, is the ability of developers to make apps that directly communicate with accessories/peripherals via the USB dock connector or Bluetooth radio.

This means, in short, the iPhone will be able to connect with, display data for, and/or control medical equipment like glucose readers, production equipment like cameras, barcode readers, game controllers, keyboards — almost anything developers care to create protocols for.

Peer-to-Peer Connectivity

Peer-to-Peer connectivity leverages Bonjour networking and the Bluetooth radio to create an easy way for apps to join together and exchange data. It’s clearly directed at multi-player gaming, but Apple points out that any app can take advantage of it to share business cards, photos, or almost anything. Yes, it’s the return of “beaming”.

iPod Access

Finally, Apple grants developers access to your iPod library. Now, third party apps can let you play, switch, and otherwise listen and control your music right from inside the app, without having to exit, launch the iPod app, exit, and re-launch the original app.

Compass

The Compass app is exclusive to the iPhone 3GS hardware, because that hardware is the only current device with a built-in magnetometer. The app shows a stylized compass that will spin to show either true north or magnetic north, depending on which one you’ve chose from the Info screen. Via the GPS, coordinates are also shown along the bottom.

If magnetic fields or something else prevent clear readings, an interface comes up asking you to rotate the iphone in an figure-8 patter to reacquire compass headings.

Phone

With iPhone 3.0, the Phone app’s Recents tab, when you tap the arrow to get more information, now shows you incoming calls from that contact, the time, and the duration. If you spoke to that contact repeatedly without any other contacts in between, multiple entries will show you the information for each one of those calls.

Also, the Contacts tab (and the stand alone Contacts app) now integrate the “swipe to delete” functionality we all know and love from Email and other, previous apps going all the way back to iPhone 1.x. Simply pick a name, and then swipe to call up the red “Delete” button.

Email

Email still hasn’t gotten a unified inbox or threaded messaging or unified messaging, but iPhone 3.0 does give the Email app a few improvements by way of the new system-wide changes.

Landscape keyboard lovers rejoice, Email now gives you the wide treatment when to rotate to that orientation. Like with other apps, if you’re already in landscape when you share, link to, or otherwise launch Email, it comes up the very same way.

You also get the same Cut, Copy and Paste functionality as Notes with a couple notable exceptions. First, you get support to copy rich text formatting (bold, italic, html). Second you can also paste pictures you may have copied from the Photo or Safari apps. We’re not sure if there’s a limit to the amount of pictures you can send via 3G from the iPhone in a single mail yet, but we’ve received 9 in one shot so far. If anyone has reached a hard limit, let us know.

Spotlight lives inside Mail to, just like it did inside Contacts with OS 2.0. Scroll up slightly inside a mail box and you get the search input and buttons letting you choose between From/To/Subject/All. As an added bonus, you can also go beyond the local store and “Continue Search on Server…” on Exchange 2007 or later, MobileMe, or IMAP installations that support it.

Much like Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Apple has expanded “data detectors” in iPhone 3.0 as well. While previous iPhone version would identify phone numbers and link them to the Phone App (just as web and email addresses link to Safari and Mail respectively), now 3.0 will try to identify address location to link to Google Maps as well.

Safari

As mentioned in the section on Settings, if you choose to enable it, Safari will AutoFill form fields based on your Contact info, or the Contact info of your choosing. As a separate option, passwords you’ve previously entered as well.

Also mentioned in Settings, Safari will try to protect you from Phishing sites if you enable it, presumably consulting an continuously updated blacklist of sites, presumably the same as recently implemented on the desktop Safari 4 Beta.

In addition, when you go to a site with an enhanced security certificate, the text on top of the browser turns green (like the green bar, we get it!), with little green lock icon beside it, and the name of the certificate’s trusted organization. For example, the below screenshots show how Apple’s order status page looks on iPhone 2.2.1 (top right) and iPhone 3.0.

What does this mean for users? In an age of increased phishing attacks, where bad sites try to trick you into thinking they’re your bank or shop and steak your login or credit card info, this is one more visual cue in your assessment process for determining if you can trust that the website is what it says it is.

Updates to Safari don’t end there, however, as Apple has also (yes!) given us the option now to open links in new pages (the iPhone equivalent of tabs). Tap and hold on a link, and a menu pops up with the link path listed on top, and the option to Open the link (in the current page), Open in a New Page, or Copy to the clip board. As this is the same gesture used to allow Image Save in iPhone 2.0, if the link happens to be a picture, Image Save is rolled right into the same menu as a an additional option.

(This is also a handy way to check which URL exactly is behind a link before you click on it)

Rendering speeds have also been improved, from 3x to 16x faster according to benchmarks. Apple is using the new Nitro (formerly SquirelFish Extreme) engine to throw HTML and especially JavaScript up much faster than iPhone 2.2.1 could. On mobile devices, this will likely make a far more noticeable difference to users.

The big news, however, is that Mobile Safari gets the Cut, Copy, and Paste love from Apple as well, although it works a little differently here than it does in Mail or Notes.

Perhaps because double-tap is already used for zooming, in Safari you hold your finger down on some text (as you would in other apps to trigger the magnifying loupe) and the entire paragraph of text is selected (everything within the P, and perhaps DIV and other similar containers).

Sites that don’t properly format (i.e., use several BR, or line-break tags to simulate paragraphs) are now exposed for their shenanigans by confusing the Copy mechanic, resulting in entire reams, or even pages of text being selected. (For shame!)

The blue dot handles at the top/beginning and bottom/end of the selection are used in Safari, but if you drag them enough, the whole block will become selected and you’ll get blue dots centered on all sides, and they can be pulled up or down to select previous or following blocks respectively. Again, lack of proper HTML formatting can reduce the reliability (so coders, fix your stuff!)

Both text and/or images can be selected.

Paste works in form fields the same way it does in Notes and other apps.

iPod

New in iPhone 3.0, the formerly useless Repeat and Shuffle Option for when listening to a podcast has been replaced with an email icon on the left hand side, and a speed counter on the right hand side.

The email icon allows you to send an iTunes Link for the podcast (similar to how you could previously email YouTube video links).

The speed indicator on the other side shows x1 during regular playback, and we presume it might show x2 etc. as Apple has previously allowed you to “speed up” talk-heavy content like Audio Books.

Where the Genius button would be on music tracks, we now have a circular backwards arrow with a 30 in the middle, which allows you to jump back in 30 second intervals.

Variable media scrubbing now lets you put your finger on the position indicator at the top, and the buttons change to a text message reading “Slide your finger down to adjust the scrubbing rate.” Do so and the speed that you scrub though the file changes. Displayed in place of the track info, options so far include half speed, quarter speed, and a fine grain speed.

While these controls would also be much appreciated in video, right now implementation is not there. Movies and TV shows have the same Done and Full/Fit to Screen controls as previous OS, as do video podcasts in landscape view. In portrait view, video podcasts gain the mail link and media scrubber, but retain the shuffle control.

Spotlight search comes to the iPod app. Just like Mail, scroll up in any list-view (like Podcasts, Playlists, Songs, etc. and the search bar appears. Results populate as you type, and if you hit the blue Search button, the keyboard slides down and you can see all results organized by category.

As mentioned in the Settings section, Shake to Shuffle is also now available in the iPod app. Just remember, if you enable it and then start to dance with your iPhone, your music might jump around with you…

Another major check-box finally checked is support for Stereo Bluetooth. Paired to an A2DP device (similar to current blue tooth phone headset pairing), a Bluetooth icon appears to the right of the volume slider, and an Audio Source selector will let you choose from available devices.

(Note: this seems to work in apps like Pandora as well, bonus screen shot included below!)

Conclusion

This is not a review — our full rundown of the pros and cons will come soon — so our conclusion only goes so far as to say that, after going through everything above, anyone who claims iPhone 3.0 is really more fittingly iPhone 2.3 deserves a swift kick in the apps. This is a hefty release and we’re again impressed not only by Apple’s continuing ability to evolve the iPhone platform and provide software updates (again, free of charge to iPhone users, $9.95 to non-subscription accounted iPod touch users), but for the easy and consistent way in which they’re doing it.

Kudos to the iPhone team at Apple. Can’t wait for 4.0!

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough. If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments and we'll update as needed.]

Preview: iPhone OS 3.0 Software Walkthrough (Updated to Beta 5)

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:22:03 +0000

Our updated iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough (release version) is now online. Please re-direct yourselves there.

(We’ll keep this up for historical interest, however)

Just like January 2007 when Steve Jobs held up the first iPhone at Macworld and showed the world full screen multi-touch, and March 2008 when Jobs, along with Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall stood up at the Apple Town Hall and unveiled iPhone 2.0 and the App Store, this week Forstall and Greg Joswiack dropped iPhone 3.0 and… what exactly?

Let’s take a walk through the first beta release of the software and find out together. Of course, this being a beta, come this “summer” when the final release version is made available to consumers (free for iPhone users, US$9.95 for iPod touch users), things could be a tad different. This is the way things are now, with the first beautiful, buggy beta into for developers to test Last year there were 8 betas between the first and the final release. Who knows how many there will be this time, and what may change between now and then. So don’t take this as full feature review, just a preview.

What Hasn’t Changed

We have a very full plate here with 3.0, so we’ll start by clearing off what we can — and it isn’t much. Best as we can tell, this is what hasn’t changed from iPhone 2.2.1:

Maps: While the SDK got a shot of Google Maps goodness in the form of imbed-able tiles and controls, it appears the app itself hasn’t gotten any additions this time around.
Weather: Still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Nada.
Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, calculator doesn’t sport any additions this time around.

Home Screen

At first glance the SpringBoard app behind the iPhone 3.0 Home Screen seems identical to earlier versions. Sure, the Stocks icon has had a make-over and, for some unfathomable reason, it appears a rogue designer snuck in and added diagonal pin stripes to the backgrounds of several icons, including Messages, Phone, and iPod.

With Beta 2, the previous 9 pages, allowing 148 apps total, have been expanded to 11 pages, allowing 180 apps total.

Not much else looks different. There are still tiny dots that signify your additional app screen. However, there’s now an equally tiny magnifying glass icon to the left of them…

Spotlight

Spotlight starts with a blacked-out screen with a search box on top and the portrait keyboard on the bottom (no landscape mode for Spotlight thus far). As you type, results begin to popular, narrowing as you refine your search term. At any point, you can tap on a Spotlight search result to launch the app and/or take you to the resulting content within an app.

Hitting the Search button on the keyboard will slide it away and give you full screen results. Or almost full screen. Since Spotlight is integrated into SpringBoard, the Dock is revealed along with the results so you can quickly launch any of your four docked apps (Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod still being the defaults) as well.

Messages

Messages replaces SMS as the top left-most app on the Home Screen, and is renamed to signify the addition of MMS (multi-media messaging service). It allows, in the case of the new iPhone OS 3.0 software, for pictures, vCards (contacts), audio, and location to be sent using the Messages interface to any other smartphone or feature-phone that supports MMS and those file types.

The details of MMS vary carrier to carrier. Not all carriers seem to have MMS enabled on their end yet, some do, and some error out. Not all 3.0 iPhones on all carriers seem to surface MMS functionality yet either. For example, some installs show a camera icon to the left of the text entry field for selecting a picture, while on others it’s completely absent. Whether this will eventually become uniform or not on release, or whether it will still vary from carrier to carrier depending on which choose to support it, we have no idea (though we obviously hope for the former).

When the camera icon is there, tapping on it will bring up a requester asking you to select between Take Photo, Use Existing, or Cancel. Take Photo brings up the Camera app while Use Existing launches the Photo picker. If you take a photo, a Preview screen will appear asking if you want to Retake the photo or Use it. If you use it, the picture is then shown, thumbnail-sized, inside a typical bubble.

Perhaps due to carrier issues, we’re also unable to determine at this time whether you can initiate an audio, vCard, or location message from within the Messages app, or whether those have to begin with Share buttons in Voice Memos, Contacts, Maps, etc. (If you have the answer, drop us a comment).

The new, system-wide Cut, Copy, and Paste service has also been introduced into Messages. It works in a similar way to the implementation in the Notes app, and we’ll cover it more fully there. One difference is that double tapping a previous SMS will give you the Copy popup allowing you to duplicate the entire contents of the SMS to the clip board. Tapping on an empty text entry box will launch the Paste popup, so you can stick the text back down in an message of your own. If the entry box already contains text, double tapping will select the closest word, and double tapping an holding will select the closet word and popup the loupe. See Notes for more on how all this works.

Messages also now includes line-item deletion and forwarding. Tap the Edit button at the top right, select the messages you want, as many of them as you want, and then hit the red Delete button at the bottom, or the blue Forward button beside it. Edit still isn’t the most elegant name for deletion or forwarding, mind you, but the functionality is consistent with the Mass Edit feature introduced in Mail in 2.0.

Calendar

Calendar appears largely unchanged within the app itself. No landscape rotation for week view, no week view of any kind. What changes there are occur in the plumbing and are — somewhat counter-intuitively at least for us — hidden entirely away inside the Preferences app. That’s a shame because they’re rather significant: support for CalDAV and Subscribed Calendars.

Once added via Preferences, however, here’s an example of how Subscribed Calendars look:

Photos

The Photo app receives an update in the form of integration into the copy and MMS systems. Now, when in the Gallery view mode (where pictures are tiled in four columns of thumbnails), tapping on the Action button at the bottom left corner will no longer slide up a menu, but will place three buttons along the bottom: Share, Copy, and Delete.

Tapping on a thumbnail will select it (or de-select it if it has previously been selected). Selected photos are labeled with a red check mark icon in the lower right corner, and number of photos selected is reported in parenthesis and continuously updated beside each of the three buttons.

Tapping on Share button will let you send the photos via Email or MMS, Copy will place them on the clipboard, and Delete will trash them.

New in Beta 4, you also get the same controls and ability to share photos when in landscape mode.

In Beta 2, some well-buried screenshots were found by BGR which shows iPhone-shot video playback functionality. Whether this will be enabled for current iPhone 3G owners or require next generation hardware is unknown.

Camera

Camera gets a minor tweak, replacing the Camera Roll icon with a tiny thumbnail of the last photo taken.

A far more major tweak, currently not surfaced but discovered by MacRumors, shows off video recording and the control to toggle between still camera and video camera modes. As mentioned above, however, it’s unknown if this functionality will be enabled for iPhone 3G owners or will require next generation hardware.

Sharing to MobileMe has also been updated in Beta 3, with a new “Publishing to MobileMe” progress bar, and new options to view published items on MobileMe, or “tell a friend” (via MMS?).

YouTube

The big news for the YouTube app in OS 3.0 is account integration. You can now enter your YouTube login information for access to your Subscriptions and Playlists.

Stocks

Voice Memos

Following iTunes and App Store, Apple’s third new built in app since launching the iPhone is also it’s first non-Store-front. Voice Memos was relegated by default to the second Home Screen page, alongside the separate Contacts app, but as of Beta 3 it’s now front and first page left-of center, shoving other apps aside a notch to claim its place.

(Note: Remote and Keynote, though from Apple, aren’t built in to a firmware update and require download or purchase separately from the App Store.)

Voice Memos, from icon to main screen, pays homage to an old-style microphone (though, unlike Calculator, we don’t believe it’s one ever manufactured by Braun…). The bottom has buttons for Record and (a rather non-intuitive-looking stack of three horizontal lines for) Voice Memos that have previously been recorded. In the middle is a sound level meter.

Tap Record to begin and the Record button becomes Pause, the More button becomes Stop, and the top of the screen flashes red to show you you’re recording and the duration of the recording.

Share on the Info screen does the same thing as the Share button on the Voice Memos screen. Convenience through repetition?

Notes

First up, you can now “swipe to delete” notes from the contests listing screen, just as you could “swipe to delete” email all the way back to the original iPhone OS. Consistency points!

Next, like messages, Notes benefits from the several system-wide, or at least multi-app wide improvements in iPhone 3.0. The first is the pervasive landscape keyboard:

The big thing, of course, is Cut/Copy and Paste. It works similarly — though not identically — across all applications, so we’ll do the heavy lifting here. To start, double tap on some text. That will highlight the word and pop-up buttons for Cut, Copy, and Paste (the last of which only appears if there’s text in the clipboard). You can also tap on an empty area to pop-up buttons for Select, Select All, and Paste. (Select highlight the closest word to the current cursor position).

If you want to change the length of your selection, grab one of the blue dot handles on the top left or bottom right of your current selection and drag them in or out to add or subtract text. As you move the handles, a magnifying loupe will appear, similar to the round curser placement loupe that dates back to iPhone 1.0. This one, however, is a wide, rounded rectangle and lets you more precisely adjust your text selection.

Selected text can then be cut out or copied to the clipboard, or replaced by pasting over text from the clipboard. Text can also be pasted at the current cursor location by double tapping to bring up the Select, Select All, and Paste pop up.

If at any time you either type or paste something in by mistake, Apple has added a gimmicky but semi-cool undo feature — just shake your iPhone to call up an Undo, Redo, and Cancel dialog.

(Note: While the Mail app, discussed below, gets similar Cut/Copy and Paste functionality, so do most 3rd part App Store application that use standard text input controls. Awesome).

Lastly, predictive text in general seems to have been improved as of Beta 3. Or rather, the dictionary that tries to guess and replace words as you type seems to have been updated.

Clock

Minor tweak only in Clock so far; you get a lap display in the upper right hand corner of the Stop Watch.

Settings

As always, many of the small, yet more numerous changes Apple delivers in new firmware versions are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

Wi-Fi increases the ease of logging into commercial-style Wi-Fi services, the kind that typically present a web-based password form for authentication. In Settings, you now have the option to toggle on Auto-Join, which we’re assuming saves passwords for commercial, web-fronted WiFi services like you’d find at a hotel or coffee shop.

Also, when you login, you get a special slide-up window with some new controls and an embeded web-view — no more app-jump to Safari.

Along with the previously discussed copy and paste features — and while it’s not yet working — it also looks like we’ll be able to paste in Wi-Fi passwords. If this works by the final release, fans of super-strong, pseudo-random passwords — the kind almost impossible to type by hand — will be well pleased.

Notifications gets its own top level button in Beta 3 and as of Beta 5 and Apple beginning Push Notification testing, not only can users globally or individually enable or disable Sounds, Alerts (text boxes), and/or Badges, but each app gets its own sub-screen to do likewise. (i.e. if you want Twitter to badge but not alert, IM to sound but not badge, etc. you can have it your way).

As with GPS on iPhone 3G under OS 2.0, Push Notification-enabled apps will ask permission on launch, and give you a chance to choose “Don’t Allow” or “Okay” on a per-app basis as well.

General Settings, Usage, found buried in Beta 2 and shown by BGR, show off a toggle for Battery Percentage, which should allow for a more precise, numeric reading of battery level.

General Settings, Network will apparently allow for Tethering to be enabled for those with carrier who choose to support it. Not surfaced in the current 3.0 Beta 1, MacRumors reported that some enterprising developers had found it and got it working none the less.

Their screen captures show options to enable Tethering for USB and/or Bluetooth, and when tethered, the Home Screen with a blue Internet Tethering band across the top, similar to the green band that currently denotes an active phone call.

General Settings, Location, when viewed with debug menus enabled under Beta 5, reveals settings for a digital compass, which would require new iPhone hardware (via BGR)

General Settings, Restrictions now provide more in the way of Parental Controls. First off, iPod has been removed from the top menu and Location has been added. A secondary menu has now been added below to provide more granular control over iPod content, allowing you to select which country/region ratings you use, and then set Music & Podcasts, Movies, and TV Shows. Control for Apps is at the very bottom.

iPhone 3.0 Beta 3 adds yet another new Restriction button, this one for In-App Purchases.

iPhone 3.0 Beta 5 further elaborates on the app restrictions, this time with options including:

Don’t Allow Apps
4+
9+
12+
17+
Allow All Apps

General Settings, Home increases the options you can assign to a double-click of the Home button from Home, Phone Favorites, and iPod to include Search (epic win for mobile accomplishers) and Camera.

A sub-menu for Search Results allows you to check on or off what types of information are called up in a Spotlight Search, including Contacts, Applications, Music, Podcasts, Video, Audiobooks, Notes, Mail, and Calendar.

General, International courtesy of some Beta 2 hacking, as reported by BGR, show off a tab for Voice Control. No information yet on what exactly that functionality covers.

General, Keyboard, International Keyboards (or General, International, Keyboards) now includes Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. Good news for people in those regions eager to get their iPhone on.

Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, allows you to add a MobileMe account, just like before. In Beta 3, however, if you already have bookmarks, contacts, or other data on your iPhone (for example, if you synced it over via iTunes) and you enable MobileMe, a menu will slide up asking if you want to merge the data, not merge (i.e. replace), or cancel.

Once you’ve added a MobileMe account, there’s now a new option called Find My iPhone. There’s no definitive information about what functionality will be included in this still-unannounced feature, but the text description makes reference to a new MobileMe WebApp that will enable it. Guesses include everything from pushing a ring sound to your phone if you’ve misplaced it in your house, to using the GPS to recover a lost or stolen iPhone.

As mentioned previously, also hidden here are the new LDAP (contacts directory), CalDAV, and Calendar Subscription, features under Add Account, Other.

Settings, Safari includes options for the new AutoFill feature, and a submenu for choosing who’s Contact Info you want to use for the fill, as well as an option to allow Names & Passwords to be stored and AutoFilled, and a button for Clear All to wipe the AutoFill database clean. This, at least, gives us some control as to whether we want the security of not storing and filling our passwords on a device that could be lost or accessed without our approval, or the convenience of saving us a lot of typing.

Settings, Messages now, of course, includes an MMS Messaging On/Off toggle.

Settings, iPod gains a toggle to enable the Shake to Shuffle option that Apple debuted with the latest generation iPod shuffle.

Settings, Store was enabled in Beta 4, and allows on-device switching between iTunes store accounts. You can sign in, view account details, and sign out. Then sign in under a different account (i.e. spouse’s account, different country’s store, etc.)

App Store

As of Beta 4, App Store now allows management of multiple iTunes accounts, just like the Settings discussed previously. Scroll down to the bottom of a main page (i.e. before you’ve selected a specific app to look at) and you’ll find a button containing your account user ID. Tap on the button and you’ll be given options to View Account, Sign Out, or Cancel. Much more convenient than having to exit, launch Settings, navigate, switch accounts, go back… Highly convenient.

In the minor but good tweaks department, Apple has again changed the way screen shots appear in the App Store. Now, you get full screen shots, side by side, with the ability to swipe through them. You can see additional screenshots on each side when more are available backward or forwards. (Similar to how you swipe through multiple Safari tab pages).

The other changes to the App Store, as they pertain to users, aren’t currently visible in the beta as they depend on two new functions rolled out to developers: In-App Purchase and Subscription Purchase. By way of example, if you previously wanted commercial E-Books, a developer had to wrap a reader app around each E-Book, and then sell each E-Book as a separate app on the App Store. This led to dozens upon dozens of apps that were just more books, or otherwise variations on the same functionality with different content.

With 3.0, a developer can now sell you an E-Book Reader app, and inside that app, they can sell you the individual E-Books. If you choose to buy another E-Book, the same type of iTunes confirmation and password requester will pop up as when you buy a stand-alone app, and the same iTunes-side billing and processing happen.

This can also work to buy additional levels or extra content in games, and theoretically map packs for navigation apps, etc.

Yes, Apple just invented the $0.99 scaleware model. Buy the low-price of entry into version, and if you like it, buy more. It’s not a demo, it’s not shareware, but it does let developers do low cost of entry content for users to try before the buy… more of it.

Subscriptions, for their part, seem to work just like In-App Purchases, with the pop-up advising you are purchasing X issues of Y content for Z dollars. (e.g. 6 months of iPhone Monthly for $1.99).

(Note, the following are screen captures from the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek event, not screen shots from live beta apps).

Although not strictly an App Store update, Apple also announced (again) their Push Notification Service. What does this do? Let’s say you’re running a 3rd party IM (instant message) client on iPhone 2.0. When you exit the app, you no longer know if you’re receiving more messages. (Sure, there are work around over SMS and Email, but the app itself is dead to you).

With Apple’s Push Notification Service, if you close that same app in iPhone 3.0, anytime someone sends you a new IM, an alert will be sent from the developer’s servers (yes, they’ll have to keep a session open for you on their end), to Apple’s Push Notification Service (PNS) servers.

Apple’s PNS server will have a constant TCP/IP connection to your iPhone (yes, they’ll be keeping connected to you, like they already do for MobileMe push if you use that service). Once they get the alert from the developer, they will “push” it out to your iPhone 3.0.

PNS currently supports 3 kinds of alerts: badges (like Mail uses to show you unread messages), custom sounds (like a beep or bell or anything already built into the app by the developer), or modal message boxes (like the kind that pop up to tell you your battery is at 20%).

Apple isn’t making any promises on up-time for the service, and any new service will have delays and downtime — and Apple was quick to point out even SMS isn’t 100% reliable when asked about it. What PNS doesn’t solve, however, is the lack of good notifications on the iPhone, and applications that require multitasking for something other than notification (i.e. streaming internet radio apps).

Imagine if 10 apps try to push out 10 alerts at the same time, how will Apple manage those on your device? Will you have to “cancel” or “accept” 50 modal message dialogs, or be hit by a cacophony of 30 random sounds? We don’t know yet, but hopefully Apple will address this.

Streaming internet radio apps, however, seem to still be out of luck with this solution…

Among the 1000 new APIs Apple announced which will make the next generation of apps so exciting, including zero-hassle peer-to-peer networking, embed-able Google maps, and iPod library access, what really stands out is Accessory Integration.

With this new functionality, future apps can directly interact with accessories via the 30-pin dock port or Bluetooth. Apple showed off an equalizer app for a stereo, an app for an FM tuner, a diabetes interface for a medical test device, and a blood-pressure interface app. This has the potential to do for mobile accessories what the App Store did for mobile applications. Big.

Phone

Minor tweaks only so far for the Phone app, including a section under the Recent tab, when you tap the arrow to get more information, that shows you incoming calls from that contact, the time, and the duration.

The Contacts tab (and the stand alone Contacts app) now integrate the “swipe to delete” functionality we all know and love from Email and other, previous apps going all the way back to iPhone 1.x. Simply pick a name, and then swipe to call up the red “Delete” button.

Email

The changes to Email are very similar to the changes to notes. You get the wide keyboard when you rotate to landscape orientation.

You also get the same Cut/Copy and Paste functionality with a couple notable exceptions. First, you get support to copy rich text formatting (bold, italic, html). Second you can also paste pictures you may have copied from the photo app. We’re not sure if there’s a limit to the amount of pictures you can send via 3G from the iPhone in a single mail yet, but we’ve received 9 in one shot so far. If anyone has reached a hard limit, let us know.

Spotlight lives inside Mail to, just like it did inside Contacts with OS 2.0. Scroll up slightly inside a mail box and you get the search input and buttons letting you choose between From/To/Subject/All. As an added bonus, you can also go beyond the local store and “Continue Search on Server…” for Exchange 2007 or later, or for IMAP installations that support it.

Much like Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Apple has expanded “data detectors” in iPhone 3.0 Beta 2. While previous firmware would identify phone numbers and link them to the Phone App (just as web and email addresses link to Safari and Mail respectively), now 3.0 will try to identify address location to link to Google Maps as well.

While we haven’t seen them yet, presumably this will work in all text-centric apps.

Safari

Mobile Safari gets the Cut/Copy and Paste love from Apple as well, although it works a little differently here than it does in Mail or Notes. Perhaps because double-tap is already used for zooming, and maybe due to restrictions in text selection already established by the zooming method (which reads HTML tags to determine the block size for zoom), Safari can’t select specific words or strings of words for Copy. Instead, you hold your finger down on some text (as you would in other apps to trigger the magnifying loupe) and the entire paragraph of text is selected (everything within the P, and perhaps DIV and other similar containers).

Instead of blue dot handles at the top/beginning and bottom/end of the selection, Safari initially gives us blue dots center on all sides, and they can be pulled up or down to select previous or following text blocks respectively. Again, lack of proper HTML formatting can reduce the reliability (so coders, fix your stuff!)

If you move the handles around inside some paragraphs, you’ll get the same top/left, right/bottom text string selectors, and magnification loupe, that you find in Notes, and that will let you pick specific words within the paragraph. This doesn’t seem to work on all paragraph blocks yet (Apple.com didn’t seem to work, Google search results did), so this may also vary depending on the specific HTML tags wrapped around the content, or it simply may not be a finished implementations yet.

Why are we only discussing Copy and not Cut or Paste? Those last two aren’t implemented for read-only text like a web page, nor does Cut/Copy Paste seem to work yet in text boxes, but that could still be forthcoming.

As mentioned above in Settings, if you choose to enable it, Safari will also AutoFill form fields based on your Contact info, or the Contact info of your choosing (set up in Settings), and as a separate option, passwords you’ve previously entered as well.

Lastly, rendering speeds have also been improved, from 3x to 16x faster according to benchmarks. Apple appears to be using the new Nitro (formerly SquirelFish Extreme) engine to throw HTML and especially JavaScript up much faster than iPhone 2.x could. On mobile devices, this will likely make a far more noticeable difference to users.

iPod

Stereo Bluetooth is in the house! Once paired to an A2DP device (similar to current blue tooth phone headset pairing), a Bluetooth icon appears to the right of the volume slider, and an Audio Source selector will let you choose from available devices.

(Note: this seems to work in apps like Pandora as well, bonus screen shot included below!)

For audio podcasts, the seemingly useless repeat and shuffle buttons have been replaced with an email icon on the left hand side, and a speed counter on the right hand side.

Semi-implemented in Beta 4, and consistently in Beta 5, the new, tiny email icon allows you to send an iTunes Link for the podcast (similar to how you could previously email YouTube video links).

The speed indicator on the other side shows x1 during regular playback, and we presume it might show x2 etc. as Apple has previously allowed you to “speed up” talk-heavy content like Audio Books.

Where the Genius button would be on music tracks, we now have a circular backwards arrow with a 30 in the middle, which allows you to jump back in 30 second intervals.

While these controls would also be much appreciated in video, right now implementation is not there, or is incomplete. Movies and TV shows have the same Done and Full/Fit to Screen controls as previous OS, as do video podcasts in landscape view. In portrait view, video podcasts gain the mail link and media scrubber, but retain the shuffle control.

As mentioned in the Settings section, Shake to Shuffle is also now available in the iPod app.

Conclusion-ish

There’s really no place for a conclusion here, as Apple hasn’t yet concluded the iPhone 3.0 software and released it to the public. That will come this summer. Until then, we’re again impressed not only by Apple’s continuing ability to evolve the iPhone platform and provide those updates (again, free of charge to iPhone users, $9.95 to non-subscription accounted iPod touch users), but for the easy and consistent way in which they’re doing it. Likewise, providing the beta to developers early on helps ensure consumers will eventually get a more solid, more compatible release (if not with 3.0, then with 3.0.1 shortly thereafter). The features are excellent improvements, and the Dock and Bluetooth Access could be transformative, if not on to the level of 2.0′s App Store, than at least beyond what we’ve seen in that space to date. We’re really looking forward to the final release of 3.0, and will update our walkthrough as it continues it’s path to general availability.

Note on Using Beta Software

Unlike iPhone 2.0 Betas, where access seemed much more limited and leaks were few and far between, 3.0 seems to be on every iPhone users want-now list. Also, unlike 2.0 when many devs were seasoned pros, now Apple is touting thousands upon thousands in the program, some seemingly happy enough to enable 3.0 access for the general user base.

However, betas are intended for developers to test and report back on. They’re not as stable, not as snappy, not as feature-complete and anyone trying to use them as a production OS on their main (or worse, only) device is likely to have something less than an ideal experience. People trying to use it as such may wish they could go back to 2.2.1 almost as much as they wished for 3.0. Think thrice before taking the plunge.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough]