Category Archives: iPhone

Using Your iPhone’s Built-In Speaker

Posted on by
Reply

To use your iPhone’s speakerphone, just tap the Speaker button that appears onscreen while your call is in progress. When you tap that button, it VII turn solid blue to let you know the speakerphone is active. To turn the speakerphone.off, tap that solid blue button again.
Want to keep the info on your /Phone private? Then password protect it, so each time it wakes from sleep it asks you to input your secret four-digit password.

How To Send Text Messages

If you want to send a text message, start at the Home screen, then tap Messages. The first time you send a text message, this will take you directly to the New Message screen, where you can type and send your text. After that, tapping Messages will take you to your Messages list. So, to send a text message from there, tap the button in the top-right corner of the screen (it looks like a page with a pencil on it).

In the To field, enter the phone number (or just a name if they’re already in your contacts list—more on your contacts list), then tap once in the field to the right of the camera icon and type in your text. (Hey, what’s the camera icon for?) When you’re done with your message, just tap the blue Send button and your message is on its way (a little Sending status bar appears on the top of the screen, so you can see the progress of your message being sent). That’s the bare bones basics on texting.

Turning your iPhone on, off and putting it to sleep

Posted on by
Reply

To turn on your iPhone, press-and-hold the Sleep/Wake button,at the top. After a moment, the Apple logo will appear, and then you’ll get the Unlock screen. Press lightly on the arrow button, and slide it to the right to get to the Home screen, which is your main jumping off point to all the different things the iPhone can do. To turn your iPhone completely off, press-and-hold the Sleep/Wake button for around four seconds and a red Slide to Power Off button will appear. Press lightly on it and slide it to the right. Your screen will turn black, you’ll see a small round status icon for just a moment, then your iPhone will power off.

To save battery life when you’re not using the iPhone, press the Sleep/Wake button once to put it to sleep—you’ll hear a little click sound, then your screen will go black (don’t worry—it will still receive calls and text messages). To wake it from sleep, either tap that button again, or press the Home button (the round “real” button just below the screen). By the way, if you’re not doing anything on your iPhone, in about 45 seconds, it dims the brightness of the screen (to save battery), and then about 15 seconds later, if you still haven’t done anything, it puts itself to sleep.

iTip: Cancelling the Shutdown
If you get to the “power down” screen and then decide you didn’t want to actually turn off your iPhone after all, just tap the Cancel button and it will go back to the screen you were on. If you do nothing for about 30 seconds, that will also cancel the shutdown.

Using your iPhone’s Touchscreen
The touchscreen on your iPhone works amazingly well, and there are just a few little things to learn to make the most of it. Here are the three biggies:

(1) You don’t have to press hard. It just takes a light tap on the touchscreen to launch an app (short for application), to choose any button, or select anything. It’s surprisingly sensitive, which is great.

(2) You can zoom in much closer on part of a webpage, or email message, or photo, etc., by either: (a) double-tapping on the area you want to zoom in on, or (b) “pinching out,” which is where you pinch your index finger and thumb together, then touch the screen with them pinched together, and then spread them apart. As you spread out your fingers, the screen zooms in. To zoom back out, start with your fingers apart—touch the top of the screen with your index finger and the bottom with your thumb—and pinch inward until they touch (like you’re trying to pinch the screen).

(3) To scroll, or move something (like a slider), you touch the screen lightly and just “swipe” from left to right across the screen (Apple calls this “flicking,” but it feels more like a swipe to me). For example, to see the album art in your iPhone’s iPod, just touch an album lightly with your finger and kind of flick it (like you’re flipping pages in a book). To scroll or move faster, swipe faster.

How to Turn the Ringer Off on the iPhone?

Posted on by
Reply

If you don’t want to hear your iPhone’s ringer at all, from the Home screen, tap on Settings. In the Settings screen, tap on Sounds, then in the Ring section, tap-and-drag the Ring volume slider (it’s directly below the Vibrate setting),all the way to the left. This turns your ring volume off. Your phone will still vibrate when a call comes in, but there won’t be an audible ring. If you want to turn that vibration off, as well, in the Ring section, turn Vibrate off by tapping on its ON/OFF button. You can also turn the ringer off by moving the Ring/Silent switch (found on the top-left side of the iPhone) toward the back of the iPhone to Silent mode.

If a call comes in, and you can’t take it right then, but don’t want the phone to continue ringing, then just press the Sleep/Wake button on the top of the iPhone. This stops the ringing and sends the call into your voicemail.

Choosing Your Ringtone

The default ringtone for your iPhone is a marimba sound, but if you’d like to change it, start at the Home screen, then tap on Settings. In the Settings screen, tap on Sounds, then under the Ring volume slider, tap on Ringtone, and it takes you to a screen listing all the built-in ringtones and any custom ringtones you’ve synced to your iPhone. You’ll see a check mark to the right of Marimba, telling you that it’s the current ringtone.

To change it, tap on the name of the one you want. That ringtone plays (so you can hear if you really want to select it), and if you want to keep this new sound as your ringtone, just leave that screen (tap the Sounds button in the top-left corner of the Ringtone screen, or press the Home button).

The Advantage of Contact Groups on the iPhone

Posted on by
Reply

If the contact manager on your computer allows you to have caller groups, you can add them to your iPhone and it can make getting to the contacts you want much easier. For example, you could have a group for your favorite restaurants, and one just for your friends, and one for your co-workers, and.. .well, you get the idea. That way, when you tap on Phone from the Home screen, then tap on Contacts, you can tap the Groups button (in the upper-left corner) to see a list of your different groups. Then, you can tap on a group and see just those contacts.

Seeing a Contact’s Photo When They Call

Start at the Home screen, then tap Phone, then the Contacts button. Scroll to the contact you want to assign a photo to, tap their name, then tap the Edit button in the top-right corner of the screen. In the upper-left corner of the Info screen, tap on Add Photo. This brings up two buttons: Take Photo (so you can take a photo of your contact using your :P hone’s camera), and Choose Photo (which lets you choose any photo you’ve already taken with or imported into your iPhone). If you tap the Choose Photo button, it takes you to your Photo Albums screen, where you can tap on the photo you want to assign to your contact.

You’ll get a screen where you can choose the size and position of the photo that will display when your contact calls (use your finger to slide it around, which basically crops the photo, or “pinch it” with your fingers to scale it up or down). When it looks good to you, tap the gray Choose button and you’re done. If, instead, you tap the Take Photo button, just take the photo, scale and move it, and tap Use Photo. This is cool, but the Picture won’t be in the Camera Roll for download later. So if it’s a picture you will want to use for something else, take the picture first and add it to the contact afterwards.

How to Shoot a Photo and Adding It to a Contact on the iPhone?

Posted on by
Reply

If you want to take a photo using your iPhone’s camera and then add it to an existing contact, start at the Home screen, then tap Camera. Aim the camera and take a photo of your contact by tapping the camera shutter button at the bottom center of the screen. You’ll hear the shutter sound to let you know the photo has been taken, but to see the photo you just took, you have to tap the last shot thumbnail that appears to the left of the camera shutter button. This brings up the image full screen, and a row of buttons appears along the bottom of the screen. Tap the button on the far left and a menu will pop up.

To assign this photo to a contact, tap the Assign to Contact button, and it brings up your contacts list. Tap on the contact you want to assign that photo to, and it shows you how the final photo is going to look when the contact calls, so you can move and scale it the way you want (using your finger to slide the photo around onscreen, which basically crops the photo, or “pinching it” with your fingers to scale it up or down). When it looks good to you, press the gray Set Photo button and you’re done.

Search for a Contact

When you go to your contacts list (from the Home screen, tap Contacts), there will be a search field at the top of the list. Tap in it to get the keyboard, start typing the name of the contact you’re looking for, and the iPhone will immediately begin narrowing down the list to names that match what you’ve typed. Once you see the name you’re looking for, can stop typing and tap the contact you found to bring up their Info screen. You can also do a system-wide search using the Spotlight feature by either tapping the Home button from the first Home screen or by swiping to the right from your first Home screen.

If you want to narrow the list down even further, type the first letter of the first name, then space, and then type the first letter of the last name. This will narrow the list down to only  the contacts with those initials. You can still keep typing to get to the name you want. So if you wanted to find Scott Kelby, you’d type “S Kel” and that would narrow the list down quicker than having to scroll through multiple Scotts.

How to Set Up Call Forwarding on the iPhone?

Posted on by
Reply

Start at the Home screen, and tap on Settings, then in the Settings screen, tap on Phone. In the Phone settings screen, tap on Call Forwarding and you’ll see an ON/OFF button (by default, it’s off). To turn it on, tap this button. Now, you’re probably wondering where your call is forwarded to. Once you turn on the Call Forwarding feature, if you don’t already have a Forwarding To number entered, you’ll see a screen where you enter that phone number. Now, this next part throws a lot of people: there’s no OK or Save button.

You just have to tap the Call Forwarding button in the top-left corner and it returns you to the main Call Forwarding screen, where you’ll see the number you just added and the ON setting. When you want to turn the Call Forwarding feature off, go back to the same screen, and tap the ON button, and it will change to OFF.

Your iPhone’s Version of Speed Dial

Your iPhone’s name for speed dial is “Favorites,” and to turn one of your contacts into a Favorite, just tap on their name in your contacts list to view the screen with their full contact info. Then, in the bottom-right corner of their Info screen, tap on the Add to Favorites button, and that contact is added to your Favorites. Now, there is another way to do it, and that is to start at the Favorites screen (from the Home screen, tap Phone, then tap the Favorites button), then tap the little + (plus sign) button in the upper-right corner.

This brings up your contacts list, and you just tap on the name of the contact you want added to your Favorites. If your contact has only one phone number (like just a home number, or just a cell number), they’re immediately added as a Favorite. If they have multiple numbers, then it brings up all their numbers and you just tap on the number you want added as a Favorite.

Seeing If You Have Voicemail Messages on the iPhone

Posted on by
Reply

If a caller left you a voicemail message, you’ll see the caller’s name (if they’re in your contacts list—if not, their phone number) onscreen when you:wake your iPhone from sleep. When you tap the green Phone icon, you’ll see the Voicemail button, and on it you’ll see a red circle displaying the number of messages you have waiting. To see a list of your voicemails (yes, you see a list—that’s why Apple calls this “Visual Voicemail”), tap on the Voicemail button, and you’ll see a list of the contacts (or numbers) who’ve left you a voicemail message, and when they called (as seen above). Messages with a blue dot before them haven’t been listened to yet.

Listening to and Deleting Voicemail Messages

The beauty of this system is you don’t have to listen to your messages in order—you can tap directly on the message you want to hear and that message plays. To hear your messages through your iPhone’s speaker, tap the Speaker button on the top right. You’ll see a status bar that moves from left to right as your message plays, which shows you how long the message is. Now, here’s the thing: when a message is new, you just tap on it and it plays. But once you’ve heard it, when you tap on the message, a little blue Play/ Pause button appears before it. To hear the message again, tap that little blue button. To pause the message, tap that same little blue button again. To return a call, tap on the message, then tap the green Call Back button.

To delete a message, tap on it, then tap on the red Delete button. Once you delete a message, it’s not really deleted from your Phone—it just moves that message to a deleted area (kind of the way deleting a file on your computer just puts it in your Trish or Recycle Bin). You can still see, and hear, your deleted messages by tapping on (I know—it’s pretty obvious) Deleted Messages (at the end of your voicemail list). Once there, to move a deleted message back to your regular list, just tap on it, then tap the gray Undelete button. However, if you really want all of Your deleted voicemails off your iPhone for good, once you’re in the Deleted screen, just tap the Clear All button.

How to Replay Just Part of a Voicemail Message on the iPhone

Posted on by
Reply

While your message is playing, you can grab the little slider and “scrub” back a few seconds and hear anything you just missed—in real time. So, for example, let’s say you’re listening to a message and the person on the message.gives you a phone number. To hear that phone number again (without having to listen to the entire message again), you can just tap-and-hold on the little status bar knob and drag it back a little bit (just like you would scrub through a video), and hear it again.

Recording Your Outgoing Voicemail Message

By default, you get a generic “I’m not here, man” voicemail message, but creating your own custom message is really easy. Just tap on the Voicemail button, then in the top-left corner of the Voicemail screen, tap on the Greeting button to bring up the Greeting screen. You’ll see two choices: (a) Default (the generic pre-recorded greeting), and (b) Custom (where you create your own). Tap on Custom, and Play and Record buttons appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap the white Record button, hold the iPhone up to your ear, and just say your message into it. When you’re done, tap the red Stop button, and to hear it, tap the blue Play button. If you don’t like your message, just tap the white Record button again and record a new message. When it sounds good to you, tap the Save button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Don’t sing messages into your iPhone, as a sensor was designed by Apple to detect really bad singing and when it analyzes your voice and determines that it is indeed bad singing, it automatically forwards your message, along with a picture of you, to YouTube where it’s then featured in a public humiliation forum. Well, at least that’s what I’ve been told.

Removing and Recording Your favorites on the iPhone

Posted on by
Reply

Tap the Edit button in the top-left corner of the Favorites screen, and a red circle with a – (minus sign) will appear before each Favorite. To remove 9. Favorite from your list, just tap directly on its red minus button, and a red Delete button will appear to its right (as seen above). Tap that Delete button and it’s gone! To reorder them, tap on the Edit button, and then on the far right of each contact, just past the type of phone number (mobile, home, etc.), you’ll see three short horizontal lines (circled in red above). Now, you’re going to drag your contacts into the order you want them by tapping-and-holding on those lines and dragging your contact up or down (it’s easier than it sounds).

Seeing the Contact Info for a Favorite

The Favorites screen is great because you can just tap the name of the contact you want to dial and the iPhone immediately begins calling that contact. However, sometimes the contact may have multiple phone numbers, such as home, work, mobile, etc., and you may not want to put every number in as a Favorite. So, the next time you need to dial a number for a Favorite contact that’s not actually saved as a Favorite, bring up your Favorites list and then tap the blue arrow button next to the contact’s name and the full Info screen appears for that contact with all the other numbers you have for them. From there, tap any one of those numbers to dial it.

Putting a Call on Hold to Call Someone Else on the iPhone

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re on a call and need to make another one, you can put that call on hold and make a different call (kind of like having a two-line phone). On an lone 4, just tap-and-hold the Mute button on the touchscreen (on an iPhone 3GS, tap the Hold button), then tap the Add Call button. This brings up your contacts list, where you can tap on a name to dial that contact (or, of course, you can just dial a number by tapping on the Keypad button that appears in the bottom-right corner of the All Contacts screen). If you want to switch back to your original call, you can just tap the Swap button or tap the call at the top of the screen.

If you’re on a call and don’t want the caller to hear what you’re saying for a moment, tap the Mute button on the touchscreen. When you’re ready to start talking again, tap the Mute button again. If you have a call in progress and want to hear your conversation through the /Phone’s speaker, tap the Speaker button on the touchscreen.
Making an Instant Conference Call

To add another person to the call you’re on (for a three-way call), just tap the Add Call button on the touchscreen, and it brings up your contacts list. Tap the contact’s name you want added to your three-way call, then tap their number, and it dials them. Now tap the Merge Calls button to add them to your conversation. If the person you want added to your call isn’t in your contacts list, then you can dial them by tapping on the Keypad button in the bottom-right corner of the All Contacts screen.

So, let’s say you dial a number and you get one of those “If you know your party’s extension, please dial it now” greetings. l know—how hard could it be? Actually, it’s easy—if you know how. All you have to do is tap the Keypad button on your touchscreen, and then dial the extension. I know, it sounds really easy now but I’ve seen people totally stumped when it happens to them.