Blog: iPhone

The multi-tasking feature released with iOS 4.0 is a great feature to allow you to run more than one application at one time; however, the implementation assumes you always want to keep each app running (in a minimized fashion) rather than closing them – so, with iOS 4.0 instead of closing the app when you click the home button, it simply allows the app to run in the background.  To see what apps you have running, press the home button twice.  This will bring up the multi-task bar which shows all the apps running in the background.

To close an application that is running in the background, follow these steps:

1. Push the home button twice.
2. Push and hold down one of the app icons showing in the multi-task bar - this will cause the app icons to jiggle (similar to when you re-arrange apps on the main screens) & have a red circle with a minus sign.
3. Push the minus sign to close the application.

You may want to close applications you don’t want running in the background for the following reasons: [more]

1. Memory – each application running is taking up memory
2. Security – applications may be running services in the background that you don’t want running
3. Battery – having multiple applications running in the background will drain your battery quicker
   

My iPhone connects in my office to wi-fi which also is able to connect through my VPN router.  For my laptop, I had set the DHCP settings on my wireless router to include the internal CoNetrix DNS server.  When I connected my phone which uses Exchange active-sync to connect, it would get an error about the certificate authority being untrusted and hit OK to continue. 

Later on I noticed that my phone kept getting synchronization errors and would get the pop up about the certificate authority being untrusted.  What I later noticed was that the server name would change from our internal to external back and forth.  [more]

I later realized that our DNS server had a host record that was the same as our external mail server address.  Each time the phone went on and off my wireless network, it would keep switching server names because the internal DNS would resolve to the actual internal server name. 

I removed the DNS server for the CoNetrix internal network from my wireless router and the phone has only connected to webmail externally.  It no longer tries internal access.

I purchased a new iPhone, but when I tried to sync my old iPhone to my new iPhone it kept crashing my system (laptop would shut down – not blue screen, just turn off).  The event logs showed nothing…  Below is what I tried:

1. Reinstalled iTunes
2. Changed USB ports I was plugged into
3. Changed cables I used to connect my iPhone to my laptop
4. Restored iPhone to factory default

Then I started synching only pieces at a time and found that it only crashed my laptop when I tried to sync photos…

Not sure exactly which photo or why the sync of photos caused the crash – I have tried only synching a few photos and did not have a problem, but I have not synced all photos since.

A customer had switched their POP3 email and internet service to a new ISP. Which required them to change their POP3 and SMTP settings on a couple of users' iPhones. The users were able to receive but not send email.  When initially setting up POP3 on an iPhone it requires adding the ISP's SMTP settings and then once it is configured changing it to AT&T’s which is there by default (cwmx.com). This change only has to be done if the SMTP server for the ISP is using port 25. This is because AT&T blocks port 25 on their data network for wireless and internet customers. Sometimes you can get them to unblock it for your account but that is rare.

One of the iPhone users also had a laptop that he only uses with an AT&T Express Card on the GPRS network. He could receive but not send email. Since he was accessing his POP3 account via the AT&T data network port 25 was blocked. I entered “cwmx.com” for the  SMTP server just like for the iPhone and was then able to send.

I was forced to change my network password the other morning.  No big deal.  However, around lunch I noticed my iPhone battery life was down to 17% (from 100% at 8:00am).  I had forgotten to update my ActiveSync password on my iPhone after the change (which seemed to cause the phone to continually fail to sync my e-mail and killed my battery).  In the future, I’ll need to remember to change both passwords at the same time.

Last week one day I had a message popup on my iPhone which said my Voicemail password was wrong.  The message caught me off-guard because I wasn’t trying to access my Voicemail and I hadn’t made any changes recently.  Also, I wasn’t sure if it was my voicemail with AT&T or my office voicemail in Cisco’s integrated messaging.  Since I was busy with other things, I didn’t pursue it.

After a couple of days, the message appeared again.  This time I thought I should find out what was happening.

I selected the button (don’t remember the name) to get more details and I learned it was the password with the AT&T.  On my iPhone I went to Settings > Phone > Change Voicemail Password.  There I was prompted to put in my old password (really just a four digit PIN).  I entered the old one which it took (so it means my old password was still valid with AT&T) then entered a new password, which was accepted.  Behind the scenes my phone updated my password.  After exiting Settings, two new voicemail messages appeared. [more]

The gotcha is not new, just surprising in its occurrence.  I had updated my iPhone to iOS 4.x.  I knew the update did not keep up with passwords, but I had reentered email passwords and VPN keys, etc. and everything I could think of at the time.  All appeared to be working.

The Voicemail password error didn’t not appear until a couple of weeks after my iOS update.  The time span was sufficient for me to not realize it was all a part of the update.  The long duration was because I had not received any voicemail.  When I did receive a Voicemail, my iPhone, which after the update did not have any password, tried to authenticate to AT&T and caused the error to appear.

So, after updating to iOS 4.x be prepared for weeks or months of password errors or requests.  Every time you attempt to contact a vendor of an App who had required you to register, you will need to reenter you password.  The message may say the password is wrong, but it really means the password which had been stored on your iPhone has been deleted.  Probably your password is not wrong, just missing.

I started receiving unwanted automated calls on my iPhone late one night.  Some automated calling service was calling my number about once an hour and there was only a recorded voice on the other side.  I needed to have my phone on and the ringer loud because I was expecting an important phone call early the next morning.  Muting the phone was not an option.  While searching for a solution, I found this website: [http://www.mylittleportal.com/call-block-cell-phone-number-iphone] “How to block any phone number on your iPhone for free”

The process is very quick, easy, and free:

1. Download this silent ringtone to your computer.
2. Open iTunes and copy the ringtone.
3. Sync your iPhone.
4. Make a new contact with the number you want to block and assign the silent ringtone to the contact.
5. Get a full night’s sleep.

At a customer site, running a Baracuda firewall, iPhone users were unable to check for devices updates. Everytime the user would have iTunes check for device updates it would fail. One of the rules in the Barracuda is to allow iTunes updates.  The rule to allow iTunes updates was enabled, but the traffic was still being blocked. I monitored the weblog and found the iPhone version check was being blocked by a streaming media filter. I added a URL pattern to allow access to iTunes.apple.com and iPhone update traffic could get through the Barracuda.

Recently, I received a Sharper Image CG-C140 Portable Folding Charging Valet which came with an adapter to use for charging my iPhone.

The first time I plugged my iPhone in, I could hear what sounded to be a high pitched electrical noise coming from the station.  As I left my phone to charge overnight, I woke up the next day to find the battery was drained.  I thought maybe I didn’t have it connected securely, so I plugged it in to the iPhone wall charger later that day.  A few days later, I put the phone on the charging valet again and woke up to a completely drained battery.  I know that it had “chirped” indicating that it was plugged in to a charger before I sat it down. 

This time, things were different.  As I mumbled about this piece of junk not working, I plugged the iPhone wall charger into the iPhone and pressed the power button.  My phone wasn’t booting up.  Ok, I’ll give it a few minutes and come back.  Still nothing.  I unplugged the charger cable and reconnected it, and there were no “chirps” or sign of life.  I decided that maybe this valet fried my battery, so I headed to the nearest AT&T store.  On the way to the store, I had my phone plugged into a car charger, and it wasn’t working either. [more]

AT&T said, you can buy another phone in the mean time, and we can send the phone to Apple for repairs.  It’ll take a few weeks to get it back, and I need my phone for work.  This brought up the obvious question, “Do I return the extra phone when I get mine back?”  No, I would then own TWO iPhones.  What!?  Ok, I’m heading to the Apple store in the mall a few miles up the road.  By now you can probably guess my opinion of AT&T.

Upon arriving to the Apple store, they told me that I would have to talk to someone in the technology “bar”.  Yes, they have some kind of cool tech bar.  Oh, and the wait time was about 3 hours.  I thought Apple products were supposed to be trouble free according to all of the television commercials.  Obviously, people have a lot of problems they need help with.

In the mean time, I used one of their Macs to search for similar weird charging issues.  One post I came across said that their phone’s charging function had been “stuck” in a state that it wouldn’t do anything.  Some lucky person had discovered that if they had their phone plugged into their PC through the USB charging cable, they could send a “jolt” to the phone that made it start charging again by shutting down the PC and then the PC back on.

Well, where I am now, all I have available is a car charger cable.  I got back in the car, started the engine, plugged in the car charger cable to the phone, turned off the car, turned on the car, and shortly after, my phone was able to be turned on and charged.  Two months later, I haven’t had any other problems with my iPhone battery.