The Ultimate Tips and Tricks Guide for Every iPod Touch and iPhone User
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Congratulations! You are the proud owner of an iPod Touch! According to Apple, it is “the funnest iPod ever.” Unfortunately, it ain’t so fun for you. How come? Is it because you’re still stunned by how you can scroll down a page with the flick of a finger? Or that you can zoom in and out of a picture with the simple pinch of your fingers? Then, allow me to rescue you from your hazy world. With these never-before-seen tips and tricks(not really), you can finally demonstrate to your neighbor’s cat your superiority in technological know-how.
- Take screenshots
- Delete photos saved to your iPod Touch
- Download music to your device from a CD
- Speed up your typing
- Frozen application? There’s a fix for that!
- Easily access the controls to your music
- Jump to the top of long Web pages
- Hide applications
- Use accents/symbols while typing
- Delete email messages, videos, etc.
- Preview links
- Scientific calculator
- Save images on Safari
- Pause downloading applications
- Save battery life
- Save email messages as drafts
- Download Youtube videos to your iPod Touch
- Whoops! My bad!
- Caps Lock
- Add a Shortcut Icon to Your Favorite Website(s)
- Store applications in folders
- Preview links
Press the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot of the image being displayed on your iPod’s screen. A “flash” will illuminate the screen, indicating that you’ve taken a photo. Note: You can find the photos in the “Saved Photos” section of the Photo application.
To delete photos saved to your iPod, connect the device to your computer and go to Computer if you have a Windows PC. Double-click on your device’s icon and find the cache of photos you have saved to your iPod. From there, you can delete the photos by right-clicking on them and selecting “delete”.
To download songs onto the iPod from a music cd, launch iTunes and place the cd into your computer. iTunes will then ask you whether you want to import the cd’s songs into your iTune’s library. Select “yes.”
When you are typing and reach the end of a sentence, press space twice to enter a period and a space.
If an application ever freezes, press and hold the sleep/wake button for 6-7 seconds. This causes the running application to close; sort of like CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows PCs(shudder).
Double-clicking on the home button will bring up the music controls, allowing you to change the volume, switch to the previous or next song, or play or stop the current song.
When you are scrolling down a long page, you can jump back to the top of the page by tapping on the upper bar. Note: Works best while surfing the Web when you tap on the status bar containing the battery life and time.
If you don’t want any of the pre-installed applications being displayed, you can hide them by going to Settings>General>Restrictions>Enable Restrictions>Enter a Restrictions Passcode> Disable selected applications. Unfortunately, the restrictions only apply to Safari, Youtube, and iTunes. Note: If you have a jailbroken device, you can download SBSettings to easily hide any application from view.
Holding down on certain letters while typing will bring up the accents/symbols associated with that letter. Note: Works for the letters E, Y, U, I, O, L, S, A, Z, C, N.
To delete an email message, you can slide your finger across the selected message in any direction and you will have the option to delete it. Works also for the Video application and certain other applications.
While browsing on Safari, you can hold down on a link shown on a webpage and the URL to the link will be displayed.
To use the scientific calculator, simply start-up the Calculator application and turn the iPod sideways.
If you want to save an image while browsing Safari, tap and hold down on the image to save it.
To pause a downloading application, simply tap on the icon, and the word, “Paused” will appear below the icon.
The three biggest battery drainers on your iPod are wifi, powering on/off your device, and fetching data. We all can’t live without internet. Wifi is no different. Problem is that it can seriously deplete your battery life in a heartbeat. Also, remember to never turn your device off unless it froze. It takes more power to start the device up again than to leave it in sleep mode. Lastly, change your device’s data fetch frequency to manual.
When composing an email, you can save the message as a draft so that you can finish it later. Simply click on Cancel and you will be given the option to save the email.
You can download Youtube videos onto your iPod with the application Youtube Downloader. Once you convert the video into MP4 format, open up iTunes and go to the File tab. Select “Add File to Library”, locate your video file, then click on open. Next, click on the Movies located under the Library tab on the left bar. Find your video and click and drag the file to “Your Name’s iPod”. Wait for the iPod to sync.
If you ever make a mistake while you type, you can shake your iPod and a pop up menu will allow you to undo and/or redo typing. Source
It can be really handy to type in caps lock on your iPhone when you want to send angry email or text messages entirely in capital letters. To enable caps lock, go to Settings>General>Keyboard>Enable Caps Lock. Then, when you type, double tap on shift to turn on caps lock on your keyboard.
Have a blog or website(ahem) you can’t get enough of especially if your always on the go? Rather than launching Safari every time and entering the URL, save some time and add the site as a shortcut icon on your iPhone.
First, click on the “+” button on Safari and click on “Add to Homescreen.” Then, give the icon a name, preferably the name of the site. For web developers, here’s a super-cool tip! Add the following line of code to your blog’s header to set the bookmark icon:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="iphone-icon.png"/>
Make sure the icon is 57 pixels by 57 pixels.
Source: CSS-Tricks
The latest OS update featured the long sought-after folders feature. To create a folder, click and hold any app to make it start vibrating. Then, click and drag an app directly over another and you’ll see a expanding box appear around that app, indicating the folder. Release, and the two apps will now be in its own folder. Name the folder whatever you like. At the present moment, folders only hold up to 12 apps and cannot contain other folders. * Extra tip!Store those god-awful pre-installed weather and stock apps into a folder to hide them and save some valuable space!
A great way to protect yourself from suspicious looking links on a webpage is to click and hold on the link. A box will then appear with the full link address for you to judge.
Did I miss anything? Why not share your own tips in the comments section below?
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That’s an awesome list. There were quite a few I had no idea about. Love the frozen app fix!
@Gabe Yep! Gotta love them iPhone apps.
Useful tips! Thanks for the YouTube downloader – exactly what I was looking for…
This was very helpful, thank you!
Bob´s last blog ..Custom Dog Tag Set
This helped me out so much! I just recently got an iphone and I am definitely a completely clueless novice when it comes to how to use it. This helped clear up some things for me. thanks!
Nichole´s last blog ..Youtube to Mp3
I’m always on the lookout for great iPhone and iPod tips, and these are really helpful. Thanks for sharing!
Cody Daniels´s last blog ..Other Options for iPhone Downloads
No problem, Cody. Remember to always check back for regular updates to this post!
Thank you guys that was quite usefull I wonder what you will say about this. I think I’m gonna move to Iphone 4.