simoncrabb.com » iPhone

Not Enough Pockets: Why Men Should Carry Handbags

simon — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:54:55 +0000

A few years ago I had a desire for a phone on a watch. Now, many years later, one finally arrives, the LG GD910.

Why did I want one? Not enough pockets.

Back in the day you could get away with your front door key and a tenner. These days I’ve got loads of keys, a wallet packed with plastic (not credit cards, bloody loyalty cards), a massive iPhone, shades, tissues, sunblock, Valium, anti-bacterial hand-gel, Wuther’s Originals and a hat.

I stopped wearing a watch years ago, around the time mobile phones became ubiquitous, as I realised you’ve always got the time nearby. And because I fiddle like mad with anything that’s not screwed down, fiddling with my watch in a job interview / meeting / date wasn’t a great impression I realised.

So I thought it would be perfect to have a phone on a watch. No need to put it in a pocket. I don’t make many phone calls, but text a lot. I could text away on a watchphone / phonewatch / watch-de-phone, and have one less thing to carry. It would always be there for when I did need to make a call.

Then, I could just have the watch, a key around my neck on a string, a tenner in my back pocket (or a piece of plastic) and the male pocket bulges would be solved. Freedom again!

But, sorry LG, you’re about a decade too late. Now I use my iPhone for the internet WAY more than as a phone, or for texting. So I now carry a smartphone for being smart, not for use as a phone.

Where did I put my man-bag?

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iPhone Battery: Why letting your iPhone battery run flat is a pain in the PC.

simon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:25:06 +0000

By the time I went to bed yesterday, my iPhone battery was in the red zone, nearly flat. I woke up this morning to a dead iPhone…

I hadn’t put it on the charging cradle properly, or something, so it hadn’t charged, and I now had a flat battery.

I plugged it in to the charger again, and just got a red battery with a charging symbol underneath. It wouldn’t operate. I tried turning it on etc, nothign doing. I left it for a bit, to give it some charge. Tried again, and still nothing.

The internet told me I had to reboot it. It’s an iPhone 3G, so I held the power button and the home button at the same time for 10 seconds. Back to square one. Then my laptop battery was running out too, just as I found something that said I needed to plug it into a PC, and reboot the PC with the iPhone plugged in!

I turned on my desktop PC – where I sync the iPhone. Popped the iPhone into the sync cradle, and the same screen, time to try the PC reboot. I made breakfast.

With iTunes running and that, the phone still refused to do anything. I then rebooted the iPhone whilst it was plugged into the PC still, and amazingly, the friendly apple logo appeared, and it came back to life.

What the hell is all that about? You’re telling me that if I let my iPhone run flat, I need a PC to plug it into to revive it? That’s just ridiculous. And what is the PC doing to the iPhone during the PC reboot to make it work again? Does it send some juju down the USB to gently wake it up?

I’m quite baffled. But thankful it works again. And, when it’s got a low battery next time, I shalln’t be so lazy, I’ll charge it up before the weirdness begins.

iPhone Keyboard Hints and Tips Video

simon — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:13:18 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve only just got an iPhone, I’m a bit late to the party, and was a bit confused by the keyboard.

I did some searching around and found some hints and tips for improving productivity.

1.) Let it correct your typos, when you hit space (or punctuation) it will substitute the word displayed. If you don’t want it, hit the x, or correct the word for what you really wanted.

2.) Allow it to apostrophise for you. Just type Id and it will make it I’d.

3.) Allow it to uppercase I for you, it will just make it uppercase if it’s on it’s own.

4.) Double tap spacebar for fullstop and a space.

5.) The best tip, to use punctuation, hit the 123 button, but KEEP YOUR FINGER ON IT, now slide to the number or punctuation and then release. This saves a whole tap, and after using it a while becomes a lot more intuitive.

Those tips are basically saying just type and get it wrong, and don’t worry about it, and a lot of the time it’ll sort it out. And yes, it learns what words you use often too.

Just bang away on the keyboard and see what happens.

Is this useful? Do you know any other iPhone keyboard tips not included here?

I Changed My Mind

simon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:05:52 +0000

Recently I was of the opinion that I didn’t want an iPhone, as technically it didn’t suit my needs – there were other phones that had better hardware etc.

But, I changed my mind, I jumped on the Applewagon and bought an iPhone, and I have to say, it’s glorious. The things I thought I wanted don’t seem important now. And the sheer size of the extended community of the platform offers such opportunity.

I’m naturally stubborn, and somtimes I need to stop being so damned awkward and follow like a sheep anyway!