mypocketOS » How-to’s

Unlock your O2 iPhone

Neil Bird — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:38:32 +0000

Legally use your O2 iPhone on any network

Since November 2009, O2 are no longer the sole distributor of the Apple iPhone, and so have opened up their tight grip on the handset and will now allow you to unlock your iPhone.

Yes, you can now legally network unlock your O2 iPhone without having to Jailbreak your handset. This means that you are free to use your iPhone on any network that you like and that you can enjoy all the latest iPhone updates without worrying that it will re-lock a previously Jailbroken handset.

Unlock a Pay Monthly iPhone on O2

You can unlock your Pay Monthly iPhone at anytime to use on any network, and the best part is that it’s totally free. You will of course still be responsible for the remainder of your contract.

Simply go to the O2 website to Unlock your Pay Monthly iPhone and fill in your details. You will need to wait up-to 14 days for O2 to respond.

Unlock a Pay as You Go iPhone on O2

You can unlock your Pay as You Go iPhone at anytime to use on any network, but it will cost you £15, and the 12 months free Internet access will be removed from your account.

Simply go to the O2 website to Unlock your Pay as You Go iPhone and fill in your details. You will need to wait up-to 14 days for O2 to respond.

Confirmation Text from O2

You will receive a confirmation text from O2 to say that your iPhone has been unlocked. Although they say 14 days, my text arrived the day after I filled in the form on the O2 website!

Connect to iTunes

Plug your iPhone into iTunes and you will receive the below message to say that your iPhone has been successfully unlocked.

Enjoy your unlocked iPhone

Now that your iPhone has been unlocked by O2, you can place any SIM of your choice in your handset. If you have previously Jailbroken your iPhone, you may want to restore the iPhone OS to the latest Apple version (removing the jailbreak).

iPhone Operator Settings

Although you have an unlocked iPhone, your iPhone will be missing the important network configuration settings for MMS & Internet. You may need to have a Google around to find these and manually enter them in Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network.

If want to use 3UK as your mobile provider like I did, then follow these instructions on how to get a 3UK IPCC file onto your handset.

Watch Live TV on your iPhone for Free with TVCatchup

Neil Bird — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:40:01 +0000

TVCatchup – Watch your favourite TV programmes from your iPhone

You may already be familiar with the amazing BBC iPlayer for iPhone that allows you to catch-up with your favourite BBC TV shows that you missed, well now a company called TVCatchup are bringing you Live TV to your iPhone.

Some of your favourite UK Terrestrial TV Stations are now available at your fingertips to watch on your iPhone thanks to TVCatchup – Not only is the service totally free, but the picture quality over WiFi is stunning!

Watch Live TV using TVCatchup

It’s very easy to watch live TV on your iPhone, you don’t even need to install an App, just point your iPhone’s web browser at iphone.tvcatchup.com to be given a selection of the available channels.

Pick your favourite TV Channel and a live stream will then start, it’s as easy as that. Fancy some Deal or No Deal with Noel Edmonds?

Hooked on FIVE‘s latest big show Flash Forward?

Or even want to see what your favourite Blue Peter presenters are up to?..

All your favourite TV shows are now accessible for you to watch all from the comfort of your very own iPhone.

The Current Live TV Line-up

The site is currently in Beta and has a selection of channels:

BBC One
BBC Two
ITV1
Channel 4
FIVE
ITV2
BBC 3
Film 4
E4
More 4
4Music

Also watch from your computer

You can also watch TVCatchup from your computer by going to tvcatchup.com, where there are more channels to choose from as well as a nice TV Guide.

[via @TheCreativeLife]

Quit a hanging or frozen iPhone App

Neil Bird — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:47:09 +0000

Kill or exit an iPhone App that has stopped responding

If for some reason an iPhone App starts misbehaving, and doesn’t work as expected, even if you close the app and re-open it, you probably need to kill the App process rather than just exiting the app.

Prior to iPhone OS 3.0 you just had to hold the home button down for a few seconds and the App would get killed.

This method no longer works since iPhone OS 3.0 was released as holding down the home button for a few seconds now brings up the Voice Control feature.

Quit an iPhone App in OS 3.0

With the App that is causing you problems running, hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone until the ‘Slide to power off‘ message appears, release your finger as soon as it appears.

Now hold down the home button for a few seconds and the running App will close.

The Application state will have been reset and you should be able to open the troublesome App again without any problems.

Update the firmware on your Nokia mobile

Neil Bird — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:52:03 +0000

Get the latest firmware for your Nokia mobile

You may not know that the Operating System (OS) that is currently running on your Nokia mobile probably isn’t the most up-to-date. There may be a new version available that could provide it with some new features, security updates, and even make it run a little better.

If this all sounds rather daunting, then have no fear, follow our step-by-step guide to getting your mobile updated.

Finding your mobiles current software version

To find out what software version you are currently running on your Nokia mobile, enter *#0000# where you would normally dial a phone number.

You will see a screen similar to that of the Nokia N97 below, which will show a string of numbers like 11.0.021.C01.01.

Nokia software update website

Nokia provide a tool called the Nokia Software Updater that is available from their website, which can check to see if there is a newer version of firmware for your mobile: nokia.com/softwareupdate.

The first thing that you need to do is select your mobile handset from the list:

Download and install Nokia Software Updater

Once you have selected your handset you will be able to see what the latest version for it is. A link to download the Nokia Software Updater software for your PC will be below the information. Click this to being download.

The Nokia Software Updater (NSU) is currently only available for PC’s (sorry Mac users!).

Once you have downloaded the software, run the set-up to install Nokia Software Updater on your PC.

Make sure that you have made a backup using Nokia PC Suite before you continue.

Using Nokia Software Updater

Start-up the application by double-clicking the Nokia Software Updater icon and you will be presented with the following welcome screen:

Click Start.

Make sure that your handset is turned on, fully charged, and connect it to your PC via the USB cable. When prompted on your phone select PC Suite as the connection method.

You will also be reminded that by updating the firmware, you will loose all your settings, so make sure that you have made a backup.

Click Next to continue.

The NSU will new look to see if it can find a mobile connected to the PC.

Once a handset has been detected, NSU will check to see if there are any updates for your particular handset. If there are you will be notified “New Software update available”. Click Update.

You will need to wait for the new software update to download, the time will vary depending on your broadband speed. Click Next when it has downloaded.

The software will apply the new firmware to your handset, this may take a few minutes. Be patient, don’t be alarmed if your mobile screen should go blank.

Your handset should restart and your new firmware will be installed.

If you made a backup prior to the upgrade, you can now restore your content back to your phone using Nokia PC Suite.

You can now enjoy the new benefits that the software update has given you..

Background Music Streaming on an iPhone

Neil Bird — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:33:16 +0000

Listen to Music Streams in the Background on an iPhone

One of the annoyances of an iPhone is that you are unable to multi-task, meaning that generally you are unable to run two iPhone Apps at the same time.

If you like listening to music, and stream it over the Internet in Apps like Last.fm, then you can’t do anything else with your iPhone, because as soon as you switch away from your open App it will automatically close.

There is a work-around that allows you listen to audio streams and use other features on your iPhone – well apart from surf the net that is!

OK it’s not ideal, but it’s the best you’re going to get I’m afraid!

It’s all about Safari

The key to get streaming music on your iPhone is to use the iPhone’s web browser (Safari) to do it. You also need a stream that the iPhone can play, a good example of this is the BBC Radio streams found on BBC iPlayer.

Point Safari to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and you will be presented with the iPhone version of the site. Select Radio, and then choose the show that you would like to listen to. Wait for the QuickTime play icon to appear and then tap it.

Safari will then change to the QuickTime media player and will load and play the stream:

Once the stream has started, you are then able to press the iPhone’s ‘home button’ and fire up another App. When you want to get back to the stream, just tap Safari!

Surfing the Internet

Unfortunately as the QuickTime App takes over Safari, you are unable to surf the Internet while music is streaming. Although not ideal, it does mean that you can use the majority of other apps on your iPhone.

Making & receiving calls

You will still be able to make and receive calls while the stream is playing, the iPhone will pause and resume the stream when this happens.

It’s not ideal..

You will be able to text, send emails and do pretty much anything else that doesn’t interfere with the stream, sadly this doesn’t include web-browsing! Be careful with other audio Apps that may trigger the stream to stop.

Set your Sky+ from your iPhone

Neil Bird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:19:25 +0000

Record your favourite TV show from your iPhone

You know the feeling, you are out and about somewhere, and you forgot to record a TV show you really wanted to see. Well if you are a Sky+ subscriber and have an iPhone then you are in luck, as they have an app for that.

The Sky+ App for iPhone allows you to record your favourite programmes direct from your handset, as well as giving you comprehensive access to the Sky+ Planner for the next 7 days and best of all its free!

Getting Started

Before we look at the Sky+ App, we need to make sure that you have a My Sky account set-up on Sky.com and that you have remote record enabled. If you do, great, you can skip straight to the App, else follow on..

Setting up Sky Remote Record on Sky.com

Before you can set your Sky+ box to record from your iPhone you will need to register for Remote Record on the Sky.com website. To do this you will need to:

Register a My Sky account
Once registered and logged-in click the Remote Record Sign up now link on the left and follow the instructions

Activate Remote Record on your Sky+ box

Press the Interactive button on your Sky+ remote control and press ’1′ for Sky Active.
Choose Sky Products from the menu, then select Remote Record.
Select Register My Sky Users
Using your Sky remote control, enter your mobile phone number and press Select.

You will now see the confirmation screen.

Download the Remote Record App

All you need to do is fire up the App Store on your iPhone or go to Applications from iTunes on your computer.

Using the Sky+ iPhone App to record a programme

Once downloaded, enter your My Sky username and password, and you will be presented with a familiar Sky categories list:

Select the appropriate category – Entertainment, Lifestyle & Culture, Movies, Sport etc or select All to see all channels. You will then presented with a Sky Planner:

You can swipe left with your finger to change the time of day, or click the arrows on the top right to move through the channels. If you want to look at a different days schedule (up to 7 days) click the days button on the bottom left.

If you are not sure what channel, or day a particular show is on, you can search the Planner by clicking the magnifying glass on the bottom right:

Tap the programme that you are interested in and you will see the programme synopsis, click the Record button and a request will be sent your Sky+ box.

Conclusion

I have found the Sky+ iPhone App to be a great App. Recording requests usually appear on my Sky+ Box’s planner in a matter of seconds. You do need to make sure that the request is send 30 minutes before the programme you want to record starts broadcasting. I’ve gerenally found that requests sent 10 minutes before the programme is due to start don’t work.

You can download the Sky+ App from the App Store

Create your own iPhone ringtones

Neil Bird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:36:47 +0000

Want a ringtone for your Phone?

The iPhone is a great phone, but let’s be honest the choice of ringtones that comes on the phone is a bit rubbish. Apple do allow you to buy ringtones from their iTunes Store, but that is only available to residents of the USA. So what about the rest of the world that have iPhones?

There is a simple work around that you can do to get your own ringones onto your iPhone.

Step-by-step Guide to creating your own iPhone ringtones

Select an existing track from iTunes and make a note of the start and end times that you would like to use as your ringtone. It should be no longer than 40 seconds.
Right-click the track and select Get Info
then select the Options Tab

Set the Start Time and Stop Time to the times you noted in step 1 and click OK
Right-click the track again within iTunes and click Create ACC Version
Wait a few moments as iTunes creates a new version
Find the new song in iTunes, and right-click and select Show in Finder
Before we go to the Finder, Right-click the file newly created file in iTunes and select Delete to remove it from the iTunes library
Select Remove when prompted

Select Keep File when prompted

Now in Finder, change the file from .m4a to .m4r
Select Use .m4r when prompted

Double-click the new .m4r file and it will automatically be imported into iTunes as a ringtone.
All you have to do now is sync your iPhone with iTunes.

Repeat the process and add as many ringtones to your iPhone as you like.

The default lock code for Nokia Handsets

Neil Bird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:35:00 +0000

There may be a time when you will get asked for the Lock Code on your Nokia Handset. This could happen if you are going to reset the handset back to factory settings for example.

By default this is set to:

12345

Unless you ever changed it yourself.

Screen capture on your iPhone

Neil Bird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:28:10 +0000

Grab an image of what’s on your iPhone screen

If you would like to capture the current contents of your iPhone’s screen, be that a game you are playing, a message you are writing or anything else; just hit the following sequence of buttons:

Press the power/sleep button (at the top of the handset) and home button at the same time.

The screen will flash white, and a copy of the iPhone’s screen will be saved as an image. You will be able to find the saved image using the Photos App.

Factory reset your symbian mobile

Neil Bird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:22:50 +0000

Get your mobile back to factory settings

There may come a time that you wish that your Symbian mobile was running as smoothly as when you first got it. Over a period of time, after installing various applications your handset can tend to slow down or be less responsive. Or it may be that you want to clear everything off of the handset before giving it to a new owner.

You can reset your mobile’s software back to how it came when it first left the factory.

Before you start

Please note that performing the following will wipe all settings, messages, photos and applications you currently have on your phone! Please make sure you know what you are doing before continuing…

Please make sure that you have a backup!

Factory reset

From the home screen enter the below sequence:

*#7370#

You will be prompted to enter your lock password, which on a Nokia is 12345, unless you have changed it previously.

The system will take a few minutes to go through the reset process. Once finished you will be prompted with the set-up Wizard to apply time/location.