5 Top iPhone 2.0 Tips & Tricks

1. Caps Lock
I don’t really know why, but a lot of people seem to have the urge to write in ALL CAPS. Personally I find it annoying but then again I guess that is a matter of taste (and maturity). So How do you activate caps lock on the iPhone? Simply double tap on the caps lock key anytime your in the keyboard mode. The caps key should turn blue and YOU CAN SHOUT ALL YOU WANT!

Not working for you? You might have to activate this functionality in your settings, they are off by default. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and enable the caps lock function.

2. Take a screenshot
How do folks get all these nifty screenshots of iPhones up on their blogs?
The new iPhone 2.0 software has a screenshot functionality: Hold the Home button (the round one on the bottom of the front screen) and press the power button at the top. Your screen will flash and presto you have a screenshot of whatever you where looking at in that moment floating around your camera roll.

3. Appstore – New Apps
A functionality I’ve been sorely missing from the Appstore is the possibility to see new products or a list of updated software (as far as you haven’t installed it yet that is). Here the fine folks over at Pinch Media come in to save the day. They have an unofficial RSS feed to keep up with iTunes App Store additions. The categories are New Apps, Updated Apps, Top 100 free apps, and Top 100 paid apps.

4. Domain ending / TLD short cut
When you type a website URL in the address bar or enter an email address in mail, you can now hold down the “.com” button to get a selection of 3 other domain name endings: “.net,” “.edu,” and “.org”.

You can also get your local language specific top level domains displayed by setting your correct keyboard or keyboards. To do so go to General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards and turn ON the desire keyboards.

You can then rotate through the languages by tapping the small “globe” icon on the left side of the spacebar to select the language. After having selected the desired language you will then also get the most common top level domain for that country e.g. for Germany you will get .edu, .org, .de, .com.

5. Disable the auto-correction / dictionary function on the iPhone 2.0
This has been driving me absolutely crazy! I hate auto-correction since I like to communicate in a bilingual mish-mash and after typing half a mail/sms I usually see that my phone has auto-corrected every other word to some crap…

Now for the old iPhone software there was a very convenient little tweak called “Kb application” that you just need to install and suddenly under the keyboard settings you had a little slider to disable the auto correction. Unfortunately such a tool doesn’t exist yet for 2.0.

However if you happen to have a jailbroken iPhone and are feeling adventurous the of course there is a way:

Step 1. SSH to iPhone
You need a jailbroken iPhone for this and you need to install SSHd via Cydia.
Then you can telnet to the IP of your phone. The IP address of your iPhone is listed under the WiFi connection you have established, press the blue > button for it under Settings -> Wi-Fi.

Step 2. Goto the directory: /System/Library/TextInput

Step 3. Rename “TextInput_en.bundle” to whatever you like (e.g. “TextInput_en.backup) and voila the auto-correction is disabled for that language. Obviously if you are using a different language/keyboard setting you need to rename that file, e.g. “TextInput_de.bundle” needs to be renamed for German.

As usual if you go fiddling with your phone and don’t know what you are doing don’t come crying to me when it’s broke, otherwise I wish you happy hacking…. ;)

Aurora Feint on the iPhone

Amongst a lot of vaguely amusing junk, such as ibeer and phonesaber, I found a little gem in the iPhone Appstore: Aurora Feint – The Beginning.

At first glance it’s nothing more than a typical block puzzle game a la Bejeweled or it’s recent iPhone clone iZoo. On second glance its got potential for something a lot bigger and better. Apart from gaining level ups as you play and so expanding your characters skills the game teases with the promise of being one of the first full scale MMORPG style games on the iPhone. And if the developers are to believed that they have only been working on the release 10 weeks so far then they might still have a lot of surprises in stock, they definitely got me hooked and excited so far…

Since the documentation on the game and the homepage is a little meagre at the moment I thought I’d start collecting some of the things about the game I found out so far, so here we go:

Is there a pause function?
If you push the back button in the upper left corner of the game it will pause and take you to the summary view, from there you can resume the game or head over to the map.

My game hangs on the loading screen and occasionally crashes?
You need to restart your iPhone/iTouch with the button on the top of the phone and then retry the application, this usually solves the problem. Hopefully the next version will solve these problems.

What moves are available?
Move blocks horizontal: Tap and hold a block and “drop” it at the position you would like it to be.
Move blocks vertically: You can’t move blocks vertically but you can tilt/flip your iPhone thus changing “gravity” and then proceed to move blocks horizontally.
Restock: There are not enough blocks to do anything useful and they move too slow in the first couple of levels. Well, you can “pull” blocks from the bottom line with two fingers, or you can “shake” the iPhone (tilt it away from you and back) to get more blocks.

There are not enough blocks to finish a blueprint?
“Pull” or “shake” out more blocks, see restock above.

The party feature does not work, what do I do?
Wait for the update v1.0.0.1

How do I use powerups and tools?
You can’t yet, wait for the update v1.0.0.1. According to the in-game hints, you will then be able to “use” a tool by double-tapping it.

What are scrolls?
They tell the story of Aurora Feint…but they are not out yet.
Here it comes again: wait for the update v1.0.0.1

Why can’t I exceed “Category 7″?
Category 7 seems to be the limit at the moment, you are stuck at this level if you keep playing at the moment.

What are Tool Blocks and how do I use them?
Tool Blocks are unlocked with blueprints (or earning tools), they will be implemented in the 1.0.0.1 update

What does ‘Most Blocks Popped’ mean?
This refers to the maximum amount of blocks you have popped in one single move. In the current version the displayed information seems to be incorrect. Hopefully to be fixed in 1.0.0.1

I can’t read the item descriptions, they seem to slip off screen?
This is a current issue with the 1.0 version. The developers mention that this will be fixed in the 1.0.0.1

Is there any good strategy?
Yes, head over to http://aurorafeint.proboards100.com/index.cgi?board=world&action=display&thread=283&page=1#2584 for some great tipps!

Where can I get more information?
Check out the Aurora Feint forum at http://aurorafeint.proboards100.com/ for more information, strategies, tips and news…

Anything else you would like to know? Ask me.

Any hints and tipps I missed? Let me know!

Happy Gaming! :D

Time difference between iPhone and Outlook calender

Well I finally got round to “upgrading” my old iPhone to the 2.0 firmware thanks to the wonderful PwnageTool 2.0.1 from the good folks over at http://blog.iphone-dev.org/. It’s a very straight forward process and it’s explained in excruciating detail all over the net so go look elsewhere for that.

Now while the actual update ran smoothly, you do have to go back and reconfigure everything unless of course you make a backup via itunes first, which obviously I didn’t. So after clicking through a plethora of settings I finally had everything back the way I wanted it and even happily syncing with my Exchange server at work, except for the fact that all entries in my calender where 7 hours off.

After looking for explanations to this time difference everywhere and triple checking my phones and my servers time zone I finally discovered a very helpful setting at the very end of your mail account settings:”Time Zone Support” which was set to Cupertino time.

Simple solution: Just turn the Time Zone Support off.

Settings -> Mail, Contacts & Calender -> Time Zone Support off.
This will automatically update your calendar and change all times to be your local times.

Obviously if your mail server happens to be located in another country/time zone, just set the right time zone here and all your entries in your calender will be transfered to the correct local time… ;)

Review: SteelSeries Siberia Headset

After a long weekend of partying coupled with severe alcohol intake, Sunday turned out to be a rather relaxed day of gaming. Well, considering the state my head was in I can only say thank god I have an excellent pair of headphones: SteelSeries Siberia Full-Size Headset (White)

Designed by Gamers for Gamers they are one cozy set of headphones you can easily wear for 12 hour plus gaming sessions. Sound quality is excellent and they come with an extra long cable, a remote control and a detachable mic that you can clip on your lapel, your monitor or anywhere else for that matter. The mic is of such high quality that I also use it to digitize the sound for trainings videos I create at work, you really couldn’t ask for more. Apart from them being really amazing regarding quality, here are another 3 points that made them a must buy for me:

• They are very stylish
• The white set fits perfectly to my white MacBook
• The headphones are used by Basshunter in his legendary “dota” video: Basshunter: Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA.
• Do you really need any further reasons? ;)

How to turn off Windows Defender in Vista…

Windows Defender has been annoying the hell out of me right from the start and one of the first things I do when setting up a new computer with Vista is to disable it. Of course you need some decent spy ware protection, but generally I wouldn’t trust Microsoft with it.

The option to disable Windows Defender is also pretty well hidden:

• Start Windows Defender (from the system tray or “All Programs” and go to Tools -> Options.
• Here you will find a lot of configuration options. Scroll down to the end of the list (many people miss that you can scroll down in this dialog). At the end of the list you will find a section called Administrator options.
• Deselect the Use Windows Defender box and press the Save button.
• If UAC is turned on, you will need to confirm that you want to continue with the change.
• Now you will receive a notification saying that “Windows Defender is turned off”. Click on Close and you are done.

Inconsistent Formulas in Excel 2007

Just a little note about something I spent half an hour yesterday getting really mad at: Inconsistent Formulas, or those annoying little green flags you sometimes get in Excel even though your formula is completely valid and correct.

What is an inconsistent formula? MS Excel is once again trying to out-think it’s users and while that usually may be a good idea it annoys the hell out of me and other people who actually know what they are doing. An inconsistent formula simply refers to a formula that “looks” different then it’s neighbours. An example in column A you sum some values, in Column B you sum some more values and in column C you calculate the percentage difference between columns A and B. For Excel that would be an inconsistent formula…

How can I get rid of these errors/warnings? Just turn them off, in Excel 2003 you can find the settings at “Tools”-> “Options”, select the “Error Checking” tab, and deselect the “Inconsistent formula in region” box, or to turn off all error checking depending on your needs. Under Vista, running Excel 2007 it took me a little longer to find these settings, as with everything else they have been shuffled around. If you go to “Formulas” in the quick access toolbar (the funky big icon menu replacement toolbar as it’s also known) and then click on “Error checking” you only trigger the error checking process and if you go to the options there and turn of the “inconsistent formula” option, you will only turn it off for the one cell you are currently in. Pretty annoying. To turn of the error checking for the whole spreadsheet you need to go to the “Excel Options”, hidden in plain sight on the main menu in the top right corner:

Then head to the “Formulas” Tab and at the bottom you can then disable the error checking rules that bother you, including my favourite, the inconsistent formula…

Happy number crunching! ;)

MacBook keyboard shortcuts and special characters

I must confess I’ve done something very evil. One of the first things I did when I received my MacBook was install BootCamp and then Vista. Let’s assume I had valid reasons for this and to give credit where credit is due, the MacBook has been the only computer that has run halfway stable under Vista.

However since that day I’ve been trying to chase down a couple of special characters and keyboard shortcuts that just don’t seem to exist on the Mac keyboard.

Here are the most important one’s for me:

• The pipe (|) : Shift + Alt + L
• Backslash (\): Shift + Alt + / or Crtl + Alt + ß on German keyboard layouts
  
• The “at” sign (@): Crtl + Alt + q or Crtl + Alt + l on German keyboard layouts

Another sensible alternative and a generally very helpful tool is: Erik Olofsson’s “Input Remappper“. A tool developed to remap all kinds of characters and actions, but works like a charm on the MacBook under Windows. It auto detects that you have a Mac keyboard and remaps a lot of keys to sensible combinations. Go give it a try and let me know if you’re still missing any important keys… ;)

iPhone Special Characters (Umlaute/Accents)

If you happen to be one of the millions of people blessed with not being born in America chances are pretty good English might not be your first language, and if that is the case chances are also pretty high that your alphabet contains some special characters… German umlaute, French accents or Spanish acentos, where the hell do you find them on the iPhone keyboard???

Since iPhone firmware 1.1.1 you can finally send decent sms, without all your friends thinking you are a complete twit because you have a funky iPhone but can’t even send messages with standard characters…

How to work the magic? Just tap and hold the letter on the keyboard you need and after a second or so a little bar will pop up offering you all sorts of accents and special characters: