µ-slabs

Stupid Simple iPhone Trick

At the risk of stating the obvious, I came up with a great use for iPhone 2.0’s screenshot functionality (press the home button and the sleep/wake button simultaneously).

I have an iPod Touch, which doesn’t have the ubiquitous data of the iPhone’s Edge or 3G connection. Unfortunately, even in a tech-savvy city like Seattle, wifi is sometimes far from easy to find. Sure, you can find a coffee shop or stop into the public library or something, but when you’re on the go it can be tricky. And sadly public wifi is still just a pipe dream.

Anyway, I often make use of my iPod’s Google Maps app to map out where I’m headed for client appointments and whatnot. Luckily, even out of range of wifi, the app seems to cache the map data (even for directions, which is pretty rad), so you can sort of map it out while on wifi and then refer back to the map even when you’re not. Of course, you can’t zoom or manipulate the map, but it’s still there.

But what if I want to map out a few destinations? I could either seek out wifi on the road (a pain) or…get ready for this…I could take a screenshot of each map or set of directions. That way I can map my ass off while at home and screenshot each one for reference later on, wifi or not.

See? I told you it was simple.