Image via Complex Original
The iPhone is one of the main devices of the last decade that has made our lives easier, organized, and more efficient. Yet, just as Steve Jobs was a complex man, the iPhone has a lot more intricacies to it that you most likely missed. Here are our 15 easy hacks that will make using your iPhone faster and more streamlined—saving you those precious seconds on your favorite apps.
Take a Picture Using Your Headphone Cord
Most of us know that you can pause and adjust the volume of the music you're listening to with the control switch connected that's to your iPhone headphones. But, did you know you could use that same switch as a shutter button? Seriously. While in camera mode, hit up or down on the volume button on the headphone cord and it'll snap a picture. Never worry about the pressure of pressing down on the phone to mess up the shot again.
Quick Calendar Scheduling
Events are simpler to read on the iPhone's Calendar when it's in List mode. Yet, when it comes to organizing, switching to Day view is a lot easier. While in Calendar's Day view, just tap and hold your finger down on whichever hour slot you want to add your event to, and just like that, a new event slot will be made. Want to move things around as well? Just press and hold an existing event bubble and drag it to a new spot.
Save Power By Turning Off Push Notifications
Saving your battery power is key when you're on the move. So outside of just closing apps that you have used during the day (by double-tapping the home button and deleting the apps manually), you can also turn off the apps that rely on "Push" data, like email, Facebook, and instant messaging. This means you'll still get the same information, just not right away. In Settings, select the option that says Mail, Contacts and Calendars, tap "Fetch New Data" and change it from Push to Every 30 Minutes, Hourly or Manually. Also, turn off Wi-Fi when you're traveling: your phone will contantly be looking for a signal, and this will drain the battery as well.
iBooks into Audio Books
Have a bunch of books stored on your iPhone that you haven't had the time to get to yet? Well, it may be time to listen to them instead. By turning on VoiceOver, the phone will turn your e-books into audiobooks by using the phone's accessibility options. To turn it on, go to Settings, General, then to Accessibility and switch VoiceOver from Off to On. From there you can adjust the speed at which the phone will read your book to you. Now you'll never have an excuse for not finishing Game of Thrones.
Finally Getting Those Letters with Accents
If you're a Spanish speaker, you know there are a ton of words that need accents and other marks in order to be read properly. You may not know it, but if you touch and hold a letter while in the keyboard, a new option window will come up with accents (and more options for some letters) to choose from. Now you can pretend to be Don Juan all you want while texting your girl.
Create Website "Apps"
Want a quicker way to visit your favorite websites? While in Safari, tap the share button at the button of the window (the arrow pointing to the right). Click "Add to Home Screen," and an icon for the website will appear on the home screen that you can quickly access the next time you want to visit.
Keep Track of Texts Limits
iMessage is a blessing, but not everyone has it. You can type long, drawn out essays to other people who have iMessage, and they'll get it exactly as you typed it. Type something long to someone else without iMessage, and it will be sent to them in pieces: usually, texts are broken up by every 160 characters. So, if you want to make sure your texts are being sent nice and organized to your friend who doesn't have iMessage, go to Settings, then to Message and turn on Character Count, and you'll have a numerical tracker appear on your screen the next time you type up a text.
Save PDFs in iBook
Have some important documents you'd like to have on you, just in case of an emergency? Say, a resume, perhaps? Well, if you have your resume saved in a PDF file (or any document that's a PDF), email it to yourself and open it up. Touch and hold the PDF icon, then select "Open in iBooks." The PDF will open in iBooks and be saved there until you delete it.
No Need for .com
Safari is one smart browser. Next time you're typing in a website address, don't bother putting in the ".com" at the end. Just type in the domain name without the .com (say, Complex instead of www.Complex.com) and hit Go. Also, you can hold down the ".com" button to get to other options, such as .net, .org, and .edu.
Syncing and Backing Up with iCloud
iPhones come with the option to sync its information with iCloud, Apple's cloud service. This make things a lot easier if you're an Apple-head and own an iPhone, iPad and a Mac. If you have iCloud activated on all these devices, all of your information will be synced once they are connected to Wi-Fi. Have a list of things written down on your iPhone's Reminders list? Sync it, and it will be on your iMac as well. Go to Settings, iCloud and select the things you want to sync or back-up, like your phone's contacts, settings, email, etc.
Scroll to the Top Quickly
While in Safari, if you find yourself on a webpage that has a long list of information and it seems to keep going on and on, save yourself a few seconds and tap the status bar (the bar with the time and battery level) to quickly zoom back to the top. This works in Mail, Contacts, and other apps.
Get Back to Your Last Email Draft
Are you being bombarded with emails from your professor, your mom, your girl, and your boss all at once? It may get hard trying to compose an email when another email arrives--you'll have to stop typing, read, then go into Drafts and open it up all over again. Not anymore, at least. Next time you're in a jam, just press and hold Compose button to go back to your most recently saved email draft.
Siri-culator
One of the most hilarious (and probably embarassing) things that occurs during a group outing is the whole "paying for the food" part. Yeah, that. This is when you find out who's better at math than you. The next time you're not feeling up to the task, just ask Siri--she can solve math problems in no time at all. Trying to figure out the tip on a $200 bill for four people? Just ask Siri, "what's a 20-percent tip on a $200 bill for four people?" and voila, it's forty-bucks.
Customize Your Keyboard
Have catch phrases you love using, but can't seem to type them out fast enough? Go to Settings, tap General, Keyboard, then Add New Shortcut. From there, you can add your own shortcut (for example: brb) and when you type that in next time, your iPhone will recognize that you mean to say "be right back," and it will type it out for you. Like butter, baby (lbb).
Quick Preview Picture
We all do it: once you take a picture using an iPhone, you hit the little square on the bottom left hand corner to peep it out. But, there's a quicker way to do that: next time to take a picture, just swipe your finger from left to right across the camera screen. That's it. You'll see the last picture you took, and so on and so forth the more you scroll to the left. Just swipe back to the right to get back to the camera and keep snapping away.