Friday Roundup for October 10th, 2008 - iPhone tips submitted by you

This week, our readers share important advice on securing your iPhones to prevent data and identity theft. Without these, you are a lot more vulnerable than you think. We also learn a cool shortcut for navigating home screes and a way of using iTunes to view valuable information about your iPhone or iPod touch. We discover how to save voice plan minutes by making free calls, and how to use the iPhone to connect our laptops to the internet. We also find out how to write or reply to email using the iPhone keyboard in landscape mode. No, really! Read on to find out more.

How to save your minutes with free phone calls
Submitted by scoopR

There’s this new iPhone app called Fring, that lets you make free voice calls using Skype and other VoIP networks. Fring is cool cause it uses your buddy lists from your IM clients like AIM and Yahoo, as well as the contacts on your iPhone. And it doubles as an IM client so you can send text messages. Apple doesn’t allow apps to run in the background yet, so you have to have Fring always running in the foreground if you want to receive calls or messages. This really sucks, but there is a workaround for jailbroken iPhones. You can get an app call iPhone-backgrounder that will let you run apps in the background while you are doing something else. Both apps are free.

 

How to Jailbreak guides for Macs and Windows
submitted by warezkidz

Jailbreaking is like a moving target because every firmware update seems to change the process for jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod touch. I find the best, most up-to-date guides are located at Lifehacker. Check them out if you want to enter the world of no rules and free apps. Guides are for Macs and Windows.

 

Use iTunes to see more information about your iPhone or iPod touch
Submitted by Amy Dan

Connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer and start iTunes. Click on the device in the left panel to view the standard information iTunes displays about your device. In the “summary” tab, you can click on the fields to view more information like the software and build numbers, the number of songs you have stored, number of days worth of music you have, and other information.

 

Use your iPhone as a modem to connect your laptop to the internet
Submitted by ifonehackr

I was just about to buy a wireless usb card from AT&T so I could work on the train during my morning and afternoon commute. Then I found iPhone Modem that turns the iPhone into a modem. I now connect my laptop to the internet using my iPhone. I’m paying for the data plan anyways, why have to pay twice? Only works on jailbroken iPhones.

 

Shortcut for navigating your home screen
Submitted by Reed Moseng

If you tap right above the top-left corner of the dock on the home screen, you can go to the next home screen, or vice versa for going back one home screen. This is great if you ever get tired of swiping all the time!

 

Use your keyboard in landscape mode to edit email
Submitted by intranzit909

I bought this app called TouchType for .99 cents in the app store and it’s worth every penny if you find yourself doing email on your iPhone or iPod touch. It lets you use a landscape keyboard when writing or replying to email. I can’t believe Apple hasn’t built this into the iPhone yet, but at least you can downloadTouchtType now.

 

Easy wallpapers
Submitted by DB Richter

I know there’s a ton of wallpaper sites out there, but I really like this one called, Daily Wallpaper. The site works great on my iPod touch and has a lot of wallpapers to choose from. You scroll through the pages until you find one you like, then tap to download it to your touch, or iPhone. The images are already formatted for you so you don’t have to mess with that at all.

 

iPhone security tips
Submitted by Sammy Fontain

Here’s a run down of some security tips that will keep your data and identity from being being stolen.

1. Auto-lock and Passcode lock - Use them both. I set my auto-lock to kick in after two minutes of iPhone idle time, but that only works for security if you also use the passcode lock which requires a four digit code to be entered after auto-lock was engaged.
2. Wi-fi Settings - If you have a personal wi-fi network at home, don’t leave it open. Require a password with a wi-fi security setting, usually found in your router’s admin screen. Also be sure to enable your iPhone or iPod touch wi-fi settings to “Ask to Join Networks”. This prevents your iPhone from automatically joining a network without you knowing about it. Any novice hacker could leave a wi-fi network open, wait for an unsuspecting iPhone to automatically connect, then hack right into the device to take your identity. You should also disable wi-fi altogether when you don’t need it. That’ll ensure your security, and save you battery power.
3. Web mail - When accessing web email like Gmail, be sure you are accessing it via SSL (secure socket layers). This encrypts the messages during transport so that it cannot be read until it is unencrypted by mobile safari. You’ll know you are on a secure connection when you see the little lock icon in the address bar of safari.
4. Surfing Safari - Disable pop-ups in Safari’s settings. This helps prevent malware from getting installed on your iPhone and lead to a virus. In general, Macs have been pretty safe from hackers and the iPhone hasn’t been much different, but why take a chance? Who needs pop-ups, anyways? Some people recommend disabling cookies, but this can lead to some inconvenience while you surf since cookies are often used to maintain your state with a web application. Without it, you could get inadvertently signed off of a secure site, unable to access certain pages that you normally could, or have to constantly type the same information into web forms over and over.

 

Read more iPhone tips submitted by readers of Touchip.

 

Add a comment (One so far)