This is the page where we will give you tips and pointers on how to get the most from your iPhone.  Being on the forefront of repairs and iPhone software, we commonly hear the same questions and problems.  So by checking this page regularly,  it is our hope that you can avoid common pitfalls, or even better, tap into the full potential that is your iPhone.  So stay tuned and let iPhoneiCandi show you how to get your iPhone to love you back. If you don’t see a tip you are looking for as you scroll down, send us a comment, and maybe we will feature your suggestion next week.

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Tuesday Oct. 27th iPhoneiCandi iPhone tip of the week- How to Maximize your Battery Life on your iPhone

If you are anything like us at iPhoneiCandi (for your sake I hope not) then it’s hard to find the time to put your iPhone down and plug it in for a charge.  Well, in this edition of  iPhone tip of the week, we’ll show you how to get the most battery life out of your iPhone.

Start Easy

1) One of the most simple yet efficient things to conserve power is to turn down the brightness on your display screen.  We recommend putting the slide bar half way.  This can be found in the Brightness Tab under Settings.

2) Bluetooth is an awesome technology when it’s being used, but when it’s not being used…a drain on battery.  Turn it off under the General Tab.

Might Not Want to, but…It Helps

3) Under the Settings Tab=>Mail options, Click the Show Tab.  You’ll have 4 different options on how many messages to display.  The least amount of messages displayed equal less loading time, more battery life!

4) If you’re not using your wifi, have your iPhone stop scanning for it.  Just turn it off baby.  Just turn it off…(settings=>wifi)

5) Don’t you just love things that vibrate.  I know we at iPhoneiCandi do.  Especially our iPhones.  But what do we know about things that vibrate?  They use batteries.  So if you’re playing a game and have the option to turn vibrate off, do it.  Save the battery power for something else.

Overall the theory in saving battery life is simple.  If you’re not using it, get rid of it or turn it off.  The iPhone is a powerful thing of beauty, but not all people use all it’s capabilities. So what you don’t use…or don’t have to use…turn it off.  Now keep those batteries charged!

Sunday Oct. 19th iPhoneiCandi iPhone tip of the week- Don’t Repair it yourself

On the surface, this weeks iPhone tip can look a little self serving.  However, if you would of seen the iPhones people brought us this week (special shout out to Ty, with the most “self jacked up” iPhone award), you will heed this advice.

We are all well aware of the need to save some coin whenever possible, but typically, you try to save money on the cheap stuff or unimportant, not on a high-tech loved one, your iPhone.  Yet time and time again, we see iPhones that had a simple repair gone worse, due to the inexperience of the person fixing it.  What started out as a 65$ home button replacement, turned into a bent bezzel($75), a broken charging port ($45/3G), and then a cracked screen (another $65/3G).

I know, I know; You’ve seen the videos on youtube, you’ve fixed your old Nokia cellphone before, plus you mad A’s in Shop during High School.  This still, sadly, does not make you prepared in fixing the complicated machine that is the iPhone.

While we at iPhoneiCandi applaud your effort and determination on being a “do-it-yourself-er,” somethings our best left to professionals.  In our shop we have specific tools that have specific purposes while working on your iPhone and the experience to use them.  Please, if you know what’s best, let us fix your iPhone and save you some trouble and money.  But hey, if you gotta try, you gotta try…and when you give up, we at iPhoneiCandi will still be here to put your iPhone back together because it’s what we do.  And what do we do?  Everything iPhones!(but we’d still prefer that you only have to pay for a new Home Button…) Now keep those screens on!

Sunday Oct. 11th iPhoneiCandi iPhone tip of the week- Unlock vs Jailbreak

So you upgraded to 3.1 and your tmobile sim card no longer works.  What do you do?  You love apps that apple did not approve, but how do you get them?  This week’s tip, given the high demand of users looking for unlocks and jailbreaks, explores what these two things are and what they do, and how to make sure you know what you’re getting when you let someone else work on your phone.  Buyer beware, there are plenty of low class phone repair people who would love to jailbreak your phone when what you really want is an unlock. So let iPhoneiCandi show you the way.

First the unlock.  This is what most Tmobile customers are looking for if they upgraded to 3.1 or bought a new iPhone off craigslist that use to belong to an AT&T customer.  Essentially with an unlock, you are “unlocking” your phone from having to be on AT&T’s carrier network.  It allows you to join any network that uses simcards, which is Tmobile in the states.  So if you’re an AT&T customer, there’s really no need unlock your phone, because you’re already on their network.

The problem with the unlock, is that it’s a hard case to crack.  Every time the iPhone updates, it reverses previously unlocked phones.  In fact this is one of the main reason updates become available.  So with every update, a new “unlock” has to become available, and it’s a timely process to figure out.  So far it’s always been done, but as with the 3.1 update, it typically takes a little longer to come out than the previous one.  Which is where we are now.

For every Tmobile customer who updated to 3.1 or bought a 3gs which came with 3.1, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, because at the time of this writing there is NO unlock for the 3.1 software.  We at iPhoneiCandi are on the cutting edge of iPhone software and implore you to think twice, three times, and then once more before you give your phone to somebody who promises to unlock your iPhone, because what she/he really means, is that they can jailbreak your phone.

Now Jailbreaking is the ability to get third party Apps that don’t have to be approved through Apple.  Are you always browsing the App store looking for that new and different App, or can’t find an App that you just know should be out there?  Jailbreaking is then the way to go.

It started when a young kid made an App that he just knew was simply amazing, but when reviewed  by Apple they told him no, it would not be accepted.  So as a man who would not just fade away he created Cydia and made his own App Store that anyone with a working App could be accepted.  You no longer had to live up to Apples standards, and random approvals and dismissals.

So while Cydia store is not as large as the apple store, it has many a’cool features,  from video ring tones, being able to blacklist people from calling you, or for the really intense, having whatever number you want to come up on others phones when you call (yea, this one can get scary).  Jailbreaking is a really neat feature for the true iPhone enthusiast to the novice trying to figure out the iPhone’s awesome capabilities.

Unlocks are available for all iPhones that don’t have 3.1 software and Jailbreaking is available for all software.  And we at iPhoneiCandi would love to install it for you and show you all that it can do for you.  Call us to talk about it, because it’s what we do.  And what do we do?  Everything iPhones.  Now go play.

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Sunday Oct. 4th. iPhoneiCandi iPhone tip of the week- Water Damage

So you tried to brush your teeth and use the restroom at the same time, while jamming your iTunes.  The result.  iPhone in the toilet.  Or my favorite “wet iPhone” story, “The stripper had to move the table over for the lap dance and knocked beer all over my iPhone.”  Whatever the case may be, it happens.  The dreaded “water damage.”

While, it’s true that there aren’t many worse things that you can do to your iPhone, there are a few courses of actions to take after the fact, that may make or break your iPhone.

Step one.  Do not turn on! Your iPhone, if the water didn’t do it for you already, should immediately be turned off.  And leave it off.  Trying to turn it on while the iPhone is wet, is just asking for electrical damage.

Step two. Take out your sim card using a small paperclip or other like object.

Step three. Take a “dustbuster” or other vacuuming device, and try to suck the moisture out through the sim card hole and earplug jack.

Step four. It may seem silly, but place your iPhone in container filled with rice.  The rice will help soak up extra moisture.  Make sure not to cover the container so the evaporation process can occur.  Ideally you’d like to leave it in there for a week, even though it might not need it.  But as the adage goes, the longer the better.

Step five.  After the allotted waiting time, pray to your gods, do a dance, think of missed ones, and fire that iPhone up.  If all goes well, it should be up and running again.  If the iPhone still does not work, it’s time to open it up, and let it dry off internally.  Wouldn’t recommend doing that on your own, but that’s what we at iPhoneiCandi are for.  Time to bring it in and let us help.  You’d be surprised (unless you’ve been with us before) at how good we are at what we do.  And what do we do?  Everything iPhones!  Now stay dry.