1. Start Safari
2. Navigate to the page you want to add
3. Tap the Add Bookmark button at the bottom of the screen (+ sign)
4. Tap Add to Home Screen
5. Type the name you want to attach to the bookmark or accept what is given
6. Tap Add in the upper right hand corner

That's it, easy, but extremely handy!Watch the short video below to see this tip in action.

1. Touch and hold your finger on any icon
2. When the icons start to jiggle, take your finger off the icon.
3. Now you can drag any icon to any position by touching and dragging it to a new location or even a new screen by dragging it to the left or right edge of the screen.
4. You can also drag the default icons off the toolbar at the bottom and drag the ones you use most often to the toolbar
5. When you are finished moving your icons to positions that work best for you, push the button at the bottom of your iPhone.
   

Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple?  when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most...after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.

For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don't have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.

The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded]]> http://helpmerick.com/treo-what-treo.htm/feed 5 http://helpmerick.com/my-pick-for-the-best-technology-currently-available.htm http://helpmerick.com/my-pick-for-the-best-technology-currently-available.htm#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:11:25 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2212 Editors note:  Of course, I'm going to exempt smartphones (my current favorite is the iPhone 3G) because these are necessary to 21st century living.

Next to the smartphone, my vote for best technology currently available is the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). A DVR replaces the venerable VHS recorder for recording television programming. DVR's use hard drives to record the programming digitally and require about a tenth of the knowledge necessary to program a VCR. The hard drives can record from 40 HD hours to almost 200 hours of programming. With DVR's, there is never a tape to change or rewind, and the quality of the recording is flawless no matter how many times you watch it.

Another plus with DVR's is their advanced fast forward feature. All DVR's have a skip button on the remote that skips 30-60 seconds in one push. Does that time period sound familiar? Yes, it's the length of a commercial. When watching a sitcom, most commercial breaks last about 3 to 4 minutes...a few quick presses of the DVR's skip button and you are watching the next segment. A 30 minute program can be finished in about 19 minutes...I'll take 11 minutes wherever I can get them. And a one hour crime drama can be over in about 40 minutes!

Sorry Oprah and Dr. Phil fans, daytime talk shows cannot be recorded with a DVR.*

Right now my family is recording nearly 18 hours of Olympic programming every day, but we can watch all that in about 4 hours or so by using the variable speed of the DVR's fast forward feature. Very helpful to skip through boring soccer matches or 50 KM race walking at 300X speed. But because the recordings are digital, you can actually keep track of the action and]]> http://helpmerick.com/my-pick-for-the-best-technology-currently-available.htm/feed 6 http://helpmerick.com/what-i-learned-in-the-first-4-days-of-my-iphone-3g.htm http://helpmerick.com/what-i-learned-in-the-first-4-days-of-my-iphone-3g.htm#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:59:26 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2194 I picked up my new iPhone late on Thursday night, worked with it on Friday, then left with it for a quick trip to see my brother and my first and only nephew. Prior to this phone, I have used some sort of smartphone since 2000...all Palm software based. Prior to that I used Palm handheld computers since about 1997.

I decided to move to the iPhone because I felt that the Palm innovation had stagnated...about 5 years ago. Plus, with all the innovation and development happening around the iPhone, I knew it was a great opportunity to take my smartphone usage even further than the Palm based systems had. A real quick word about any smartphone; they aren't met for every cell phone user. Smartphones are designed for people who want to check email, lookup information on the web, get maps, send text messages, add specialty programs like conversion programs, time trackers and much more to their phone.

Enough blabber, here are some of my thoughts about the iPhone after only four days of use:

1. The screen is absolutely stunning...clear, bright, and responsive.

2. I really miss being able to select text]]> http://helpmerick.com/what-i-learned-in-the-first-4-days-of-my-iphone-3g.htm/feed 4 http://helpmerick.com/my-iphone-3g-is-on-its-way.htm http://helpmerick.com/my-iphone-3g-is-on-its-way.htm#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:07:53 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2192 http://helpmerick.com/my-iphone-3g-is-on-its-way.htm/feed 2