The iPhone is unlike any other mobile device you have experienced before. In large, the iPhone has replaced old fashioned device buttons with onscreen touching, flipping, dragging and more. This guide will explain the various finger techniques you will be using with the iPhone.

Tap
In owning an iPhone, you will be doing a lot of tapping. The iPhone consists of a number of onscreen buttons, which you will need to tap with your finger. Luckily they are big enough for users to see and touch. Here you will not be using the old-fashioned stylus, pen tip or any other small object.

Slide
On some screens you will be required to confirm an action by sliding your finger across the screen of the iPhone. Examples of sliding requests are when you intend to switch off your iPhone or unlock it after it was locked due to inactivity. You will also be requested to slide your finger to answer a call on a locked phone or to shut off an alarm or alert.

Drag
Dragging will occur when you are zoomed into a web page, email or photo and you wish to move around the enlarged image. Dragging is almost like a flick of the finger, but only slower and more controlled.

Pinch and Spread
In applications such as Mail, Web, Maps and Photos a user can zoom in by spreading. This is done by placing two fingers on the screen and spreading them apart. By doing this the image will start to enlarge.

Once zoomed into an image, you can zoom out again by pinching. This is done, once again by placing two fingers on the screen and pinching them together.

Flick
A flick can be seen as a fast and uncontrolled slide of the finger. By scrolling vertically you can browse long lists. The faster you flick the faster the list scrolls by.

Double-Tap
The double-tap term is plain forward and easy to understand, however, this is very rarely used on the iPhone where all functions are activated with one tap.

Generally double tapping are reserved for three functions only, and they are:

• Double tapping images in the browser will zoom in on them.
• Double tapping a zoomed image will restore the image to its original size.

When watching a video, double tapping it will switch between aspect ratios.

Two-Finger Tap
This is a very rare action on the iPhone and is only used in Google Maps. This will zoom out of a map viewed and is performed by tapping the screen once with two fingers.

Certainly, the visual voicemail function contained on the iPhone is one of the biggest sale motivators. With the iPhone there is no need to call into a voicemail message box or entering any passwords to listen to messages left by others. There is no need to listen to all messages and continuously pressing buttons to listen to the remainder of the messages.

Whenever a caller leaves a voicemail message the iPhone will wake up and display a notification on the screen of the voicemail message that was left. If activated, you may also hear the message alert tone sounding.

Setting up Voicemail
The first time you visit the Voicemail screen you will be prompted to set a numeric password for your voicemail account. This will only be required the first time you access this facility.

Here you will also be asked to record a message for your voicemail facility. You will have two options here, as you can make use of the iPhones’ custom pre-recorded default message or create your own custom recorded message.

Viewing Voicemail Messages
Once here, you will be in a position to view all received voicemail messages in chronological order. This list will display the callers’ name, if listed in your contacts list and the telephone number from where they dialled.

You are now in a position to view and listed to any voicemail message you wish. You are not restricted to listen to messages in a specific order.

In order to listen to a voicemail message, simply tap the name of the message twice. This is in contradiction with the usual one-tap function of the iPhone.

Remember, it is required that you turn on the phone speaker as you will be looking at your phone and not holding it to your ear.

Also, important to note is that the iPhone will store new messages for a period of 30 days. Ensure that you visit this facility frequently in order to prevent a loss of information.

One of the advantages of the iPhone for corporate users is the fact that the user can access a Virtual Private Network (VPN) straight into a corporate network directly from the iPhone. The advantage of this facility is that the user send and receive his/her work email directly on the iPhone, without the need of visiting the office.

The iPhone has the ability to connect to servers supporting PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) and L2TP/IPSec (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol over the IP Security Protocol). The majority of corporate networks will support at least one of these two protocols or technologies.

The iPhone 2.0 furthermore consists of capabilities of connecting to Cisco servers, which is the most widely used system across the United States by large corporations.

Setting up VPN

On your iPhone, visit Settings à General à Network à VPN. Tap the on/off button and a VPN Configuration screen will pop up.

Now tap the protocol used by the company who’s VPN you wish to access. Your options are PPTP, L2TP and IPSec. This information can be obtained from the systems administrator of your organizations systems.

The following information needs be completed. Again, this information can only be obtained from your systems administrator:

Server
This is the Internet address of your VPN server.

Account and Password
Your systems administrator needs to set up a user account and password for you to access the systems. Here you need to enter the username and password provided to you.

Secret
If your systems make use of L2TP technologies you will require another password, known as the Shared Secret. This needs to be entered here.

With the Internet we became accustomed to parental control, ensuring our children do not fall prey to the large number of traps set by unscrupulous Internet users. Apple incorporated parental control functions into the iPhone, but called this ‘Restrictions’.

By making use of ‘Restrictions’ you will be required to make up a 4-digit password, which will allow you to place various restrictions on the usage of the iPhone. Restrictions allow the user to place restrictions in 3 different categories of the iPhone. They are:

Music / Sounds
By turning on Explicit, the iPhone will prevent playing songs or sounds that may contain explicit lyrics. This function, however only works with music acquired from the iTunes store.

Video / TV
This function also prevents displaying videos with an age restriction of PG13 and up. It will also block TV series whose rating exceeds TV-14.

Removing Icons
The user may also remove Icons altogether from the iPhone’s Home screen, which include Safari. iTunes, Youtube and Installation of Apps.

The restrictions placed upon an iPhone can simply be removed by visiting the restriction settings and choosing disabling the restrictions. The user will be requested to enter the 4-digit password and the settings will be disabled if the password is entered incorrectly.

The main reason for using restrictions are preventing minors from accessing potential dangerous Internet websites or other unwanted content. This function may also be useful in the event an iPhone is lost or stolen. Those illegally in possession of the iPhone will not be able to access the Internet.

Depending on your mobile plan, AT&T generally offers a limit of 200 SMS’s to users on a monthly basis, which include sending and receiving. For the majority of users this number is simply not sufficient, but surprises await your monthly bill when exceeding this limit.

Keeping track of messages sent and received
Unfortunately the iPhone does not keep track of the number of SMS’s sent and received on the phone. For American users the only manner in which this can be established is by visiting www.wireless.att.com and visit the ‘My Account’ section. Elsewhere in the world, the various service providers may have other means of displaying these statistics. Always ensure that you contact your service provider and request more information on viewing your usage statistics.

Free Messaging Options
For users intending to send and receive more messages than the restricted limit there are fortunately two free options in doing so.

Option 1 – Teleflip
Teleflip is a free service that converts e-mail into text messages. In joining this service you are not required to sign up for an account, pay any fees, sign any contracts or divulging any personal identifiable information.

The main aim of Teleflip was to send text messages from a personal computer to another user’s mobile phone. The iPhone opened a new generation to Teleflip as users can send an e-mail from their iPhone, which is totally free, to another persons’ mobile phone, which will arrive as a message, totally free.

In order to use Teleflip, you will create a new e-mail address for the person you wish to send a message to, which will look like this: 1245620288@teleflip.com. All messages sent to this number will be delivered as a text message.

Option 2 – AIM
The AIM chat program is yet another method of sending free messages. Here you simply create a buddy whose address is his mobile phone number. Any message sent to that address will be delivered as a text message at no costs to you.

The advantage of this service is that a buddy can reply to any message sent to him.