Tired of iPhone correcting your IM abbreviations and other words? Two ways to do it:

Retype it a few times

Tip: if you retype something twice, it'll stop autocorrecting it. E.g. if you try to send "np" as an SMS to someone, iPhone will autocorrect that to "no." So hit the delete key to erase the "corrected" word & retype it again. The iPhone will autocorrect it again, so delete it one more type & retype it, and it will stay. Third time's the charm. Plus, next time the iPhone won't autocorrect it at all, since it is now in the dictionary.

Note that sometimes I had to do the "third time's the charm" tactic twice before an unusual word would stay in the iPhone's dictionary & not get autocorrected anymore.

Click the Suggested Word Box

You can also click the "suggested word" box (anywhere in it, not just the X) to prevent the autocomplete and add the word to the dictionary.

A quick note to say that I'll be talking about iPhone webapp development at the PDXUX meeting tomorrow night, 7pm, at the downtown Portland Koin center. I'll talk about mobile UI design, implementation choices, and how to build a native-like web app for the iPhone using iUI and ASP.NET.

A very near-term heads up that I'll be participating in the RWW Live chat on mobile web development this afternoon at 3:30pm PST. I'm not yet sure how much focus will be on mobile web versus mobile native applications, but hopefully my perspective on web sites targeting handhelds and iPhones will be useful in rounding out the conversation.

FYI, those of you with a Ning social network can look forward to an iPhone-optimized interface after tonight's release. It will be an iPhone web app (not a native app), and while iPhones will automatically be shown the iPhone interface, you can go there manually by browsing to http://yournetwork.ning.com/m. While you can participate in the network, not every feature is available for the iPhone interface.

We're glad to see companies moving forward with developing optimized versions of their sites for the iPhone and other handheld devices -- while "normal" sites are often tolerable on  an iPhone, sometimes it's better to present a faster, more usable interface that focuses on what a mobile user likes to do the most.

Edit: the release has been pushed back to Friday, September 26th. Then again it's been pushed back a few times before, but we shall see.

We're happy to announce the beta launch of LibMob, a mobile web site allowing you to get information about a particular book while you're at the book store or the library. LibMob can be accessed by SMS, iPhone, or most cell phones with web access. So the next time you want reviews or online prices for a particular book, try out LibMob.

We've gotten some good feedback about our new design, and as part of our ongoing redesign we rolled out an iPhone version of our web site. If you're looking to make a mobile version of your web site, contact us.