I’ve developed the habit of abbreviating a lot in my text conversations. For the lack of time or because I’m just plain lazy, it’s easy to shorten the more popular phrases when I’m carrying a conversation via email or text. It almost feels like I’m talking in another language sometimes! Below are some of my favorite abbreviations…

I love the ability of rotating the iPhone/iPad/iPod’s screen between portrait and landscape view but it can be pretty annoying when you’re lying down in a comfortable spot and the screen is constantly tipping back and forth. The iOS 4 firmware update includes a rotation lock feature, similar to the rotation lock switch found on the first generation iPad.

To enable rotation lock and prevent the screen from automatically changing orientation when the device is turned:

1. Double click the home button to bring up the multitasking bar.
2. Swipe right until the last set of icons is displayed in the multitasking bar (these will include play/pause and skip buttons for iPod or Pandora).
3. The furthest left icon looks like a circular arrow. Touch this icon to enable or disable rotation lock on the device.
4. A rotation lock icon will appear in the status bar next to the battery charge icon when rotation lock is enabled. This looks like a circular arrow around a padlock.

To lock in landscape mode, hold your device sideways in landscape view before enabling rotation lock.

For a while, I forwarded all my email addresses to a single Gmail account. It’s great because you get a unified inbox to collect mail from multiple email addresses that you can check on any device. One caveat has been that Mail on the iPhone and iPad won’t let you send email from multiple addresses living under one Gmail account. This means that even though you can receive messages from secondary accounts, you can only reply from your main Gmail address.

I’ve tried many work-arounds but have been unsuccessful until I came across a website called ModerNerd. The author managed to get around this in a way that works great on the iPad and iPhone.

To set up multiple addresses for the iPad:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Add Account…

3. Tap on Other (NOT Gmail or Google Mail)

4. Tap on Add Mail Account and enter your full name, your Gmail address, your password, and the word ‘Gmail’ in the description. Then tap Save.

5. You should now be in the ‘Enter Your Account Information’ screen.

Use the following information for the appropriate fields:
Incoming Mail Server
Host Name: imap.gmail.com
User Name: your full Gmail address
Password: your Gmail password

Outgoing Mail Server
Host Name: smtp.gmail.com
User Name: your full Gmail address
Password: your Gmail password

6. Scroll back up and tap the address field once to place the cursor at the end of your Gmail address. Start typing your secondary email addresses that you’d like to be able to send email from, each separated by a comma.

To type a comma on the iPad, look for a button on your keyboard that looks like this [.?123] then the button that looks like [#+=]. The comma will appear in the top right of the keyboard, to the left of the backspace key.

7. Tap Save when you are done entering your secondary addresses.

8. To check it’s worked, open Mail, browse to your Gmail account, and create a new message. Tap the “Cc/Bcc, From:” field to open it up, then tap the “From:” field. You should see a picker overlay containing all of the email addresses you just entered.

For instructions on creating multiple secondary addresses for the iPhone, check out ModerNerd.com.

My boyfriend surprised me with a Apple iPad for my birthday today! And the first thing I did was jailbreak it! It’s really simple and painless. It took me less than a minute for the entire process and I was ready to install 3rd party apps! Here’s how:

1. Back up your data using iTunes.
2. Update your iPad to iOS 3.2.1 firmware (but NOT 3.2.2 because it won’t work!)
3. Enable Wi-Fi and make sure there is a steady network connection.
4. On your iPad, launch Safari and go to: http://www.jailbreakme.com
5. At this point, click on “Slide to jailbreak” and the device will begin to download the data necessary to execute the procedure.
6. The jailbreak process will start once the download is complete.
7. When the jailbreak process is complete, press OK.
8. Voila! You have successfully jailbroken your iPad!

Like I said, its simple, fast, and painless! So what happens next? You should see an app called Cydia installed to your Springboard. Using Cydia, can now install any 3rd party app and customize your iPad! Enjoy!

For more information about jailbreaking your iPad, check out GadgetsDNA.com.