Useful iPhone tips and Tricks

As a recent new customer to the iphone I quickly went in search of some useful tips and Tricks that I could perform. I come across this video on Youtube that shows you alot of useful things that a manual would usually show us (since the iphone doesn't come with a manual, we don't have that pleasure).

Here it is:



Like I said, this is just a basic tutorial on what the iPhone can do. It can do so much more, like Stream media from your PC, or you can Watch the BBC iPlayer.

Stay tuned, I will post a few other cool things it can do in due course.

Tversity on iPhone

As per one of my earlier posts, to view my media on my Xbox 360, I use Tversity to stream it from my laptop to my Xbox, and this works excellently.

I got an iPhone the other day and thought i'd do the same for that, and although it takes a little to buffer, it does work awesomely.

Whats even better, is that you can watch the media on your laptop, on your iPhone, anywhere in the world, just as long as you are in a WiFi area. Cool ah?

So here is how its done:

• 
  Open the Safari browser on the iPhone and point it to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone, where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the machine running TVersity.

• It is recommended to do it initially with the iPhone connected to your home wireless network. You can find out the IP address of any given Windows machine by going to Start -> Settings -> Network Connections -> Local Area Connections -> Support tab.

• You should now see your media library and be able to navigate it and play everything on it. Once an item has been selected for playback please wait till the little Quicktime play icon appears, then tap on it and the playback will start.
  
• The only exception is live video streams, which cannot be played due to a current iPhone limitation (live audio streams such as Internet radio stations do work).
  
• Please also note that videos that require conversion will start playback only after the entire conversion is complete, so please wait patiently - this is a result of the same limitation that prevents playback of live video streams. Once the conversion is done, you can play the video and FF/Rew freely. Repeat playbacks of the same video do not require another conversions so playback can be started immediately.
  
• Congratulations! You have successfully installed the server and used it to play content on your iPhone.
  
• In order to access the media library on the go, you need to use the same URL mentioned above but with a different IP address. You can find this IP address by pointing the web browser on the machine running TVersity to http://tversity.com/myip.php.
  
• You also need to set up your router to forward the TVersity port (by default port 41952) to the machine running TVersity. Step by step instructions are available here. (please note that there are security risks associated with port forwarding and that you do it at your own risk)
  
• If you are using an EDGE connection make sure to point Safari to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone/edge so that TVersity will generate low bitrate videos which are appropriate for streaming over EDGE.

Taken from the Tveristy Website

Why Firefox is Better

Yes that’s right, im going to go there!! The good old Firefox vs Internet Explorer war.

As I have mentioned before I have installed Sitemap on my Blog and this tracks my visitors. It tells me where they live, what they look at on my Blog and many other things, including which Web Browser they use.

Currently 46% of my visitors use Firefox with 52% using IE. Personally I use Firefox and im sure that anyone that has tried Firefox for a day will stick with it. The advantage IE has is that it comes pre-installed on your commuter. This leads me to think that anyone that uses IE only do so because they are unaware they have a choice and that alternatives exist. They use it because it is there. Which is a shame, because the alternative, Firefox, is such a better Web Browser to use. And here's why:


- Its safer to use that Internet Explorer. Tests have shown that IE is more open to Virus and Trojans.

- Its faster. Faster Browsing and loading.

-Its a lot more easier to use. Everything seem to be where you want them to be.

-Better Bookmark managing. This allows you to easily keep all your favourite websites nicely managed

-Firefox Add-ons. There are plenty of Add-ons that allow your to customize your browser

-Integrated Pop up blocker. No need for third party applications with Firefox

-Restore Session. Firefox remembers what you was looking at if your computer is suddenly restarted.

This is just a short list on why Firefox is better to use. Download it for yourself to experiance the greatest Web Browser there is.

So, if you are using Internet Explorer and haven't tried Firefox give it ago. You can download it using the button on the top right corner of my Blog and its completely free. If you use it for just one day, im very confident that you will continue to use it forever.

While your up there, be sure to take advantage of Google Packs. Free essential software for your PC provided by Google.

Google takes on the World

I'm pretty confident to assume that everyone who uses the Web has heard of Google. 'That place you go and search for something', and that’s what most people probably think all Google is, a search engine.

However, there a loads and loads of other things that Google can offer Web users, and it seems that they are slowly moving into every kind of medium the web has to offer.

To benefit from all the things that Google have to offer, you should set up a free Google account. This will enable you to sign in to all of their services with the same log in.

You can start with Gmail, Googles own, free web based e-mail system. I switched to this from my Hotmail account last year and find it fantastic to use. Its easy to manage and you are able to customize different aspects of your lay out.

They provide an application that you can download to your mobile phone so you are able to read, receive and send e-mails from anywhere using your mobile phone to access your Gmail account. Gmail can also be sync'd with Outlook or Thunderbird to enable you to manage your e-mails using these tools instead of having to go online to receive your mails. This is something that Hotmail stopped a few years ago for anyone who had a free account.

If you have contacts in your address book that also have a Gmail account you are able to see when these users are online by logging into your Gmail account and you can also use Googles own IM to chat with your friends. This requires no additional downloading and is run from you Gmail page.

Another great feature with Google is iGoogle, this enables users to complety customise there search page. Instead of just seeing the standard Google search field you are able to add what ever you want to your iGoogle page. I previously used Google.com as my home page, as often enough, when I went online I would use Google to find what I was looking for.

I have now changed my home page to iGoogle. This still contains that trusted search field, but I can also now view snippets of all my favourite websites. I can see my Gmail inbox without having to log on to Google mail, I can see the weather for my area, daily horoscopes, top You Tube videos... the list is endless. Its very simple to use, just click on the "add stuff" button and add what ever you want to appear on your iGoogle page. You can add a calculator, a to do list, post its or as mentioned the latest news from your favourite websites. See below for an example of my iGoogle page:



The great thing is though, you are not restricted to just one page. You can simple add another tab to show you more stuff. For example, I have created a Sports tab so I can see the latest sports news from loads of different websites without having to actually go to all the different websites:


To get the most out of your PC I highly recommended downloading Google Pack for FREE. This includes several bits of software that you can use to maximise the efficiency of your PC. You are able to pick and choose what software you want, you can choose from Norton, Skype, Picasa, Adobe Reader and many more cool applications that are supported by Google. Just click on the link on the left hand side to obtain all your free Google supported software.

If you have your own website or Blog you can use Google Adsense to help you make some extra cash. As you can see on my Blog I have some ads scattered around. These are provided to me my Google. They are completely customizable to fit in with you website, as you are able to choose which colour you want, the size and how many you want to display. By adding these to your site, you earn money by people clicking on the ads. It’s a great little feature, and if you have plenty of Traffic passing through your website you could earn a nice little sum.

In fact Google provides loads of different tools to help set up your own website. You can use Google Page Creator to create your own website. Page Creator also enables you to upload picture files to the internet to provide you with a URL for your picture.

If you want help with improving Traffic to your website check out Google Webmaster. This site has several different tools that will help with developing your website and also getting it out there in the Google search results.

Finally, another great Google tool I have been converted to using is Google maps. Previously I may have used the AA or Multimap to find directions or look for a certain place on a map. But now I only use Google maps. When providing directions, they seem to be a lot easier to use and read and make more sense when you are driving. You can view a normal map view, satellite or Terrain view. As you can see, I have Google maps on my iGoogle page.

Google really have lifted the bar and seem to be taking over the web. I have only mentioned a handful of products that Google provide, but there really are loads of them, from Google Checkout to Google Earth, Google Video to Google Accelerator.

Sign up for your Google account today and start taking advantage of all the amazing things they have to offer.