iPhone Guru

Since I upgraded to iPhone 3G I was having a devil-of-a-time connecting to my wireless router. WPA/WPA2 was the encryption scheme and I was struggling trying to pinpoint why the iPhone 3G was unable to join the network while my original iPhone was still connected to my Belkin N1 router. I had plenty of client slots open for DHCP to add me onto and there were 2 other iPhones in the home having no connectivity issues at all. I was getting pretty frustrated until I resorted to going through my router configuation settings link by link to see what I could find. It turns out that MAC address filtering was enabled. MAC stands for Media Access Control and it has nothing to do with Macintosh computers. A MAC address is like a digital fingerprint for wireless devices. The solution: add your iPhone wi-fi address from Settings - General - About to the router’s MAC address filter and that will allow it to join the network.

The Apple iPhone Remote Application is a great way to control iTunes with your iPhone from anywhere as long as you are connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your iTunes library with your iPhone. Once you’ve downloaded the Remote App onto your iPhone for free from the App Store you can begin by making sure your iPhone is connected to the same network as your computer that contains your iTunes library. Open the Remote app and add a new iTunes library to the iPhone. You will see a four digit passcode on your iPhone screen which you will have to enter in iTunes. You will get a message stating that your remote is now able to control iTunes. Tap done and the iPhone should find your library. You can control your iTunes library wirelessly, pausing and playing media on your computer in iTunes or on your Apple TV all from the iPhone.

If you are having issues getting the iPhone’s Remote App to connect or find your iTunes library on your computer then you need to reconfigure your firewall. The computer I use is running 10.5.4 and apparently the default settings allowed my iPhone to pair with iTunes but it could not find the library when I went to use the Remote app. I would see the spinning gear for a few seconds followed by the message “Cannot find iTunes library”. To resolve this in OS X 10.5.x go to System Preferences > Security > Firewall > and choose Set access for specific services and applications. Click the plus in the bottom of the window and choose iTunes from the Application list. Make sure the iTunes application is set to allow incoming connections. Close System Preferences and close iTunes and relaunch iTunes and the remote should work like a charm.

Did your iPhone camera quit working? When you snap a few pictures and enter the iPhone camera roll, are you seeing BLANK WHITE THUMBNAILS that crashes the app when you touch one to view? This problem has happened to me more than once and luckily, there is a quick solution. It involves backing up your iPhone and then restoring from the backup after we remove a problematic file from your hard drive. Ready? Let’s fix your iPhone camera. First, sync your iPhone with your computer so iTunes makes an automatic backup.

If you are in Windows, go to: “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” or if you are on a Mac go to “~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup” and delete the file entitled “f1b43d3b3ecf259a3626c13a8b0cebd8ba513117.mdbackup” and then go back into iTunes and restore your iPhone and recover from the backup. Your camera can now take pictures again!

Are you experiencing issues when trying to send or get text messages on your iPhone? Toggle airplane mode on for 10 seconds, then switch it off. Next, send a new SMS text message to the number “151″ and input the word “Test” when you compose your text message. If your account is provisioned properly, you will get a response indicating Text Messaging is working for your account.