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Santa was very good to you this year, and under the tree you came away with the iPhone or its little brother, the iPod touch. And as you wander around the house, dowsing for wireless signals and downloading iFart, here are a few starter tips:

Get a case and a clear pastic shield.

If you didn’t get one under the tree (and if you didn’t, that’s probably best, because cases are, of course, the only way you express your individuality today), the first thing you’ll want to get is something to protect your iPhone as you pull it out of your pocket.

You’ll also want a clear plastic shield to put over the touch screen (available everywhere, and offered for free with many cases). They allow you to use the touch screen while protecting it from minor scratches, and also keep grease from accumulating on the screen.

One note about cases and touch screens; make sure you buy one that is sized for whichever device you have (iPhone, touch) as well as the generation. There are slight variations in screen size, and you want to make sure it fits perfectly.

Ligatures and special characters.

Is it absolutely vital that you type “resumé” and not “resume?” The iPhone OS supports special characters in a really simple way: simply press and hold a letter and you’ll see all the ligatures associated with it. Röck.

Problems remembering your network?

One issue I ran into with my iPod touch was that it would never remember my home network, causing me to type in my password every time. The solution was to reset the network preferences, and one of the beauties of the iPhone OS is that you can reset those without wiping the entire device.

Go to Settings > General > Reset (at the bottom of the General screen) and choose “Reset Network Settings.” Doing this will cause you to lose all your remembed networks and passwords (except the ones stored in Safari), but after that, it remembered my home network and passwords, no problem.

Can’t login?

What if you can’t login to your wireless network? Well, there are a lot of things this could be, but the first thing to check is to make sure your network isn’t 802.11n-only: iPod touches can only connect to a wireless B or G network, so make sure your base station is in a “mixed” mode.

Screenshots

You can take a screenshot by pressing the top (power) button and Home button at the same time. You’ll see a white flash. The screenshot will be stored in your Photo app. If you hook your iPod touch or iPhone to a Mac, iPhoto will recognize it as a camera, allowing you to download your photos.

Make sure it’s USB.

If you’ve got older iPod docking stations, speakers, or cables, be aware: while the iPod touch will work with them for data (transferring or playing music, for example), it will only charge through a USB interface. Try to power it through an older dock/speaker combo, and you’ll get a warning saying that it can’t be charged, even as it’s playing your tunes.

Any more tips for new iPhone and iPod touch owners? Share them below!