If you are a beginner on iPhone, or you just haven’t had time to learn how to get the most out of the device, you might want to check out the well designed magazine app, iPhone Secrets: Tips & Tricks ($.99 and Free Lite version.)
iPhone Secrets is a comprehensive overview of useful features, settings, and how to’s for starting you on the road to becoming an iPhone power user. The iPhone is a great investment if you know how to use it beyond making and receiving phone
iPhone Secrets covers the latest operating system, iOS 6. The book format consists of 170 pages, broken down into 20 chapters. Chapter 1, “Get There Quicker”, is a great overview of the basic features iPhone users should know, including how to multitask, access the Notification Center, handle voice mail, respond to incoming calls, turn on and off the rotation lock, take a screenshot, and much more.
What makes this app very useful is that you can immediately apply the how to’s and tips as you read through the chapters. You actually do not have to start at the beginning of the book. Instead, you might start with one or several chapters on topics you’re curious about, such as “Battery Life”, “Typing”, “Mail”, “Find My Phone”, or the “Troubleshooting” tips chapter for solving problems that you might encounter using the iPhone. Each tip is explained in less than three paragraphs, with accompanying screenshots and/or photographs.
The chapter on using the iPhone’s built-in keyboard, for example, includes tips on how to hold the shift key to capitalize a group of letters; how to slide your finger from the shift key to a letter to quickly capitalize it; how to add emoticons to text messages; and how to cut, copy, and paste text. This “Typing” chapter alone consists of 18 tips, covering pretty much all you need to know about the subject.
You will definitely want to check out the chapter on “Find My Phone”, which covers all the latest iOS 5 and 6 features. It explains how to set up your app on iCloud, how to enable Lost Mode, and how to remotely wipe your phone’s data if you think your phone will be unrecoverable.
The chapter on using the iPhone camera is not as comprehensive as it could be, but it does include basic tips for snapping photos using the volume up button, quickly accessing the Camera Roll, and the shortcut for quickly opening the Camera app from the lock screen.
Another chapter covers the Photo Albums app, including how to use Photo Stream, and how to share photos via email or MMS. Many of the topics, such as Photo Streame Secrets allows you to actually share tips via email, or as a link on your Twitter or Facebook account. The shared tips are nicely formatted and displayed in an image of an iPhone. In the app’s Settings you can even select which color—black or white—of the iPhone image you want displayed. You can also turn on in Settings, the page flip sound effect that is a little piece of eye candy for the app.
iPhone Secrets is probably best for users who don’t want or need a full paper book on using the device, but instead would like to read or review tips and how-to’s right from within their phone itself. Let us know what you think of this tips and tricks app. Are there subjects you would like to see more coverage of?
0 comments: