iPhone Atlas

(Credit: Apple Inc.)

Facebook 3.0 was heralded as a long-awaited, must-have upgrade on the iPhone, but the initial 3.0 release left many of our readers with a bad feeling. CNET users sent in numerous complaints about the app frequently crashing and wanted to know how to downgrade to the previous version.

Facebook quickly released updates and the app has since stabilized, but you should know that regardless of how big or popular an app is, you can usually roll it back following this tutorial.

Difficulty level:
Medium

What you need:
>Mac OS X 10.5 or later; Windows XP or Vista
>iTunes 8.02 or higher
>Access to a backup of your Mobile Applications folder
>Any iPhone or iPod Touch

If you want to downgrade an iPhone app, you must have a copy of the older version of the app, or this how-to won't work.

We recommend that you make frequent backups of your ~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications/ folder, which is located in your home directory (represented by the ~) on the Mac. PC users will find the same folder located at C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes/Mobile Applications. These are the folders that iTunes uses to store all app files in your iTunes Library. The app files themselves are represented by file names ending in .ipa. If you keep frequent daily backups, you should always have older versions of your apps available.

How to downgrade an app

Take the following steps to easily downgrade to an older version of any iPhone or iPod Touch app:

Delete the app from your iPhone or iPod Touch

1. Locate the icon of the app you want to delete on the home screen. Tap and press down on its icon until the icons on the home screen start to jiggle. Next tap the X icon in the upper left corner of the app icon. Finally, tap Delete when the prompt pops up.

Deleting iPhone apps

(Credit: David Martin)

Delete the app from your Mac or PC

2. On a Mac, go to the ~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications folder of your Home directory, locate the .ipa file for the app you just deleted from your iPhone or iPod Touch and drag it to the Trash. On a PC, go to the C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes/Mobile Applications folder and drag the .ipa file for the app to the Recycle Bin.

Mobile Applications folder on the Mac

(Credit: David Martin)

Empty the Trash or Recycle Bin

3. Now empty the Trash or Recycle Bin to delete the .ipa file. Note that if you ever need to get the deleted file back, it can always be downloaded again from the App Store for free, even if it's a paid app.

Restore the previous app version

4. Launch iTunes. Switch the view in iTunes to view your apps library. Drag the .ipa file for the older version of the app you are trying to reinstall from your backup and drop it into the iTunes window. iTunes will automatically add the app back to the App Library.

iTunes App Library

(Credit: David Martin)

Sync app to your iPhone or iPod Touch

5. Connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer. iTunes should automatically sync the app back to your device. If it doesn't, check your iTunes settings to make sure you have not chosen to sync only "Selected applications." If you have, make sure you've checked off the app in question to enable syncing. Finally, if it still does not sync automatically, you may have to click the Apply or Sync buttons.

Conclusion

At this point, the older version of the app should now be installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

If you change your mind, just reinstall the latest version by using the Check for Updates feature in iTunes or by going to the App Store and repurchasing the app, which will be downloaded again for free.

Since I got my iPhone 3GS a couple of months ago, I've been wondering when I would really benefit from its highly anticipated faster 3G capability. I finally got the answer, and as it turns out, the wait is far from over.

AT&T announced Wednesday details of its rollout plans for High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 3G technology. This is the next generation of 3G, and it offers up to 7.2Mbps data connection speeds (as opposed to the 2Mbps and 3.6Mbps of the current 3G).

(This is, of course, just the theoretical number. Typical real-world downlink and uplink speeds will likely be less than that depending on location, device, and overall traffic on the local wireless network at a given time. Nonetheless, this promises a significant boost. HSPA 7.2 is part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of technologies, which include GSM, UMTS, and the Emerging LTE technology. HSPA 7.2 offers backward-compatibility, meaning it also works with existing 3G and 2G devices at the lower device-specific speed.)

According to the announcement, the new speed will be available by the end of the year. Unfortunately, it's available only in six cities in the U.S., including Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; and Miami. This means the rest of the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area where I am, must continue to wait.

The iPhone 3GS is a HSPA 7.2-compatible smartphone from AT&T.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

It's unclear how long the wait will be for the rest of the cities, but the company says it plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 in 25 of the nation's 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, and to reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network footprint with HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011.

While this is rather sad news for me, for most people it won't mean much, as chances are your phone is not compatible with the higher 3G speed. Currently, the iPhone 3GS is the only HSPA 7.2-ready smartphone I know that AT&T offers.

However, AT&T assures that it will offer more compatible devices with the rollout of HSPA 7.2. The company expects to have six HSPA 7.2-compatible smartphones in its device portfolio by the end of the year, as well as two new LaptopConnect cards.

The rollout of HSPA 7.2 is part of AT&T's plan to invest some $18 billion this year, of which more than two-thirds is going toward broadband and wireless. Key projects of this investment include, in AT&T's words:

I have joined the Dark 3GSide.

(Credit: ThereIsNoBox.ca)

A few weeks ago, I was at wit's end. I couldn't upgrade to an iPhone 3GS, and apparently neither could many other people who bought their 2008 3G in the window that AT&T had promised would net "most customers" a 2009 3GS subsidy.

AT&T was never really forthcoming about what, exactly, would trigger being qualified for an update versus not. I gave up, and then had an idea: my wife was eligible for an upgrade to her 2G iPhone, but didn't want to pay $15 more for a 3G data service. In an incredibly generous move, she allowed me to use her upgrade eligibility for an experiment.

We went to the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, bought an iPhone 3GS, and then headed home. I swapped my SIM out of my 3G and into the 3GS, and synced with my home MacBook. In seconds, it seemed like a fluid swap had occurred.

Then I took my wife's new 3GS SIM and put it in her old iPhone. The iPhone 2G displayed a "plug into iTunes" screen and emergency call display when I restarted, but plugging back into her Vaio brought up an iTunes page that required reauthorization before an AT&T activation. After entering her social digits and billing zip, a funny thing happened: iTunes itself recommended to me that I downgrade my wife's newly-minted 3G data plan back to 2G, to match the phone detected. I agreed, and moments later, her first-gen iPhone was up and running once again.

(Credit: Apple Inc.)

Some iPhone Atlas readers, and posts on Apple's Discussion boards, have reported additional problems--some large, some small--after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.0 or the iPhone 3GS. The following procedures will solve a number of the reported problems.

• Reset your iPhone by holding down the Sleep and Home buttons until the Apple logo appears.
• Restore your iPhone: In iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos, and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

Yet, even after performing these steps additional issues have persisted. For more detail, read on.

Sound issues
Though listed on discussion boards here and here, I've also heard sound distortion when making a call, listening to the other phone ringing, and receiving an incoming SMS text message at the same time. The second sound, Glass (my SMS tone), has a buzzing noise as it plays.

An theAppleBlog report has mentioned an audible whine on recorded iPhone 3GS videos. There does not appear to be a fix for this at this time, so I'm hoping that Apple addresses it via a software update.

Here's the video from theappleblog.com Web site and a direct link to the isolated sound here.

A suggested short-term workaround is easy enough to implement; some people might even learn to live with the problem. Prior to recording a video, either plug in your headphones or manually place the iPhone into "silent" mode by moving the ring selector to vibrate. The entire post is worth reading as it includes more examples and the steps to recreate the problem on the iPhone 3GS.

Wrong or "changing" icons
Apple's discussion boards here, here, and here are reporting a problem that I've encountered as well. In my case the problem occurs when I remove apps from the iPhone using the delete feature in Springboard and then install new apps.

The newly installed apps can inherit the icons from the apps that were deleted from the same location. This is a known bug documented under Apple Bugfix 6906853. The only fix that I've been able to find is to reinstall the apps affected by the bug and hope it does not happen again. Hopefully, Apple will get this really annoying bug fixed soon.

Last week we covered a number of other issues with iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS. Check it out for additional troubleshooting advice.

Tell us about your iPhone OS 3.0 or iPhone 3GS upgrade problems in the comments.

(Credit: Apple, Inc.)

• Reset your iPhone by holding down the sleep and home buttons until the Apple logo appears.
• Restore your iPhone: In iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos, and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

However, some issues chronicled below persist:

Visual Voicemail wasn't accessible by many users from their iPhone 3G S after restoring from a previous model's backup. Users are required to reenter their voicemail pins when prompted by the iPhone 3G S. If you've forgotten your pin, you can reset it by taking the following steps:

• Log onto AT&T myWireless
• Click on Phone/Device
• Click on Reset Voicemail Password
• Press the Submit button

A text message is sent to your phone with a new Visual Voicemail password.

Passwords previously saved for numerous applications were reported lost in the transfer to the iPhone 3G S. Users had to reenter passwords for a number of apps, including (but not necessarily limited to) AIM, LogMeIn, Loopt, MySpace, Palringo, Sirius XM, Tweetie, and Wallet. (Wallet's database had to be recovered from MobileMe). The password recovery problem is likely attributable to the hardware change from a previous iPhone to the iPhone 3G S.)

Compass has to be reset periodically when it struggles with interference, which happens often enough that iPhone 3G S users are complaining about it. Apple offers some information about calibrating Compass on its Web site, as well as in a support document, iPhone 3G S: Re-calibrate Compass. These explain that the recalibration isn't always necessary; sometimes you need to just ignore the recalibration messages while Compass self adjusts.

Compass calibration message

(Credit: David Martin)

The iPhone 3G S' Oleophobic screen coating is rumored to be incompatible with screen protectors, so we called several Apple stores to investigate and were told this isn't true. The sales associate said that we could come into any Apple store and purchase a screen protector for the iPhone 3G S. Protectors for the 3G should also work on the 3G S.

Duplicate Contacts are being reported by a number of users on Apple's discussion boards. We stumbled upon a nice explanation for and solution to this problem in this article: "About duplicate contacts and calendars on iPhone [OS] 3.0," via Mac OS X Hints.

Find My iPhone remembers all your devices, including the old iPhone that you just turned off when you upgraded to a new handset last weekend. MobileMe does not appear to support a mechanism that will allow you to remove the tracking of an iPhone or iPod Touch from Find My iPhone. We contacted Apple through MobileMe support via online chat and asked about this.

According to Apple tech support, removing a device from the list involves sending the device a Remote Wipe command. MobileMe will then attempt to send this command for up to two hours and if unable to contact the selected device, it is deleted from Find My iPhone. This information is contrary to the Apple support document, "MobileMe, iPhone OS 3.0: Troubleshooting Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe" which states:

Previously-owned iPhone/iPod Touch appears at me.com/account
If your iPhone/iPod Touch was configured with your MobileMe account, it may still appear when you log in to www.me.com/account, even if you no longer possess the iPhone/iPod Touch. Currently, a device is removed from your account page list only after it is successfully wiped. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

Note: we think the last sentence points out that Apple is aware of this bug in Locate My iPhone and will announce a fix later. Following the advice given in the online chat wasn't successful. Nearly 12 hours later, the old iPhone 3G status is still pending a remote wipe in our test. We hope Apple will release a fix for this through the MobileMe Web site.

Wi-Fi connectivity and signal strength complaints have also cropped up after the iPhone OS 3.0 update: some users complain that their phones drop them from Wi-Fi unexpectedly, others that they can't connect at all. Some users have been able to resolve their connectivity problems by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings, while others complained that this simple fix does not work. In the latter case, a restore might be necessary.

Settings > General > Reset

(Credit: David Martin)

Troubleshooting tips

Force Quit has changed in iPhone OS 3.0 for the iPhone 3G S but remains the same for older iPhones that do not support Voice Control. In order to force quit an application, you must:

• iPhone 2G/3G: Press and hold the Home button for a few seconds until the app quits. (Valid for iPhone OS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.)
• iPhone 3G S: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the "Slide to power off" screen appears, then press and hold the Home button until the app quits (usually within 6 seconds).

Apple has recently updated the following support documents that might also be useful if you encounter problems with your iPhone:

• "iPhone Basic Troubleshooting"--some iPhone basic troubleshooting tips.
• "Troubleshooting applications purchased from the App Store"--Try the following troubleshooting steps on your iPhone or iPod Touch in order to resolve an application's issue.
• "Troubleshooting iPhone and iPod Touch contact and calendar syncing via USB on Windows"--If you're having difficulty syncing your contacts or calendars to iPhone or iPod Touch with iTunes for Windows via USB, this article can help. Note: this article does not apply to wireless syncing with Exchange ActiveSync or MobileMe.

Some users also might consider following the Apple iPhone Troubleshooting Assistant before calling AppleCare or visiting the local Genius Bar.

Tell us about your iPhone OS 3.0 or iPhone 3G S upgrade problems in the comments.

The Slingbox Tuner (left) and Slingbox AV (right) won't work with the new Sling iPhone app.

(Credit: Sling Media)

Sling Media has announced that the first few models of the Slingbox won't work with new Sling software, including the much-anticipated SlingPlayer for iPhone.

The company, which is now owned by EchoStar, informed Slingbox owners on the Sling Media Web site Wednesday, saying that owners of the original Slingbox, Slingbox AV, and Slingbox Tuner were encouraged to upgrade to either a Slingbox Pro, Slingbox Pro-HD, or Slingbox Solo and that the company would offer those owning discontinued boxes a $50 discount to upgrade. (The Solo is the entry-level product and costs $180).

The reason? Because "software like SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and future services yet to be announced" will only be supported on Solo, Pro and Pro-HD, and EchoStar SlingLoaded products.

The notoriously vocal and tight-knit Sling community wasn't pleased, with more than 120 comments on the topic in the SlingCommunity.com forum as of this posting, most of which expressed disappointment and anger. Since the upgrade offer was actually posted Wednesday, many Sling owners mistook it for a prank.

"I just hope this is one sick April Fool's joke - if it is it's not very funny," wrote one member of SlingCommunity.com. Others chimed in with similar hope, until it became clear this was all rather serious.

While a Sling representative didn't immediately return a request for comment Thursday, the company did note in the same blog post that the older versions (Slingbox, AV, and Tuner) will still function normally on their own, but won't be able to take advantage of new services.

In conjunction with the App Store that launched earlier this morning, there's an upgrade available for iPhone users to bring their devices up to speed with the compatible iPhone 2.0 software.

There's not an easy path to it yet, but the firmware is on Apple's servers, MacRumors.com reported Thursday.

Twitter users reported that the software is 225 megabytes in size. The download is free for iPhone users and $9.95 for iPod Touch users.

The iPhone 2.0 software allows existing iPhone and iPod Touch owners to have access to the software features that will be available on the new iPhone 3G that hits stores Friday morning (but not to the hardware upgrades, which include 3G Internet access and GPS). This means not only the 500+ third-party applications already in the iPhone App Store, but also support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Third-party applications range from games and electronic books to iPhone versions of big social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Facebook and MySpace's iPhone applications will let users seamlessly upload photos to albums on the social networks, and Facebook's will let members with location-aware iPhone 3G devices see which of their friends are nearby.