One new feature of iPhone OS 3.0 is the ability to do tethering without additional software. Unfortunately, this feature is not enabled in US. For those people whose iPhone carriers that support it, here is a tip. If you want to use tethering via USB, you need to install iTunes 8.2 on the computer. iTunes 8.2 provides necessary driver for your iPhone to act as a Mobile Device Ethernet. Otherwise, the phone will be recognized as a camera.

Amazon has just published Kindle for iPhone. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to get the free Kindle books on your iPhone. You’ll need a valid Amazon account to proceed.

1. On your iPhone, invoke App Store. Search for Kindle for iPhone and install the application.
   
2. Invoke Kindle for iPhone and register using your Amazon account.
   
3. Now switch to your computer and visit this link: Kindle Books. This link lists the Kindle books sorted by price from low to high. Select the books you want and check out. You can see your iPhone’s name during the checkout process.
4. Back to Kindle for iPhone, tap the refresh button on the lower left corner and you can see the books you purchased.
   

Now sit back and enjoy the free books anywhere you go.

[Update: 3/5/2009] I have compiled a list of popular free Kindle books. Please click on this link to go to the list.

When I first learned that the PwnageTool is available for iPhone firmware 2.2, I cannot wait to get my iPhone jailbroken again for the new firmware. After I successfully did it, I wanted to try out the Goolge Street View, but I could not figure out how to use it. There is no indication on the settings to view the map in Street View. After playing with it for a while, I finally found that if you do a search or drop a pin, you can see a new person icon.

Click on the person icon let you see the new street view.

When I used the Pwnage Tool to jailbreak my iPhone, there is a method to enter Recovery Mode. It involves with several steps and correct timing for pushing the right button at the right time. I found a quicker and simpler way. Here are the steps.

1. Press and hold the sleep button for a few seconds. Slide the red button to turn it off.
2. Hold the home button and connect your iPhone to the computer with iTunes running.

That’s it.

I was trying to download and convert some YouTube videos for my iPhone. I found the process is so easy and I’d like to share that method with you. What you need is just the free iTunes. No other paid program is needed. Here are the steps.

1. Open up your favorite browser and go to youtube.com and find the video you like.
2. Select and copy the URL of the video
   
   
   
3. Go to keepvid.com and paste the URL to the URL box. Click on DOWNLOAD.
   
4. Two links appears. Right click on the SECOND link and select “Save Link As” to save the video in mp4 format.
   
5. Open up iTunes and click on File -> Add File to Libary to add the mp4 file downloaded in step 4 to your iTunes Library.
   

6. Connect your iPhone and sync it with your iTunes library.

Enjoy!

Apple has published an article about backups for iPhone and iPod Touch. You can learn about how to create, restore and delete backups. It’ quite handy when you are testing out different hacks. Note that the backup is only for your applications and firmware. The contents ( music, ringtones and contacts) are not backed up. You have to sync your device again to get them back.

iTune lets you create your ringtones from only songs purchased from iTune Store. There is an article on StopGeek.com that tells you how to make your own ringtones for free using just iTune. Here is the link.

I followed the instructions and ran into some problems initially. My first problem was that I made the ringtone too long. Remember that you have to make it 30 seconds or shorter. The second problem is that I did not understand the instruction step 10: “Put the file on your iPhone”. It turns out, you still use iTune to sync the ringtone back to iPhone.

After you converted the music file to AAC file. Rename the file extension to .m4r. If the ringtone still shows under Music. Delete it. Click on Ringtones and add the ringtone  file to it.

When I went shopping for a case for my iPhone. I checked the dealextreme’s site. There is only one crystal case available for iPhone 3G at the moment.

This case is only $1.99 and the shipping is free. The only catch is that it takes a long time ( about 2 to 3 weeks) to ship to your home because the vendor is in HK.

Even though the price is right, I don’t like the weird L shape hole and the round hole around the receiver. I wondered why they must have holes like that. There are no buttons there.

It was not until yesterday before I knew why they have those holes around the receiver. I took out my iPhone to check the traffic on my way home. Under the bright sunshine, I could see clearly there are 3 gray dots to the left side of the receiver. I then realized these are the famous sensors that everyone talks about. Here is a photo I took this morning. Click the thumbnail to enlarge the picture.

Now that you know the location for the sensors, next time you shop for a case, be sure the case doesn’t cover the sensors.

I got these tips from the manual. I figured how to restart iPhone before I read the manual. But, I don’t think I’d figure out how to reset it by myself.

• Restart iPhone: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears.Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPhone. To turn iPhone back on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake until the Apple logo appears.

• Reset iPhone: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

These tips are handy when your iPhone is not behaving.

One feature that I don’t like about iPhone’s keyboard is that there is no symbols or numbers on the main keyboard. You have to switch to other keyboard to type symbols and numbers.

If you want to type the word can’t , you need to tap can first then the 123 button to switch to numbers and symbols keyboard and tap the apostrophe and then tap ABC button to switch to main keyboard and tap the last t. That’s 7 taps for a simple word.

How do yo enter the apostrophe in the contraction quickly? Easy, just don’t type it! When you type cant , the built-in dictionary suggests the right word can’t. Just tap space to accept the suggestion. Here is a screenshot of all the contractions I tried. I typed all the words without switching to the numbers and symbols keyboard.

Note that this is not a comprehensive list. They are just some words I tried this morning.

What if you really want to type cant instead of can’t? You need to tap the x beside the suggested word to reject it.