The iPhone is known for its simplicity, but not everything about it
is obvious. Beyond its straightforward grid of apps lies plenty of
tricks that make Apple’s phone easier to use. Here are 10 essential
iPhone tips and tricks, starting with some basics and moving up to more
advanced maneuvers:
Tap Up Top to Scroll Back Up
If you’re ever at the bottom of a long web page or app and need to
get back to the top, don’t bother scrolling. Instead, just tap the top
of the screen, and the iPhone will scroll all the way back up on its
own. This one’s an all-time classic, and hard to live without once you
know it’s there.
Double-Tap Home and Swipe for Quick Controls
You may already know that you can double tap the iPhone’s home button
to bring up a list of most recent apps, but not everyone realizes that
this menu swipes in both directions. Swipe from left to right, and
you’ll get quick access to rotation lock and music playback controls.
Swipe again in the same direction for a volume slider.
Double-Tap Home for Lock Screen Music Controls
For fast access to music controls while your iPhone’s screen is
locked, just double tap the home button. The great thing about this
feature is that it works with whatever audio app is currently in use,
not just the built-in Music player.
Take a Panoramic Photo From Either Direction
In iOS 6, the iPhone’s camera app has a built-in panorama feature,
which you can access through the camera’s Options menu. By default, you
must pan the iPhone from left to right to capture a panorama, but you
can reverse the direction by tapping the arrow on the screen. Note that
this feature only works on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S.
Streamline Street Names in iOS 6 Maps
Apple’s new Maps app is a
work in progress,
but you can already make it better with one simple tweak: Under iPhone
Settings, go to the Maps section and change the label size to small. The
smaller text allows more street names to appear on screen at once, so
you don’t have to zoom in to see them all. The layout looks a bit
cleaner too–provided your vision is good enough to read smaller words.
New Siri Trick: Raise to Speak
Don’t want your dialog with Siri to be heard? Go to Settings >
General > Siri and turn on “Raise to Speak.” When enabled, and the
screen is on, Siri will start listening when you hold the phone up to
your ear–as indicated by a chime–and she’ll respond to queries through
the iPhone’s earpiece instead of the external speakers. You might even
fool some people into thinking it’s a real conversation.
Attach a Photo or Video in Mail
Yes, Apple really did take five years to let people attach photos and
videos from directly within the Mail app. Just tap and hold anywhere in
the message body to bring up a small pop-up box. The option to “Insert
Photo or Video” will appear unless the e-mail already contains text, in
which case you’ll have to tap the little arrow on the right side of the
pop-up to see the option.
Set a Time Range for Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb is a new feature in iOS 6 that lets you silence all
incoming text messages, phone calls and notifications. You can toggle Do
Not Disturb under Settings, or you can set up daily quiet hours by
going to Settings > Notifications and selecting Do Not Disturb at the
top of the screen. From there, you can set a time range, always allow
calls from certain contacts and prevent silencing on repeated calls.
Keep Your Photos Backed Up Without Plugging In
There are several ways to make backups of your iPhone photos without
going through iTunes. The built-in solution is Apple’s Photo Stream,
which makes your last 30 days’ worth of photos available on almost any
device. Turn on Photo Stream by going to Settings > Photos &
Camera, and your photos will automatically show up on your other iOS
devices and Macs. To access Photo Stream on a Windows PC, you must
download Apple’s, which creates a Photo Stream folder under “Favorites” in Windows Explorer.
Photo Stream isn’t the only way to back up your photos. can automatically upload new photos every time you their respective
apps, so you’ll always have online copies available from any
Internet-connected device.
Set Up Push Gmail or Hotmail
If you’re a true e-mail addict, setting up Gmail or Hotmail through
the preset “Add Account” dialog isn’t good enough, because it can’t
immediately push new messages to the phone. Instead, you can set up
these inboxes through Microsoft Exchange, so new emails get pushed right
to your iPhone.
To get started, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars >
Add Account… and select Microsoft Exchange. On the next page, enter your
full e-mail address, password and whatever inbox name you’d like, then
hit “Next.”
More options will appear. Enter “m.google.com” or “m.hotmail.com” in
the Server field, leave the Domain field blank, enter your full e-mail
address in the Username field, and your password in the Password field.
Hit “Next,” and on the next page, deselect Contacts and Calendars unless
you want to overwrite your phone’s existing contacts and calendar. Hit
“Save,” and you’re good to go.