Simon Barratt

iPhone Discoveries

I happened across two features in the iPhone in the last few days.  I am not sure whether these have always been available, or if they were added with one of the recent updates - I'm on 1.1.2.

The first is jumping back to the top of a web page in Safari.  There have been quite a few pages I visit, which require vertical scrolling and need to be refreshed (manually).  The only way to do this is to return to the top of the page (with lots of finger flipping) and then press the reload icon.  This is/was a bit of a pain.  However, by accident I found out that just by tapping in the topmost area, the one that shows the wireless network, time and battery power icon, will cause the page to scroll quickly right to the top, presenting the reload button!  I just wish there was an equivalent way to jump to the bottom of the page too!

The other feature, which is probably something I had just not realised before, is the ability to stream audio from the wireless network (AT&T - no unlocking for me!)  There is one podcast in particular (which automagically gets redirected to reader.mac.com/mobile on the iPhone) I listen too, but as I have my iPhone synching media with my home computer and only synch calendar and contact info from my work PC, I can not download the daily podcasts in the office to listen on the train home.  The iPhone recognises the link to the podcast within the RSS entry and makes it clickable.  And, after a few seconds, the podcast begins to play in the QuickTime audio player.  And what's more it worked flawlessly on the train ride home!  I could even fast forward past the advertisements!