Even if you’re an experienced iPhone or iPad user, your Apple devices can still surprise you. Do you know how to identify your iPhone or iPad model, set it to Do Not Disturb While Driving, or have a joke with Siri? Here we take a look at the things you might not know they can do; advanced tips, tricks and tactics to get even more from your mobile devices. Most of the examples we show here apply to both the iPhone and the iPad, though a few are for the iPhone only. Follow our guides and you’ll soon be getting even more from your handy Apple smartphone or tablet.
Do Not Disturb While Driving Do Not Disturb While Driving is found in Settings > Do Not Disturb. It can activate either manually, when your phone is connected to incar Bluetooth devices; or automatically, so the phone detects when it’s in a moving car. If the feature is set to activate automatically and the iPhone thinks you’re driving, a message to this effect pops up. If you’re not driving, maybe you’re a passenger or on a train, tap the button underneath to deactivate. You can add an extra option for Do Not Disturb While Driving to Control Centre. This is useful if it automatically activates when you’re a passenger and you want to use your phone. See our Control Centre tips for details. Have a Laugh with Siri If you’re bored, you can have a laugh with Siri. To activate Apple’s digital personal assistant, press and hold the Home button, or the side button (right hand side) on the latest iPhones that don’t have a home button. Now ask Siri to tell you a joke. It might not be a very funny joke, but it definitely won’t be offensive and as Siri has quite a few gags to hand, if you keep asking you should get a different joke each time. There are various conundrums you can ask Siri which will get an amusing response. Try, “What is zero divided by zero?” or maybe “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” Identify Your iPhone or iPad If you need to identify which model of iPhone or iPad you have, first go to Settings > General > About and tap the Model listing. You will see the letter ‘A’ followed by a series of numbers. This is your model identifier and you should now make a note of it. In Safari, on any other device that can use the Internet, go to www.apple.co/1BLyiHU for iPhones or https://apple.co/1ALK0r4 for iPads. Look for your device’s identifier number here, and you find out which model you have. To identify your device’s storage capacity, open the Settings app, tap the General link and then tap About. Here you find lots of information about your iPhone or iPad l, including its capacity. As you can see, this one has 256GB. Night Shift Mode To activate Night Shift, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift and review the options available on this screen. Activating Night Shift reduces the amount of blue light your screen outputs, making it easier to sleep. Switch on the Manually Enable Until Tomorrow switch to turn on the Night Shift Mode for the rest of the day. Turn on Scheduled to have it come on at times set by yourself, using the time wheels as shown, or from sunset to sunrise if you prefer. You can also switch it on and off from the Control Panel. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to see the Control Panel, once here a deep press on the brightness slider should open the bigger version then tap the large Night Shift button below it. Search the Settings App If you’re looking for a setting on your iPhone or iPad but can’t find it, here’s the solution. In the Settings app pull down the screen, you’ll see a search field revealed at the top, simply tap it to get the virtual keyboard. Now type whatever it is you’re looking for in the Settings app. Predictive hits are offered, so when the setting you’re looking for appears, just tap it to go straight there. It’s a really useful feature. Take Photos with Headphones As you probably know, you can take a photo on your iPhone or iPad by pressing the volume button instead of tapping the big white button on the screen. This is sometimes more convenient and comfortable. Did you know you can also use the volume controls on cabled or Bluetooth earbuds or headphones, as long as they’re currently connected to your device? Just open the camera app and tap a volume button. Customise the Control Centre As you probably know, the Control Centre gives quick and easy access to your iPhone or iPad’s key controls. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open it, or down from the top-right corner on an iPhone X, XS/ XS Max or XR model. On an iPhone or iPad the Control Centre can be customised to your own requirements. In the Settings app go to Control Centre > Customise Controls. Here you can tap a minus icon to remove an app from Control Centre or a plus icon to add one to it. You can reorder the controls by dragging them up and down the list using the three-line icons on the right and therefore changing the order in which they appear onscreen. With a little effort, you can soon have a customised Control Centre. Adding Foreign and Third-Party Keyboards To switch to a foreign-language keyboard, go to Settings > General > Keyboard and tap the Keyboards link at the top. Once here, tap Add New Keyboard then choose a new one from the list. From now on, whenever you use the keyboard, you can tap and hold the globe icon to get a pop-up menu. From here, you can switch to any of the foreign keyboards you have added. To add a third-party keyboard, first download it from the App Store app. When it’s downloaded, follow Step 1 in this guide; your third-party keyboard will be available to select. Erasing a Second-Hand iPhone If you acquired your iPhone or iPad second hand, perhaps from a friend or family member who upgraded, you might need to reset it to factory conditions so you can start again. From the Reset menu, tap the link titled’ Erase All Content and Settings’. You’re shown a menu inviting you to back up before erasing which you can choose to do, otherwise just erase. First of all, from the home screen open the Settings app and navigate to General. Here you will see an option called Reset at the bottom of the screen. Tap it for the Reset menu. Enter the passcode, tap Erase iPhone/iPad and then again to confirm, before entering the Apple ID, remember you might need to get these from the phone’s previous owner. Your device will now be wiped. Person by Person Read Receipts Read receipts allow people who have sent you a message to know when it’s been read. They’re optional and you can set them on a person-by-person basis if you want some people to get read receipts, but not others. If you want to change whether you send read receipts to a specific person, open a message conversation for that person, tap their photo at the top then tap the ‘i’ underneath. The Read Receipts switch can be turned on and off for that person alone. Invert Colours The iPhone’s and iPad’s displays are easy on the eyes, but if you find it difficult to use, maybe because you have a visual impairment, there’s a setting you should try out. Open the Settings app and tap the General link, you’ll see the Accessibility options bout half way down. Tap on it and then tap on Display Accommodations. Once here, tap Invert Colours. You’re given a choice between Smart Invert, which leaves some media such as photographs unchanged and Classic Invert, which reverses all colour. Try them out using the switches. Offload Unused Apps Most iPhone and iPad users have at least one app that they very rarely use, but keep on their device because if it were deleted they would lose all its saved data or documents. This is especially true for gaming apps. There is, however, an alternative. In the Settings app, go to [Your Name] > iTunes & App Stores. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen to find an option called Offload Unused Apps, which is currently switched off. With this option switched on, when you run out of storage space on your iPhone or iPad, apps you use very infrequently, are automatically deleted, but their data and documents are not. If you need them again, reinstall and that data will be there. Save Drafts in Mail If you’re halfway through typing an email and something else crops up, you can save your unfinished email as a quick and convenient draft, so you can return to it later. Swipe down from the top of the email, the unfinished email is now minimised at the foot of the screen. To go back, simply tap the email draft to reopen it. Scan Documents in Notes You can scan a paper document in the Notes app and save it directly to a note. In the Notes app, first open a new note then tap the icon showing a plus sign in a circle to bring up the attachments menu. Tap Scan Documents. Hold your iPhone or iPad over the document and it’s highlighted in yellow. When you’re happy, take the photo. Tap Keep Scan and then either take another scan or tap Save to finish. Your document appears on the note as a Scanned Document. Reader View in Safari On some, but not all, web pages, there’s a ‘lines’ icon on the left of the URL bar. Tap this to use the Reader View. This simplifies the layout, making it easier to read or print. When in Reader View, you can tap the two-A’s icon to change the font, text size and more. Tap the three-lines icon again to return to regular web browsing. Help in Emergencies Open the Health app, and in the bottomright corner, you see an icon labelled Medical ID. Tap it. You should now fill in your personal medical information, including medical conditions from which you suffer, medicines you’re taking and more. Medical ID is available from the emergency dialler (press Home with a finger not registered with Touch ID, or wait for the passcode screen instead of using Face ID), so if you’re in an accident, the emergency services can look at it even if your iPhone is locked. Another handy tip for emergencies is if you quickly press the power button five times you can activate a secret SOS as shown. After the SOS, the emergency services are called, and your emergency contacts notified, though you can cancel either action. Safari’s Autofill Feature The Safari web browser has a great Autofill feature that can save you a lot of time when filling in online forms. But first you have to set it up. To begin with, open the Settings app from the home screen. To set up auto-fill, go to Safari > AutoFill. From there, you can decide whether you want to use information stored on your contact card for the feature, whether AutoFill should also include credit card information. Set up the AutoFill as you see fit. Note, if you add a credit card, the security number on the back isn’t saved. When done, and you need to fill in a web form, just tap a text field and then tap AutoFill Contact to fill it in. Read more on iphone 6 buyers guide
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