What is more exciting than getting your hands on a new iPhone? Being able to start using and discovering little tip and ticks as you go along. Most of the time users happen to chance upon some unconventional behaviors and can’t help but wonder if these are bugs.
Having spent a couple of hundred of dollars on this “investment”, naturally Singaporeans tend to protect our investment and give this phone the benefit of the doubt. “What bugs? They are little things that Apple has innovated!” is something many Singaporeans choose to believe.
I have been using my iPhone for a while now and have discovered quite a few tip and tricks and I would love to share with the rest of the iPhone users!
Moving it around
Being an OCPD freak, the first thing that came to my mind when I got my iPhone was; how do you rearrange the application icons? I would like to classify my games, apps and tools into different screens.
Where is the customization option? Its not in the settings screen, I can do a whole lot but just not rearrange my application icons!
I happened to accidentally “over-pressed” one of the icons one fine day. I realized that the all the app icons started to shake! And I can move them around! I was filled with excitement for that little moment. Yes I am back in control. All you need to do when you would like to rearrange the app icons is to press and hold any icon till it shakes, move them to where you want and then pressing the home button to confirm.
I wonder how many iPhone users discovered this accidentally.
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Unplug to stop
This feature is inherent from its iPod range of music players. The music / video will automatically pause when users unplug their headset from their iPhone during playback. This is so that we do not miss out on any part of the music or video if the headset was accidentally removed.
Some users think that it is a hassle to un-pause the playback because they purposely remove the headset so that audio can be projected via the speakers. However I am someone who do not like to miss any part of the song or video that I am listening or watching and I find this feature really cool. This is the little thing that makes you feel glad you invested in this iPhone.
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Call me quickly
A shortcut to access the phone functionality can be achieved by double pressing the home key. This is a simple alternative usage of the home button to bring users to the phone functionality at lightning speed (well almost).
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Find things quickly
Since OS3.0, iPhone has integrated the search feature in the iPhone software. This search is extremely useful, it makes looking for pictures, emails, phone contacts as easy as using spotlight in Macs.
Did you know that you do not have to always scroll through to the most left screen to get to the search application? All you have to do is to press the home button once in the home page and it will take you directly to the search app.
If you are not in the home page, you will just need to press the home button once to get home and then again to access the search app quickly.
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Music Playback control quickly
Till now, you should be amazed by what the little home button can do. However, it has a few tricks up its sleeves for those hard to please folks.
The iPhone allows playback of music in the background so as to let users continue with the usage of most of the applications to the sounds of their favorite tunes. With music playback in the background, users can quickly press the home button twice and it will bring up a quick menu to pause, fast forward, rewind or go back to the iPod app.
Of course this quick access also works when your iPhone is being locked. Double press of the home button will also bring up the quick menu to control your music playback.
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Woops I did it again
We all love the home button on the iPhone. Who wouldn’t love this multi-function button? For times when our finger becomes uncontrollable with love and by accident the home button is being pressed, you can keep holding it for 2 seconds and the phone will not return to home screen. It will remain in the application and you can continue with the current operation.
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Reset your iPhone
By now you should have encountered your first iPhone hang or freeze. Unlike conventional mobile phones, iPhone does not enjoy the luxury of removing its battery and re-starting the device (iPhone has a built in battery).
When you encounter a freeze or hang, all you have to do is to reset you iPhone. By pressing and holding the wake / sleep button and home button for 10 seconds. The phone would have restarted.
Do take not that resetting the iPhone is different from restoring. Resetting the iPhone does not erase any date, it is more like a force reboot.
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Print Screen
Ever dread the feeling of not being able to brag to your mates about the high score you broke on an iPhone game in the middle of the night?
Lose no sleep over it, all you need to do is to press and hold the wake up / sleep button followed by pressing the home button. The iPhone will take a screenshot.
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Shake your bon bon
With all the different applications making use of the accelerometer, it is certainly not slacking. To make full use of the accelerometer in the iPhone, Apple has implemented shake to shuffle and to undo on OS3.0 and beyond.
While listening to songs in iPod application, just give the iPhone a shake and it will skip to a random track.
It also allows undo action. Users will only have to shake the phone and the option of undo will pop up in a dialog box. Shown below is the undo dialog box when editing in a SMS composer.
Oh by the way, it a acceleromete and not a gyroscope. A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum.
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Stereo headset (Inbox)
Each iPhone comes with a stereo headset inbox but have you left it in the box untouched because you think it is just another headset? You are indeed missing out on this insanely cool and genius design by Apple. Let me tell you what you are missing out on.
There are several functions that can be performed by pressing the headset mic button. Different press of this mult-function mic button will achieve the following functionalities:
Pausing / Un-pausing – can be achieved by pressing the mic button one time when in iPod song or video playback
Skip to next song – by pressing this button 2 times quickly, it will skip to the next track
Go back to last song – by pressing the button 3 times quickly, it will bring you back to the last track.
Answer a call – you can press once on the button to answer an incoming call.
Reject a call – Pressing and holding the button for 2 seconds during an incoming call will reject the call.
Switch between calls – if you receive a call while already in a call, you can press the button once to switch between the 2 calls.
End the first call – if you receive a call while already in a call and would like to end the first call, you can press and hold the button for 2 seconds and let go. The first call is ended when you hear low beeps.
If you have mastered the above controls, you might not have to take your phone out of the bag, ever! Oh and with the new 3Gs voice command, the possibilities are endless. Too bad I do not own a 3Gs but I still believe in Singaporeans and their generosity.
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There you you the top 10 tips and ticks for iPhone, feel free to comment or share with us any other useful tips you might have discovered!
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Have you read the following related articles on iPhone and Apps?
Top 10 iPhone skins for Singaporeans
Top 10 Free iPhone Apps for Singaporeans
10 Steps to Learn how to load iPhone Ringtones for Singaporean users
I think that an iPod is a good Device.