Icon Shortcuts on iPhone 4S without Jailbreak

For many, including me, one of the main reasons for jail breaking the iPhone is to install the non-Apple-approved hack "SBSettings" which allows fast toggle to some of the OS's functions such as Bluetooth and WIFI, etc.



As mentioned, this requires the iPhone to be jailbroken.
Currently, there's no jailbreak utility for the iPhone 4S an iPad 2 yet.
Therefore, installing SBSettings is never possible on them.

All is not lost! iOS actually comes with support for URL forwarding function.
E.g. Typing the following URL on your Safari will redirect you to the Bluetooth setting screen directly:
prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth

We'll just need to assign this action to a launch-able homescreen icon to make it handy. It may not be as direct as a SBSetting Bluetooth toggle, but at least it's a close alternative without jailbreak.

You can use a free app called "Channels" to assign these URLs to launchable icons. However, these icons are launchable from the Channels app itself, not on the homescreen. Anyway, you can see it as a consolidation of the shortcuts in a "folder".




Personally, I use the Bluetooth shortcut a lot to turn on and off the Bluetooth on my iPhone 4S when I use it for my A2DP Bluetooth earphones and Creative A2DP speaker.

The followings are some of the built-in URLs in iOS 5:
About: prefs:root=General&path=About
Accessibility: prefs:root=General&path=ACCESSIBILITY
Airplane Mode On: prefs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE
Auto-Lock: prefs:root=General&path=AUTOLOCK
Brightness: prefs:root=Brightness
Bluetooth: prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth
Date & Time: prefs:root=General&path=DATE_AND_TIME
FaceTime: prefs:root=FACETIME
General: prefs:root=General
Keyboard: prefs:root=General&path=Keyboard
iCloud: prefs:root=CASTLE
iCloud Storage & Backup: prefs:root=CASTLE&path=STORAGE_AND_BACKUP
International: prefs:root=General&path=INTERNATIONAL
Location Services: prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES
Music: prefs: root=MUSIC
Music Equalizer: prefs:root=MUSIC&path=EQ
Music Volume Limit: prefs:root=MUSIC&path=VolumeLimit
Network: prefs: root=General&path=Network
Nike + iPod: prefs:root=NIKE_PLUS_IPOD
Notes: prefs:root=NOTES
Notification: prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID
Phone: prefs:root=Phone
Photos: prefs:root=Photos
Profile: prefs:root=General&path=ManagedConfigurationList
Reset: prefs:root=General&path=Reset
Safari: prefs:root=Safari
Siri: prefs:root=General&path=Assistant
Sounds: prefs:root=Sounds
Software Update: prefs:root=General&path=SOFTWARE_UPDATE_LINK
Store: prefs:root=STORE
Twitter: prefs:root=TWITTER
Usage: prefs:root=General&path=USAGE
VPN: prefs:root=General&path=Network/VPN
Wallpaper: prefs:root=Wallpaper
Wi-Fi: prefs:root=WIFI



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -

How I Use iOS Gesture for iPad

With iOS 5 for iPad, it comes with a handy gesture system.
You can use four or five fingers to swipe up while in home screen to bring up the multitasking app bar and swipe left and right to go to next/previous app that was launched earlier on.

Here's one practical example of how I use the gesture on my iPad during my eBook reading session.

I was going to read one my my gadget magazines which has pricing in Indian currency.

I launched my XE Currency iPad app before I fired up eBook reader.





In the magazine, I came across the pricing of a Blackberry Bold 9900. The currency stated is in Indian currency.

Without pressing the home button, I swiped left using four fingers, the XE Currency app returned instantly.





I keyed in the pricing in the India Rupees box, and I got the Singapore dollars equivalent instantly.

Satisfied, I used four fingers and swiped right to bring me back to my last eBook reading location.

This is the kind of great user experience that I can't have in Android tablets!

Neat!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -

My Anticipated iOS 5 Features - Part 3 - Standby Screen Clock

No, I'm not the only one around that don't wear a watch. When I'm away from my computer, I will rely on my handphone for the time. It is my watch.
I don't remember when I last wear a watch.

In pre-touchscreen handphone era, there's usually this clock display that appear every time you turn off the handphone screen. To view the time, you don't have to turn the set on. The time is there 24/7!

Since the advent of touchscreen handphone, the Clock Display suddenly disappears for unknown reasons! The ONLY touchscreen phone that I've used that sport a standby screen clock is the Palm Treo Pro. (It's still has the best Windows Mobile OS implementations, although the OS itself sucks big time!)



If Palm is able to put in on a touchscreen phone, I don't see why other manufacturers can't.

This standby screen clock is so handy and useful that I really think it should go in iOS 5.

Read also:
My Anticipated iOS 5 Features - Part 2 - "Beaming"
My Anticipated iOS 5 Features - Part 1 - USB Mass Storage