I recently got an iPhone, and like any good geek, immediately started banging my head against things I didn’t know how to do. If you’ve had an iPhone for awhile now, you probably already know these, but if you’re a newbie like me, these tips may help you out. Some of these tips will only work on the 3GS.

Use Google Sync to sync your contacts, calendars, and gmail

I was able to get my gmail to load on my iPhone using IMAP pretty easily, but it was trickier to get my contacts to sync. At first I was using iTunes to sync my contacts, but that would grab EVERY gmail contact, and didn’t get my calendars. Google Sync is the way to get around that. Basically, it sets up an exchange connection, and then your contacts on your iPhone are synced with the “My Contacts” group in your gmail contacts.

Email Full-Resolution Photos

I love uploading photos from my phone to Flickr, but by default the iPhone sends smaller resized versions. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to get the full-size ones. Just press and hold on a photo in your gallery until you get the copy option, and then paste it into your email to send to Flickr. Works like a charm.

Enable Autofill in Safari

Despite the fact that the Autofill button is visible on every form in Safari, it doesn’t work unless you enable the option in Preferences. Why isn’t this enabled by default?

Make Your Own Ringtones For Free

It’s really easy – just take an MP3, convert it to AAC, and then change the extention to M4R, and when you import it into iTunes, it’ll show up as a ringtone. I did it, and now I have the greatest ringtone ever.

Make Your Logon Screen Transparent

Simple trick to make it look like your login screen is a pane of frosted glass, letting you see your icons underneath.