The Gadget Pastor's iPhone tips.

I have certainly enjoyed my iPhone these past few weeks. Grant it, it hasn't been completely perfect, I did have a few dead pixels on my first iPhone, but Apple replaced it right away for me. So here are my top tips for iPhone users!

1. Improve sound when watching movies.
I'm a left hand person and I have found that if I use my right hand and cup it a bit, I amplify the sound better towards me. Works great and I have better volume for listening to videos.

2. Slow iPhone? Power it down.
Sometimes my iPhone slows down and the UI is not as smooth as it usually is. I have found that turning off iPhone and turning it back on clears this up and brings back the quickness to the UI. I don't have to do this too often though.

3. Eliminate sound system interference with airplane mode.
During our church services, I'm in the sound room running the sound board. Sometimes my iPhone will cause interference with the sound system especially when I'm close to it. In order to stop the interference, I turn my iPhone to airplane mode and of course, it works perfectly to eliminate the interference. Airplane works great even when you are on the ground!

4. Set two alarms when you need to remind yourself about an event.
Many times when I have an event coming up in my iPhone, I will set two alarms for a single event. It's easy to do. Tap on your your event and then select edit. Tap on alert and from there you can set a first alert and a second alert. The alerts can be 5 minutes before the alert to 2 days before the event or even on the date of the event. Very helpful when you tend to forget after the one alert!

5. Add a pause to your contacts number so you can add an extension.
The other day I was working on saving a contact with an extension. I wanted my iPhone to automatically dial the extension number after dialing the main number. It is simple to do, but I guess it was not simple enough for me! I walk thru the process as if I was adding a new contact. Tap on the phone icon and then tap on the "old fashioned" keypad or go to your contacts list and tap the plus sign. OK, after you have entered in your contacts number tap on the +*# key. This will change the keypad and specifically change the zero to a pause key. Tap on the pause key and a comma will appear, tap in the extension of your contact and your iPhone will take of the rest the next time you dial that contact. Works great for me and the folks I have called!

6. Automatically delete your deleted emails in your trash.
One thing I totally dislike about the iPhone's mail app is I cannot delete multiple emails whether in my inbox or my trash. It's annoying let me tell you especially when you've downloaded a bunch of them and you've got several days worth in your trash. Well, there is an easy to solve the double delete. Set the mail app to automatically delete the emails in your trash. To set this, tap on the settings icon, go to mail, then select your mail account. Scroll down to the bottom and select advanced. You can set the mail app to empty your trash after one day, one week, or one month.

7. Use At&t services to check your bill balance, dial directory assistant, pay your bill, view my minutes, voice connect, and go online and visit your account.
Simple tap on the settings widget and then scroll down to tap on phone. Scroll down to the bottom and select At&t services. There they all are for you to use. Nice to have these available, but would be better for then to be already in your contacts list.

So that's it. You just read through the Gadget Pastor's iPhone tips! Hope they help you get the most out of your iPhone.