Adding CC or BCC to Mail.

• Click on the CC/BCC field.
• Tap the field if there is no plus icon.
• Tap the plus icon.
• Tap a name in your Contacts.

Spotlight

The iPhone Spotlight. You can search Contacts, Email (including those on your server with Mobile Me), Notes and your entire iPhone:

• To search your iPhone, drag your Home screen right. For searching from individual apps, drag the screen down to reveal the search window.
• Start to enter the name.
• When you see it on the list, tap on it.

Saving Images

You can save any image you can view in Safari or Mail to your camera roll. This will be synced to your computer with your other camera images the next time you sync your iPhone:

• Tap and hold on the image.
• Tap the Save Image button.

The image can be emailed, added to a contact, used as wallpaper or added to your MobileMe gallery.

Maps: Your Other Search Engine

Maps uses the power of Google in a convenient package for some useful searches. Instead of just returning information, it returns geography. You can search the following:

• Zip Codes
• Addresses
• Intersections
• Businesses, like burgers spokane
• Places like mt rushmore
• GPS coordinates
• Airport codes
• Sometimes even works like white pages.

At the moment WiFi search isn't useful. It's easier to search a city and business that you know has free WiFi, like Dayton Panera. When you get a hit, tap the blue arrow. This gives you a tappable link to the Web site in Safari, directions plotting, an option add a Maps Bookmark for easy call up by the Bookmark button, the option to add the address to a contact.

Save your Addresses

Maps gives you an option to save an address with a contact. Once you find an address in Maps, tap the blue arrow and choose either Create New Contact or Add to Existing Contact. This can save you some typing.

Once in a contact, this becomes a tappable field that will bring up the address in Maps. This is a fast way to get directions to anyone in Contacts.

Contacts: iPhone's Database

Contacts is actually a good, simple database app. It syncs with your computer, backs up, allows desktop entry and sorts automatically.

But you're wondering how you would use it. I have been miffed for years that I haven't had a decent electronic recipe book on my desktop or palmtop. The problem was solved by using Contacts. A sample entry would have "Recipe: Cheerio Pie" in the name field and the recipe in the Notes field. This way I don't have to weed through the Cheerio Pie entry to get to the email address of Charles Wright of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band to thank him yet again for the contagious Express Yourself. All the recipes are together for easy flicking.

Having desktop ability allows me to cut and paste the recipes into Contacts. I also can just include URLs of recipes on the Web. I tap on the link in contacts and it opens in Safari on iPhone.

Notes works similarly. You have the disadvantage of having to type all recipes in via the iPhone keyboard, but you gain the ability to email them from your phone.

Instant Newsletter

This stunt allows you to create a newsletter template that can be stored in an email address in Contacts. Just tap the address and an email pops with the recipients, subject line and body text ready to go. The trick works because iPhone follows the mailto: URI scheme. The template can be entered and edited on your iPhone. but it's easier in the destop Contacts app and then sync to your iPhone. Create a new contact and title it My Newsletter or whatever. Open a new email address and enter:

me@myselfandi.com,him@himself.com,
her@herself.com?subject=All About Me Newsletter&body=By me and only me. All rights reserved. Suggestions?: me@myselfandi.com. Or call anytime at 800-555-1212. I have nothing better to do.

This creates an email with 3 recipients, a subject line and some disclaimer copy that would be included in each email. The return email address is usually recognized as a link in the recipient's email and the phone number will be clickable to dial it on an iPhone. All that's left to do is type the body. The rules:

• No line breaks in this mess. You'll have to insert them later.
• As shown here, follow each address with a comma. Not sure how many addresses you can include. I have tried 20.
• Don't delete the & when replacing with your newsletter title.
• Everything after the &body= will be inserted into body copy.

Avoid Toxic Numbers

Contacts are just as useful for avoiding those you don't want to talk to. The Do Not Call Registry does not exempt you from certain numbers, namely ones that you have given your number to. So your credit card companies can call you up and try to sell you something or ask you to take a survey that will eat into your minutes. A simple cure for this is to enter the offending number in your Contacts and assign it the image of a skull and crossbones that you can easily find on Google images. Now when they call you know who it is and see the warning sign. It's your personal Do Not Answer Registry.

Bookmarking w/ Contacts

Your Contacts application, whether on Mac or PC, allows you to enter URLs. If this isn't an option when you edit a contact, you probably just need to enable it in Preferences or Options. In Contacts on your iPhone, these become active links you can click on and open pages in Safari. Sometimes these are easier to find using Contacts since Contacts are alphabetical.

Contact Photo From Group Shot

If you have a group photo taken with iPhone or synced to your iPhone photo library and the faces are of a reasionable size, you can zoom in on individual faces for their contact photo.

• View a photo from your Camera Roll or Photo Library.
• If the controls are not visible tap the screen once.
• Tap the Share button on the bottom left. (It's the one with the arrow coming out of the photo.)
• Tap Assign to Contact.
• Choose their name from your Contacts list.
• Double tap on the image to enlarge it.
• Drag the image to fit it into the square. Pinch in if you have to shrink it a little.
• Tap Set Photo.

Contact Quick Photo

Your iPhone camera has a "quick mode" just for shooting a Contact photo. Get in the habit of shooting a photo when you meet someone and add them to your Contacts. Once you have their contact infomation entered:

• Tap Add Photo/Take Photo.
• Shoot the subject from about 6 ft. away. They won't look distorted by the lens like they do when shot close up.
• Hold the green camera button and release it to take the image.
• Drag the image up or down to move or scale by pinching out. Make sure the person fills the square frame.
• Tap Set Photo.

Note that this image is only kept for the Contact and is not saved in your camera roll. You can also use images or existing photos that you've take with the camera or have downloaded to your iPod:

• While viewing the photo tap the leftmost button on the bottom of the image. (The photo with the arrow coming out of it.)
• Choose Assign to Contact.
• Pick the person from your Contacts lists.

Punctuation Sort Order

Those wanting to use Contacts for more than just contacts will find it useful to work with punctuation characters. Insert one before similar entries and they will cluster together. These help you use Contacts more like a database. The following can be used as the first character of your entries and will appear in this order in the 123 area at the bottom of your contacts list.

$ - # : ! , / ; & @ ? ' % ^ * + = \ | ~ < > [] .

If you only need one or two separate accentuators, - / ' + ~ . are less distracting than others. If you'd like to distinguish recipe entries from beer rating entries, just put - for recipe entries and + for beer entries.

Become a Better Sort

Contacts' Search feature is great, but there are other tricks that make sorting, finding and functioning easy.

• Use Groups to categorize your contacts for easier finding. Add groups to your desktop address book and then add them to your iPhone through iTunes>Your iPhone>Info on your desktop.
• Sync only the groups you need in iTunes. I have a few large groups that I really don't need to carry with me and don't want them mucking up my contacts.
• To add a new contact to a specific group on your iPhone, go to that group and press the + button there.
• Integrate multiple entries for the same person. If you transferred numbers to your address book from a SIM card, you may have multiple entries per person which slows the scrolling process.
• Use a contact like a CIA file on a person. You can add fields, like Web links, nicknames, phonetics, job, title, department, birthday, anniversary, and the very informative note. Notes can be very long.
• You can change both the sort and display order. Home/Settings/Phone. Keeping both set to the same thing, either first or last, is usually less confusing.
• If you want to show the company name instead of individual, set the company name priority in your desktop address book. They'll show in your iPhone after syncing.

You can also use Contacts as a launch pad for the rest of your apps. From a contact, you can call, send email, text, and call up their site in Safari. If you tap a street address, your iPhone will find it in Google maps.

Automate Your Dialing

iPhone can do card calls, enter phone passwords or even automatically navigate it's way through voicemaze.

• Add the number to your Contacts.
• Press the cursing characters key +*#.
• You now see a pause button. Each Pause of two seconds second is represented by a comma.

Make the call manually before hand and time your pauses. If you regularly call a number where you have to press one, then five, then...this can save you a lot of time.