6 Tips for your new iPad or iPhone

The iPad and iPhone have dominated the Smartphone and Tablet markets for some time now. While they are both easy to use, here are a few tips that Apple probably didn’t tell you:

Taking a Screenshot – Do you have a problem with an application, or just want to keep a record of that bill you paid online from your iPad?  Take a screenshot by pressing the Power button (at the Top Right of you iPad or iPhone) and the round Home button.  The screen will flash acknowledging that a screenshot was taken.  The screen shot will be automatically saved to you Photo Gallery

  Shortcuts to typing long words – Have a long email address that you struggle to type?  Perhaps a website you go to often?  You can create shortcuts for those difficult to type words.  For example, I have a shortcut created so that when I type “batn” (Brad at Nextstep), my phone will type my email address.

To setup a shortcut, goto “Settings à General à Keyboard” and click Add New Shortcut at the bottom of the screen.   

      Group icons together for a more organized homescreen – Many of us love to download apps.  After a while, the list of apps gets confusing and cluttered.   There’s a way to fix that!

Group multiple apps together by holding down on an app until all the apps shake on the screen.  Now drag one app over another app that you would like to group together.  This will create a new Group on your homescreen and you can then give it a custom name for the group.  Press the round Home button when you are done.

      Using Siri to remind you when you arrive  (iPhone 4S only) – The iPhone 4S came with an amazing new feature.  Siri.  Siri will allow you to speak requests to the phone as well as will read responses back to you.

One of my favorite uses for this is reminders.  It’s difficult and dangerous to write reminders while you are driving.  Let Siri remind you when you arrive!

You must first set your Home and Work addresses in your contact for this to work.  Once those are set, you can tell Siri things like “When I get home, remind me to take out the trash”.  Siri then creates the reminder and monitors your GPS.  When you arrive at your home address, the screen will pop up with your reminder! 

You can also say  “When I leave here, remind me to...” and it will alert you when you get about 50 feet from your current location.

Texting and Driving the Safe way!  We certainly would not condone Texting and Driving, but if your going to do it anyway, keep your eyes on the road and let Siri do the typing!                                                                                                                                                                                                                          To have Siri create and send a text message to Someone, put the phone to your ear and wait for the beep. When it beeps, say "Text Jim Smith Ill be late to the meeting". Continue holding the phone to your ear and Siri will repeat the message back to you: Heres your message to Jim Smith. Ill be late to the meeting Should I sent it? Sell Siri to "Send it" and its done!
To have siri Read Text messages, say "Do I have any new messages from Jim Smith?" and Siri will let you know and offer to read it back to you!
For this functionality to work, you must use names that are already in your contacts and have a mobile number associated with the contact. At this time, Siri will not read email messages, only Text Messages.

Keeping Notes with Siri (iPhone 4S only) – Did you know you can have Siri create notes as well as Add to them?  This is an excellent feature for keeping track of your time or anything else you may usually jot down on a post-it note.

To Create a note: tell Siri  to Create a note and the name  “Create a Readling List Note”.  A new note will be created called “Reading List”

To add “Of mice and men” to the list, tell Siri “Add Of mice and men to my Reading list note”

Did we miss a Tip or Trick that you think it worth sharing?  Post your Tips and Tricks to the Comments section below!