The S stands for speed, and the 3G stands for the third generation, HSPA (High Speed Packet Access – wikipedia link) data network, which is also supposed to bring broadband-like speed to your iPhone’s internet connection. When you’re on the 3G network, you can tell by the little 3G symbol at the top of left of your iPhone’s menu, right beside the signal strength bars and the name of your carrier (AT&T, Rogers, O2, Orange, etc.).

There are several other symbols your iPhone might show instead of 3G, however, depending on the type of connection and reception available in your area and sometimes specific spot.

If you don’t have a 3G connection, whether your area doesn’t support it or you’re just indoors or behind an obstruction that’s preventing it, your iPhone might default down to a 2G connection, known as EDGE, (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution – Wikipedia link). That’s the little E symbol, and If we keep the same analogy, this is older, slower technology — dial-up to 3G’s broadband.

If you’re getting an E and you really think you should be getting 3G, try going to the Settings Icon and toggling Airplane Mode on and off. That should force your iPhone to re-connect with the network and give you the fastest speed available. Sometimes even moving to a different, less obstructed spot can make a big difference.

If even EDGE isn’t available, the iPhone will still try to connect via GPRS (General Packet Radio System – Wikipedia link) an even older, slower 2G protocol shown with an O symbol (for outside chance?). To stretch our analogy as thin as this signal, GRPS would be the ancient 24K modems.

Of course, if you have Wi-Fi enabled and connected, you’ll get the Wi-Fi fan symbol instead.

If you’ve turned all the radios off and gone into “Airplane Mode”, you’ll get the little airplane symbol and absolutely no connection to the internet whatsoever. (Turn Airplane Mode off — and your connections back on — via the Settings icon on your home screen.)

And yes, you can turn on Airplane Mode and still re-enable Wi-Fi if you really want to.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: iPhone Connection Speed Symbols from O to E to 3G (or an Airplane)

iPhone 3.0 features Calendar Subscriptions, where you can enter the URL for a shared calendar and near-instantly add it to your iPhone.

That’s all well and good to share a family or business calendar, but what about more wide-ranging ones? What about national holidays, religious events, movie release dates, sports team schedules? Luckily, Apple’s already made this simple for Mac OS X iCal users, and even more luckily it works just as simply for iPhone 3.0 users as well.

We’ll share how, after the break…

Adding Subscription Calendars

Just point Mobile Safari on your iPhone to: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars/. Apple provides categories for Most Recent, Most Popular, Alphabetical, Staff Picks, plus a handy search box. Once you find a calendar that interests you, click the Download link.

Your iPhone will ask if you want to subscribe (see image above), and once you confirm, will offer to take you straight to your calendar events to see what’s new.

Viewing Subscribed Calendars

Each subscription is given its own calendar in the iPhone Calendar App, so you can choose just that calendar to view. All views, month, day, and details are supported.

Removing Subscribed Calendars

Not all shared calendars are created — or maintained — equally. Movie Release Dates doesn’t seem to include June or July yet (making it rather useless at the moment), though national holidays and others seem quite up to date.

If you subscribe to a calendar that later disappoints, just head on over to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar. You’ll see all your subscriptions listed under Accounts. Choose the one you want to edit or remove, and hit Delete Account if it displeases you.

Share Your Favorites

If you have or find any great shared calendars, please drop a comment below and let us know about them!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.0 How To: Easily Subscribe to US Holidays, Sports Team Schedules, Movie Release Dates, and More!

Welcome to iPhone 101, where TiPb helps new iPhone users use their new iPhones — or just gives you a handy link to send to your new iPhone using friends.

This time we’re tackling something near and dear to every child-caring adult’s heart: how to resent your iPhone Home Screen to default. Because as we all know, you let your child at your iPhone, and they can switch around your icons — even blank your Home Screen — in no time flat (and yes, the above is a real screenshot of an iPhone after a 3 year old spent about 5 minutes on it…)

Luckily, there must be a lot of parents at Apple, because they’ve made it lickity-split simple to restore.

From the home screen, tap Settings (yeah, if you can find it — but at least they can’t delete that or any built-in application).

From Settings, hit General, then choose Reset.

From the Reset menu, choose Reset Home Screen Layout. When it asks you to confirm, tap the big red Reset Home Screen button.

And you’re done. Your iPhone’s icons will be back to the way Apple ships them… until your child gets a hold of them again!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Reset Your Home Screen Icons to Default

Confession: Jeremy can’t believe we’re posting this, but after a bunch of forum questions, email queries, and a mini Twitter ’splosion, we figured we’d put this up as a public service message to the Jailbreak community.

First: don’t panic.

Second: those strange little black icon badges that have suddenly popped up on your Phone, Email, iPod, and perhaps other apps? Yeah, that’s because you installed Backgrounder, and that’s how Backgrounder shows you which applications, built-in or user-enabled, are currently running background tasks (multitasking).

Third: enjoy.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Jailbreak 101: What Are Those Swirly Black Badges on Mail, Phone, iPod?

Welcome to iPhone 101, simple tips for novice iPhone users to help you take advantage of your new device.

Maybe your kid spends way too much time browsing the internet via Safari, uses the camera in ways that are not appropriate, or perhaps they went on a spending spree in the App Store and you didn’t know until your credit card bill came in the mail. Whatever the case may be, find out how to regain some parental control by enabling restrictions after the break!

Settings

Ok, you will want to begin to go into the settings.

General

Once you are in the settings, go directly to the general tab.

Restrictions

Tap the restrictions tab and once on that screen choose enable restrictions.

You will now be asked to enter a 4 digit passcode. Do not forget this passcode, there is no way to retrieve it, and a full restore (re-installation) of the iPhone is needed to reset it.

Restriction Options

After you have entered your passcode, you will now have the ability to restrict any of the functions you see on the screen. Without going through each and every option, lets just take a look at Safari. If you turn off Safari and head back to your home screen you will see that the icon is removed and there is no way possible to reach that application any more.

To re-enable a function like Safari, return to the restriction page, authorize with the 4 digit passcode you entered above, and turn it back on.

So there you have it folks, if there is any reason you need to restrict certain apps or features on your (or your child’s) iPhone, this is how you do it.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How To Set Up Parental Controls on Your iPhone

Welcome to iPhone 101, the best place for those of you who are new to the iPhone to learn the basics.

We all worry about misplacing our precious phones or, worse yet, having them stolen. Some may even worry about snoopers trying to read our private info when we’re not looking. In case one of these things happen, you should really consider protecting all of your personal data on the device. TiPb has got you covered, to see how to passcode lock your iPhone read on after the break!

From the homescreen, tap the Settings icon. From there you will want to press the General tab.

Once you are within the general settings tab you will see Passcode Lock is set to off.

Now tap Passcode Lock and you will be prompted to enter a four digit passcode.

After entering your four digit code you will now see the following options.

• Require Passcode: allows you to select a time period that has to pass before the lock is enabled. If you don’t want to have to enter your code too frequently but still want some protection, you can set this to 15 minutes or even 1 hour or more.

• Show SMS Preview: on by default, this shows incoming text messages on your homescreen. Turning this feature to off will only display “New Text Message” on the home screen, which can keep the identity of your texter safe from snooping eyes if that’s a concern.

• Erase Data: simply erases all data on your iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts. This is the nuclear option, but if you’re really worried about losing your iPhone and have really important data on it, it can be something to consider.

Once you have configured your settings as you see fit, tap your home button to exit and that’s all there is to it. You have successfully passcode locked your iPhone. It’s as simple as that.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Passcode Lock Your iPhone

Welcome to iPhone 101, a single point of success for new iPhone users, and for veterans who know new users and need a quick and helpful place to point them. This time Tekzilla Daily went and did the heavy lifting for iPhone beginners, with a quick how-to video showing Apple’s multi-touch gesture for “swipe to delete”.

In any app that supports it, such as email, SMS, or iPod, you can simply touch the item you want to delete, briskly swipe your finger horizontally across the item, and a red “delete” button will appear allowing you to banish the item from your iPhone forever.

It can be a little tricky at first. Too slow and you might open or launch the item instead. Too quick and it may ignore you. But after a few tries, you should be happily ditching anything you no longer feel the need to keep with you.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Swipe to Delete Email, SMS, or Media on your iPhone

Welcome to iPhone 101, TiPb’s single point of success for new iPhone users, and for veterans who know new users and need a quick and helpful place to point them. This time we’re going to take a look at how to personalize your iPhone with a different — even custom — wallpaper of your own choosing, including your own photos and artwork.

We’ll show you how, after the break.

Wallpaper Settings

Begin from your iPhone’s home screen. If you’re not on the home screen, just press the big button on the bottom of your iPhone, then tap the Settings icon (default location is on the first Home screen, right hand side in the middle). At the bottom of the Settings screen will be the Wallpaper option.

Tap on Wallpaper and a set of galleries will slide across into view.

The topmost gallery is chock full of Apple provided wallpapers, focused on organic imagery including flowers, insects, rocks, trees, etc., as well as famous works of art, and a few patterns. (See the screenshot at the top of this how-to)

Below the default gallery is a list topped off by your Camera Roll (any pictures you’ve taken with your iPhone camera), and Photo Library, which includes every other picture currently stored on your iPhone (synced from your PC or Mac via iTunes).

Lastly are all the individual photo galleries, if any, listed by name. This can be a quicker way to find a specific photo in your library, provided you remember in which gallery you’ve filed it.

Choosing Your Wallpaper

To pick your wallpaper, starting by choosing one of the photo galleries outlined above. This will bring up a series of thumbnails containing all the images in the chosen gallery. If there are too many thumbnails to fit on a single screen, you can swipe up or down to navigate through them.

When you find the photo or image you want, tap on it. A full screen preview will slide up.

From this screen, you can scale the image by touching two fingers to the screen and pinching them together (to shrink it) or spreading them apart (to grow it).

If the image is larger than the iPhone’s display (320 pixels wide by 480 pixels high in portrait mode), or you’ve zoomed in on it, you can also touch one finger to the screen and move it around to slide the image into exactly the right position (for example, to center a face in a photograph).

To return the image to it’s original size and re-center it, just double tap the screen.

Setting Your Wallpaper

When you’ve got the image just the way you want it, tap the Set Wallpaper button on the bottom right and the next time you wake your iPhone, your new wallpaper will leap up to greet you.

Quick Tip: Setting Your Wallpaper From the Photo App

We’ve shown you before how to email a picture from within the Photo viewer. The same process can be used to quickly set any picture you’re currently looking at as the default wallpaper, simply select the Use As Wallpaper option instead.

Looking for More Wallpapers?

Now that you know how to change your wallpaper, maybe you’re looking for some images to try out? Look no further than TiPb’s iPhone Forum, where our resident super-moderator Bad Ash kicked off a thread now containing a veritable gold-mine of wallpapers. And if you have any trouble, it’s the perfect place to ask questions and get some personalized help. You can even share some favorite wallpapers of your own!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Change Your iPhone Wallpaper

So you’ve mastered iPhone 101: How to Email a Photo from your iPhone, but you still have friends and family on other phones and they want MMS. One of the biggest gripes against the iPhone, of course, is the lack of MMS. But there is a work around.

Chances are if you are a member of the TiPb forums you may already know it. Either way, read on after the break and we’ll show you how!

To email a photo to another cell phone is a pretty easy, except the casual iPhone user or someone who just got their iPhone may have no idea it is even possible! Here’s how it works: instead of emailing a picture to a normal email address all you have to do is send it to the a cell phone MMS address. For example, 6305551234@pm.sprint.com. That’s all there is to it. The person receiving the picture will get it as a normal MMS message.

Not every carrier has the same MMS email address, so below I have supplied you with all of the major carriers addresses.

• Alltel – xxxxxxxxxx@message.alltel.com

• AT&T – xxxxxxxxxx@mms.att.net

• Boost Mobile – xxxxxxxxxx@myboostmobile.com

• Einstein PCS – xxxxxxxxxx@einsteinmms.com

• Sprint – xxxxxxxxxx@pm.sprint.com

• T-Mobile – xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net

• US Cellular – xxxxxxxxxx@mms.uscc.net

• Verizon Wireless – xxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com

• Virgin Mobile – xxxxxxxxxx@vmobl.com

• Nextel – xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.nextel.com

Bonus tip: To make it easier on yourself, be sure to add these email addresses to your contacts so you don’t always have to remember them. You can also let your friends know that if they want to get you an MMS message they can simply send it to the normal email address that you currently have set up on your iPhone and not your mobile phone number.

Enjoy!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How To Email a Photo From Your iPhone… as MMS!

Welcome to iPhone 101, our help and how-to series for brand new and beginner iPhone users. If you’re moving up from a feature phone, you may be surprised to discover one feature the iPhone is missing: MMS. Whether it’s still coming, inexplicably omitted, or a callous way to force users into platform and device independent protocols, currently the only way to send a photo from your iPhone is via good old Email. After the break, we’ll show you how!

To send a photo, you need to be in either the Photo application or the Camera Roll inside the Camera application.

If you’re in the Photo app, first choose the album that contains your photo. If you’re in the Camera Roll, you’re already good to go.

Either tap the photo you want to send, or swipe sideway to browse through the album and find it. Once you have your photo, if you don’t see the menu bar already, tap the screen once to bring it up. On the bottom left, tap the Send Photo icon to slide up your options.

Choose the Email Photo. (If you have MobileMe, you’ll see you can also send your Photo directly to your web gallery — more on that in a future post).

Your photo will shrink a bit and a blank email message will slide up behind it.

Tap on the To: field and start typing to bring up email addresses from your contacts. As as many as you like. You can also tap on the CC/BCC field to copy additional contacts or add blind copies, and to change your Sent From: address if you have more than one email account set up on your iPhone.

Tap Subject to give your email a title, and tap above the photo in the body of the email to add any descriptions or messages you want to go along with your Photo.

When you’re happy with your email, hit Send and presto! your email is on its way.

Note: Presently you can only send one photo via email at a time, so you’ll have to wait until it finishes sending the email to repeat the process (how long this takes depends on the speed of your connection: fast for WiFi, fast-ish for 3G/HSPA, and slooooow for 2G/EDGE). The email option will be ghosted out while your iPhone is busy, so if you see it available, you’ll know you’re good to go to send the next Photo.

Let us know how it works for you, and if have any extra tips for new users, please drop them in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Email a Photo from Your iPhone