iPhone application crashes: preventing and fixing

iPhone application crashes: preventing and fixing

A number of users report crashes from various iPhone applications, both Apple-supplied and third-party. The most common iPhone crash is one where the application you are working in suddenly ceases operation, the screen momentarily turns black, then the iPhone home screen appears. In a slightly more serious manifestation, the crash will result in a complete freeze where the iPhone is unresponsive.

Sometimes, when an application crashes, it will refuse to properly launch thenceforth, crashing immediately after its icon is tapped.

Generally, one of the three following procedures will resolve this issue. Try them in order.

Full reboot Perform a hard reboot of your iPhone as follows: Turn the iPhone off completely, by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button (on top of the device) for a few seconds then slide the red slider. Turn it back on by holding the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. This can clear potentially problematic data, preventing some crash-types.

Restore the iPhone Try performing a restore of your iPhone. Connect it to your Mac or PC and, in iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

Reinstall the application

• Touch and hold any application icon the icons begin to shake.
• Tap the “x” in the corner of the application you want to delete.
• Tap Delete.
• Press the Home button.
• Download the application again, either from your iPhone or your desktop computer (there will be no additional charge for the redownload)

If an application freezes or becomes unresponsive, force-quit it by holding down the home button for several seconds. This can eliminate problematic or hung processes that might be draining the battery.

To prevent future crashes, keep adequate free space on the iPhone’s internal memory. Like its desktop relative Mac OS X, the iPhone’s OS X operating system needs some head-room on the internal flash memory in order to operate properly. Try keeping at least 10% of the total space free to potentially prevent some crashes in applications, freezes and other problems.

As a last resort, go to the Settings application, tap General then select the Erase All Content and Settings. This will delete all media and data on the iPhone, as well as recent calls, etc., and all other settings. If you perform this operation and stop experiencing crashes, you might have problematic data being synchronized to the iPhone that is automatically put back when the phone is restored. In this case, you might want to go to iTunes, select Preferences from the File menu, then iPhone and delete your backed up iPhone settings — this includes text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings. Again, one or more of these data might be problematic.

Finding out what caused crashes Just like Mac OS X, the iPhone generates crash reports when things go wrong. These files are sent back to your computer whenever the iPhone is connected and synchronized with iTunes. In Mac OS X, they’re located in /Library/Logs/Crashreporter/MobileDevice/.

(Via iPhone Atlas)

iPhone – Batch mail deletion, a dream come true

iPhone 101: Batch mail deletion

Here’s a very handy feature of the iPhone 2.0 software. Previously, deleting many email messages at once was a real pain. You could either swipe across your messages one at a time (invariably selecting a few by accident), or enter edit mode and select a message, touch the Delete button and then touch the Confirmation button. Not exactly speedy.

The 2.0 software makes this much easier. First, touch the Edit button. Next, touch every message you want to delete. When you’re through, touch the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.

Alternatively, you can use this method to bulk move messages.

(Via (TUAW))

Hold your “.com” button for a second to get a surprise!

iPhone 101: Hold your “.com” button for a second
If you are running the new 2.0 firmware on your iPhone or iPod touch, you might not have noticed a new handy shortcut in Safari. When you type in your address, hold down the “.com” button to get a selection of 3 other domain name endings: “.net,” “.edu,” and “.org.” When you tap on any of the endings, it will be automatically inserted in the address bar.

(Via (TUAW))

Must Have Menu Bar Applications!

Must Have Menu Bar Applications For Mac OS X Leopard | Mac Tricks And Tips

A GREAT list from Mac Tricks and Tips:

The menu bar, if you didn’t know, is that long strip across the top of your window. It contains space for adding your own little applications to do various tasks for you. This include a variety of things, from the mundane such as telling you how many unread emails you have, to the complex such as cleaning out your computer. Each application posted here is designed to run from the menu bar and not as an application. Programs which run in the dock, but have a menu bar icon do not count. They have to run 100% from the menu bar.

(See them ALL HERE)

Get more from your 3G iPhone

Get more from your 3G iPhone

If you’re the lucky owner of a new iPhone 3G, there’s a good chance that you won’t have read the manual that came with it. I know I didn’t. The temptation to jump right in, to touch this and pinch that, is way too strong. But there are some tips and tricks that make using the iPhone much easier.

Master the double-tap

One of the ‘impress your friends’ features of the iPhone is your ability to ‘pinch’ the screen to zoom in and out. In the long run, however, this isn’t the most effective way to read a web page or magnify a Google Map. Instead, you need to master the double-tap.

On a typical website, double-tap a column of text to zoom right into it – the iPhone will zoom the view to fit the width of the screen. Double-tap the screen again to zoom back out.

Similarly, double-tapping a picture will automatically focus in to show a close-up. Again, this auto-zoom will fit the width of the iPhone’s screen.

The double-tap can also zoom in/out on photos in the iPhone’s Photo app and toggle between full screen and letterbox mode during video playback. A double-tap is also the easiest way to incrementally zoom into a section of a Google Map.

Tapping two fingers on the screen (I.e. first and index finger) will zoom back out the same way.

Save power

There’s been a lot of talk about the iPhone’s battery life. Unsurprisingly, using the 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and iPod functions will use up a lot of juice. You can minimise the drain in several ways.

For starters, you can actually turn off 3G (in Settings – General – Network) and force the iPhone to regress to its 2G/2.5G origins. Similarly, Wi-Fi can be disabled until you really need it (via Settings – Wi-Fi). You should only need Bluetooth active if you’re using a wireless headset.

You can also manually select the screen brightness (overriding the auto-brightness setting). You’ll find that option in Settings – Brightness.

How to reset your iPhone

If your iPhone should freeze for any reason and doesn’t respond to screen taps or button presses, it probably indicates that the application you’re running has crashed.

There are two fixes. First, hold down the Home button for 5-6 seconds to force quit a crashed application. If that doesn’t work, you can force a full shut down of your iPhone by holding down the Home and Sleep/Wake button.

Rearrange your applications

The iPhone doesn’t just have one home screen – it can be configured to have a number of virtual pages, that you can flick through like the pages of a book. The ability to rearrange the iPhone’s applications was introduced in a previous firmware upgrade.

To move an application icon, simply hold your finger down on an icon. The icons will then enter a ‘wiggle mode’, I.e. they’ll start to wiggle. You can then drag them around or move them to another home screen page.

Set up favourite contacts

You can set up a quick-dial list of favourite contacts easily by opening a contact (in Phone – Contacts) and choosing the ‘Add to Favorites’ (sic) option.

For quick access to this list, you can typically double-click the Home button. If this doesn’t work, configure the Home button settings in Settings – General – Home Button.

Use other applications while on a call

Did you know that you can access the iPhone’s main screen (and all of its applications) while you are on a call? Press the Home button during a phone call to minimise the call screen.

You can then access your email, Notes, Contacts and browse web (only if connected by Wi-Fi). Tap the green bar at the top of the Home screen to return to the call.

Divert a call to voicemail

Easy. Press the Sleep/Wake button on the top-edge of your iPhone.

Handy keyboard shortcuts

The iPhone’s keyboard takes some getting used to. You might start off as a slow, one-fingered typist, but ultimately you’ll be able to knock out notes, emails and texts with surprising speed and accuracy.

Your greatest ally in this regard is the iPhone’s auto-complete function and integrated dictionary. The iPhone monitors what you type and will suggest potential words as you type them. To discard a suggestion, tap the suggested word.

There are other handy keyboard shortcuts worth noting. For example, holding your finger over an area of text will activate the keyboard’s magnifying glass, enabling you to easily position the cursor within a word.

Also, if you hold your finger down on a letter key, the virtual keyboard will show a pop-up of alternative letters – I.e. press your finger on ‘E’ to see a pop-up containing ‘È’, ‘É’, ‘Ê’, ‘Ë’ and ‘Ȩ’.

Finally, you can also double-tap the SHIFT key to enable a CAPS LOCK mode (it turns blue). This isn’t enabled by default, however. You’ll find the option in Settings – General – Keyboard.

Change iPod playback options

You can change the playback options in the iPhone’s iPod mode by tapping on the track being played – this will allow you to switch between normal play, repeat all and repeat current track.

Skip tracks while listening via headphones

I missed this functionality when I first had my iPhone. You probably know that the microphone capsule on the iPhone’s headphones can be clicked to start/stop music playback. But if you quickly double-click the capsule, you can skip through a playlist without having to get your iPhone out of your pocket.

Better Web browsing in Safari

There a number of things that you can do to speed up web browsing on the iPhone. For example, if you press your finger on a web link, a grey bubble will pop up showing the link URL.

Applications on the iPhone are also beautifully interlinked – tap on a phone number on a web page to call it, tap on an email address to jump to the mail program, tap on an address to find it on Google Maps.

Did you also know that you can tap the status bar (showing the time, battery indicator, etc.) at the top of the screen to scroll back to the top of a page?

Or that you can type a .com address without typing .com? Or the www? For example, just type ‘techradar’ into the browser’s URL field to go to TechRadar.com.

Finally, you might also find it useful to set up RSS subscriptions/bookmarks to sites that display full articles their feeds. RSS loads quickly, reducing the load on your 3G connection and speeding up web access if you’re out of coverage and using EDGE or GPRS.

Delete emails with a swipe

It’s a little known fact that you can quickly delete a message by swiping your across it from left to right.

Turn off data roaming

If you’re a regular traveller, don’t forget to turn off data roaming when travelling abroad. O2’s iPhone tariffs only include unlimited data access in the UK. You’ll find it in Settings – General – Network.

The secret screen capture mode

Hold down the Home button with one hand and then press the Sleep/Wake button with the other. With any luck, this will snap a picture of the screen and save it in your Camera Roll (Photos – Camera Roll).

(Via techradar )

Close All Websites in Firefox, Great for work!

Close All Websites in Firefox Before Boss Approaches the Cubicle

Panic is like the perfect boss key for Firefox. It will not just prevent you from getting into an embarrassing situation but boss may even leave your office cubicle totally impressed.

You press a keyboard shortcut and all website tabs open inside Firefox will close automatically.

To give boss an impression that you weren’t wasting time, you can configure Panic to replace all open tabs with a single work-related website like your company’s intranet homepage or any other web page.

Get Panic [Firefox add-on] – Please note that Panic will close all open websites not just hide them from view by minimizing Firefox.

(Via Digital Inspiration)

TIPS! Switch to Mac From Windows

Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows [Personal Technology]

Sales of Apple’s Macintosh computers have been growing much faster than PC sales overall, with many new Mac buyers switching from years of using Windows computers. For that reason, every month I get emails from readers asking about the differences in using the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

While the Windows and Mac user interfaces are broadly similar, they do have subtle variations in day-to-day use that require some re-education for switchers. And because there are so many fewer Mac users than Windows users, help from friends and co-workers can be harder to obtain than it is for people switching the other way, to Windows from Mac.

So, here’s a quick tip sheet explaining a few of the most common differences in the daily use of Windows XP (MSFT), from which most people would be switching, and Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS X Leopard, which switchers would be adopting.

This column isn’t an argument for making the switch to a Mac, merely an attempt to help those who have done so, or who are considering doing so. Of course, all Macs currently sold can run Windows and Windows programs concurrently with the Mac operating system. But this guide is for folks who intend to use their Macs primarily with Leopard, not Windows.

Menu Bars: In Windows, each program typically has its own menu bar. On the Mac, there’s a single menu bar at the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are actively using.

Task Bar: The equivalent of the Windows XP Task Bar on the Mac is the Dock. Unlike the Task Bar, which primarily holds icons representing open windows, the Mac Dock primarily holds icons of programs you use most often. To place a program onto the Dock, you just drag its icon there. To remove it, you just drag its icon off the Dock and it disappears in a puff of animated smoke.

Start Menu: There is no Start Menu on a Mac. Its functions are divided between the Dock and the Apple menu at the upper left of the Mac screen.

Control Panel: The Mac equivalent of the Windows Control Panel is called System Preferences, and it can be launched from either the Dock or the Apple menu.

Keyboard shortcuts: Common Windows keyboard commands, such as Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-P for Print, and many others, are also available on the Mac. However, instead of using the Control key, they use the Mac’s Command key, which bears either a cloverlike symbol or an Apple logo. So, on the Mac, for instance, Command-S is for Save.

Quitting programs: In Windows, you can quit a program by clicking on the red “X” in a square at the upper right corner of the window you’re using. But on the Mac, if you click on the equivalent button — a red “X” in a circle in the upper left corner — you are merely closing the window, not quitting the program. To quit the program, you must either select Quit from the leftmost menu or press the Command and “Q” keys together.

Maximizing windows: When you click on the blue maximize button in Windows XP, the window you are viewing occupies the whole screen. In Leopard, the equivalent button — a green circle at the upper left — increases a small window’s size to a footprint deemed optimal for its contents, which isn’t always the whole screen.

Switching programs: One common way to switch among running programs in Windows XP is to press Alt and Tab together. This displays icons of each running program and allows you to switch among them. On a Mac, the same trick can be performed by pressing the Command and Tab keys together. The Mac also has a terrific feature called Expose, which shows every open window at once, in miniature form, so you can navigate among them. You can trigger Expose in a number of ways, but the most common is to hit either the F9 key or the dedicated Expose key, depending on your Mac model.

Right-clicking: Contrary to common belief, the Mac has a right-click menu function, just like Windows. Most desktop Macs now come with a mouse that allows right-clicking, and you can use almost any two-button USB mouse with any modern Mac. If you are using a Mac laptop, which has only one button under the track pad, you can simulate a right-click by either holding down the Control key when you click, or by placing two fingers on the track pad while clicking. The latter technique, which I favor, must first be turned on in System Preferences.

Screen: Your desktop picture and screen saver on a Mac are set via a System Preference called Desktop & Screen Saver. Screen resolution is set in the Displays System Preference. In Windows XP, all of these things are included in the Display control panel.

For more information, Apple offers two Web sites. One is called Mac 101, and is at apple.com/support/mac101. The other is called Switch 101, and is at apple.com/support/switch101

(Via All Things Digital)

Send free text messages from an iPhone! s w e e t !

How to send free text messages from an iPhone

With current AT&T iPhone contracts, you get 200 free text messages a month. With the new 3G iPhones, this will change. You will need to pay $5.00 a month extra for these 200 messages. Today, I’m going to show you how to send an unlimited number of messages in US and Canada, for free.
How to send free text messages.
1. Create a new email message.
2. In the To: box, type 10digitnumber@teleflip.com. (1235551234@teleflip.com)
3. Type a message and click send.
4. The message will be sent to the cell phone with the number in the To: box
5. All recieved text messages will be sent to you as an email.
Note: This only works for US and Canadian numbers.
Also, there is a Web app that you can send free text messages with. It’s called TxtDrop and you can access it by typing “http://txtdrop.com/iphone/” in your iPhone’s Safari app. They also have a OS X widget here. Enjoy!”

(Via macsimumnews )

Disk mode on the iPhone/iPod Touch!

Disk mode on the iPhone/iPod Touch!
A great Tip!

I know the iPhone and the iPod Touch don’t have a lot of storage, but it would still be very useful to use them in disk mode. I found out about this great utility called “DiskAid” that makes it possible to use the iPhone/iPod Touch in disk mode. What is even better about this application is that it runs on your Mac and you don’t need a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch. It is basically compatible with a standard 1.1.1 to 1.1.4 firmware iPhone/iPod. More info and download link here on MacUpdate.

(Via A New Mac Tip Every Day)

Emailing a link! Cool Tip!

E-mailing a link!


To email a url that is loaded in Safari with Mail, you simply have to drag the small icon at the left of the url and while holding on to it, pressing “Command-Tab” and dropping the url on Mail.

(Via A New Mac Tip Every Day.)