Category Archives: Social Networks & Online Communities

iPhone Tips for Beginners

Computers & Electronics, Internet, Lifestyles, Recreation, Social Networks & Online Communities, Technology

So You have a New iPhone!

iphone-tipsSo I am assuming that you have just got yourself an iPhone and with it a plan that comes with 3G coverage so that you can access the web wherever you are. These days the plans are very reasonable but if you don’t have web access then you can use the wireless features of the phone when you are in an area that has wireless coverage.

In that lovely new box there are a few goodies but one thing that there is not is an instruction booklet – I guess that Apple think that you can get all the information online in their help manuals but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it and even some basic things need a small about of explaining when you first start using it.

Firstly, I have to say I now love my iPhone and wouldn’t want to be without it, which is what I guess Apple want you to think! It has loads of great features and by downloading apps you can use it for more and more things. Anyway, here are a few basics to start you off.

How To Change The Sim Card

It sounds obvious but from experience I looked and looked for where the iPhone SIM card went and couldn’t find it! So in order to change the iPhone SIM card you will need the SIM card pin that came with your phone (it looks a bit like a paper clip). Use the pin end on this to poke into the hole at the top of the phone and the SIM card holder will pop out of the top of the phone. Whenever you need to open the SIM card holder you will need to use the pin.

Synching Your iPhone

Firstly, in order to synchronise your data with your computer you will need to have iTunes installed and also have an iTunes account. These are pretty simple to set up if you do not already have one.

You will need to link your iPhone to iTunes via a usb port on computer with the usb cable that was supplied with your iPhone and within the iTunes interface you can synchronise your contacts, music, calendar and pretty much everything else on your iPhone (except downloading photos).

Once you plug your phone in iTunes should start up automatically and it will start synching all the data on your phone. Don’t unplug your phone until it has finished.

Copying Photos from your iPhone

You can choose photo albums to synch up to your phone within the iTunes interface but it seems you can’t synch your photos down 🙁

If you want to copy your photos down from your iPhone to your computer then you basically need to do this in Window Explorer. Open the phone in explorer and copy them to your chosen directory.

However, this does not always work so one other way of doing it is to use Google’s Picasa tool to import the photos.

How To Change the Number of Times The iPhone Rings Before Voicemail Cuts In

When I first got my iPhone it would ring only 4 times and then go straight to voicemail which I thought was very annoying as more often than not I did not reach the phone before it stopped ringing. After much investigation, I found that they way to change the number of rings on your iPhone before going to voicemail was as follows:

Call *#61#

Take a note of the number that comnes through as ‘Forwards to’

Dial *61*/Forwards To/*11*n#

where n= no. of seconds that you want it to ring for before going to voicemail. After a bit of trial and error I set it to around 30 seconds to give me a chance to find the phone!

Battery Power

From my experience the battery on the iPhone lasts between 10 hours and two days but obviously it depends on how much you use it. You can recharge the battery with the USB cable either through your computer or with the power adapter for the USB cable that plugs into the mains. You can also buy many music systems to play your iPhone music through and these will charge your iPhone while they play.

How Do You Take a Screenshot with Your iPhone?

Well this is actually a really easy thing to do once you know how. All you have to do is to navigate to the page that you want a screenshot of, then you press down the power button at the top of the phone and at the same time you hit the round ‘home’ button on the bottom of the front screen.

This saves a shot of the screen to your camera roll where you can do whatever you like with it!

What is Pinterest?

Internet, Social Networks & Online Communities

Pinterest is one of the newest of what can be classed as a social media site but with a bit of a difference. It could actually be grouped with sites like reddit and stumbleupon (and quite a few others too numerous to mention) but it seems to have captured people’s imagination a little better.

The key point of pinterest is that it is a kind of virtual pinboard for people to post things. But the way that it has been set up might be the key. In effect you ‘pin’ a picture to the pinterest board in a category that is relevant to the picture or web page that it came from. Others can see whatever you have pinned and if they like it they can ‘repin’ it.

If you are someone with a website then this can drive traffic to your site if people repin your page or picture in large numbers. If you can get something eye catching and useful that is pinned then it will get read and repinned quite a bit.

You can pin something by linking in with your twitter or facebook account or you can apply for a pinterest account where you will be put on the waiting list!

Is pinterest the new facebook or twitter though? If it continues to take off as it has then who knows?

Plenty of Fish

Social Networks & Online Communities,

Plenty of fish is one of the biggest online dating websites in the world, if not the biggest. It has over 20 million users and is free to use (although you will need to upgrade to use some facilities).

In this day and age it seems that it is becoming more difficult to date in the normal fashion and as we all seem to spend so long in front of our computer screens every day, online dating seems to be the way to go. Here you can pick out what characteristics you want a potential partner to have and specify age, height, interests etc. Not like just bumping into someone in a bar where you start off going by appearance alone.

Plenty of fish has moved it’s focus into the music area, once offering a ‘date’ with Lady Gaga at one of her concerts.

The site was set up in 2003 by Markus Frind who is essentially a programmer and used his skills to create a site that could match people up scientifically – Plenty of Fish was not and is still not pretty but it has the functionality and this obviously appeals to the users wh are still increasing every year.

The main benefit for users of course is that Plenty of Fish is free and so they can browse profiles without having to shell out any cash – which some people either don’t have or consider a luxury spend. With such large numbers of members Frind can probably afford to keep the site free with all the advertising revenue that he must be making from the literally billions of page views per month.

Facebook Charging?

Social Networks & Online Communities, ,

From time to time there are rumors of facebook charging for membership of the site. The latest facebook charging rumor going round is as follows:

“FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS
OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY”

If you see someone posting this as their status then don’t believe it, it is not true and none of the other rumors of facebook charging are true either! Firstly, even if facebook were to charge for membership, they would not release the information like this, through people adding it to their status. They have everyone’s email address and it would be the kind of major change that would need people to know about it well in advance and agree to it.

But before we even get into that, the chances of facebook charging for membership are pretty minimal. Would you actually pay for facebook membership? I for one would not. There are plenty of options out there for keeping in touch that would make it impossible for facebook charging to occur. Twitter, mySpace, Linked In and now Google plus – there is no way facebook would survive if it were to start charging.

Facebook already earn money through advertising revenue and that has been expanding in the last few years as brands and even small companies realise the power of facebook, but facebook charging for membership? Not in my lifetime.