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Tips: How to Use Some of the iPhone's New Goodness

At Apple's biannual MacWorld Expo in San Francisco last month, big cheese Steve Jobs rattled off a number of new innovations, such the MacBook Air and a deal to allow movie rentals directly onto desktop, iPod or iPhone. The most important announcement to us, however, is a cool iPhone update, the first significant one in a few months. In this article, we describe and explain how to use some of the iPhone's new features.

iPhone’s Faux GPS System
 First off, Apple has managed to patch up a feature originally rumored to be in the iPhone: a GPS system. However, it's still a virtual global positioning system (GPS)—a real one at this point would probably require a change in your actual iPhone hardware.

The iPhone uses a technique called triangulation, which essentially measures your distance from different cell towers rather than GPS satellites to determine your approximate location.

  •  How to get GPS-style directions:
    Go to the Maps section and press the Directions button. In the "From:" section, instead of typing in your current address, press the little Bookmark icon to the right (the one that looks like an open book). At the top of your bookmarks will be "Current Location". Click on it to return to the map screen, then type in the desired location in the "To:" area as you normally would do. Press the Route button and it will give you directions.

  •  Tracking Your Progress:
    The system can also track your progress as you get closer to the destination. Notice the new target icon in the lower-left hand corner? Press the icon and, after a brief loading, the iPhone will create a large purple circle overlay around your current location. It will move as you move. That said, the iPhone won't recalculate directions unless you redo the "Current Location" bookmark described in the previous paragraph.

    We tested "Current Location" in the most unruly of places - downtown Los Angeles - and it was accurate within a few city blocks. It was much more precise in less congested areas, as in down to the current building location.

    The iPhones new faux-GPS system is definitely useful.

    Home Screen Management
     One update that really should have been available six months ago and is now is movable icons. This allows you to reconfigure the order of the icons so as to better manage the iPhone's home screen.

  •  To move around the main menu icons:
    press and hold one of the icons with your finger. All the icons will begin to wiggle. Now you can hold any icon and use your finger to place it in another place on the screen. The iPhone will automatically swap or move the icons as you manipulate it.

    Furthermore, you'll now notice two dots at the bottom of the menu screen, just above the final row icons (which, by the way, can also be individually moved around).

  •  Do a quick finger swipe to the left and the iPhone will show a whole new, blank page to fill with your icons. Let's face it: if you've been doing the regular iPhone updates, you only have room for three additional icons on the standard iPhone home screen. Apple has given another page for you to place icons for software that aren't currently being used, but that you still want to keep, is precipitating the expansion of available software as third-party companies begin creating iPhone applications.

    Press the Home key, the indented button with the square at the bottom of your iPhone, to get out of movable icon mode.

    SMS
     Another simple update is multiple SMS recipients, which is perfect for mass, impersonal holiday greetings or making a date with a bunch of friends.

  •  Tap the SMS icon, which will provide a list of previous conversations. Press the Write icon, the pencil in a square location in the upper-right hand corner. A New Message template will pop up. Press the "+" icon on the "To:" line and add recipients to your heart's content. As usual, make sure you click on a person's mobile number, not their home number, to make sure he or she will receive your message.

    Damon will cover more new iPhone features next month.

    About the Author
    Damon Brown wrote the "Pocket Idiot's Guide to the iPhone" (Alpha/Penguin Books). Available on August 7, you can preorder it at Amazon or your favorite online bookstore. Damon also writes for Playboy, SPIN and The New York Post.

    Tips: How to Use Some of the iPhone's New Goodness


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