iPhone: The Missing Manual: Covers the iPhone 3G (Missing Manual)

This is better than anything that apple could or would put together. Very informative & well written. Excellent tips with interesting asides on the iPhone & Apple as a whole. A must have 4 any iPhone user!!!

I like this book. some info were missing like how 2 download mp3 songs 2 my Iphone.after all it is a verygood book 2 be familiar with the second generation of Iphone

Both my husband & I rely on a hard copy 2 accompany a new tech item. The iPhone became more user friendly & fun after delving into chapter after chapter of the Missing Manual.

This is indeed "The Missing Manual". I was lost without it....I need a book 2 learn things, the PDF that is the manual 4 the Iphone 3G just did not do it 4 me. With this book I was able 2 figure out what was what & now I love my Iphone.

This book certainly provides more information than the paltry foldout that comes with the IPhone. However, it provides a lot of information that I don't need & yet I can't seem 2 find some of the basic information I do need. It's still hit & miss 4 me, but I'm learning as I go along.

The new iPhone 3G is here, & New York Times tech columnist David Pogue is on top of it with a thoroughly updated edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual. With its faster downloads, touch-screen iPod, & best-ever mobile Web browser, the new affordable iPhone is packed with possibilities. But without an objective guide like this one, you'll never unlock all it can do 4 you. In this new edition, there are new chapters on the App Store, with special troubleshooting & sycning issues with iTunes; Apple's new MobileMe service, & what it means 2 the iPhone; & Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync compatibility. Each custom designed page in iPhone: The Missing Manual helps you accomplish specific tasks with complete step-by-step instructions 4 everything from scheduling 2 web browsing 2 watching videos. You'll learn how to: Use the iPhone as a phone -- get a guided tour of 3G's phone features & learn how much time you can save with things like Visual Voicemail, contact searching, & more Figure out what 3G means & how it affects battery life, internet speed, & even phone call audio quality. Treat the iPhone as an iPod -- listen 2 music, upload & view photos, & fill the iPhone with TV shows & movies Take the iPhone online -- learn how 2 get online, use email, browse the Web, & use the GPS Go beyond the iPhone -- discover how 2 use iPhone with iTunes, sync it with your calendar, & learn about The App Store where you can pick from hundreds of iPhone-friendly programs Teeming with high-quality color graphics & filled with humor, tips, tricks, & surprises, iPhone: The Missing Manual quickly teaches you how 2 set up, accessorize, & troubleshoot your iPhone. Instead offumbling around, take advantage of this device with the manual that should have been in the box. It's your call.

Written by New York Times columnist & Missing Manual series creator David Pogue, this first-to-market update shows readers & tire kickers everything they need 2 know 2 get the most out of their new Apple iPhone. As beautiful as the product it covers, this full-color book helps readers accomplish everything from Web browsing 2 watching videos.

Author David Pogue’s iPhone 2E Tips
The beauty of the new iPhone 3G is that you don’t need one. Almost all of the juicy stuff actually comes with the iPhone 2.0 software & the online App Store, both of which run perfectly well on the old iPhone as well. That, incidentally, is also the beauty of iPhone: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition. It covers both the old & the new iPhones, because it covers the 2.0 software, the iPhone App Store, & so on. Here are a few of my favorite tips from the book:

1) At the top of the screen, little icons indicate how you’re connected 2 the Internet: an E 4 the vast but dog-slow AT&T Edge network, a 3G icon if you’re on the faster but limited-area AT&T third-generation network, & radiating signal bars if you’re on Wi-Fi. The tip here: The two cellular icons (E & 3G) disappear whenever you’re on Wi-Fi. That’s not a mistake. The iPhone assumes that Wi-Fi is faster & better than any cellular network, & if you’re on it, you don’t care about E or 3G (and it’s right).

2) Unfortunately, 3G is a battery hog. If you don’t see a 3G icon on your iPhone 3G’s status bar, then you’re not in a 3G hot spot, & you’re not getting any benefit from the phone’s 3G radio. By turning it off, you’ll double the length of your iPhone 3G’s battery power, from 5 hours of talk time 2 10. To do so, from the Home screen, tap Settings->General->Network-> Enable 3G Off. Yes, this is sort of a hassle, but if you’re anticipating a long day & you can’t risk the battery dying halfway through, it might be worth doing. After all, most 3G phones don’t even let you turn off their 3G circuitry.

3) More ways 2 save power: turn off more features. In Settings, you can turn off Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; GPS; "push" data; & the cellphone radio. Each saves you another bit of power.

4) When typing on the on-screen keyboard, you can save time by deliberately leaving out the apostrophe in contractions like I’m, don’t, can’t, & so on. Type im, dont, cant, & so on. The iPhone proposes I’m, don’t, or can’t, so you can just tap the Space bar 2 fix the word & continue.

5) To produce an accented character (like é, ë, è, ê, & so on), keep your finger pressed on that key 4 1 second. A palette of accented alternatives appears; slide onto the one you want. (Keys that sprout these alternative versions: E, Y, U, I, O, S, L, Z, C, N, ?, ', ", $, & !.)

6) Even if you’ve engaged the silencer switch on the side, the iPhone still sounds any alarm you’ve set. Good 2 know.

7) You probably already know that you can rearrange your Home screen, & even set up multiple Home screens (up 2 9). Just hold your finger down on any one icon until they all begin 2 wiggle. Now you can drag them 2 rearrange them (even onto the Dock of four special icons at the bottom), or drag off 2 the right 2 create a new Home screen. And what if, in the process of downloading & then deleting new App store programs, you wind up with unsightly gaps on your Home screens? Here’s a quick way 2 consolidate them onto a smaller number of full Home screens, without gaps: tap Settings->General-> Reset->Reset Home Screen Layout. If you’d put 10 programs on each of four Home screens, you wind up with only two screens, each packed with 20 icons. Any leftover blank pages are eliminated.

8) If you come 2 the iPhone from another, lesser GSM phone, your phone book may be stored on its little SIM card instead of in the phone itself . In that case, you don’t have 2 retype all of those names & numbers 2 bring them into your iPhone. In Settings->Contacts, the new Import SIM Contacts button can do the job 4 you. (The results may not be pretty. For example, some phones store all address-book data in CAPITAL LETTERS.)

9) If you’ve indulged yourself by downloading some goodies from the App Store, then you may find yourself wondering where you’re supposed 2 adjust their preferences. Turns out they often get stashed away in a completely different program—in Settings. That’s where Apple encourages software authors 2 locate their own setting screens. For example, here’s where you can edit your screen name & password 4 the AIM chat program, change how many days’ worth of news you want the NY Times Reader 2 display, & so on.

10) Don’t type http://www or .com when entering Web addresses. Safari is smart enough 2 know that most Web addresses use that format—so you can leave all that stuff out, & it will supply them automatically. Instead of http://www.cnn.com, 4 example, just type cnn & hit Go.

11) Don’t type .net, .org, or .edu, either. Safari’s secret pop-up menu of canned URL choices can save you four keyboard-taps apiece. To see it, hold your finger down on the .com button. Then tap the common suffix you want.

12) The iPhone can now geotag the photos you take with it. Geotagging means, "embedding your latitude & longitude information into a photo when you take it." After all, every digital picture you’ve ever taken comes with its time & date invisibly embedded in its file; why not its location? So the good news is that the iPhone can geotag every photo you take. How you get 2 see this information, is a bit trickier. Once the photos are synced 2 your computer, you can view the geotag information in iPhoto (the Get Info command reveals latitude & longitude), Preview (the Inspector window shows a map), Picasa (use the Tools->Geotag menu 2 see the photo’s location in Google Earth). Unfortunately, the iPhone strips away the geotags whenever you send a photo by e-mail. That’s a good argument 4 using the free downloadable program AirMe instead of the iPhone’s built-in camera program. It avoids that geotag-stripping problem & many others.