Many iPhone users have become accustomed to using their devices to settle arguments.

• Arguing over the best route to take for your weekend getaway? Pull out the Maps app or one of the many iPhone GPS apps.
• Found someone who doesn't believe that Inigo Montoya and Jason Gideon are played by the same actor? Fire up the IMDB app.
• Disagreement over when Star Wars was released (or re-released)? Head over to Wikipedia.com or one of the many Wikipedia apps.

It's one thing to argue over facts and dates, but can iPhone apps help settle arguments about the existence of God? A recent NY Times article showed that some folks on both sides of the question are making an effort.

On the side of religious skeptics are applications like Bible Thumper, the Atheist Pocket Debater, and mAtheist. For those who are certain they can convert others to faith, if only they find the right argument, there are apps such as Doubt Busters, God Tools, or Jesus Evangelism Tool by Mobile Jesus. (As an aside, I think developers of these sorts of apps may want to avoid the word "tool" in the title, or they're just asking for people to twist the meaning.)

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Heading off to a conference? Here are five little apps you might want to consider adding to your iPhone before heading off to the airport. They all provide functionality that may come in handy when you're on the go.

SpeakerClock ($0.99) provides a bright easy-to-read display showing you exactly how much time you have left to present your paper and take questions. It's a deceptively simple application full of lovely little design touches. I used it at a recent conference and found it an absolutely valuable tool to have around.

This app works well both on the iPhone and the iPad -- as a conference organizer, it's really great to use the iPad's larger screen from across the room. As a speaker, the iPhone version works particularly well when placed on a small business card stand on the speaker's podium.

Want to easily share your contact information? Contxts offers a simple solution. You can sign up for a free account at contxts.com, where you can enter your details. Anyone with a phone (it doesn't have to be an iPhone) and an SMS plan can text a short phrase (like "demotuaw") to 50500 and they'll receive the information you set up at their website. Their free iPhone app lets you edit that information directly. What's more, when you turn the iPhone on its side, you can display a "HELLO my name is" contact sheet that instructs people how to retrieve your contact data. What's great about Contxts is that it's a solution that works with any group of people, whether they've hopped onto the Apple iPhone train or not (of course, if they have an iPhone or an Android phone, there's always Bump).

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The iPhone 4's insides are no secret anymore. The folks at iFixit alone have done a stellar job of documenting its every bit and bob. Still, the video above is worth watching. Created by repair firm Techrestore and composed of over 1,700 still photos, it's a highly entertaining stop-motion disassembly of Apple's latest gadget.

The sound effects are a bit cheesy, but we're willing to let that go since the rest of show is so good. For more on the iPhone 4, check out our full coverage. If you're interested in the device's internal workings, check out this unofficial repair guide put together by iFixit.

[via 9to5Mac]

Although most of the East Coast of the U.S. is sweltering right now, it's a cool day here at the TUAW TV Live studios in Colorado. However, things should heat up during today's episode of TUAW TV Live. We'll be talking about the alleged iPhone 4 reception issues, past iPhone release issues, new apps, updates of old favorites, why the Mac isn't in jeopardy of going away any time soon, and there could even be a giveaway.

To join in from your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, and you'll find a live stream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments.

If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.

We haven't forgotten about iPad users, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won't have access to our chat tool.

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We were surprised and gratified at how many of our readers were able to improve iPhone 4 reception (or at least there were more bars) by resetting network settings.

Now it appears people are using the same technique to fix the sometimes buggy proximity sensor that is supposed to turn the screen light off when the phone is near your head for making a call.

A chorus of users are reporting the issue, saying the screen does not turn off and they wind up muting calls and even hanging up on people inadvertently.

Apple support boards are now filling up with reports from people who say that our old friend 'reset network settings' will often fix the issue. Others have said a hard reset of the phone (hold down the sleep and home button until the white Apple logo appears) has a similar effect, and of course some say it doesn't help at all. If you do reset your network settings, you'll lose any Wi-Fi or network passwords. The hard re-boot of the phone will leave everything in place and should have no ill effects.

You can find the network reset software switch towards the bottom of iPhone Settings > General.

My, those network resets seem to fix some bugs that are frustrating iPhone 4 owners. I wonder if it will take care of my allergies? As always, let us know if these solutions work for you, or if they don't.

TUAW fans who watched Erica Sadun's proprietary "Strength" app in action yesterday saw proof that there is a degradation in signal quality on the iPhone 4 when it is handheld. The so-called iPhone 4 "death grip," which consists of cradling the phone in your left hand to manipulate the screen with the right hand, appears to be another example of regular cell phone signal loss caused by the proximity of a human hand to the antenna of a working cell phone.

In the video above, we tested an iPhone 3GS with Erica's app, and found pretty much the same results -- the signal strength is lower when the 3GS is held in the hand, and recovers when it is not being held. The big difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS is that the 3GS doesn't tend to drop calls as often as the iPhone 4 does.

Erica also provided the photo shown below, which shows an iPhone 4 (left) and an iPhone 3GS (right) both running the app. They're both on the AT&T network (the 3GS has an O2-rebranded SIM purchased at Circuit City) and they're both the same distance away from the cell towers. The iPhone 3GS is running on iPhone OS 3.1.2 rather than iOS 4.0, which should not affect signal strength readings in any way. It displays a different font than the iPhone 4 as the older OS does not support custom fonts.
What the photo shows is that although both of the iPhones show 5 bars of signal strength, the actual signal strength is lower on the iPhone 4 (-95 dB vs. -85 dB on the 3GS), and the Apple Graded Signal Strength is also lower (29 vs. 45 on the 3GS). This is in line with Apple's PR statement of July 2nd that says "the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength." The iPhone 4 should be showing fewer bars than it is, since it's apparent that the reception of the vaunted stainless steel antenna is worse than advertised.

Just days prior to the App Store fraud story, Apple posted a job listing for an "iTunes Fraud Prevention Specialist." The winning candidate will join "...a small but high impact team of specialists whose goal is to improve the iTunes Experience by mitigating the risk associated with iTunes Orders."

Earlier this week, it was discovered that a developer called Thuat Nguyen had his book apps removed from the App Store after taking 42 of the top 50 sales slots. At the same time, some users reported unauthorized charges on their accounts.

Considering that there are 150 million iTunes users, there will be, statistically, some who aren't there just to buy music and apps. Apple has reported that only 400 accounts were affected by the scam (that's 0.0003% of all customers) which is better than it could have been. Hopefully, the iTunes Fraud Prevention Team will but the smack down on these guys once and for all.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Spokespersons for AT&T have responded to our queries in regard to decreased uplink performance that we posted about earlier this week. According to AT&T, this is due to a software defect in Alcatel-Lucent equipment, affecting only some portions of their customer base. The full statement from AT&T follows.

AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect -- triggered under certain conditions - that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.

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When you've been at sea for three weeks with incredibly slow Internet service, coming back to the land of broadband seems like a drink of vodka water to a thirsty man. On today's episode of TUAW TV Live, your host Steve Sande has a lot of things in store for the audience. After all, he was out of town for 10.6.4 as well as the debut of the iPhone 4.

On today's show, expect Steve to share some videos (no, not of vacation...), demo some apps, and otherwise jump right back into the swing of things. There may even be a giveaway! And of course Steve will have to do a classic unboxing video for the iPhone 4 that just showed up.

TUAW TV Live comes to you at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT) today, and all you need to do to watch is show up here at TUAW.com slightly before the start of the show. The show features live video and a chat room, so it's relatively easy to get Steve to respond to your commentary.

One must-have app for me with any smartphone is a decent SSH client; I wouldn't move over to the iPhone until I was sure it had one. When Zingersoft's iSSH came along and I was able to kick its tires a bit, I knew I could safely move my life over to the iPhone. RSA/DSA key import support, an X11 client ... what more could I want or need?

Well, Zingersoft answered me with its latest update, officially released a few days ago. In this update is multitasking support, allowing you to keep connections open in the background for up to ten minutes on compatible devices. And because there's now multitasking capability, the update allows one to setup port forwarding tunnels.

If you don't have access to a VPN server to pass through firewalls in order to gain access certain systems, the port forwarding feature of iSSH is a godsend. As for the ten minute timeout, that's only to be expected. Though, I'm assuming all one has to do to reset the timeout counter is occasionally switch back to iSSH and back out again.

iSSH is a universal iPhone and iPad app, currently available for US$9.99 in the app store.