iPhone Tips To Remember

06 Jan 2009 2 Comments

by cydonia1978 in iPhone

Okay, the iPhone is a fun little toy and I’ve spent quite a few hours tweaking it to be my personalized all-in-one gadget. It’s pretty easy to do, but I had to do a lot of Google-ing to find everything I wanted. I figured, why not put down the things I felt most important in one spot so that others can benefit from it? Especially since my husband will be getting his iPhone soon and it’ll be easier to just check here to help him set it up.

Disclaimer: The following contains information that may void your warranty or damage your phone (if you do it wrong). I claim no responsibility for what may happen if you follow these notes. I will say, however, that I did everything listed on this page without any real issues. If you’re not a seasoned computer user, I wouldn’t recommend trying anything listed here. Thanks!

Jailbreak iPhone

The first thing you need to do if you want to access the full functionality of your iPhone is to do something called “jailbreaking” it. It’s a funny term. I expect it comes from the concept that you are “breaking” your iPhone out of “jail”. Get it? Very cute, hacker-world.

I’m sure there is more than one way to jailbreak your iPhone, but I did it with http://www.quickpwn.com/. Just follow the instructions on that site and in the program as you run it and you should be fine. One thing I’ve heard from the iPhone community is that you don’t need the program “Installer”. QuickPWN will want to install “Cydia” and “Installer” for you, and you have the option to not install one if you choose. It’s up to you.

Once you have successfully followed the instructions, your phone will be jailbroken. Congratulations, you now have full access to all of the wonderful functions of the iPhone!

The QuickPWN website also has information about unlocking your phone with the yellowsn0w app. This will make it so that you can use any SIM card and any mobile phone provider, instead of being locked to a contract with one provider. I have not done this yet, so I have no info on it.

Recommended Must-Have Apps

This list contains applications which are available through iTunes as well as Cydia. You will need to have jailbroken your iPhone to be able to use the Cydia apps. I’ve noted which apps below are found with Cydia. The rest are normal iTunes apps. They are also all free at the time of writing this.

Before continuing with the Apps, here’s a PC program that I recommend. You’ll need this if you want to easily access your iPhone’s internal files. Don’t use this program if you aren’t comfortable working in Windows Explorer or whatever the Mac equivalent is. You could damage your iPhone if you delete or move something you shouldn’t in this program, so be careful. However, this program is necessary if you want to easily add themes you’ve downloaded off the Internet (rather than through Cydia) or to alter what the sounds are on the phone (besides ringtones; such as the SMS received sound). Download from Google Code here: iPhone Browser.

• Evernote
  • I first started using Evernote on my U3 drive, and loved it then. I love it even more now that they’ve expanded to an online service that’s accessible via web browser, U3 app, desktop app, or iPhone. It is the perfect tool for keeping notes organized, and making notes about just about anything you want. It also incorporates pictures you take with your phone, so it’s useful for making quick photo-notes as well. There’s way more to it than that, but that’s an overview.
• QuickVoice
  • Simple app for making voice notes. No voice-to-text yet, but useful anyway.
• ShoZu
  • Awesome little all-in-one uploader/updater app. Sign up for the service, then set it up to help you update a slew of different services, such as Facebook, Livejournal, Flickr, WordPress, and tons of others. Send pictures or text quickly and even to multiple places if you want.
• Gift Planner
  • Have you ever been out shopping and spotted something you thought someone would love, only to forget about it later? Or how about wanting to stay on budget in your gift-giving? This app will help you stay on budget and capture gift ideas on the go. See something you like? Snap a picture of it, then add a description and attach it to a person you think would like it. Or add it to your own wishlist!
• FlyCast
  • Streaming online radio, on your iPhone. Admittedly, not too useful if you’re not in a WiFi zone (you can use it, but it would probably suck up your data usage fast), but nice when you are on WiFi. And bonus, it has access to many different stations! I was happy to see it can access my favorite, .977 Music!
• i.TV
  • Wanna know what’s on TV tonight? Need to see what movies are playing? This is the app for you. Easy and fun to use.
• MxTube (Cydia)
  • Like YouTube? Saw something on it you’d like to save to your iPhone? MxTube will do that for you. Very useful for saving videos you’d like to view again later, or show others, without using your data usage. Just make sure you download the vid while you’re in WiFi and you’re set!
• Bookmarks
  • Use del.icio.us for online bookmarks? (If not, why not??) If you do, this app will allow you to have easy access to your bookmarks, sorted by your tags.
• Games
  • Naturally there are a ton of great free and non-free games for the iPhone. I’m not going to list any here, but I will say that through Cydia you have access to some nifty emulators. I’ve seen emulators for the NES, GameBoy Advance, Sega Genesis, and even PS1. I haven’t tried anything beyond the NES myself. And I can’t tell you where to find any roms, that’s up to you.
• Stanza
  • If you want to read ebooks while on the go, this is a great app for that. It’s easy to use and good for viewing. It also has a tool to help you find and download tons of ebooks, including tons of free ones. There’s a lot of good literature that’s free, so check it out!
• Google Earth
  • A bit of a resource hog, I wouldn’t recommend using this outside of WiFi, but definitely worth checking out! Zoom right in to any place on earth and see it in 3D! Fly around the world checking out pictures people have posted as well as just checking out our wonderful planet. Boom-di-ada!
• WinterBoard (Cydia)
  • A must-have if you want to customize the look of your iPhone. Theming is done through this app. I heard there was a SummerBoard too, but I’ve only seen things for WinterBoard in my travels.
• WbApp (Cydia)
  • If you’ve downloaded a bunch of themes and can’t remember what they looked like, use WbApp to view and install the one you want. Requires you to have WinterBoard installed first.
• CallMe (Cydia)
  • Want your favorite contacts to literally be a one-button call away? This app will create an icon on your SpringBoard that has the picture (if you’ve added one) and name of your contact. Tap the icon and poof!, you’re calling that person! Very nice.
• Cycorder (Cydia)
  • Who said the iPhone couldn’t record video? It’s got that nice little camera on it, let’s use it! It’s phone-quality video, but pretty high quality for that. Playback is better on your PC than the iPhone, but either way it’s nifty.

Change Main Springboard Theme

Once you have Cydia installed you can use it to search for and install WinterBoard. This handy little app will let you install themes. You can find lots of themes to download in Cydia, or by doing a quick search on the ‘net. Personally, I found Zedge.net to be a wonderful place to find themes and ringtones. If you use Cydia to get your theme and WinterBoard to install it, it’s pretty easy. I won’t go into details on how to do that, you should be able to figure that one out.

However, if you want to install themes you download off the ‘net, you’ll need to use iPhone Browser (see above). Assuming you’ve downloaded (and unzipped) your chosen theme, as well as installed iPhone Browser, here’s what you will need to do:

1. Locate the folder you unzipped your theme files into
2. Plug your iPhone into your computer and run iPhone Browser
3. In iPhone Browser, navigate to Library>Themes
4. Drag the theme folder from Windows Explorer to the Themes folder in iPhone Browser. It will automatically copy the files onto the iPhone
5. Close iPhone Browser; Go to WinterBoard on your iPhone and locate the name of your theme in the list, then click it to start it
6. Make sure there isn’t another theme with a check beside it, that may conflict with the new one; otherwise, close WinterBoard and wait for your iPhone to restart

Change Other Themes

Many themes you will find and download are for the main SpringBoard of your iPhone, changing the icons and background, and possibly the sounds. That’s not all you can change, however! Look for “complete” themes or themes that are specifically for things such as “SMS” or “lock screen” or the like. There’s very little you can’t change the look of on this device! Even the little keyboard that pops up and dialer pad for phone calls can be changed! Explore and have fun. WinterBoard can be used to install pretty much anything, as far as I can tell at the time of writing this.

Add Ringtones

Adding your own ringtones for free is a major benefit to a USB-enabled phone. I’ve been insisting on having phones that do this for years now, because I refuse to buy ringtones. I was disappointed at first when I found you couldn’t make ringtones in iTunes out of anything except iTunes-purchased songs, so I quickly looked up the solution to this.

There are a few steps involved, but it’s generally pretty easy.

1. Add a song to your iTunes Music library that you want to use for a ringtone. This can either be a pre-formated file (already shortened to the recommended ringtone length of 30 seconds or less), or a full song. You can edit the length of it in iTunes.
2. Make a copy of your song (this puts it into the format iTunes needs) by right-clicking it and selecting “Create AAC Version”. If you don’t get that option when you right-click, you’ll need to change your import settings to “AAC”.
3. Right-click the new file, choose “Get Info”, then click on the “Options” tab.
4. Put a check beside “Start Time” and “Stop Time”. Edit the times if necessary, to select the portion you want to use.
5. Right-click the file and again choose “Create AAC Version”. This creates a copy that is ringtone-ready! Right-click this new file and choose “Show in Windows Explorer”
6. In Windows Explorer, change the file extention to .m4r; double-click it and it will be added to iTunes as a ringtone. Make sure your iTunes is configured to sync ringtones with your iPhone, and you’re good to go!

Change SMS Message Sound

Changing the SMS message received sound is similar to making a ringtone, but it also requires the use of iPhone Browser. To start, select a file you would like to use (any thing you want can work, but again shouldn’t be much longer than 30 seconds). The first thing you need to do is to convert your file to an AIF audo file. This can be done in iTunes, just change your import settings to “AIF” and then do the same as you did for making the AAC version in the “Add Ringtones” section.

Once you have an AIF file, you can make it your SMS message sound.

1. Change the file name to “sms-received1.caf”
2. Open iPhone Browser and navigate to System>Library>Audio>UISounds
3. Locate “sms-received1.caf” in this folder; right-click on it and choose “Save as…” to save a backup copy
4. Drag your new sms-recevied1.caf file from Windows Explorer into the UISounds folder; it will automatically overwrite the old file (don’t forget to back it up if you ever want it back!)
5. Close iPhone Browser and restart your iPhone
6. On your iPhone, go to Settings and Sounds. Tap “New Text Message” for a list of your sound options
7. There are six tones that the iPhone makes available to you. You can’t change the names of them. However, the file you named “sms-received1.caf” replaced the first one in the list, “Tri-tone”. Tap it to select it and hear a preview. If you hear your tone, you were successful! If you don’t, try these steps again. If all else fails, search the ‘net for help, but it should work fine!

Sync Google Calendar

I only use Outlook at work, and only because it’s there. For personal use, I use Google Calendar. I love being able to access it anywhere, and wanted to sync it with my iPhone calendar for even more mobility. Alas, it is not a built-in feature. No problem, here’s how you fix that.

NuevaSync is an awesome site that helps you sync your iPhone with Google Calendar, Google Contacts (though the iPhone does sync that one on its own) and Plaxo Contacts. It’s very easy to use to. Just sign up and follow their steps.

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Well, now you should have your iPhone configured, personalized, and loaded full of great apps!

Note: I had one problem when I jailbroke my phone. The phone app stopped working properly. Yeah, weird. It was an easy fix, though. If you run into this problem, go to Installer (if you installed it) and uninstall the following:

• Kate
• Mobile enhancer
• RIP Dev preferences

Reboot your iPhone and you should be good. It fixed it for me. You may not even run into this problem. If you do have a problem, I recommend searching on Google or trying the ModMyI forums.

Good luck and have fun!