One major annoyance for me on the iPhone is when long song titles, podcasts, videos, etc, don’t fit on the screen and are cut off. Thankfully, Apple offers a simple solution to see the full title, just hold your finger on the track, and the full title will appear in a pop-up (see image below):
Photo albums are a new feature introduced in iOS 5. Sorting your photos into albums is not only a way to give order to the chaos that is the Photos app, but it also makes it easier to show off all the pictures of your new baby, latest vacation, or new car.
Another cool feature of albums is slideshows. With one tap, you can also easily play the album as a slideshow and use any music on your iPhone as background music.
Below are step-by-step instructions on how to organize your photos in albums on the iPhone (works for the iPad too).
1. Open the Photos app:
2. Tap Edit in the top right corner:
3. Tap Add in the top left corner:
4. Enter in a name for your album, then tap Save:
5. Tap the photos you want to place in the album, a blue and white checkmark will appear when you select them. Note that photos can be placed into more than one album. Tap Album in the top left to navigate to other albums and select the photos within:
6. Tap Done in the top right corner:
And that’s it, you’ve created a photo album.
Let’s say you’ve already have created an album called Friends, and you want to move a new picture into that album. Here’s how (hat tip to Michelle in the comments). Important: note that this only works for albums created on the iPhone. If you created an album on your computer and synced it to the iPhone, the instructions below won’t work.
1. In the Camera Roll or in any album, tap the arrow in the top right corner:
2. Tap the photo(s) you want to move into an album, then tap Add To:
3. Tap Add to Existing Album:
4. Tap the album you want to move the photo(s) into:
And that’s it.
Image via Make.
A common binder clip is a simple solution for preventing kids from pressing the home button and quitting out of apps—a huge source of frustration for parents and kids alike. Best of all, you may already have a binder clip around the house. It’s awkward looking but effective, especially for toddlers.
If you’ve ever used a binder clip, you’ll know that it requires a good amount of wrist strength to remove, especially when the binder is already attached to a thick object, so young kids will have trouble removing it.
Binder clips are cheap too. Amazon has a box of 12 for $1.99.
This tip comes via Make Magazine.
The BubCap is a more elegant solution for preventing kids from pressing the home button. The BubCap is a thin but rigid piece of plastic that fits over the home button via strong adhesive and prevents a toddler from pressing the home button. The adhesive is strong enough that young children will lack the coordination and strength to remove it, yet adults can remove it without adverse effects to the iDevice.
BubCaps are mainly designed for toddlers, as older children and adults will still be able to push the button through the plastic and remove the BubCap itself.
BubCaps sell for $6 on Amazon for a set of four Bubcaps, which includes two different rigidities.
If it makes you nervous to hand over your expensive iDevice to a child, a good protective case can be an insurance policy against damage.
BigGrips are thick, colorful iPad cases that will give the device a softer, kid-friendly feel. They are available for the iPad 2 and original iPad for around $35.
If you don’t like the bright colors and would rather have a full-time protective case you’re not embarrassed to carry around yourself, we recommend checking out a company called Otterbox, which is known for its ultra-protective cases that even the US military uses to protect its iDevices. Their MSRP is usually over $60, but you can find them at deep discounts on Amazon.
In the iPhone’s Settings, a feature called Restrictions can prevent kids from accessing certain apps and features. Once Restrictions are turned on, they are passcode protected, so kids can’t change them without the passcode. Restrictions are mainly meant for older kids, but there are a few that could come in handy for toddlers too, preventing them from:
To access Restrictions, open up the Settings app and go to General–>Restrictions. Apple has made it easy to turn off restrictions with one tap. You can find out more about Restrictions on Apple’s site here.
Kids may try to play with Mommy’s iPhone when Mommy isn’t around, which can lead to trouble. It’s recommended that everyone, parents and nonparents alike, use a passcode to protect their iPhone from unwanted intrusions.
Sure, passcodes can be annoying if you access your iPhone a lot, but you can change the amount of time that must pass before your iPhone passcode locks itself to make it less annoying. For example, my iPhone is set to require a passcode after 1 hour of non-use.
You can easily share any of your iPhone contact’s details with just a few taps. The iPhone is compatible with the vCard format, which is essentially a digital version of a business card. iPhone vCards can be exchanged via text message or email, and all the recipient has to do is tap the vCard to add that contact and their details to their iPhone’s address book. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to send a vCard on the iPhone:
1. Open the Phone or Contacts app:
2. Select a contact, then tap the Share Contact button toward the bottom of the screen:
3. Select Mail or Message (text message):
4. Choose your recipient(s), then tap Send:
5. When your recipient receives the vCard, it will look something like this:
Now all the recipient has to do, if on an iPhone, is tap the card to add all the contact’s details to their iPhone as well. Easy as pie!
You may know the iPhone’s Spotlight Search feature can be used to quickly find and launch apps, but it can also be used to launch your favorite websites. This can save you a lot of typing and frustration. Web clips, which are simply bookmarks you save to your home screen via the iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser, are considered apps by Spotlight Search, and thus will show up when you search for apps. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to create a web clip.
1. Open the iPhone’s Safari browser:
2. Navigate to your favorite website, then tap the arrow button at the bottom of the screen:
3. Tap Add to Home Screen:
4. Give the webclip a name that you’ll remember when searching for it:
Note: Some websites have an icon that will show up when you create the web clip. For example, ESPN.com will have a nice ESPN logo on the icon.
5. Tap Add in the top right corner:
6. The web clip will now have its own icon on the the iPhone’s home screen:
7. To test it out, open up the iPhone’s Spotlight Search and enter the name of the web clip:
Everyone loves emoji, the cute little icons most commonly used in text messages. But inserting them can be a lumbering, multistep process. Here’s a much quicker way to insert emoji using the new text shortcuts feature on the iPhone. Just follow the step-by-step instructions below for a one-time setup. Then you’ll be able to instantly insert emoji by typing just a few characters.
1. Make sure you have emoji activated. They are not turned on by default (you only have to activate them once). Follow our instructions on activating them.
2. Once emoji are activated, open the iPhone’s Settings and tap General:
3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard:
4. Scroll down and tap: Add New Shortcut…:
5. In the field labeled Phrase, insert the emoji. (You can access the emoji keyboard by tapping the globe icon on the keyboard):
6. Now, in the shortcut field, type in a combination of characters that will turn into the emoji. Pick an uncommon combination of characters to help prevent accidental auto-correction from occuring, but also pick something that will help you remember the shortcut. For example, for a shortcut for the heart emoji, you may want to use the letters hht, as it’s not a common combination of letters and the two H’s will allow you to quickly type the characters.
7. To finish, tap Save:
And that’s it. To test your new emoji shortcut, type in your shortcut anywhere you can enter text on the iPhone, tap spacebar, and your cute little emoji will appear!
You can add words to the iPhone’s spelling dictionary to prevent the iPhone’s auto-correct feature from automatically fixing them. To do this, however, you must add the words to a very unobvious place on the iPhone: in the iPhone’s “text shortcuts.” Below are step-by-step instructions on how to add words to the iPhone’s dictionary.
1. Open Settings:
2. Tap General:
3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard:
4. Scroll down and tap: Add New Shortcut…:
5. In the field labeled Phrase, type in the word. Do not type in anything in the Shortcut field.
6. Tap Save:
And that’s it, you’ve added a word to the iPhone’s spelling dictionary. Now the word will no longer trigger autocorrect.
Notes:
*Update 3/9/2012* This tip no longer works if you update your iPhone to iOS 5.1.
Here’s an awesome tip. One of my major annoyances with iOS is having to navigate deep into the settings every time I want to turn Bluetooth on or off. But here’s a neat little trick that will let you create an icon you can tap to take you directly to your Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or other settings, and it doesn’t involve hacking, jailbreaking, or doing anything else untoward. It’s a two-part tip.
The first part relies on a set of commands (entire list below) you can type into the iPhone’s Safari browser to launch directly into a specific setting on the iPhone. You can try it yourself, simply type the following into your browser: prefs:root=WIFI to launch the WiFi settings on the iPhone.
Cool, huh? But who wants to type that in every time? Here’s where the second part of this tip comes in. You’ll need an app called Icon Project ($0.99) that lets you design webapp icons and add them to your homescreen (for iPhone beginners, webapps are essentially web bookmarks you can save to your iPhone’s home screen. Apple also calls them web clips).
Icon Project not only lets you design the icon’s graphics, colors, text, etc, you can also add links to websites. When you tap the icon, the website will launch. And that’s where the list of commands below comes in. Using the Icon Project app, where you’d normally enter a web address simply type in any of the commands below. Then, when you tap the icon, you’ll to be taken directly to that iPhone setting. Sweet trick.
*Update* For a free version of this tip (without the need for the $0.99 app), point your iPhone or iPad’s browser to this page at iPhoneZa and scroll down. Choose among the various links to easily add icons with shortcuts to iPhone settings. The only disadvantage for using the website is that you can’t use your own graphics for the icons.
Note that some users who haven’t upgraded to iOS 5 have been having some trouble with this tip.
About –> prefs:root=General&path=About
Accessibility –> prefs:root=General&path=ACCESSIBILITY
Airplane Mode On –> prefs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE
Auto-Lock –> prefs:root=General&path=AUTOLOCK
Brightness –> prefs:root=Brightness
Bluetooth –> prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth
Date & Time –> prefs:root=General&path=DATE_AND_TIME
FaceTime –> prefs:root=FACETIME
General –> prefs:root=General
Keyboard –> prefs:root=General&path=Keyboard
iCloud –> prefs:root=CASTLE
iCloud Storage & Backup –> prefs:root=CASTLE&path=STORAGE_AND_BACKUP
International –> prefs:root=General&path=INTERNATIONAL
Location Services –> prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES
Music –> prefs:root=MUSIC
Music Equalizer –> prefs:root=MUSIC&path=EQ
Music Volume Limit –> prefs:root=MUSIC&path=VolumeLimit
Network –> prefs:root=General&path=Network
Nike + iPod –> prefs:root=NIKE_PLUS_IPOD
Notes –> prefs:root=NOTES
Notification –> prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID
Phone –> prefs:root=Phone
Photos –> prefs:root=Photos
Profile –> prefs:root=General&path=ManagedConfigurationList
Reset –> prefs:root=General&path=Reset
Safari –> prefs:root=Safari
Siri –> prefs:root=General&path=Assistant
Sounds –> prefs:root=Sounds
Software Update -> prefs:root=General&path=SOFTWARE_UPDATE_LINK
Store –> prefs:root=STORE
Twitter –> prefs:root=TWITTER
Usage –> prefs:root=General&path=USAGE
VPN –> prefs:root=General&path=Network/VPN
Wallpaper –> prefs:root=Wallpaper
Wi-Fi –> prefs:root=WIFI
With the app, you can also make icons for calling or texting (or iMessaging) your favorite contacts. You can use any image on your iPhone for the icon. For example, you could create an icon with the face of your sweetheart that, with one tap, allows you to dial their number.
A text shortcut is a new time-saving feature on the iPhone that allows you to type just a few characters and turn them into much larger words and phrases. By default, Apple has provided one default shortcut: omw, which expands into on my way. To view it, simply type omw anywhere you can type text on the iPhone, then tap the spacebar. Shortcuts can be useful for quickly inserting email signatures, unusual words not found in the iPhone’s dictionary, or common long phrases you use, like “Love you Snookums Snookums.”
You can easily add your own text shortcuts. Below are step-by-step instructions on how.
1. Open Settings:
2. Tap General:
3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard:
4. Scroll down and tap: Add New Shortcut…:
5. Type in the phrase and its corresponding shortcut:
6. Tap Save:
There may be times when the iPhone suddenly freezes or its screen goes dark with the power still on. Don’t panic or run to the Apple Store quite yet, simply force a shutdown and restart it. To do this, hold down both the sleep and the home buttons for several seconds until you see the Apple logo appear.
