IPhone news and information

Archive for the ‘iPhone Tips’ Category

Maybe everybody already knows this, but I missed it in all the new features of iOS 5. The iPad mail app adds a new gesture to show and hide the message list window when in portrait orientation.

I always use my iPad's Mail app in landscape mode because I get to see my message list in addition to the message detail. And for some reason, I find it tedious to push the mailbox button at the top left of the screen to see the message list. iOS 5 added the ability to swipe right anywhere on the message window to pop up the message list and to swipe left to hide it again. Nice! Not having to move my finger six inches has somehow made portrait mode much more bearable for me.

[crarko adds: Well, I didn't know it either, so here's the hint. I also was a landscape mode only iPad mail user.]

As you know, there are plenty of tools to keep track of shipments that are shipped with UPS. There is an app called Delivery Status which even recognizes an UPS shipment by just copy and pasting the tracking number into the app.

I just noticed that iOS seems to recognize the shipment all by itself.

In iOS Mail (iOS 5.0.1) every number is highlighted to be called as a possible phone number. But in this case the number was my UPS tracking code. Upon tapping the number I got the options to either copy it or track it.

By tapping tracking it opens an ups site with the tracking number already applied to the script so that you can see the status of your shipment. Ergo no need to copy and paste an UPS tracking code to any other program or the UPS site itself.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. As mentioned in this previous hint this was a new feature i ...

If you're looking for an easy way to sort your iOS device screenshots in iPhoto, here's a few handy smart album configurations that may help.

For documentation at work I take numerous screenshots of the different iOS apps we use.

In an attempt to organize these screenshots easily in iPhoto, I came across these two Smart Album configurations that might be helpful to others.

For iPad match all of the following conditions:

• Aperture is Unknown
• ISO is Unknown
• Filename starts with IMG_
• Filename contains PNG
• Any Text contains 1024

The last step filters out the iPad screenshots from other iOS device screenshots (iPhone, iPod Touch).

For iPhone (or iPod Touch) match all of the following conditions:

• Aperture is Unknown
• ISO is Unknown ...

On a French system, one cannot edit Game Center settings (country, emails, and more importantly, confidentiality -- if your profile is public, you can't switch it to private).

Steps to Reproduce:

• Setup iOS in French.
• Go to Game Center.
• Touch the mail address (it has to be already configured).
• Choose to view the account.
• Try using one of the following actions:
  • change email address
  • confidentiality
  • country

Additional note : there is no Save button on the upper right corner.

Workaround :

A solution to perform changes is to switch the system to English and when done, switch it back to French.

[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. I presume this affects other non-English language localizations as well, and they would use the same workaround, until Apple improves on international support for Game Center.]

In the latest version of Safari for iOS, pressing and holding the add tab [+] button will show a list of recently closed tabs. Touching one of the listed pages will open it in a new tab.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described, although it seems a bit inconsistent in how it handles the list. Closing Safari with no open tabs clears the list, but if there are tabs still open the list is maintained. Actually quitting Safari (clicking the 'X' in the multitasking bar) clears the list whether there are tabs still open or not.]

I'm using the iPad 2's 10 Watt wall charger and wireless sync, and it works very well. The only thing that kept bothering me was how to tell how much the battery was charged without unplugging it.

Here's how: If you have the iPad's screen locked, press and hold the Home button. After a few seconds the battery charge percentage will show up next to the 'Charging' icon in the top right of the screen.

[crarko adds: I tried this with a first-generation iPad and it did nothing. However, going to Settings » General » Usage and turning on the 'Battery Percentage' slider makes the charging level always visible. Does the iPad 2 behave differently?]

There is no easy way to mass delete some (but not all) photos from the Camera Roll from the iPhone. Here is the solution I found.

Before iOS5, I'd never used the iTunes app to sync my photos. Instead, I've used the highly rated app called PhotoSync (wireless sync for iPhoto/iPhone). When doing this, my iPhone collected many photos, all 1561 of them and never deleted them. The solution was to mount the iPhone as a camera in Apple's Image Capture application. This allowed me to select my 1000 photos I didn't want and delete them with ease.

[crarko adds: Once again, Image Capture comes to the rescue. Note that iPhoto will either let you keep or delete all the images on an import, but doesn't give much choice beyond that.]

If you use Find My Friends, you can ask Siri to locate your friends for you.

Simply say 'find my friends' to locate friends near you. You can also ask for friends by name, saying 'find [friend name].' This also works with relationships, like 'find my wife.'

To top it all off, you can say 'hide me from my friends' to hide your current location—great for last minute holiday shopping trips!

[crarko adds: Yet another example of the wonders of Siri. My prediction is that the next version will be enabled to shop for you, at least in iTunes, the iBookstore and the App Store.]

Sometimes, you use words in other languages so often that as convenient as it already is, it's still a hassle to switch keyboards.

But you can use the keyboard shortcut for such words. It's faster and doesn't break your flow. Like so.

Also useful for special characters.

[crarko adds: I know we've had hints about using this for special characters before, but this seems to illustrate the idea of what this feature was designed for perfectly.]

Here's a piece of new functionality with iOS 5 Weather app.

The Weather app doesnt look like it has changed much, but when looking at the forecast for the week, tap and pull down below a day and it will give an hourly forecast.

[crarko adds: Hey, that's pretty cool. I hadn't noticed this before.]