I love most of Lady Gaga’s songs, and “Bad Romance” is my new favourite. I also decided to make it my new ringtone! I never really played with the ringtone function of my iPhone for the past year, so I have no idea how to customize it. I found out that I can’t go to the iPod function and select one of the songs as my ringtone (which I could do so in my previous phone).

I searched around and discovered an awesome application that allows me to edit part of a digital track that I like into a 30-second ringtone clip. Thanks to “iPhoneRingtoneMaker” (you can download it free, just google it), I made my very first “Bad Romance” ringtone and I am very happy with it so far. It’s really easy for anyone to use! You can make a ringtone, send it to iTunes, sync with your iPhone and get a customized ringtone in a few minutes! But this trial version only allows access to making three ringtones, so if you are the type to switch ringtones every week, you might want to pay for the full version.

Now my iPhone is going gaga too. And I’m loving it everytime it rings. Haha.

Upgrading the software version is actually really simple.  I just follow the instructions prompted by iTunes, but in case you are not sure what to do, these are the steps that are usually required.

Step 1: Plug in your iPhone 3G.  iTunes should detect the new upgrade and this message will pop up.

I usually choose “Download and Install”.

Step 2: To see the progress of your upgrade, just go to the side panel and click the name of your device.  Mine is “Hewlett Packard” as you can see (because of my laptop, LOL) as I did not bother to change the name I was assigned to when I first downloaded iTunes.

Step 3: After the download is completed, a message that says “Updating iPhone Software” pops up.  This should mean it is at the installation phase.

Step 4: When the upgrade is completed, the summary page will appear.  If it is successful, the software version should show Version 2.2.1.

The whole download and installation of 246.4 MB took about 20 minutes for me.  Looks really easy, isn’t it?

I did not think it was a good idea to leave so much private details exposed without any firewall.  After all, the iPhone does not only contain contacts and SMS information, but it has details of my blogs (I set up Wordpress App on it, which I will discuss in another post).  I also set up my email addresses with my passwords already for a one-touch access, so I would be totally uncomfortable with anyone who is not authorized viewing its contents!

I also had a long list of To-Do tasks and my Safari browser has saved bookmarks in them.  I certainly do not want anyone to access these information, although I have nothing much to hide.  No kinky pictures or what though, in case you are thinking along that line.  Haha.

I found the Passcode Lock function of the iPhone 3G which can do a basic job of password protecting it.  To activate the function, go to Settings –>  General –> Passcode Lock to set your four-digit passcode.

You can choose to turn it off anytime, or change to another passcode whenever you like.

Set the Auto-Lock to your desired time to put the phone to “sleep” after a period of inactivity.  The iPhone will prompt for the passcode to be entered before anyone can access the main menu.

At least if the iPhone is ever lost or misplaced (touch wood!), the next person who picks it up will never be able to use it while you are tracking the phone down with it’s unique IMEI identification number.

In my opinion, Passcode Lock is sufficient if you only require simple password protection, but it’s not flexible enough if you wish to customise the protection for certain apps.  I am looking for an utility that can allow me to protect the apps that I specify, especially my Wordpress and Email apps, yet allow my iPhone to be shared around (sometimes for photos or games).

That’s why I still guard my iPhone 3G like a hawk now, hehe, and avoid passing it around unnecessarily.  I hope others don’t misunderstand why I am so protective of it though.  Haha.

Guess the first question I asked when I first got my iPhone 3G?

I did not know when it was going to be fully charged!  Haha.

I tried to find some answers in the product booklet that came along with it, but I didn’t see any.

So I guess there should be some of you who might be wondering about this too?

It’s really simple actually.

When your iPhone 3G is charging, the battery indicator on the top right corner will show a “lightning” symbol.  (Sorry, the macro shot was kind of blur)

When your iPhone 3G is fully charged, the battery indicator will change to a “plug” symbol.

Well, just in case you wonder why my photos don’t look logical, I took them on different days lah.  LOL.

Initially, I thought iTunes will do the job of sync-ing my photos, but after the sync was completed, I did not see my photos anywhere on iTunes?  Probably I did not do something right, but I found another better and easier way to do it.

Well, my laptop is running Windows Vista, but this should work even if you are running Windows XP.  First, I opened the Computer window.  This usually shows information about my hard disk drives and devices with removable storage.  Under “Portable Devices”, I noticed “Apple iPhone” is recognized as an external device.

Then I double-clicked along this path:  Apple iPhone –> Internal Storage –> DCIM –> 100APPLE and I found my photos at this folder!  For the photos that I would like to download to my computer, I just did a simple copy and paste.

Surprised at how easy this is?  Hope this helps!