Tips and Tricks - Updating to iPhone OS 4.0, plus new feature guide

If you've held off a day or two before installing iPhone OS 4.0 (or iOS 4.0 as it's officially been dubbed) for your iPhone 3G/3GS or iPod Touch, who could blame you? Past Apple firmware updates have been problematic or, at a minimum, a good way to burn the better part of a day.

Here are some tips before you dive in and, if once you've installed it, a brief guide to where the nifty new features are hiding.

Before you install:

• Make sure you have iTunes 9.2 installed. I had a problem installing the update on Windows 7, even when I redownloaded the full manual installer. Running Windows Update (and installing all of the important patches) and then rebooting fixed this.
• Backup and sync fully beforehand. This brought my install time down to about 45 minutes on my 3GS. Word is that the iPhone 3G update takes a lot longer (2-3 hours!) even if you pre-sync. (We will find out when I update GrrlGotGame in the next day or so.)
• Turn on Airplane Mode to reduce risk of interruptions during the update.

Once you have iPhone OS 4.0 installed, here's how to find the top new features:

• Access fast-app switching (iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 only) by double-pressing the Home button. You can also quit apps to free up some memory if, say, your bigger games aren't working well. Be sure to check for updates to your apps over the next several days - many have recently been or will soon be optimized for the new quasi-multitasking.
• Make folders by dragging one app onto another (after making them jittery by holding your finger on an app). Each folder holds up to 12 apps, so plan accordingly. You can also manage apps and folders using iTunes when you're connected to your computer, which lets you see at least some of the "hidden" apps if you exceed the limit of what's visible on 11 screens. Alternately, you can reboot your phone (by holding down the power button on top) to get your overflow apps to fill any spaces you left on your visible screens when making folders.
• Camera 5x zoom is accessed using a slider down near the bottom of the frame. Tap the screen to make it appear.
• Wallpaper can be selected in Settings, Wallpaper. Your image should be high resolution or it will look jaggy. Pictures taken on the iPhone 3GS don't seem to be high res enough - wonder if this is an artifact of the higher resolution of the iPhone 4? (I didn't have this much trouble setting the wallpaper on my iPad, and it has a much larger screen!). If all else fails, use sample images in the supplied Wallpaper folder. If you've used the If Found, + app ($1 - and totally worth it!) to create a custom Lock Screen image with contact information (and you should!), make sure you only apply your wallpaper to the Home screen.
• Mail has been updated to offer a unified mailbox (in addition to all of your separate mailboxes) and conversation threading (which can be disabled if you don't like it). You can also now turn off Load Remote Images in your Mail settings, which is a good idea - it prevents spammers from getting a confirmation that you viewed an e-mail if you accidentally open it when trying to swipe to delete. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to load images on a per message basis, if you do want to see them.

Have a favorite tip that we missed? Share it in comments! You might just be the Comment of the Week in our next Busy Gamer Podcast...