New job and been given a new phone. It is not a Nokia so I don't know how to use it.

How do I get the useful applications to appear across the top rather than scattered among the stuff I don't need?

What applications do I need that are free and not standard?

Any good bits that I won't spot immediately?

It's far too complicated for you, so give it to me, and I'll give you a much nicer easier to use 'phone instead.

I won't charge you, either.

Open up the safari application, browse for STW on google, once there, do a search….

Press and hold over an app and it will start to shake – this is in the edit mode. Here you can delete/move etc (although you cannot delete some factory installed apps).

If you drag one app over another it puts them into a folder so you can sort them into easy to understand sets.

Or do it via your computer on iTunes (just plug it in and find the phone under 'devices' in the left menu then navigate to the 'Apps' tab.

nickc – guess what I found on Safari – This!

As for apps – depends what you are interested in but I like

Facebook
Ebay
Rightmove
BBC
Sky Sports Football and Cricket
Sky+
Highways Agency Traffic info

(all those are free)

BBB

[Christopher Biggins voice]

Safari! S'Goody!

[/Christopher Biggins voice]

igmc.

Hoorah….

Masty – how do I stop them wobbling now?

Press the big button at the bottom

Ohh, and if you double press the big button it opens up all the recently used apps too.

Masty – how do I stop them wobbling now?

Hit it with a hammer.

…or press the home button.

Use a rubber mallet though, won't you?! (WCA) 🙂

Right. I have now got the existing apps sorted.

What free apps and games are worth having?

Freebies:

Angry Birds lite
touch tanks
Goodreader lite – though it's worth getting the paid app – save files to your mobile and is useful when abroad and you don't want to download on roaming charges – eg maps, etc.
Everytrail – ride tracking/loggin – free version is good but paid version again allows for downloading maps to it.
Neoreader (read 2d barcodes)
PS mobile – photoshop
VLC remote if you use your home computer as a media centre
Shazam if you're into music
tvcatchup is a website but has an iphone specific version to watch tv over wifi
BBC iPlayer – ditto
Fstream – online radio

If you have Sky+ I would certainly recommend the app so you can remote record.

isn't Grindr free?? ;o)

Slight hitch – I need to down load the apps onto the PC and then onto the phone, right? To do this I need a cable, right?

No cable. No charger and the phone is nearly flat already!

How long do these iPhones stay charged? I used to get 3-4 days out of the Nokia E71.

I suggest you take a look at the apple website old chap.

Why have you been given a work phone without the data cable or charger?

….or it seems a clue on how to use it.

You download apps through the app store button on the phone.

Battery life is rubbish though – get used to charge it every night and it stops being a problem.
Or if you are deskbound as I am, charge during the day so it is ready for use all evening.

– I need to down load the apps onto
the PC and then onto the phone, right

No. You can go to the app store on your phone by pressing the icon cunningly titled "App Store".

From there you can install whatever takes your fancy.

by pressing the icon cunningly titled "App Store".

😆

It's all so complicated.

Ohh, another tip – scroll left and right to get to different pages (quite obvious) but if you scroll to the very left (ie past the 'home' page) you get a search facility that will search the phone for music, contacts, appointments etc – it works very well.

And many apps have a landscape view for different content so when you have downloaded, try tipping the phone on its side to see if the page changes.

http://www.tvcatchup.com is very good too.

Sssshhhh everyone. Stop revealing the secrets. 🙂

Al Jazera! No really, it's excellent!

Guardian and BBC News apps are both good.
MotionX GPS is great.

I'm currently mainly playing Chop Suishi and The Secret of Monkey Island (Remaster).

Augmented reality in "Around Me" is good, you need "flight control" and "fruit ninja" too, they're excellent.

Thanks for the help from the helpful people.

From the others, think for a minute. I have been given a new phone with no instructions and have never used anything more advanced than my Nokia.

What a shock that I don't immediately know all about the interface. I mean, when I want to play a game APP STORE is the most obvious icon to pick, especially when it is not shown on the main page.

You can move it to the main page 🙂

The instructions are also a bookmark in Safari (web browser)

clubber – Only after you have identified that it is what you need and worked out how to move it. I think it was me trying to move the stuff I recognized to the top of the page that made it fall onto the second page.

Any idea why the Safari icon is a compass? Until this thread remided me I assumed it was some kind of map or navigation tool.

Anyway, I am getting there slowly. Is there any way of getting the battery performance to improve? It is absolutely dire when it is just sat doing nothing. When you use it you can almost here the glug glug glug as the battery drains.

Pile of Poo is my initial verdict.

It's a compass because Apple do everything right and it just works and it's so obvious, you can teach it to your Gran – or so people on here tell me 😉

Battery is crap. Turn off 3G, wifi, GPS and bluetooth when you don't need them is the only way to improve it.

Yeah I hated it too. Until somebody explained it to me like this.

Imagine you don't know anything about computers, the internet or technology. Then just think of the most simplistic way to achieve what you want, 9 times out of 10 this works.

When you first get it, you'll give the battery a hard time, because you'll fiddle with it more frequently than you ever did with your nokia, dim the screen and chill out on the GPS and it's no worse than many other smartphones.

Definitely fashion over function.

Nice interface (once you have worked it out) but not a practical work tool unless you are sat at a desk for most of the day.

What do you reckon the chances of it lasting a 2 hour demo where it is being used as the speaker phone and the modem*?

*Assuming it can do that. My Nokia did that several times without issue.

It's not a work tool. I wouldn't propose it as one of our work phones but I'd happily use it for myself as my personal phone.

What do you reckon the chances of it lasting a 2 hour demo where it is being used as the speaker phone and the modem*?

Tethering is tricky with the iPhone IIRC unless you're talking Wifi. 2 hours like that would be a push I reckon so you'd need to factor plugging it in.

What do you reckon the chances of it lasting a 2 hour demo where it is being used as the speaker phone and the modem*?

*Assuming it can do that. My Nokia did that several times without issue.

Yeah it can… BUT… i've noticed that once it loses the 3G signal in a call it won't search and reconnect to the 3G network until the call has finished. My Blackberry could jump between in a call.

Definitely fashion over function.

Nice interface (once you have worked it out) but not a practical work tool unless you are sat at a desk for most of the day.

It's not so much fashion over function, because in many ways with the app store, you can achieve quite a lot with it. I use VNC, shipment tracking, dell diagnostics and the touch mouse plenty on site, the app store really makes it what it is… because without it, in my opinion, it's not a very good at doing phone things that i took for granted on my Blackberry.

It's kinda annoying that they have the balls to market "this changes everything… again" when in actual fact it still can't do things my 3 year old Blackberry can do.

Pile of Poo is my initial verdict.

Given that you find calling a store selling apps the "App Store" terribly confusing I'm not sure you're qualified to offer a verdict. 🙄

(isn't the Nokia app store called "Ovi"?)

Graham – Phone battery life is the poo bit. Didn't know Nokia had an app store. I guess I am a luddite.

Anyway. Latest breaking news is the phone has turned itself off. I guessed it was out of charge so wandered off to the shop and bought a new charger which is basically a plug and a USB cable.

How long after plugging it into the mains does it take before you can turn the phone on again?

Is there any way of telling if the phone is taking any charge when the screen won't turn on?

Here, I'll take it off your hands, and donate it to a charity that helps kiddies in Africa build internet cafes. I've got a Nokia you can have instead, it's much better. Everyone's a winner!