Secret New iPhone Features
One of the nice things about the iPhone is that, like the iPod, it can be easily updated by Apple with new features and bug fixes. When such new software is available, you are notified the next time you plug your iPhone into your computer and the new stuff is downloaded into the phone automatically.
Apple issued its first iPhone update this week. And, while the company billed it as merely a bug-fix and security-improvement patch, in fact it has several small feature improvements that Apple hasn’t announced or documented. These aren’t the big items, like an instant-messaging program, which may come later. But they make the phone nicer to use. Here are a few of these hidden new features I discovered after performing the update:
- In the Favorites list in the Phone module, the iPhone’s equivalent of a speed-dial list, you can now have 50 entries instead of 20. This matches the capacity of the quick-dial list on the Palm OS version of the Treo.
- In the email module, you can now automatically BCC yourself on every message you send, allowing you to get a copy without revealing to the sender that you are doing so. In the original iPhone software build, this option (in the Settings menu under “Mail”) only allowed you to CC yourself, which told the sender you were getting a copy and cluttered the address fields.
- The iPhone can now play music through many previously incompatible car adapters and other external speakers originally designed for the iPod. In the first software build, the phone wasn’t recognized as a music source by some of these devices, which get the music through the iPod connector on the bottom rather than the headphone jack. For instance, after I did the update, I was suddenly able to route the iPhone’s music output through my car iPod adapter, which the iPhone had previously recognized only as a charger, even though it acted as both a charger and an audio adapter for my iPod.
I’m sure readers have found some other secret features in this first iPhone update. Let me know what they are.
- Email me at mossberg@wsj.com.
Comments
Another one is the longer Passcode Lock period. You now have choices of 10, 15, 30 mins and 1 hr.
If I remember correctly, the orig 1.0 had only immediately and 1 min
Posted by Thomas Han at August 3rd, 2007 at 2:35 pmI have noticed fewer crashes of Safari and Ipod running at the same time, and less crashes of Safari in general while reading large pages.
Posted by Jon Mills at August 3rd, 2007 at 6:09 pmThe most useful new feature I found was that my hosted Exchange IMAP account now shows and lets me manage ALL of my folders. Prior to this update I only was able to see the Inbox, Drafts, Sent, and Trash. This alone makes the update worth it to me.
Posted by Matthew Miller at August 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 pmOther fixes:
*Wifi networks with security enabled no longer require you to specify whether it’s an ASCII password or HEX passcode.
*Bluetooth no longer drops connection to many in-car BT handsfree setups (Audi and others).
*IMAP no longer requires a “path prefix” field to display folders. Also, it no longer crashes the Mail application.
*Album view no longer gets “stuck” in a specific album if you select one, and then hit the “home” button.
Documented some of these at http://BrandonLive.com
Posted by Brandon Paddock at August 4th, 2007 at 1:10 pmthe alpine iDA-X001 still doesn’t work with the iPhone
Posted by ben nelson at August 4th, 2007 at 2:22 pmA small nuisance that 1.0.1 fixed was in the calculator program. Before, anytime you launched the calculator and started tapping numbers, the numbers would append to whatever number was still on the screen from the last use.
Now, when you launch and start tapping, the numbers replace what’s on the screen. Subtle, but previously annoysome.
Jim
Posted by Jim Pollock at August 4th, 2007 at 2:42 pmIn the Enter Passcode screen, there is a button on the lower left hand side for “Emergency Call”.
Previously, if you had the iPhone passcode enabled, you had to log in first to make a call.
Posted by joy larkin at August 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pmVery nice info thanks!
Posted by Andrew Hillman at August 4th, 2007 at 8:33 pmGreat to see Apple committed to providing updates.
Posted by Neil Anderson at August 5th, 2007 at 8:39 amIn Safari, JavaScript alerts now flip sideways with the rest of the webpage when you tilt the phone.
Posted by Brandon Kelly at August 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pmI was hoping the Yahoo Mail send bug was fixed. Here is the problem. I have an ATT Yahoo email account with an @sbcglobal.net address. These accounts are supposed to work with the push mail feature if you activate them by choosing the YMail option in the Activate Account feature on the iPhone. When you do that you don’t have to add the normal pop and smtp server information. However, myself any many others cannot get this to work properly. I can receive email properly but I cannot send email. The iPhone goes through the motion of sending.. you see the progress bar and hear the normal send email swoosh sound. However, the mail in not sent. I’ve tested this numerous times and it just doesn’t work. Yahoo mail in general is a horrible mess. The servers are extremely slow and time out frequently. From what I read on dslreports.com this is a nationwide issue. If anyone here can help I’d sure appreciate it.
One other note… if you set up the account using the Other feature and enter the pop and smtp servers the mail works as expected, both send and receive. However, when you do that, you lose the push email feature.
Posted by Charles Besecker at August 5th, 2007 at 6:43 pmI don’t know if this is new or I just figured it out. When viewing web pages with embedded windows, like google reader, you can use two fingers to scroll the window. It makes google reader somewhat usable with the iPhone.
Posted by David Schmelzer at August 5th, 2007 at 8:20 pmBefore the update, I could almost never successfully log on to a public wi-fi network. After the update, it works every time. Hooray!
Posted by Steve Pilon at August 5th, 2007 at 8:48 pmHere are some more undocumented fixes/improvements:
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/200.....tery-more/
Posted by Benjamin Walters at August 5th, 2007 at 9:38 pmJeez Walt, my biggest issue is STILL… It would be nice to actually grab my iPhone outta my pocket or purse when it rang in a public place & be able to hear (through the speaker) who the hell was on the other end! Come on Kids! I can hear Ali-G & Jarvis Cocker on You-Tube better than I can hear my friends! Did Steve blow his ear-drums out at too many concerts back in the 70’s or what? What the hell is he worried about? He’s not a centegenarian yet! Sheesh!
Posted by Molly McCarron at August 8th, 2007 at 4:44 amWhat are all new iphone enthusiasts doing with their existing ipods? Uing their 80GB iPods as coasters?
Posted by Navin Sharma at August 19th, 2007 at 6:08 amI wonder if the proliferation of iPods isn’t keeping users from purchasing iPhones. It’s sure keeping me from going out and buying one.
Should I give my ipod to my kid so I can buy a iphone? No, because they already have their own ipods.
Any thoughts?
At a trade show in LA I docked my iPhone to an Octavio loudspeaker, awesome! Massive overkill, these things are insane!
Posted by Grant Neville at August 30th, 2007 at 6:39 am