Being iSavvy

Style – 11 October 2012

Australians love their iPhones. We have the greatest per capita consumption of these gorgeous little devices, but for many of us, we learn a few tricks in our first week and then stop learning. So I did some investigation and found some clever little short cuts for you. Some you may know, and hopefully some will be an eye-opener.

Take a picture of your screen.

You might find a webpage or picture you want to keep, or even a text message conversation. Press and hold the Home button (round one under the screen), then press the Sleep/Wake button (on the top right). Your screen flashes and the picture appears in your Camera Roll. .

Scroll to the top fast

In Safari, Mail, Contacts, and many other apps, tap the status bar at the top of the screen — which displays the network information, time, and battery level — to scroll quickly to the top.

Easy camera button

If you turn on your camera and hold it in the landscape position, you can use the volume up button as a shutter button. It feels much more like a real camera this way. Most of the iPhones we have tested can do this trick but a couple have had trouble.

Pinch to zoom

In the camera app, pinch to zoom in and out of a scene up to 5x. When Apple tells you to “pinch” they mean that you put two fingers on your screen and slide them together. You can also use the zoom slider at the bottom of the screen.

Customise your shortcuts

Create your own personal dictionary, including shortcuts for your most used phrases. In Settings, tap General, Keyboard, and Add New Shortcut. From here, you can add new phrases and assign optional shortcuts to them. For instance you can set ‘remember to buy double choc Tim Tams” as rtbdctt. Much quicker!

Favourite websites on your homescreen

If you go to the same webpage often, it’s more convenient to have the site on your homescreen (so it looks like an app). To add a website to your Home screen, visit the page in Safari and tap the Go To icon (looks like an arrow leaping out of a box) at the bottom of the Safari window. Tap Add to Home Screen. I’ve already done this for Woman With Drive so it’s there at the poke of a finger.

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