Cool Gadget | PDA Phone

Our quick guide to the OS X software gives you a glimpse into the mobile operating system and what it can do for you. 

Making the jump to an iPhone

If anything, Apple’s nailed it with the user interface on the iPhone. Unlike most handsets which are typically littered with an array of controls, the iPhone has only one hardware button on the front that brings the user back to the main menu. So those making the jump to an iPhone cold may find it awkward at the beginning. 

The interface is based on the concept of using sliders, switches, buttons, finger gestures and multiple home screens. Almost all input relies on the capacitive touchscreen which is capable of multitouch. This opens up a new form of interaction between the device and the user. You drag your finger down on the screen to scroll up like you would with a physical page. Bringing two digits closer together or further apart lets you zoom out or in of a picture or a Web page. The physics of the interface that mimic a real environment and unmatched fluidity of the operating system deliver one of the best touchscreen experiences in the market. 

Depending on where you are buying the iPhone, the handset is sold exclusively via selected telco operators in some countries. And one of the things Apple has successfully done is to integrate the smartphone into an ecosystem of services, from iTunes to the App Store. So without further ado, let’s get started with the iPhone. 

To get you started with your iPhone, we’ve compiled a quick checklist of five things to know about the OS X software, along with details on how to install new applications, transfer multimedia content, surf the Web, send emails and work with Office documents. 

Before you hop onto the OS X mobile software, here’s a quick checklist of five things you should know about the operating system. 

1. You need to connect to iTunes to activate the iPhone

To activate Apple’s smartphone, you’ll need to connect the handset to iTunes on a Mac or PC via the supplied cable. For Macs, they should run on OS X v10.4.10 or later. For PCs, Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 are supported. iTunes 7.7 or later is also required. Once the activation is completed, you can synchronize content between the desktop and handset. 

2. Reset the iPhone

If the phone becomes unresponsive, hold down the Sleep/Wake button at the top and press the Home button together until the Apple logo appears. This will reset the device. To force quit an application, press and hold the Home button for 6 seconds. 

3. Selecting text and accessing shortcuts

You’ve just typed a whole bunch of text and realized you made a mistake in the middle of the paragraph. Holding your finger over the area you wish to edit brings up a magnifying glass that helps you place your cursor more precisely. For Web pages that have separate text boxes with their own navigation bars, you can zoom in, then scroll with two fingers instead of one. This lets you navigate within the box without affecting the overall pageview. To enter punctuation quickly, tap on the Punctuation button, then slide your finger across to the desired symbol. To silence and incoming call, press the Sleep/Wake button. 

4. Applications and home screens

Tapping and holding your finger over an application activates the “jiggle”. This lets you rearrange the apps on the home screen. You can have up to 16 programs on one page and up to nine home screens. The permanent dock houses four apps and the tiny dots above it show you the number of standby panels you have. 

5. Apple iPhone operating system 3.0

The next version of the iPhone operating system will be available in Q3. It will be a free upgrade for iPhone users, while iPod touch owners will have to pay a fee for the upgrade. The new software will introduce features like system-wide search, copy-and-paste functions, MMS, push notifications, in-app micropayments, enhanced GPS, P2P networking and others to the handset.

Setting up a smartphone for the first time can be a daunting task. Fortunately, most handsets come with a setup wizard to help you along. Once you get past the initial setup, you’ll want to install applications, transfer multimedia content onto the device, surf the Web, send emails and, perhaps, do a bit of work. The following sections will guide you along with these tasks. 

Installing applications

Installing applications onto your iPhone is relatively easy once you’ve registered for a free iTunes account. You may be required to have a credit card to register. This is to enable the billing of paid applications on the App Store. 

You can search and download third-party applications via the built-in App Store program on the iPhone or from iTunes. If you are using the former for the first time, you might need to enter your iTunes account information. Within the program, you can view a list of featured apps, browse categories, see which are the most popular apps, search and check if there are any updates to the apps you’ve downloaded. Tapping on a particular entry lets you find out more about the app including screenshots and user reviews. Tap on Free followed by Install, or the Price and then Buy Now to download the app to your iPhone. Downloading is done over the air, but if the file size is above 10MB, you’ll need to use Wi-Fi. 

If you’re on a Mac or PC, you can also use iTunes to browse the iTunes Store. After you’ve downloaded the apps, you can sync either all or select a few applications to install on the iPhone. 

Transferring music and videos

The iPhone synchronizes music and video with iTunes. The first thing you’ll need to do is get your multimedia content onto iTunes. If your music is in a common format like MP3 or WMA, you simply drag-and-drop the files into the iTunes library. For WMA, iTunes will automatically convert it into an iTunes-friendly AAC format. If the iTunes Store is supported in your country, you can also purchase music online. The iPhone supports AAC, protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV files. 

The same goes for transferring videos, but this involves a slightly more difficult process as you’ll have to deal with different video formats and codecs. You’ll probably need to use a converter software before you can drag the videos into your iTunes library. The iPhone supports H.264 and MP4 file formats. 

If the music you have comes with Digital Rights Management (DRM), you’ll need to go through one more step before you can import the files onto iTunes. An easy way to strip DRM is to burn your DRM-locked file (e.g. WMA) using a software (e.g. Windows Media Player) onto a music CD. You can then use iTunes to rip the CD into a digital format like MP3, though you may lose some quality in the process. 

Surfing the Web

In countries where the iPhone is sold exclusively via selected telco operators and SIM locked, the network settings should have been pre-configured. So you just need to fire up Safari on the iPhone to get on the Web. 

However, if the iPhone you have is not SIM locked and you wish to use the services from another telco other than the one you’ve purchased the iPhone from, you’ll need to configure the APN setting. You can find this under Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network. For example, the APN for MobileOne is sunsurf and for StarHub is shwap or shwapint. The telcos should be able to provide the APN name if you ask for it. 

If you don’t have a data plan, which is unlikely since you’ll probably have to subscribe to one when you purchase the iPhone, you can still use Wi-Fi to surf the Web. You can toggle this on in the Settings. 

The Safari browser on the iPhone doesn’t support Flash, and browsing videos on YouTube, for example, requires the preinstalled YouTube player app. Other than bookmarking your favorite sites, you can also save them as a Web clip on the homepage of the iPhone. This looks like a typical app, but tapping on it brings you directly to the page on Safari. Google is the search engine for Safari by default, though you can switch to Yahoo! in the Settings for the browser. From there, you can also turn on/off JavaScript, plug-ins, block pop-ups and configure the Cookie settings. 

Sending emails

One of the complaints with the first-generation iPhone was the lack of support for Microsoft Exchange, which made the handset less appealing as a corporate-enabled smartphone. So one of the most important features on the iPhone 3G is support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Other mail providers supported include MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL and industry-standard POP3/IMAP accounts. Images are displayed inline with the email text, plus there are built-in readers for PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Apple’s iWork suite of programs. 

Setting up a Gmail and Yahoo! Mail account requires you to key in your usual login information. If you are configuring a Microsoft Exchange account, you’ll need to know the server address and domain of your network. If your company uses Microsoft Exchange 2007, these information would be entered automatically. Note that you can have only one Exchange ActiveSync account on each iPhone. You can, however, use MobileMe and Exchange together on the same device only if the former is a paid service. 

Push email, contacts and calendar are enabled on the iPhone, though that drains the battery considerably. For better battery life, you can choose to Fetch every 15, 30 minutes, hour or manually. 

Reading office documents

One of the complaints with the first-gen iPhone was the lack of support for Microsoft Exchange which made it less appealing as a corporate-enabled sThe iPhone has built-in readers for reading Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It also supports Apple’s own iWork suite including Numbers, Pages and Keynote. However you can’t edit or create new Office documents. To do that, you’ll need to purchase apps such as the Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite. 

 
[by Damian Koh]