The iPhone’s finger-driven interface seems natural and obvious. But when you really think about it, making it seem that way was no easy task. There are no menus in the iPhone software, for example, and no checkboxes or radio buttons. Everything on the screen has to be big enough for a fleshy fingertip.
On the other hand, the finger makes an outstanding pointing device; heck, you’ve been pointing with it all your life. It’s much faster to scroll diagonally with a fingertip, for example, than with fussy adjustments on two different scroll bars.
Earbud Cord Switch
Without close inspection, you’d have a hard time telling the iPhone’s white stereo earbuds apart from a regular iPod’s–but don’t get them mixed up. The iPhone’s earbuds have a tiny, embedded clicker/microphone partway down the right earbud cord.
That’s right, “clicker/microphone.” The tiny bulge is the microphone for phone calls. But if you pinch the bulge, you’ll find that it clicks.
* Pinch once to answer an incoming phone call. Pinch for a couple seconds to dump the call to voicemail. (You can also double-tap the Sleep/Wake switch on top of the iPhone to send the call to voicemail.)
* During music or video playback, pinch once to pause the music; pinch again to resume playback.
* During music playback, double-pinch to skip to the next song.
Cell phones have gone from a gee whiz curiosity only a few years ago to an indispensable communications link for more than 50 million U.S. subscribers [and probably 20 million in South Africa]. Despite cell phones’ enormous popularity, until now it has been difficult to get reliable, objective information on which to base purchases and maximize performance (that’s because the industry has a vested interest into keeping the customer stupid). Having a cell phone can go with trouble and sometimes cell phones need to be repaired. Here a repair manual can come in handy. The cell phone handbook can be a reference, but can serve as a basic repair manual for your cell phone as well.