iPhone tips, tricks and apps
Most of these tips are iPhone/iPod Touch-specific, but some--like Google/iCal calendar sharing--work without either device.
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- Sync and share contacts.
- Sync email.
- Sync and share calendars.
- Skype on iPhone/iPod touch.
- Remote control iTunes.
- Real-time weather maps.
- Real-time personal finances.
- Dictionary.
- Google Earth.
- Share files wirelessly.
- Game: Risk.
Don't burn minutes: Use Skype
Skype for iPhone/iPod touch is a killer app. For $5/month, my wife and I now have effectively unlimited calling. I also have a page with more details on how to switch to Skype.
iTunes remote
Control iTunes on any computer remotely.
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Remote control for iTunes (free)
Control iTunes on any computer remotely.
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Real-time weather maps (free)
I always check the weather map before heading home. I've tried both the Weather Underground and the Weather Channel apps, and the Weather Channel one is easier to use:
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Real-time personal finances (free)
Mint.com is our family's financial services aggregrator. It can access and aggregate the data from just about any kind of financial account: bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, mortgage loans, etc. Their iPhone app tracks expenses, income, cashflow, budget goals and more in real-time.
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Dictionary: Dictionary.com ( free )
The best (free) dictionary app I've found is Dictionary.com's app.
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Manage your grocery list ($1.99)
This app has a database of 130,000+ grocery items, which means you can rapidly enter and mantain your grocery list.
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Google earth (free)
Browse the earth and landmarks in 3D.
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iPhone as wireless hard drive ($6.99)
Air share turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive, and you can view stored files on the iPhone. No more carrying around a keychain USB drive.
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Play Risk (free)
Lux Touch is a clone of the board game Risk well-tailored to the iPhone. The interface is so well designed that you can play through an entire game in about 15 min. Great on plane rides.
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Sync and share contacts over multiple computers/phones
My wife and I like to keep a shared address book (synced through Google) on our computers and our phones. Keeping them all synced is straightforward:
- Create a shared gmail account.
- For each iPhone, set it to sync contacts with that gmail account. [You have to do this through iTunes while the iPhone is plugged in.]
Each time each iPhone connects to iTunes, it syncs changes between GMail contacts, the local address book and the iPhone.
If you don't plug your phone in frequently enough, the iPhone app ZYB Sync enables contact sharing in real-time.
Synchronize email across multiple devices
If you want your email to stay in sync on multiple devices, use the IMAP protocol (instead of POP). Most providers (including gmail) support IMAP. With IMAP, your iPhone and your local mail client (and any online email service you use) will remain in sync.
To enable IMAP in gmail, log in, choose "Settings" and then use the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
Sync and share calendars across multiple computers/phones
My wife and I depend heavily on our iPhones and our shared Google calendars to keep the family organized and synchronized. It's been a life-saver having instant access to each other's schedules. (To share a Google calender with another person, click the arrow next to the calendar's name, and then select "Share this calendar.")
If you're an iCal user, Google Calendar supports CalDAV for two-way syncing. This doesn't do over-the-air syncing for the iPhone, but it allows iCal calendar sharing, and you can use iCal's very clean, slick interface for calendar management.
Fortunately, Google now supports direct calendar and contact syncing for iPhones. Now, when people ask if I can do something, I can tell them my availability on the spot. This works if you only want to have one unified calendar for all sync'd iPhones.
If you want to share multiple calendars, I recommend NuevaSync's free service.