Apple iOS 4 Tips, Hidden Features, Etc...

[SosoPeppep]

Hotmail on iphone4

I added hotmail account on my new iphone4 and I noticed one thing is the email doesn't sync with the account. Example: I opened the email on my regular computer but when I check on my iphone the email show unread. Anyone know how to fix this issue?

 

[Taustin Powers]

I wonder if this could also explain why my battery has been draining faster than my poor 3G. I just tried it out, and sure enough, every single app I'd opened since I got my phone was still in the multi-task bar, listed as being open (including the phone). That seems kinda silly, because now, everyone's going to have to remember to go in and close out every app. :\

I really see this as a problem as well. The other night I was typing some emails on my 3GS and the keyboard was terribly slow to respond. Like 1-2 second delays at times, typing was a nightmare. Then I went to the multitask bar and manually closed everything on it. Back to typing after that - smooth sailing, the delay was gone!

Why didn't they leave the single click as it was before (completely exit app & go to home screen) and limit this multitasking/background stuff to the double click?

Now I have to check what apps may be running in the background to manually free up some memory? What is this now, Windows Mobile???

 

[e-dard]

I added hotmail account on my new iphone4 and I noticed one thing is the email doesn't sync with the account. Example: I opened the email on my regular computer but when I check on my iphone the email show unread. Anyone know how to fix this issue?

This is probably because Hotmail is a POP3 account and therefore does not sync the mailbox between devices.

Only exchange or IMAP accounts do this (which Hotmail does not support). Common free IMAP providers include Google Mail and Yahoo Mail.

 

[thomamon]

Regarding the battery drain, have you checked to make sure your display isn't set to 'auto' brightness? My iPhone4 was set that way as default and while my battery life wasn't bad, I know that auto brightness has been known to reduce the battery life fairly significantly.

How does Auto Brightness hurt your battery and what should it be set to? On or off?

 

[fhd4]

Sorry if this have been asked before:

What does the plus beside some apps in the App Store mean?

TIA

Perhaps it means the app has been updated for iPhone 4.

it means that the software is compatible and designed for iPad also.

 

[2bearnest]

Love this

Tiger is that you?

haha, seriously dude - stop cheating on your wife.

 

[imacdaddy]

Not sure if this has been mentioned. Found this by chance just now as my iPhone fell on my chest while browsing MR.

Three finger double tap zooms in non zoomable situations ie calculator, settings, apps etc. Then use three fingers to scroll around. Three finger tap again to zoom back out. Confirmed only works on iOS 4.

 

[Acronym]

Not sure if this has been mentioned. Found this by chance just now as my iPhone fell on my chest while browsing MR.

Three finger double tap zooms in non zoomable situations ie calculator, settings, apps etc. Then use three fingers to scroll around. Three finger tap again to zoom back out. Confirmed only works on iOS 4.

you might have zoom turned on in accessibility options in which case that was there in 3.0

 

[imacdaddy]

Quote: Originally Posted by imacdaddy Not sure if this has been mentioned. Found this by chance just now as my iPhone fell on my chest while browsing MR. Three finger double tap zooms in non zoomable situations ie calculator, settings, apps etc. Then use three fingers to scroll around. Three finger tap again to zoom back out. Confirmed only works on iOS 4. you might have zoom turned on in accessibility options in which case that was there in 3.0 __________________ Custom Ringtone Guide Jailbreaking And Custom SMS Guide iPhone Ringtone Packs

Ha! You're right! Strange I don't recall turning that on. But thanks pointing that out.

 

[McGiord]

I added hotmail account on my new iphone4 and I noticed one thing is the email doesn't sync with the account. Example: I opened the email on my regular computer but when I check on my iphone the email show unread. Anyone know how to fix this issue?

A workaround is to use Windows Live Messenger app, with it you can directly access your hotmail account.

 

[McGiord]

Landscape orientation lock?

Is there a way to lock the screen orientation in Landscape?
Is this possible without jailbraking?

 

[g8k3pr]

What happened to double-tap for iPod controls? It's still there...

iPod controls are still available using double-tap under iOS 4, just in a different form. If you double-tap the application/task manager appears showing you which apps are currently running. Well if you swipe right, you'll see the iPod controls minus the volume control in addition to the Rotation lock icon. Not bad and I can live with that since you have the option to open the iPod app from here to finely adjust the volume.

 

[0dev]

Is the Mail app being stupidly slow for anyone else? It'll often just hang getting messages if it's in anything but the inbox, and if they are in the inbox it'll still often show "Downloading 1 of [whatever]" for a few minutes before actually doing it.

This is with a good connection using GMail IMAP BTW.

...And is anyone else having a lot of RAM being used up? I have to manually clear it a lot, it often only has 2-4MB left. This is on a 3GS.

 

[MacGiver]

Correct me if i am wrong but in the past when i was drafting a SMS if i entered "St" in the To: field all names starting with "St" would show up and i could select the one i want (like in emails). Now it does not work and i need to use the "plus" that takes me to my address book...

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Correct me if i am wrong but in the past when i was drafting a SMS if i entered "St" in the To: field all names starting with "St" would show up and i could select the one i want (like in emails).

Mine still works like that.

 

[ReidWings]

Is there a way to lock the screen orientation in Landscape?
Is this possible without jailbraking?

Yes. Double tap to bring up home bar, swipe to the right to bring up iPod controls screen. The leftmost icon (seen in photo a few posts up) is to lock the orientation.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Yes. Double tap to bring up home bar, swipe to the right to bring up iPod controls screen. The leftmost icon (seen in photo a few posts up) is to lock the orientation.

That only locks it in portrait mode.

 

[brberg]

How does Auto Brightness hurt your battery and what should it be set to? On or off?

I always have mine set to OFF. Maybe it's been improved in OS4 but in the past it would drain more battery when on since it was constantly adjusting the screen brightness. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else has experience with this and the actual differences observed in overall battery life.

 

[sportsfrk214]

The iPhone FINALLY supports Playlist folders. Why this took 3 years is beyond me, but its finally here. In the past, all your playlist subfolders would appear on one screen. Now, the main playlist screen only shows the folder, and you can click on each folder to see the playlists it contains. Thank you Apple

 

[0dev]

I always have mine set to OFF. Maybe it's been improved in OS4 but in the past it would drain more battery when on since it was constantly adjusting the screen brightness. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else has experience with this and the actual differences observed in overall battery life.

I've always squeezed a little more out of my battery by turning auto-brightness off, but at the same time I turned the brightness down.

Just opened Mail and it decided I wanted to write a new e-mail to my friend without me even needing to tap anything!

 

[OhKay]

Anyone else with a 3G phone experiencing noticeable slowing? Scrolling from screen to screen. Adding an event in Calendar hesitates before displaying. Typing. All sorts of places. Worked fine before the iOS4 update.

 

[Pitta]

In-line videos

Hi!

One of (my) most wanted features was in-line videos, as the iPad does.
Contrary to what I've heard, in-line videos are NOT in OS4 for iPhone...at least I cannot activate them.

One thing I noticed though is this: if you go to an html5 video where you can SEE the play button bar at the bottom of the video (NOT the big play button you get usually in the centre of the video) and you press play, you get the usual full screen player.
Now, if you pinch to reduce like you do with a photo, you return to the original page with the 'red loading bar' that continues loading.
Unfortunately, whenever you press play you return full screen (no inline video).
One second thing I noticed is that videos do not seem to load in background, wich was my hope.

Before anyone ask, I would like to have in-line videos because I could let one page loading the video while I read another web page (as I can do on iPad).

Any ideas?
I hope they'll activate it someday, seems already there...they just trigger the full screen player every time.

 

[ianray]

if you hit the red (-) button to close a 4.0 app that is running, it is akin to a "Force Quit" on the Mac.

For Apps that are running, then yes. For suspended Apps, the memory is simply released.

Try it yourself: open a 4.0-built app, go to a different screen or menu in it, then go back to the Home screen. If you went back into the app, it would go to the last state it was in. Now go to the multitasking dock and hit the app's close button. Go back to the 4.0-built app and you'll find that the app is restarting from scratch.

The suspended state facilitates 'Fast Application Start'. As a bonus, application state is remembered, but some Apps have always done their best to remember state, Tweetie was a great example of that.

But that close button is the ONLY WAY to close an app. Apple's (IMO flawed) philosophy is that a user should never have to worry about closing an app. They are keeping apps open as long as possible in memory, and then notifying apps to shut down when low. All without the user knowing what's going on. That's why they changed the functionality of the single click of the Home button. In past iPhone OS versions, this would quit the running app and take you to the Home screen. Now it merely puts the app in the background.

In iOS 4, suspended Apps:

• Never run in the background (never consume CPU cycles)
• Persist in RAM (they are 'frozen' or cached)
• Are not notified before being expelled from RAM

In summary, an icon in the multi-tasking bar means one of these things:

1. Recently used, but not in memory. Loads from flash, just like after first power-on.
2. Recently used, but suspended in memory. No need to load from flash, so starts quickly.
3. Running.
   • Normally finishes gracefully (user presses pause / logs out, processing / uploading completes, etc).
   • In exceptional cases, force quit is possible (long press, tap red "-" icon).

Free RAM can be described as a 'wasted opportunity' -- in any OS there are multiple opportunities for caching, and multiple end-user benefits of caching

 

[Sloppy Joe]

The iPhone FINALLY supports Playlist folders. Why this took 3 years is beyond me, but its finally here. In the past, all your playlist subfolders would appear on one screen. Now, the main playlist screen only shows the folder, and you can click on each folder to see the playlists it contains. Thank you Apple

There's more! You can also FINALLY create, edit, and delete REAL playlists right on the phone, instead only being able to create and edit a stupid On-the-Go list. HOLY CRAP! I have been wondering why in the hell that wasn't a feature on iPods since like 2004. Jeez, it took them long enough. Regular old iPods still can't do it though of course.

Thank god -- now I don't have to boot up my computer, launch iTunes, connect and sync my phone every time I want to add a song to my snowboarding list. The interface for doing it on the phone still isn't the greatest, but I'll take it.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I hate the fact that you can't simply add a song to a playlist by just swiping or holding it. You have to go it to the playlist then press Edit and then search for the song and tap it. I'm the type who likes to add while listening.