Fascinating to open a note and see a link. Even more fascinating is what the link is. "place overnight and gave it 24." Turns out that my iPhone thinks this is an address and opens the location of a nearby hotel in Maps. Other links supported are the standard: email, urls and phone numbers. Put these in your notes and they're tappable and call up email, the browser or dial the number in question. So now you can type a list of links and click on them.
Showing posts with label phone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phone. Show all posts
Notes Supports Links
V-Moda Vibe Duo Headset
The Vibe Duo
But then after some questionable practices of GE Moneybank with my PayPal Plus credit card I decided I really didn't want to lose anymore money to them and wanted to dump the card. That left me with a bunch of PayPal reward points that needed to be cashed in pronto. (I guess I should note that I am a big fan PayPal and that my only gripe with them ever is their judgment of who to work their credit card through.) Most of the things I currently needed I couldn't find quickly at places that took PayPal. V-Moda did, so I thought I'd give the phones a try for free.
I didn't like them at first (maybe that was just prejudism of the hype) but they grew on me. The buds are so small, they're hard to get in and out of your ears. This was a pain at first, but it also makes them among the few buds I've ever tried that actually stay in my ears. Another problem is that the buds have no friction-absorbing tube on the earpiece that covers the cloth cord. This makes them harder to insert and remove, plus it causes a lot of conductive noise when the cords rub against clothes. The have to be worn especially lose to avoid this. Another complaint is that the tubular switch design makes finding the answer switch harder than the buds that come with the iPhone. Enough complaining. That's really all small stuff compared to what really matters.
The sound? Admittedly it's decent. If I had to be extremely picky over a pair of hundred dollar buds, I would say that the extreme high end is crisp, but a touch distorted. The bass is solid and the range seems un-colored which is normally a problem in lower-priced earbuds. They don't claim to be noise canceling, but rather "noise isolating". Whatever, they do a decent job of removing outside noise. I can no longer hear people begging me for change on the street.
These are the first buds I have ever had that have an all-metal construction. I think this keeps them from absorbing vibrations like plastic buds and helps them transfer the bossy bass response. While I am convinced the cord will eventually short, it looks like the buds will last a long time and even stand up to a good stepping-on.
The fit is the best I've had in a pair of buds. I really can't tell they're in, despite the fact that they weigh more. They really can be worn for hours. They come with 6 sets of earpads: 3 in 2 different colors. You also get a cheap, but useful case. For the fashion conscious the Duo comes in three colors, including Nero which matches the iPhone colors perfectly.
Bottom line: If you need buds with a mic there are currently two options, the Duo and the buds that come with your iPhone. The pricetag is expensive, but don't let the fashion talk scare you away if you want something better than the static quo. I'd give them a 4 out to 5 for sound (quality skewed partly by the expectation for the cost.) I'd give them 5 for fit. Apple Store customers give them a 3 overall
UPDATE: Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4vi
Clandestine Calling
Don't want to be identified when calling? To turn off your caller ID: Home>Settings>Phone>Show My Caller ID>OFF.
Who's Calling?
If you've tried the reverse phone lookups online, you know that they can be surprising useless. So many numbers are blocked that you seldom get a match.
But your iPhone already has it's own number detective. After you've received a call from a number not in Contacts, tap Recents and the the blue arrow. Your iPhone will reveal the state and larger cities where the calls are from based on the Area Code. You can do the same in voicemail to help narrow down who might have left you a message.
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.
Skype on iPhone
Naw, don't get too excited yet. It's not what you think. Yes you can call out to any phone in the world on your iPhone through Skype. But you it still counts against your phone minutes. IM+ for Skype Webware does the clever stunt of calling the other party and then conferencing in your iPhone. So the call both counts against your minutes and also counts against your Skypeout minutes. So if you're calling within your own country, this actually will cost you more than using your iPhone.
But if you make a lot of international calls, you can save a lot, since it's technically an in-country call for your iPhone. Normally international calls on your iPhone cost you a lot more. And if you do most of your calls at night and on the weekend, there's no danger of eating into your minutes. Currently you can get a free trial, but the company plans to charge soon. But the $25 lifetime fee could be repaid the first international call you make.
Of course, this costs where Skype-to-Skype on your computer doesn't. But it does give you a mobile version of Skype when away from your desktop. The service also offers Skype messaging, which appears to be free and does not require you to have Skypeout.
- Go to http://s4iphone.com/index_iphone.jsp
- Set your Skype name, password, country and iPhone number and sign in.
- Your Skype contacts will show up. Click on one and you can call or IM. You can also enter numbers to call.
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.
Conference Calling
Apple has done a good job of making this simple. If you do this with your BT headset or iPhone Earbuds it makes it even easier as you don't have to keep pulling the phone away from your ear.
- Make the first call. Tell them to chill.
- Press Add Call.
- Make the second call. Tell them to chill too.
- Tap Merge Calls.
- Tap Add Call and repeat the process for more calls.
Adding Ringtones
You can add your own ringtones made from any song you have burned from a CD. This includes iTunes store protected files that you have burned to audio CD.
- Click on the track in your iTunes library to highlight it.
- Play the track and note the times where you'd like the clip to start and stop.
- Press ⌘-i to open the information pane.
- Choose Options and change the start and stop times. Make sure their boxes are checked.
- Click OK.
- From the menu choose Advanced>Convert Selection to AAC.
- Highlight the track in your library. It will have a much shorter length than the original.
- Drag this track to your desktop.
- Delete the shortened track from your iTunes library.
- Click once on the file name of the track on your desktop. Click again. Change the extention from m4a to m4r.
- Click on a blank area of desktop.
- Click Use m4r.
- Drag the m4r track from your desktop back to the iTunes icon on your dock.
- Connect your iPod and select it from the Library list.
- Click on the Ringtones Tab.
- Check the Sync Ringtones tab.
Improving Reception
If you're having phone reception problems it could be how you hold the phone. Your body does a wonderful job of absorbing cell signals. There's a good possibility that your hand is blocking the signal. Look at the back of your iPhone. Go ahead. Turn it over now. I'll wait.
Back? The area at the bottom of your phone is where your antenna is. So instead of holding your phone with your hand cupped over the antenna, grip it more at the top. When using Edge or 3G for sending an email or loading a Web page, turn the phone upside down and hold it at the bottom. Laugh, but it can improve data speed by 33% or more.
If the phone is in your pocket or in a holster around your waist, the signal may weaken. If you're using the ear buds or Bluetooth on a call, hold the phone away from our body or set it on a non-metal table during troublesome calls.
Also, the signal seems like it's dipping in high use areas because so many people are using cell service there. When most of the ATT connections in that area are in use, your signal may seem to weaken.
Indoors you get a better reception away from metal. Going to a window on the highest floor often works. But in an all-metal building you may even get better reception in the center of the building.
When plugged into a cord or the dock reception tends to improve. The theory is that the USB cable acts as an antenna extender.
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