Filed under: iPod Family, Tips and tricks, iPhone
Dear Auntie TUAW: What's that little dot in the iPhone's status bar?
Dear Auntie TUAW,
I was driving home from an appointment today with my brother, and at a stop light, I noticed that instead of the Edge "E", I had this little blue dot. I just assumed that it was where i had connected to WiFi and had no bars, but it was much too big and centered.
My brother, who also has an iPhone, pulled his out to find that we both had the little dot. They are both first Gen iPhones, his 4GB, mine 8GB. I did not know what this meant, but being the Apple nerd I am, I figure I would have heard something of this dot before now.
Do you know what it is? Could it have something to do with 3.0 coming out soon as expected? Thanks, And I look forward to hearing what you think.
With love from your nephew,
Andrew Dixon
Andrew, sweetheart,
Speaking of the iPhone, are you including enough roughage in your diet? Now that I'm entering onto what we oldsters can only term our "tender years," I've grown to realize that bulk, bulk, bulk is the key to world happiness. Fiber is health; health, fiber. That is what we know at TUAW, and all ye need to know for better digestive function.
As for your question, that little blue circle means you youngsters were connected to a GPRS network, aka General Packet Radio Service. When the iPhone first debuted, it displayed the EDGE "E" when connected to GPRS. This made pedants cry. Newer firmware versions show this blue circle instead. As noted below, GPRS is quite a bit slower than either EDGE or 3G.
To check this icon out for yourself, you can browse through your iPhone files using sftp (on a jailbroken iPhone) or iBrowser (for iPhones with the developer deployment). The EDGE and GPRS icons live in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app and are named FSO_EDGE_ON.png and FSO_GPRS_ON.png. You'll need to convert the compressed iPhone-style png images to Mac compatible ones using a utility like fixpng.
Send my love to your brother and don't forget to wear a scarf to keep your neck warm!
Love and hugs,
Auntie T.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Joachim Bean said 12:38PM on 6-05-2009
There's also the VPN icon that appears when connected to a VPN network too. (I have never been on GPRS or VPN)
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Snaab4 said 12:49PM on 6-05-2009
The bad thing about GPRS is, if you think EDGE is SLOW, GPRS is noticably SLOWER!
Tom said 12:38PM on 6-05-2009
That dot is when your iPhone is not on edge but a slower form connection with you network provider. I usually see this dot as I live in the country side were signal is terrible :(
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KyleW said 12:45PM on 6-05-2009
Here's what the VPN connected icon looks like:
http://i39.tinypic.com/9aqxau.png
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AriX said 12:45PM on 6-05-2009
Erica, I think you should clarify your article by mentioning that GPRS is considerably slower than EDGE :)
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John B. said 12:48PM on 6-05-2009
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1558
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George said 12:50PM on 6-05-2009
Cool, I saw this a few weeks ago in a rural area and was wondering what that was all about!
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Michael Rose said 12:53PM on 6-05-2009
Can I just say: the Auntie TUAW logo is all kinds of awesome.
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Wardy said 12:54PM on 6-05-2009
The article seems to suggest that the Edge E and the GPRS blue dot are mutually exclusive, but this isn't the case. You can infact get both - the E if you're in an Edge enabled area, and the blue dot if you're on the lowest speed minimum GPRS data connection.
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puhsitch said 2:04PM on 6-05-2009
So you'll be on both networks at the same time, with both icons displayed?
phlavor said 12:55PM on 6-05-2009
I have a first gen iPhone and I WISH I could get even GPRS on underground MUNI platforms in SF. I swear that AT&T are pulling EDGE down around the city to get people to upgrade to 3G.
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Johnny said 12:55PM on 6-05-2009
What I've been trying to figure out is what the icon that looks like a phone receiver with dots next to it is on the status bar. It used to appear on my wife's phone, but never on mine. I don't think it is on hers anymore, either. I saw it on a screenshot of someone's iPhone recently somewhere else, too. Anyone know?
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bsvec said 1:04PM on 6-05-2009
That icon is TTY. It can be toggled in phone preferences.
brian said 1:03PM on 6-05-2009
I've found the circle to mean ZERO.. Whenever I have the circle, I get NO data connection, but can still use my phone.
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Sebastien said 12:57PM on 6-05-2009
Why is this post written by Erica? I thought she was at Ars now???
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scw said 1:27PM on 6-05-2009
http://ericasadun.com/2009/04/conde-nast-update/
Tony C said 2:52PM on 6-05-2009
Sucks to be laid off... I know from experience...
joendaba said 1:02PM on 6-05-2009
Blue dot means you are on the GPRS (Global Packet Radio Service) level of data connectivity on any network (not only AT&T's)
It means you are still able to use data, at a lower speed (like 128kbps throughput max) than traditional EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and also means you can't have data access while in a call as long as you are in this area (it uses the two 64k slots used for voice)
In some networks, EDGE is the speed (like T-Mobile's) and GPRS is the verge of it on the lowest signal spots.
That icon is not exclusive to 1st gen iPhones, but for 3G as well.
Hope this answer served you good.
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puhsitch said 2:51PM on 6-05-2009
Unless my phone is just lazy, EDGE doesn't allow you to do data and voice at the same time either.
Alexandre Strube said 4:23PM on 6-05-2009
If only my 3g achieved 128k...