Our Biggest iOS Annoyances and How one can Fix Them [Annoyances]

Whether you adore or hate your iPhone (or fall somewhere in between), there are no less than a number of things about it that annoy you. Listed below are our-and your-biggest annoyances, in conjunction with how you can fix them.

Frequent Dropped Calls

Don’t get too excited here, because there’s no magic fix. Even ditching AT&T and switching to Verizon would possibly not solve your problems . Making calls on any network is going to have its share of problems despite what you do, but supplementing your regular calls with VOIP calls over Wi-Fi should not only provide you with a little bit more reliability (on a great Wi-Fi connection within the commonest areas of difficulty: at home or at work) but additionally save you some money on minutes. Once we looked at turning an iPod touch into an iPhone , we found that Line2 was to take into accounta good VOIP option. However, Skype can cost a piece less in the event you don’t use it too often and provide more calling options outside of the us and Canada. In the event you’re worried about having multiple numbers Google Voice assist you to keep a single number. While this technically won’t fix your dropped calls, it’s a pretty effective band-aid for an extraordinarily annoying problem.

$20/month Tethering

Currently it costs $20 to tether your iPhone-with a cable-for your laptop or desktop computer. Why should you pay $20 a month to take advantage of a connection you’re already buying? Good question. While there’s no real solution directly available in iOS, those of you who opt to jailbreak your phones can easily tether without cost and even use your iPhone (or iPad) as a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can actually quickly get these features by purchasing and downloading MyWi from the Cydia Store (an app that generally comes pre-installed once you jailbreak). MyWi enables you to tether however you love-whether it’s over Wi-Fi or by using an iPod sync cable. It’ll cost you $20, but that’s only 1 month of what you’d pay for AT&T’s tethering so it’s a lovely bargain in the end.

Annoying, Interruptive Notifications

Some notifications require a popup, but most do not. We now have popup blockers in our web browsers for good reason-popups are really annoying. iOS sorely needs a higher notification system, but there are a couple of fixes you are able to try as a way to make due until Apple gets around to implementing one (if they ever do).

For those of you who haven’t any interest in jailbreaking, you could’t dispose of the popup notifications. What you’ll be able to do, however, is minimize how often they bother you and, from time to time, after they happen at all. To get started, go into Settings and tap the Notifications section (it’s the third from the head in iOS 4). This may can help you globally disable notifications (in addition as sounds and badges) for third party apps, or just set the notifications for each app individually. Back on the Settings main page, go into the Messages section and turn off Repeat Alert. This can disable the repeat notifications you receive after you ignore a text message. (As an aspect note, in iOS 4.3 you’ll be capable of set the number of times a message repeats, but currently you’re restricted to the default: one primary notification and two followups.)

If it’s essential take it a piece further, you’re going to want to jailbreak. An open-source project called StatusNotifier (yow will discover the binary in Cydia) is a free jailbreak upgrade that puts your notifications inside the status bar, letting you may swipe to access them as opposed to being interrupted by a popup. Basically, once you’re jailbroken, the difficulty is solved.

Slow Performance on Old iOS Devices

While the iPhone 3GS continues to be snappy, normally any other iOS device released earlier than 2010 suffers from speed issues-especially in iOS 4.0 and later. Reader v5point0 suggests disabling spotlight and MMS to fix the issue. We also have a couple of suggestions of our own . To name a couple of, try turning of SMS previews, clear your phone’s history, and disable fancy iPod features like sound check, lyrics, and podcast info. There is solely so much which you could do with older hardware, but these tricks can help you you dismiss a number of the frustration and keep your phone slightly more usable. If not, you are able to always downgrade iOS as a last ditch measure.

Syncing Data to iOS Requires a Cable

I actually love iOS despite it’s shortcomings, but there’s nothing that bothers me more in regards to the mobile operating system than its reliance on iTunes. Syncing with iTunes is slow, annoying, and fails with disturbing regularity. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve gone out of my technique to devise a plan to never sync with iTunes again . Nonetheless, those suggestions only go to this point. While they could help avoid syncing in general, there’s no strategy to avoid syncing completely.

Or is there? Once you actually need the holy grail of wireless data syncing you’re going to wish to jailbreak and purchase Wi-Fi Sync . When you’ve wanted to sync your iOS device untethered, that is the app you’ll need. Although it’ll set you back $10, it’s worth every penny next time you don’t have a sync cable handy (or are just not inside the mood to head get one).

Little Fixes

Those are our five big annoyances and fixes, but there are many little stuff you can implement to unravel some annoying problems quickly. Listed below are some of our favorites:

Can’t backup music not purchased through iTunes – Try TouchCopy . Submitted by BigBrownPimpsta .
Annoying autocorrect errors – Damn You Autocorrect! exists for a reason. Either stop autocorrect from being overbearing by typing a Z or teach it to be better with Safari . Submitted by zorro99 .
It takes forever to arrange apps into folders – I hate to assert it, but organize the apps in iTunes. While it’s not likely to make the process any less tedious, it’ll cut your organization time in half. Submitted by notize .
Having to select from turning vibrate off completely, or allowing the phone to vibrate *for your ear* when on the phone and receiving a text or email – Toggle the phone to silent once you answer a decision. Submitted by Darcy Fitzpatrick .

Lastly, reader Luis offers a list of nearly every jailbreak fix every created, besides a temporary explanation . A good way to jailbreak and get accustomed to the tools available, make sure you try what he has to claim.

You possibly can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com. It’s also possible to follow him on Twitter and Facebook .

Source

This post is tagged: annoying problem, biggest annoyances, conjunction, desktop computer, good question, real solution, voip option