mercurious

5 tips and tricks for living with iPhone 1.0

Instead of pointing out the obvious flaws of a 1.0 release software, we offer 5 simple tips to workaround them while we wait for a software update from Apple. In addition, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 5 iPhone Safari Applications↓ that you simply must bookmark.

1. Slide-to-period tapping

   Instead of switching between letter and punctuation modes, slide your finger to the @123 button, but don’t release it until after sliding and releasing over the period key. The keyboard will switch back to letter input automatically. This makes a big difference. Be sure to measure the improvement of the slide method on your typing speed [iPhoneTypingTest.com]→ This is also known as the McCallum method via [Pogue→]. An otherwise, well documented shortcut, but addresses a very common complaint about the iPhone keyboard.

2. Contraction shortcuts. Itsp or Itsa = It’s

   You can intentionally spell it’s incorrectly as “itsp” or “itsa” and “it’s” will be suggested. The A and P keys are ideally positioned for this kind of a shortcut.

3. Top Button Wakes from Sleep Quicker Than the Home Button.

   You might be in the habit of pressing the Home key to wake iPhone out of its standby sleep mode. However, the top button seems to be more responsive. This could also reduce wear-and-tear on your Home key. Am I worried about mine wearing out before the battery?

4. Dock makes a useful headphone jack adapter.

   If your old headphones don’t fit into iPhones more durable jack port, try the Dock. Its Line Out fits all mini jacks and works without a dock connector cord attached. Works in a pinch.

5. Make an ‘iPhone’ bookmark toolbar folder in your desktop Safari to sync with your iPhone Safari.

   This just helps consolidate really useful iPhone Safari tool in one easy-to-reach location. Start with our ‘5 Essential Bookmarks for iPhone 1.0’ ↓below.

5 essential bookmarks for iPhone 1.0

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These features will likely make their way into the Home screen as full widgets, so these Safari applications are good stop-gap measures while we wait for iPhone 1.1 and beyond:

1. IM Client

   → JiveTalk (alpha) by BeeJive→ Looks like iChat. Smells like iChat. This is no iChat, however. Being trapped in the Safari iPhone interface, it cannot truly act as a full-fledged IM client. But BeeJive has the best offering currently, this is true.

2. Feed Reader

   → Digg Reader: The official version by Digg is a good specimen, a step in the right direction, but still needs better iPhone style paging as demonstrated by Joe Hewitt→ and his amazing iUI toolkit→.

3. Photo Sharing

   → iPhlicker by Chandler Kent. This is a good example of what the iPhone Flickr interface needs to be.

4. Fuel Pricing

   → Gas.app by Jeffery903@aol. Cheap gas, easy to find, what else is there to say?

5. Grocery Shopping

   → OneTrip Shopping List by Nevin Mrgan [sic]. A “why didn’t they think that sooner” kind of tool.