Storing Files
A tiny Massachusetts software company known as Ecamm Network is selling an inexpensive piece of Mac OS X software that lets you copy files from your computer to your iPhone and copy files from the iPhone to a computer. (There's no Windows version.) Better still, you can try the $19.95 program called PhoneView for a week before deciding whether you want to buy it. Go to www.ecamm.com to fetch the free demo.
In a nutshell, here's how it works. After downloading the software onto your Mac, double-click the program's icon to start it. To transfer files and folders to the iPhone (assuming there's room on the device), click the Copy to iPhone button on the toolbar, and then select the files you want to copy. The files are copied into the appropriate folder on the iPhone. Alternatively, you can drag files and folders from the Mac desktop or a folder into the PhoneView browser.
To go the other way and copy files from your iPhone to your computer, highlight the files or folders you want copied, and click the Copy from iPhone button on the toolbar. Select the destination on your Mac where you want to store the files, and then click Save. You can also drag files and folders from the PhoneView file browser onto the Mac desktop or folder. Or you can double-click a file in the PhoneView browser to download it to your Mac's Documents folder.
If you need access to the files on your iPhone, or if you want to use your iPhone as a pseudo hard disk, PhoneView is a bargain.
Create Ringtones for Free in GarageBand
The capability to create free iPhone ringtones with Apple's GarageBand application (which is bundled with every Mac). Creating those ringtones, however, is relatively easy. Start by launching GarageBand and creating a new Music project. Then:
- Click the Media Browser button to reveal the media browser pane.
- Click the disclosure triangle to reveal the contents of your iTunes library.
- Click your iTunes music library to reveal its contents.
- Select the song you want to turn into a ringtone and drag it onto the timeline.
Note:
The bottom line is that you can make ringtones only from songs you've ripped yourself from CD or downloaded without rights management or other copy protection (such as MP3s from Amazon.com or files in Apple's iTunes Plus format).
You can't use songs purchased from the iTunes store for ringtones if they are protected by Apple's digital rights management copy protection. GarageBand won't let you drag a protected song onto its timeline.
Tip:
Apple stopped using copy protection for music files in April 2009. If you purchased the song after that, you're good to go. If you purchased the song before then, you can pay a small upgrade fee (30 cents at press time) to convert the song to iTunes Plus, Apple's new higher-quality, non-copy-protected format. - Click the cycle region button to enable the cycle region.
- Click in the middle of the cycle region and drag it to the portion of the song you want to use as your ringtone.
- Fine-tune the start and end points by clicking and dragging the cycle region's left and right edges.
For best results, keep your ringtones under 30 seconds. - Click the play button to hear your work. When you're satisfied with it, choose Share → Send Ringtone to iTunes.
The next time you sync, your new ringtone becomes available on your iPhone. To use it as your ringtone, tap Settings, Sounds, Ringtone, and then tap the ringtone in the list of available sounds. To associate the ringtone with a specific contact or contacts, find the contact in either the Contacts app or the Phone app's Contacts tab, tap Ringtone, and then tap the ringtone in the list of available sounds.
If you have a microphone, you can record ringtones featuring voice recordings such as the following. "Yo! It's your bro!" "This is your mother. Pick up the phone right this moment." "Ed Baig calling." "Incoming! Incoming!" "This is your iPhone and I'm ringing." And so on. You get the picture.
Taking a Snapshot of the Screen
True confession: We threw in this final tip because, well, it helps people like us. Permit us to explain. We hope you've admired the pictures of the iPhone screens that are sprinkled throughout this book. We also secretly hope that you're thinking what marvelous photographers we must be.
Well, the fact is, we couldn't take a blurry picture of the iPhone using its built-in (and only recently documented by Apple) screen-grab feature if we wanted to.
Press the sleep/wake button at the same time you press the Home button, but just for an instant. The iPhone grabs a snapshot of whatever is on the screen. The picture lands in the iPhone's camera roll; from there, you can synchronize it with your PC or Mac, along with all your other pictures. And from there, the possibilities are endless. Why, your picture could wind up just about anywhere.
Getting Apps Out of the Multitasking Tray
iOS 4's multitasking is great, but sometimes you don't want to see an app's icon in the multitasking tray. Don't worry - it's easy to remove any app that's cluttering up your tray.
To get rid of an app icon in the multitasking tray, here's what you do:
- Double-press the Home button.
The multitasking tray appears. - Press any icon in the tray until all of the icons begin to wiggle and display a little red - symbol.
- Tap the little red - symbol for the app (or apps) you want to remove from the tray.
The app disappears from the multitasking tray. To fill the gap in the tray, apps slide to the left. (Icons from the group of apps you'd see if you swiped from right to left on the tray slide onto the screen as needed.) - Press the Home button to end the wiggling and hide the red - symbols.
- Press the Home button again to dismiss the multitasking tray.
Tip:
You can use this trick to stop an app that's running in the background, too. For example, if Pandora Radio is playing in the background and you decide you've had enough Pandora for now, just follow the preceding steps and Pandora will shut the heck up. Without this trick, you'd have to open Pandora, tap the Pause button, then press the Home button to close Pandora. Using the tip is easier and often faster.