Upgrading to a new iPhone - what do I need to be aware of?

My four year old phone works for about 15 minutes before requiring a recharge, meaning that it's effective an im-mobile phone. I'm going to get a new one but before I do I need to back everything up or it will be lost forever.

I'm not the most confident backer-upper of phones and for most of its life I've never let it anywhere near a computer (for fear that iTunes will launch and I'll never hear the end of it). My phone's capacity is 32GB but I have a little over 16GB on there. A couple of weeks ago in preparation I did let it do its thing with iTunes (it was a little like the priori incantatem from Harry Potter - nothing good has ever come of letting iTunes and my phone talk to each other). It may or may not have backed itself up, it says it has but I've no real way of knowing. Or of understanding it.

What do I need to double check, and how do I do that? Here are some 'genres' that I've thought of but if you think I've missed anything please suggest in the comments or tweet me @JoBrodie (or email's above).

• Email - I use IMAP so I assume that when I get a new phone I just whiz in my login / password details and it will download everything from scratch
• Music - I think this is what iTunes has done, all the stuff I've bought directly onto my phone (pretty much everything) now seems to be saved on iTunes
• Photos - best decision I ever made was to say 'yes' to Dropbox when it asked me if I wanted to sync my photos to Dropbox and earn an extra umpteen gigabytes. Every time I connect my phone to my work computer (which doesn't have iTunes on it!) my latest photos synchronise and save to Dropbox, so no worries there
• Notes - I'd hate to lose these. I could email them all to myself, or copy and paste the text into one massive note and email that ;) Is there a simpler way?
• Sound recordings - via the little microphone app that is part of the iPhone. Again I can email them to myself but is it possible to back up more efficiently.
• In-app settings - I've loads of apps, some much used, some less so - will I be starting from scratch and having to download them all (I have a list from all the iTunes receipts sent to my email address). I also have some sound recordings in another app - would hate to lose those. Also I have apps that have recorded walks I've done in London. Some I've managed to upload some not and I'd like to know I can still access these when I get a new phone.
• Calendar - I was a bit sad when I left Diabetes UK and lost access to that email account to suddenly lose years' worth of calendar entries which I'd foolishly tethered. Just whoomphed out of my phone in one fell swoop. How can I better protect my calendar?

Backing up to the cloud - I used to do this until it told me I'd exceeded my limit, so I switched it off (otherwise I'd have had to buy more storage space). Can I clone a 'disk image' of my iPhone on my Mac? I've no idea what that might entail but I've heard people talk about disk images so I thought I'd throw that out there.

A few weeks ago I tried to buy a new iPhone believing that Apple would magically whoosh the contents of my phone onto their magic cloud server, sell me a new phone and then whoosh all the data onto it. I was a bit surprised and disappointed to have the rude awakening. To be fair the assistant was extremely helpful and explained how to do a back up (and also the online help pages are pretty good) but I do think that having more intuitive software (looking at you, iTunes) would be more in keeping with a company that has this amazing hardware.

I'll be sorry to say goodbye to my old phone when I move to the next one, but I'd be sorrier to say goodbye to all my useful stuff.

What did you wish you'd known before you bought a new iPhone?

Tech help: can anyone explain what's going on with my iPhone?

My iPhone makes no sound, except very rarely - why? 

I have an iPhone 3GS bought in June 2009 so it's pretty ancient and the battery rapidly discharges to zero when the phone is in use and says that it's at 80%. Probably I need a new one, but I'm clinging onto it until the absolute last possible moment.

A couple of months ago, while playing a piece of music, the speaker suddenly cut out and there was absolutely no more sound coming out. At first I wondered if the speaker had got wet and tried it a while later after presuming it had dried out - but it made no difference. I also tried cleaning out the headphone socket in case the sensor was confused and, thinking the headphone jack was present, blocked sound from being emitted from the speaker at the foot of the phone. No joy there either.

Because I use my phone as an alarm clock I realised that I'd have to use it on the vibrate setting, which I now do, although if I have headphones on while listening to music I can still hear the alarm or the phone ringing.

A few weeks later (thanks to my Twitter archive I can tell it was on 10 July 2013) my phone randomly began producing sound, which I noticed when my alarm clock both went off and vibrated. I was delighted that it had fixed itself I listened to a bit of music before it suddenly cut out again a while later.

Jump to 8 October (today) and it happened again this morning. I was woken by my alarm going off and vibrating away and noticed that I could also hear the alarm music coming from it too. Hooray. It let me play music for about 20 minutes (even with the volume at maximum I could barely hear it) before suddenly cutting out again.

Possibly it can only play 20 minutes of music very quietly every three months.

Can anyone explain what might be going on? Clearly it can play music, but it just doesn't.

How to enjoy media files on iPhone without using iTunes (and using Dropbox instead)

I have to assume this works for most smartphones and tablets.

You will need

• a free Dropbox account* 
• an iPhone or similar
• the Dropbox iPhone app installed on your iPhone
• wifi connectivity

*or you can use my referrer link and give me extra space which is always nice
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQwMDAxMDQ5?src=global9 - note that this shares your email address with me, so think about your own privacy too, possibly it shares my email address with you as well!

Instructions

• Save the media file into your Dropbox folder on your computer
• open up the Dropbox app on your iPhone, navigate to the file and play it
  (you'll need the wifi to synchronise with the Dropbox server and to maintain playback - however if you favourite the file you can probably listen to it offline).

I've been listening to mp3s on my iPhone via Dropbox since November 2010 as I find it easier to handle files via Dropbox than iTunes. I just save them in Dropbox and when I open the iPhone app there they are and they play fine.

Yesterday I was rather pleased to discover that it also works for video files and I managed to play a 700mb .avi file as well as a 176mb .wmv file (it's the same programme but the larger one is nearer to broadcast quality).

Not surprisingly the first time I tried to play the larger file it kept cutting out every 10 seconds and seemed to be not working very well at all but a bit of patience was all that was needed. The iPhone did something to it to 'optimise it for mobile playback' no idea what but about 10 minutes later it played all the way through.

Dropbox's own help pages have a list of files that will play including music and video:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/80/en and they also have a more advanced page for trickier filetypes and how to convert them https://www.dropbox.com/help/83/en (they suggest Handbrake - I've only used Zamzar and Real Player).

Media filetypes that I've successfully played on my iPhone via Dropbox

• .avi
• .flv
• .m4a (these are meant for iTunes, but work fine)
• .mp3
• .wmv 

Music files listed on Dropbox help files that should work: .mp3, .aiff, .m4a, .wav
Video files listed on their help files that should work: .mov, .mp4, .m4v

Filetypes that I've not had much luck with

• .m4r - ring tones, but these can be converted to .mp3 files via http://www.zamzar.com (I've just tried it, works fine)

How to download @markgfh's Geek Manifesto (or any Kindle book) to your iPhone

I don't have a Kindle but I have noticed that I tend to read more and stare out of the train window less when I read things via my iPhone compared with books. Not sure why.

Mark Henderson has written a book I want to read called the Geek Manifesto about the way in which geeky types have already availed, or might avail, themselves regarding policy / political opportunities etc. Sounds good.


Here's how I downloaded it onto my iPhone 3GS running iOS v4.3.2 (it may be different if you've upgraded your software).

You will need
• An Amazon account (necessary)
• The Kindle app (free - I'm not entirely sure how necessary this is ^[1]
Note: the Amazon app is useless here as it won't let you download directly to Kindle!

1. Download the Kindle app from the app store for £0
2. Fire up Safari and log into your Amazon account, buy the Kindle edition of the Geek Manifesto book, it's ~£2-3 cheaper too, ooh.
3. Let the book download to your iPhone (it took less than a minute on 3G)
4. Open Kindle, read, giggle schadenfreude-ily at the bit at the beginning where the British Chiropractic Association get mocked.

^[1] On downloading via Safari, Amazon said it would download it to Jo Brodie's iPhone and that it would appear on my homescreen. As it happened once downloaded it asked me if I wanted to go straight to Kindle which I did and there it was. Didn't find anything on my homescreen, but don't really care about that once I'd managed to download it anyway.

Initially I tried to download it via the Amazon app before I noticed it told me I couldn't (you may be able to do it on later software / update). What that app did let me do was save it to my wishlist, from which I then bought it once I logged in via Safari on the iPhone. Didn't really save much time but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless.

The cover, as shown on Kindle app for iPhone

My entries for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 competition ;-)

Shortened link for this post is: http://is.gd/2teqJp

---

Edit 11 May 2012 - there will be a real transit of Venus on 5/6 June although people in UK will only be able to see it very very early on the morning of 6 June (it starts at ~23h on the 5th which is no use at all!). More details here https://www.ras.org.uk/library/information-sheets/125-transits-of-venus

---

I don't exactly expect to win the competition (here are the rules) - maybe I'll get an honourable mention for entering into the spirit of things - but my entries might at least be unique in that they involve an orange sweet and a white pixel.

Faux-lar transit

First, the orange sweet - my local newsagents used to sell these yummy fruit-flavoured sour chewy discs (apparently made by Chewits and no longer available). I had a couple in a bag and held an orange one up to the light noticing how nicely it glowed. I also noticed that it bore a fairly strong resemblance to the pictures I'd seen of the Sun when viewed through some sort of Extreme UV filter, as used on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO (gorgeous UV-blue shot on the Wikipedia page and see this orange-yellow picture also from SOHO of a solar prominence). My thumb also bore a reasonable resemblance to the curve of a planet doing a solar transit, so I tweeted:

Recreating a solar transit as seen via Extreme UV Imaging, with an orange sweet, my thumb, and an actual sun ;-) http://twitpic.com/1u87cg

Original tweet: https://twitter.com/JoBrodie/status/15505285340

7:52 PM Jun 5th, 2010 via TweetDeck

Fake solar transit :)

White pixel - the International Space Station or ISS

The iPhone 3GS is not famed for its camera prowess but nevertheless I was delighted to capture this shaky video of the ISS passing overhead... which I shared, along with the following tweet:

http://twitvid.com/9A182 - The white pixel doing all the work here against a black background is in fact the ISS whooshing overhead.

Original tweet: https://twitter.com/JoBrodie/statuses/10481680517 7:36 PM Mar 14th, 2010 via API

Sharing sightings of the ISS with other people has been one of the delights of the modern age - I've shown it to my dad, visitors and guests, family and friends and strangers. I've also joined in online via the #ISS or #ISSwave hashtags which has been a lovely shared experience with hundreds of people around the world. Attached to those hashtag people have shared their images of the ISS - and let's face it, some of them are really quite a bit better than mine (how eerie and wonderful is this shot, from an Earth telescope?).

Can't help but be a bit ":-o" though at the thought that my small hand-held device can look up into the sky and see a small white dot flying about 200 miles overhead and capture it. Also, the technology that allows me to instantly share this on Twitter is pretty :-o too.

I'm yet to find the website which will tell me nothing more than a) how fast the ISS is travelling b) how far away it is and c) how many people are on it (with this information being updated no more regularly than required) - I accept that information on when it can be seen depends more on my location and the ISS's path, but all the other three things are a bit less variable. I've found myself in Greenwich Park going 'ooh' of an evening and pointing up at the ISS and telling passersby what it is. Lots of people have no idea that there's a spaceship, with people on, in low earth orbit whizzing overhead several times a day.

Note on old tweets

You might be wondering how I got hold of these old tweets. The orange sweet one is from June 2010 and the ISS from March 2010. I found the first by using Google Realtime which allows you to access tweets from May 2010 onwards, and the second one I was able to access because I've always imported my tweets into FriendFeed for archiving purposes and sometimes the search plays ball. I knew the text to search for because it shows up on the TwitVid video.

I am a bit obsessed with people being able to access old tweets and have written fairly extensively on it, see A list of tools for finding or capturing tweets and How to find old tweets. Do let me know if you've found a good tool or strategy, thank you :)

How to copy and paste using iPhone 3

Last week I read an article and one of the commenters happened to say "Maybe the iPhone will finally get copy and paste!" - but it already does and anyone who's ever read any of my blog posts will know how much I love writing technical instructions, so here are some ;)

Copying an URL to send to someone else, eg from a Tweet - three methods
1. Tapping the URL sharply, or even lightly pressing it would just open it, you need to press and hold on the URL for about two seconds - a menu will appear with the URL in it saying Open, Copy or Cancel - Copy's the one you want here. You can use this to find out what an URL actually is, as a sort of taskbar proxy (I hardly ever click on an URL on my laptop without hovering over it first to see where it's going). This technique does not expand shortened URLs though.

2. Press and hold anywhere on the screen that isn't the URL, for about two seconds, then let go - a selection tool will appear allowing you to select the text within two blue bars. When you've moved the bars to what you want to pick click the Copy link button that's by now already on the screen. This is the generic way to copy any text on your iPhone.

3. I think most Twitter clients for iPhone have the facility where you can email a Tweet. You don't have to actually email it of course, it just opens a new email with the content of the tweet and your URL of interest within it and it's a bit easier to clip it out neatly than using the method in 1.

Also, bonus tip. If you touch the top of your screen you're immediately pinged back to the top of the page with a superfast scroll.

And pressing the two main buttons (one at the front plus one at the top) together takes a screenshot which is then stored in your camera roll.

I expect everyone has iPhone 4s now but I was so surprised that someone hadn't found the copy and paste function I thought I'd mention it in case others hadn't too.

How to read PDFs, and other docs, offline on an iPhone using Dropbox

Shortened link for this post is http://is.gd/hlKJC

Note - there are other ways to do this, I just happen to have used this one to save files to my iPhone. 


I was inspired to dig out the draft text of this post after reading a Facebook status update from my friend David Bradley aka @sciencebase recommending the service. As far as I'm aware Dropbox works perfectly on an iPad although I don't have one of those so can't confirm.
 
General guide to using Dropbox While I can't pretend to understand the minutiae of cloud computing Dropbox is an example of this sort of thing. With a free account (which gives you 2GB of storage space) you can access your files via the internet from any networked computer. But, and this is important, your files are also stored as a local copy on your own machine - you just need an internet connection to synchronise them with the online version.

On downloading the Dropbox software (I don't think it's very big) it will create for you a Dropbox folder within your own file architecture (you can choose where it goes) and you can start putting files in there. I have Dropbox downloaded onto my home and work computer and the files that I tweak on those computers appear, miraculously ready-tweaked, when I get into work and vice versa. If your internet connection isn't working and you make changes to a file it will remain on the computer on which you edited it, but it will be unsyncrhonised with your other Dropbox.

You can tell the health status of each file and folder as there's a little green tick next to any file / folder which is up to date and syncrhonised, there's a rotating blue icon to indicate one that's being updated and when you open a file to work on it will have a red cross next to it (you need to save and close for it to update). So if you want to try this go to http://www.dropbox.com/ (they have a video there you can watch to tell you more about the service), create an account and sign up.

And now a word from our sponsors :)
Anyone can sign up for free 2GB but if you know someone who already has an account ask them for their 'referrer link' which can net you an extra 250mb - @sciencebase's referrer link is https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTgzNTg5MDk (Disclaimer: he isn't actually sponsoring me, I just like that phrase - my referrer link's at the end of the blog I'm just giving him top billing as he inspired me to update my post).

'MakeUseOf' have written a free guide but I confess I've not actually looked at it as I'm very familiar with Dropbox, but here it is http://sciencebase.tradepub.com/free/w_make17/prgm.cgi
Edit: Originally I mistakenly said that David had written this but he let me know that it was another company so have edited the above sentence.

You'll need an email address and a (self-created) password to log in - once you've installed the software you won't need to log in to use your files on your computer(s), only if you want to use the web interface. The web version is good - you can upload and delete files (but to edit them you'd have to download, delete and re-add so better to use your Dropbox folder for that).

A very easy way to sign up, if you don't want to start from scratch, is to ask one of your friends to send you an invite to share a folder with them - this will lead you through the process quite nicely.

Dropbox on the iPhone The iPhone Dropbox app is free from the appstore so all you need to do is download it and log in. Your files will then synchronise and you can read them online. It can open most things - I think it used to struggle with .rtf but that may have been fixed now. Most of mine are .txt, .doc, .ppt and it handles them fine. I can't remember if it cares whether it's .doc or .docx so you might want to double check.

For me, the big bonus is that you can open any file while connected to the internet and favourite it (using the star icon at the bottom of the iPhone screen). This means that if you need to access it in a low signal area you'll be able to. In the settings section (available from the app's start screen) you can set the size of your local storage (mine's 200MB but you can go up to 1GB). If you download the free PlainText app you can sync it (the default is a single PlainText folder but you can tweak it to sync with all your folders) and you can create new .txt documents on your iPhone - ie you can type something on your iPhone and then pick it up at your desk or at home. Nifty.

EDIT: I read a comment on one of Ben Goldacre's (secondary) blog posts which highlighted that this also works for .mp3 files etc. etc. Of course it does, why didn't I think of that??!!

What happens when you exceed your storage space? I once did this - don't forget that if you share Dropbox folders with other people then all of the contents you share adds towards your 2GB limit and it soon adds up. No files were deleted but I couldn't save any edits or add new files until I moved or deleted some older files. My only annoyance with Dropbox is that it didn't tell me there was a problem until I was at 2.5GB and had it mentioned it sooner I'd have pruned some files with less stress. But all was fine, but it's not a bad idea to check periodically what percentage of your allowance you're using.

Be aware though, that if you delete a file on your computer it isn't permanently deleted - this is often a good thing if you delete in error as you can undo this. As far as I can tell, 'deleted' files may actually contribute to your storage space - you can log in to your web account and choose the option to show deleted files, you'll see them in grey. You're then given the option to delete these permanently. Deleting files is a two-step process which, in the long run, I think is no bad thing - but useful to be aware of in case your storage starts to rack up.

I've been using Dropbox since January 2010 and am very pleased with it - I am not affiliated with them or anything dodgy like that :) ...and my referral link is https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQwMDAxMDQ5

Watching television and listening to radio on your iPhone

I am deleting some old draft posts, but not all - this one looked OK to post, minor tweaks.

From 4 March 2010.

How to watch television live on your iPhone
Possibly I'm the last to the party on this one but I have just discovered that the iPhone can stream web radio perfectly well - I'm still gobsmacked that I can get television on it via TV catchup (save http://iphone.tvcatchup.com as an 'Add to home screen' bookmark. You can get both TV and radio from TV catchup on a computer from http://www.tvcatchup.com and you'd need to register to use it on either iPhone or computer).

Picture shows TV Catchup as an icon on iPhone

How to listen to radio live on your iPhone
I've gone for Fstream as the radio app because it was recommended on the BBC's own site and it's free.

If you want to listen to radio using Fstream follow the instructions below, but you might also want to investigate some of the other suggestions I got from chums on Twitter - these cost something, but may be more stable and I've not compared them.

• Fstream - free
• TuneIn - £1.19
• Wunderradio £3.99
• vTuner £0.59

1. Download Fstream from the App Store
1a. Make sure Cellular network is ON (Click on More, then adjust so it's on)
1b. Most of the stations can be added using the presets (Favorites > Preset > then choose SourceMac or iTunes and add from there by clicking on the + symbol to the right of the station name). To play the radio stations you need to press the 'play' tab at the bottom then click on the desired station to connect.

In case your station isn't there or you can't be bothered to scroll through pages of stations, the following should work, eg for BBC radio programmes.

2. Visit this page http://bbcstreams.com on your iPhone
3. Select your stream of choice and copy the URL (by selecting the italicised URL rather than clicking on the active link - this is a bit fiddly).
- it looks like this


4. Open the newly loaded Fstream - it looks like this


and then this



5. Click on the 'Favorites' button (to the right of the lit up 'Play' button) in order to add your new radio station(s).



6. Click 'Edit' then at the bottom of your list of stations there'll be 'Add new webradio', click on that, copy the URL and name it.

7. Click on the 'Play' tab, then click on the name of the radio station - wait, listen.

How to transfer downloaded videos to iPhone

I found this page to be a really useful guide on how to do this. Probably that page is all anyone would need, but to add a bit to it I've included some screen shots of the system I use, which I hope are helpful.

If you've already got the files on your computer, jump to Bullet Point 7.

My computer is running Windows XP and I downloaded RealPlayer SP from Real which includes the RealPlayer SP Converter.

RealPlayer SP enables you to download any video that is either playing, or ready to play on the screen (a little pop up window appears giving you the opportunity to 'download now').

RealPlayer SP Converter can convert the downloaded video into a range of media, including .m4v files suitable for playing on an iPhone.

So the first step would be to download RealPlayer SP....

Once downloaded, pick a video you want to watch - for the benefit of nostalgia I chose the last ever outing of the ITV Schools Rotomotion logo from YouTube.

1. The 'Download this video' option appears ... highlighted in orange


2. Clicking the 'Download this video' link brings up the downloader, which looks like this

(Note that 'Convert All...' , to the left of Pause, is greyed out until the video finishes downloading.)

3. Once the video is downloaded, the programme will give you the option to convert it to a different filetype - that page looks like this - I've already selected the Apple iPhone option and where I want to store the video.


4. Because I've used it before it's already set to 'Convert to:' Apple iPhone / h.264 but there are other options, some examples of which are below


5. OKing the green Start button (in 3) starts the conversion process.


6. Once the file is converted you're given the option to save it to iTunes by clicking 'Add converted files to my iTunes library'.


7. If you've already got files on your computer and want to add them to the iTunes library, follow Step One of this page. iTunes does have its own converter - select a media file from within your library, right click and choose the option highlighted in red below.

8. To get the video onto your iPhone, connect it to your computer and wait for it to be recognised. Click on the battery icon that comes up next to the DEVICES menu (highlighted in green in the screen capture below) and this will bring up everything that's on your phone. Click the 'Movies' tab (highlighted in blue), tick the check box for your video (in orange), then apply (purple).

The phone will probably automatically sync, but if not, click File / Sync 'your phone'. Open he iPod icon on your phone, let the library update and your file should now be there.


I've heavily edited some of the screenshots so let me know if they're less useful than I think they are and I'll upload the full size versions to Flickr.

iPhone screenshot or taking a 'photo' of your iPhone screen

I discovered how to do this quite by accident, after playing with all the five buttons on my iPhone and trying them in different permutations.

How to take a screenshot with your iPhone
Press the 'sleep' button and the 'home' button simultaneously (see first photo below) - the screen will 'blink' as if taking a photo (if you have the ringer button set to on it will make a camera sound).

The photo is now in your Camera roll.

See demo photos (second and third photos) at the end of this post.

Why would you want to do this?
I use this A LOT when I'm going to be travelling somewhere and can't guarantee I'll have a good wifi or 3G signal, and I might need to have a local map with me. So I check the map via my home wifi and screenshot it for use later. Clearly I also use this function for demonstration purposes too ;)

Further info
The relevant buttons are marked on this photo which I pinched from Wikimedia then tweaked.


Photo credit: Flickr user lecates (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lecates/354510858/), taken from Wikimedia (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple-iPhone-001.jpg).

Examples
Screenshot of iPhone map showing London Zoo


Close up - keeping this sort of thing in my Camera Roll means I'm less likely to get lost even if there's no signal.

Mophie batteries (part one)

I love my Mophie Juice pack which adds extra battery oomph to my iPhone.

There are two kinds that I'm aware of:- Mophie Juice pack and Mophie Juice pack Air, both available from http://www.mophieuk.com/ or 0845 619 0845.

Mophie's battery page is at http://www.mophieuk.com/index.php/batteries.html, the relevant batteries are the first and fourth in the picture grid (of four batteries shown)

Mophie Juice pack Air is currently £64.99
Mophie Juice pack is currently £69.49

Compared below (the text is pinched from their website which I will of course remove if this irks Mophie).

What sold the Juice pack for me was the oomphed 3G time for iphone 3Gs, having been to several conferences where the wifi signal was somewhat feeble - having said that there's no guarantee that you'll get a good 3G signal. But I can watch videos / listen to podcasts for longer too. Mind you, in areas of guaranteed wifi the Juice pack Air might be the better bet, but doesn't last as long for non-internet things.

Mophie Juice pack Air
http://www.mophieuk.com/index.php/batteries/juice-pack-airtm-iphone-3g-and-3g-s.html
iPhone 3GS:
Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G Up to 10 hours on 2G
Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G Up to 8 hours on Wi-Fi
Audio Playback: Up to 27 hours
Video Playback: Up to 9 hours

iPhone 3G:
Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G Up to 9 hours on 2G
Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G Up to 5.4 hours on Wi-Fi
Audio Playback: Up to 20 hours
Video Playback: Up to 6 hours

Mophie Juice pack
http://www.mophieuk.com/index.php/batteries/juice-packtm-iphone-3g-and-3g-s.html
iPhone 3GS:
Standby Time: Up to 350 hours
Talk Time: Up to 6 hours on 3G Up to 12 hours on 2G
Internet Use: Up to 6 hours on 3G Up to 7 hours on Wi-Fi
Audio Playback: Up to 28 hours
Video Playback: Up to 8 hours

iPhone 3G:
Standby Time: Up to 350 hours
Talk Time: Up to 6 hours on 3G Up to 12 hours on 2G
Internet Use: Up to 6 hours on 3G Up to 7 hours on Wi-Fi
Audio Playback: Up to 28 hours
Video Playback: Up to 8 hours

My Mophie Juice Pack for 3G - the picture on the left is the actual battery, and the metal bit at the moment clips into the phone's socket so that the battery envelopes the phone. The photo on the right shows the unopened battery - there's a tiny button on the back that lets you check how charged up it is. Presumably it ships 3/4 full (there are four blue LEDs, three are lit below).

It's gorgeous :)

Mophie batteries (part two): iPhone battery spares

An earlier post comparing two Mophie batteries http://brodiesnotes.blogspot.com/2009/09/mophie-batteries-part-one.html

At the last couple of conferences I've attended / live blogged (the British Science Association [nee the BA] 's Science Communication Conference and the World Conference of Science Journalists) I have been using my iPhone, as well as my laptop, to post to Twitter, FriendFeed etc.

The iPhone battery is pretty good for quite heavy internet use and there are some tips to extend battery life from Apple - basically connect to wifi if you can (you can also switch off 3G in the settings), reduce the screen brightness and switch off any location services, set your email checking to manual etc.

But the afternoon tweets included a couple from fellow iPhone users bemoaning that their batteries were needing recharged, not to mention their laptops. Fellow twitterer @IanRobinson suggested that we should get ourselves a Mophie Juice pack which is a battery that attaches to the iPhone, effectively turning your phone into a brick. So I did.

It's absolutely great and possibly the most beautiful gadget I've ever bought, apart from the phone itself. It cost me £70 from the company directly (I visited the Apple store, they had the Mophie Juice Pack Air but I wanted the Mophie Juice Pack as it's a bit more powerful on 3G (I think the Air probably pips it for wifi, but overall the Juice Pack wins on audio, video, standby etc).

Here's how I have been using it.

Charging the battery - I've found it works well if I plug the battery into my laptop in one USB port and if I want to also charge the iPhone too plug that into a separate one. My preference is to keep them separate for charging.

The iPhone will sync perfectly well if it's docked in the Mophie, but it tends to get a bit warm which always makes me wary.

I attach the Mophie only when the iPhone's down to about 20 per cent battery (I've tweaked the settings so I can see a numeric value for the battery display) - I'm not sure that there's much point having it attached beforehand as it is pretty determined to deliver power. If the phone doesn't need power then it might just heat up too much! It delivers the charge very rapidly, much more so than from the laptop, as far as I can tell.

There's a little button the back of the Mophie which lights up four blue LEDs (it really is a pretty device) to indicate how much charge is there - as expected these blink out, one by one, as charge is delivered.