Double-tapping is actually pretty rare on the iPhone. It’s not like the Mac or Windows, where double-clicking the mouse means "open". On the iPhone, you open something with one tap.

A double tap, therefore, is reserved for three functions:

In Photos, Google Maps, and Safari (the Web browser), double-tapping zooms in on whatever you tap, magnifying it by a factor of two.

In the same programs, as well as Mail, double-tapping means, "restore to original size" after you’ve zoomed in. (Weirdly, in Google Maps, you use a different gesture to zoom out: tap once with two fingers. That gesture appears nowhere else on the iPhone.)

When you’re watching a video, double-tapping eliminates or restores letterbox bars.

See, the iPhone’s screen is bright, vibrant, and stunningly sharp. It’s not, however, the right shape for videos.

Standard TV shows are squarish, not rectangular. So when you watch TV shows, you get black letterbox columns on either side of the picture.

Movies have the opposite problem. They’re too wide for the iPhone screen. So when you watch movies, you wind up with letterbox bars above and below the picture.

Some people are fine with that. At least when letterbox bars are onscreen, you know you’re seeing the complete composition of the scene the director intended.

Other people can’t stand letterbox bars. You’re already watching on a pretty small screen; why sacrifice some of that precious area to black bars?

That’s why the iPhone gives you a choice. If you double-tap the video as it plays, you zoom in, magnifying the image so that it fills the entire screen.

Part of the image is now off the screen; now you’re not seeing the entire composition originally broadcast. You lose the top and bottom of TV scenes, or the left and right edges of movie scenes.

If this effect winds up chopping off something important - some text on the screen, for example - restoring the original letterbox view is just another double-tap away.

Save images in safari and mail

Just touch and hold an image in Safari or Mail, an action sheet will be presented to enable you to save the image. The image will get stored in the "Saved Photos" library of the Photos app.

Access iPod controls or phone favorites instantly

Go to "Settings -> General -> Home Button". Double taping the home button goes to "Home", "Phone Favorites" or "iPod Controls".

Forward/rewind music & video

Press and hold the skip forward/back arrows to fast forward or rewind rather than skip tracks. Also, press on the album art to manually FF/rewind.

Use iPhone as a Modem

You can use iPhone 3G or later as a modem to connect, or tether, your computer to the Internet. You can connect iPhone to your computer using the Dock Connector to USB Cable, or via Bluetooth.

In Settings, choose "General -> Network -> Internet Tethering".

Slide the Internet Tethering switch to On.

Connect iPhone to your computer:

USB: Connect your computer to iPhone, using the Dock Connector to USB Cable. In your computer’s Network services settings, choose iPhone. On a Mac, a pop-up window appears the first time you connect, saying "A new network interface has been detected". Click Network Preferences, configure the network settings for iPhone, then click Apply. On a PC, use the Network Control Panel to configure the iPhone connection.

Bluetooth: On iPhone, choose "Settings -> General -> Bluetooth" and turn on Bluetooth. Then refer to the documentation that came with your computer system software to pair and connect iPhone with your computer. When you’re connected, a blue band appears at the top of the screen. Tethering remains on when you connect with USB, even when you aren’t actively using the Internet connection.

Monitor your cellular data network usage: In Settings, choose "General -> Usage".

Earbud Cord Switch

Without close inspection, you’d have a hard time telling the iPhone’s white stereo earbuds apart from a regular iPod’s-but don’t get them mixed up. The iPhone’s earbuds have a tiny, embedded clicker/microphone partway down the right earbud cord.

That’s right, "Clicker/Microphone". The tiny bulge is the microphone for phone calls. But if you pinch the bulge, you’ll find that it clicks.

Pinch once to answer an incoming phone call. Pinch twice to dump the call to voicemail. (You can also tap or double-tap the "Sleep/Wake" switch on top of the iPhone for the same functions.)

During music or video playback, pinch once to pause the music; pinch again to resume playback. During music playback, double-pinch to skip to the next song.

I think I’ve found a way to get the loudest speaker volume on an iPhone or have stupidly messed up my tiny speaker on my iPhone. But the honest true, it works NICE & CLEAR…

I was playing around with trying to get my iPhone speaker volume louder and my ringtones, but I wasn’t happy with the different changes on my "SystemSoundMaximunVolume.plist" so, I grabbed a needle and sticked it into every single tiny hold on the bottom left corner of the iPhone. I think it was dirty in there or something because now this is EXACTLY how I wanted it since day one… LOUD!!! I really hope I didn’t mess up the speaker though.

Has anyone done this? Maybe my speaker was dirty and it’s now cleaned up? or I have sticked the needle into the speaker without messing it up and it made some air ways and made it louder? Whatever it is, I now love the speaker phone.

Surfing Internet While Talking

You can get on the internet DURING a call! You can only do this if you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network (it won’t work via edge), just hit the "Home" key and click on Safari. Now you’re surfing while talking! The person on the other end can’t hear the keyboard clicks either!

How To Make Full Screen Contact Pictures

Browse to the contact and tap edit. Tap on the photo. Tap edit photo. After it opens in fullscreen, tap set photo and save the contact.

Customize The iPod Buttons

The iPod module on the iPhone starts out with buttons along the bottom for summoning four lists: Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Videos.

What about Albums, Genres and Composers?

They’re there, all right, but hidden; you have to tap "More" to see them.

But what if you use those lists more often than Artists or Songs? No problem: you can replace one of those starter buttons with a list of your own.

Tap "More", and then tap the "Edit" button (upper-left corner). You arrive at the Configure screen. Here’s the complete list of music-and-video sorting lists: Albums, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Genres, Composers, Compilations, Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Videos.

To replace one of the four starter icons, use a finger to drag an icon from the top half of the screen downward, directly onto the existing icon you want to replace. It lights up to show the success of your drag.

When you release your finger, you’ll see that the new icon has replaced the old one. Tap "Done" in the upper-right corner.

Train Your iPhone To Learn New Words

You can train your phone to "remember" words if you type them repeatedly, but this tutorial will teach you a better way to train your iPhone to learn new words on the fly.

Secrets Of The Sensors

The iPhone has three cool sensors. First, it has an accelerometer that detects when you’ve rotated the iPhone into landscape orientation. In programs like Photos, Safari, and iPod, it triggers the screen image to rotate as well.

Camouflaged behind the black glass where you can’t see them except with a bright flashlight are two more sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the screen illumination and touch sensitivity when the phone is against your head (it works only in the Phone application), and an ambient-light sensor that brightens the display when you’re in sunlight and dims it in darker places.

Apple says that it experimented with having the light sensor active all the time, but it was weird to have the screen get brighter and darker all the time. So the sensor now samples the ambient light, and adjusts the brightness; it does this only once-each time you unlock the phone after waking it.

You can use that tip to your advantage. By covering up the sensor (just above the earpiece) as you unlock the phone, you force it to a low-power, dim screen-brightness setting (because the phone believes that it’s in a dark room). Or by holding it up to a light as you wake it, you get full brightness. In both cases, you’ve saved all the taps and navigation it would have taken you to find the manual brightness slider in Settings.

Switch Punctuation Keys To Alphabet Keys Quickly

Mode changes in between the punctuation keys and alphabet keys are pretty annoying. To solve it, just press the ".?123" key, but don’t lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears. Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release. The ABC layout returns automatically.

Insert Extra Punctuation Keys

Touch and hold the punctuation key and you get a set of additional keys to choose from.

Wi-Fi IP

When you need to SSH into your iPhone or iPod touch you need to find out your local IP address. Here I will show you how to do this.

Scrolling Safari

If you’re scrolling through Safari, the address bar comes with you, disappearing after the first few swipes. But no matter how far down you’ve scrolled, tapping the top of the screen (where the network and wireless icons are) will instantly rocket you back to the address bar.

If you haven’t been to a site with a drop-down search field (like the country chooser on Apple.com), go do so. Apple has even found a way to make that enjoyable.

Select Other Domain Name Endings

Tap "Setting -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network". In the "APN, Username and Password" field, simply type in some words so iPhone will not pass the correct values to service providers. Restart your iPhone if necessary.

OR

Stop Incoming Calls

To stop an incoming call from ringing, press the "Sleep/Wake" button. To send the call immediately to VoiceMail, press the "Sleep/Wake" button twice.

Hide SMS Preview

With Show SMS Preview disabled you will only get a generic "New Text Message".

Go to "General -> Passcode Lock" and enter a 4-digit passcode. After that disable "Show SMS Preview".

Access The Scientific Calculator

Not many people know that you can get advanced features with your calculator simply by turning it sideways.

You can turn it either way (left or right) and you’ll see the calculator go into landscape mode where you see your extra features/buttons.

URls Sharing

Since there’s no ability to cut and paste, Apple has integrated email, Safari, and the iPhone, virtually eliminating the need for a clipboard. When I wanted to send the link of my blog to my wife, for example, a small Share button popped up in Safari, which created a new email and pasted the link into the body. Just hit the address bar to find it.

You can set restrictions for iPod content for the use of some applications on iPhone. For example, parents can restrict explicit music from being seen on playlists, or turn off YouTube access entirely.

Just go to "General -> Restrictions" then tap Enable Restrictions and enter a four-digit passcode to restrict your content.

To make things quicker, you can sometimes get away with not putting in the TLD for a domain name. This doesn’t work all the time (depending on the popularity of the website), but it gets it right most of the time.

You have to have Google set as the default search engine for this to work. After this is set, you can just put "apple" into the browser, and press "Go". It’ll automatically take you to the Apple.com website.

After reading an article (or email) I hate having to scroll back up to the top. Just to read another. Thankfully Apple has solved this issue for us (in most applications).

It’s easy too. Simply touch the "Status Bar" at the very top of the screen (this is where the time is). When you’re in MobileSafari and the Mail application you will automatically scroll back up to the top of the page (or email).

This even works in some 3rd party applications from the App Store. So if you ever catch yourself scrolling back up. Try this little tip.

Hold the Home button, then hit the "Power/Sleep" button, the screen will momentarily flash, and the iPhone’s current screen contents will be saved to the Camera Roll.

The most popular way to fix a "bricked" iPhone or iPod Touch is by putting it into DFU mode. This is tricky, but it will solve that pesky stuck Apple logo on boot.

To do this you need to turn your device off. When it is completely off, push and hold the power button. Count to 5 and then push and hold the home button (keeping the power button pressed down still). Count to 10 and then let go of the power button (keeping the home button pressed down). Count to 30 and you should hear some notification that the device has been put into DFU mode. Now you can restore it in iTunes.

In the recent update to the iPhone firmware Apple has given us the ability to pause an application downloading from the App Store. This is great in case you’re downloading a very big app and must go somewhere that doesn’t have Wi-Fi.

To do this simply taps on the application icon while it’s downloading and you’ll see the text change to "Paused". When you’re ready to resume this download touch the icon again and you’ll see the text revert back.

Have you ever been using an app and it’s become completely frozen? You can actually apply a force quit on it by pressing the Home button for at least six seconds.

If that doesn't work, turn iPhone off and turn it on again. Press and hold the "Sleep/Wake" button for a few seconds until a red slider appears, and then slide the slider. Then press and hold the "Sleep/Wake" button until the Apple logo appears.

If the entire iPhone locks up - it can happen - press and hold both the "Home" button and the "Sleep/Wake" switch for eight seconds. You’ll see the screen go black, and then the Apple logo appears as the iPhone reboots.