Apple Tips #1 – Six Quick iPod / iPhone Tips & Tricks

We’re going to be starting a new feature here at iGadgetLife, and we promise you’re going to love it more than that $12 check you got from your grandmother on your birthday. Once a week, we’ll dish out some handy tips and tricks related to anything Apple; from the iPhone and iPod to the web, gadgets, MacBooks and iMacs. They may be related to software, basic features that often go overlooked, hacks and modifications that extend productivity – as long as it’s Apple, we’ll tell you about it.

Kicking it off this week is a couple funky time-saving tricks for two of the world’s favorite portable gizmos, the iPhone and iPod. There isn’t any particular focus here beyond that, just a mishmash of ideas for your wireless devices.

1. Tweet with your iPhone / iPod Touch

As Twitter recently rocketed into becoming a $1 billion company, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon and sharing their lives with the world 140 characters at a time. While there are a number of Twitter applications that work with the iPhone, many people don’t know you can also tweet from an iPod Touch.

Twitterfon (http://twitterfon.net/) and Tweetie (http://www.atebits.com/) are two popular apps to get the job done. Tweetie 2.0 is due out soon.

2. Restore an iPod

Many generations of iPods have passed since they first hit the market. As such, people tend to upgrade. What do they do with their old devices? Many will attempt to sell them and make a few bucks, which is a perfectly good idea. What is an even better idea is restoring your iPod to its factory settings before doing so. That way, you won’t be giving away your personal data to the next owner. As iPods become more advanced, there are a growing number of reasons to house more than just your Frankie Goes To Hollywood mp3s on them. You don’t want some random eBayer to have your stuff.

Fortunately, restoring an iPod is simple. Just do the following:

1. Plug in your iPod to the computer and load up iTunes.

2. Select the iPod on the left.

3. Click the Restore button on the right-hand window.

4. Agree to any alerts and hang tight for a few seconds/minutes.

That’s seriously all there is to it. The next time it’s turned on, it’ll be like the first time. The next user can program it just the way they want.

3. Add iCal to your iPod

Your iPod must be version 1.2 or later for this to work (navigate to your iPod’s Settings > About screen to find out what version you have if you don’t know, or view the summary screen in iTunes).

Open iCal and export (File > Export) your calendar from the list. Make note of where you save it and give it a recognizable name.

Now you need to copy the iCal file (.ics extension) to your iPod. Put the iPod in disk mode by plugging it into the computer, double-click to open it up, and drag your new iCal file to the calendar folder on your iPod.

Navigating to your iPod’s Extras menu then selecting Calendars will let you see your iCal.

4. Take a screen shot of your iPod Touch screen.

This is an awesome tip for anyone wishing to post shots of their iPod Touch to the internet, send them to people, or otherwise want them saved. Clicking and holding the Home button (round button at the bottom) and tapping the Sleep button will take a screen shot for you. The screen will flash if you do it right.

The contents of your screen will be saved as an image in Photos > Saved Photos. iTunes or Image Capture can be used to get the photos off your device and into your computer.

5. Utilize iPhone Sensors to your advantage

There are three sensors within the iPhone, because it’s just that snappy. One detects the rotation into landscape layout, which you know about. Behind the glass are two more – one that disables screen illumination and touch features when the phone is being used as a phone – and one that senses ambient light, brightening and dimming the screen depending on the lighting around you. You can trick this bad boy to work in your favor.

The only time the ambient light sensor works is when you unlock the phone after waking it. It will adjust brightness then and stay that way until the next awakening.

The sensor is atop the earpiece. If you cover it up when you unlock the phone, it won’t sense brightness. You’ll trick the phone into thinking you’re in a dim area and it will operate under low power, low brightness. This saves you time adjusting the slider, and saves your battery as it’ll be using less juice. You can watch it dim before your very eyes, as if David Copperfield himself is in your phone.

6. Use your iPhone as an external HD

While an iPod allows you to easily put whatever files you want onto the device, the iPhone isn’t so friendly. Fortunately, it’s like they say – there’s an app for that. A freeware app called Discover (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=292416855&mt=8) is a great file management tool for the phone. You can view files, transfer them between computers and other phones via USB, and be all-around fancy.

Then, you can simply hook your iPhone up to your computer via USB and treat it like any other external.

There you have it, folks. The first Apple Tips list. Naturally, I’ll never be able to guarantee you don’t already know the tips and tricks handed out via Apple Tips, but we’ll do our best every week to bring you unique ideas that we find interesting for all your Apple products.

Next week we’ll switch to laptop mode and offer up some goodies related to the MacBook.