After owning an iPhone for several years, I was pleasantly surprised when I recently learned a new iPhone shortcut that I now use everyday. You can jump to the top of your Contacts list by simply touching the “top bar” which is where the time and battery level indicator are. See the picture below to understand this more easily. Simply touch where I put the red mark in the photo.

I use this feature to jump to the top of my Contacts list so I can easily get to the Search field. I have a lot of contacts so I find the fastest way to locate the individual record that I need, is to use the Search function. I can now easily get to it by tapping the menu bar.

This feature is available on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It actually works on any long list. If you have many email messages in your Inbox, for example, you could tap the menu bar to jump to the most recently received email message.

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Here are some products which can make it easier to sync your iPhone or connect it to other accessories.

iStubz are short iPhone syncing cables - The white sync cable which Apple includes with all iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches is about 3.5 feet long. I find it too long and cumbersome at times. Instead of using this long cable, I now carry an iStubz cable which doesn’t get tangled. iStubz are available in two sizes 7cm and 22 cm which are about 3 inches and 9 inches, respectively.

Apple iPhone Dock –  I like to have my phone standing upright when my phone is sitting on my desk so I can easily see and read the screen. One way to keep the phone upright, while also charging and syncing the phone is to use an iPhone Dock. Apple sells the Universal Dock which works with all iPhones and iPods, but they also only sell the iPhone 3G/3GS dock and an iPhone 4/4S dock.

If you want to learn more about the features and capabilities of these Docks please read this Universal Dock review and this iPhone 4 Dock review from iLounge.

dockStubz and dockXtender – If you keep your iPhone in a case, you may find that the case makes the phone too thick to fit into a Dock. Alternatively, the iPhone’s 30-pin Dock connector might be too recessed inside the case for some iPhone accessories, like a car charger, to be able to reach it. dockStubz is a short extender which would let you connect the car charger or other accessory. The dockXtender is a short cable which would let you connect your thick iPhone to connect to an Apple Dock or other accessories.

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There are a few ways to enlarge the text displayed on the iPhone. Each method is useful in different situations. You may already be aware of some of these options, but I’ll bet you don’t know all of them.

• When viewing web pages using Safari or email messages, you can spread your fingers to enlarge the text size. The “Spread” gesture entails placing two fingers on the iPhone screen and then sliding them apart from each other. To reduce the size of text, you pinch your two fingers back together. For more details on how to execute these finger gestures check out this helpful web page on finger gestures.

The next two options require an iPhone 3GS or newer.

• Turn on the Zoom function. You enable this feature by opening the Settings application, then selecting General, then Accessibility.  Finally, click on Zoom and turn it on. Zoom magnifies the entire screen whenever you double-tap the screen with three fingers. Double-taping with three fingers a second time turns off the zoom function. You can move around the screen by pressing three fingers on the screen and dragging them around.

• Turn on the Large Text function. You enable this feature by opening the Settings application, then selecting General, then Accessibility.  Finally, click on Large Text and select a text size. This feature makes text larger in the following applications:  Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages and Notes.

I should mention that the iPhone actually includes a great number of features that make its usability and accessibility by people with limited vision, hearing or other impairments. Apple describes them all on their web site. 

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There are a number of easy ways to convert an .mp3 song file to a ringtone for your iPhone. I typically use Garageband since the method is quick and easy, but I realize that not everybody owns Garageband so I’m pleased to share this other free method. Compared to using GarageBand there are more steps, but it’s not difficult to do.

Important: This process doesn’t work for copyright-protected songs (.mp4) purchased from the iTunes store.

• Open iTunes, go to the iTunes menu and select Preferences.
• Click on the General button and click the Import Settings button.
• From the pick-list next to “Import Using” select AAC Encoder. Click the OK button. Click the OK button a second time to exit out of Preferences.
• Play the .mp3 song file you want to convert in order to identify the 20-30 section of the song which you’d like to use for the ringtone. Specifically, you’ll need to write down the start and end time of your desired section. You can do this by watching the timer that iTunes displays near the top of its window.
• Click once on the mp3 song file and go to the File menu and select Get Info
• Click on the Options button so you can enter the Start and Stop times to set the 20-30 section that you want to become your ringtone.
• Go to the Advanced menu and select Create AAC version. This will cause a duplicate copy of the song file to be created. This duplicate copy will only be the length you selected when you set the Start and Stop times.
• Before you forgot, return to the original mp3 song file and clear the Start and Stop times. You don’t need to re-enter the original times. I simply leave these fields blank and iTunes will automatically know to play the entire song.
• Click on the newly created AAC song file to select it.
• Go to the File menu and select Reveal in Finder. This will open a Finder window showing you this AAC song file. Leave this window open. We’ll return to it in just a minute.
• Go to iTunes and make sure your AAC song file is selected.
• Go to the Edit menu and select Delete.
• You may be asked if you’re sure you want to remove this file from your iTunes Library. You’re sure so click the Remove button.
• Next, you’ll be asked, “Do you want to move the selected song to the Trash, or keep it in the iTunes Media folder?”. Click the Keep File button.
• Return to the Finder window that you left open. You’ll see the AAC version of the song file. You can identify it since its filename ends with .m4a file.
• Change .m4a to .m4r
• Drag this .m4r file onto the iTunes on the Dock. This will import this .m4r file into iTunes and it’ll show up in the ringtones section.
• Sync your iPhone and make sure that you’ve selected to sync all Ringtones. This will add the ringtone to your iPhone. Then you can assign it to a particular person listed in Contacts.

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Do you listen to either music or audio books on your iPhone or iPad as you fall asleep? If so, you could set the iPhone or iPad’s timer to put the device to sleep when the timer expires. Here are instructions.

• Open the Clock application your iOS device (iPhone or iPad)
• Click on the Timer button
• Spin the hour and minute dials to the desired time, such as 30 minutes or 1 hour.
• Click on the “When Timer Ends” button and scroll to the bottom of the list of options and select “Sleep iPod”
• Click the Start button to start the timer.
• Click the Home button to exit the Clock application.
• Open the iPod application and listen to your music or audiobook.

When your timer ends, your iPhone or iPad will go to sleep.

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Are you looking for an iPhone holder which’ll move with you between cars and will work with various iPhone models? If so, you should take a look at Tetrax’s XWAY.

This holder clips to the louvers on one of your car’s vents using four grips which you tighten onto the louvre by spinning the knob at the center of the XWAY. At the center of this x-shaped knob is a strong magnet with a concave center. The XWAY comes with several thin magnetic discs which each have a central buldge. After affixing one of these disks to the back of your iPhone or iPhone case then you can easily connect it to the magnet at the center of the XWAY. The buldge on the back of your iPhone will fit snugly into the concave center of the magnet on the XWAY. When you want to detach your iPhone it’s best to slide the phone to the left or right. If you attempt to pull it straight off the XWAY, you run the risk of pulling the XWAY off the vent’s louvre.

I like this clip because you can unscrew it and easily move it from one car to another. Additionally, since it holds an iPhone in place via magnets it can work with any model of iPhone. In fact, it could be used to hold other small electronic devices like GPS units.

In my car, I attached the XWAY to a vent that is near the middle of the steering wheel. This way, I can easily glance down to see the caller ID information displayed on the iPhone’s screen. Additionally, the vent is within reach of my car’s cigarette lighter and the Belkin iPhone charger which I keep plugged into the cigarette lighter. This way, I can recharge my iPhone as needed. The magnets on the iPhone are strong so they hold the iPhone firmly in place which I appreciate. I don’t want a loose iPhone to sliding around on me.

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Did you know that you can take pictures of what’s on your iPhone’s screen? For example, you can take pictures of a text message, a web page or an email configuration screen.

The procedure is simple. Press and hold the Home button while simultaneously pressing and releasing the Sleep/Wake button.

The Home button is located near the bottom of the front face of the iPhone. This is the button that you typically press to exit an application and return to your Home screen.

The Sleep/Wake button is the button on the top edge of the iPhone which you typically use to put the iPhone to sleep.

Be aware that if you were to press and hold both the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons continuously for 10 seconds then this will reset your iPhone. Resetting an iPhone isn’t necessary very often but if your iPhone locks up and becomes completely unresponsive then resetting is often helpful. Resetting the iPhone essentially just forces the iPhone to turn itself off and then start up again. It does not remove any of the data or applications on the iPhone.

The ability to take a screen snapshot was added in version 2.0 of the iPhone software which was released in the middle of 2008. If you happen to have an original iPhone and have never updated its software then you don’t have the ability to take a screen snapshot with your iPhone.

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Did you know that you can remotely find and/or erase your iPhone? You can if you have a MobileMe subscription and you have the Find My iPhone feature turned on.

First, let’s enable this feature on our iPhone. Turn on your iPhone and go to Settings. Go to the Mail, Contacts and Calendar section and then select your MobileMe email account. Turn on the Find My iPhone feature using the slider button.

Now, let’s test this feature. Go to http://www.me.com and login to your MobileMe account. Click the green Find My iPhone button near the upper left corner of the web page. You’ll be asked to enter your MobileMe password a second time. Apple is just being extra secure by asking for this information.

Wait a minute or so while your iPhone is located. I should mention that this service relies on the GPS chip in your iPhone so if the iPhone is off then this won’t work. A map showing the approximate location of your iPhone will appear. This can help you determine if your iPhone is around the house, at your office or if you forgot it at the restaurant last night.

Below the map you’ll see three buttons: Display a Message, Remote Lock and Remote Wipe.

Display a Message lets you display a short text message on the screen and play an optional alert sound. This sound will play even if the phone is in silent mode. This sound can help you find the phone if its under a couch cushion. Or it could help a waiter find it if the phone is under a restaurant table.

The Remote Lock feature lets you enable the lock so nobody can view your data or run-up your phone bill. In my last blog article I recommended that you have the all the time.

The Remote Wipe feature allows you to remotely remove all data from the phone. As long as you have synced your iPhone recently then go ahead and do this. If you locate your phone eventually then you can restore all of the data by syncing it to your Mac.

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I recommend that every iPhone owner enable the password protection feature built into the iPhone. Then, if you ever lose your iPhone then others won’t be able to view the iPhone’s contents or run up your bill by placing lots of phone calls.

Here’s how you can enable this feature.

• Turn on or wake up your iPhone
• Click on the Settings icon
• Select the General category
• Click on Passcode Lock
• You’ll be prompted to enter a 4 digit passcode (aka password). Then you’ll be asked to enter it again to make sure you didn’t make any typos.
• Finally, click on Require Password and select how quickly your iPhone will require you to enter your passcode after being idle. I recommend “After 5 minutes”

This should give you peace of mind in case you lose your iPhone around your house, around town or while traveling.

If you have a MobileMe subscription then you should also make sure that you have turned on your iPhone’s “Find My iPhone” feature. More on this in my next blog article.

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As expected, in January Apple announced their first tablet computer. They call it the iPad. What is the iPad able to do and how is it innovative compared to PC tablets?

The iPad is a new class of device at least for Mac users. It’s a tablet computer and it fits somewhere in between a smartphone and a laptop. PC manufacturers have made tablets for over a half dozen years. These tablets typically required users to use a stylus or an on-screen keyboard for input and never sold well since they cost as much or more than a comparable laptop. The iPad differs from these PC tablets in two obvious ways. The iPad is a touch-input device and it costs less than a Mac laptop. The price range for iPads is $499 to $829 depending upon features and storage capacity. One primarily uses finger gestures and an on-screen keyboard to control the iPad.

The iPad is a versatile device that could replace a laptop for some users. This initial model’s strengths are in entertainment. It’s oriented towards consuming data not producing data. It’s capable of letting you listen to music, view photos and watch movies like an iPod and read books like a Kindle. It also has the ability to send and receive email messages and view web pages like an iPhone or a laptop. It also lets you view web sites and access your email. To increase typing speeds one can buy a special full-size external keyboard or use an external bluetooth keyboard. For a thorough description of what the iPad can and can not do, please refer to this MacInTouch article.

There are some important limitations and omissions based on the information that Apple has currently released about the iPad. While it’ll let you view and compose email messages, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to edit attachments. Apple has not indicated that it’ll be able to print. Curiously, it does not include a camera though it seems likely that this’ll be adding in the future.

The iPad’s ability to handle Word and Excel documents is unclear. Not surprisingly Microsoft has not had time to develop versions of Word and Excel for the iPad. Apple has announced special iPad versions of Pages and Numbers but how versatile they’ll be remains to be seen. It’s unknown if they’ll be able to open and edit Word and Excel files.

Over the coming years the iPad will evolve and eventually could become a suitable replacement for a laptop for business users if these shortcomings are addressed but currently it only seems that it’ll replace a laptop for more casual users whose primary uses for a laptop are personal email, viewing web pages and handling music, photos and movies.

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It seems pretty likely that Apple will be releasing a tablet computer in 2010 since there has been a wide range of articles in the past few months that speculate about such a device. Tablet computers can be thought of as small, lightweight laptops without a traditional keyboard. Instead the user typically interacts with the computer via a touchscreen or a stylus. Tablet computers have been around, in the world of Windows-based computers, for the past half dozen years but they have never experienced wide-appeal.

Apple has scheduled a media event for January 26th. It is widely suspected that Apple will announce their new tablet computer though it won’t likely start to ship until a few months from then. Here’s a link to a story that summarizes the breadth of speculation written in the past months about Apple’s tablet computer. I’m more interested in knowing what Apple’s tablet will be able to do and how Apple intends to innovate tablet computers to make them mainstream devices. This article has some interesting thoughts about this. Check it out.

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It’s now possible to have your iPhone transcribe your speech. Last week, Dragon Dictate, a temporarily free application was added to the iTunes App Store. This application records your voice and then transcribes it and lets you paste the text into a new email message, text message or any other iPhone application. I tested it last week. It’s not perfect but it works surprisingly well. The transcription is accomplished by sending the audio recording to Dragon’s servers which quickly do their best to recognize what you spoke and convert it into text. This recognition process is not always 100% accurate, but one has the chance to edit it and correct mistakes. Another problem that I encountered was the recording sometimes stopped abruptly and inexplicably. This wasn’t a big deal since I could resume recording easily enough. Dictating emails was faster then typing a message on the iPhone’s keyboard so this is a significant time saver. I’m sure that Dragon will charge for this application in the future. I’m confident that I’ll continue to use this application.

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