TOP 10 TIPS & TRICKS

Fall in Love with Your iPhone All Over Again

Raise your hand if your screen is clogged with unwanted notifications, if there are Camera settings you still don’t understand, if Siri never lets you finish your sentences, or if you’ve ever wondered what those crazy Emojis are supposed to represent. We all love our iPhones and iPads, but every one of us has experienced moments of frustration while using our devices. Here are 10 tips and tricks to make sure using your iDevice is always awesome and never annoying.

1Prevent Greedy Apps from Gobbling Your Data

Have you ever streamed music or videos on your iPhone or iPad only to realize the app was using cellular data instead of Wi-Fi? You can prevent racking up data charges by turning off cellular data for apps that use a lot of data. Go to Cellular in Settings and scroll down to the subheading titled Use Cellular Data For. There you will see a list of all the apps on your device. Turn off data access for any apps that are heavy data users or ones you can live without when away from Wi-Fi. Remember, you can always turn cellular data back on if you change your mind.

2Change What Day Your Week Starts in Calendar

By default, Sunday is the first day of the week in the Calendar app, but if you have an unusual schedule or prefer the calendar week to start on Monday, you can easily adjust your Calendar to match your lifestyle. In Settings, simply go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars and scroll down to Calendars. Tap on Start Week On and select your preferred start day.

3Use Your Camera’s HDR Setting

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and it works by capturing three different exposures of the same image and then combining them into a single image. It is most useful for taking photos of landscapes and low-lit subjects and least useful for shots of moving subjects. Select HDR On or HDR Off in the Camera app’s top menu panel on your iPhone if you want to control whether to take a photo in HDR or not. If you have an iPhone 5s, you can choose HDR Auto if you want to let the iPhone's camera control when to use HDR.

If you want to be able to compare the differences between your HDR and non-HDR images, go to Settings > Photos & Camera and toggle Keep Normal Photo on. Now the HDR and non-HDR versions will both save to your Camera Roll.

4Take Vertical Panoramic Photos

Panoramic photos aren’t just for extra-wide horizontal images. You can also use your device’s panoramic mode to capture shots of really tall buildings or vertically oriented landscape features. To take the photo, hold your device horizontally instead of vertically and then move your device up or down as you take the picture instead of from side to side.

5Invert Screen Colors

If you often find yourself squinting into the glare of your iPhone or iPad screen while reading an e-book or checking emails in the dark, you should turn on the tripleclick shortcut for inverting your device’s screen colors. Give your eyes a break by going to Settings > General > Accessibility, tapping Accessibility Shortcut, and selecting Invert Colors. Now all you have to do is triple-click the home button to invert the colors any time you are using your device in a low-light situation.

6Find Out The Names of the Different Emojis

You’ve probably used Emojis before to add a little visual fun to your texts and emails. But do you know what the individual symbols are called? You can find out by having Siri read them to you. Just go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speak Selection and toggle Speak Selection on. Type some Emoji text in Notes or a message. Next, tap and hold anywhere in the Emoji text, choose Select All from the options menu, and then tap Speak.

7Create Custom Repeats in Reminders

The Reminders app has limited options for repeat reminders: daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and yearly. But you can work around these limits and create custom repeats by using Siri to set your reminders. Just say, “Remind me to take my car in for an oil change every three months starting November 1st at 9 a.m.,” and Siri will set the reminder for every three months.

8Flick Away Annoying Notifications

If you’re tired of having important activities (you know, like playing QuizUp) interrupted by unwanted notifications from other apps, you’ll be happy to know you don’t have to wait for the notifications to disappear on their own. Just flick the notification upward to make it disappear so you can get back to business.

9Adjust Siri's Volume

If you've ever wanted to turn Siri's voice up or down, you've probably searched fruitlessly in Settings for Siri's volume control. You may have even tried asking Siri to adjust its own volume, only to be told Siri can't do that. The only way to make the virtual assistant speak louder or more softly is to activate Siri, and then adjust the sound using your device's volume buttons.

10Get Siri to Stop Interrupting You

If you’ve ever been interrupted by Siri before you could finish your request, you’ll be happy to know that there’s an easy way to correct Siri’s impolite habit. Next time you press and hold the Home button to activate Siri, continue to hold the Home button until you’re finished speaking your request. This simple fix will make your interactions with Siri a lot more courteous.