[Allyson Kazmucha]

iOS has tons of secrets and shortcuts buried away underneath all that code. We have tons of tips posted but it doesn't mean we know everything.

Have you guys found any good tips or tricks on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you think new (or even veteran) users may find useful?

Things such as

- sliding the keyboard apart to split it on the iPad
- Multi-tasking gestures for iPad
- Holding down on .com to get other prefixes like .org, .net, or .edu

Have you found anything interesting on your iOS device or are there any shortcuts you use consistently you think other users may benefit from?

[itsalexaye]

I just found out about the 5 finger pinch gesture to return to the homescreen on the iPad...its pretty sweet!

[impaler]

I just found out about the 5 finger pinch gesture to return to the homescreen on the iPad...its pretty sweet!

I agree. I've been a big user of the gestures on iPad more and more lately. It's gotten to where I don't use the home button much at all. I think Apple's vision is to get rid of the home button, eventually. A gesture-based interface lends itself to much more flexibility.

[TurboTiger]

- Holding down on .com to get other prefixes like .org, .net, or .edu

Didn't know about this one.
Tks iMuggle

[Allyson Kazmucha]

Didn't know about this one.
Tks iMuggle

No problem

You can also drag your finger across keys. So say I wanted to type a 3. Press the 123 button to switch to numbers and symbols but don't lift up your finger. Just drag it to the 3 and release & the keyboard will go back to default. Makes numbers & symbols quicker!

[ghostface147]

I didn't know that one.

[TurboTiger]

No problem

You can also drag your finger across keys. So say I wanted to type a 3. Press the 123 button to switch to numbers and symbols but don't lift up your finger. Just drag it to the 3 and release & the keyboard will go back to default. Makes numbers & symbols quicker!

Now this one I knew about.
Thanks also for the tips link in your opening post.
Good Luck iMuggle

[itsalexaye]

Just found out today that on the iPad you can swipe left to right with four fingers between apps. Similar to on Lion and Mountain Lion.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Massie]

Camera tips:
-use a two-finger spread to zoom
-press and hold screen to lock focus/exposure
-use the Volume Up button on your headphones as a shutter trigger

Mail tips:
-you can now hold/drag addresses from one box to another (from To: to BCC: for example)
-highlight text for options to use bold, italic, or underline

Keyboard Shortcuts:
- to make frequently typed text easier to enter

Calculator:
-Turn it to landscape for expanded calculator options

Customize Spotlight Search:
-Settings>General>Spotlight Search lets you define what gets searched in Spotlight; if you wanted to, you could use it as just a Mail search, or just a Messages search, etc.

Make the YouTube webapp the default way of playing YouTube videos:
-for me this is often speedier than using the native app; instructions

And finally, an oldie but goodie: Turn off "ask to join networks":
-Settings>Wi-Fi>Ask to Join Networks>OFF to stop that annoying popup that asks if you want to join every single network you happen to be passing by! You'll still automatically join your known networks, and can still manually join any new network you want.

Sure there are many more!

[Apple_Fangirl06]

And finally, an oldie but goodie: Turn off "ask to join networks":
-Settings>Wi-Fi>Ask to Join Networks>OFF to stop that annoying popup that asks if you want to join every single network you happen to be passing by! You'll still automatically join your known networks, and can still manually join any new network you want.

Sure there are many more!

Thank you....this drives me crazy. LOL.

[aawilson]

My favorite new discovery is asisstive touch. Anyone tried it? For power users with stock iOS this is as close as we get to stuff like sbsettings and activator. It gives me a software home button, quick access to volume, lock, and rotate. And then I've set gestures for scroll up, down, left and right. Good on big websites or on an app filled springboard, or even to summon or dismiss the notification center. I saw one YouTube video where a guy set a gesture to play Angry Birds for him and it beat the whole level. I was using this other day to switch apps and I asked my friend if he'd ever tried it, he said "what is that thing?" So something I find really useful and I don't know if many people know about it. Just thought I'd share. If you want to see what I'm talking about:
1) go into settings > general
2) scroll to accessibility
3) scroll to asisstive touch > on
4) Start inventing gestures or just save your hardware home and lock buttons!

[BLiNK]

My favorite new discovery is asisstive touch.

i'm sorry but i find this very annoying. a friend of mine had to use it due to their sleep button not working and it seemed to always be in the way

[TurboTiger]

My favorite new discovery is asisstive touch. Anyone tried it? For power users with stock iOS this is as close as we get to stuff like sbsettings and activator. It gives me a software home button, quick access to volume, lock, and rotate. And then I've set gestures for scroll up, down, left and right. Good on big websites or on an app filled springboard, or even to summon or dismiss the notification center. I saw one YouTube video where a guy set a gesture to play Angry Birds for him and it beat the whole level. I was using this other day to switch apps and I asked my friend if he'd ever tried it, he said "what is that thing?" So something I find really useful and I don't know if many people know about it. Just thought I'd share. If you want to see what I'm talking about:
1) go into settings > general
2) scroll to accessibility
3) scroll to asisstive touch > on
4) Start inventing gestures or just save your hardware home and lock buttons!

Tks for this tip aawilson,
I hate using the Home Button to close apps and remove apps from the multi-task bar.
Good Luck

[Optic Dev]

iOS has tons of secrets and shortcuts buried away underneath all that code. We have tons of tips posted but it doesn't mean we know everything.

Have you guys found any good tips or tricks on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you think new (or even veteran) users may find useful?

Things such as

- sliding the keyboard apart to split it on the iPad
- Multi-tasking gestures for iPad
- Holding down on .com to get other prefixes like .org, .net, or .edu

Have you found anything interesting on your iOS device or are there any shortcuts you use consistently you think other users may benefit from?

White on black under Settings>General>Accessibility

[Massie]

In Notification Center, swipe the weather display left or right to reveal a six-day forecast.

[Allyson Kazmucha]

Camera tips:
-use a two-finger spread to zoom
-press and hold screen to lock focus/exposure
-use the Volume Up button on your headphones as a shutter trigger

Mail tips:
-you can now hold/drag addresses from one box to another (from To: to BCC: for example)
-highlight text for options to use bold, italic, or underline

Keyboard Shortcuts:
- to make frequently typed text easier to enter

Calculator:
-Turn it to landscape for expanded calculator options

Customize Spotlight Search:
-Settings>General>Spotlight Search lets you define what gets searched in Spotlight; if you wanted to, you could use it as just a Mail search, or just a Messages search, etc.

Make the YouTube webapp the default way of playing YouTube videos:
-for me this is often speedier than using the native app; instructions

And finally, an oldie but goodie: Turn off "ask to join networks":
-Settings>Wi-Fi>Ask to Join Networks>OFF to stop that annoying popup that asks if you want to join every single network you happen to be passing by! You'll still automatically join your known networks, and can still manually join any new network you want.

Sure there are many more!

Thanks! I didn't know about dragging addresses to different fields in mail. Nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BlackBerryBoy813]

Wow great post. Learned some new things. I've just started using the 5 finger pinch to get back to the homescreen.

[JustMe'D]

i'm sorry but i find this very annoying. a friend of mine had to use it due to their sleep button not working and it seemed to always be in the way

I agree. I tried it out (assistive touch) and it nearly drove me insane. I'm so in-sync with how I use my device as-is that, as you've stated, turning on the assistive touch feature just gets in my way.

[WillSchafer]

This is helpful. Thanks.

[iDonev]

I find this extremely helpful for long podcast titles:

Tap and hold on a song in Music.app to reveal its full name (in case it doesn't fit on screen). Same for Videos.

[Antrikshy]

Don't know if this thread is stale or what (I'm new here).

You can bypass (and even hide) the YouTube app and open videos directly in Safari by using Restrictions in Settings -> General. Restrict YouTube and set a password. The icon will disappear and the web app will be set to default.

The web app is better because it is constantly updated and allows you to set quality (great for slow connections).

[Massie]

Don't know if this thread is stale or what (I'm new here).

You can bypass (and even hide) the YouTube app and open videos directly in Safari by using Restrictions in Settings -> General. Restrict YouTube and set a password. The icon will disappear and the web app will be set to default.

The web app is better because it is constantly updated and allows you to set quality (great for slow connections).

I mentioned that one back on the first page, but it's worth repeating (at least until Google comes out with their own app)!

Another: when you enter "jiggle mode" to move an app, the icons on your folders will scroll up to reveal whether or not you have any empty space left in that folder--that way you don't have to try dragging an app into a folder to see whether or not it's already full.

And one more: in Settings/General/Spotlight Search you can customize where your phone will look during searches (Contacts, Apps, Music, Notes, Mail, etc.)