Nifty iPhone & iPod (iOS 5) Tricks

Nifty iPhone & iPod (iOS 5) Tricks

According to CNET, iPhones dominated 41% of sales during the 4th quarter of 2011, and while Apple’s iOS is down to 29% of the market share in 2012, there are a lot of cool (hidden) features for the faithful iPhone users to discover. (source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57429192-93/android-reclaims-61-percent-of-all-u.s-smartphone-sales)

1. If you upgraded your iPhone to iOS 5, you may not have discovered the Notification Center hiding at the top of your iPhone. By swiping you finger from the top of your screen down, you will see alerts, updates, and other useful information in the pull-down menu. Even better: you can control what alerts and widgets you see and where they appear on your screen. Just touch your Settings icon and select “Notifications” to customize how your emails, text messages, and other apps alert you on screen. This Notification Center is also standard on 4th generation iPods

2. Anyone with a camera phone knows how difficult it can be to hold the device still while trying to press an on-screen shutter button. Apple’s response to this annoyance was to allow iPhone users to use two hands to hold the phone sideways. With the volume control on top, press the + (volume up) side of the button and your iPhone / iPod will now snap a photo more conveniently..

3. How many times have you wished you could save an image of exactly what’s on your phone, such as a strange error message or a cool scene from one of your apps? Now you can: Press the Home button and the Lock button simultaneously and the display will flash white. Your screenshot is now stored in your Images Gallery. (The Notification Center photo above was captured using this method!)

4. Especially if you play a lot of games or use several apps at once, you may notice your iPhone or iPod running slowly. To free up memory and speed up your device’s performance, you can find the apps that are wasting your power by pressing the Home button twice. Then all the apps that are running (like in windows task manager) will appear in a row directly above the Home button. To stop the apps from slowing you down, press and continue to hold the app’s icon until a red circle with a – sign appears. Touching the red circle will cause the icon to disappear and stop the application from running in the background. Swipe your icons left and right to see the remaining apps that you can turn off. Then enjoy your faster response times. NOTE: Don’t worry if you accidentally clear an icon you need. Your app is still installed and you can restart your program from its normal page icon.

5. FIND MY iPHONE! It happens to everyone. You’re running out the door, you’re late to a meeting, or you’ve gone for a jog only to discover your iPhone, iPod, or iPad is missing. Even if you have your device locked so a stranger can’t snoop through your information, you’d still like to locate your costly gadget. With the FIND MY IPHONE app available for FREE at the iTunes store, you can setup an account that will email you and show you the GPS location of your iPhone/iPod/iPad, cause your “iDevice” to ring incessantly until you hear it’s stuck under the seat of your car, or alert you with any other number of commands you send to it from another iPhone/iPod/iPad or internet connected pc/smartphone. There are limitations on locating iPods and some iPads, however; unless the iPod/Pad is connected to a remote WiFi network, the iPod/Pad lacks a GPS chip independently capable of reporting its location.

IN THIS ISSUE

  • New Notification Center
  • Photo Shutter Button
  • Take a Screenshot
  • iPhone Task Manager
  • FIND MY IPHONE APP!