iPhone 4s help

[Ben E Lou]

So I let the guys at FOxL talk me into buying one of these suckers for work, and it turns out that, so far, it appears that it lags behind Blackberry in terms of functionality for enterprise business. There's enough "neat stuff" in it that I think I'm going to keep it, but I could use some help getting up to speed in some areas. Maybe there are apps to improve some of this stuff, or maybe I'm doing some of it wrong. Here are the things I am finding lacking/difficult/frustrating:

MAKING A CALL FROM A LARGE LIST OF CONTACTS

• When I go to Call-->Contacts, there's no search box, and those itty-bitty letters are simply too small for me to punch with any accuracy. I have hundreds (thousands?) of contacts in there, so scrolling seems like a hideous idea, and even if I'm going for the "S" and hit "R", it's a long effin' scroll. Is there a way to "sticky" the search box or a way to go to the top with one click? On my BB it was stickied at the top so i just typed in the first couple letter of the last name, and I was very close. Here it's part of the scroll, so if my last call was to someone whose name started with "W", it's on "W" when I go to that screen and I have to scroll forever to the top.--RESOLVED

TEXT MESSENGING

• If I'm texting with a contact, sometimes I want to call that contact immediately. On the BB, I just clicked on the person's name and a menu showed up with "call {contact name}" When I do that here, nothing happens. Is there any analogous feature?--RESOLVED
• BB worked more like Trillian, where I had a bunch of different options for how messages appeared. I can't find any option to get rid of the "bubbles" that are taking up all that screen space. I just want text, so I can see more of the past conversation without scrolling. Is that possible?--NOT POSSIBLE WITH STANDARD FUNCTIONALITY. Is there an app?

EMAIL

• I have my work and personal accounts set up. On the BB, I could know without picking up the phone if an email was work or personal by having different sounds for each account. Further, if an email was from my wife or other close family member, I had a third sound alerting me to check it ASAP. It's not uncommon for me to have four-hour phone calls during the workday, so it's good to know if I want to look at the email without reading every single one of them. Pretty certain this can't be done with standard functionality on the iphone, but is there an app that might let me do it?
• For some reason unknown to man, it wants to shrink the text size for very long email chains, even overriding my "minimum text size" setting. It gets so small as to be unreadable without putting the phone inches from my eyes after 20-30 emails or so are in a chain. Is there a workaround for this?
• The "push" setting for email doesn't seem to work all the time. It's like it "goes to sleep" at times, and I have to manually grab email. I have an 84-year-old mother, for one thing. My family members know that I have long phone calls, so they are told to email me if anything urgent comes up. Is there a way to make sure that "push" is checking the email servers constantly like it did on the BB?

ACCESSORIES TO BUY

• I know I need a stylus of some sort to help with my big ol' hands. And of course I want to get a car charger and case. I have a headset. Any non-obvious accessories that I might now know about?

Thanks in advance.

[TurnerONU22]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

MAKING A CALL FROM A LARGE LIST OF CONTACTS

• When I go to Call-->Contacts, there's no search box, and those itty-bitty letters are simply too small for me to punch with any accuracy. I have hundreds (thousands?) of contacts in there, so scrolling seems like a hideous idea, and even if I'm going for the "S" and hit "R", it's a long effin' scroll. Is there a way to "sticky" the search box or a way to go to the top with one click? On my BB it was stickied at the top so i just typed in the first couple letter of the last name, and I was very close. Here it's part of the scroll, so if my last call was to someone whose name started with "W", it's on "W" when I go to that screen and I have to scroll forever to the top.

For this one, just touch the top of the screen (near where the time is listed) and it will automatically scroll back to the top of your contacts, showing the search bar.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by TurnerONU22

For this one, just touch the top of the screen (near where the time is listed) and it will automatically scroll back to the top of your contacts, showing the search bar.

Sweet. Thanks. That moved it from "I think I'm going to keep it" to "I am going to keep it." That was my #1 issue. It's one extra click, but I can live with that.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

TEXT MESSENGING

• If I'm texting with a contact, sometimes I want to call that contact immediately. On the BB, I just clicked on the person's name and a menu showed up with "call {contact name}" When I do that here, nothing happens. Is there any analogous feature?
• BB worked more like Trillian, where I had a bunch of different options for how messages appeared. I can't find any option to get rid of the "bubbles" that are taking up all that screen space. I just want text, so I can see more of the past conversation without scrolling. Is that possible?

To point 1) the same, just click the top of the screen (just tap where you normally pull down the home screen) and there will be an option to call.

For point 2), no its bubbly in an Apple world.

[Ksyrup]

The Android OS (I think I upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich on my Galaxy S II) has a cool feature from the messaging app where you can swipe left-to-right to immediately call the person, or right-to-left to message or skype them.

[MacroGuru]

Some of those reasons and the pains behind my iPhone is why I left and went to Windows Phone 7. I could never go back to an iPhone, and I might be able to shift to a Droid, but the Windows phone fits my usage the best.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

To point 1) the same, just click the top of the screen (just tap where you normally pull down the home screen) and there will be an option to call.

For point 2), no its bubbly in an Apple world.

1.Ahhh..ok..and I'm guessing if they text me again it will go back to the bottom automatically?
2. Are there any recommended "enhanced text messaging" apps that might improve that? That one isn't a huge deal, but my wife tends to send me like 4 pictures and 2 videos in rapid succession while sending texts in between them, so screen real estate is important.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Some of those reasons and the pains behind my iPhone is why I left and went to Windows Phone 7. I could never go back to an iPhone, and I might be able to shift to a Droid, but the Windows phone fits my usage the best.

Well, my only options with my company are "pay $185 for an iPhone" or "free Blackberry."

[Ksyrup]

I just started a new job with a company that is in the process of integrating with a new parent company. The one gave me a BB for emails from them, the other wanted to give me an iPhone for emails from them, and I have an Android. Right now, I'm stuck carrying around the BB solely for emails from 1 of my 2 email addresses.

I could be the ultimate "real world" consumer tester with all 3.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

1.Ahhh..ok..and I'm guessing if they text me again it will go back to the bottom automatically?
2. Are there any recommended "enhanced text messaging" apps that might improve that? That one isn't a huge deal, but my wife tends to send me like 4 pictures and 2 videos in rapid succession while sending texts in between them, so screen real estate is important.

There are a BUNCH of messaging apps.

I've used two of them, Kik and Hookt because one of my friends insists on using these instead of the built-in messaging.

Anyway, Hookt is more like what you're saying. Straight text, colored, but not bubbles.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I've used two of them, Kik and Hookt because one of my friends insists on using these instead of the built-in messaging.

Does that mean I can only use them if the people I'm texting with are using them?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Does that mean I can only use them if the people I'm texting with are using them?

Heh - just came in here to pre-emptively respond to this question, but I was too late.

Yes, people would have to be using that app for you to use it. So useful perhaps for you and your wife (and it is on other platforms too, not just iphone), but not so useful for you and random client #273.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Heh - just came in here to pre-emptively respond to this question, but I was too late.

Yes, people would have to be using that app for you to use it. So useful perhaps for you and your wife (and it is on other platforms too, not just iphone), but not so useful for you and random client #273.

Well, I'd say that 95% of my text messages are from/to my wife. I virtually never text clients.

EDIT: Potential problem, though. Her company likes to lock down their stuff like crazy. I'm not sure she can install apps on her BB.

[stevew]

I set email to push and then to fetch @15 min intervals. Ive never thought it was slow, but I'm sure I'm nowhere near as popular as you.

[stevew]

Accessories

I'd think about getting one of the battery cases for times when you'll be out all day. I wouldn't recommend it for every day use.

All the accessories are much cheaper on line(obviously)

[stevew]

As far as other email notifications, you could probably set up a gmail account and use that specific gmail app for its notification. Like don't set up that account in your regular mail program.

Fwiw, most of the stuff you mentioned were things I noticed when going from BB to IOS.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by stevew

As far as other email notifications, you could probably set up a gmail account and use that specific gmail app for its notification. Like don't set up that account in your regular mail program.

Ooooooooooooooh. That sounds promising. I use Yahoo. I'll bet there's a yahoo app...

[Draft Dodger]

Ben Lewis started using Facebook for iPhone

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by stevew

As far as other email notifications, you could probably set up a gmail account and use that specific gmail app for its notification. Like don't set up that account in your regular mail program.

Fwiw, most of the stuff you mentioned were things I noticed when going from BB to IOS.

Didn't work for Yahoo. (No notification options in the app.) I could certainly try gmail, though...

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmmmm...more in the "not designed for business use" arena, or is there a workaround for this? When I click on the phone number in a person's email signature, the iphone doesn't know to add a "1" to any number that doesn't have the same area code as the phone. BB did this automagically. Any way to get the iphone to do this?

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Hmmmmm...more in the "not designed for business use" arena, or is there a workaround for this? When I click on the phone number in a person's email signature, the iphone doesn't know to add a "1" to any number that doesn't have the same area code as the phone. BB did this automagically. Any way to get the iphone to do this?

This doesn't seem to track with my experience. I don't believe I've ever had that issue with an out of area number.

The only thing I've seen with area codes is where I've entered someone's number without an area code, and the phone requires an area code for texting.

[Aylmar]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

This doesn't seem to track with my experience. I don't believe I've ever had that issue with an out of area number.

The only thing I've seen with area codes is where I've entered someone's number without an area code, and the phone requires an area code for texting.

Me either. I save all my contacts sans the 1 and don't have any trouble calling anyone. I think the phone handles that internally and just assumes it needs to add a 1 unless you specify a country code.

[Ben E Lou]

It is working fine for my *contacts* without the 1, but when I click on the number in an email sig, it's not working.

[Ben E Lou]

So with some testing, I know what's going on. It does not handle extensions. The number I was dialing was of the format "xxx-yyy-zzzz ext. ###". Blackberry handled this much better. It would dial 1-xxx-yyy-zzzz and stop and pop up "Dial ext. ###." Once the phone answered, you just clicked on that and it would dial the extension. iPhone tries to turn the "ext" into numbers, so it adds "398" and then the actual extension number into the number, messing everything up.

[stevew]

Depending on who owns your phone number, you might look into getting a google voice number which you can run simultaneously with your other phone number.
It would be a number you'll own from now to eternity that you can give out. I have my current number and an old prepaid number on my phone so I can be reached either way.

[stevew]

Dola-
It also transcribes your voice messages and emails them to you. Obviously not perfect, but you can get the jist of their message.

Click on do not disturb at work, if anyone leaves a message it will go to email.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

EMAIL

• I have my work and personal accounts set up. On the BB, I could know without picking up the phone if an email was work or personal by having different sounds for each account. Further, if an email was from my wife or other close family member, I had a third sound alerting me to check it ASAP. It's not uncommon for me to have four-hour phone calls during the workday, so it's good to know if I want to look at the email without reading every single one of them. Pretty certain this can't be done with standard functionality on the iphone, but is there an app that might let me do it?
• For some reason unknown to man, it wants to shrink the text size for very long email chains, even overriding my "minimum text size" setting. It gets so small as to be unreadable without putting the phone inches from my eyes after 20-30 emails or so are in a chain. Is there a workaround for this?

• These two are addressed in iOS 6.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

So with some testing, I know what's going on. It does not handle extensions. The number I was dialing was of the format "xxx-yyy-zzzz ext. ###". Blackberry handled this much better. It would dial 1-xxx-yyy-zzzz and stop and pop up "Dial ext. ###." Once the phone answered, you just clicked on that and it would dial the extension. iPhone tries to turn the "ext" into numbers, so it adds "398" and then the actual extension number into the number, messing everything up.

This is also fixed in iOS 6.