Enabling Emoji on Your iPhone

You know those cutesy smilies and symbols all cool kids are using these days?  Oh, you don't.  Well you should.  They're called "Emoji" and it's basically an extra set of characters that you can use to add meaning to your posts, text messages, and tweets.

We've come along way from the simple smily :) to a full suite of useful characters.  Starting with iOS5 your iPhone, iPad, or iPod is now capable of sending and receiving emoji characters.  To enable them, follow these steps:

1. On your phone tap Settings
2. Select General
3. Select Keyboard
4. Tap International Keyboards
5. Tap Add New Keyboard... 
6. Scroll down and select Emoji

 

Now that emoji is enabled, you can access it from your on-screen keyboard by clicking the International Keyboard icon (Globe) at the bottom of the screen.

 Read more from Apple HERE

Dealing with iPhone App and iOS Freezes

These solutions for dealing with your iPhone freezes are well known among iPhone and tech enthusiasts, but I still find myself answering related questions for everyday users that need help with a locked up iPhone or iPhone app.

There are basically three conditions where you may need to reset an application or phone to resume from an error or lockup.

I.  App Not Responding - Home Button Works

 

In this case, the app you're using may have stopped responding or locked up.  Or, it may simply be stalled on the "Updating..." screen endlessly without ever continuing or even failing.  If pressing the home button returns you to the home screen from where you can see the icons for your apps try this:

1. Double-tap the Home button.
   
   
2. From the app switching ribbon at the bottom of the screen, hold your finger on the icon for the offending application until it wiggles.
3. Click the red circle in the upper-left corner of the app's icon to force it to close.
   
   
4. Press the Home button to return to the home screen.
5. Re-launch the app.

II.  App Not Responding - Home Button Not Working

In this case, not only has the app stopped working, but pressing the home button has no effect.  In this case:

1. Hold the Lock (Top) button on your phone until the "slide to power off" option appears.
2. Release the Lock button.
3. Hold the Home button until the application closes.
4. Re-launch the app.

III.  Phone Not Responding

If nothing else works and the entire phone is unresponsive:

1. Hold the Home and Lock buttons at the same time until the Apple logo appears.
2. Wait for the phone to reboot.

Squarespace iPhone App

Since I use Squarespace to host this blog and because I have an iPhone, it seemed only logical to download the Squarespace app from the iTunes store. It's a free app that gives you the ability to manage your blog while you're on the go.

Features
POST - Create a new blog entry directly from the iPhone. That's what I'm doing right now.

PICS - Add photos to blog posts.

TAGGING - Add or modify article keywords.

MANAGE - From here you can Edit, Delete, or Preview any of your previous posts to your blog.

PREVIEW - View your blog from within the application.

STATS - Find out useful information about your site's traffic, including unique views and RSS subscriptions.

ACCOUNTS - Use the app to manage multiple Squarespace accounts.

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PROS
- Easy to use
- Nice access to stats
- Multiple account supports

CONS
- No horizontal keyboard mode
- No text formatting
- Pics are added to the post, but not inline with the text

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It's not a full featured editor, but nor did I expect one for the phone. What it does, it does well. Text formatting would be a nice addition. And, for FREE it's hard to complain! If you use Squuarespace and own an iPhone this is a no-brainer.

Update on Friday, November 27, 2009 at 10:28AM by R Keith Smith

I slightly modified this post after initially uploading it from the iPhone.  First, I moved the text to the top of the story.  The default upload caused all the image files to go to the top.  I can see how this could be useful when posting a single pic for a quick blog post, but not for an article.

Also, I resized the images to improve the load times.  The were full size pics from the iPhone when they were initially uploaded.

Favorite new iPhone app

OK, I have to admit that I have no idea why I find this new app quite as amusing as I do.... but I do.  It's called Gowalla and it's in the iTunes app store for free.  That's just one of the reasons I like it.  It's one of those apps that attempts to link up your social networking spaces (facebook, twitter, etc.) with your meatspace experience.  I've been playing with it for a few days and I think it's pretty slick.

Gowalla App Icon

The concept is simple enough.  It uses the iPhone's built-in GPS to find "spots" near you.  If you are at one of those spots, you're given the option to "Check In".  Checking in adds a checkmark next to that location for you.  In that regard, it's kind of like a scavenger hunt... maybe you want to tick off all the places on the list of spots nearest you.  Or maybe you're just looking for a restaurant... or a cup of coffee.  Since spots are sorted by type, you can use it for that as well.

Nearby Spots

Spot Categories

But, the most interesting part of the app (at least to me) is the integration with your social networks.  You can link Gowalla to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to have it update your status whenever you check in at a new location.  Also, it can locate your friends on these services that are also using Gowalla.  Then, in the Friends tab, it will show you their locations if they're near you.  Pretty cool.

Social Network Integration

The Passport page keeps track of all the places you've checked in.  And, there's no "cheating".  If you're not close enough to a location, you can't claim you're there and check-in.  The GPS makes sure of that.

Passport

Also, if you're near an interesting spot and it's not on the list, you can simply add it.  Once you add the spot you can check in.  You can also become a "founder" by dropping an item there.  You're given some seemingly random objects (glove, marbles, praying mantis?) that you can drop at locations or swap for other items.

And finally there's a section for "Trips".  These are user-created trips that contain a series of spots.  Obviously the goal here is to visit each spot and complete the trip.

Trips

So, if you have an iPhone go ahead and download Gowalla.  After all, it is FREE.  And then add me as a friend!