Fix home button on iPhone

iPhone home button not working? Well, don’t worry. Quite a lot of people have the very same problem. Something seems to go wrong and both the single and the double-click functionality of the home button seems to be totally lost. When this happens first, one is easily prompted to press harder. Sometimes people just thing it’s the hardware problem and that the home button is gone for good. This may not be the case most of the times.

The problem might occur because of two reasons – one, the software may be faulty and two – this is the worst case scenario – the hardware might be faulty. If it is the latter, you definitely need to go to the Apple Center and get a new iPhone. If the problem is with the software – which it mostly is – one needs to try out the following methods.

A problem with the software usually is set right when you do a restoration of the iPhone OS. You can either do a restore from the backup, or do a complete restore in case you have not much data to worry about. Restoring from the backup or from scratch lets you reconfigure all your software settings so that whatever it is that was bugging the home button on the iPhone would go away.

However, some people have reported that both the types of restore does not bring the intended results. In that case, you’ll need to follow some other method. Here’s one more method which seems to work in favor of some iPhones. You could try it too.

1. Open any application on the iPhone
2. Press and hold the Power button till the ‘Slide to Shutdown’ screen appears.
3. Now release the Power button and gently hold the Home button.
4. In all probability, your Home button would start functioning normally again!

In the case that it fails to do so even after all this, you’ll definitely need to check out the hardware part. If you have just recently bought the device, then you get a replacement warranty so you can make use of that to get a new device quickly.

Update

In case your iPhone home button has become less sensitive or is even broken, iOS 5 has come up with the great solution named ‘AssistiveTouch’ feature. Assistive Touch is one of the accessibility features in iOS 5 that can be served as a workaround, if your iPhone home button is broken.
How to Enable Assistive Touch to Access Home Button from Screen in iOS 5:
Got to Settings -> General -> Accessibility. Scroll down to bottom and tap on “AssistiveTouch” option. Set it ON to activate the option.

After setting AssistiveTouch to ON, you will see a transparent round button at the bottom right of the screen. Tap on that round button to bring the touch menu.

You will find the Home button option that works just like as the physical home button.

Hope, latest iOS 5 AssistiveTouch feature will bring the intended results.

How to fix white icons after jailbreak

Ever since I jailbroke my iPhone 4S using Absinthe, it has been behaving a little weird, sometimes displaying white icons or even transparent icons for certain applications. It seems that this issue only affects Apple’s stock applications such as the Phone app, Calendar, etc.
I can’t really pinpoint the issue. Is it because of Absinthe? Or is it because of a package I have installed from Cydia? While I’m not really sure what causes this problem, I have found a simple trick to fix the blank or missing icon dilemma…
To fix this problem, simply download iWipe Cache from Cydia, and run the app. According to the app description, iWipe Cache allows you to:

Clear your SpringBoard Cache to ensure all images from any theme will work with WinterBoard. Due to Winterboard being very out of date, It does not clear springboard cache. This app will clear your cache, allowing new masks and overlays to be applied to Icons.

As you can see, iWipe Cache was apparently developed to fix WinterBoard problems, but since it I don’t have WinterBoard installed on my iPhone 4S, I know for sure my blank icons issues aren’t due to this app.
Additionally, it seems that doing a respring temporarily fixes the problem. Respringing hasn’t proven very effective in my case, which is why I recommend the iWipe Cache option, over a simple respring.
If you’ve seen white or missing icons on your iPhone or iPad, try this fix and let us know how it works for you.

Fall in Love with Reporting Issues

As you've been improving your surroundings by reporting community issues to SeeClickFix, you may have noticed yourself checking out some changes on our main site! Launched last week, our slick new reporting form makes it simpler than ever for our users to See, Click and Fix problems in their neighborhood. What makes SeeClickFix convinced you'll love our new reporting form? Glad you asked!

It has Beauty AND Brains
New features mean aesthetically pleasing, accurate reporting

Aside from being ridiculously good looking, our new reporting form is pretty darn smart. Know the physical address of your issue? Can you pinpoint your problem on a map? Or perhaps a combination of both will help you locate what you want to report?

Selecting "Updating map and form automatically" in the top left corner of step 1 ensures both the map and the reporting form will be working together to precisely locate your issue. 

What if you're reporting an issue in a park or public place without a defined street address? No sweat! Just uncheck the "Updating map and form automatically" box, drop the pin where your issue is located, and enter an approximate address in the form. Below is an example of how to report an issue in a park. By dropping the pin where my issue is located and entering an approximate street address, I'm ready to move on to step 2!

It Isn't Afraid of Commitment 
Locking in your location ensures you'll commit to the right category

Once you've mapped your issue location, it will be locked in as you proceed to step 2, to ensure that the service categories you can select from are appropriate for your location. However, you can always go back to update your address or map marker (or both!) if need be by clicking "Change" in the top right corner of the map. 

It Gives you Your Space 
Report anonymously, even when you're logged in.

If you're logged in, but wish to report an issue anonymously to SeeClickFix, simply click "Report as Another User" at the bottom of step 2 and enter the display name and email address you wish to use.  Change your mind? That's okay! Hit "Report as Logged in User" to report under your account.

Ready to fall in love with SeeClickFix all over again? Get to know our new reporting form by reporting an issue today! Start a report from your community's issue page, or hit the quick report button (right) to start from any page on our site. Once you're done, be sure to let us know what you think! Share your feedback as a comment here, email it to us, or tweet it @seeclickfix.

The Wonder of a Widget

On the SeeClickFix blog, we tend to focus on the flurry of activity happening each day on our website. Even as you're reading this, new issues are being reported by users, comments are being posted by community groups and tickets are being closed by our government clients. Wishing your homepage could help improve your surroundings offline? If you're a community group member, local blogger or anyone else with a website and a strong sense of neighborhood pride, you're in luck! We're all about sharing here at SeeClickFix, which is why we have made it easy to get in on the action with our map and text widgets. 

Embedding one of our widgets allows people to report issues to SeeClickFix directly through your page, simultaneously improving your surroundings while driving traffic to your site. It's a cool tool that puts the power of the SeeClickFix platform on your own page! In only 3 easy steps, your website could join the fun with a shiny new map or text widget!


Step 1. 
Navigate over to the SeeClickFix widget page by clicking here.

Step 2. 
Choose your widget (map, simplified map or text) and complete the form. Find your location, set the width and height, give your new widget a title! You can even create a widget that filters the issues displayed by keyword! Once you've created a widget perfectly customized for your website, click "Create Widget".

Step 3. 
SeeClickFix will automatically generate a code for your widget. Copy the embed code into an HTML element anywhere on your site.

SeeClickFix widgets have been featured on a wide range of websites for media outlets, community groups and hyperlocal news sources.  Know of a great blog or community group site that features a SeeClickFix widget? Did this blog post inspire you to make over your homepage while empowering your friends and neighbors?  We would love to see the sites where our users are reporting issues from! In the spirit of sharing, leave a comment here with a link or tweet us @seeclickfix!