Is there a way to keep my iPhone from receiving calls/texts/alerts while listening to music?
Coming in iOS 6, you'll have the option to set "Do Not Disturb" mode in the device's Settings. DND allows you to block out a time window where calls and alerts will be silenced.
You can optionally configure it to allow calls from "favorites" or repeated calls to still come through.
If you have a GSM phone, you can just pop out the SIM card. You've now got a GPS capable iPod touch while you run.
If you normally have notifications coming in over WiFi networks that your phone might join during the run, optionally turn WiFi off to be safe.
If you don't have service through a SIM, getting rid of everything but the voice call interruption is easy. Most carriers will let you forward your voice calls temporarily - say to google voice if you are into a free solution. Combine the two and you have your solution.
All of these work in the Settings App:
In Sound:
- Set the Ringer and Alerts volume to zero
- Set Change with Buttons to OFF
- Set Vibrate to OFF when Silent
In General -> Network
- Set Cellular Data to OFF
At this point when you have the side switch to silent, only an incoming call should silently pause your music. You can then press any hardware button to get right back to the music. Not exactly what you ask, but the best you can do without modifying the iOS software.
Before iOS6 the short answer is no. The iPhone's and iOS flexibility in certain aspects is really (sometimes for the good) small. iOS doesn't support the old traditional "modes" where you could set your old phone in "meeting" or "some name" and then set the ringtones for each individual mode, and even silence and turn off vibrate. I remember an old Nokia phone almost 10 years ago was capable of doing this :)
Your other bet (albeit an annoying one) would be to setup a "silence" ringtone and turn off vibration, but I believe your music will be "paused" while the phone is ringing while there's a cross fade from your music to the ring tone.
The drawback is that you'll have to put them back after your session.
Your other alternative is to Jailbreak the phone and seek Cydia repositories and other "unknown sources" to find something like this (which I'm sure exists out there).
The easiest solution I can think of is just to forward your calls. On my AT&T phone, I can do this right from the settings app — send them to another number (Google Voice is a good suggestion, though make sure GVoice won't just send the call right back to your iPhone!) I think I remember reading that CDMA phones don't support this automatic forwarding feature because the network doesn't support it. This was pre-Sprint days, so it may have only been a Verizon limitation. At any rate, I'm sure there's some way to turn on call forwarding through the Verizon website or by calling into your non-visual voicemail or something.
In iOS7 You can now use Do Not Disturb mode to both prevent unwanted notifications and calls/alerts etc, and unlike in iOS6 you can choose to have this setting effective whether or not the phone is unlocked, meaning that if a call comes in while you have the Music apps open to select a new playlist etc, you can still avoid the disturbance if you choose.
Settings > Do Not Disturb > Silence: Always/Only while iPhone is locked