Tech Review of 10 iPhone 3.0 Most Noticeable Upgrades And Tips!

I will also be comparing mobile devices and other Smart phones besides the iPhone, PDAs, and Cell Phones to share pros and cons and tips to help you choose the best device to use personally.

Though this is not a comprehensive list, here is some useful tips in regards to Apple's iPhone 3.0 software upgrade differences.

1. Missed Call: Missed calls no longer shows an alert dialogue box if you have a browser window open.
2. Forward Text Option (Tip): Great iPhone 3.0 feature. This is not obvious until you click the "Edit" button, which shows on the bottom of the screen in a blue color button.
   
3. Share a Contact (Tip): This iPhone 3.0 feature shows within a text message only for information type of text messages (not from a personal contact). You will see a blue colored circle to the right of the message in order to get to a screen to select this option.
   
4. Photos App (Tip): Within the "Camera Roll" Photo Album, if you select the left bottom button (arrow pointing to the right), you will now see an option to "Share," "Copy," and "Delete" at bottom of screen. Cool! Now you are able to do more with your photos a bit more inherently within the App. Great iPhone 3.0 feature.
   
5. Auto Sync Stops iPod: Unfortunately, if you are listening to music and decide to plug in your iPhone into your computer, say... to charge it, by default this will initialize a sync. If music is playing, it will stop. You will have to go back into the "iPod" App and re-select the song you were last listening to in order to play music again. iPhone 3.0 feature :-).
   
6. Home Screen Transitions: iPhone 3.0 has much better transition when sliding icon Apps from one home screen to another.
   
7. Email: Reading email in landscape does not zoom in and out as smoothly when pinching in and out with your fingers. iPhone 3.0 feature :-).
8. Re-Installation: Some Apps will have to be reinstalled after upgrading to iPhone 3.0. This sucks!
   
9. Messages: The bubbles within the "Messages" App on iPhone 3.0 is now different. You will see a bit more of a text bubble look. Cool! Your messages bubbles are not only green, but have a slight tail to the right. The other person's texts show a bubble text slight to the left.
   
10. Apps: There is a progress bar when installing and updating Apps on your iPhone 3.0 right within the App icon (and not under the icon).
    
11. Messages: You will see a red exclamation (!) in unsent text messages. If you send a text message that for some reason doesn't go through, you will see a red "!". iPhone 3.0 feature :-).

I will continue to post more observations and tips in regards to iPhone's 3.0 Software Update.

Sincerely,
iKeep It Funky!
http://blog.ikeepitfunky.com
Twitter - @iKeepItFunky

Immediate gratification of using iPhone 3.0!

I am still testing the new features in iPhone 3.0. But I can say that immediately what I noticed and enjoyed right off the back was when I look at my phone log, 'locations' of the callers are now showing up. I don't know about you, but I know that many times I have searched online trying to see what area code was (702) or (832) etc.

Now Apple has made my life a bit more flexible with an intuitive approach for the iPhone. I love that I can see at a glance the location of a phone number right along with icons that display any missed calls (instead of just a red color phone number).

The other feature I certainly use on my MacBook Pro is the Spotlight feature. But now having this on the iPhone to search multiple types of data in a streamlined fashion, I am lovin' it! Just a quick flick of a finger to the left from the Home Screen, and 'whalla' there is the search feature Spotlight.

More tidbits to come soon!

~A happy iPhone 3.0 user

A power tip for 411...

A power tip to save money on 411 information calls: text Google on your dial pad of your mobile phone with the information, city and state. You will receive details for the information you're requesting. Example: "Safeway Seattle WA"

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COOL Google Apps & Docs

I am hyped at the recent innovation of "Google's Apps" & Sites. This is great to work with applications and documents directly online. In addition, a private site is possible for projects, collaboration etc.

I am really taken aback at the technology that Google is pushing to work with documents, spreadsheets, presentation documents (such as PowerPoint etc).

Google Docs works with RTF and HTML formatted documents (including other formats). Here is the kicker that takes this technology to the edge...you can work with all your documents in a central repository directly within the Google Sites. This is a great way to collaborate with others, work on projects, and any other documentation. There is also a revisions feature.

Comments are able to be posted and visible to everyone projects or documents. I was astonished on the ease of use of creating documents directly from within the Google Apps or Google Docs site.

Can you believe it? Students who seek a method to work on educational projects or research subjects (amongst other possibilities) have a slick way of doing this using Google technology. They can also invite other students or professors to view or contribute to their projects or documents and provide feedback directly on the site.

In doing all this you can publish your data directly from within the Google Sites and send a pubic link for others to view.

I suspect quite a few features will continue to be added as Google continues to lead cutting edge technology. I also believe that as usual, you will find other competitors mimicking this technology to keep pace.

For more information you can visit the following links:

1. Google Apps Overview - http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/welcome/topicDocs/page16.html
2. Google Sites video overview - http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/video/sites_overview_video.html
3. Setup a site - http://docs.google.com

Parallels Virtual Machine used by other application

Have you heard of the cool application that runs Windows on your Mac? It is a very handy app!

I love it except I had one major thing go wrong that I learned the hard way 'how' to avoid (if at all possible) in the future. Well I was running Parallels and I inserted a USB dongle to view some pictures on a SD card. I ended up removing the dongle and suspending the virtual machine. Later when I went to resume the virtual machine I was presented with the following message:

"Virtual machine cannot be started because of the following problem:

Parallels Desktop is unable to access the virtual hard disk image file /Users/../Documents/Parallels/../*.hdd. The file is used by other application."

I tried so many things to get my virtual machine up and running again so I wouldn't lose my data...but alas...hope was gone! I went through all the knowledge base articles and Googled as many articles I could in hope of finding a solution but sadly - nothing.

I actually was determined to find a solution to this so I walked my Mac Laptop to the Parallels office in Renton, Washington. I know this was not normal protocol but asked to speak to someone. I worked with a lady named Tracy who was very helpful - though there is no known solution to date. But interesting - I did find some very interesting information about some best practices:

1) Try not to use snapshots (this is more of a VMWare feature that Parallels does include)
2) Backup the *.hdd file to an external hard drive if possible. If something goes kwirky - you got your backup via copy n' paste.
3) When closing down the virtual machine - Shut Off Windows within the virtual machine "first"

Look for more tech tidbits to come...
Find Denise Online!