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Once you’ve connected to a Wi-Fi network on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, your device remembers its credentials and, for your convenience, connects automatically next time. However, this isn’t always helpful. Sometimes we connect to hotspots accidentally, and it’s frustrating when your device connects to a network you don’t want it to.

You can prevent this by “forgetting” the networks you’ve previously connected to. Once forgotten, your device will no longer connect automatically, and only when you tell it to. Here’s how to forget a Wi-Fi network.

To do this, you’ll need to be within range of the Wi-Fi network you’d like to forget, otherwise it won’t show up on your iPhone. When you’re ready, open up the Settings app and tap on the ‘Wi-Fi’ tab.

You’ll now be presented with a list of Wi-Fi networks in your vicinity. You’re probably already connected to the network you want to forget, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Once you’ve got it, tap the blue arrow alongside its name.

Now tap the ‘Forget this Network’ button.

Your device will now forget the credentials for that network, including any security password, and will no longer connect automatically when your device discovers it. But it won’t be blocked forever. If you’d like to reconnect to the network at anytime, simply tap on its name within the Wi-Fi menu, and enter the security code.

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We’re all familiar with how costly data can be on our iOS devices if we’re using them to get on the internet abroad with no access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. To prevent nasty charges, most of us turn off data roaming and avoid using our devices for the internet.

However, there’s a nasty bug in Apple’s iOS operating system that could cost you a fortune while you’re on vacation by allowing you to download apps over a 3G data network even with the feature turned off.

Pocket-lint reports that the “dramatic” flaw affects 3G-connected devices — that’s the iPhone and the iPad — running both iOS 4 and iOS 5. It’s most likely to affect those who take their device abroad, hook it up to a Wi-Fi hotspot and then begin downloading their app updates only to have their connection to switch over to 3G halfway through. However, it could also be a problem for those who do not have data included in their plan.

In the App Store settings menu on your iOS device, there’s an option that allows you to use mobile data to download App Store purchases. By default, this is set to off, and you’ll want to keep it off if you have to pay for your data.

The problem is, it doesn’t actually do anything. Even with this option toggled off, your device will still allow you to download apps over a 3G network, as demonstrated in the video below from Pocket-lint:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0tkDMS_RQ

As you can see, this little problem is going to be a huge issue to a large proportion of iOS device users. In fact, I think it’s so significant that I’m very surprised it’s been a problem since iOS 4 — as Pocket-lint claims. What’s more, the reader who alerted Pocket-lint to the bug claims to have contacted Apple’s customer care team about the problem on November 15, and has yet to receive a response.

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It’s no secret now that Apple is working hard on getting a fix for iOS 5 battery issues out the door. It even opened up beta testing of pre-release software to end users, instead of just the usual registered developers. But battery life isn’t the only problem new iPhone 4S owners are having with their devices.

The mute bug

Now that the talk around the battery problems has died down at the Apple Support discussion forums, the new star of the show is a flaw with outgoing calls that sees them often automatically muted. It doesn’t seem to be limited to any one carrier, so the problem seems to be something specifically with the 4S’s hardware or software. I’ve also experienced this myself, though only a couple of times near the beginning of my time with the device. Still, I don’t often make outgoing calls without a headset, so I may just not have noticed since then.

While users wait for an official fix, you can get voice working again by turning speakerphone on and off, or by using a headset to call as I mentioned I usually do anyways. This hasn’t been acknowledged by Apple in any official documentation yet, but it does seem like the kind of thing that could be addressed in a future update, so you may want to pause before scheduling an appointment to make a return.

The 3G or network data drop

Another common complaint at Apple’s support discussions is that the iPhone 4S drops network data connections seemingly at random. Besides being well represented on Apple’s forum, it’s also something I’ve heard of a lot personally from other 4S owners I know. The problem isn’t something that totally disables your device; often data just drops from 3G to EDGE and eventually goes back to normal after a few hours. But sometimes, data can be dropped altogether, which means you won’t know about new voicemail, or get push emails, and measures like turning Airplane Mode on and off are often required to get a connection back.

I’ve seen this on my own iPhone 4S, too, and as mentioned, it’s hard to identify a cause. It seems to happen most frequently when I get or make a call, but not exclusively during those activities. Also, just opening Safari and browsing can sometimes re-establish a connection if you’ve only dropped 3G but still have EDGE.

Again, this one hasn’t been officially acknowledged by Apple, but if it’s happening to you, it’s probably not worth exchanging your device just yet. The problem seems widespread enough, based on the discussion threads related to it, that a replacement will just display the same issue, so waiting to see if a forthcoming software update is the least inconvenient option.

The Siri volume bug

Siri has a nasty habit of maxing out the volume just after use. You’ll notice if you activate Siri, and then press the home screen button to cancel your request, then lock the device. After a short time, the volume goes back to wherever you set it, but for a little while, the volume is ear-splitting, and this applies system-wide. There are many threads in the Apple Support Communities about this issue.

Mostly minor, but majorly irritating

All the bugs listed here are actually quite small, which is why a lot of users report not having returned their devices as a result of encountering them. I, too, have run across each but have yet to ascribe it to hardware fault, since each seems pretty likely to be a software problem. It’s troubling, however, to see no mention of these apparently common problems in any of the information circulating about Apple’s upcoming bug-busting iOS 5.0.1 release. Hopefully they’re filed under the category of “general bug fixes” and do arrive with that update. Otherwise, Apple will have to tackle them head-on sooner or later.

Anyone else seeing these or other persistent problems?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Image courtesy of The Tenth Dragon on Flickr

A photograph of an iPhone prototype running on China Mobile’s 3G TD-SCDMA network strengthen rumors that Apple is set to launch the device on the world’s largest carrier — possibly as early as September.

A number of Chinese websites have republished the unauthenticated photo of what appears to be an iPhone 4 with China Mobile’s 3G logo displayed in the top corner; running an unreleased version (06.10.01) of Apple’s baseband software.

The lack of an IMEI number suggests the device is a prototype, and although this isn’t proof the device will ever make it to China Mobile, it confirms that Apple has at least been working on a device compatible with the network. Assuming, of course, the image is genuine.

This strengthens recent claims that the iPhone 5, expected to launch this September, will be the first device to launch on China Mobile.

Brian White, an analyst for Ticonderoga Securities who first spoke about a China Mobile device, said that this move would “represent a watershed for Apple,” which would see the company gain access to the world’s largest carrier with around 611 million subscribers and 68% of the total Chinese market.

White wrote in a note to AppleInsider:

Over the past several months, we have written about China Mobile’s mysterious relationship with Apple that has allowed the company to support iPhone subscribers on its network without an official carrier agreement. For example, we have written about China Mobile’s iPhone 4 SIM card cutting service, followed by the sale of a mini SIM card and then the retail sale of the iPhone 4 at a few select locations.

Despite a deal with Apple to sell the phone on its network, however, users have long been putting their China Mobile SIM cards into Apple’s devices. The carrier revealed during a conference call a few weeks ago that roughly 4 million iPhones were running on its network, and that figure has reportedly risen to 5.7 million since.

With that in mind, White said believes that a deal with China Mobile would be a no-brainer for Apple:

Clearly, the growth of the iPhone on China Mobile’s network is very impressive and yet China Unicom remains the only China-based carrier officially approved to sell the iPhone. Just think what could happen if China Mobile finally inks a deal with Apple.

What do you think? Does this image look genuine to you, or is it the work of a Photoshop pro with too much time on their hands?

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The mobile space is all about a tug-of-war of control between network operators, device manufacturers and software developers. But rarely do the players involved make that so obvious as France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard did during a recent interview with AllThingsD’s Ina Fried. Richard specifically referenced the quiet battle for control being waged between carriers like Orange, which is owned by France Telecom, and Apple, whose iPhone leads the pack in smartphone hardware.

Richard articulated anxieties regarding two areas where Apple either already has or could potentially wrest more control away from carriers. The first is with the Apple App Store, which now offers a library 500,000 apps. Apple has exclusive control over what software is allowed on Apple devices, independent of carriers. Richard framed this as a net neutrality issue, since it means Apple has the exclusive power to censor content it finds disagreeable.

It’s already a weak argument, because there’s plenty of choice available to customers who don’t want to deal with Apple’s closed ecosystem, but it’s worth remembering that carriers like Orange once operated as the exclusive channel through which additional software could be added to any phone, and the loss of that relationship with the customer is a costly one. In fact, Richard suggested the main problem carriers have with the App Store is that Apple is well within its rights to reject carrier software from the marketplace. Being cut out of the software loop altogether isn’t an attractive prospect to network operators, since it leads to Apple grabbing control of subscriber billing info and the relationship with those customers, as well loss of revenue stemming from software sales.

Apple apparently wanted to hold even more control over the customer using a software-only virtual SIM, according to Richard. Dubbed the “e-SIM project,” Richard said Apple had been working on a way to allow phones to work without hardware SIM cards, which would clear up a significant amount of internal space, and likely make it easier for customers to switch carriers. Network operators advised Apple that this was “a bad idea because the SIM card is a critical piece of the security and authentication process,” said Richard, arguing that “it would be very difficult for a telco or carrier to manage the customer relationship” if an e-SIM was implemented.

Which, of course, is a roundabout way of saying carriers didn’t want to be left behind while Apple took a more direct role in managing cellular customers. As a compromise, Richard says Orange and others are working with Apple to standardize a new, smaller SIM card design. Richard doesn’t go so far as to claim that the e-SIM project is off the table completely, but it seems apparent that it’s not something major network operators want to see in production iPhones anytime soon.

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If you use your Mac on a cross platform network often, you’ve surely run into the obnoxious creation of .DS_Store files. If you’re curious what the file is used for, DS_Store is a hidden file for Mac OS X that stores various bits of data for the Finder to remember, like icon position, making it completely useless for anyone besides you to see. By default, your Mac will create the .DS_Store file’s all over the place including accessed computers that aren’t Macs, creating an annoying mess for network users to find. Thankfully you can easily turn off the creation of DS_Store files on network connections:

Stop .DS_Store file creation on network shares

Launch the Terminal and type the following exactly:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
Restart your Mac and you will no longer have those pesky .DS_Store files appearing every time you browse a network share.