Scrolling to the top quickly - browsing the web using your iPhone can be a daunting, repitive task, and finding shortcuts makes life so much easier. You can simply tap the top bar of the iphone i.e. where the time and battery bar is, to automaticallly scroll to the top!
Domain URL Auto-completion - if your default search engine is set to Google, all you have to is type in the name of the website, and Safari will automatically add the URL prefix (www.) and the URL extension (.com)!
URL Details - by holding your finger of top of a link, after a few seconds, a pop-up bubble will appear with the URLs details, such as the title and destination link!
Screenshot - you can take a screenshot of whatever is on your iPhone by simply holding down the 'Home' button and tapping the 'Sleep' button.
Saving Web Images - you can save images you find browsing Safari to your camera roll by pressing and holding your finger on the picture until it prompts you to either 'Save image as' or 'Cancel'.
'Home' button shortcut - by going into your iPhone settings you can set the shortcut for double-tapping your 'Home' button. I have set mine to take me back to my main menu!
Get URL Hints - In Safari, you can press and hold any links in order to see the URL and site name of the link.
Dismiss Keyboard Suggested Word - To dismiss the keyboard suggested spelling of a word, you can tap on anywhere of the screen. You do not have to press "x" button at the end of the word.
Scroll to the Top of the Page - When you are using iPhone applications, you can automatically scroll to the top of the page by tapping on the "top bar", which has the time, service bars and the battery information. In Safari, this will also brings up the URL address
bar as well.
Different Domain Suffix - Hold down the ".com" button, you can see a popup comes up with ".net, .edu and .org" buttons. Slide your finger from them and then release your finger to choose.
Domain Resolution - When typing a URL in Safari, you don’t have to type the "www" or the ".com". For exmaple, you can type "iPhoneToolbox" in the URL box in order to view “iPhoneToolbox.com”.
Take Screenshots Anytime - You can take any screenshots at anytime easily on your iPhone. First of all, press and hold the “Home” button and then click the "Sleep" button once. The screen will flash white and the screenshot will be stored in your camera roll immediately.
Save Images in Safari - When you are browsing any web pages on Safari. You simply touch the image and hold your finger until a menu show up, select Save Image.The downloaded image is located under your Photo / Camera Roll.
Inserting a Period - When you are typing on you iPhone, simply double tapping the "Space Bar" button at the end of a sentence, it will automatically insert a period followed by a space. It saves you a lot of time instead of pressing "123" to get the numbers and symbols page where the period located in.
Alternative Way to Navigate Screens - You can tab the bottom right or left corner to switch between different screens instead of swiping your finger across the screen.
Alternate Characters - Hold down a letter on the keyboard, you can see popup comes up with various versions of the character.
Move Dock Icons - Just press and hold any icons on the screen, then drag them while they are shaking. You can put any 4 icons on your dock (grey bar at the bottom of your iPhone).
Fit-to-page Column, word and Picture - When browsing web pages on Safari, you can double tap on a column, word or picture to fit it’s width to your iPhone’s screen.
Select Icon for Bookmarked Webpage - When you are browsing a web page on Safari and add its icon to your home screen by pressing the "+" button and select "Add to Home Screen". The icon is a screenshot of the page you were on. You can have a different icon by zooming in a particular item on the page. It can be the website’s logo or any picture.
Scrolling with Two Fingers - Some web pages contains separate text boxes with their own scroll bars. If you are trying to move around in one, you can scroll it with two fingers instead of one. That will let you scroll just inside the box and not affect the position of the entire page.
Maximize Battery Life - There is a separate sensor situated right above the earpiece, that detects ambient light. The iPhone uses this sensor only once per session, just as you unlock the handset. But if you cover the sensor as you unlock the phone, you will trikc the handset into thinking it’s in a dark room, and it will power down the screen brightness. You can Also turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if you don’t expect to use them for a while. You can also set email fetch time to "Hourly" or "Manually", and turn the "Push" off in order to save energy.
Reset Your iPhone - Press and hold the “Home” Button and the “Sleep” Button to Reset your iPhone. A white light will flash, the screen will shut off and then turn back on. Please keep holding both buttons until the screen turns back on.
Insert Punctuation Quickly - To enter any punctuations while using iPhone keyboard, you can press and hold the "?123" (lower left) button and slide your finger over to any punctuation button. And then the punctuation will be inserted after you have released the button.
Get a Bigger Keyboard - When you are using the on-screen keyboard on Safari, you can rotate the iPhone horizontally before tapping on the address bar, the Safari window will switch to horizontal mode. Now you can have a much larger keyboard, making data entry a little easier.
Changing iPod Icons - By the default, the buttons at the bottom of the iPod scren are "Playlists", "Artists", "Songs", "Videos", and "More". You can change them by pressing the "More" button, and then tap on the "Edit" button in the upper left corner. A Configure screen will appear with icons for "Albums", "Podcasts", "Audiobooks", "Genres", "Composers", "Compilations", "Playlists", "Artists", "Songs", and "Videos". To substitute one of these icons for one that appears at the bottom of the iPod screen, just tap and hold on the icon you prefer and drag it over the icon you want to replace. Tap on Done when you’re finished.
Make a Call from Safari - If you find any phone numbers in Safari you would like to call, you do not need to jump to the phone component. Just tap on the number, and the iPhone will dial it for you immediately.
Send free SMS messages, or "fake" MMS messages - If you find yourself running over your text message limit on your cellular plan, don't despair! As long as you know your friends' cell-phone company, you can send them text messages free using e-mail via their carriers' e-mail-to-SMS gateway. In most cases, you send an e-mail to your contact's phone number @[their carrier's URL]. We've compiled a list of the proper format for each carrier's SMS gateway. For example, to send a text to the AT&T phone number (555-595-5244), you'd e-mail 5555955244"txt.att.net. It takes a bit longer than traditional texting, but it will get there, and you won't have to pay the standard text-message rate.
Using these gateways lets you get around one of the biggest limitations of the iPhone—the lack of multimedia messaging. Since you're sending e-mails, you can attach a photo, and your image will be delivered as an MMS message. Just add the e-mail-to-SMS address to your contacts as a second e-mail address so that you can access it easily, and you can stop worrying about whether iPhone 3.0 will support MMS or not.
Sync your iPhone's calendar with Google Calendar - This new sync capability was announced by Google just before we were set to publish this tip roundup. Yes, you can now sync your Google Calendar with your iPhone without resorting to any third-party services, but it won't happen automatically. First, you need to make sure your iPhone firmware is Version 2.2 or later. Then you visit http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html, and take a few proactive steps. Don't ignore the step of backing up your contacts, as the Google Sync setup will delete them from the device. There are a couple of disadvantages to backing up your contacts to Google Contacts—doing so means you're no longer syncing with Outlook or MobileMe contacts, if you'd set one of those up. And you're sharing all your contacts with Google, which may or may not be a problem, depending on your comfort level. Finally, don't be confused by the fact that you actually set up your Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account rather than the Google Mail choice—Google Sync uses an Exchange server to accomplish the syncing.
In the next 13 steps of the process, you'll enter Google's server name and choose whether you want Contacts, Calendars, or both synced; and finally pass a couple of scary red warning screens reminding you that you'll lose the existing contacts and calendar entries on the phone. Thereafter, your contacts and calendar entries will sync with the beta Google services rather than MobileMe or Exchange. If you've enabled Push in your iPhone's Fetch New Data control panel, you won't have to do anything for the info to update. Otherwise, you can sync every 15 or 30 minutes, or manually when in your Gmail inbox.
Make your own ringtones - Find that paying double to convert your song to a ringtone cramps your style? With this trick, you can make free ringtones from virtually any audio file. Just convert it to the AAC format (if it isn't already there): Set iTunes to import using its AAC filter, then right-click your file and select Create AAC version. Next, edit the file in any music editor (such as GarageBand on a Mac, or Audacity on Windows or a Mac) to select the 20 to 30 seconds that you want for your ringtone. Rename the file extension from .m4a to .m4r, then double-click it and iTunes will import it as a ringtone and sync it to your iPhone. The only catch: It doesn't work with DRM-protected songs. But now that iTunes offers DRM-free music, just buy the unprotected version and you're good to go.
Keep a photoblog - The iPhone has everything you need to keep a visual diary online. Many blogging platforms, such as Blogger, allow you to e-mail photos directly to the site. In fact, you can create a "moblog" on the fly by e-mailing go@blogger.com from your phone (they'll e-mail you back with log-in details so you can edit your blog later on, when you're at a computer). Posterous is another service that will let you set up a blog directly from your phone—e-mail post@posterous.com to set up a new blog or to add an existing one.
If you already have a blog and it doesn't accept posts by e-mail directly, you can e-mail images to your Flickr account and use the "Share This" link to post to most blogging platforms. Just set up a post-by-e-mail address at flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail and add the address to your iPhone's address book.
Find open Wi-Fi networks - If you have an iPhone, you don't need a separate dongle to find an open wireless connection for your laptop. Simply take out your iPhone, tap Settings, select WiFi, then open Choose a network to see which Wi-Fi networks are available wherever you are. Perfect for checking to see if it's worth hauling out and booting up your laptop in your local library or coffee shop, or for checking whether your home network is visible from that corner of the garage or basement where you're considering moving your desktop.
Want to find the nearest wireless access point wherever you are? Try searching for "wifi" in the Maps application. Google will plot the nearest hot spots around your location based on the GPS (or cell-phone tower location).
Give great speeches - Your presentation is in 10 minutes and you just realized that you forgot to print out your presentation notes. Don't want your laptop obscuring your face while you speak? Save your document with a large typeface in Word, e-mail it to your iPhone, and open the attachment on your phone. You can easily scroll through your presentation with a touch while you're talking.
Scan documents - The iPhone is no Canon Mark III, but it's pretty sweet for taking pictures of your friends or some cool scenery. Trouble is, its lack of a focus control makes it impossible to get clear close-up shots. Which is a shame considering there are services like Evernote and scanR that let you use the camera on your mobile phone as a scanner, even converting images into text or sending images as faxes.
What to do? Just put a magnifying glass or one of those credit-card-size magnifying sheets in front of the lens when taking close-up pictures. The improvement in the quality and clarity of your image will be stunning.
Take screenshots - Capturing screenshots from any application or from the home screen is easy on the iPhone. Hold down the Home key and click the lock/off button on the top of the unit and you're done. The screen will flash white, and your iPhone will make the same shutter snap sound you get when you take a photo. Your screenshot will be added to the Camera Roll under the Photos app.
Slim down your wallet - If you're like most people, your wallet contains far more cards than you use every day: grocery club cards, insurance cards, frequent flier cards, auto club cards, and who knows what else? Here's a cool idea: Scan or photograph these cards and store them on your iPhone instead. The screen is large and crisp enough that you can even scan barcodes from it—so if you scan, say, a grocery store customer loyalty card, you can simply hold the image of the barcode up to the barcode reader and get your sweet discounts. You might get some odd looks now and again, but your wallet—and your buttocks—will thank you for it.
Make it louder - If you forgot your headphones or want to share your discoveries with your friends, try this neat trick: Lay your iPhone across the top of a cup to boost the sound. Since the speaker is at the bottom of the iPhone, you need to lay it off-center so the speaker projects into the cup. You'll get a nice boost to the iPhone's normally tinny sound. For more casual sound-boosting that's still guaranteed to make you look like a schmo, try cupping your hand around the speaker-end to direct the sound toward your ears.
• Tap the Status bar at the top of the screen (where the clock usually is) to return instantly to the top of long pages.
• Hold a finger on a link in Safari to get a pop-up saying where the link goes.
• Tap the bottom left or right corner to scroll left or right.
• Tap with two fingers to zoom out in Maps.
• Drag inside text boxes with two fingers to scroll without scrolling the whole page.
• Double-click the Power/Lock button to send incoming calls straight to voice mail.
• Double-click the Home button in any app to bring up the iPod controls.
