iOS 6 tips and tricks for the iPhone
If you have a new iPhone 5 or you have just updated your iPhone 4/4S with the new iOS 6, these tips and tricks we’re about to present you will surely interest you. These are new features Apple has inserted in the new iOS 6 and most of them you might already be familiar with.
The Camera App
The new iOS 6 Camera app has some new features up its sleeve. Among these notable are the Panorama Mode and the new staring features.
Panorama Mode
Inside the Camera app you must navigate to Options and press its button. From there select Panorama. With the help of the arrow you can change the direction of the panorama you are about to capture (from the right to the left or from the left to the right). Hold you iPhone in portrait mode or hold it in landscape mode to make a panorama.
The AE/AF Lock
You can change the exposure of your shot or the exposure of it by simply tapping on the screen. Press and hold your thumb on the screen to lock the exposure or the focus and a square on the screen will soon lock them in.
The Grid
Go to Options in the Camera app and set Grid to on if you want to get better picture composition.
High Dynamic Rate
High Dynamic Rate (or HDR for short) will help you by automatically balancing dark and light zones on the image. To enable this you will have to go to options and select HDR by toggling it to the On position. The operating system will save a non-HDR picture along with the HDR one. To turn off this small feature you must go to Settings and then Photos & Camera and search for the On/Off button of the feature at the bottom of the list.
Inserting Pictures into e-mails
Start composing a new e-mail by entering the Mail app and tapping the new email icon. Press and hold your thumb in the place where the message body would be until a new menu appears and you must then press the arrow pointing to the right and select Insert Photo or Video. Then select the image you want to insert and tap on OK.
Sharing videos with YouTube
The stock YouTube app has already been removed by Apple but you will still be able to upload videos to YouTube by going to the Photos app and selecting the video file you want to upload. Press the Share button and then select YouTube.
Reinstall the old YouTube app
If you want the old YouTube app back you can navigate to the App Store and search for YouTube. You’ll be presented with a list of options and the official YouTube app will be among them. Select it to install it on your device.
Shared Photo Streams
From within the Photos app select Edit and then select one or even more images and press Share. A pop up menu will appear on the screen and you can choose Photo Streams. Type the name of the recipient
Send multiple images with the Mail app
Open up Photos and select the Edit button. Select multiple images you would like to send someone and then select Share. Now select the Mail app icon and the images will be inserted into a new message. If you will select more than five images the Mail option will be disabled.
The Mail app
There are new features in the new Mail app also – features such as VIP, individual signature for each account and the possibility to flag emails. Here’s a little bit about each of these features.
Inbox refresh
To refresh you Inbox in the Mail app you would have to drag the top part of the page and the Inbox will be refreshed.
VIP emails
Say your inbox is bombarded with emails daily but you wouldn’t want an email from a friend or your coworkers pass unnoticed. You can mark them as VIP messages by pressing their name until the Contact card appears on the screen of your device. You’ll see an option to Add to VIP.
Mark messages as unread
To mark emails as being unread you can press the flag icon on the screen and a menu will appear. You can select from mark as Unread or Flag item.
Viewing VIP inboxes
Go to the Inbox view and long-press on the mailboxes icon. You will be able to then access all the inboxes you might have together with the VIP or Flagged ones.
More than one email signature
Some people want to use more than one email account on their iDevice. With that comes the possibility of using more than one email signature. To set up your signature for a specific account you can enter Settings, go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars and select Signature from the bottom part of the screen. Tap on Signature and then select Per Account.
Maps app
There are new maps in the new iOS Maps app. These are a few nifty tips and tricks that will further help you enjoy the device.
Changing the volume for directions received by turn-by-turn
The default volume level in turn-by-turn navigation is bothering you? You can change it by going into Settings and then Maps. Switch the volume level to No Volume or Normal Volume. You can also choose Low Volume and Loud Volume. If you are European and would like to use kilometers instead of miles in the Maps app you can switch between the two from Settings – Maps and then choosing the metric system you want to use.
Flyover in Maps
I the new maps app some major cities have a 3D mode called Flyover. Pick a major city and switch to satellite mode to be able to see the 3D icon. press it and you will enter Flyover mode.
The Earth Globe
From inside your Maps app you can pinch out to zoom out while in satellite mode and you will be able to go out in space and view the Earth in all its glory.
Reinstall Google Maps
You won’t be able to reinstall Google Maps back just yet. But what you can do is create a home screen icon for the web version of Google Maps and use that instead of the default Maps app if you like the first better. Fire up the Safari browser and type the URL maps.google.com. When the page fully loads you will be able to click the Share icon and pick Add to Home Screen Icon.
Fun with Siri
With Siri you can now find out football scores if you’re interested or you can Launch applications with the help of Siri . You can hold the Home hardware button to launch Siri and speak into the microphone something like “Launch Safari” or “Launch Facebook” and Siri will launch the application upon your request.
Football scores
Hold down the Home hardware button and ask Siri “Give me the football score for Manchester United”. Siri will look for your team’s scores and display them to you. You can also check their league status using the same personal assistant.
Siri and movies
If you would like to know what’s been playing at the movies lately you can make use of Siri. Ask Siri “What are the latest movies made by James Cameron” and you’ll be given a list of them. You can also ask for directions to the nearest movie theater.
Use Facebook
With the help of the new Facebook app in iOS 6 you can share things with the people in your friend list. The new iOS on your device will allow one to share images and text and videos with Facebook and post status updates with the ease of tapping a button. Drag you thumb downwards to reveal the notification center and press Tap to Post.
Updating Contacts
To use images associated with your contact’s Facebook account in your Contacts you will have to go to Settings then Facebook and tap the Update All Contacts icon.
Disabling Facebook from Contacts and Calendars
If you got to Settings, then Facebook, you can disable importing your Facebook friends into your Contacts list.
Like what you buy
You can let people know of what you are buying from within iTunes. Whenever you are browsing an album you can tap on Reviews and tap Like.
Privacy settings
There are new privacy settings in iOS 6 ad here are the most important ones.
Passbook access when iPhone locked
You can use Passbook to access tickets and boarding passes rapidly. Navigate to Settings and Passcode Lock and after you have set your passcode you can then choose whether you want Passlock accessible.
Ad tracking limits
If you are paranoid and don’t want ads tracking your every move you can turn them off by going to Settings – General – About – Advertising and selecting Limit Ad Tracking.
Location Services limits
You can impose limits on location services and decide which apps can use Location Services and which can’t. To do this you will have to go to Settings – Privacy – Location Services.
Bluetooth Sharing, Calendars, Contacts, Reminders, Facebook, Twitter and Photos
You can choose not to share your data on a per-app basis. From Settings – Privacy you can handpick which of the above apps have access to your personal data.
New Features in Safari
There are many new features in the iOS default browser. Some of these are the ability to read offline, iCloud tabbed support and multiple image uploads to websites that support the feature.
Browse in Full Screen Mode
If you rotate your iDevice into landscape mode you can tap the arrows at the bottom of the screen to enter Full Screen Mode. You will have to scroll all the way to the top of the screen to get at the address bar.
Offline reading lists
The new Safari can now manage reading offline and this is very useful if you want to read websites in a place you have no Internet access. To save a website you will have to press the Share button and choose Add to Reading List. You will find the saved website in the Bookmarks icon under the Reading List entry.
Tabs in iCloud
If you are using Safari on your home computer you will be able to continue reading and browsing right from where you let it. Press the bookmarks icon and choose iCloud Tabs. They hold all the tabs you currently have opened on your desktop computer and you will be able to use them and sync them so that when you get back to your computer you will have an uninterrupted browsing experience.
Pick a search engine
To change the default search engine you can go to Settings – Safari – Search Engine and pick another search engine instead of Google. You can – for example – choose Bing or AllTheWeb.
Find text within the current webpage
Safari also has a search box you can use to search for text in the current web page. use the search box to find words and the number of items found will be displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Uploading images
If you previously had been having trouble uploading images to Flickr or other image-enabled sharing sites, you can now do this with the help of Safari. Tap the Choose File in the website and navigate your Photos gallery in search of image files to upload.
What is new in Passbook
Automatic updates. Your boarding passes can get automatic updates if you enter Passbook and press the “i” and select Automatic Updates.
Other useful tips in iOS 6
There are tiny bits we haven’t yet mentioned, bits not related to apps but to general functions of iOS.r Here are a few of them.
A more melodious alarm system
You can now pick not only sounds to use as an alarm but also songs of your choice. Go to Clock and Alarm and edit an alarm or make a new one by tapping the plus sign. In the Sound screen scroll up and choose Pick a song to be able to choose a melody from your iTunes Library.
Replying with messages
Calls can be rejected with a text message. When someone calls you phone you can slide the Phone icon upwards. To set a message you can navigate to Settings – Phone – Reply with Message and make them available for the next time someone calls.
Remind me Later
This is a new feature that can have reminders appear to you after a specific time or when you leave or enter an area. For example, you can get notifications each time you are entering your WiFi area or each time you are leaving the area covered by your working place WiFi. Just be sure to correctly complete the form in your Contacts card.
The Do Not Disturb feature
Go to Settings and pick Do Not Disturb if you want to be left alone whenever you are doing something important. You can even schedule the feature so it will kick in at specific times set by using Settings – notifications – Do Not Disturb. You can allow some calls to get through, like the ones coming from your family.
Fly to the top
Whenever you’re in Safari you can rapidly navigate to the top of a webpage by tapping the bar at the top of the screen.
In case you lose your iPhone
If you install the Find iPhone app and you have access to iCloud, you can locate your lost device using Apple Maps. You can commandeer your device to make it ring, display a message or remotely delete all the data on it if you don’t want this data to fall into the wrong hands.
Different tasks, different tones
Go to Settings and then Sounds to choose a multitude of sounds and vibrations for each of the services you use.
Vibrations
You can set you iPhone to Vibrate on Ring or Vibrate on Silent from the Settings – Sounds options.
