Speaking of iPhone 3GS accessibility features, it looks like Apple is improving them in iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 by adding a new “triple click” option to the home button to toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, and Ask (which then will pop up a menu offering Turn VoiceOver On, Turn Zoom On, Turn White on Black On).

Kudos to Apple for not only doing a great job implementing the various accessibility features in iPhone 3GS, but for continuing to improve them via forthcoming firmware.

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iPhone 3.1 Beta 2: Triple Click Home for Voice Over, White on Black, or Ask Menu

Design

Griffin’s Clarifi case is very similar in design to my previous case review, the Case-Mate Dockster in the sense that it is a dockable, two-piece case solution. However the Clarifi goes a step further to ensure you take great photos; more on the photo part later. For now, what is the rest of the design like?

The case is plastic with a smooth “middle section” and the top quarter and bottom quarters have some sort of grippy plastic, kind of like grippy paint on the Treo 750, but it is more plastic than paint. Either way, it adds the needed grip when holding your iPhone 3G. You have all of the expected ports open for access; bottom, top and side for all of your buttons. The bottom quarter slides right off exposing the Apple 30-pin connector to place in your cradle if need be. I really like the designs that implement this, it is very handy of you own a cradle.  Of course if you just plug in with a cable, you don’t need to remove the bottom. The part that sets this case aside from other cases is the sliding lens that goes over the camera, it allows for crisper images up-close that is really noticeable with text (see screens at the bottom of the page for a couple of examples).

Daily Use

The slim case allows the iPhone 3G to slip right in your pocket and the grippy plastic is not too grippy where you can’t pull it back out of your pant pocket. I have used cases like this in the past and it can be very frustrating. I have found all of the ports easily accessible and did not encounter any real issues. Docking is a breeze, you simply pull off the bottom of the case and place in your cradle; done, it is really that easy. So the case sounds great so far, but it has something a little extra for ya…

The lens.

Yes, this case has a tiny lens that slides over the iPhone 3G camera lens. But Chad, why would I need such a thing? Well, have you ever tried to take a picture of something up-close with the iPhone? Perhaps a business card or text in a magazine, newspaper or book you might want to reference later? If you have then you know exactly what I am talking about. The iPhone camera lacks any sort of close-up auto focus functionality. So, when trying to take pictures of objects up-close, they become blurry. What the Clarifi cases does is rectify this issue by simply placing a slide lens over the camera, it works like a pair of glasses. Before the Clarifi lens, up-close pictures were blurry, now they are “clear” or clarified if you will (sorry, I couldn’t help myself there).

Conclusion

I think this is one of my favorite cases to date! It is basically the Case-Mate Dockster but no leather, and added clarifying lens! For some people, the lens may not be a big deal, but I use Evernote a lot and this tool is very handy to have when taking pictures on the go to be reviewed later; such as a business card, etc. If you need a slim case that’s durable and has the added benefits that I describe here, then the Griffin Clarifi is for you! One of my favorite cases!

Pros:

• Awesome camera magnifier
• It is dockable!
• Grippy plastic on the top and bottom
• Sturdy plastic supportive frame
• Thin
• All ports are very easily accessible

Cons:

• I really can’t find any pertinent negatives with this case
• Lacks variety of colors, currently black-only

TiPb’s Rating:

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Review: Griffin Clarifi for iPhone 3G

…Or is it just happy to see Brando’s new iPhone 3G Telescope case?

Sorry.

While it won’t earn any marks for stealthy good looks, this 6x zoom, which comes integrated into a clear case (for support, no doubt) may just get the conversation going… if not the lawsuits, arrest warrants, Gitmo, etc…

Want it? Brando HK has it for $19.

(via Gizmodo)

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Is That a Zoom-Lens On Your iPhone…

Once I finally trained myself to no longer reflexively reach for a stylus on my iPhone, it truly hit me that the world was at my fingertips (warning: pun alert). Flipping through photo albums with the flick of my finger just doesn’t get old. Pinching text and photos to fit on the screen or expanding the same with my thumb and index finger was intuitive from the time my iPhone came out of the box.

I like the little things, like tapping the very top of the screen to return to the top of a web page after scrolling down for miles. Conversely, it would be nice to have a similar mechanism for instantly jumping to the bottom, eh?

Read on for more Tapping, Scrolling,

Double-tapping is a great way to instantly expand the image size in Mobile Safari. It’s easier on the eyes to read some of the smaller text or images. Then, just a quick double-tap again and everything shrinks back to the original size. Simple and easy, right at (er, under) your fingertips.

If you haven’t guessed by now, this week’s Tip is all about the fingertips. Some web sites contain lists of information that are seemingly difficult to access when surfing on your iPhone. If it’s a scrollable list, you may have noticed that when you use your fingertip, you end up scrolling the entire page instead of the area within the page that you wish to scroll instead. Fortunately, there IS an answer. It’s far from the answer to the ultimate question (42, right? ahem.), but it’s the answer for scrolling lists within a web site.

With TWO (2) fingers, held closely together, you now have the power to scroll a list within a site. In this manner, you should be able to scroll a list within a site without scrolling down in the site itself. Who knew your fingertips held such power?

Now, for an added bonus this week. When I’m scrolling down in a site that is poorly formatted for my iPhone (or any mobile device), sometimes I mistakenly drift to the side and experience side-scrolling, which can be annoying. A simple fix to this is scroll with your fingertip on the far right edge of your screen (photo courtesy of artilleryunit.com/blog). You are pretty much guaranteed an elimination of side-scrolling if you use this method. Give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by again this week for the Tip o’ the Week, a week that is truly a Tip about tips!

Disclaimer: Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and in the spirit of being punny, don’t forget to tip your writer… er, waiter).

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Tip O’ The Week: Fingertip Tricks for Scrolling