iPhone 101
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iPhone 101: Using Photos app to view photos sorted by location
The Photos app in iOS 7 has a useful feature that allows you to view the location information of all the photos you took during the past year. To make use of this feature, you must have geotagging turned on the settings (Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Toggle on Location Services and the Camera app). Follow these steps to view your photos according to the location at which they were taken: Open the Photos app. Tap on Photos in the bottom left corner. You are likely viewing the Moments section of the photos app, which sorts your photos according to individual days. Tap on "Collections" to view your photos as grouped over a longer timeframe. Tap on "Years" to view your photos sorted according to the year in which they were taken.. Tap on the location information next to the yearly date to view a map that shows you were the photos were taken and how many were taken in each location. Tapping on a thumbnail collection for each location will show all the photos taken at that site. You can view similar location information for the "Collections" view and the "Moments", but I find the "Years" view to be the most impressive as it gives me an overview of how far or how little I traveled each year.
iPhone 101: How to easily dismiss banner notifications in iOS 7
Apple's notification system in iOS is wonderful for letting you know when you've received a new email or text message, but the banners can be annoying when they appear at the top of a screen and overlay buttons or other important content while you are in another app. Most people wait for the banner to disappear before resuming their business, but you can quickly dismiss the alerts by tapping on the banner as shown above and swiping it up and off the screen. You temporarily activate notification center with this gesture, but it is worth it to get rid of those pesky alerts.
Here's the iPhone's handy "Undo Typing" feature you might not know about
The iPhone is a wonderful tool, but sometimes its simple design ends up inadvertently hiding a useful feature. Today we've got a handy video that will teach you how to utilize your iOS device's "Undo Typing" feature, allowing you to reclaim text you may have accidentally deleted. The only downside of this feature is having to shake your device like an Etch-a-Sketch in public should you accidentally delete too much. On the bright side you'll be adding a little whimsey to the lives of the people around you in your local coffee shop.
iPhone 101: Use Safari AutoFill to enter information into web forms on your iOS device
Typing on a mobile keyboard can be a pain, especially when you are entering information into a long web form. To make it easier, you can enable the useful AutoFill feature in Safari, which will automatically enter contact and credit card information into compatible web forms. It'll take a few minutes to setup, but it will save you frustration later on. Before you get started in Safari, you need to add a contact for yourself in your address book, if you don't already have one. If you do have a contact with updated information, then you can skip to the Safari-specific instruction below. Open up the Contacts app on your iOS device Tap the "plus" sign in the upper right corner Type in your personal details Hit Done to save your contact information Now that you have a valid contact in your address book, it is time to hop into the Safari settings and enable AutoFill. Open up Settings on your iOS device Tap on Safari Tap on AutoFill Toggle "Use Contact Info" to on. The toggle will be green on iOS 7. Tap on "My Info" and select your contact entry in your address book These few steps will enable AutoFill on your iOS device, making it an available option the next time you visit a compatible web form. To test that it is working properly, visit a site with a web form and select the text box at the top of the form. When the keyboard pops up, be sure to select the option for AutoFill.
iPhone 101: Using the volume button to take burst mode photos
The camera in iOS 7 has a burst mode feature that allows you to take up to 10 photos per second just by touching and holding the shutter button on your iPhone 5s**. If you can't tap the shutter because you are wearing gloves or are holding the camera at an odd angle, you can use the volume buttons as a backup shutter release mechsnism. To take a single shot, just press and release one of the volume buttons. The camera app will focus and then snap your shot. Burst mode is equally accessible -- just press and hold either volume button and listen for the familiar rapid shooting sound. Another neat little trick, if you have you iPhone headset plugged into the phone, you can use the volume buttons on the headset to snap a photo. It takes single photos, though, and does not activate burst mode. **Burst mode is also available on older iPhone models, but the shot-to-shot rate is slower.
iPhone 101: How to enable automatic app, music and iBook downloads
Automatic downloads in iOS is an iCloud feature that provides owners with the option to download new Apps, music or books automatically when they purchase the content from the App Store, iTunes or the iBookstore. In iOS 7, it'll also automatically download and install app updates. It's a welcome feature for iOS owners who want to have their content available right away on multiple devices; not so useful for owners who prefer to manually download media so they can manage their storage space carefully. Thankfully, iOS has a setting that allows you to toggle this feature on or off as you prefer. You can access the automatic download settings as follows: Tap Settings > iTunes & App Stores on your iOS device Tap Sign In if you're not already signed in to your iTunes account Enter your Apple ID and password as needed to login Tap to enable or disable Automatic Downloads for each content type (in iOS 7, green is enabled, while clear is disabled) You also can enable or disable automatic downloads over a cellular connection (Note that cellular downloads are limited to a file size of 50 MB or smaller) Once you enable automatic downloads, this feature only applies to content that is purchased or updated in the future. It will not download previously purchased content. You may also notice that iBooks, is not available in the list. If that is the case, then you must download the iBooks app in order for that content type to show up in this part of the settings. You can change these settings at any time as your preference for automatic downloading changes.
How to set up a complex passcode on your iOS device
Smartphones and tablets these days store an incredible amount of information, and with much of it sensitive and personal, many users like to keep their device somewhat private by limiting who has access. With the introduction of Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, Apple sought to make iOS devices more secure by making security as simple as a fingerprint. But with Touch ID currently an iPhone 5s-only feature, where does that leave all other iOS users? Thankfully, there's a solution. The default passcode setting in iOS 7 only allows for a 4-digit numeric string, otherwise known as a simple passcode. But when you're really serious about device security -- or just want to be extra sure no one finds out about your Taylor Swift app or questionable weekend photos -- iOS 7 offers more complex passcode protection. With a complex passcode, you can pick a passcode that includes letters, numbers, and special characters. What's more, a complex passcode can be much longer than just four characters. In iOS 6, the string limit was 37 characters long. But in iOS 7 I was able to enter in over 90 characters without receiving a warning about having too long of a passcode. This makes the task of guessing another's passcode exponentially more difficult. Time to get started. To set a passcode that can include numbers, letters, and special characters, go to Settings > General > Passcode Lock. If you've grown weary of Touch ID and would like to do this on an iPhone 5s, it's listed under Settings > General > Touch ID & Passcode. Next, simply toggle off the "Simple Passcode" setting. If you haven't set up a passcode at all yet, you'll first have to select the "Turn Passcode On" option located near the top of the settings pane. Upon doing so, you will be prompted to enter a complex passcode with the ability to choose from an array of numbers, letters, and special characters. You'll be prompted to enter the passcode twice, the first time you tap 'Next' to continue and the second time you tap 'Done.' While you can insert special characters like ñ or é in a complex passcode, you unfortunately cannot use emoji icons. Which is a damn shame because a passcode like this would be pretty cool. As is always the case, it's important to make sure that your passcode is hard for others to guess but easy for you to remember. After setting up a complex passcode, your new passcode lock screen will look like this, offering up a full text-and-number keyboard for your passcode entry. Is a Complex Passcode even necessary? With a 4-digit numeric passcode, there are potentially 10^4 (10,000) different passcode options. That sure seems like a lot, but a study on common iOS passwords reveals that many people still rely on passcodes that aren't terribly hard to guess. Some common passcodes to avoid include 1234, 0000, 2580, 1111, 5555 and 5683 (which spells out 'love'). Also try and avoid passcodes that represent (easy to guess) birth years such as 1949, 1985, and 1999. When using a complex passcode, however, the number of possible passcode combinations increases exponentially. With about 77 characters (numbers+letters+special characters) to choose from, and a passcode that can be as long as 50 characters (at least), that's already 77^50 possible permutations right there, making it effectively impossible for anyone to ever guess your passcode without peering over your shoulder. Even opting for a slightly longer 6 character passcode increases the number of possible passcode combinations from 10,000 to 208.4 billion (77^6). And with that, may your device always remain secure from prying eyes. As a final note, this comic strip about password strength from XKCD is on topic and worth sharing.
iPhone 101: How to add Facebook, Twitter, and other social network accounts to iOS
Apple has made it easy for iOS owners to share content across their social networks thanks to the integration of services like Facebook and Twitter into iOS itself. You can download Facebook events into your iOS calendar, upload videos to Vimeo from the Photos app and share links in Safari. It's very convenient for iOS owners who are active on social networks. To connect iOS directly to your social network accounts, you only need to add your account credentials into your iOS settings. Here's how: 1. Open the Settings app. 2. Scroll down until you see the entries for your social networks. Depending on your device and geographic location, you will see listings for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Vimeo, Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo. 3. Tap on the social network to access a screen that allows you to enter in your username and password. 4. You can also download the official iOS app for that service and configure additional settings like import contacts, sync with calendar and more. Once you enable these social accounts, you'll be able to share links, post status updates and sync contacts between iOS and your social networks. This useful chart from Apple summarizes the features available for each network. Some services like Flickr, Vimeo and Tencent Weibo require iOS 7, while the others require iOS 6 or later.
Awesome Safari tip in iOS 7 you probably weren't aware of
Mobile Safari in iOS 7 introduced a number of new and interesting changes to the way users browse the web and access information. One such feature you may not be familiar with is dubbed "Shared Links." "Shared Links" allows you to quickly and seamlessly scroll through all of the links in your Twitter feed directly from within the Safari app. All in all, this provides a superior and more efficient way to peruse your Twitter links. Here's how it all works. Open up Safari and tap the Bookmarks icon located toward the bottom of the screen. This brings you to the "Shared Links" pane. From here, select the "@" tab located in the upper-righthand portion of the screen. You are then presented with all of the links from your Twitter feed. Note that only tweets containing embedded URLs show up here. Think of it as a streamlined Twitter feed. If I tap on one of the entries, I'm immediately whisked away to the desired URL, in this case an article from the WSJ tweeted out by the Huffington Post. As I scroll down, the end of the article lets me know where the next tweet is from, in this case a tweet from Bomani Jones about NCAA athletes unionizing. If I keep scrolling downwards, that story soon takes center stage. When I get to the end of this article, the next Twitter link is already there waiting for me. And so on and so forth. Altogether, this is a great way to browse through your Twitter feed if you're actually looking to do some web browsing. Not only does the scrolling provide a seamless way to jump from story to story, it's also always typically more enjoyable to browse in Safari than with Twitter's built-in browser. One final point: Even though you scroll downwards in order to access new Twitter links, be aware that you cannot scroll back up to revisit stories you've already read. Instead, simply swipe to the right as you would normally do in Safari.
iPhone 101: Deleting numbers in the iOS Calculator app
With over 9 million iPhones sold in just three days, and undoubtedly millions more since Apple first announced the impressive sales figure, there are likely many people experiencing iOS for the first time. That being the case, here's a quick Calculator app tip that maybe even seasoned iOS users will find new and useful. It's not readily apparent, but the Calculator app in iOS has a hidden gesture that enables you to delete numbers from an entry if you happen to input a number by accident. As a quick example, let's say I'm trying to input the number 5,964 but accidentally type in 596,487. Is all hope lost? Do I have to start over from scratch? Not at all! To erase a number, digit by digit, simply swipe to the right on the number display and the most recently entered digit will disappear. This handy trick is a lifesaver if you happen to be a few calculations deep and don't want to start over from scratch. So in the example above, I just need to swipe to the right twice and I'm well on my way toward calculator bliss.
TUAW's Don't Panic Guide to iOS 7
TUAW readers of long standing, this post is for your friends and family who are asking you about iOS 7. Feel free to share it with them in person, on your social networks, or randomly in coffee shops and libraries. For more info, scroll to the bottom of the post. Breathe in, breathe out. Namaste! Chances are, you're here because someone you know suggested you look us up regarding iOS 7, the new operating system for the iPhone and iPad. Thanks for reading; we're here to help. Most importantly, don't panic. We're going to run down some of the most commonly asked questions and essential tips for iOS 7, with a minimum of jargon and handwaving. If you have questions about iOS 7 that aren't addressed or linked here, drop a note in the comments, send us an email or a tweet, or hop over to our Facebook page to join the discussion there. You can also review our week one full coverage rundown, or keep an eye on our ongoing posts about iOS 7. Want to vent or inquire in person? Call into our Sunday night talkcast to connect with the TUAW team directly. What is iOS 7? Do I need it? Every so often, Apple delivers a major upgrade to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch operating system (iOS). Each new version offers some additional features, new tricks and twists, and (if everything goes according to plan) more stability, fewer security issues and less misbehavior like crashing or connectivity problems. iOS 7 is the latest big upgrade, and unlike system upgrades for your PC or Mac, it's free to download and install. You may be hearing more conversations about iOS 7 than you did about previous system upgrades; chances are, that's because it delivers a comprehensive design overhaul, turning away from the resemblance to physical objects like leather-bound address books and green felt card tables (a concept called skueomorphism) to a cleaner, more abstract visual language. Apple's legendary design chief Sir Jonathan Ive took over the look-and-feel reins of the operating system for this version, and it's his aesthetic that's at work here. Certainly your first five minutes with iOS 7 may come as a bit of a shock to the system, but that should pass. As to whether or not you need it: if your phone or iPad is working fine, you do not need to install iOS 7 right away. Waiting a few days or a few weeks is not going to cause any harm, and chances are there will be one or two small updates to iOS 7 in the coming days that will clear up some rough edges and bugs. In the longer term, if your device supports iOS 7 (some older units, including most iPod touch models and first-generation iPads, do not), it's a good idea to move up; many iOS applications will start to require the new system. If you live in an area where iPhone thefts are common, iOS 7 also adds Activation Lock, an important anti-loss feature recommended by law enforcement. If you have a new iPhone 5s that shipped with iOS 7 and the Touch ID feature, note that the fingerprint unlock option on that phone is just that: an option. If it gives you an uncomfortable feeling, don't use it. If you're the sort who enjoys reading the manual before installing the software (I know I am), Apple has posted the iOS 7 manuals online in PDF format. You can also download them for free on your device in the iBooks store. Although this should go without saying, we'll say it for the record: No, iOS 7 does not magically render your phone waterproof. I already installed it, and I hate it! Can I go back to iOS 6? Unfortunately, while this was briefly possible after the iOS 7 release, it's not anymore. Unlike a desktop computer OS (Windows or OS X) that can be installed wherever it's compatible and you have a license, iOS versions are digitally "signed" by Apple's servers to permit installation; the signing for iOS 6 was turned off the weekend of 9/21. Without those digital signatures, under virtually all circumstances it's impossible to install iOS 6 over an iOS 7 device. (There may be loopholes for iPhone 4 owners, which are still being investigated.) For the record, if you bought a new iPhone 5c or iPhone 5s, they shipped with iOS 7 preinstalled. There is no way to downgrade those phones to iOS 6, nor is one likely to emerge in the future. If you're miserable with the new visual look (as some who are on the verge of needing bifocals, like yours truly, might be), there are some quick tips to getting a bit more legibility in the main screen. Setting a dark-colored background can help, but first try turning on the Bold Text option -- it makes a huge difference! You can also improve your iOS 7 battery life with these quick tips. OK, I'm ready to install iOS 7; is there anything I should do to prepare? There is! First of all, please backup your device. You can do this either via the iCloud service or by connecting your device to your computer and backing up in iTunes. We've got a full rundown here; Apple even explains how you can choose between the methods, or use both. Although an iOS backup should save the photos on your Camera Roll, you may also want to make sure that your device's photos are backed up to iPhoto, a pictures folder or a cloud service like Dropbox, Google+ or Flickr. You also need a reasonable amount of free space on your phone (about 3.1 GB) before attempting to install iOS 7. If you're short on space, consider removing apps, music or books you don't need right now. You can check which apps are chewing up the most room via the Usage pane inside Settings: General on your device. (You backed up first, right?) All the preamble steps are covered in this post. Once you're ready to go, you can install from the Settings app on your device, or by connecting to iTunes. Don't forget to update iTunes to the latest version available, as well. Once I've updated, how do I do the things I used to do? Although there's an enormous list of new and improved features in iOS 7, here are a few key changes that may be particularly tricky if you don't know how they work in the new world order: Quitting/closing applications. Just as in iOS 6, you can double-press the home button quickly to bring up an application switcher, allowing you to quickly swap your active app without going back to the home screen. (You can also use a four or five-finger swipe on the screen to switch between apps.) Unlike the older system, you aren't presented with a small row of icons across the bottom of the screen; now you've got full views of the app's active state, and an easier swipe back and forth to navigate. But what if you want to close out an app? No more long-press and little red X; now it's a swipe up through the app's miniaturized image. Steve's video walkthrough may help. Notification Center. iOS 7's alerts and reminders now get sorted into three buckets: Today, All and Missed. You can also easily dismiss notifications at the top of the screen by just tapping on the little bar in the center of the notification. Search. To search, just swipe down slightly from the middle of any home screen. The search field has moved from its own homescreen pane to the top of the screen. Folders. They can now contain more than just a few apps -- go nuts! Swipe left and right to see additional icons. Control Center. Frequently tweaked items that previously required a dive into the Settings app? They're now accessible with an upward swipe from the bottom of the screen. Quickly set a timer, turn Bluetooth/WiFi on or off, pull up camera or calculator, adjust brightness and volume -- even turn on a flashlight! Control Center is also the new home for the AirPlay mirroring controls; you don't get to them via a double-press of the home button and a rightward swipe anymore. Legibility and looks. Most of the aggravation and anxiety around iOS 7 involves the visual changes, and whether or not they actually reduce the legibility of the user interface. While the jury may still be out on that question, you don't have to wait to adjust the system to fit your own visual acuity. Simply open the Settings app, scroll down to General, then Accessibility. You can use the aforementioned Bold Text option to emphasize the icon labels, or adjust the text size in applications like Mail to make them easier to read. If the zooming, panning and parallax "wobbles" are giving you uncomfortable feelings, the Accessibility settings are also the place to find the Reduce Motion setting. Siri. In addition to some new commands and data sources, Siri's got a new voice -- and it's a man, baby! Adjust your settings in the Settings app, General, Siri. You can ask "What can I say?" at Siri's prompt to get a rundown on the new capabilities. Where can I go to get help? Apple's support site and user community are certainly good places to start. You can also visit the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store, or check out your nearest carrier outlet for the iPhone. Of course, sites like our own, Macworld, iMore, the Loop and many others are going to be posting scores of iOS 7 tips and recommendations over the next few days and weeks -- we'll link our favorites here, and we'll add suggestions based on your input. To our regular readers: Thanks for sharing this guide with your friends and family who haven't necessarily been following along with every moment of the iOS 7 saga. If you want to give them a handy reminder card, just download our printable version here. Towel image courtesy of ThinkGeek; you can buy your own Don't Panic towel there.
iPhone 101: What is an ESN and how can it go bad?
Getting your older iPhone ready to sell on eBay? You might notice listings that advertise good ESN and bad ones. Just what are those? An ESN is the electronic serial number assigned to your iPhone and is used with CDMA phones instead of SIM cards. There are several good guides through eBay about what an ESN is and how it can go bad. 1. What does it mean if I have a bad ESN? A bad ESN means you can't activate an iPhone on your current carrier. For example, if you purchase an iPhone with a bad ESN from someone who used it on Verizon, then you won't be able to activate that phone on Verizon. 2. How do I get a bad ESN? You can get a bad ESN three ways: reporting your phone as lost or stolen, if the phone is still active on your wireless account or if you have an outstanding balance on your account. 3. How do I make sure I have a clean ESN? According to MaxBack, make sure your phone is completely off your wireless account before delivering it into the hands of a new owner. Settle any outstanding balances as well. You can see if your ESN is clean through a check on Swappa. It'll let you know if the ESN is activated on an account or not. 4. What do I do if I bought a phone with a bad ESN? An ESN can only be cleared by the original owner of the phone, so you would need to contact that person.
iPhone 101: Living dangerously with government alerts turned off
Given the surfeit of wild and life-threatening weather events across the USA over the past few months, it's great that the major iPhone carriers now all support the Federal system for wireless emergency alerts. These location-specific messages are broadcast by cell towers in an affected area, and provide brief messages that may help provide warning or guidance in a crisis. Verizon and Sprint both launched their capability in 2012, T-Mobile has the alerts enabled, and AT&T joined the parade last month approximately one year after the service was originally turned on. Note that emergency alert support is limited to the iPhone 4S and 5 models; neither Verizon or AT&T supports it on older handsets. (Thanks to John F. Braun for the reminder on the model restrictions.) As long as your handset is new enough and is running iOS 6.1 or later, the alerts -- which include both local weather/environmental "imminent threats" and missing-person AMBER Alerts, as well as the hypothetical Presidential announcement of an alien invasion or zombie attack -- are turned on by default. (I believe they also show up on cellular-capable iPads, but I'm not 100% certain about that.) The only problem with alerts that are on by default is that they don't have much awareness of your sleep schedule or other responsibilities, and as they deliberately use an unfamiliar alert tone, they can be quite startling... especially if a roomful of iPhones all pop an alert at once in the middle of a classroom, seminar or worship service. (I experienced this personally: flash flood warning, training class, several minor freakouts.) If, on your own recognizance and at your own risk, you should choose to turn off either the emergency or the AMBER alerts, the NY Times pointed out that it's easy enough to do (as did our own Yoni Heisler when AT&T's support kicked in). Simply go to the Settings app, tap Notifications, and swipe down to the relevant toggles at the bottom of the list. Where's the toggle for the Presidential alerts? Guess what, conspiracy theorists: they cannot be disabled, short of jailbreaking your phone. Clearly, when the time comes for us to be told where to report for our mandatory Google Glass corneal implant/PRISM uplink installation surgery, that's how we'll get the message. Now please kindly observe this brief public awareness video regarding the wireless emergency alert system. Your cooperation is much appreciated. And noted. On your permanent record. Thank you.
iPhone 101: Lock / unlock screen rotation
Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. A friend told me his iPhone was broken because the screen no longer rotated in Safari, Mail or any other app. He suspected the accelerometer was broken, but was confused because it still worked in games and apps like Google Maps. He remarked how frustrating it was, and that he'd booked an appointment with a Apple Genius. I must admit, I was flummoxed, too. I know you can lock and unlock the screen rotation in the settings section on iOS for iPad, but I couldn't find any such option in Settings on iOS for iPhone. And then it suddenly hit me, there is a screen rotation lock / unlock button when you double tap the Home button and flick to the right -- where the Music player controls are. Sure enough, my friend's iPhone screen rotation was locked. With a simple tap, his screen rotated once more. After a quick search on Apple's support forums -- and there seem to be a lot of people who struggle with this -- I found a support page which details the steps to lock and unlock screen rotation on iPhone and iPod touch. Double-click the Home button to display recently used apps. Flick from left to right along the bottom of the screen. Tap the Screen Rotation Lock button on the bottom left of the screen. If the button used to show a padlock, the padlock will disappear from the button after tapping it. To lock the screen rotation, simply tap the button again, the padlock will appear to indicate it's locked again.
iPhone 101: Switching sound off (or down)
Today's iPhone 101 is all about audio volume. You may think that the volume toggle and the mute switch on the side of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch are the beginning and end of noise control, but it turns out there's more to the iOS sound story. You can get some volume management by plugging in a pair of headphones; that mutes the main speaker but also redirects your primary output to the headphones. When placed on your desk, you still may hear tiny bits of sound from the ear pieces. Having headphones connected does not affect the sounds from system alarms or incoming phone calls -- those still hit the main speaker. The mute switch on the side of the iPhone will generally cut off all outward ringing, audio alerts and other noisy bits, with one notable and newsworthy exception: alarms that have been set will still be played audibly, regardless of the mute switch position. Most consider this a reasonable and long-standing UX compromise by cellphone makers (if not, the alarms would be critically unreliable; many people would simply forget to unmute their phones at night before bed), but there are plenty of dissenters. Here are other ways you can limit your device's volume. Adjust the Ringer and Alerts volume. In Settings > Sounds, you'll find a separate Ringers and Alerts volume slider, which you can adjust to your liking. If you set this too low, your alarm settings in the Clock app may not wake you up and you may miss incoming calls. An optional Change with Buttons toggle links your alerts/ringer volume to the hardware controls on the side of your device. Two further options offer an alternative to your ringer. Select Settings > Sounds > Vibrate on Ring to transform alerts to vibrations. Enabling General > Accessibility > LED Flash for Alerts lets you "hear" your incoming calls with your eyes. This option adds a visual alert with your phone's camera flash (which could be made more visible with some additional case technology). Adjust the Siri volume. Stray touches on your phone or new iPad Home button may invoke Siri by mistake, and the double-chirp that starts a Siri session. Siri uses its own volume settings, separate from normal speaker output, alerts, and ringers. To mute Siri, press and hold the Home button to launch Siri -- with the Siri microphone icon visible, use the hardware controls to adjust the volume down. Alert Sounds. If you have the patience, you can currently disable notification alert sounds on an app-by-app basis in Settings > Notification > App Name > Sounds. Choose your ringtones, text tones, and other normal alerts in Settings > Sounds. Volume Limit. Although this isn't an outward audio feature, many parents choose to set a cap on the music playback volume for a child's iPhone or iPod touch to prevent hearing damage. The limit setting (and an optional lock password) can be found in Settings > Music > Volume Limit. Do Not Disturb. iOS 6 will introduce a Do Not Disturb feature in Settings that will disable updates arriving in your notification center and incoming phone calls. You'll be able to adjust the settings to allow incoming calls from selected people and/or a repeat-call override for emergencies. TUAW's 101 series (Mac 101, iPhone 101 and iPad 101) all aim to help novice users get the most out of their Apple gear. Got a suggestion for a 101 topic or a question you want answered by Aunt TUAW? Drop us a line. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
iPhone 101: Set up keyboard shortcuts for easier typing
Typing on the iPhone or iPad becomes easier as you get used to it, but some things remain cumbersome to write even after years of use. The keyboard acrobatics required to type something like "Wi-Fi + 3G" or a long email address on a touchscreen keyboard can be somewhat maddening if you have to input that multiple times a day. Fortunately, a new feature in iOS 5 comes to the rescue: custom keyboard shortcuts. In the Settings app, navigating to General > Keyboard > Shortcuts gives you access to a fully customizable list of shortcuts you can edit to your heart's content. If you're familiar with TextExpander on the Mac, this setting in iOS 5 functions much the same way. Only one shortcut is included by default: "omw" = "On my way!" You can edit that shortcut or add completely new ones, and as long as the shortcuts are easy to remember and easy to type, you can vastly speed up your typing on the iPhone for common phrases you use. When you tap the "+" icon on the Shortcuts screen, you'll see a page that gives you input options for "Phrase" and "Shortcut." The "Phrase" setting is what you want your shortcut to expand into, while "Shortcut" is what you'll actually type. As one example, I've set up "Wi-Fi + 3G" as a phrase on my iPhone. All I actually have to type is wifiggg, and my iPhone will automatically expand that into "Wi-Fi + 3G." I also write about Apple on Twitter quite a bit, and in order to squeeze within Twitter's character limits I've set up a shortcut to substitute in the character for the Apple logo () whenever I type the shortcut applogo. Setting up similar shortcuts will allow you to type all sorts of special characters not included on the iPhone's keyboard. Another way the keyboard shortcuts feature comes in handy is circumventing the standard autocorrect for some terms. Many times in the past I'd type the word "hell" and have it autocorrected to "he'll," for example (all those times my mom put soap in my mouth didn't teach me a thing). I still haven't been able to work around what I consider iOS's most irritating autocorrection -- its always corrects to it's even after setting up a keyboard shortcut trying to prevent it -- but I've been able to eliminate most iOS autocorrect oddities via keyboard shortcuts. iOS 5's shortcuts feature is a great way to simplify inputting text you find yourself typing many times throughout the day, and as PC World points out, you can even use it to set up multiple email signatures for different use cases. As far as I can tell there doesn't appear to be a limit to the phrase length -- I put in half the lyrics to "Yellow Submarine" with a "yllwsub" shortcut, and iOS didn't complain -- so you could potentially create shortcuts for several paragraphs of text that you can quickly input with just a few keystrokes.
Tidying up location contacts for Siri and Reminders
My personal address book has no shame. I have contacts for people I haven't spoken to in years, contacts for people who I met at tech conferences, contacts for schools, for local stores, for repairmen, and so forth. It's one big old happy jumbled mess. I'm cool with that. When I want Siri and Reminders to be able to trigger a location-based event, I just throw it into my address book where it joins the hundreds of other often sad and neglected entries. I believe this makes makes me a type "N" on Myers Brigg or something like that. Not everyone will be happy with this kind of unstructured approach and an overflowing address book, or this kind of lack of organization. If you want to be able to to set location reminders without messing up your address book, TUAW reader Will Herbert has a solution. On your Mac, launch the Address Book application and create two new groups. Call one Contacts and the other Locations. Drag all your normal contacts into the Contacts group and create a set of location-only contacts in the other. Add stores, offices, dry cleaners, supermarkets, and so forth. These are all places that you don't necessarily want in your day-to-day contacts list. Each of these is still available in the address book and therefore still available to Siri and Reminders. At the same time, they won't clutter up your standard contacts. Score one for the Felixes of the world. The rest of us Oscars will trudge on as we were.
iPhone 101: Using iOS accessibility to make text larger
Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its making tiny text easier to read using the accessibility features in iOS. Following Stevie Wonder's high praise of the accessibility features found in iOS, we thought we'd take a closer look at some of the features available to make using the iPhone a whole lot easier for those who are visually impaired. One of the first places to start, when wanting to make what's on your iPhone easier to read, is to make the text larger in four of iOS's major apps: Mail, Calender, Contacts and Notes. To access this feature go to Settings > General > Accessibility. From there you want to tap Large Text and select the text size that best suits your needs. The selection is from off to a rather large 56pt. The text size you select will determine the standard text size for all the text found in those apps. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't reach across the entire OS, nor does it affect third-party apps. However, most well developed third-party apps will have a setting to edit the size of the text in the app, this feature is usually found in the settings of the app. You can also apply the Large Text feature to the iPad too by following the same instructions.
iPhone 101: Recovering deleted voicemails
Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its retrieving a deleted voice mail message. One of the great features of the iPhone -- that is, one that is actually related to having phone conversations -- is Visual Voicemail. So long as your carrier (network provider) supports it, Visual Voicemail allows you to see your voicemail messages, similar to a list of text messages or emails. You can decide which messages you want to listen to, when you want to listen to them and scrub through the message to the important part you want to hear. In Apple's own words, "Visual Voicemail on iPhone is still the biggest breakthrough in voicemail since, well, voicemail." It certainly has changed the way I use voicemail. Gone are the days of dialing in to a voicemail box and laboriously listening to all your messages in a row! But there's one unsung, often overlooked feature of Visual Voicemail: recovering deleted voicemails. If you've deleted a voicemail message that you really wish you hadn't (say, the pin code for the alarm system at a guest house you're staying at), simply swipe down your row of messages, all the way to the bottom of the list, and tap on "Deleted Messages." So long as you haven't come here before and tapped "Clear All," all the messages you've ever deleted on your iPhone will be stored here. To recover your deleted voicemail, simply search for it in the list, select it and tap on "undelete." The voicemail will pop into your normal voicemail list ready for you to listen to again.
iPhone 101: How to turn caps lock on
Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its enabling caps lock. It always astounds me how many iPhone users don't know how to enable caps lock while typing, not just newcomers. Just the other day I was chatting with a friend who's had an iPhone for almost a year. I suddenly had to send a quick text message and my friend was bewildered to see me type some of that message in all-capital letters without having to repeatedly hit the shift key for every letter in capital I typed. Well, to relieve your curiosity and sheer frustration, here's how to type in caps lock on the iPhone keyboard. Simply double tap the shift key. That's it! The shift key will turn blue, and everything you type will be in capital letters. To exit this mode, simply tap the shift key again. Actually, his confusion is understandable. A QWERTY keyboard has a shift key and a caps lock key, but the iPhone's keyboard merges the two keys into one. Holding a typical shift key will produce a series of capital letters. Yet, holding many of the iOS keys produces a pop-up menu of special characters, symbols and accents. Except for the iOS shift key; holding that down simply registers a single tap. A long, long, tap. Well, regardless of why, now you know how. And if you already knew how, you might know someone who doesn't. Make their day and share this simple, effective iPhone 101 tip. Bonus: it works the same way on the iPad and the iPod touch.
