Photos (built-in app)

Now that we’re at the threshold of  iOS 4.3, one simple tip that ought to be revisited is an easy but still not well-known method native to the iOS that allows you to take a screenshot or screen image and save them in the Photo application for easy transfer via email.This method, which has been in use since iOS 2.0, still works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the latest iOS versions. There is no need for any third-party applications. This works even when you are in the middle of a game.

If Yogi Berra were to assess today's use of cameras he might say: "Nobody takes photographs anymore... they're too busy taking pictures."  If you're like me, you have thousands of digital pictures stored on hard drives and online galleries but only print a tiny fraction of them.  Once in a while we'll find "a keeper" and enlarge it to 11"x14" and frame it, but by and large, photos stay on the computer and maybe a digital photo frame.

Before there was an app store, one of the first apps created for jailbroken iPhones was a Flashlight app by the excellent Erica Sadun.  It basically used the screen display as a light emitting device.  We have finally come full circle with the iPhone 4 which has an actual LED for use as a flash.  An enterprising developer, Michael D'Ulisse of More Blu Sky saw this as an opportunity to create a real flashlight app that projected light.

Wallpaper, or custom backgrounds, can be a nice way to personalize your phone and it is surprising it took so long for this ability to reach the iPhone.  Perhaps it is even more surprising that custom wallpapers are not available on the iPhone 3G, even with iOS 4.0, but I guess Apple has to draw the line somewhere.  In a reply to a customer email, Steve Jobs himself said it was a performance issue.

Keynote on the iPad might encourage you to take your show on the road and present without a traditional computer.  In preparation for a talk I’m giving at the local Apple Users Group, I have been experimenting with Keynote and the M1 Micro Projector Plus from AAXA ($299 to $339 at www.aaxatech.com).

With the holiday season upon us, you better be prepared to bust out that iPhone for the spur of the moment family photo and/or video. And here is a ingenius new product to help you take that perfect photo or video. The U+3G iPhone Holder from G Design LLC is the perfect accessory to help attach your iPhone to a tripod. Not one of those small mini tripods mind you, but the larger sizes for camcorders and high end cameras. The holder accommodates all versions of the iPhone (original, 3G, 3GS).