Tips

If you're a regular iPhoneFAQ reader, this won't be the first time you've heard us advise you against buying iPhone or other mobile phone insurance through your wireless provider. When AT&T began offering iPhone insurance, we demonstrated how overpriced and undervalued their policy offerings were, hopefully saving many of you a great deal of money and frustration. Since the Verizon iPhone was announced, we've been waiting to find out what Verizon was going to step up to the plate with on the insurance front, hoping we'd be impressed. Unsurprisingly enough, we're not.

Hoping for anything else was sort of pointless given that Verizon and AT&T both offer insurance through the same third party company, Asurion. While the coverage that Asurion offers is excellent, the pricing is anything but. So, even though the same wizard is behind the curtain at both AT&T and Verizon and not ignoring the fact that replacement costs to the consumer are roughly $50 higher with the CDMA iPhone, we were hoping we'd see Verizon pushing aggressive pricing for insurance to give AT&T iPhone owners more reasons to switch.

Now that Safari, Mail and Photos have the ability to print after updating to iOS 4.2 on your iPhone, do you need an AirPrint-enabled printer to use the feature? The answer is no. Several programs have already been released for Mac and Windows that will set up your existing printer to work with AirPrint over a Wi-Fi network.

Once installed and properly configured, your printer will appear on the iPhone whenever the print option is selected from within an app. Printers that are connected to your computer can be used with AirPrint and the following programs:

You may have heard that Apple now offers the Find My iPhone service for free to iPhone 4 owners who have installed the iOS 4.2 update. When set up properly, the service locates and even sends messages to the lost device. Find My iPhone can also remotely lock or erase your iPhone.

Setting up the service no longer requires a paid MobileMe subscription with Apple to use. To set up Find My iPhone on your device follow these instructions.

Now that redsn0w has been updated to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 you may be wondering what's involved in actually jailbreaking your iPhone. Here are some tips and instructions to help. First of all, if you have an unlocked iPhone don't update your device to the official iOS 4.2.1 or use the redsn0w 0.9.6b4 jailbreak. You will lose your unlock.

UPDATE: Comex has released an easier method for newer 4.x firmwares. Click here for instructions on how to use JailbreakMe 3.0 to jailbreak your device.

Always back up your SHSH files before jailbreaking. This will preserve your ability to downgrade in the future. You must also find out if a tethered jailbreak is necessary on your device.

Your iPhone has plenty of storage space, only thing is every time you connect it to your computer iTunes runs the show. Wouldn't it be great to carry your files around with you and not have to worry about a separate USB drive? iPhone Explorer is free software for Mac and Windows that makes this possible.

The application opens up the flash memory of your iPhone into simple-to-use drag and drop folders. Files can be transferred to and from your computer hard drive right over the USB connection. iPhone Explorer is compatible with all iPhone models and works with OR without a jailbreak.