Easy iPhone Tips And Tricks

• Salice Thomas
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• May 9, 2012
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Prolong your battery

Speaking of the battery, here’s how to squeeze more life out of our iPhone between charges. Turn down the brightness of your screen, turn off wireless radios we don’t use (such as GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) and reduce the number of apps with info we have “pushed” to your phone. Also, make sure we lock it before putting in our pocket, purse or backpack or else it could turn on and drain the battery.

Dismiss suggested words

when we are typing an email or note and the virtual keyboard is suggesting the correct spelling of the word — and we don’t want to accept it — we don’t need to tap the tiny “X” at the end of the word in question. Instead tap anywhere on the screen to close the suggestion box.

Take a photo with volume control/headphone cord

Use the volume up or down buttons to take a photo without shake. Steady the hand while framing up the photo and when we’re ready to take the picture, press the volume control button on the phone or on the headphone cord. You did it!!!

Take photos faster

Even if our iPhone is locked you can double-tap on the Home button and we’ll see a camera icon we can tap to open the camera immediately. Now we can use the volume up button to snap the photo, too. We can also use the volume up on the headphone cord to take a photo (if we want to) and pinch the screen to zoom instead of using the slider bar.

Get word definitions

Apple has recently added a built-in dictionary and we can access it in most apps that let us select a word. Simply press and hold on a word — such as in an email, reminder, iBooks, and so on — and we’ll see a pop-up option for “Define.”

Awaken the frozen iPhone

If the smartphone freezes and pressing the Sleep/Wake button on top of the device doesn’t do anything, don’t panic. Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time. We’ll be prompted to swipe the “Slide to Power Off” tab. This so-called “hard reset” resuscitates the frozen iPhone. We’ll first need to wait through a full shut down and restart.

Get more done in less time

We can create shortcuts to words and phrases we use a lot. In Settings, go to General, then Keyboard, and select Add New Shortcut. Now we can add new words or phrases and assign shortcuts to them.

Select URL domains faster

When typing a website address in browser, we don’t have to type the “.com.” For example, we can type “yahoo” in the URL box to get to yahoo.com. On a related note, we can press and hold down the .com button and we’ll see a list of alternatives to choose, such as .net, .org and .edu.

Save photos in browser

We’re surfing the web in Safari and stumble upon a photo we’d like to save. Simply press and hold on a photo on a website and we’ll be prompted with a menu asking if you’d like to “Save Image.” Once the photo is saved, we can view it offline, email it or set it as wallpaper.

Take an iPhone screen grab

On a related note, if we want to take a screenshot of a website or application, press down on the Home button and tap the Sleep button. We’ll hear the camera click, see a white flash and the screenshot will be saved to our Album.

Create an application out of a website we visit often

To add a website to our Home screen, visit the webpage in browser and at the top of the screen, tap the Go To icon and select “Add to Home Screen.”

Create a music playlist on the fly

We no longer need a computer to create a playlist. In the Music app, tap Playlists, then select Add Playlist and give it a name.  Then, tap any song or video to add it to the playlist. We can add individual songs, entire albums, or all songs by a particular artist.

Mirror our iPhone with Apple TV

We can instantly and wirelessly share exactly what’s on our iPhone 4S with your HDTV, connected to an Apple TV — such as games, apps or videos. Simply double-tap the Home button, swipe all the way to the right and select AirPlay Mirroring.

Simple bulk message deletion

You can delete unwanted emails and massages rather than deleting one at a time. In your Inbox, simply click the Edit button and check off the emails you want to delete with your finger and then choose Delete.