Hello from my new 16Gb white iPhone. I was 5th in line.

Unbeknownst to me at that time, my phone had helpfully attached the default signature of, “Sent from my iPhone”, at the end of the email. Later that day, in a reply to what may have been my third ever email from the phone a friend said:

> Sent from my iPhone

thats going to get annoying soon.. heheh

Not one to wish to annoy people and seeing where he was coming from I removed the signature.

A couple of weeks later as I was typing out a reply to a different friend on my trip to work on the tram, the desire for the signature returned. The reason being including the signature tells the recipient that the message came from a small handheld device, whilst I was on the go. This may help explain why the reply is terse and why there may be typos or particularly in the iPhones case, whole word substitutions. The phone is generally pretty good at auto-correction but if you’re typing away furiously its easy for mistakes to go unnoticed. So, with a genuine desire to have a signature that wasn’t about big-noting the fact I owned an iPhone, I explained the situation to my friends and asked what exactly was it that they disliked about it and how could it be made better and/or less intrusive.

I got several well reasoned responses. The first suggested replying on the go wasn’t really necessary, as most things can wait. So instead of pushing out a quick, terse response, take the time to write a proper reply and proof read for mistakes. Or just wait until you’ve got access to a desktop computer.

Whilst a valid comment, the emails I am replying to are personal and I’m generally using my commute to work to read and reply to them to avoid using work time for personal email. Without doing so the reply would have to wait until my lunch break or until I get home.

The next reply was from a fellow iPhone user that had also received comments about the signature, but agreed with me that it helped explain the style of the response. He noted that he had removed it though.

The final reply echoed the first in suggesting that if its worth sending its worth doing properly and then followed with what I was expecting all along, I’ll quote that part in full:

To answer you question “why do you hate the sig”, i think its mainly because of the blatant “zomg look at me i have an iPhone!!”".. There are many better options if you MUST have a sig just to say sorry to your reader.. eg Please excuse the brevity and/or any misspellings. The fact that it is the default, so it comes from everyone and is just such a blatant advertiser just gives me the shits to be totally honest

I totally get where Hayden is coming from here. The default signature is quite blatant and in your face.

Thinking it over I came up with the following solutions:

1. Have a signature like Hayden suggested that is device non-specic. E.g. “Sent from my phone”
2. Set my name in the account settings to “Wesley Moore (Mobile)” or something along those lines.

I went with the latter as its more subtle but still conveys what I wanted. The result looks like the following (in Gmail).

The first response after making that change was:

BRILLIANT!

love your work

So there you have it, a simple change that might make some of your email recipients cringe a little less.

So Wes, you’ve had your iPhone for a week now - what are your initial comments?

Pros / Cons?

Has it changed your life? Has the battery life been crappy for you? Talk time OK?

Its definitely the best phone I’ve had. Part of that is due to the tight integration with Mac OS X, which obviously very few companies were going to pull off. As a device its brilliant to use and full of functionality. I’m loving the apps and decent browser. The WiFi is really nice at home. The iPod part obviously works as well and better than any prior iPod.

The on screen keyboard is pretty much as described. You have to give it time to get the hang of it and you have to trust it. If you’re typing a word that would be in the English dictionary you’re best to keep on typing even if the word is way off. By the time you get to pressing space its usually selected the right word, which is selected automatically upon space. Two irritations with typing though. Its less likely to get shorter word right, particularly when there’s multiple valid options. There’s no way that I’m aware of to get a list of possibilities and choose the one you want. Of course being a small word means its not hard to fix and if you type it correctly in the first place then it isn’t a problem at all. The other minor annoyance is when you get to the last word in a sentence that is mis-typed with a correct suggestion it appears the only way to accept it is to press space (and then delete the space) or grab a full stop.

I haven’t missed MMS at all, especially with a decent email client built in that can talk to Gmail via IMAP and send photos to flickr that way.
I have missed Todo functionality. I have no idea why Apple have not got this syncing. The support is there in iSync and todos sync with my old phone (Nokia 6280) just fine. I’m hoping that its one of these things that will make it eventually. There’s two reasons I miss todo, one to track things to be done, the other is for reminders for things that don’t have a duration (which can be put in as calendar entries). There is no way to do reminders without a duration at the moment. Having said that the calendar functionality is comprehensive. It supports multiple calendars, full editing, meeting acceptance and basically anything you can do on the desktop.

Another annoyance surrounds SMS. When on silent you only get a single vibration on new message, which is easily missed. My old phone did three, which was better. Also when you get an SMS my old phone would show an envelope on the black and white standby screen. With the iPhone you have to wake it up to see if you’ve got a message after the display goes back off.

The AppStore is great, some of the apps are very well done. I’m really liking Byline, Twinkle, Exposure and MoPhoTo. I’m not much of a Facebook user but the Facebook app is very well done. It just the core parts of Facebook without all the crap. Of those five, three are free, one is free by ad-supported (with a pay for version available) and the other AU$12.99. I think that’s a pretty good spread for some top quality apps. Some screenshots of these apps are scattered below.

Battery life is nothing brilliant as has been reported elsewhere. You’d probably want to change it every day. Today I watched a video podcast on the way to work, send a couple of SMSs during the day, added a calendar event, got a call from Steve, called the dentist, listened to music, read in Google Reader via the Byline app, read and updated Twitter via the Twinkle app and used the timer to cook dinner and its showing half battery. It was off the changer all last night too.

A complaint of the old one was that the ringer and message volume was very low and easily missed. I’ve it plenty loud enough and its only on about three quarters. Speaking on the phone the volume is good, although I haven’t tried extreme environments like a club.

One of the best built-in apps on the whole phone is maps. Whenever you want to find something, or get the details for a business, get directions, just bring up Maps and it will sort it out. Its as good as, if not better than Google Maps on the desktop. It has the same three views too: Maps, Satellite and Hybrid. The location awareness is great and there’s some basic uses of it in the apps so far, hopefully more creative uses come out. One interesting one is an app called Exposure that is a flickr client with a ‘near me’ function. It shows photos near your current location. Doing so at home brings ups photos of St Kilda Rd, the fountain in the gardens out the front (Pictured above).

Maybe I’m easily sold on such things but the UI is truly beautiful and being solely finger driven is revolutionarily (on a phone). I’m a happy customer.

The quotes are mostly copied verbatim from the iPhone User Guide (PDF), Copyright Apple Inc. As noted at the end of this post the iPhone User Guide is also available for viewing directly on the iPhone at http://help.apple.com/iphone.

General Usage

[When scrolling] you can wait for the scrolling to come to a stop, or tap or touch anywhere on the screen to stop it immediately. Tapping or touching to stop scrolling won’t choose or activate anything on the screen. To quickly scroll to the top of a list, webpage, or email, just tap the status bar.

The point about tapping status bar is useful. It also mentions that in Safari tapping the status bar will reveal the address bar allowing you to search or enter a URL.

Handy tips for more efficient typing:

Quickly type a period and space

Double-tap the space bar.

Turn caps lock on

Enable caps lock (see “Keyboard” on page 108), then double-tap the Shift key. The Shift key turns blue, and all letters you type are uppercase. Tap the Shift key again to turn caps lock off.

Type letters or symbols that aren’t on the keyboard

Press and hold the related letter or symbol, then slide to choose a variation.

See a link’s destination address:

[In Mail, Safari] touch and hold the link. The address pops up next to your finger. You can touch and hold an image to see if it has a link.

Save a photo attachment to your Camera Roll album:

Press and hold the image, then tap “Save Image.”

Applies to images in Safari too.

Deleting messages in Mail or SMS:

You can also delete a message directly from the mailbox message list by swiping left or right over the message title, then tapping Delete.

Phone

Jump to favorites from anywhere:

Double-click the Home button.

Requires setting to be enabled under Settings > General > Home Button.

Bring up the last number you dialed:

Tap Keypad, then tap Call. Tap Call again to dial the number.

Block calls and maintain Wi-Fi access to the Internet:

In Settings, turn on Airplane Mode, then tap Wi-Fi and turn it on.

Set iPhone to add the correct prefix when dialing from another country:

In Settings, tap Phone, then turn International Assist on. This lets you make calls to your home country using the numbers in your contacts and favorites, without having to add a prefix or your country code.

Safari

Scroll within a frame on a webpage:

Use two fingers to scroll within a frame on a webpage. Use one finger to scroll the entire webpage.

Submit a form:

Once you finish filling out a form, tap Go or Search. Most pages also have a link you can tap to submit the form.

Close the keyboard without submitting the form: Tap Done.

iPod

Convert a video to work with iPhone in iTunes:

Select the video in your iTunes library and choose Advanced > “Convert Selection for iPod/iPhone.” Then add the converted video to iPhone.

Return to the iPod browse lists:

Tap ← Or swipe to the right over the album cover.

You can display playback controls at any time when you’re listening to music and using another application—or even when iPhone is locked—by double-clicking the Home button.

Requires iPod Controls to be enabled in Settings > General > Home Button

Unlike music you can delete videos on iPhone:

In the videos list, swipe left or right over the video, then tap Delete.

Set a sleep timer:

From the Home screen choose Clock > Timer, then flick to set the number of hours and minutes. Tap When Timer Ends and choose Sleep iPod, tap Set, then tap Start to start the timer.

Photos

Add a photo to your Photo Library:

Press and hold the photo, then tap Save Image.

Maps

To conserve battery life, turn Locations Services off when you’re not using it. In Settings, choose General > Location Services.

Just speculation but this might help when location services go AWOL

Zooming out:

Pinch the map. Or tap the map with two fingers. Tap with two fingers again to zoom out further.

See a list of the businesses found in the search: From the Map screen, tap List.

I wasn’t sure what the List option was for. It seems kind of out of place next to Map, Satellite and Hybrid.

Settings

Setting the double click function of the home button:

Choose General > Home Button to set preferences for double-clicking the Home button. You can set iPhone so that double-clicking the Home button goes to either to the Home screen, Phone Favorites, or the iPod screen.

Reset the keyboard dictionary:

Choose General > Reset and tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. You add words to the keyboard dictionary by rejecting words iPhone suggests as you type. Tap a word to reject the correction and add the word to the keyboard dictionary. Resetting the keyboard dictionary erases all words you’ve added.

Reset the location warnings:

Choose General > Reset and tap Reset Location Warnings. Locations warnings are the requests made by applications (such as Camera and Maps) to use Location Services with those applications. iPhone stops presenting the warning for an application the second time you tap OK. Tap Reset Location Warnings to resume the warnings.

Its a pity this and the one above it are all or nothing.

Set iPhone to add the correct prefix when dialing from another country:

In Settings, tap Phone, then turn International Assist on. This lets you make calls to your home country using the numbers in your contacts and favorites, without having to add a prefix or your country code (not available in all areas).

Store

Checking for updates to App Store apps is all automatic:

Whenever you access the App Store, it checks for updates to applications you’ve installed. By default, the App Store also automatically checks for updates every week. The App Store icon shows the total number of application updates available. If an update is available and you access the App Store, the Updates screen appears immediately.

Ensure all iTunes and App Store items on the phone are listed in iTunes:

You can use iTunes to verify that all the music, videos, applications, and other items you bought from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store or App Store are in your iTunes library. You might want to do this if a download was interrupted. Verify your purchases:

1. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
2. In iTunes, choose Store > Check for Purchases.
3. Enter your iTunes Store account ID and password, then click Check.

Purchases not yet on your computer are downloaded.

Update: This did not entirely solve the problem I had where not all apps on the phone were appearing in iTunes. However The Apple Blog seemed to have solved it with their “Transfer Applications from iPhone to iTunes” post.

Troubleshooting

Restart iPhone:

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears. Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPhone. To turn iPhone back on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake until the Apple logo appears.

Reset iPhone:

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

It isn’t made clear what the difference between restart and reset is.

iPhone Doesn’t Respond

• iPhone may be low on power. Connect iPhone to your computer or to its power adapter to charge. See “Charging the Battery” on page 33.
• Press and hold the Home button below the screen for at least six seconds, until the application you were using quits.
• If that doesn’t work, turn iPhone off and turn it on again. [See Restart iPhone above]
• If that doesn’t work, reset iPhone. [See Reset iPhone above]

Mainly included this quote for this point on force quitting apps.

iPhone Is Too Warm

If the interior temperature of iPhone 3G exceeds normal operating temperatures, you may experience the following as it attempts to regulate its temperature:

• iPhone stops charging
• display dims
• weak cellular signal
• temperature warning screen appears

Important: You cannot use iPhone while the temperature warning screen is displayed except to make an emergency call. If none of the above measures succeeds in lowering the internal temperature, iPhone automatically goes into a deep sleep mode until it cools. You cannot make an emergency call when iPhone is in this mode. Move iPhone to a cooler location and wait a few minutes before trying to use iPhone again.

Interesting that this calls out the iPhone 3G specifically.

Final Notes

The iPhone User Guide, optimized for viewing on iPhone, is available at: help.apple.com/iphone

My Notes

Pressing the number/symbol button and sliding to the appropriate key is a quick way of adding punctuation and single numerals.

Time scanning after sitting idle is a strange UI anomaly. Could be related to network time.

There’s an interesting section on Backups and managing them in iTunes that I won’t repeat here, pp. 139.

Hi,
No doubt I’m one of thousands sending an email like this but still feel it necessary. I am eagerly awaiting the launch of the iPhone in Australia. I am intending to buy one on the day of release. When it was initially announced that Vodafone and Optus would be carrying the iPhone I had it in my mind that I would take the opportunity to swap to Vodafone from Optus. I have been a constant Optus customer since getting my first mobile phone in 1999.The complete lack of communication from Vodafone has put me off though.

In order to make an informed decision on launch day it would have been nice to have plan details available at the very least a week before. With three days remaining its now getting beyond a joke. I understand that there may be other factors at play here. However given you have an audience that have voluntarily signed up for updates it would have been pro-active and open to communicate with these people and let them know what was holding up progress or at least when to expect more information (with more certainty than “very soon”).

At this point are you able to provide any more detail than that which is publicly available already?

Unfortunately unless the plans eventually announced are particularly compelling I expect I will remain an Optus customer.

Regards,
Wesley Moore

Drag this link to your bookmarks bar: Title Case

Seems to work ok in Firefox, IE 6 has issues.

set complete=.,w,b,u,t

This is the same set of flags as the default except with the ‘i‘ option removed. See the help for the ‘complete’ option for an explanation of what each flag means.

Randall Munroe proposed the awesomely geeky idea of geohashing via the xkcd comic and blag recently. The idea basically involves using the MD5 hash of a date combined with the opening value of the Dow Jones Index for that date to derive a latitude and longitude relative to a (generally your own) location.

However there is a problem for those of us residing in Australia (and other locations with a time zone significantly different from EST). With the Dow Jones Index operating on US time its not possible to determine a geohashed location in Australia until about 23:00 AEST for a given date. No doubt others have thought of this but I suggest we use the All Ordinaries Index instead. With that out of the way we just need some enterprising sole with some spare time to implement a version of the map based on this.

Update: More info on geohashing in Melbourne on the Visible Procrastinations blog.

Another Update: Using the Dow on the weekend works well though. As over the weekend everyone is more or less synced to the same index.

Final Update: The xkcd blag has a follow up article that clarifies the behaviour for Europe, Asia and Australia. It boils down to using the previous day’s Dow Jones Index.

From what I can tell this URI scheme was proposed around Dec 2003 as an unofficial pre-draft RFC. The reasoning behind the proposal was:

…to provide a straightforward way for end users to subscribe to the data feed for a particular online resource while browsing the World Wide Web. The expectation is that clicking on a hyperlink that points at a “feed” URI will cause the Web browser to invoke the specified handler for the “feed” URI scheme which SHOULD provide the user with information about the data feed as well as the possess the ability to subscribe to the feed.

Fast forward to 2008 and all the major browsers have support for discovery of feeds specified by the link tag and a user interface to access them. Additionally they are able to auto-detect a feed when specified with the normal http URI scheme. With the built in support the browser is able to launch the appropriate feed reader on the system, be it within the browser or an external application; thus removing the need for the URI to be specified with the ‘feed:’ scheme.

It seems use of the scheme really took off around the release of Safari 2, which included RSS support. When viewing a feed in Safari it presents the URI using the ‘feed:’ scheme, thus making its use highly visible.

I understand that using the scheme makes it easy at an operating system level to associate a particular application with the scheme but it should be entirely internal an invisible to the user. The reasons its use irks me is when adding a feed to Google Reader its necessary to copy and paste the link and then remove the ‘feed:’ at the start. Additionally Firefox removes the colon from http, meaning that has to be replaced too. Okay so I’m lazy but all the hassle can be avoided by simply linking to the feed with the normal ‘http:’ scheme.

As an example I’ll pick on the MildMannered Industries Blog solely because its the first example I could find. The link on the page¹ (at the top) is feed://http://www.mildmanneredindustries.com/blog/?feed=rss2, which when copied via Copy Link Location in Firefox becomes feed://http//www.mildmanneredindustries.com/blog/?feed=rss2.

The other issue I have stems from the terrible DNS or proxy (not sure which is to blame) setup here at work. When a request is made for a hostname or scheme that doesn’t exist the browser hangs for about 2 minutes before returning an error generated by the proxy. This happens in all browsers and means that if I click in a feed: link my browser hangs for 2 minutes, which is quite frustrating.

So my request to the wider Internet community: Please stop using ‘feed:’.
________________________
1. The related link embedded in the <head> section is correct (I.e. without ‘feed:’)