How-To

This article is meant for advanced users and programmers.

Today, I've started investigating the CPU usage of the software decoders of the iOS multimedia players I'm reviewing for my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible. (Of which the work-in-progress feature & benchmark measurements chart, in OpenOffice format, is already public. It's quite a bit messed up (again, it's a chart I'm actively working on) but you may already find answers to even your most unique questions.) For this, I've reviewed all the CPU measurement techniques available on iOS – a very important parameter of the players if you want to have as good battery life and low device temperature as possible. (There may be huge differences in the efficiency between even custom audio – for example, OGG or WMA – decoders, let alone video ones.)

Do you have an idea for an app but lack the programming knowledge to begin building it? In this weekly blog series, Unleashing Your Inner App Developer, I will take you, the non-programmer, step by step through the process of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Join me on this adventure each week, and you will experience how fun turning your ideas into reality can be! 

Last week, I posted up on Trigger Fist. Currently my favorite shooter, maybe of all time! So simple of an idea, really--create realistic 3-D combat settings, throw in a sacred goat and a team of highly skilled unfriendlies, and voila--simulated combat bliss! But alas, a miscue in the recent update has been causing problems, especially in terms of saving progress, Game Center stats and app crashes. So I thought I better post up on the current fix.

iOS forums are full (see for example THIS, THIS etc.) of complaints of (mostly) bluish (or, in some cases, yellowish) screens. In addition, several articles have been published on the adverse effects of blue(ish) lights – see for example THIS and THIS (two very important and interesting articles!)

Today, I've helped a friend restore some contacts onto his iPhone. As the experience I gathered may be useful to you as well, I let you know.

First, on my Mac, while I had the contacts in the Windows version of Microsoft Outlook 2010 under Parallels Desktop, I had iTunes solely under my Mac OS X and didn't want to install it under Parallels to keep the Parallels image size down. (Which is of paramount importance when you use Time Machine to back up the contents of your computer, including the disk images of your Parallels virtual machines and want to save as much storage as possible.) After all, there are only two cases when it's indeed worth having iTunes in your virtual machine if you, otherwise, use the OS X version to synchronize your iOS devices:

(Note that this article, as with most of my stuff, shows you not only how the camera can be reconfigured, but also shows you - how you can play back a YouTube video frame-by-frame; - how you can create and upload packages to your Cydia [an alternative to Apple's AppStore] repository and, last but definitely not least, gives you a full source-level explanation of the entire app that I've written to quickly switch between the different iPhone4 camera configurations. No one has released anything similar for the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 3GS [for which I'll also release a very similar utility in a few days] before!)

Have you ever wished you could mute yourself on FaceTime? Would you like to know how to pause FaceTime to hide your video feed? Well, we've got good news. You can mute yourself and hide your video during a FaceTime call, for those times when you need some privacy. FaceTime is a great tool for staying in touch with friends and family in a way that not only allows you to hear their voice, but also to see them and their environment. While using FaceTime on an iPhone is a convenient and fun way to stay in touch, there are times when you may need to mute the audio or pause the video so that every detail of life isn't available to your FaceTime buddy. Whether you need to take a moment to get out of a crowded, loud area, or for any number of other reasons, you may want to mute yourself on FaceTime or pause the video on your FaceTime call. Let's get started learning how!

You can check the balance on your AT&T bill or the remaining number of minutes you have directly from your iPhone. From the Home screen, go to Settings >Phone >AT&T Services. Select Check Bill Balance or View My Minutes. AT&T will promptly send you a free SMS with the info.

Here's a tip that you might not use too often, but that's useful to have if you have to get through an audiobook quickly, say, for a class or work assignment. Did you know that you can speed up the playback tempo in your Audible app on iPhone? You can also slow down the narration speed, although I've never needed to use that feature. Read on to learn how to speed up or slow down the narration speed in the Audible app on your iPhone. 

If you've been having trouble with pop-ups on your iPhone whenever you try to browse online, you're probably hoping for a way to block pop-ups on Safari. Luckily, your iPhone does have a way to disable pop-ups in Safari so that you don't have to deal with these annoying interruptions anymore. Conversely, you may want to enable pop-ups on your iPhone if the pop-up blocker for Safari is stopping pop-ups you actually need. Let's get started learning how to disable and allow pop-ups in Safari on your iPhone so you can browse the web in peace. (Note that this article doesn't cover how to disable in-app rating requests on the iPhone; you will need to do that in the App Store settings.)

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