Monday, August 10, 2009

In Depth: 10 iPhone shortcuts for new owners

In Depth: 10 iPhone shortcuts for new owners: "

Apple is known for loading its software with handy shortcuts and tricks to make your life easier. You will struggle to find a definitive list of these in the documentation, and many people actually discover them by accident.

With the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple designed a whole new operating system. Essentially a stripped down version of Mac OS X, the iPhone/iPod OS has some great hidden shortcuts and timesavers, which could make your everyday use of the device quicker and easier.

The revolutionary Multi-Touch interface isn't just designed to be tapped, there are actually a host of gestures and movement combinations that perform specific actions. And despite only having two hardware buttons, these work differently depending on how you press them.

Some of the tips related to making calls will only work on an iPhone, of course, but most of these shortcuts will also work on the iPod touch.

01. Show iPod controls

Grab 1

The iPod application has the ability to run in the background. If you're using a different app and you want to pause or skip a track, double tap Home to display iPod controls.

02. Tap the title bar

Grab 2

Scrolling to the top of a page in Safari can be slow. Double-tap on the title bar where the time is displayed and you will jump back to the top. This also works with SMS conversations.

03. Control iPod when locked

Grab 3

If your iPhone/iPod touch is locked but you need to change the volume, pause or skip tracks, double-tap Home and you can control the iPod app and see what track is playing.

04. Make calls from Safari

Grab 4

Phone numbers in Safari display as links. If you press and hold on the number for a couple of seconds, it will display in a pop-up window. This also works with web links.

05. Quick delete button

Grab 5

You can delete items by swiping your finger across the right side of emails, SMS conversations or podcasts when in List view. Videos are marked and erased at the next sync.

06. Quickly add suffixes

Grab 6

In Mail, press and hold on the .com button to reveal .net, .edu .org and .co.uk shortcuts; just select to enter them. This also works when entering URLs in Safari.

07. Force quit apps

Grab 7

If an app freezes, press and hold the Home button for around six seconds to force quit it. If an app quits repeatedly by itself it probably needs updating by the developer.

08. Fix Caps Lock

Grab 8

With Caps Lock Enable on (Settings > General > Keyboard), double-tap Caps Lock to fix it on or off. If its off, click and hold Caps Lock then slide over to a letter to capitalise it.

09. Alternative characters

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When you are typing, you may want to use non-standard letters. Press and hold certain letters including A, E, I, O or U to access alternative versions for different languages.

10. Configure iPod controls

Grab 10

In the iPod app, go to More > Edit. From the resulting screen you can drag and drop shortcuts into the four slots at the base of the screen for the things you access most often.



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(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)

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