(Those not interested in my rambling exposition but just want the tips should skip on down to here)
Tomorrow can't possibly come quickly enough.
I don't mean that in some lofty, philosophical way. I mean quite literally that tomorrow, June 19th can't possibly come quickly enough. I've been counting down many, many days until the newest iteration of the iPhone is released. I can already hear the eyes rolling, because it seems half of the Internet has been also looking forward to it (and the other half seems hell-bent on telling us why we're stupid, but that's another post altogether). Bear with me, though, and I'll explain why.
You see, I've been getting by over the last 6 months or so with a barely functional iPod Touch. The touchscreen is in great shape, and the case bears but a few dents and scratches despite the malevolent treatment I've shown the poor little guy. Despite the durability and eagerness to perform of my iPod, there is but one crippling thing that has kept it from greatness over the last 6 months:
The "Home" button doesn't work.
That's right, the more useful of the only two hard buttons on device doesn't function. After restoring software, tapping it, pressing it, massaging it gently, and a even a voodoo curse courtesy of (I believe) one of the Monkey Island games, the Home button no longer performs any function on my iPod. I suppose I could've sent it off to be repaired, but a) I expected to be moving to an iPhone within 6 months anway, and b) the warranty had recently expired, and I'm cheap.
So, with those two facts in mind, I plunged forward into some 180 days of making the most of my home-less iPod Touch. This certainly carried its own challenges, since not having a Home button meant that there isn't often any way to get back to the Home screen to change applications without rebooting the whole thing. Having spent so much time working within this limitation, I've gathered some tricks for you in case you should ever find yourself in the same unfortunate position.
Getting the most out of your home-less iPod Touch / iPhone
First off, the easiest (though least practical) way of getting back to your Home screen is to reboot the device. Hold the "Lock" button the top edge of the unit for a few seconds until you get prompted to shut down. Slide the slider to confirm that you want to shut down, wait till the device shuts down, and then press the Lock button again to power the unit back on. Not the most practical of solutions, but it's unfortunately the one we have to use for some of the most common apps.
Thankfully, in some cases you can avoid having to restart the iPhone / iPod with a couple of quick tricks.
- Get Safari to load. If you can find *any* link in your current app (even if you're not online), tap the link to open Safari.
- From here, you just need to tap the "+" bottom on the bottom nav bar and select "Add to Home Screen". Click the "Add" button on the top of the next screen and you'll be transported back home.
- At this point, I usually delete the newly created bookmark on my Home screen just to keep the screen organized.
Sooo, how can you get Safari to load from another application? Often times, the About page or sometimes the Settings page will have a link to the company's homepage. Tap on the link, and you're good to go! Below is a list of the apps that will let you load Safari (and a list of those that don't)
Apps that will let you go home
- Safari. Obviously, this is the one that makes the rest work
- Mail. Just make sure you always keep an e-mail around and cached that has a link in the body, and you'll be all set to load up Safari.
- Calendar. I created an event sometime the past (so that you don't get reminders about it) that has a link in the event description
- Contacts. Tap on the E-mail button for one of your contacts, then click the Cancel button and you'll find yourself in the Mail app. From here, you should have no trouble loading Safari
Also, if you find yourself in the App Store, either downloading a new app or updating an existing app will transport you back to the home screen.
Sadly, those are the only native apps that I've been able to exit without a reboot. There's no way that I've found to get out of Music, Videos, Settings, or any of the other native apps. If you've found a way, send me an e-mail!
I should also mention that I've had the Home screen show up occasionally after synchronizing my iPod at my computer. I haven't been able to duplicate this phenomenon regularly, so you're own your own for that one.
As for me, I'll be here counting the hours until I can finally have an iPhone to take 'Home'.
