You’ve been reading about Apple’s new platform for a while now. Our iOS 7 review covered some highlights and low points. Assuming you’ve already figured out how to upgrade to iOS 7 and it’s running on your device right now, you might be interested in unlocking some of the less obvious features and getting to grips with some iOS 7 tips. Apple’s good at ensuring most things are intuitive, but there’s no harm in getting a little help.
How to open Control Center
If you want to toggle Airplane Mode or switch off Wi-Fi, then just swipe up from the bottom of the screen and behold the Control Center. You’ll also find music controls in there and some utilities, like a flashlight and a calculator. You can even access this from the lock screen (if you’d prefer not to then head to Settings > Control Center and slide Access on Lock Screen to off).
How to use Spotlight Search
Just swipe down in the middle of any home page and you’ll find Spotlight Search is ready to go. Use it to find whatever you need on your iPhone. It’s a good way to quick launch an app, find an email, or a contact, but it no longer searches the Web. You can swipe up or tap twice to get rid of the search. Go into Settings > General > Spotlight Search and select exactly what you’d like to be included in searches. This will stop your results from getting clogged up with useless info and it will make the search faster.
How to unclutter your notifications
The Notifications Center will get really busy, really quickly, even with the three tabs for All, Today, and Missed. Go to Settings > Notification Center. To fix this, you can choose exactly what gets displayed and how it gets displayed. You can also access the Notification Center from the lock screen. To go to the relevant app for a notification you swipe to the right, but you can also hide it by swiping up.
How to swipe to Go back
You can just swipe from the left side of the screen in a supported app to jump back to what you were doing. No button press required.
Understanding Automatic updates
You no longer have to update apps manually in iOS 7; they’ll update automatically. If you don’t want them to auto update, go into the App Store and within Settings you’ll find an option to toggle Updates off. You can also tell them not to use Cellular Data with the toggle below, so they’ll only update via Wi-Fi.
When did I send that message?
If you want to know when an iMessage or SMS was sent then just swipe the specific speech bubble in question to the left and you’ll see the timestamp.
You can have giant folders
There’s no longer a limit on the number of apps you can put into a folder. You can use them to hide stock apps you don’t use, including the Newsstand.
How to close apps and multitask
Double tap the Home button to get a look at what you have on the go. See an app you want to close? Just swipe it up and the app will close.
How to save your data
You can go to Settings > Cellular and then scroll down to see which apps are going to potentially use your data. See something that you want to restrict to Wi-Fi? Just slide that toggle to the off position.
How to make the most of your battery
With iOS 7, those pesky apps can drink all your juice when you’re not looking. Head to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and you can stop them. You’ll see a list of apps that might be trying to do things in the background. Simply toggle off any that you don’t want to use.
How to make the screen background stop moving
Is the new parallax effect making you sick? Some people suffer from motion sickness and struggle to focus, but you can head into Settings > General > Accessibility and turn Reduce Motion on to ease up on the animations. You can also bold the text, make it bigger, or invert the colors in the Accessibility menu.
How to open a level for measuring how “level” surfaces are
Let’s get this straight.. Open the compass app and swipe to the left, and you’ve got a level that will help you get everything straight.
How to make the most of the new Siri
Head into Settings > General > Siri and you’ll find various settings that allow you to do things like change the gender of your assistant, or toggle on the ability to launch Siri by raising the iPhone to your face. If Siri says something the wrong way you can tell it “that’s not how you pronounce that” and you’ll get options to choose from.
How to block problem callers
No more crazy calls from the ex, or that persistent “friend” from school. Just go to Settings > Phone > Blocked and add them to your blacklist. You can also just block messages or FaceTime via Settings > Messages > Blocked and Settings > FaceTime > Blocked. You can also go into individual contacts and choose Block Contact at the bottom.
How to track (or stop tracking) your location
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations and you’ll find a list and a map showing your movements. You can clear this history or you can head to System Services and toggle Frequent Locations off.
There are new ringtones
You will find a load of new ringtones and vibration options in Settings > Sounds > Sounds and Vibration Patterns. If you want to create your own vibration pattern then select an alert type in Settings > Sounds and tap Vibration > Create New Vibration.
Type searches right into Safari
You can now type searches in the address bar in Safari and it will return results in real time (like Chrome), both from Google and from your own Bookmarks and History. If you head into Bookmarks and tap the “@” symbol you’ll find a handy list of links from your Twitter timeline. You can also head into Settings in Safari to change various things, such as your default search engine. You could also turn on Do Not Track for a little extra privacy while browsing.
How to close Safari tabs
Struggling to tap that tiny x? Don’t bother; when you’re scrolling through tabs in Safari you can just swipe them away to the left to close them. The limit has been increased too; you can now have up to 24 tabs open at once.
You can use Volume as a shutter button
You can use the Volume up button to take photos, and you can hold it down to take a burst of multiple shots. In the camera app, swipe left or right (up or down if you’re holding it in landscape) to change the mode.
Photo gallery ‘moments’
Your photos and videos are organized into moments now. They’re grouped together by time and place. You can tap on the header of a moment to see a map and find the number of shots taken. There’s also an option to share at the right side. The thumbnails are tiny, but you can tap and hold to expand them and then just slide your finger around to see your other shots.
How to sort mail
In the Mail app, if you tap Edit when in your mailbox you can select from a range of filters including VIP, Flagged, Unread, and so on. To create a VIP list just tap on the person’s name you want to add and when the contact pops up choose Add to VIP. You can add photos or videos to emails by tapping and holding on the body of the email until options pop up and choosing Insert Photo or Video. You can also press and hold the New Message button to see a list of your recent drafts. Shake your device to get an Undo option.
How to find and use iTunes Radio
You’ll find iTunes Radio in the Music app. You can tap the plus symbol to add a new station and search by artist, genre, or song. To teach it what you like tap the star icon when a track is playing and you can tell it to Play More Like This, Never Play This Song, or Add to iTunes Wish List. You can share the stations you create by tapping the info button.
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