So you’ve got the new iPhone OS 3.0, and you might even be running it on your brand new iPhone 3GS. You probably think you know everything there is to know about the device and the new features the latest firmware update gave to it. You’ve probably even read our article “How To Use The Best 40 Features Of iPhone 3.0” and decided that with those 40 features you became a three-oh-pro. Well I beg to differ, because here’s 22 more hidden iPhone 3.0 features that you might not have known about. And if you knew them all, congrats!
1. Control Scrubbing Rate
Scrubbing refers to rewinding or fast forwarding through a video, song, podcast, or audiobook by scrolling the grey “position” ball left or right near the top of the screen. You may have noticed in the past that it was difficult to get to the exact spot you want to be.
With iPhone 3.0, simply hold the ball, and slide your finger down. The lower you slide your finger on the screen, the slower scrub rate you will scroll with.
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When you scrub directly on the position bar, you go at Hi-Speed. When you scroll down some, you go at Half Speed. Some more and you get Quarter Speed, and a bit more you get Fine Scrubbing. Apple made it very easy to get to where you wanna be in a media clip.
Note: This works even for videos on websites where it doesn’t explicitly say what “scrub speed” you’re operating at.
2. Hold “Live” Phone Number
When you come accross a phone number in Safari or anywhere else that’s “live”, meaning highlighted blue like a URL, you can press and hold it for the following options:
- Call #
- Text message
- Create new contact
- Add to existing contact
In the screenshot above I pressed and held the “1-800-MY-APPLE” number on Apple’s support site. Just tapping on the number without holding it prompts the familiar “Call” option.
3. Email More Than 5 Photos At Once
In our 40 tips article the “share up to 5 photos via email” tip was mentioned. Turns out (thanks to one of our commenters) there’s an easy work around to the 5 photo per email limit. Simply use “Copy” instead of “Share”.
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How it works:
1. Go to your camera roll
2. Click the arrow in the bottom left corner
3. Select as many photos as you’d like
4. Press copy
5. Open Email
6. Paste and send all the photos you want!
4. Press And Hold A Number For Other Font
I’m not quite sure as to the purpose of this new feature, but it certainly is a new one. When typing, hold any of the numbers (0-9) on the keyboard and you can choose to write the number in a larger, different styled font.
Notice how the alternate font is also less bold.
5. View .gif Images
You can now view .gif images on your iPhone. When you receive a gif file as an attachment via email, it will be displayed in all it’s semi-automated glory. However, when you try to save the image, it only saves a still shot of whatever position the image was at that moment. Even though .gif images aren’t all that common these days, it’s still nice to know that your iPhone can handle them.
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6. LOL
I’m sure you already know what I’m referring to. Apple decided to annoy the world by making the phrase “lol” always auto-correct into “LOL” on all iPhones, no matter where you’re typing (SMS, Email, etc…). The problem with “LOL” is that it makes it sound like you reaaally found something funny, when in reality you just want to portray a slight smile or maybe just fill some space with a meaningless three letter acronym. Luckily, on iPhone 3.0 “lol” stays “lol”. No capitals.
7. Rewind 30 Seconds
When watching a video, listening to an audiobook, or tuning into a podcast on your iPhone, you can tap a button to go back exactly 30 seconds. The reason for this feature is to help you get back to where you were after zoning out. We’ve all zoned out while trying to listen or watch something on our iPhones, and it’s a pain to get back to where you think you were. You end up going back too far, and then going too far forward. That’s where easily going back 30 seconds comes into play.
Note: This only works for media bought and downloaded from iTunes.
8. Text Message Box Increased In Size
When writing a long text message, the text-message box used to only stretch to about 4 lines in width, causing you to have to scroll back through the message if you need to go back. The box now stretches all the way to the top, right up to the recipients name.
9. Swipe Stocks Mini-Graph
You probably heard about the updated stocks application, but you might not have noticed that you can scroll through three different information panels where the mini-graph is (the bottom rectangle.) Just swipe left or right iPhone style to see top news about the company and other stock info. Also, pressing on the number to the right of the company name now includes market cap as one of the display options.
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10. Contact Edit
No matter how you get to the contact, you now have the “full” version of the contact available, meaning that you have full access to edit the contact’s info. In the previous firmware, when accessing a contact’s info from somewhere like SMS, you could only view their information, and not even all of it. This minor mistake was fixed, and it’s worth remembering that you can now edit a contact no matter how you get to it.
Here’s a sample of accessing “Edit Contact” via “Contact Info” inside of a text message.
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11. Copy A Text Message Bubble
You’ve probably mastered copy and paste by now, but this little trick makes copying a text message even simpler.
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How it works:
1. Double tap a text message bubble
2. Press Copy
3. Paste!
12. 11 Maximum Pages
In the previous iPhone firmware, you were only allowed 9 pages on your device. Now, probably due to Spotlight search, you can have up to 11 pages on your iPhone, which means you can have up to 180 total icons on your iPhone (including the basic ones that your iPhone came with.)
13. Promo Codes
iTunes offers promo codes in various ways. You can either buy (or be gifted) an iTunes gift card, which automatically adds money to your iTunes account so you can buy whatever your heart desires. You can also get a promotional code from an iPhone app developer as a “tester”. The new 3.0 firmware allows you to redeem promo codes of both types directly on your iPhone.
We at iSmashPhone give away promo codes for applications on our Twitter page, so be sure to follow us there. It works on a first come first serve basis
Go here to learn more about how iTunes promo codes work.
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To access promo codes, simply open up iTunes on your device, go to “More”, and go to “Redeem”.
14. Keyboard Update
There are several little changes to the keyboard. While these certainly won’t change your iPhone experience, it doesn’t hurt to know as much as possible about this extremely expensive little rectangle. That being said, here’s what’s new:
- Holding “.” now gives you the option to type “…”
- Holding the quotation mark button (“) allows you to chose whether you want straight or curved quotation marks.
- Holding the quotation mark also allows you to input this: “>>” or “<<”
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15. Curse Words
This is one of the most convenient updates in the iPhone 3.0 firmware. The iPhone no longer tries to auto-correct every single curse word you use. I’ve tested it out in notes, and I even got creative. The iPhone lets everything slide, auto-correct free. Just test it out on your own.
16. Tethering Hack
There was an iPhone hack recently released that allows U.S. iPhone users with AT&T to start using internet tethering now, even though AT&T does not yet support it.
Go here for step by step instructions.
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Of course, keep in mind that you are doing this at your own risk. And also be cautious because since tethering is not yet approved for the iPhone by AT&T, you may get billed extra for it. While it’s unlikely, it’s certainly possible.
17. iTunes U
The new firmware has enabled all iPhone and iPod Touch users to access Apple’s awesome iTunes U educational video collection directly from the mobile device. There are tons of recorded lectures (by the entire semester!) Be sure to check out Walter Lewin’s physics lectures from MIT (they’re second best only to Feynman’s lectures!)
To access iTunes U, open iTunes on your iPhone or iPod Touch, go to “More”, and go to “iTunes U”. Everything there is free, so enjoy.
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18. Interruption By Phone Call
When you are running an application and it gets interrupted by an incoming call, the application automatically comes back to life after the phone is hung up. This is a very convenient feature, even though it doesn’t work smoothly by any means. I am almost positive that this feature is not constant, and fails for some applications.
Note: The app doesn’t restart from where you left off, but rather it reloads again. So if it’s a game, yes, answering the call will cause you to lose progress.
Here’s an example of a good game of Touch Grind getting interrupted by a phone call:
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19. Revert Back To App After Syncing
Just like number 18, if you are running an iPhone app when you start syncing the device with iTunes, the app automatically revives once the sync is over. In the past the main home screen would just appear. Just like with phone calls, an app will automatically fire back up rather than “instantly resume” as we’d all like it to.
20. Close Apps While They Are Opening
You’ll have to test this one out to believe me, because there’s really no way of capturing screenshots that depict this process. As you open an application, tapping the home button as soon as the app starts opening does exactly what the home button should do – it takes you home. In the past, the iPhone would have to first load the app, and then it would close it back up. The whole process was all buggy and slow, but not in 3.0. Try it out (use a game or some other app that typically takes a longer time to load.)
21. Jailbreak With redsn0w
The word jailbreak says it all. Go here to read a step by step guide to jailbreaking your iPhone 3.0 using redsn0w on either a Mac or a PC. It’s very simple, and there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Here’s a photo of my jailbroken iPhone running the new 3.0 firmware (notice the Cydia and Boss Prefs icons.) iPhone 3GS is jailbreakable but jailbreak is not available for it at this time.
22. Unlock With ultrasn0w
If you need to unlock your iPhone 3.0 to use it with an unsupported carrier (such as T-Mobile, the most popular non-authorized iPhone service), you’ll need to follow this guide to unlocking your iPhone with ultrasn0w. Unlock is not available for iPhone 3GS at this time.
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If you know of any other interesting iPhone 3.0 features that weren’t listed here or in the previous list then please comment below! It’s thanks to you readers and your comments that we can create such extensive lists 
Thanks.
Accessories & Apps: Beta Testers Wanted
iOS Firmware/IPSW Download Guide
Legacy iTunes Download Archive
App Store Top Charts
iPhone and Android Resale Value Charts
USA iPhone Carrier Plans Compared
Complete iPhone Jailbreaking Guide 
Complete iPhone Specification Matrix 
the app interrupt and resume when getting a phone call has been around for a long time now. it isn’t 3.0 specific.
There is now a forward calls icon in the left hand side of the status bar if you set your phone to forward. Previously, this could only be had through Notifier on jailbroken phones.
Very cool but #4: Press And Hold A Number For Other Font doesn’t work for me on my 3GS.
Awesome list…didn’t know about controlling the scrub rate.
You can now look at reviews for albums in the iTunes application instead of just seeing the rating.
In 2.x you could only read reviews in the app store for apps and albums just showed the rating.
Is any one else having some bugs with the SMS application that the box increases randomly on its own and adds extra returns??
have not see this one, main problem here is constant interference with compass.
Me either.
Great list btw. the control of the srubbing rate was unknown to be and will come in very handy. Thanks.
Another small change (at least from my iPod since the 3GS is my first iPhone) is that podcasts are listed in sequential order rather then reverse sequential order (last first). This way if I just leave the podcasts to play through, I can hear them in the order the were released.
When adding a contact from a number sent through a text you can flip the contact info to landscape. That is the only way to view a contact in landscape.
Disregard my comment. Didn’t see this feature posted in the first part at
18. Interruption By Phone Call… I was playing Flight Control and got interrupted by a call. After the call it picked up right where I left off and I didn’t lose any progress. That one may depend on the app too.
#4: Press And Hold A Number For Other Font doesn’t work for me either. I’ve tried it in a couple of different apps (including the Notes as pictured) and nothing happened. I did discover the 14. Keyboard Update by testing this out, though.
18. Interruption By Phone Call – sorry, this still doesn’t work for me. After a call has ended, it goes to my Phone Favorites or my Contacts. Maybe it’s what CubeGleamer said, that it’s app-specific. But at least it should relaunch the app for me, even if it doesn’t go back to the screen it “left off” at.
#4: Press And Hold A Number For Other Font doesn’t work for me either
#15 it is not a update.
#18 was also in the 2.x.x
From what I last recall, you couldn’t delete specific texts in SMS. It seems now with 3.0, you can delete specific texts in SMS with the Edit button when viewing texts.
This was from testing with my brother’s iPhone, so I may be wrong. Can someone confirm?
I can confirm that #16, the Internet Tethering Hack, actually works in the USA!
It took me 2 minutes and tethering worked right from the get-go with my Win7100 machine, but not my 2007 MacBook Pro- although the MBP recognized a new Ethernet device. (USB tested only)
LOL
My girlfriend also noticed that typing in Korean now supports auto-correction. This may be true for other languages, too.
The stocks app will also display a large graph if turned to landscape mode… pretty sure this is a new feature.
Great write up! I didnt even know about a few of these and thanks for the links to the tethering, jailbreaking and unlocking tuts.
I saw this once but I think it was a problem with having my finger elsewhere on the screen while I was typing.
The font size in emails depend on the orientation of the phone when you enter an email account.
For example, when the orientation of the phone is portrait, an email with an 18 point font will be 18 point in portrait mode and larger in landscape mode.
When the orientation of the phone is landscape, an email with an 18 point font will be 18 point in landscape mode and smaller in portrait mode.
In addition to losing the auto-correct for swears, I also notice that I can now type w (like short for “with”) without having to turn off the autocorrection that wanted to change it to an “a”.
Now I can take my iPhone w me anywhere, and not take my iPhone a me everywhere.
One new change I don’t like is that you now have to manually use apostrophies. Before, in any application, if you wanted to type we’re, you could just type weree, and it would auto correct to we’re. Same for pretty much any other word, helll would go to he’ll etc
Really miss this feature as it speeds up typing by a mile.
Michael is from the Philly area.. yeah the 2-1-5
#7 works not only for stuff downloaded from iTunes Store. Just make sure you set the media kind to Audiobook in iTunes.
(hint: File -> Get Info -> Options -> Media kind).
FORWARDING SMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s the biggest one for me
I can’t believe you did not mention that
Its a great help. Let me also share an iPhone app with you. It’s called dirtymouthapp.com. Have you ever wanted to say a phrase in another language but did not know how? Or how about even better, say a Dirty Phrase? DirtyMouth is a collection of dirty and nice phrases in five different languages.
You can confirm this because you can see the globe key in the lower left of the screenshot. I believe this key is only visible if you have alternate/foreign keyboards enabled. Here’s an old article about this topic.
@dreamn34, @Fawaz, @Scott Roberts, @ raj
The reason why #4 doesn’t work for you is because you need to activate foreign keyboards to have access to other numeral systems. I guess the author is using the japanese keyboard. That’s the only reason why he have access to this. The Arabic keyboard add arabic number notation, the thai add thai number notation and so on…
But remember you only have access to them if you activate the corresponding international keyboard (Arabic, Japanese (two extra notations), Portuguese from portugal or brasil (two extra notations), Thai)…
we give away promo codes via twitter, use tip section to send them to us. Sorry but comment section is not designated for promoting apps. All comments are moderated.
@iSmashPhone.com
see above… you should make an update for feature #4…
See my post below… I’ve figured out why #4 is not working for you!
See my post below… I’ve figured out why #4 is not working for you!
See my post below… I’ve figured out why #4 is not working for you!
I noticed in safari when you have multiple pages open you would be left witht he last page open. now in 3.0 you can close all pages and safari will open a blank page and bookmarks like when you 1st use safari
Hey that’s what iPhone is all about. They along with their apps developers are making something really good to have. Have you visit this site ?, they make some great iPhone compatible stuff and really cool.
where did you get that pink aurora wallpaper from??
Couldn’t see this on this list or the previous one.
Exchange – you can now specify other folders than Inbox that mail should be pushed from. previously the Mail client would only push from Inbox.
Settings > Mail,contacts,calendar > “Exchange account” > Mail folders to push > then select which folders you want Exchange to push.
Bossprefs is deprecated (and doesn’t work properly with 3.0. It has been replaced by SBSettings by the author!
The auto apostrophes still works with most of the contractions, but for some reason “we’re” is not one of them
Just FYI, there is no limit to the amount of apps that u can have on your phone. Yea there are only 11 pages but that doesn’t mean you can’t have more than 180 apps on the phone.
You have to use the spotlight feature to search and run apps that on a page higher than 11
You can also verify this by going into your settings to see how many apps the phone says you have installed.
I would also like to mention that Apple issued a hot fix to the phone and there is no longer a “more” button in the iTunes app store or a way to redeem codes.
They might be adding it back at some point but for alot of users like myself that option has been removed and it is back to the way it was in 2.2.1
BECAUSE HE IS USING INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD. YOU MAY HAVE YOURS SET TO ENGLISH/ USA ONLY. USE HAVE THE OPTION OF SWITCHING FROM CERTAIN LANGUAGES: SETTINGS > GENERAL> KEYBOARD > INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARDS
but if the button for low volum,what shall i do?
I definitely like this feature below:
“When you are running an application and it gets interrupted by an incoming call, the application automatically comes back to life after the phone is hung up”
The above feture will come in hand when I am downloading apps promo http://www.appgiveaway.com
I would like to highlight with a color every third day on the calendar so as to indicate my days on shift. This would allow me to look months ahead to see what days I’m working, 24 hours on/48 hours off. Can I choose one day to start with and have the calendar highlight every third day from there out?
If this isn’t the correct place to ask this, please direct me to the appropriate area.
Thank you
#21 Jailbreaking and Cydia software – I heard a rumor that I could jailbreak my 2G Touch and that Cydia has software that would allow me to connect the Touch to a projector and project the screen at all times. I am a public high school teacher wanting to use Touches in class this year and if I could project what I’m doing on my screen that would be awesome!! Any suggestions of how to go about this process?!
Thank you!
Cool post…. nice stuff… thanks for sharing…
Well……Great and useful information you share with us…..thanks for this..!!! the feature describe of the i phone is help a lot…!!!