Well luckily Jeggrey Swiger a reader of iPhone Atlas has discovered a way to perk that signal strength back up. Apparently Scotch Tape is the magic quick fix for this one. Aren’t you glad you spent all that money for top of the line technology to have to tape it up later to keep your signal going strong?

Well, it’s not so bad since the tape won’t ever be seen making your iPhone at least appear to be flawless. Just place the tape on the blank side of the SIM and the tape will bulk it up enough to make it fit much more snuggly.

[via wired]

The Chicago-based firm gave twenty subjects iPhones, ten of which normally used QWERTY-equipped smartphones and the other ten having traditional handsets with numeric keys, then timed their SMS composition speeds writing out six messages on their own phones and six on the iPhone.  Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the physical QWERTY keyboard ranked highest, with participants typing messages twice as fast on average as their iPhone-using brethren.  Traditional numeric keypad users – composing with multitap rather than T9 or another predictive technology – typed in around the same time as the iPhone, even with Apple’s lauded auto-correction.

Researchers behind the testing are careful to put their results in proportion, however; while only seven participants discovered the iPhone’s corrective abilities without prior guidance, speeds on the handset did improve over the first thirty minutes of use.  They’re keen to stress that this is more representative of the first period of iPhone ownership, transferring from a more mainstream handset:

“It’s important to consider the changes a person has to make when they switch to the iPhone.  It should be easy for people to do common tasks, such as text messaging, using the iPhone’s less traditional touch interface” Gavin Lew, Managing Director, User Centric

With new customers picking up the iPhone all the time, we’d be interested to hear how easy it was for you to get used to the on-screen keyboard.  Leave us some feedback in the comments!

[via Cellular-News]

Having not seen photos of the supposed end-result, I’m dubious about the story, but The North Denver News is reporting that Denver resident Thomas Martel has, so frustrated with inaccurate touchscreen prodding, had his thumbs surgically “whittled” so that they’re more precise for small on-screen buttons.

“From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses.  Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it’s saving me in frustration – that’s priceless” Thomas Martel

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.  The 28-year-old suffered pioneering cosmetic surgery in which his bones were shaved down, muscles altered and fingernails modified.  He now, apparently, has thumbs that appear feminine in contrast to the rest of his hands.

Ouch.

Of course, there are a couple of caveats to the function.  Most obviously, if someone has ported their number to a new service then the location might not be accurate; it doesn’t check where they actually are, it’s just which area the number was originally from.

International callers aren’t recognised in this way, either, and if the caller is in your contacts then apparently the location doesn’t show up either.  At the moment there’s also no tap-for-a-map functionality either, which would be useful.

Still, next time you get a random call this might help a little in tracking down who made it.

[via 37Signals]

Typical content includes:

• Learn how to manage multiple accounts, subscribe to RSS feeds, and keep your iPhone secure. The book tackles such non-obvious problems as solving the “two-mailbox problem” and remedying the iPhone’s lack of a spam filter
• Sophisticated features like conference calling, visual voicemail, and text messaging are a finger tap away. This book offers detailed instructions for syncing the iPhone with the address book and calendar on a Mac or PC. It even covers syncing topics even Apple never dreamed of, like syncing a single iPhone with multiple computers, or using the iPhone as a data bucket to merge the address books from several different PCs 

While the printed version is only available for pre-order right now, there’s a $24.99 pre-release special bundle where they’ll send you a PDF version while you wait for the presses to spit out your hard copy.  The paper copy itself is expected in early August priced at $19.99. 

While this feature was created for our convenience, it’s also very easy for attackers to exploit a bug in this feature to trick unknowing victims into dialing expensive “900” numbers or even keep track of phone calls made over the Web.

“Because this vulnerability can be launched from Web sites, everybody who has an iPhone has the potential to get exploited,” Hoffman said. Hoffman also warns that, “The iPhone could even be stopped from dialing out, or set to dial out endlessly.”

SPI says it is working with Apple to create a fix.

Security firm: Don’t use iPhone Web dialer [Via InfoWorld]

Parrot finally sent me their new 7-inch Photo Viewer. Nearly every single Bluetooth-enabled phone on the market supports the Basic Imaging Profile (BIP), File Transfer Profile (FTP), and Object Push Profile (OPP). Guess what? iPhone can’t send images to the Photo Viewer. Why? Because iPhone’s Bluetooth is either extremely dumb, crippled or both.

[flv]http://www.myitablet.com/media/parrot-photo-viewer.flv[/flv]

While I’m on the subject, not that I would ever want to use dial-up networking over EDGE, iPhone doesn’t support the Dial-Up Networking Profile (DUN).

Am I alone or are you pretty p—-d off too?

iPhone Support:

Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
Headset Profile (HSP)

iPhone Does Not Support:

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
Basic Imaging Profile (BIP)
Basic Printing Profile (BPP)
Cordless Telephony Profile (CTP)
Device ID Profile (DID)
Dial-up Networking Profile (DUN)
Fax Profile (FAX)
File Transfer Profile (FTP)
General Audio/Video Distribution Profile (GAVDP)
Generic Access Profile (GAP)
Generic Object Exchange Profile (GOEP)
Human Interface Device Profile (HID)
Intercom Profile (ICP)
Object Push Profile (OPP)
Personal Area Networking Profile (PAN)
Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)
Serial Port Profile (SPP)
Service Discovery Application Profile (SDAP)
SIM Access Profile (SAP,SIM)
Synchronisation Profile (synch)
Video Distribution Profile (vdp)
Wireless Application Protocol Bearer (WAPB)

These cleaning solutions may end up eating away at the protective coating, resulting in you doing more harm than you think. Click over for video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eon04ZDTju0[/youtube]

Thanks for sending in the video Ryan!

So here’s how: Go to Settings -> Mail -> (Your Gmail account) -> Advanced. Switch “Use Recent Mode” from ON to OFF. Don’t start freaking out if Gmail downloads a bunch of old messages into your iPhone inbox. This is only a one-time thing.

Once all the old emails are gone, and you’ve disabled the “recent mode,” your email will behave and stop sending you those pesky outgoing copies.

But wait, there’s more. According to reader digitalintrigue, he discovered that copies of outgoing mail sent from Gmail’s website still get sent to the iPhone although copies of iPhone-originated mail do not. This is no surprised because it does the same if you use POP to pull email on your other machines.

I’m on my second iPhone now, and I really hate to have to take this back! Is anyone else experiencing the same problem? Please share with the community.[Update] Ewdi and Satsuki tells me they don’t use Bluetooth and getting about two days worth of battery life. What do they have on? WiFi enabled, it gets email every 15-minutes, and medium screen brightness.

Unpair the existing Bluetooth headset will leave iPhone on an infinite search!

I wonder if this has anything to do with the auto pairing with Apple’s branded Bluetooth headset?

[UPDATE 2:10 pm] Check out the screen shot of my iPhone only 2 hours since I originally posted the article. You’ll noticed that the battery meter drastically dropped!

[UPDATE 3:08 pm] Things are going south folks! Nearly an hour later, the battery is down to roughly 20%. All testing conditions remain the same. Just so we’re clear, I haven’t watched a single video or even listened to a single song. I talked on the phone for about 15-minutes. That’s it!

The total hours of usage is under 5 1/2 hours while standby is under 9 1/2 hours since the last full charge (roughly 6:30 am this morning).

[Final UPDATE for the night] At 5:35 pm, the iPhone gave a 5% battery remaining. It just died a minute ago at 5:42 pm.

The iPhone is technically out of commission for at least 6-hours since that’s how long it takes to fully charge up.

This works well with other iPhone navigation tips, such as tapping the screen mid-scroll to stop it dead rather than let it come to a natural halt.  Also, should you be viewing a webpage with a frame that on a desktop browser would have a scrollbar of its own (but which Safari on the iPhone doesn’t display) you can scroll that frame individually by tapping and holding in it with one finger and then scrolling with another.

What shortcuts and navigation aids do you use most often?  Let us know in the comments.

Moments later, Mr. Left Thumb came to my rescue. What a relief! Click over to watch the drama unfold in living color.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkaLmffxkc8[/youtube]

Instead of going through the following steps every single time you need to enter a period or any other punctuation marks:

(1) Tap the “.?123” key in the lower left to summon the punctuation layout. (2) Type the period. (3) Type the ABC key in the lower left to return to the alphabet layout.

Click over to watch demo video of the far easier way to access punctuation.

[MEDIA=44]

You can do it in one simple motion by tapping and hold the “.?123” key. Once the punctuation layout appears, slide your finger to any keys including numbers, and then release.

Amazingly, the ABC layout returns automatically. Thanks David!

So far it’s operating as a web-browser over WiFi and as an iPod – no calling – but I’m sure there are busy beavers (not literally beavers, unless they’re very well trained) looking at unlocking cellular functionality too. Jon gives some cryptic instructions for trying it yourself, but given the possibility of breaking your shiny new toy it might be better to view this as a proof of concept (and work in progress, in fact) more than anything else.

iPhone Independence Day [via Gizmodo]

Option one: Faking Bad Credit to bring up GoPhone contracless plan.

During the activation process, you will need to enter your sociual security number. Instead of entering a real social, try entering 999-99-999. It will then trigger GoPhone/Pick Your Plan option (prepaid). Pick the cheapest one available which is $49.98. After activation, you can take out your sim card and use the iPhone as widescreen iPod with wifi. Remember to cancel your prepaid plan.

Option two: Cancel your contract within 30 days after activation.

After your activation, you may cancel your contract without penalty within 30 days. Alex King has posted in his blog that he cancelled his contract and the iPhone still works as widescreen iPod and wifi device.

[via macrumors]