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Domain Shortcut Helps Type URLs in Your iPhone More Quickly
Posted by Adam Pash at 7:00 AM on July 15, 2008
iPhone/iPod touch only: The iPhone has sported a .com keyboard shortcut for making quick work of URLs in Mobile Safari since it was released, but reader George points us to an expansion to this keyboard shortcut that can save tons of time for entering email addresses and non-.com URLs. First, in Mobile Safari, just hold down the .com button for a second to see other domain options (namely .net, .edu, and .org). Second, when the keyboard has the @ symbol but no .com key, you can hold the '.' (period) key to get the same domain shortcuts—something that comes in especially handy when you're manually entering email addresses or filling in login credentials in new apps. I'm not sure if this keyboard shortcut is an iPhone 2.0 feature or something that was added when hold-for-accents was added for international language support, but it's definitely one to know. Thanks George!
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Jack
Posted July 16, 2008 4:44 PM
Looks good but unfortunately doens't work on my Touch (Pre-2008 model). Would be quite handy tho.
distortedloop
Posted 8:05 AM 15/7/08
Great tip. Lots of the buttons have multiple characters assigned if you hold the key, worth testing each of them to see what's in there if you haven't noticed.
distortedloop
tadslippy
Posted 7:34 AM 15/7/08
Awesome! many thanks.
tadslippy
synth7
Posted 7:28 AM 15/7/08
Had never seen this anywhere, works like a charm on iPhone 3G
synth7
KevinEldon
Posted 7:12 AM 15/7/08
It's not available in 1.1.4.
KevinEldon
twins8791
Posted 8:40 AM 15/7/08
no.
no.
skip over it if you don't want to read it. not that hard.
twins8791
Munkii
Posted 8:37 AM 15/7/08
I wish you could customize things on the iphone... That's my one real gripe with it.
For example, I have a 1.1.4 phone, and holding the '.com' button shows an additonal option of '.co.uk'. But the domain extension where I live is '.co.nz' which makes this feature useless to me.
I know Steve is trying to protect me from myself, but there are several small tweaks which could really make a lot of difference.
Munkii
bachcottage
Posted 8:30 AM 15/7/08
Reader Poll: Are you tired of iPhone postings yet?
Reader Poll: Do you think LifeHacker.com is on the take for iPhone?
bachcottage
Gina Trapani
Posted 9:21 AM 15/7/08
Just to reiterate our commenter policy: Incessant complainers lose commenting privileges. The banhammer's on standby.
Gina Trapani
gabrielm
Posted 9:25 AM 15/7/08
Good to see that they are taking my suggestions seriously.
I am sure I wasn't the only one to request this feature. It just seems to make sense.
gabrielm
CutePuppyz
Posted 11:04 AM 15/7/08
No such thing in 1.1.3.
CutePuppyz
metalhaze
Posted 2:58 PM 15/7/08
I found something new!
I haven't seen this shortcut reported on anywhere.
I know you can save images from the web by holding your finger on the image. But if you hold your finger on a URL, a small pop up appears and gives your the full URL path so you know what you are clicking on. See??
Click to see iPhone screen cap:
[dl.getdropbox.com]
metalhaze
fozzieb
Posted 5:54 PM 15/7/08
Fantastic, this was starting to annoy me.
fozzieb
sredlums
Posted 5:50 PM 15/7/08
Actually, this is (partially) old news.
My 1.1.4 iPod touch already had '.nl' as an extra option for the '.com' button (I am Dutch, but I guess it would show local extensions for other languages as well).
What IS new is that I now have an aditional '.org' option.
The possibility to show the url by pressing and holding a link was also there already.
Getting '.com' by pressing and holding the dot button is new for me however.
sredlums
thor79
Posted 12:49 AM 16/7/08
Very handy...and I'm finding the iPhone tips very useful since this is my first iPhone.
There's plenty of LH posts I don't care about...guess what...I skip over them and ignore them completely.
thor79
davelawrence8
Posted 3:07 AM 16/7/08
This is the kind of stuff, as a new iPhone owner, I'm thirsting for. And I just sent an e-mail thinking, "Golly, wouldn't it be cool if..." It's the little things that make my 3G so fun to use. Thanks Lifehacker!
davelawrence8
Sean Robertson
Posted 3:36 AM 16/7/08
Sadly not in 1.1.4. Where's PWNAGE already, dev team?
Sean Robertson
joe23521
Posted 4:20 AM 16/7/08
Have been wishing for this feature since day one. Good to know it's finally implemented. Seems to be a no brainer.
joe23521