Apple iPhone

• very often BT headset is connected fine, but as soon as the call connects, disconnects. Dunno why, but it happens
• be sure to pick up a call with your BT headset, answer on the phone screen and it changes the the phone mic and speaker
• soft reset is hold the power/sleep AND the home button until you see the apple logo, then let go of BOTH buttons. (don't hold on to the home button)

The sections following have no particular order right now, so be sure to scroll down and read the blue headings.

Reloading the operating system / wiping the iPhone

I "jailbroke" my 3G. Then I got a 3GS and wanted to use it. I was able to swap sim cards, but I wanted to wipe the phone out, and Apple did not want to do anything. I could not restore my 3G backup to a 3GS, and when I went to restore, Apple tried to force me to take the 4.0 operating system, so I could not jailbreak it.

So I found the 3.1.3 3GS firmware, from saurik's site, and went to install it, you hold shift before clicking the restore button, which lets you pick the restore file. OK, I thought I was fine, but then iTunes wants to "communicate with Apple" to see if it's ok. I got a 3914 or somesuch error message, but I can tell it was Apple not wanting to allow me choosing what I wanted to do.

Fortunately, Saurik (Jay Freeman) has a site that will "spoof" the apple site that iTunes contacts for authorization. You add a DNS entry in your hosts file. (In XP it was in the system32 folder)... just add "74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com" to your hosts file. This site will "say" OK to every request from iTunes.

After this trick, I was able to re-install a fresh copy of 3.1.3 and then proceed to jailbreak my 3GS.

Note to myself: check out modmyi.com, a special forum called 3G(S) Downgrading.

place to find all firmwares: http://www.hackint0sh.org/f127/ look at the sticky for firmwares

Recovery mode vs. DFU mode

Recovery mode is entered by:

1. make sure iphone is really off (hold down sleep key, wait for red "slider")
2. hold down home button
3. insert cable
4. hold button until you see the picture that shows you to connect to itunes.

DFU mode is entered by:

1. make sure iphone is really off (hold down sleep key, wait for red "slider")
2. Press and hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds, and then release the Power button while continuing to hold Home button.
3. iTunes should, if you did it right, pop up a dialog saying that it has detected iPhone (iPod touch) in recovery mode (i.e. the device’s screen will be black).You should see a popup about a DFU device driver being loaded
4. If you performed this step incorrectly, the iPhone will start up as it normally would.

Using Fonix iSpeak

I started with a  3G, so no voice dialing. I tried the Fonix product

glitches:reboot iPhone if Fonix does not respond well
number next to icon means the database needs to be synchronized (changes to contact list)
help does not always work
using "call" first does not work

Problem: email keeps changing settings

Do not sync your mail accounts after the first time.On both Mac and Windows I have found this changes the configuration of the mail ports back to defaults, at least on POP servers. The "email sync" function does NOT sync your messages, just your account name, login, password stuff. You should never need to have this enabled unless you change your email accounts on your PC, and even then I recommend doing it manually on the iPhone.

More email follies:

Well, email is really fun on the iphone. First, you have to be careful on which server you are working on if you need advanced functions... the screen for the SMTP (the server you send emails to) is pretty clear, but the POP3 server stuff (the server you get emails from) is split before the SMTP server, and in the "advanced" button BELOW the SMTP, and it's not always clear that these advanced settings are for POP.

One nasty thing that the iphone does is continually trying to send emails, and you cannot stop it. When there is a configuration error, you just get in this endless loop of nothing happening, but you can see the iphone trying. When it does fail, it says it puts the failed message in your outbox, but you cannot tell which one is the failed message.

So, my suggestions are to deactivate all but one email account (in the general settings), and then go to the active account and clear out the outbox. It might take several tries, if the iphone is trying to send that message.

Check spelling carefully on server names. In many cases you need to have authentication on in POP and SMTP to do anything over the 3g network. You probably need SSL too. Be sure you change the port numbers when you do this. almost every ISP uses different port numbers for SSL.

Of course, take it piece by piece... see if you can connect and get an email first, before trying to send.

If you get really stuck, use a pc with the same settings. It would be best to do it from a public wifi, so you are not "fooled" by using your home internet connection, which often does not require SSL or authentication for email.

Voice control on the 3GS

General Voice Control Tips, whether you’re using it for the phone or music:

• Wait until the Voice Control tone has finished before you speak. If you speak while the tone is playing, what you say will be missed
• Don’t pause too long after tone as this can confuse Voice Control
• Saying “cancel” before an action is completely started will stop it, though it can be tricky to cancel before whatever action is underway has started
• You can find out the current time by activating Voice Control and saying "What time is it?" (I haven't got this to work yet)
• "help"gives a short, worthless explanation of what you can do
• "wrong", "not that one", "not that", "no", "nope" 
• "cancel" should cancel voice control

Music - Voice Control is generally weakest with music.

• Commands are: "play" (playlist, artist,album), "play music", "pause", "pause music", "next song", "next track", previous song/track, 
• Voice Control can’t play individual songs, only albums, playlists, or artists, so don’t ask for songs
• Be as specific as possible: you’ll get a better result out of “play artist Ani DiFranco” than “play Ani DiFranco”
• If a band has “the” in its name, be sure to say “the” – Voice Control listens for it
• To shuffle within a playlist, say “shuffle”
• To pause playback, say “pause” or “pause music”
• "what's playing", "what song is this", "who is this song by"
• "genius", "play more like this", "play more songs like this"
• You can use Genius to create a playlist based on the song you’re listening to by saying “genius,” “play more like this,” or “play more songs like this”

Voice Dialing - voice Control tends to work best with the phone.

• Important tip: it works WAY better if you have the list displayed as First, Last  (the sort order does not matter) I experimented with this, and it's true.
• commands are "call" or "dial"
• Use the first and last name of the person you’re calling
• If the contact you’re calling has more than one phone number, use first name, last name, and the name of phone as assigned in contact (home, office, mobile, etc.)
• Voice Control has trouble with possessives - don't use them
• If you have two contacts that Voice Control regularly confuses, give one (or both) and nickname. Do this by going to the contact, tapping “Edit” and then tapping “add field.” Tap “nickname” and assign one.

 

 Tips for adding apps easily:

appsync - from sinful - allows you to download to pc, and drop on the apps and sync from the pc, rather than do it from the phone. This way you can keep the apps on your pc too.

 Apps I like and use:

Backgrounder - lets an app continue to run in the background

Sbsettings - springboard, lets you turn wifi, bluetooth, 3g on and off, set screen brightness, must have

Openssh and the mobile terminal. You can ssh into your iphone and you can change the root password to safeguard from hackers

appsync - lets you download apps and drop them onto the apps folder in itunes, rather than downloading to phone, side benefit is you have a copy of the prog on your pc

Battery Magic Elite - nice battery level indicator with alarm when charged

Clinometer - the one by PlainCode... nice degree readout of inclines. 

AT&T Mark the Spot - lets you very easily report coverage problems, sends location and type of problem to AT&T

convert - by inventive - nice converter 

dual level pro - dual levels (90 degrees to each other)

scany - scans ip addresses for protocols

mywi - allows 3g tethering, by bluetooth, usb and 802.11 (only on sinful repo)

3g unrestrictor - allows programs to operate on 3g that are normally restricted to wifi, like skype

wifi analyzer - shows local wifi ssd, and has nice graphical interface for relative strengths and channels

file viewer - concrete software - views excel, word, pdf, and lots more file types

1001 ringtones - a lot of ringtones for very little

audio sensor alarm - by dual media - sets up your iphone to detect sound and call you silently so you can listen in.

ip network scanner -  Eric Redlinger - scans devices on your network.

hey where are you - allows people to see where each other is

pano - lets you take panoramic pictures

nicetrace - traceroute program