When you are shopping online for iPhone accessories, you should know that some of the
accessories may actually not work, or may not be up to the mark with the iPhone. Here
are the reasons why:

The two versions of iPhone released so far, the first generation iPhone and the iPhone
3G have different shapes. The cases which you buy for one may not fit the other. When
you are buying an accessory, check the version of iPhone that has been designed for.

The headphone jacks for the two versions of iPhone are different. The first-generation
iPhone has a recessed jack that does not fit into the newer version. Even when you are
buying third party products, you should check whether they genuinely work with the
iPhone you have.

It’s a browser, it’s a music player, but it also is a phone. Components in a cell phone
create a lot of static and may cause interference with surrounding speakers. If you are
buying some additional speakers, you may sometimes hear a buzz in the speakers due to
this.

To help you choose products that really work with the iPhone, Apple has a “works with
iPhone” logo. You should always look for this when you are buying accessories.

If you have read the article on “Geotagging” on this website you might be pretty excited
about this feature. But to actually turn on the geotagging in your iPhone for the first time
may seem a bit tricky for a newbie. To be able to geotag your photos, you need to make
sure all the following settings are properly set:

The location feature must be turned on. You can check this on the iPhone settings.
Simple go the home screen, tap settings and here tap general. You can see a setting called
“location services”. This feature should be turned on for geotagging to work.

The iPhone should know where it is. Sometimes the iPhone’s GPS card may be a bit
confused about its location. This may happen if you are indoors and the iPhone is not
able to get a fix on the satellite signal. This may also happen if you are located near a Wi-
Fi hot spot. Strong wi-fi signals can easily confuse the GPS card on the iPhone.

If you have set the location services and the iPhone has a good GPS coverage, will the
photo get geotagged? Not yet. There is another small setting you need to take care of.
You need to explicitly let the iPhone know that you want to geotag the images. When you
use your iPhone’s camera for the first time, you get a message that says “Camera” would
like to use your current location. At this point you should select OK to let the camera
application know that you want to geotag the photos.

Once you start sending email messages from your iPhone, you are getting addicted to your iPhone. We are not here to stop you, but we want to let you know more about sending messages. Next time you send your friend a message, send a nice picture along with it. Here’s how you do it:

1. Tap the “Photos” link in your home screen
2. Select the photo you wish to send and tap the little rectangular icon with an arrow going outside.
3. Tap the “Email photo” link
4. Type in the names of people you wish to send the email to. Use your address book, use the CC field and play around a bit.
5. Use a nice subject to tell the recipients what the email is all about
6. Type in your message.
7. Tap the “Send” button

If you do not want to send a message immediately and you want to save it as a draft, you should do the following: Follow the steps above, and when you are about to send, press “Cancel”. Now you have three options. Here tap “Save” and your message gets saved as a draft and you can send it later.

That was quite easy wasn’t it? As they say, a picture is a thousand words. So use pictures in your messages while you are sending email from your iPhone.

Many people appreciate and some criticize the iPhone keyboard. IPhone has no physical keyboard but uses a virtual software controlled keyboard which is displayed on the touch screen. Some people complain they cannot send messages fast since there is no physical keyboard. In fact this is the best feature in an iPhone and appreciated by majority. The keyboard just pops up when you tap in a region where text can be entered. This can include web browser, notepad, email, sms etc. When you hit a key a speech balloon pops up which shows the key you have typed and this is because your finger will be hiding the key. There are some special keys which have multiple uses. This article gives info on some of them.

Shift Key: This is a special key to switch between upper and lower case letters. This is Similar to the shift key on a computer keyboard.

Backspace Key: This has three uses. Just like a computer keyboard, it is used to erase a key when you tap on it once and if you hold it pressed then it starts erasing words. It also pops up a symbol keyboard which is used to enter special symbols.

Return: Just like a computer keyboard, used to move to the next line.

If you have setup a proper mail account on your iPhone, you might have seen that you can receive messages very easily with your iPhone. You can set up email accounts with all common email clients like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and others on your iPhone. Here are some cool things you could do with your iPhone when you receive incoming messages:

* To see all the recipients of a message, tap ‘Details’ to the right of the sender’s name. If all recipients are displayed, the word will be ‘Hide’. Here tap ‘Hide’ to hide all names other than the actual sender.
* To add an e-mail recipient or sender to your contacts, tap the name or e-mail address at the top of the message and then tap either ‘Create New Contact’ or ‘Add to Existing Contact’.
* To mark a message as unread, tap ‘Mark’ as ‘Unread’, this appears near the top of each message in blue with a blue dot to its left. When you do this, the message will be shown as it was received and has not been read yet.
* In a mail message, you can zoom in by double tapping. A second double tap would zoom out. For more precise control over zooming, use pinch and un-pinch method.
* To follow a link in a message, tap the link. Here safari opens either a new web page or the phone application depending on whether the link was a URL or it was a Phone number.

When you start typing on your iPhone, you should know the amazing intelligence it
has. This is intelligent enough to actually type for you. It has complex inbuilt
algorithms that enable it to predict what you are about to type and suggest the
words for you even before you type them. Here are a few facts about your iPhone
keypad:

Inbuilt English dictionary: This has an updated English dictionary that not only has
the Basic English words, but it also has the commonly used slang words from today’s
culture.
Contact names: Ever had that problem of typing that strange contact’s name? iPhone
now automatically adds the names of your contacts to its dictionary of words and
uses it to help you type faster and with more ease.
Word prediction: iPhone uses an algorithm that predicts the word you are going to
type as soon as you hit the first alphabet. It uses proper words that fit into the
current sentence you are typing.
Word suggestion: This also give you word suggestion if you have made a typing
error. If you tell the iPhone that it shouldn’t correct the word it adds that word to its
dictionary. This means your iPhone learns new words as you type in order to help
you later while you type.

At the upper right corner of your iPhone, you will see a small button. This has several
functionalities attributed to it. Let us examine a few:

Sleep / wake: You can use this button to put your iPhone to sleep. When you are done
using your iPhone, you press this button and the iPhone will go to its sleep mode. The
screen turns black and you won’t be able to see anything. Putting your iPhone to sleep
when you are not using it saves a lot of battery. If you don’t use this sleep button the
iPhone eventually goes to sleep if you are not using it. Putting your iPhone to sleep after
you are done using saves nearly 10-15 seconds of battery each time.

You can use this button to get your iPhone up again. You can also get the iPhone to wake
up form its sleep mode using the ‘Home’ button.

The sleep button may also be used for canceling a call. If you press the sleep button when
you receive a call, the call sound is muted. The call goes to the voice mail after 4 rings. If
you press this twice, the call is immediately dumped to the voice mail. You should be
careful when you use this functionality as you may end up hurting someone’s ego.

Here is another list of places you could visit to look for some cool iPhone accessories.

* Apple’s iPhone Accessories page. All original Apple accessories and products can
be found on this website. This is a good place to shop for adapters, docks,
Bluetooth devices and other electronic accessories.
(www.apple.com/iphone/accessories)
* Digital Lifestyle Outfitters. DLO has been turning out handsome iPod cases
practically since the little white MP3 player took the first spin of its scroll wheel.
Somehow, they had iPhone cases and other accessories in stock before the first
iPhone hit the street. (www.dlo.com)
* XtremeMac. Another iPod stuffmaker, XtremeMac makes fashionable car
chargers and other powerful products that work with the iPhone.
(www.xtrememac.com)
* Griffin Technology. Cables, cases, and many audio accessories.
(www.griffintechnology.com)
* Belkin. From acrylic cases to sporty armbands, Belkin markets several iPhone
items, including an adapter for the headphone port on the original iPhone.
(www.belkin.com)
* EverythingiCafe. If it works with an iPhone, you can probably find it here by
clicking the Store tab: cleaning cloths, screen protectors, Bluetooth headsets,
cases, and on and on. It’s not just a shopping center; user forums, reviews, and
news make the site live up to its all-encompassing name.
(http://store.everythingicafe.com)

Though iPhone has a big bag of goodies coming with it, it does not offer streaming
wireless audio to stereo Bluetooth headphones. But however, you can play tunes from
your iPod to your Bluetooth earpiece that you may have paired with your iPhone. If you
are wondering what we are talking about, you should read the article titled ‘The
Bluetooth earpiece’ on our website.

To play songs on your paired Bluetooth earphone, you should visit the visual voice mail
screen. This can be easily viewed by going to Home > Phone > Voicemail. Here you
need to tap the ‘Audio’ button which is at the upper right corner of the screen. When your
headset is not turned on this button will read ‘Speaker’. So, make sure your headset is
turned on while you try this.

Once you have done this, you can start playing songs or movies on the iPod application
in your iPhone. You might also notice that the songs are being played from the speakers
also. This may not be very useful when you are in a library but works great when you are
out jogging or driving.

Almost everyone you see around walks with a shiny Bluetooth in their ear. Previously the
usage of Bluetooth was something of an adventure to most people as it was pretty tough
to get your Bluetooth configured to work with your iPhone. The process of setting a
Bluetooth to work with your iPhone is called ‘pairing’.

Pairing is important because the signals being sent from the iPhone and the ear piece
should stay only between them. No other devices should be able to use this signal. In
other words, you wouldn’t want a passer by to catch your signal and hear what you are
talking on their Bluetooth earpiece. Doing the ‘pairing’ is very easy on your iPhone.

* On the earpiece, turn on Bluetooth. Make the earpiece discoverable. Discoverable
just means that your phone can ‘see’ it. You’ll have to consult the earpiece’s
instructions to learn how to do so.
* On the iPhone, tap Home > Settings > General > Bluetooth. Turn Bluetooth to
On. When you do this, your iPhone automatically searches for nearby Bluetooth
devices.
* Tap the earpiece’s name and the passcode. The passcode is a number, usually four
or six digits, which must be typed into the phone within about a minute. You have
to enter this only once, during the initial pairing process. This is done to prevent
anyone else to use your iPhone from their Bluetooth earpieces.