The release of iOS 4 brought multitasking to the iPhone and iPod touch (and the iPad in November), which is a great feature but I’ve had more than one person ask me how to quit apps that are running in the background.

You can quit these multitasked apps by double-clicking the Home button to bring up a task manager of sorts, and then tapping and holding your finger on an apps icon. You’ll then see a red icon appear in the left corner of the app icon and when you click on that the app closes.

As TheGraphicMac points out, this is kind of inappropriately hidden to the average user for no clear reason. I’ve had to show people how to use this feature a few times so hopefully it’s use is clarified a bit in future versions of iOS. [multitasking picture borrowed from The Graphic Mac]

If you’ve seen the new iPod Nano commercial featuring the newly released touch screen iPod Nano, you’ve heard the new song playing in the background. Apple commercials have a certain power to them, they typically propel a song into popularity rather quickly and people start asking what song is playing in the latest Apple commercial.

What song is playing in the new iPod Nano commercial?

The song is called “Short skirt, long jacket” by Cake.

You can listen to the full song below via YouTube:

What I think is interesting about Apple choosing this song is that it’s not a new song, it’s been out since 2007. Typically Apple will feature songs in their commercials that are new and from somewhat obscure bands, which then propels them into stardom. This is an older song from a well known band, but I’m sure the song will gain in popularity anyway.

You can also check out the new iPod touch commercial song and the iPad commercial song. You can always find out what song is playing by using the Shazam app, it’s quick and free.

Those of us waiting for the iOS 4.1 release don’t have too long to go, Apple is set to make the iPhone and iPod touch OS update available for download next week on Wednesday, September 8. Apple didn’t announce an official date, but their UK iPhone site has publicly marked the availability date as just a few days away.

The software update is hotly anticipated, not only for its additional features but for some significant bug fixes including the proximity sensor issue on iPhone 4, and apparently iOS 4.1 improves the speed and performance of the iPhone 3G, which makes it a necessary download for any owner of a 3G running slow iOS 4.0.

The iOS 4.1 download is actually available now for developers, and while other iPhone and iPod touch owners have just a tad longer to go, the iPad will not be included in the update. Instead, iOS 4.2 for iPad will be released in November.

Apple took the functionality to buy a ringtone out of iTunes 10 for some reason, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have custom ringtones. You can make your own free iPhone ringtones directly within iTunes 10, this is the best way to go since you don’t have to get any additional software or pay for a service to create the files. Don’t download or pay for one of the iPhone ringtone maker apps, just launch iTunes and follow this guide, it’s easy to do and totally free.

Make an iPhone ringtone in iTunes 10

If you’ve made an iPhone ringtone before the process will be familiar to you. This will work the same on both Mac and Windows versions of iTunes 10:

• Launch iTunes 10
• Find and select the song you want to make a ringtone out of in iTunes 10
• Right-click on the song name and select ‘Get Info’, then click on the Options tab
• Select the playback period of the song that you want to ringtone to be, make sure it’s 30 seconds

• Now click “OK” and then right click on the song again, and select “Create AAC version” to create a new version of the song with the 30 second interval you specified
• Locate this newly created 30 second clip in iTunes (at the top of the playlist if you search by ‘date added’ and right click on the file and then select “Show in Finder”
• Now in the Finder (or Windows explorer, the process is the same for Windows iTunes 10), rename the file extension from .m4a to .m4r

• Accept the file extension change to .m4r
• Now back in iTunes remove the file from the playlist (do NOT move to Trash, select ‘keep file’) and then re-import the file into iTunes 10 by double clicking the .m4r file within the Finder or Windows
• The file will now be added back into iTunes as a ringtone and you can do what you want with it

• Sync it with your iPhone and assign to contacts as usual with custom iPhone ringtones

If you used iTunes 9 to make custom iPhone ringtones the process is very similar.

Enjoy your free iPhone ringtones!

Apple announced iOS 4.1 to a big hooray from iPhone 3G owners, since the iOS 4.1 update supposedly fixes the speed problems on the 3G. But how does the iPhone 3G actually run with iOS 4.1? I like real world tests, and this video from LifeHacker demonstrates the speed of the 3G with iOS 4.1.

iOS 4.1 + iPhone 3G performance

If you own an iPhone 3G and you are running iOS 4, you’ve certainly suffered from the performance and speed issues. To say that iOS 4 runs slow on iPhone 3G is an understatement, it runs terribly slow almost to the point of being unusable.

The big question is about iOS 4.1 speed… here’s the video:

As you can see in the video iOS 4.1 runs much better on the 3G iPhone. It’s mostly good news: Google Maps is responsive again, you can actually type a text message in under 5 hours, and opening apps is quicker again. Lifehacker notes that Photos and Safari are just barely faster with iOS 4.1, but any speed improvement is better than none in my view. Just don’t expect to achieve the performance of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 since their hardware is vastly superior to the 3G.

I look forward to further testing iOS 4.1 with my older iPhone 3G and seeing if some of the tips to speed up the slow iPhone 3G + iOS 4 work doubly well in the newer iOS version. I don’t use Spotlight on the iPhone so I’ll certainly keep it disabled. Perhaps with the latest update and some tweaks, we can actually get a usable iPhone again? Woohoo!

You can download iOS 4.1 right now if you’re a developer, the rest of the world has to wait until sometime next week for the full release with its various fixes and feature improvements. iOS 4.1 is only for iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch. The iPad will get iOS 4.2 in November.

Apple has released a new iPod touch that has all the great features of the iPhone 4 (minus cell), and along with any new iPod release comes a new commercial. The newest iPod touch commercial is called “All kinds of fun” and it shows the iPod touch shooting video, in FaceTime calls, and using other cool new features on the device. Of course there’s a catchy song playing in the background, and that song is about to get really popular per the Apple Commercial Effect.

What’s the name of the song playing in the new iPod touch commercial?

The song is called “Come Home” by the artist Chappo, and it’s off of the ‘Plastique Universe EP’. You can listen to the full song below.

This is the full Chappo song “Come Home” via YouTube:

You can find out what song is playing with the Shazam app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. I used it to find out what song was playing in this new iPod touch commercial as well as to discover what the new iPad commercial song is. It’s a great app and worth a place on any iOS device.

Announced at the September 1 media event, iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch is now available to download from Apple. Well, for developers anyway. The iOS 4.1 GM seed is listed on the iPhone developer page for immediately download for developers, but everyone else will have to wait until next week to get the full release.

Version 4.1 of iOS includes several important bug fixes as well as a couple new features:

• Proximity sensor issue fixed for iPhone 4 owners
• Bluetooth problems fixed
• iOS 4 slowness problems with iPhone 3G fixed – this is a big one for iPhone 3G owners
• HDR photo features
• HD video upload over WiFi
• TV show rentals
• Game Center

Download iOS 4.1

Developers can access and download the iOS 4.1 GM from the iPhone Developer home page right now.

Everyone else will have to wait for next week where to get the iOS software update, you’ll open up iTunes and click on “Check for Update” if a manual notification doesn’t inform you of the available download on it’s own. You can then choose to just download the update or download and install the update. Presumably you will need iTunes 10 before everyone else can download and install the iOS 4.1 update.

iOS 4.1 for iPad?

iOS 4.1 will not be released for iPad, but iOS 4.2 will be available on the iPad in November which will bring all the iOS 4 software features to iPad.

Apple has announced that iOS 4.2 for the iPad will be available in November when it is also released for iPhone and iPod touch. This is in line with previous rumors suggesting iOS 4.2 would unify all the versions of iOS across the i-device product lineup. This also fits into Apple saying that iOS 4 for iPad would be available in the fall.

iOS 4.2 features for iPad

iOS 4.2 will bring all the existing features of iOS 4.1 to the iPad plus new features that are exclusive to iOS 4.2:

• Multitasking
• Folders
• AirPlay wireless music, movie, and photo streaming
• Printing support over wireless networks
• Game Center for multiplayer and social gaming
• Unified and improved Mail inbox
• Search text within Safari
• Enhanced enterprise support
• Accessibility enhancements
• Keyboard and dictionary enhancements

Of course the most anticipated features are multitasking and folders, but some of the other additions look to be great as well. Airplay looks promising, which will allow you to stream music and video to and from the iPad over WiFi, and Print center, will allow you to wirelessly print and manage documents from the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The total new features and improvements count over 100, which will make the iPad function almost as if it’s a new device.

The exact release date isn’t known but November isn’t too far off, we’ll let you know when you can download the update. You can read more about the upcoming iOS 4.2 update for iPad at Apple.com

If you use a Hotmail account, you’ll be happy to hear that you can now use your Hotmail account on your iPhone thanks to Microsoft enabling Exchange ActiveSync support. This allows Hotmail to push and sync email, calendar, and contacts to your iPhone.

Set up Hotmail on the iPhone

Here are the steps to setup Hotmail to sync and push to your iPhone (this works on the iPad too):

• Launch Settings
• Tap on “Mail, Contacts, Calendar”
• Tap onto “Add Account”
• Select “Microsoft Exchange”
• Enter your full Hotmail email address into both the Email and Username fields
• Leave Domain blank
• Enter your password
• Enter “Hotmail” as the Description
• Tap onto “Next”
• Now you must enter the server, use “m.hotmail.com” for the Server name then tap onto “Next”
• The iPhone will now verify that your Hotmail information is entered correctly, the next screen you’ll be able to enable Mail, Contacts, and Calendars

Hotmail is the original web mail, so it’s not surprise there’s still millions of hotmail accounts still in use today despite the competing offers from Google, Yahoo, and others. It’s a bit surprising it took Microsoft this long to get Hotmail working with the iPhone, but better late than never.

Apple and Amazon are rapidly changing the way books are consumed and read thanks to the iPhone & iPad and Kindle. The other effect of this is that it’s actually helping to ease the barriers to entry into the book publishing and sales market.

In the past an author would need to have an agent pitch books to publishers in the hopes it might get picked up, but not anymore. Now if you have a Mac and a word processor and a bit of patience, you can create your own book in the EPUB format and upload it directly to the iTunes iBookstore for sales.

OK well it’s not quite that simple (yet), but it’s not that difficult either. Just jump through a few hoops and you can get your book for sale on Apple’s online bookstore ready to be downloaded by anyone who owns an iPad or iPhone, here’s how:

Write and Publish a Book to the Apple iBook Store

First, some relatively simple requirements: you’ll need an Intel Mac running 10.5 or newer with adequate hard disk space and preferably a high speed internet connection.

1. Write the book (obvious) and get it into the iBooks compatible EPUB format (see below, it is easy to take a file and convert to EPUB format)
2. Get a unique ISBN number for each book title you plan to release. Cost is $25 per ISBN and you can fill out an ISBN application here
3. Get the following ready: a US tax ID (social security number or EIN), valid iTunes account with credit card on file
4. When all of the above is met, you can apply to be part of the iBookstore distribution network at Apple.com

How do I create an ebook in the EPUB format?

Almost any text containing document format can be converted into EPUB ebook format and there are multiple free software options available to do this. If you would like a walkthrough check out our guide on how to convert to EPUB. It covers most major source file types you’d want to convert including PDF, RTF, HTML, DOC, TXT, and more.

Thanks to a recent software update, you can also create an ePub with Pages if you already own the iWork office productivity suite from Apple.

If you’re looking for a free solution that doesn’t involve iWork/Pages and you don’t need help, just go ahead and download Calibre, it is a good choice because it will automatically create book structures like chapters, table of contents, and allow you to insert book metadata. Oh, and it’s free (open source is nice). The interface is a little strange but it gets the job done and for the wonderful price of free, we can’t complain too much.

Can I convert an existing text or word file to EPUB?

Yes, you will need to download a program that handles the ebook conversion for you. There are many free options, see above or refer to our article on how to convert to EPUB.

Can anyone help me sell my book on Apple’s iBookstore?

Yes, there are several companies that will handle many of the complexities of selling on the iBookstore for you, but you’ll still need your book ready in the EPUB format. The best way to do this is to use an Apple approved iBookstore aggregator, Apple conveniently provides a list of approved aggregators for the iBookStore. Most of these charge an upfront fee and then handle all the distribution services for you, in many cases you’ll then receive 100% of the revenue of book sales after Apple takes their iTunes Store cut. Prices vary widely so be sure to get a few quotes before agreeing to a single aggregator.

The long awaited Netflix app for iPhone is finally here. It’s a free download and you can sign up for a free trial membership to watch movies, but to really enjoy the perks of Netflix you’ll need to sign up for a membership which runs about $9/month.

As expected you can manager your queue and other essential Netflix tasks, but the app is especially cool because it will remember where you left a movie off, allowing you to resume watching it later from your TV, computer, or even iPad. I am a complete Netflix addict so it’s great to finally have it on the iPhone in addition to the iPad (the app also runs on the iPod touch).

You can grab Netflix for iPhone from the iTunes app store, no surprise but it is currently the #1 app on the App Store.

Do you want to know what song is playing? Don’t be left wondering, you can find out for sure thanks to an awesome app called Shazam. The app first came to the iPhone some time ago and has made it easier than ever to discover what song is playing regardless of where you are. It works flawlessly in loud bars, clubs, restaurants, stores, cars, just about anywhere music is playing, it handles background noise remarkably well and is nearly always able to identify music. Once a song is identified, Shazam will provide links to buy it via iTunes or watch the related music video from YouTube.

Shazam – the “what song is playing” app

I figured the days of wondering hopelessly what that catchy song playing is were largely over due to this app. Honestly I thought everyone knew what Shazam was by now, it’s been featured in iPhone commercials and has been in the App Store top downloads for a long time.

Despite it’s ubiquitous promotion and popularity, I still have people asking me frequently how to find out what music is playing. I just recently used it to figure out what song is playing in the new iPad commercial after a few people asked me about it, everyone is always amazed that I can quickly come up with an answer. I then told them to just download the app and they were pretty amazed that apps like this exist.

Shazam has both free and paid versions available to download for iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones. The free version works the same as the paid version but has limitations on how many songs you can ’shazam’ in a month, while the paid version offers you unlimited music discovery. You can download the free version for iPhone and iPad via the iTunes App Store.

It’s definitely a must-have app for any smartphone, you should check out the free version first and if you end up using it often go ahead and upgrade, you’ll be amazed how often you’ll be pulling out your phone to discover new music. Highly recommended.

According to an email exchange between a customer and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, a software update will be released soon to address the widespread complaints of iPhone 3G slowness running iOS 4.

A frustrated iPhone 3G owner apparently wrote the following email to Steve Jobs complaining about the abysmal performance of iOS 4 on his iPhone 3G:

I’ve waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I’ve read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I’m not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple.

To which Steve Jobs replies:

Software update coming soon.

Sent from my iPhone

This latest email exchange comes to us from MacRumors. Sending emails to Steve Jobs and publishing responses online is growing in popularity, although the authenticity of many of the email exchanges is questionable. As the owner of an iPhone 3G suffering under iOS 4 I really hope this particular email exchange is real and that we’ll get a software update soon.

The iPhone battery is designed to provide a significant amount of talk time, internet/app use, and data consumption. By using the phone properly and customizing a few settings you can dramatically improve how long your iPhone battery lasts.

Here is a comprehensive list of tips to improve the health and battery life of your iPhone.

Keep your iPhone battery healthy

The first thing you should do is focus on keeping your iPhone battery healthy by using it properly and in optimal conditions:

• Use the iPhone regularly – just like any other lithium battery, using your phone regularly keeps the electrons moving and keeps the battery healthy
• Keep the iPhone out of heat and the sun – heat will degrade your iPhone battery life dramatically. Room temperature is the ideal operating temperature
• Run through at least one full charge cycle a month – this means charging the iPhone to 100% and letting it drain to nothing

Optimize the iPhone settings for best battery performance

To maximize battery life, you should disable unneeded and unused features:

• Enable Auto-Brightness adjustments – having your iPhone screens brightness jacked up will drain the battery quick, use the auto-brightness feature in Settings -> Brightness to have your iPhone automatically adjust to ambient lighting
• Minimize or disable location services – each time a location service is used, the GPS unit in your iPhone activates and uses more battery.
• Turn off push notifications – disabling all push notifications will help extend battery life because the iPhone is not transmitting data when an application isn’t in use. You can also selectively disable push notifications for apps that you don’t want push updates for. You can do this within Settings -> Notifications
• Lock your iPhone – locking your iPhone when it’s not in use will prevent accidental taps and screen touching from activating the display and draining the battery
• Reduce mail check intervals – do you really need to check email every 5 minutes? Reduce the mail checking interval to conserve battery life
• Disable push mail – same theory as above
• Disable Keyboard clicks – the keyboard clicking sound uses processing power to play each click
• Limit use of vibrating apps – many games and apps use the iPhones vibration feedback feature, limit the use of this feature or disable it within the apps themselves
Quit apps running in the background – Since iOS 4 you’ve been able to run apps in the background with multitasking. This is a great feature but some apps will drain your battery when used in the background, like Pandora. Quit background apps when they are not in use.
• Use Airplane mode – if you know you don’t have coverage or you don’t need cell service, enable Airplane mode to stop the iPhone from constantly searching for cell towers. This is a great tip to preserve battery life if you’re somewhere without coverage.
• Turn off 3G – 3G is faster but also uses more power, if you have limited 3G coverage or you aren’t transmitting a lot of data, disabling 3G will improve how long your iPhone battery lasts
• Turn off WiFi – if you’re not using WiFi, disabling it will improve your battery life since the iPhone will stop searching for WiFi networks
• Disable Bluetooth – disabling Bluetooth can save quite a bit of battery life
• Disable the iPhone EQ – turning off the iPhone equalizer provides a boost to battery life when listening to music
• Turn off the iPhone – if you’re not using it for something and you don’t have cell coverage, just turn the iPhone off. Simple.

These tips will generally work on all iPhone models, including iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4, even the first iPhone. Of course using an older iPhone 2G or 3G will not have the same iOS 4 features so tips pertaining to iOS 4 will not apply to you.

Jailbreak and Cydia apps may affect iPhone battery life

If you jailbreak your iPhone, certain apps that are available on the Cydia store will drain your iPhone battery more than usual. Although very useful, apps like MyWi and 3G unrestrictor consume more battery life when in use due to the increased and constant demand on the iPhone. Keep an eye on the usage of these apps and others like them, your battery will last much longer.

Improve battery life with the latest iPhone software updates

Apple recommends you always update to the latest iPhone OS system software, but since the release of iOS 4 I do not recommend this for everyone. iOS 4 runs very slow on iPhone 3G and the increased software lag and response time noticeably degrades battery performance. This is generally not the case with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and those who own these phones should update to the latest system software.

Check iPhone battery use

You can check the usage time since last charge easily.

• Launch Settings
• Tap on General
• Tap on Usage

Usage is literally your active usage of the phone, Standby is time that the iPhone has been on but not in use, like when you’re sleeping.

iPhone battery life

The iPhone is designed to retain 80% of it’s original charge capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles. Battery life has improved with each new release of the iPhone, with the iPhone 4 offering the best battery life. Apple says the following regarding iPhone 4 battery life:

iPhone 4 offers up to 7 hours of talk time on 3G, 14 hours of talk time on 2G, 6 hours of Internet use on 3G, 10 hours of Internet use on Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video playback, or 40 hours of audio playback on a full charge at original capacity. In addition, iPhone 4 features up to 300 hours of standby time.

If your iPhone is dramatically underperforming, try the tips mentioned above or take it to your local Apple Store to have a genius inspect the device for problems. If you’ve noticed your iPhone battery isn’t performing like it used to, there are likely reasons for this, whether they are software or hardware related. If all else fails and your iPhones battery is simply dead, you can replace the battery through Apple or a third party.

If you’re in the USA you probably know the iPhone 4 price starts at $199 with a plan and $599 without contract, but did you know that the top end iPhone 4 costs nearly $1000 in much of Europe and over a grand in Italy? Yikes! At least it comes unlocked…

All the prices in the above graphic are listed in euros but with the € euro stronger than the dollar it’s not too difficult to see the high prices. Much of the price differences are due to VAT and other taxes, but it’s still interesting to see nonetheless. The best deal for iPhone 4 looks like Hong Kong, where you can pickup a base model unlocked iPhone 4 for about $650, not bad considering $600 in the USA keeps you glued to AT&T!

The graphic comes from Flickr where you can see a much larger version, thanks for sending this in Rick.