I read through the post and the notes; so a few words of warning…

First off, like anything READ ALL THE STEPS!

• There is a fix if you lose Visual Voice Mail or SMS, so dont panic. look here. http://help.benm.at/help.php
• No one knows of ATT is charging or not for this service.  I’ve heard they are going to charge $50 a month (this site is saying $70) once they get their act together.  So I would use this sparingly until more is known. So far, I have heard of anyone’s bill going up.
• From what I’ve read, this should be reversable. You are only installing some software and updating settings.  Not sure though.

So there you go.  Give it a try and let me know if it works out for you.  As for me, I think I’ll stick with PDANet.

In case you do not know about running an iphone app in the background, read this..

https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/?p=1451

Remember though, if you are playing digital radio, it will take up power and thus your phone will get warm and that’s BAD for batteries. So make sure you do what you can to keep your phone cool.

Enjoy!!

Open Link In New Tab In Safari

Safari now uses tabbed browsing, like big boys do on the desktops, and this new hidden feature is great. If you tap and hold on a hyperlink (hyperlinked text) on a Web site within Safari, a dialog will prompt you to open this link, copy it (link locations) or open it in a new page (which opens a new tab in Safari).

– original article written in ~Oct 08 –

It’s no secret that the iPhone has been having problems with dropped calls and sound quality. Interestingly, the problem has increased since the 3G came on the scene. Although Apple and AT&T have been improving the situation bit-by-bit, dropped calls are still a reality. Because of this, I thought I would share a few tips that may help reduce the number of dropped calls and improve overall sound quality.

Cell phone reception

A cell phone is basically a small two-way radio. When you make a call, the iPhone connects to the nearest cell tower(s) using radio waves, much like the reception on your AM/FM radio. Your voice is converted into a digital signal (a series of 0’s and 1’s), transmitted to its destination, and converted back to an audio signal on the other phone.

The quality of the call is based on signal strength, again, much like the reception on your AM/FM radio. In addition to turning the tuning knob to adjust for frequency (on older radios), many people find that you can improve reception of a weak signal by adjusting the antenna and moving radio closer to a window or a different room. You may not get a perfect signal in all situations, but if you can get a strong enough signal, you will be able to understand and enjoy the content.

The situation is similar with your iPhone and other cell phones. Concrete reinforced walls, tall buildings, and your distance from a cell tower can reduce signal strength and interfere with the digital transmissions. Fortunately, even with one or sometimes zero bars, you can still make and receive calls. Unfortunately, the sound quality may suffer, and if signal gets to be too weak you can experience the frustrating “dropped call” on your iPhone.

Improving reception and preventing dropped calls

Keeping in mind how cell phone reception works, let’s now look at a few tips for improving your connection and reducing dropped calls.

1. Use the iPhone’s “Field Test” mode to determine best reception levels

Fig 1

The iPhone’s Field Test mode gives technical information on how well the iPhone is connecting to the cell towers. Although there is a lot of information that you can glean from the Field Test, in this tip we’re only interested in the signal strength received from the cell tower, expressed in decibels (db). To determine this, activate the Phone application, bring up the keypad, type in *3001#12345#* and press the Call button. This brings up the Field Test main menu. Note that you should see the signal strength bars in the upper left corner of the screen replaced with a number indicating the strength of the signal in decibels (Fig. 1).

The signal strength is indicated as a negative number (I’m referring to the absolute value here, not the numeric value), and the lower the number, the better. For example, the -75 shown in Fig. 1 is better than a -99. Typically, if you are getting a good signal, you should be seeing something between -60 and -80. You can use this feature to determine where the best reception is at work and at home. If you’re having problems with dropped calls, favor those locations.

At home and before I updated to the iPhone 2.1 OS (apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/) I’d get a -95db signal at my desk and -103 to -113 on my couch. A day after the update I was still getting the same values, and even dropped a call that afternoon. Three days later I was getting around -77 at the desk and -85 on the couch. I believe that AT&T may have increased the power or perhaps updated the firmware on the cell towers in my area. If you have not upgraded to the iPhone 2.1 OS, go ahead and check your signal strength, upgrade to 2.1, and check the signal again to see if there’s an improvement. There are a lot of fixes in 2.1 as well as 2.2—you should upgrade regardless!

2. Turn off 3G to improve phone performance (and conserve battery power).

Unless you are in an area with good reception, you’ll probably get better performance with 3G turned off. As I write this paragraph, my iPhone is sitting on my desk with 3G turned off, and I’m getting a db signal of -79. When I turn on 3G it changes to -103 (remember that a higher negative db number indicates poorer reception). I normally keep 3G off all the time to improve cell performance and conserve battery power. I only turn on 3G when I plan on browsing the Web or downloading an app from the iTunes App Store.

3. Hold your iPhone at the top.

If you are in an area with weak reception try holding the iPhone near the top, making sure that your palm does not cover the bottom of the device. The antennas for the iPhone are located in the bottom of the device. If you wrap your hand around the lower part of the phone, you can degrade the signal slightly. Using the Field Test feature I found that I would see an improvement of about 4 db’s when I held the iPhone near the top. It’s not a big improvement, but when your signal strength is weak to begin with, it could be the difference between completing a call and dropping it. Better yet, leave the phone on a table and use your hands free headset.

4. Use a hardwire headset instead of Bluetooth

I have found that I can sometimes improve the signal by 3db when I use a plug-in headset with the iPhone. I’m guessing the headset cable is acting like an extension to the internal antenna. In addition (and probably for the same reason), some bloggers say that plugging a USB cable into the iPhone alone, without connecting it to anything else, will improve reception. My results were mixed when I tried this.

Finally, I noticed that when I first got my iPhone, I got better reception when I kept it connected to the AC power adapter while I talked. I even purchased a USB extension cable so that I could remain connected to the power adapter while I walked around the room. Unfortunately, this technique doesn’t seem to be as effective on my device since I upgraded to the iPhone 2.1 software.

AT&T moving to a lower cell frequency

Since the iPhone 2.1 software update (and the apparent cell tower changes from AT&T), my iPhone’s reception has been better. However, there are still occasions where reception is poor, and I still drop calls now and again. I’ve heard the AT&T cellular network primarily uses the 1900MHz band in the US, but it’s working to expand its use of the lower frequency 850MHz band. This is important because lower frequency signals spread farther and penetrate walls easier, both of which should improve reception and reduce dropped calls.

I hope these tips will keep you chatting on the phone instead of yelling at it when your call drops.

Post Script..

THIS is one of the reason I LOVE having SBSettings.  I can turn 3G on and off using a single swipe then click.

I did a search on google and found nothing, so this could be some local issue, but 4 dropped calls in 24 hours???   I’m going to give this a few more days.  If things do not return to normal then perhaps some extended testing is required.

Has anyone else experienced this?

{Update … I posted an old article here on reducing dropped calls.  Hope this helps.  }

from cnet

10. WinterBoard (iphone pimping)
My Guess: We should see some sort of customizing through the store.
Press release: Nada. Not a thing mentioned.

9. Unix Tools Mobile Terminal, openSSH
My Guess: Not going to happen.
Press release: Not going to happen.

8. Cycoder (Video Recording), 7. Qik (realtime video)
My Guess: There would be something in the sdk to allow apps.
Press release: Nothing said, but I’m not going to call it a no just yet. Still more to be seen with the SDK.

6. ClearCam
My Guess: I gave it really long odds that Apple would do anything in software to improve the camera.
Press release: Nothing mentioned.

5. Clippy (cut and paste)
My Guess: It will be there.
Press release: Its there. Finally! And from the screenshot I get for cnet, it looks pretty good. I’ll write a separate post on this feature later.

4. IntelliScreen
My Guess: 51% will not be there, but push notification will be
Press release: Not there, but push is, in a very limited fashion. Just too resource intensive.

3. PdaNet (tethering)
My Guess: 51% No. At&T will not have it.
Press release: Nope. No tethering.

2. Categories
My guess: Yes, they will have it
Press release: No. Instead, they have a search for application via text search box. How weak it that? FAIL Apple.

1. SBSetting
My guess: As much sense this would be to have, I hoping no, just because I’m selfish and do not want to lose SBSetting.
Press release: Nada. I’m happy and still give Apple a FAIL. What? I can do both.

So there you go kiddies. I will be digging around more between now and summer on 3.0. And of course, watching for jailbreak. There is nothing in 3.0 (well perhaps the turn by turn directions) that excites me enough to lose my jailbreak apps.

One note though.  Something we could do in jailbreak (although I do not use it) is push (like) chat and other notifications. Apple now has this in the SDK, and a few dev’s that were granted early access to the SDK demo’ed push functionality. ESPN I think had the best example using scores and major announcement updates.

So I’m going to start with my own 10 ten list.  (link to the top 10 list here)

10. WinterBoard

iPhone pimping made easy. The is normally the first thing people install and spends HOURS playing with. I think we could see something like this from Apple.  All they have to do is give access to some of the files (basically open a permission setting) and many of the winterboard designs could be used.  Now I’m not saying ALL of the winter nor summer board plugins will work, because some of them need to make OS calls that Apple is keeping locked down.  But I think we will see some sort of customizing. Also, think of the money Apple will make when people sell these in the stores.

9. Unix Tools Mobile Terminal, openSSH

Will not happen.  Dont even think about it

8. Cycoder (Video Recording)

I think we see an opening of the SKD to allow video, but I do not think video itself will be part of the new OS.  There is simply way too much money to be made letting 3rd party programmers see video apps in the store.

7. Qik (realtime video)

Remember USTREAM?  Video broadcasting NOT through jailbreak?  I do.  I was not too impressed with it.  First impressions here, so they could have improved things. But as far as I know, they never made it into the app store.  So will this change?  Doubtit. I think if you want to broadcast video, you are still going to have to jailbreak for a bit.

6. ClearCam

I really like ClearCam. I do not use it for everything, but in combination with my Griffin Macro lens, it really opens up the ability to shoot text, labels, catch nice close ups, etc. Will we see some improvements with the iphone camera through software? We just might. I can see a 3 shot, save the best shot, option for the iphone. It would be pretty easy to put in place and would be a nice addition. I’ve giving this looooong odds though.

5. Clippy

Ahhh.  Cut and paste.  The holy grail of iphone FAILS.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say….. yes, there will be ‘some sort’ of cut and paste.  It will be limited, but the demand is just too strong despite the fact there is no money reward for this feature.  How will it work?  I would look at Clippy.  They have been improving and improving every month.  They are getting it down to a science.  Apple can learn from them.

4. IntelliScreen

I do not think we will see anything like this with 3.0.  Perhaps with push notifications, which I think WILL be there, they might put a simple ‘intelliScreen’ like display up.  It really would not be all that hard.  But, I’m going 51% that we will not see it.

3. PdaNet (tethering)
I have been thinking about this and I’m really on the fence if we can hope to see tethering in 3.0.  I’m going to go 51% that no, it will not be there.  The reason is ATT makes money selling usb 3G connectors.  To allow iphone users to accomplish the same thing would take a chunk out of ATT’s business.  The reason I’m going 49% that they might, is business users really want tethering, and attracting more business users to your product is always a good thing.

2. Categories
I just cannot see a reason why not.  It’s proven, it works, and with the number of icons people are building up on their iphones, it only makes sense.  Of course, just because something makes sense does not make it so.

1. SBSetting

Like I’ve said many times over.  This is my favorite app. However, I do not see it happening. Apple does not like people messing around with too many settings, HOWEVER, I can see them using the swipe at the top as a shortcut it an improved settings tab. As for me, I hope they do NOT do it.  I do not want to see SBSettings messed up in any way.