iPhone Guides

How to Untether Your Previously Tethered Jailbreak Using Corona [5.0.1]

Untether Your Tethered iOS 5.0.1 Jailbreak With Corona

How to Put an iPhone Into DFU Mode



Guide To Using New Features in iOS 5



Quick Guide: Siri Tips and Tricks for Beginners



Quick Guide: Teach Siri Names and Relationships



How to Update Your iPhone 4 Without Upgrading the Baseband (Mac)



How to Update Your iPhone 4 Without Upgrading the Baseband (Windows)

5 Steps to Fix an iPhone App That Won’t Stop Crashing

If you’re careful to only purchase reputable apps on the app store (always get recommendations or check reviews), you usually won’t run into any major problems. But every so often, be it due to an iOS update, an app update or just pure bad luck, you’ll find yourself stuck with an app that keeps crashing. If you’re lucky, it only crashes once in a while. If you’re unlucky, you might not be able to open it.

When this happens, many iOS users will simply leave a bad review and then delete it, but that’s such a waste of money. Before you go to that extreme, consider a few simple steps that might clear up the problem. We’ve listed them below in the most practical order, and also generally from easiest to most complex. Fist, though, check to make sure the app is compatible with your device. You shouldn’t be able to install anything incompatible from your device, but if you download from iTunes all bets are off.

1. Close it from the multitasking bar

Often when an app is stuck crashing, it’s because it can’t get past a particular point while loading. You can occasionally force it out of the loop by closing it completely.

To do that, double-tap your phone’s home button. This will bring up a list of everything you currently have suspended in multitasking. Flick to the right until you find the app that’s crashing, then press your finger on it until a badge with a “-” appears in the upper left corner of the icon. Tap the badge, and the app will close fully. You may also want to consider closing everything else you have open – while apps shouldn’t use any memory while they’re suspended, we find some occasionally still seem to slow things down, and memory problems are a big cause of crashes.

After that, try relaunching the app. If it works, then congratulations – you’re done.

2. Reset your device

“Have you tried turning it off and on again” is one of the first pieces of advice given when troubleshooting, so that’s the next step. There are two ways to shut down an iPhone. You probably know the first – holding the power button on the upper-right of the device until the “slide to power off” appears, then, well, sliding to power off. But that leaves everything suspended so you can pick up right where you left off when you turn your phone back on. It probably won’t help with a serious crash problem.

The second method, sometimes called a “hard” reset, clears out all the memory and caches and such, leaving you with a much cleaner starting point when you power it up again. This time, hold the power button down until the “slide to power off” appears, and keep holding it down. Ignore the slide and use your other hand to hold down the home button as well. After a few seconds, the phone will turn off – this might leave a ghostly image on your screen for a second, but it will clear. Turn it back on by continuing to hold the power button, and you’ll have a fresher device to try launching your crash-happy app on.

3. Delete and reinstall it

If nothing else works, then it’s time to start pulling out the big guns. Deleting an app will usually fix any crashes caused by corrupted data. Unfortunately,that will also clear all its local data, like your saved games or other content. If you’re seriously invested in that data you might want to skip this step for now. If you’re okay taking that risk, though, press down on the app’s icon on your home screen until an “x” appears on the upper-right of its icon. Press the “x” to delete the app, and then confirm that you want to delete it.

Once it’s off the phone, you can reinstall it. The safest way to do this to ensure you won’t get charged again by installing a different version is to do so from your “Purchased” list in the App Store. To find that, open the App Store app and tap “Updates.” Tap “Purchased” and then pull the list down slightly to bring up the search bar. Enter the name of your app and it should show up in the list. Lately, even things that Apple has removed from the App Store show up here.

4. Contact the developer

If none of the steps above fix the problem, you’ve almost definitely run into a problem with the app itself. You could go ahead and leave a bad review at this point, but that leaves the app’s developer completely unable to respond or help you if there’s a workaround. Instead, try to get in touch with the developer directly.

The “Report a Problem” link in the App Store just reports it to iTunes support, so skip that for now. Instead, open iTunes on a desktop system and search the iTunes Store for your broken app. Underneath the its description there should be one or two links – one for the developer’s website, and one for support. If there’s a support link, click that. After that, you’ll probably be taken to a form, or an email link, or a website that has contact information somewhere on it.

When you contact the developer, keep your cool and give them as much information as you can – which app you’re using, what happens to cause the crash, which device you’re using, what version of iOS you’re on, and so on. With any luck, they’ll get back to you within a couple business days with information on how to work around the problem, or to let you know they’re working on a fix. This might take a while, but if it’s important to you it might be worth the wait.

5. Other options

If nothing above works and the developer won’t get back to you (or has no contact options available in the first place), you’re left in a bind. You might be able to get someone’s attention with a bad review, which you can leave on the app’s page under “Ratings.” You can also be patient and wait for the next update.

Refunds from Apple aren’t normally an option, but that doesn’t mean it never happens. If you’ve got an insurmountable problem with an app, visit its page in the App Store and scroll down to the very bottom. The “Report a Problem” button is what you’re looking for. Tap that, and fill out the form. Be as detailed about your problem as possible, and then click Report. If Apple evaluates your issue and finds it to be valid, they may just give you a refund.

Getting The Most Out of Your New iPhone or iPad

So you’ve unwrapped your brand new iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and you’ve set it up for the first time. Congratulations! You’ve got a powerful device to work and play with. But what do you with it now?

Hopefully you have the basics of phoning, emailing and sending text messages under control. If not, you might want to take a look at the iPhone User Guide. It’s dense, but as a reference for the technical nitty gritty it’s unbeatable.

But these devices are far more than just phones or music players. They’re tiny, powerful computers, and you can do a lot with them – provided you take a few minutes to learn what they’re capable of.

Syncing

To save yourself trouble down the road, you should consider syncing your new device to iTunes on a computer you own before doing much else. Though iOS (the iPhone operating system) is closer to a post-PC world than ever before, there are still a few things you can’t do easily without syncing, like managing movies and photos from your PC. Since the first sync tends to clear off most of your content, start off well by syncing first.

To do that, take the sync cable that came with your device and plug it into a USB slot on your PC or Mac. Open iTunes, and plug the other end of the sync cable into the slot on the bottom of your device. You should see your iPhone appear under Devices in the sidebar. Now you can move through the tabs in iTunes to add music, movies, ringtones, photos and more. Once you’ve selected everything you want to add, click Apply or Sync.

Once the first sync finishes, you can check the box that says “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi” if both your computer and your device will be on the same Wi-Fi network. That will save you from having to deal with the sync cable again.

Apps

Once you’ve completed your first sync, you can dive in and do anything you’d like. The obvious starting place is to download some apps. Start by tapping the App Store icon.

From here you can download just about anything. Some apps are free, some have costs. To download them, you’ll need to enter your iTunes login (or register a new iTunes account). If an app has a cost, it will be charged to whatever payment information is associated with your account.

Security

   
If you don’t want people mishandling your phone, going through your email or posting on your Facebook account, you might want to consider locking your phone down. To do that, open the Settings app and click General. Then scroll down to Passcode Lock. This lets you set a four-digit lock on your phone that will need to be entered if your phone is locked. You can lock your phone by tapping the power button on the upper right of the device, or you can set an Auto-Lock timer in the same menu.

iOS also boasts a comprehensive set of parental features if you plan to share your iPhone or iPad with your children. We’ve gone into detail about these restrictions, but the most important thing to be aware of is that you should never give your iTunes password to anyone, especially a child. There are far too many opportunities for them to rack up huge bills if you do.

Tips and Tricks

   
With those things under your belt you should be safe to explore your device and learn all of the great things it can do. Play around, download apps, and have some fun. We’ve compiled some quick reference tips here in case you lose track of all the ways you can interact with your device. Most require iOS 5:

• Double-click the Home button to open the multitasking bar. From here you can switch between open apps or close them completely.
• From the multitasking bar, you can swipe left to set the rotation lock and use media controls.
• To activate Siri, hold down the home button or hold the phone up to your ear while it’s unlocked (iPhone 4S only)
• Double-click the Home button while the device is locked to get quick access to media controls and the camera.
• The volume-up button doubles as the shutter button for the camera. This also means you can use iPhone headphones with volume controls as a tethered shutter button.
• The iPad uses multitouch gestures. Using four or five fingers, you can swipe from side to side to switch between apps, or pinch all your fingers together to close an app. You can also swipe up to bring up the multitasking bar.
• On iPad, you can split the keyboard by dragging it apart from the middle with two fingers and put it back together by dragging the corners back to the middle.
• To bring up the notification menu, drag your finger down from the top of the screen.
• To delete an app, hold your finger on it until it starts wobbling. Then hit the “x” in the corner.
• While the apps are wobbling, you can also drag them to move them around, drag them to the edge of the page to move them to the next page, and drag them on top of each other to create a folder.

Guide To Using New Features in iOS 5

Apple has included over 200 new features in iOS. A good number of those are fly beneath the radar type updates, so let’s focus on the key updates you’ll find with iOS 5 and how you can make the most of them right away.

Notifications
Probably the biggest and most noticeable change in iOS 5 has been to Notifications.

Let’s say you receive a new text message or notification from Twitter. Your iPhone will stack the notifications neatly on your lock screen. If you swipe your finger across the notification, it will bring directly to the location within the app that correlates to the notification. Just receive a text message from Susie, swipe right and you’ll be able to start typing your reply in jiffy.

If you swipe to unlock, then you’ll notice these notifications disappear. Fear not. Your iPhone will keep all of your notifications in the new Notifications Center. Simply swipe down to reveal all of your notifications. You can delete notifications by group, but not individually. For example, selecting the ‘X’ at the top right will delete all Tweetbot notifications. It’s not possible to delete just one notification.

The thing I’ve noticed from using Notifications is that the Notification Center can get crowded. If you navigate to Settings > Notifications, you have options to turn notifications on/off. There is also the option to sort manually based on your personal preference or by time received.

iMessage
If you are familiar with BlackBerry Messenger, affectionately known as BBM among BlackBerry fans (are there any left), then you’ll find iMessage to be very familiar. iMessage allows you to send messages through WiFi and 3G connections to other iOS users. Essentially, iMessage is an improved SMS/MMS, but without going through your wireless carrier. If all of your friends only own iPhones and iPads, then you might as well cancel your text messaging plan. We jest, but iMessage can seriously save you some money if used as a text messaging replacement. Wireless companies cannot be happy about this one, so score one for the text happy iPhone consumer.

Other perks of using iMessage are return receipts and you can even see when someone is typing a message to you. This makes iMessage have a more conversational feel than standard SMS. Plus, it’s free and won’t count towards your text message plan.

iMessage will use data, so you still have to monitor your data usage if you are not on an unlimited data plan.

Camera and Photos
Apple has finally relented and allowed us to use the volume-up button to take pictures. From the lock screen, you’ll find a new handy camera icon making it easier to access your camera and take photos. To access it, simply double-click the home button from a locked state.

The Photos application also gets a much needed and useful update, which will allow you to edit photos directly on your phone. Simply tap the ‘Edit’ button at the top right of your photo when within Camera Roll. It will reveal four options below your photo.

Tap a photo and press Edit. It will reveal four options:

• Rotate: Allows you to rotate your image.
• Auto-enhance: Enhances your image.

• Red-eye removal: Removes the dreaded red-eye that plagues flash photography
• Crop: Resize and crop right within your iPhone.

When finished, you can save your newly updated image. Along with previously available methods of sharing comes a new option to ‘Tweet’ your photo, thanks to the new deep level Twitter integration will touch on later in the article.

Reminders App
The new Reminders application is an intelligent to-do list, with features that allow notifications based upon your location. For example, let’s say you need a reminder to ‘take out the garbage’. You can set the reminder alert to alert you when you arrive a specified location. In this case, when you arrive ‘home’, your iPhone will alert you that it’s time to take out the garbage.

With iCloud, reminders will sync throughout all of your devices. Make a change to one and it’ll automatically update throughout your family of iOS devices.

The Reminders app also works hand-in-hand with the new Siri feature available on the iPhone 4S. “Siri, set up an appointment with Tim Cook at 5 o’clock“.

Reducing Clutter With Safari Reader, Reading List
Safari Reader takes the clutter away when reading articles on the Internet. Now it doesn’t matter if an website is iPhone optimized or not. Simply browse to an article and you’ll see a READER badge pop-up in the browser address window. Press that button and you’ll be greeted with a beautiful ad-free, perfectly formatted view of the article. Our site has a nicely formatted iPhone version of the site, but Reader’s version blows it out of the water. I know which one I’d rather read.

If you’d like to save articles for a later date, you can add them to a Reading List by tapping the arrow icon at the bottom of your window and select ‘Reading List’. At any time, you can select Bookmarks > Reading List to view unread articles.

Newstand
If you subscribe to magazines or newspapers with your iPhone or iPad, then Newstand will neatly organize them into a virtual bookshelf for you. Essentially, this is an iBooks styled folder that will continuously update based on your subscriptions. This feature is high on style points, especially if you have a good number of subscriptions. This new feature is particularly useful if you own an iPad.

Deep Level Twitter Integration
The new deep level Twitter integration provides new ways to send tweets, directly through a number of familiar iOS apps like YouTube, Safari, Camera and Maps.

All you need to do is set up your account within Settings > Twitter. In my case, iOS magically knew my account information, presumably from the countless Twitter apps on my iPhone that have access to that information. Then again, maybe they simply matched my email address to what was on file with Twitter.

Also new in Contacts is the addition of Twitter account profile field. When tweeting using iOS 5, it will auto-complete @usernames based upon your updated contacts. Apple has worked directly with Twitter to offer a seamless way to receive updated contact information on your iPhone.

Within Settings > Twitter, select the option to Update Contacts. Your iPhone will rummage through the email addresses and phone numbers in your address book, looking to match them with an associated Twitter account. Once it finds a match, it will update the profile image and Twitter user ID.

PC Free
While this doesn’t apply to your current devices, you’ll be pleased to know that you can activate an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch without connecting to iTunes. It still makes perfect sense to connect to iTunes at some point, so that you can download music, movies and more – not to mention that’s always a good idea to have regular backups of your data. Regardless, this is great news. You can crack the plastic on an iOS device and get it activated without the dreaded wired connection. No longer will families have to crowd around their computers to activate their shiny new iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices this and future holiday seasons.

WiFi Sync
While you may not hear much about this little gem, it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Simply connect your iOS device to a power source and it will wirelessly sync your data to your Mac or PC. You must be connected to the same WiFi network, but no longer do you have to tether your iOS device to your computer to back up your stuff. Plug-in and let iOS sync your iPhone for you. To set up iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, simply navigate to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync.

Assorted Notable Changes in iOS 5

• Mail offers a host of formatting options, ability to flag messages and the ability to search within the body of an email.
• Calendar offers a new year-view on the iPad and a week view on the iPhone or iPod touch
• Game Center allows profile pictures and will recommend new friends based on the games you play and your current friends
• AirPlay Mirroring supports wireless mirroring using the Apple TV 2 from either the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S
• New gesture support for the iPad include: four/five fingers swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, pinch to return to home or swipe left/right to move quickly between apps.

These features are just the tip of the iceberg. With over 200 new features, you are bound to find a number of great new features that help improve your overall experience with iOS. Please make use of the comments section to let us know your favorite iOS 5 features, whether it’s one we’ve outlined or not.

Enjoy iOS 5.

Quick Guide: Siri Tips and Tricks for Beginners

If you’ve recently picked up a new iPhone 4S and haven’t start playing with Siri, there’s no time like the present to start. Though both novel and powerful, Siri isn’t always quite as good as you might expect if you’ve seen Apple’s ads. But with a little tender loving care, you can get Siri working for you more efficiently.

Correct Siri’s Mistakes

Every now and then, Siri will make a mistake. Depending on your accent or clarity of speech, this might be more often than you’d like. Thankfully there are two ways to keep Siri working with the right information.

The first is a hands-on approach. If Siri makes a mistake, take a look at your device. Scroll to the top of the screen and you should see your query transcribed, and any sections Siri doesn’t understand will be underlined in blue. Tap on your query to edit it.

But if you’re using voice commands already, you probably don’t want to switch to typing. Correcting Siri verbally might be a challenge if the software doesn’t understand your accent, but if you’ve just found yourself mumbling, speak clearly and repeat yourself. Or, if you’re trying to dictate a message or email, try using the following commands:

• “Change it to”: Siri will change your message to whatever you follow this with.
• “Add”: Siri will add whatever follows to your message.
• “Read it back to me”: Siri will read your message out loud, so you know if it’s now correct.

You can also correct message recipients on the fly, by saying “No, send it to (name) instead.”

Get Around Location Restrictions

With Siri still in beta, the software in available in many areas that aren’t quite ready for it. Unfortunately, that means all the location-based features are missing in those places. Rather than try to answer questions like “Where is the nearest Starbucks?” or “Is it raining?” with possibly incorrect information, the information is completely unavailable.

While you wait for Siri’s location services to be enabled in your area, you can get around some of these limitations. To get Siri to tell you the weather in your area, include your location in the query. “What is the weather in Vancouver, Canada?” will get you an answer even while asking Siri what the weather is while in Vancouver won’t. Use the nearest major city when you ask — smaller towns aren’t often recognized.

If you want Siri to find you directions home, you’re going to have to be able to look at your phone. Instead of asking Siri to find you the route home, ask Siri to search Google for your address, then click the Places tab in the results. This should show you the location you’re looking for, with a button for getting directions through Google Maps. You can do the same by searching for a business name or type.

Use Different Search Engines

If Google isn’t working out for you, you can make Siri search Yahoo! or Bing instead. Saying “Search Bing for X” or “Search Yahoo! for Y” works, or you can change your default search engine in Settings > Safari > Search Engine.

Find the Best Queries

Siri can understand a huge selection of queries, and seems to be learning more each day. Sometimes, though, the software gets hung up on a particular way of wording things and there’s nothing you can do but use the correct one.

TUAW has an exhaustive list of Siri-friendly queries, but if you’re just looking for a few foolproof ways to talk to your new digital assistant, here are the simplest ways to get the following jobs done:

• Add calendar events: start a command with “Schedule” to add what follows to your calendar. If you forget to include a date and time, Siri will ask.
• Set an alarm: “Set an alarm” or “Wake me up” both work well. Follow with a time, or let Siri ask you.
• Prepare an email: Make sure to say “Email” or “Send an email” here. Message is reserved for SMS/iMessage.
• Send a text message: “Message” or “Text” is the correct syntax here, as in “Text John ‘Want to meet for lunch?’” Try to resist the urge to include a “with” in the midst of it.
• Make a phone call: Start with “Call” or “Phone” and follow with the name of a contact.

Of course, those are just a few examples of some of the most important tasks Siri can handle for you. Experiment — not only are there lots of useful functions to be found, but Siri can roll with the punches for a surprising variety of joke requests.

Correct Names and Relationships

Siri can be awful at pronouncing some names, and her ability to understand relationships depends on whether you’re syncing your contacts through iCloud or Google. Learn more in our guide.

Learn More

If you’re on the go and you’re trying to remember what Siri can do, just bring the Siri prompt up by holding your home button and tap the “i” icon beside “What can I help you with.” This will bring up a list of suggestions. If all else fails, though, just ask. If Siri doesn’t understand, you’ll know, and you can always say “Cancel.”

Quick Guide: Teach Siri Names and Relationships

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, if you’re trying to communicate clearly with Siri, the iPhone 4S’s new digital personal assistant. Siri can do quite a lot, but to get the best possible experience she needs the right information. So for the sake of your sanity, let’s teach Siri how to pronounce your name. And for efficiency you can let her know how you relate to the people in your life.

With Siri’s limited language support — only English, French and German at the moment — and ever growing global presence, she’s not going to be able to get every name right straight out of the gate. There are a few ways you can help.

If you want Siri to know who you are, you’ll have to tell her. Open the Settings app, and navigate to General, then Siri. Make sure your name is listed under the My Info field. If it’s not, add it from your contacts list or make a new contact for yourself in the Contacts app and then assign it to that field.

If you’re lucky, that will be enough to get Siri to say your name correctly. If, like me, you have a hard to pronounce name, you might need to take a few different steps.

The simplest is just to ask. A query like “Siri, call me ‘Bob’” will work for most people. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to head back into your personal entry in Contacts, then follow these steps:

1. Tap Edit.
2. Scroll down and tap “add a new field.”
3. Select “phonetic first name.”

Siri will give precedence to this field if it’s filled in. It might take some trial and error, but sound your name out as you’d like it to be pronounced. You can test to see if Siri pronounces it correctly by using a query like “Tell me my name.” For me, entering “Neesa” as my phonetic first name worked perfectly.

If you simply can’t get Siri to pronounce your name correctly, your last best hope is to ask her to call you something else. “Call me X” works for a lot more than names. If you want your phone to call you “Master of the Universe” or “Dark Lord of Terror,” you just need to ask. If you don’t mind Siri getting a bit familiar, ask her to call you by a favorite nickname.

Now that Siri knows who you are, it’s time to introduce her to your family, friends and coworkers. There are two ways to handle this, depending on if you’re syncing your contacts through iTunes/iCloud or through Google Contacts.

If you’re using iTunes or iCloud, it’s easy. You can tell Siri exactly how the people in your life relate to you. Just say “So-and-so is my huband” or mother, brother, boss — you name it, she’ll remember it. Then you can ask her to call your mom and she’ll know exactly who you mean.

You can set these relationships up manually as well, by adding “related people” fields to your personal contacts entry.

If you’re syncing your contacts through Google, things get a bit more complicated. Siri will still let you assign relationships however you’d like, but Google Contacts only supports three relationships: spouse, manager and assistant. Nothing else will maintain or sync properly. To get around this, you can go through and add nicknames to all the relevant people in your contacts list. This will do the job, but can leave Siri confused about syntax at times.

There is a better way, assuming you have iCloud enabled. Just follow these steps:

1. Open Settings/iCloud
2. Slide Contacts to On.
3. Close settings and open Contacts.
4. Tap “Groups” in the upper-left corner of the screen.
5. Scroll down and select All iCloud.
6. Add a new contact.
7. Fill out your own information.
8. Add your Related People as above.
9. Return to settings and add this new contact under My Info in General/Siri.

Now Siri will keep track of your relationships using the iCloud synced contact instead of Google’s synced contacts.

And that’s it! With these tips, Siri should know your name and all the important people in your life. Now you can tell her to call your dad, message your boss and remind you to buy flowers for your wife, and she’ll know exactly what to do. Questions, ideas? Let us know in the comments.