Tips

There are several things included in the iPhone 3.0 MMS release that users may not be aware of until they start flexing the application. The key here is that you can send much more than photos. Information from your Contacts can be sent via MMS by touching the Share Contact button when viewing entry details.

Similarly, touching the share button in Voice Memos will give the option to send via MMS or email. The iPhone 3GS will send video using MMS, although it will severely degrade the size and quality. This helps to insure the video will play on smaller and older phones.

Some iPhone applications have preferences to set an accelerometer lock, which keeps the orientation of the app in one direction no matter which way the iPhone turns. Unfortunately, most commonly used apps do not have this feature.

Rotation can be switched off when viewing photos on the iPhone Camera Roll or Photo Library. When viewing a photo, hold down with one finger on the photo as if you're trying to copy the image.

Sometimes backing up the iPhone in iTunes during a sync takes a while. According to Apple, now there's a new way to speed up the process.

Backup times can suffer when there are a large number of photos or videos on the Camera Roll. To speed up your iPhone backup the media files must be imported to your computer, removed from the camera roll, and re-synced to the iPhone.

Worried that upgrading your shiny Mac to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) for $29 will screw up your iPhone? No worries. Dev-Team has announced the Snow Leopard upgrade does not affect the redsn0w jailbreak or the ultrasn0w unlock.

Next on the horizon from Apple is the iPhone 3.1 update, possibly coming our way this month. AT&T is expected to release an MMS update on September 25 using iTunes.

Surprise! The popular iPhone app Yelp has a secret feature that overlays nearby points of interest on live video of your surroundings. This augmented reality feature is available in Yelp version 3.0.0 on iPhone 3GS.

To turn on the feature, called Monocle, make sure "Location Services" are ON. Launch Yelp and select the "Nearby" screen from the bottom menu. Now gently twist or shake the iPhone a few times until the dialog box stating "The Monocle is activated" appears.

Users are reporting a bug in iPhone firmware 3.0 that prevents photos from appearing on the camera roll. Although image files are present on the device and can be copied with iPhoto, thumbnails are hidden on the camera roll.

The camera roll even counts the correct number of photos as it hides a portion of the files. Users have determined the problem arises when numbers in photo filenames exceed 10,000. For some reason the iPhone OS 3.0 camera roll does not display these files.

Now that you have your shiny new iPhone, should you spend another $99/year to subscribe to Apple's MobileMe service? MobileMe has replaced Apple's former .Mac service and now includes many useful features for iPhone users.

Apple is offering a free 60-day trial of the service, which includes 20GB of iDisk storage and 200GB of monthly file transfer bandwith. Here are some iPhone-specific features of MobileMe.

Sometimes waiting for automated phone menus and dialing extensions can be a real drag. Luckily, the Apple iPhone has an easy way to automatically dial extensions when needed.

All you need is the contact you're trying to reach and the relevant phone number and extension you'd like to add to the contact information.

Did you know that when you email a photo from the camera roll on your iPhone, the resolution of the picture is automatically degraded to 800x600? This makes sense if you don't need to send anything at a higher quality resolution.

But what if you need to send the full resolution photo? The original iPhone and iPhone 3G both take photos at 1600x1200 resolution. The iPhone 3GS with its auto-focus camera takes photos at 2048x1536 resolution.

The little battery icon in the taskbar at the upper right of the iPhone screen is okay at giving a rough indication of battery life remaining. Unfortunately when it comes to details the icon is not so useful.

Luckily there are ways to display the exact percentage of power remaining on your iPhone battery. There are two different methods you can use to achieve this goal depending on your iPhone hardware.