iPhone How to...

Rafael Palacios. Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, SPAIN

How to load a DVD movie into your iPhone/iPod/iPad

One way to load a movie into the iPhone/iPod/iPad is to buy the movie at iTunes. However, if you already bought the movie in a DVD, you should be able to load the movie into the iPhone following the next steps:

Transfer the movie from your DVD to the hard drive

Install HandBrake. This is an open-source, GPL-licensed video transcoder available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Install VLC media player. This is an open-source multimedia player available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Since VLC supports multiple formats, including the latest DVD encryption algorithms, HandBrake may need to use VLC for reading your DVD movie.
Convert your movie into a .MP4 file. Open HandBrake, select your DVD as the source, select "iPhone & iPod touch" as preset parameters, and click start.
- iPhone presets yields good quality even for iPad display (Apple TV preset has better quality but creates a larger file).
- Typical size is 1GB per movie.
- By default HandBrake copies just the main movie (no trailers or menus).
- By default HandBrake copies just the main language.
- Specific audio tracks, subtitles or chapter can be selected in configuration Tabs
- Sometimes it is possible to copy several DVDs (VIDEO_TS folders) to the hard drive, then use HandBrake to convert all the movies by creating a queue. Unless you have very fast DVD drive and hard drive, this option is slower that convertion on the fly. Because reading the whole DVD may take longer that reading just the main movie while making the convertion (HandBrake runs in parallel using all the cores).

Copy the movie to iTunes and sync

Open iTunes, select movies, and drag and drop your .mp4 file into iTunes. It will be copied to the iTunes library.
Connect your iPhone, click on Movies tab and select your movie (by default only checked movies are transferred). Apply.

How to keep your contacts organized in groups

The iPhone supports groups of contacts, so when you need to find a phone number or email address you may select "All contacts" or a particular group.
In the Mac iPhone contacts are syncronized with Contacts App, which also supports groups. In windows groups only appear if iTunes synchronizes contacts with Outlook . Although groups are supported in Yahoo!, if iTunes is synced with Yahoo all your contacts will appear together ("All contacts" style). Using Outlook you may organize your contacts in "Folders" ("Carpetas" in the spanish version) and those folder names are converted into Groups in the iPhone.
MobileMe also support contact groups.

How to store websites or applications permanently

The iPhone can store URLs of website or WebApps in the bookmark list or at the home screen (since version 1.1.3). However, HTML pages cache expires shortly, for example every time you power off your iPhone, so you cannot use those pages/apps without Internet access or while in Ariplane mode.
The web site iWebSaver allows you to generate a "data:text/html..." type of link which includes all the information in the page. In this way a copy of the whole page is stored locally as a (long)bookmark that you only need to update when the application is updated. This is usuful for applications designed to work without active Internet connections such as iMetro.

How to extend your battery life

There are three recommendation to avoid running out of battery too often:

Cancel email automatic fetching. iPhone 2.0 introduced push capabilities and the posibility to fetch email periodically. Push is less devastating for your battery, but contacting the email server every 15 minutes drains your battery is less than 12h (especially if your mail server does not answer very quickly or if you have configured several email accounts).
Besides, I receive messages every 5-10 minutes (25% junk) so I don't see the point of getting continuous beeps during my meeting, I already know that I am receiving messages all the time and I prefere to take care of them at the end of the meetings.
After deactivating automatic fetch in Settings/Fetch new data my battery life was extended from less than one day to 3-4 days.
Use the Home button. The iPhone runs one application at a time (except email and ipod that can be run in the background). But the current application is still running when you turn off the screen. Example: you begin loading a web page and you turn off the iphone (you actually turn off the screen), then you wait a few seconds and turn it on again. You will see the full web page because it has been loaded while the screen was off. Now think about web pages with a timer function to refresh news or advertisements... Another good example is the free game Labyrinth, you turn off the iphone a you keep hearing balls falling.
Buy a Kensington - Mini Battery Pack. If you still run out of battery or if you travel a lot and don't like to carry too many cables/chargers, this small battery pach is for you. This is what I called the wireless battery charger. It is an external battery that can be connected to the iPhone to make it work AND recharge its internal battery while you are on the go. Then the kensington is recharged with a standar USB cable (the same cable used for digital cameras or external USB hard drives).
Now there are several devices of this kind. The one that I have is this one from Best Buy

How to print from the iPhone

$5 DocPrinter prints from iDisk and local files
$7 Print and Share Same as DocPrinter but also integrates a mail client that allows printing and storing attachments as local files.
Both of the above require a Server program called WePrint to be installed in a PC or MAC. This program (port 8080) receives the files and sends them to any installed printer.(Bonojour, recommended by WePrint, is program by apple that allows to install any network printer. Instead of configuring IP port manually, Bonjour automatically finds printers in the network.)
There is free software from HP and Canon to print just pictures directly on network printer (no software requiered for the desktop)
As of Oct/2009, QuickOffice and Docs_to_Go don't print

Managing documents with QuickOffice

Quickoffice uses iDisk and local folders
Has a web server in the iPhone that allows you to download iphone local files to your desktop or to upload files into the iphone, using desktop browser.
Emails can be forwarded to files@quickofficeconnect.com and the attachments will be accesible from QuickOffice for viewing, editing, or storing in iDisk/local.
Local files or iDisk files can be sent by email. QuickOffice in contrast with iDisk APP (free) can attach several files in the same message.

Configuring WiFi at Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Go to Settings->Wi-Fi and select Other... (figure 1)
Type name upco_wlan and select Security type WPA2 Enterprise
Type your login (either student ID number or faculty Windows login) and your password (figure 2)

iMetro

Program that finds the best routes between two stations in a subway (metro) network
iMetro