Adaptive Audio Controls and Portrait-Mode Screen Rotation Lock

The double-click task switcher isn’t as well-known among regular iOS 4 users as I would have guessed, but even less well-known is what happens when you double-click the home button and slide right. Rather than listing running apps, the task menu shows some incredibly-useful icons: A screen rotation lock and audio controls!

Double-click the home button and slide right to reveal audio controls and a screen rotation lock

Earlier iPhone OS versions included a pop-up audio control screen, but it wouldn’t appear when no music was playing. This new control screen is always accessible and is a great way to get to the iPod function if you want to replace it with a different app (or a folder) in the dock.

Third-party audio apps can be controlled here, too!

As an added bonus, iOS 4′s unified audio engine allows these buttons to control any other background audio-capable app as well. Run Pandora, MLB, NPR, or any other app that supports the new iOS 4 frameworks and you can switch tracks or pause with a simple double-click!

The screen rotation lock is disappointingly portrait-mode only (as is the multitasking menu itself) but it’s a start. I find myself using the lock switch on the iPad constantly, and it would be nice to have all the same functionality on the iPhone.

Support for Multiple Exchange Servers

It might not be obvious why regular people would use multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts at once on an iOS device. Here’s a hint: Google contacts can only be synced over-the-air with the EAS protocol. Although you may want your email and calendars to use iMAP and CalDAV, respectively, anyone who has contacts stored in more than one Exchange or Gmail account needs this capability!

I’ve covered this topic extensively before, so I’ll just leave it at that. See How To Set Up Multiple Exchange ActiveSync Accounts in iPhone iOS 4 and How To Enable ActiveSync For Google Apps Accounts for more.

Camera Zoom and Movie Refocus

Zoom in to compose better snapshots

The camera app was touched up, too. Photo-takers have been able to tap a spot in an image to refocus (and reset exposure) for quite a while, but tapping now also brings up a zoom slider. This makes composing photos on the iPhone that much easier and improves the resulting image for quick sharing. Image crop and other edit controls in the photo app would be nice, as would more-extensive image controls, but this is a good first step. Digital zoom generally stinks, but the high-resolution camera in the iPhone 4 makes it tolerable.

Apple also enabled the tap-to-refocus square during video recording. This allows for some (gasp!) artistic video shots to be composed, despite the limited depth of field of the iPhone camera. It’s especially useful outdoors, where brightness can vary wildly.

Spellcheck

iOS now detects misspellings and offers suggestions

The iPhone has always had inline spelling correction using popup “tags” as you type, but iOS 4 does this one better. Like desktop computers, the iPhone and related devices will now underline potential misspelled words in red and offer suggestions when these hotspots are tapped.

“Data Detectors” for Dates, Addresses and FedEx and UPS Tracking Numbers

iOS 4 detects dates, addresses, and tracking numbers and converts them into useful links

Users of Mac OS X have gotten used to the “data detectors” embedded in Mail and other apps. They are capable of converting dates, email addresses, and other plain text into smart links. Receive an email that says “let’s meet next tuesday at 10″ and Mail creates a link to create a new appointment for that date and time in the Calendar app.

iOS 4 has this capability as well, decoding dates and addresses as well as popular package-tracking codes. This is incredibly useful: When someone sends you a UPS, FedEx, or USPS package tracking number, the Mail app will convert it into a link for the appropriate web site, allowing you to quickly check on shipment.

Web and Wikipedia Search

“Spotlight” search has been a part of the iPhone OS since OS version 3, though I never used it much. It offers full-text search of all data, including email messages. But most people don’t store more than a month of email on the device, reducing the usefulness of search. Now that we have folders, search doesn’t even save time locating apps.

iOS 4 now integrates Wikipedia and Web search with Spotlight queries

Search for data not already found on the iPhone, and Spotlight will suggest a Web or Wikipedia search option. This is nice, but would be more useful if it also suggested searching the contents of mail servers, LDAP directories, and other more user-specific online data sources.

Simplified “New Contact” Screen

You can select information types in the streamlined "New Contact" screen

The iPhone always allowed one to add a contact from an email address or phone number. But the “new contact” screen was annoyingly limited. It categorized all new phone numbers as “home”, for example, an assumption that is almost always incorrect in my case. iOS 4 adds tap-to-select field categories, allowing you to correctly enter information right from the start.

Resize Photos When Sending

The iPhone camera is a great companion, allowing serendipitous photos from everyday life to be grabbed for posterity. But sharing these photos was a hassle, with the phone automatically compressing any mailed photos to save space.

iOS 4 now gives you the option of compressing photos and videos in mail messages

iOS 4 now gives you the option of leaving your photos in their original size, or compressing them to “Medium” or “Small” size. The same options appear for video attachments, and multiple images are supported as well.

Create Real Playlists in iPod

No more playlists called "On The Go 4"!

iPods have had the ability to create lame “On The Go” playlists for almost a decade, but until iOS 4 none could create a real full playlist, complete with a name. Finally!

Birthday Calendar

Happy birthday to who?

Lots of my contacts included a Birthday field, but there was no easy way to use this information on an iPhone. iOS 4 automatically creates a new calendar called “Birthdays” that automatically includes these in the new unified calendar view.

Stephen’s Stance

There are lots of great features hidden in iOS 4 besides folders and multitasking. Background audio, VoIP, selectable wallpapers, saving PDFs as iBooks, and many others compete for attention. But I found the 10 listed here to be the most useful and surprising to me in everyday use. What are your favorite iOS 4 features?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | My 10 Favorite Hidden iOS 4 Features
This post was categorized as Apple, Features, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, offering enhancements for enterprise Exchange ActiveSync

As the release of iPhone OS 3.0 nears, I set out to discover how the new OS changes the iPhone’s ability to synchronize data with Microsoft Exchange servers using ActiveSync. What follows here is my deductions so far, and is of course subject to change when the new OS is released!

For the most up-to-date information, see my iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide!

This post is part of my series focused on integrating the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange using ActiveSync:

• iPhone OS 3.0 information:
  1. First Look: iPhone 3.0 And Exchange ActiveSync Integration
  2. How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0
  3. How To Access LDAP Directories In iPhone OS 3.0
  4. iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect
• How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync
1. A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas
2. Can the iPhone Sync With Multiple Exchange Servers?

New ActiveSync Features

1. iPhone OS 3.0 allows users to create meeting invitations! Finally, right from the phone, you will be able to set up meetings, select invitees, and send invitations. Initial reports are that this functionality is definite and fairly complete.
2. Enhanced mail search includes contacts, messages, and even mail still on the Exchange server! This is a huge and welcome addition. No longer will you be frustrated that the iPhone didn’t download that one important message from last month, and no longer will you have to scroll around trying to locate it! This is integrated into the new Spotlight screen: Flick left from the home screen and you’ll be able to search email, contacts, calendars, and all other phone content! But Spotlight only searches message metadata, not message content.

New Related Features

1. The calendar app supports CalDAV and ICS calendars as well as ActiveSync, making it much easier to use Google, Yahoo, and TripIt calendars. But these probably will not be integrated and synchronized with the ActiveSync calendar, leaving you in multiple-calendar hell.
2. Peer-to-peer contact exchange using BlueTooth seems certain. Since the iPhone gracefully integrates on-phone changes with ActiveSync contacts already, this will be a welcome way to build out one’s Exchange address book.
3. Cut, copy, and paste are definitely in, and will work in the mail, contacts, and calendar apps!
4. The mail app now supports landscape mode, with its larger keyboard.
5. A new API for email within applications would be compatible with Exchange, allowing a new family of corporate apps and possibly mitigating some of the missing features. I can imagine someone developing a far more feature-packed email client which embeds the native email client and extends its support to public folders, for example.
6. iPhones running 3.0 appear to allow automatic on-demand connections to VPNs. Again, not specifically an ActiveSync feature, but this would make the process of accessing a firewalled Exchange server more friendly.
7. OS 3.0 supports LDAP servers. Although this is not an ActiveSync issue per se, it could allow a workaround for the single-ActiveSync issue (which remains). LDAP contacts would make the basic IMAP email connection with a second Exchange server somewhat more tolerable. But it’s not yet clear if LDAP contacts are all that functional in 3.0, or whether they’ll make the cut at all.

Bad News

1. The iPhone will remain limited to full ActiveSync with a single Exchange server. Although you are free to establish as many IMAP connections as you like, including connecting to Exchange with IMAP, you cannot use more than one ActiveSync service. However, as noted above, 3.0 does include LDAP support so at least the contacts from your second Exchange server might be accessible.
2. Still no notes sync (with Exchange). Although iPhone OS 3.0 does allow synchronization of notes with Apple Mail for Mac users, it does not appear to support Exchange or Apple’s own MobileMe over-the-air services.
3. Spotlight does not include full-text search of mail messages. Although it’s nice to be able to search through everything on the iPhone, and even content on the Exchange server, you still have to remember the sender, subject, etc.
4. Battery life is poor with Exchange ActiveSync push and the new push notifications enabled. iPhone push battery life has been a problem for quite a while.

As the iPhone OS 3.0 release nears, I will keep my eyes open for enterprise Exchange ActiveSync features and post them here. Subscribe to my Apple feed for up-to-date details!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect
This post was categorized as Apple. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Exclude and Ignore

Out of the box, Time Machine will copy everything on your local drives to whichever drive you designate.  This is probably preferable to forcing the user to select what to back up, but Apple ought to have set some reasonable defaults in the “Do not back up” list, since the same set are likely to be relevant for most people.

Excluding files is simple:  Go to the Time Machine preference panel and click “Options”.  The “Do not back up” list will drop down, and you can add items to it by clicking the “+” button or simply dragging and dropping them there.

Here are my suggestions for what to exclude:

• Just about everything Ryan Block suggests
• Other apps: EyeTV Archive, TiVo Recordings, Roxio Converted Items
• /System – When you click this, OS X will ask if you also want to exclude other system stuff – say yes.  Since the Leopard boot CD (which you have if you use Time Machine) can automatically restore everything after you reinstall the OS, you really don’t need this.

Hide From the Spotlight

The next inexplicable decision Apple made was to allow Spotlight to index your Time Machine drive.  I can see why some people might want to be able to search their backup using Spotlight, but this is confusing at best.

Let’s say I’m Joe Average and I want to locate last year’s tax return, but I deleted it from my disk.  When I use Spotlight to find it, one of two things is going to happen, and both are confusing to Joe:

1. If I don’t have my Time Machine drive connected, I won’t find it.  Even though it still exists, I will give up and assume it’s lost.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I run across it another day (when I do happen to have my Time Machine drive connected) and am searching in Spotlight for something else!
2. If I do have my drive connected, I will find the tax return and OS X will let me open it.  But it’s read-only, so I won’t be able to save it.  This will be a double head-scratcher since the Save As dialog box will point to a read-only copy of my whole disk!  So I’ll be totally puzzled at not being able to save anywhere until I figure out that I’m looking at my backup!

So indexing a Time Machine volume is just plain confusing.  The best case scenario is that Spotlight finds 8,000 different copies of everything you search for and you are smart enough to know which is the real current version.

I say shut it off.  Go into Spotlight’s preferences window, click “Privacy” (which, by the way, is totally the wrong name), and you can exclude your Time Machine disk.  Oddly, Spotlight wouldn’t let me exclude just “Backups.backupdb” – I had to ignore the whole disk.  This was no problem for me, since I have a disk dedicated to Time Machine, but this might prevent Joe from following my advice.

By the way, my understanding is that Time Machine does not use Spotlight data itself.  It uses FSEvents, which is a separate daemon, so you can safely shut Spotlight off entirely if you want and still be able to use Time Machine.

Update:

Shortly after I wrote this piece, Apple posted two video tutorials on how to restrict Time Machine and Spotlight.  While they don’t advocate removing anything in particular, they do show how to do it in elegant fashion!

• Restrict Time Machine
• Restrict Spotlight

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Tuning Time Machine
This post was categorized as Apple, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.