iphone surge

Though it’s impossible to gauge how widespread the problem is, a number of users are reporting an issue where certain spots on the iPhone’s MultiTouch screen — particularly a strip about 1/2 inch in height somewhere below the top of the screen — will not accept input. If indeed you have a defective screen, Apple is apparently willing to replace it with little hassle. However, to ensure that a more innocuous issue isn’t at play, try the following first:

• Reset your iPhone Sometimes, ostensibly dead spots on the screen are merely the result of frozen applications or an unresponsive interface rather than actual hardware failure. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button (on the top of the unit) and the Home button simultaneously for several seconds until the Apple logo appears and check for persistence of the issue.
• Clean the screen It may sound trite, but a glaze of any foreign substance can cause operational difficulties for the iPhone’s screen. Clean the screen with the cleaning cloth that came in the box with the iPhone.
• Restore your iPhone As a last resort, try restoring. This can remove lingering software issues that might be causing a lack of screen response. To perform a restore, Connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC and, in iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

If you’re still having problems, contact Apple for repair.

Also, if you are indeed experiencing a hardware failure, please drop us a line indicating what version of screen your iPhone uses. To discover this information, put your iPhone in field test mode by accessing the Phone application, tapping Keypad, then entering *3001#12345#* and pressing Call. Tap Versions, then inspect the entry next to LCD Panel ID. Let us know whether your iPhone is a 7 series or 5 series

You access Spotlight from the iPhone Home screen by pressing the Home button once when you are on the first Home screen, or by simply swiping left while that screen is displayed.
If you are on a different screen, press the Home key twice: once to get Home, pause briefly, and again to open Spotlight (or simply swipe left instead of pressing Home again).

You will now be able to search your entire device for apps, songs, and e-mails. Simply start typing the word, name of an app, name of a song, or e-mail content you are seeking, and the iPhone will display it as you type. I have nearly 400 apps and not all of them will display on the 11 available Home screens, so this feature comes in handy when I need to launch an app I cannot see. If you see an app appear in the search results, tap it and it will launch.

Performing a search

Access Spotlight

Now you will have no excuses about losing something, since looking for that honey-do list, favorite song, or important e-mail from your boss is easy with Spotlight.

Search from inside apps

The following built-in apps have a hidden search feature: Mail, iPod, or Music (on an iPod) apps, and Contacts. In all these apps, to access the hidden search feature you need to swipe down to reveal the Spotlight search field. This search will be performed on data native to the particular app so its scope is limited. For example, in the Contacts app it will only show results from the contact apps database. It does not currently support the capability to search your entire device as Spotlight does from the Home screen.

Spotlight, an advanced utility for searching, migrated from the Mac to the iPhone and iPod Touch, and we should all be grateful for that since it is quite useful. Spotlight also happens to be one of my favorite iPhone features, and this week I’d like to share some of my favorite tips about it.

If your iPhone was recently “Rickrolled” by a worm that targets jailbroken iPhones, the following six steps will show you how to change the root password–used to connect to your device via a Unix software secure shell–to protect yourself in the future.

1. Tap the MobileTerminal icon to open a terminal window.

6. Enter the new password again and press return.

Before starting, you will need to have MobileTerminal installed from the Cydia store. Then:

Updated 11/11/09 at 5:27 p.m. PST: One commenter pointed out that the mobile user account, the default user on the iPhone, can access all your data and shares the same default password of alpine. You can change the mobile password by launching MobileTerminal and following steps 4 through 6 above.

The root password is now changed, and your jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is now a bit more secure than it was before and less vulnerable to the first worm detected that targets the iPhone.

5. Enter a new password and press return.

2. Enter su and press return.

3. Enter the current default root user password alpine and press return.

4. Type passwd and press return.

Apple released updated User Guides for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The guides, which cover the new features of iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3G S, total more than 350 pages combined.

You can download the 213 page guide for the iPhone here (PDF) and the 153 page guide for the iPod touch here (PDF).

Ironically, the one thing missing is WMC’s signature big, green Start button. But at least there’s a pop-up numeric keypad for punching in channel numbers.

Mediamote isn’t much to look at–if ever a program needed skins, it’s this one–but it gets the job done. It sports all the controls you need to operate WMC, with dedicated buttons for Recorded TV, Guide, Live TV, and DVD Menu. (Here’s a complete button guide if you need help.)

Although Mediamote definitely comes across as a 1.0 release (actually, more like 0.9), it works as advertised. It’s a very handy little freebie for those seeking some distance from Windows Media Center.

Mediamote is a free app that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote control for Windows Media Center.

The free Mediamote app turns your iPhone or Touch into a Windows Media Center remote!

With that step done, run the server and then fire up the Mediamote app on your iPhone. It should immediately find the server and get you connected. Now just start Windows Media Center and you should be all set.

In my initial tests, Mediamote worked like a charm, with zero lag between button-taps and the corresponding action on the PC. And guess what? There’s a nifty hidden feature: shake your iPhone and you can choose two other apps to control: iTunes and Windows Media Player 11. (Needless to say, Apple’s own Remote app handles the former much better.)

That’s awesome news for anyone who runs WMC on, say, a laptop or den PC, and wants a way to control it from the couch. Mediamote sets up a simple ad-hoc Wi-Fi network between Windows and the iPhone.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an App Store listing with less information than the one for Mediamote, which is something of a problem: there’s no indication that you need to visit the developer’s Web site and install the Mediamote server on your PC.