Table of contents for The iPhone 7 Book Vol 7 Revised Edition in The iPhone Book

One of the USPs of the iPhone 6s is 3D Touch, the next generation of Multi-Touch technology. The iPhone 6s is the first phone that actually senses how much pressure you are applying to the display. Peek and Pop lets you lightly apply pressure to an email to preview the contents or tap on a web address to see what the site looks like. The enhanced system also lets you perform Quick Actions straight from the Home screen, such as accessing your Camera or quick messages.…

The iPhone 6 is in many ways an iteration on previous models with the expected increase in specifications across the board, but it is in the design that it most impresses. Apple has been careful to understand what works and what does not before deciding on the exact dimensions of the iPhone 6 and the end result is a very thin phone with a big screen, which is still pocketable and easy to carry no matter what you are doing. Battery performance has been maintained despite the ultra-thin form factor and all of the power you require is included out of the box. It’s actually hard to believe that so much can be held in such a small package, but everything from the improved camera to the display works exactly…

Incorporated into the A9 chip within the iPhone SE is the M9 motion compressor. This connects the accelerometer, compass and gyroscope for a wide range of fitness tracking capabilities, such as measuring steps. Another advantage of this feature is that you can activate Siri by saying, “Hey Siri” without even having to pick up your device. So now you can ask more from your iPhone and monitor your fitness levels without putting in any extra effort – apart of your usual exercise regime, of course.…

iPhones don’t tend to offer owners a huge amount of customisation options, so it’s up to you to get the most from the alterations you are able to make. Some of these options can be found in the Accessibility section of your General Settings menu and they open up a wide range of options for you to alter everything from the size of the text displaying on the screen to your 3D Touch settings. It is primarily designed to help those with sight or hearing problems, but there are some benefits for everyone hidden in this menu. This tutorial is all about your various personalisation options. We will take you deep into the heart of your iPhone and explain all the little tricks and edits you can make to the…

An Apple Watch can be used exactly as it is once paired with your iPhone, but to do so would be to miss out on a lot of the benefits it offers. The Apple Watch app, which is automatically installed on the iPhone, is designed to work with the Watch and more specifically to let you customise the Watch experience in a highly efficient way. Not only does it deal with the initial pairing process, but it also lets you tell the iPhone how you are wearing your Watch and what specific features you want to use. It is vital that the software knows if you wear the Watch on your left or right hand to enable accurate step tracking, and you can even choose how you want to use…

Multimedia messaging was the big new thing a few years ago, but all that changed when people realised how expensive it was to send photos and videos via the SMS network. An iPhone will let you send media using a traditional text message, but it can also leverage the benefits of iCloud and enable you to share all kinds of media and links for free. iOS 9 has added a new voicemail feature that is light years ahead of the traditional voice messaging system. We’ll show you how to use this new functionality and also how to share photos in an instant – and within other apps. Messaging is a core part of any iPhone and is now accessible from almost any app, giving you added flexibility in how your…

As well as the more glamorous functions that were added with iOS 8, there have been some new neat improvements to Safari that make it easy to use and share what you find on the web. For example, when starting private browsing, instead of asking whether you want to close all open pages or keep them, it simply opens a new, private page. On the same privacy front, you have a choice of search engines, including DuckDuckGo. Your privacy when browsing the web can be further enhanced with the Privacy section in Safari. You can tun off tracking, autofill and clear your browsing history. One of the more bizarre new features is the ability to scan credit/debit card numbers when checking out on a retail site like Amazon. Besides these…

Apple Pay marks a huge change in the way we can pay for goods for a number of reasons. It is exceptionally convenient, highly secure and after a few uses, you may find it tiresome to use a traditional card to pay for things. It is transformative in that the retailer will not receive any information about you when you make a purchase and a unique code is used for every single transaction for added security. The use of Touch ID is a major security benefit and with the extremely natural Wallet app managing all of your payment cards, there really are no downsides to using Apple Pay. We will show you how to set up a debit or credit card to use with Apple Pay and also demonstrate how…

If you’re in need of order in your life, Calendar is surely the app for you. It has a clean and easy-to-use interface, plus quite possibly every capability you could ever need from a diary – throw the little book of dates and scribbles out, as your iPhone has your organisational needs covered! Adding events to Calendar is incredibly easy, with the ability to include as much info as you like. You can invite whole guest lists to events to keep your friends in the know, and even share your calendar with other people. The app already provides you with default ‘Home’ and ‘Work’ calendars – to share information with family and colleagues respectively. Another excellent feature is that your Calendar app will sync seamlessly over all of your Apple…

If you’re looking to back up your phone’s files, Dropbox is pretty much the only service you need. It offers you 2GB of free storage and you can also sort your files into separate folders, which are perfect for sharing with friends and family members. The option to share your files over Dropbox is one of the service’s best features and means that you’re no longer restricted by maximum email limits when sending bulky files, such as photos or videos. But the service that Dropbox offers doesn’t end there. Shared folders don’t just exist to help you pass on your favourite holiday snaps – they’re also secure locations for you to collaborate on documents. You can edit a presentation with friends and the document is updated automatically. Creating a folder…

You will be hard-pushed to find a better navigational companion than Maps on your iPhone. This app has everything you need in order to find your way when setting off on a trip, or to explore brand new and exciting places and discover precisely how to get there from the comfort of your own home. What’s more, thanks to enhancements made to the app through the iOS 9 update, the new Transport view helps you make use of public transport to see all possible train, bus and metro links to and from your chosen destination. And if such information isn’t currently available in the place you are visiting, the Maps app will suggest a range of third-party apps that you can download, in-app, to help relay the information that you…

A recent update to Microsoft’s Office apps enables you to create documents for free – as long as you have a Microsoft account (Xbox Live or Windows_8/10 login email account will do). The functionality and features share a strong resemblance to the desktop equivalent and the app has been adapted to the iPhone’s multitouch controls perfectly. It has plenty of formatting options so you can create professional-looking documents on the fly. In the tutorial we’ll show how to do this, though most of the options should be easy to work out if you’ve used the desktop version before. A good tip is to use the pre-installed templates and edit the default text and images to suit your own needs. A downside to the app is that it saves in the…

Microsoft Excel is part of the Office suite of apps that you can download for free. It lets you create effective spreadsheets – with formulas, albeit not as many as the desktop version – as long as you have a Microsoft account, although certain options require an Office 365 subscription (from £5.99 a month). In this tutorial we showcase how to set up a monthly spreadsheet to keep track of your expenditure. It bears a similarity to the Excel desktop versions. The latter require an understanding of maths and logic, but once set up they will speed up the process of calculating figures. For example, ‘=SUM(B1:B8)*0.04’ will add up what’s in cells B1 to B8 and then multiply this by 0.04 to get a total. Don’t worry, the tutorial will…

iCloud Drive is feature integrated into iOS_9. You can think of it as a virtual hard disk where any documents saved to your default 5GB of online storage can be accessed by other devices and computers. In the tutorial we showcase how to enable iCloud Drive if you haven’t done so already and look at how files are saved to it using the core app, Pages – although the principle can also be applied to Keynote and Numbers. In addition, we show how to open and import documents from compatible third-party apps, as well as providing a tip on how to access your files via your Mac, PC or iCloud.com. What’s useful to note here is that any changes saved in one app/service will sync across to all of your…

Playlists are incredibly important in an app where you have access to millions and millions of tracks. The temptation to download hundreds of albums is great, but the end result will be a difficult-to-manage library, which will be more hassle than it is worth just for the sake of playing some music. In Apple Music, you can create playlists in seconds from your music library and you also get to personalise them so that titles and descriptions can be added, which is a nice touch. If you take a lot of time creating playlists that flow and choose songs carefully, you could use them as your default method of playing songs. You could create a playlist for the daily commute, one to help you sleep or one to push you…

The YouTube app brings millions of videos to your iPhone for you to watch and share with friends, as well as letting you upload your own videos directly from your iPhone. Upon launching the app and signing in, YouTube will be able to start registering what you’re watching to make video recommendations in the future. The main left menu is broken down into four sections; the first is based around your account, where you can get recommendations, manage your own YouTube channel and subscriptions, and check out your viewing history. Next is the Playlists section, where you can view and manage all of your created YouTube playlists. Next is the Subscriptions list, where you can view the latest content from channels that you have subscribed to as well as browse…

There are countless third-party apps designed to help you curate online news for the topics and publications that you prefer, and each uses different methods to remain unique in a crowded market. Apple has now decided to join the party and has given us the obviously titled News app to help us read only the news that is of interest to us or which is of great importance. It is all too easy to be overwhelmed with online content and being able to manage what you read will not only save time, but ensure that you get to read news that actually matters to you. Apple has built a consistent interface which levels the various design styles used by different publications and produced an app which is exceptionally easy to…

There is no doubt that the new iPhone 6s offers a better camera experience than we have seen from Apple, but even if you own an older iPhone you can still benefit from software tweaks in iOS 9. There are 2 new folders in the Camera app to help you to organise all of your images and you can view Live Photos that have been shared by others. Live Photos can also be viewed on an iOS 9-enabled Apple device and eventually in many other third party networks, which should help improve the recognition of this clever feature. Siri can search through your entire photo library now using location and other information, and the ability to show 4K quality videos on the latest iPhone highlights just how far we have…

Being able to not only shoot, edit and export movies on your iPhone but also upload them to video streaming sites such as YouTube or Vimeo means you can quickly distribute your videos online for friends, family and followers to see. All of this can be done within iMovie. With the app’s Share function, your video will be exported and uploaded in a quality of your choosing. Of course, if you’d rather, you can export a MOV file and transfer it to your computer, where it can be uploaded manually. iMovie connects directly to YouTube, allowing you to sign in with your YouTube account login. Once signed in, you can add all of the relevant tags and details to your video before uploading it. In these steps you’ll learn how…

Facebook and the native apps on iOS are more tightly integrated with each release. If you depend on Facebook for keeping you in touch with your friends, it’s great to be able to get to those contacts directly from the Contacts app. When your Facebook friends are in your Contacts, you can easily send them emails or messages without having to dig around in Facebook to find addresses. You may also find it useful to be able to view your Facebook events in your iPhone’s Calendar app. If you like keeping track of your Facebook friends’ birthdays, you can even display those in your Calendar, too. There are even more ways that Facebook and the iPhone work together. Notification Centre can give you a quick view of the most recent…

While writing a daily journal seems like an oldfashioned idea, there are lots of good reasons to try to keep one. It can help you focus, make it easier to keep track of your progress, and, if nothing else, be a safe place for you to vent your frustration. Journals let you express yourself creatively without fear of being judged. You can use your journal as a place to track the important events in your life so you can remember them and share them with your friends. Previously, you’d be faced with a pen and a blank page to document your day. Lucky for us, we can use Day One, an elegant iPhone app that lets you easily enter the details of your day, but also gives you a way…

Pinterest is the perfect social network for sourcing ideas and discovering new content. Focussing almost entirely on images, users browse millions of ‘pins’ that are sorted by category, pinning their favourites to their own set of virtual boards. Boards can cover any topic, whether it’s cool posters, beautiful architecture or spectacular travel photos, but they work best when organised around a theme. Many people use Pinterest for inspiration, creating boards filled with new recipes, home decorating tips or hot fashion ideas – it can even be a great help when planning a wedding or birthday party. Discovering great images is easy, as Pinterest allows you to follow friends and other users that share your interests, updating you on the most popular pins throughout your network. Browsing other people’s boards is…

The best action and adventure games are imaginative, well-written, visually stunning and original. Thankfully the App Store is teeming with these types of games, which are invariably some of the most popular on the store. The very best get you engrossed in their stories and leave you investing hours and hours into them, forcing you to keep on playing. The iPhone is the perfect platform for action and adventure games that benefit from the extra screen space – there’s more to see and gamers get to witness it in all its glory. In this mini rundown of the essential action and adventure games, we’ll guide you through multiple award-winning apps that will take away your breath with their beauty and originality. Then there are the games that thrill you with…

When the iPhone 6 Plus was originally announced, it was greeted with joy by some and bemusement by others. For a company that had previously made phones purposefully designed to fit in any pocket, the arrival of a device that is more than 6 inches high and 3 inches wide was quite a change and it blurred the lines between what a phone is and how it compares to a tablet. For many, it is just too big to handle on a daily basis, but for others it is the perfect blend of screen space and power, and has quickly become a device that lets them work on the move without the need for a laptop or tablet. The size actually brings with it many advantages including much improved battery…

One of the main areas that tends to receive noticeable improvements with each new iPhone is the camera and the iPhone 6 is no exception. Apple has tended to improve important aspects of each iPhone camera upon release and in the iPhone 6 you will benefit from phase detection auto-focus, a FaceTime camera, which can gather 81 per cent more light and 60 frames per second video capture at 1080p. The numbers are impressive to those who understand what they mean, but more importantly the photos and videos you capture will better than ever.…

iPhone cradles All iPhones require charging and for most people this will mean a daily connection to a power socket. The advantages of using the included cable are being able to use your phone while it is charging, but you can also purchase a charging cradle, which will ensure that the iPhone is securely stored on a desk while you are working and still be accessible. There are many reasons to use a cradle, but perhaps the best one is the least logical. The fact is that a charging cradle compliments the iPhone in so many ways and that it feels like an integral part of the system rather than an accessory. You’ll likely use it every day for your power needs. Official cases There are literally hundreds of cases…

Touch ID ticks all of the boxes for a fingerprint system and works exactly as you would want it to. It’s quick, easy to use and secure, but you still have many options that you can tweak to make it work in the way you want it to. For the majority of these settings, you should only need to set them up once and you will then enjoy greater unlocking speeds, more secure app purchases and the reassurance that the technology is working exactly as it should. We will show you how to add new fingerprints to your iPhone and also how to choose when Touch ID should be used. Given that it’s more secure than any password, we suggest enabling it in every available area. It takes a few…

Missing a call from anyone can trigger a strange emotional response in all of us and at times a sense of guilt. We naturally feel the need to respond to people, especially friends, but it is not always convenient and you then need to remember to call them back. Fortunately your iPhone has you covered and you now have no excuse not to call a contact back because there is a simple process that you can employ to automate the process. Without this feature you would have to add a new calendar appointment or reminder and then schedule it, but with it you can tap the screen a couple of times and have the number you need to call appear on your home screen exactly when you need it to.…

FaceTime is an fantastic app in that it only offers benefits and no downsides at all that we are aware of. You can use Wi-Fi to make and receive calls and this of course will decrease your mobile call spend, and you can also use it for audio calls. Again, the audio calls can use Wi-Fi and the resultant call quality is much better than you would receive over a mobile network. It is, however, video calling that makes the experience so much fun and very personal. If you are speaking to family members who live some distance away or simply chatting to friends before a night out, there is something special about doing it face to face and standard audio calling never feels quite the same again. Even better,…

The iPhone’s battery performance will easily get you through a busy day, but there’s still a lot you can do to increase it further. If you consider that the screen and wireless connections are the two main battery hogs and if you manage these two areas well, the benefits will become obvious immediately. We will show you how to manage these to increase power and also the areas that can be tweaked to offer even more battery life between charges. There are many tweaks you can make to increase battery life and not all of them are obvious, but when combined you have the ability to add an hour or two of use every day, which will be advantageous if you are often away from a power source. Some of…

iCloud Backup is a feature that could easily be classed as essential for anyone who owns an iPhone. It is exceptionally easy to set up and Apple offers 5GB of free online storage that you can utilise by simply creating an Apple ID. When a backup is performed, it will take care of every important piece of data that you need to keep safe, from messages to apps preferences to game progress. Physical apps are not backed up, but the fact that you own them is, and when you restore through iCloud to a new device, they will be automatically installed as part of the process. A restore will bring back 100 per cent of your personal information and the device will look identical to the way it was before.…

For those times when there’s just too much stuff in your brain to possibly remember to do everything at once, Apple’s Reminders app is here to save the day. The beauty of this app is in its simplicity. It does exactly as is says on the tin. You can set yourself reminders with as much or as little detail as you like. This could be a simple note to yourself to remind you to pick up eggs on your way home from work, or it could be a more complicated, repeat alert to remind you to take what medication and when. The Reminders app lets you make lists, so that you can store your reminders in handy categories. You can choose to simply make brief to-do lists to check off…

Workflow is one incredible app, enabling you to take numerous iPhone functions and stitch them together to make seamless automated actions. For example, when you first launch the app you’re given a tutorial on how to create a GIF workflow. This takes the camera function, then adds it to the GIF creator, plus a sharing option, and hey presto you have a one-stop-shop GIF creator. When you press play on the workflow, your GIF is created in mere seconds – it would take much longer if you had to do it manually. You can easily create your own workflows through the app’s drag-and-drop functionality. Simply tap ‘Create new Workflow’, then scroll through the options on the left; when you find the one you want, tap-drag it to the right to…

Spotlight has long been useful in allowing you to find various items on your iPhone. But with the iOS 9 update, searches now also include a much larger set of results. You can view nearby locations, get film times, find encyclopedia entries and so much more. Best of all, you can tailor the results to best suit you. To call up the Spotlight function, just drag your finger down in the centre of the screen. Spotlight will display a search box, into which you can enter your search terms. The results appear underneath. Spotlight hasn’t entirely avoided controversy. It has emerged that it sends location and search data to Apple’s servers. Apple says this is necessary since it helps make results more intelligent, but bear it in mind if you…

The iPhone certainly isn’t just a device for fun –_apps like Pages, Numbers and Keynote, as well as the Microsoft Office suite, make it just as good for business as it is for entertainment. And one of the things it does particularly well is design work; the iPhone’s touchscreen is perfect for combining images and text, and Pages is a great place to do just that. Plus, with the brilliant selection of built-in templates, you can create all kinds of projects within a few seconds. If you’re one of those using your iPhone for work, you can even use it to make your own business card. Whether you want to print the design or hand it out digitally, Pages has everything you need to make your card a reality, from…

Making presentations is rarely easy. You have to make sure the content is accurate and interesting, and also ensure that the equipment you use works adequately. Keynote is simple to use and is a near-perfect tool for creating visually impressive presentations, but when you use the remote control facility to jump between slides with just your iPhone, your hands will be free to help express your words and you can feel more comfortable throughout. It doesn’t take long to set it up and the way the software works seamlessly on both devices is a marvel of engineering that has a real-world use for anyone. Care has been taken to not only ensure that remotely controlling a Keynote presentation is reliable, but that it covers everything you need in times of…

When you first start up your iPhone, one of the first things you’ll want to do is jump onto the App Store and download new or favourite apps to run on your iPhone. The App Store lets you browse for apps by categories including games, books, education, entertainment and many more. The App Store syncs directly with your Apple account, so any purchases you’ve made on the Store across any of your Apple devices will be made available to you. From the Purchased screen in the App Store, you’ll be able to access all of your previous purchases across all devices and download apps that you’ve not yet installed on your iPhone. The App Store is also where you can go to update all of your apps. Whenever a new…

The Podcasts app is Apple’s native iOS app for managing your podcast subscriptions, making it easier than ever to keep up to date with the latest episodes. The app features thousands of podcasts offering free episodes to download and listen to on your iPhone. There is a huge variety of content to choose from. Whether you are into sports analysis, movie reviews or gardening tips, there is a podcast for everyone. You don’t need to subscribe to a podcast to check out its episodes: when browsing, you can stream individual episodes without having to download them to your device. Once you’ve subscribed to some podcasts, you can then set up your own podcast station, lining up all of your available podcasts to be listened to in the same way you…

The Netflix app provides an almost limitless array of movies and TV shows broken down into categories. A video-store-style interface makes Netflix perfect for browsing. If you don’t know what you want to watch, just browse a while until you find something. Netflix also makes recommendations: by monitoring what kind of movies and shows you’re watching, it will make a Top Picks digest for you. When you rate shows, it also uses this info to better work out the kind of content you like. Netflix can also connect to your Facebook account so you can recommend content to friends as well as see what they like. With the introduction of Profiles, Netflix can give you personal recommendations even if multiple people are accessing the same account. A profile will remember…

Capturing that special moment has never been easier than today, with the ability to take images quickly and in a few seconds be sharing them with friends via the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Once you have got to grips with the iPhone’s Camera app, you will be snapping away in no time. Built into the iOS operating system, the Camera app is arguably one of the most used and most loved apps on the iPhone and allows you to take and share personal photos and videos, all with just a few taps of the screen. The usability of the app, as with all things made by Apple, is as easy and as transparently clear as you would expect. However, despite the Camera app’s apparent simplicity, it actually packs in…

Editing photos has had a major update thanks to the new Extensions feature offered by Apple and a range of compatible third-party apps. These new tools give developers the opportunity to add functionality to other apps. In the case of Photos this means a range of new editing tools can be built into the interface. Only a small number of editing apps offer this extension capability, but many more are in development, and those with the functionality offer plenty of power over your images. Here, we’ll be using Halftone 2, an app that adds comic-book-style effects to your shots, as well as suggesting a few other apps with extensions you might want to try. You won’t have to jump between apps –simply activate the add-on in the Photos app to…

App used: GarageBand Price: Free For guitarists, GarageBand on iPhone has been a fantastic practice solution for some time. Whether you’ve any intention to record performances or not, the app lets you plug in and monitor the impressive output via headphones. It offers some startlingly authentic amp and stompbox effects, customisable with just a few taps. Experienced players will soon recognise the array of virtual gear as an affectionate homage to iconic brands like Fender, Vox and Marshall. Whether you crave a clean jazz sound, some bluesy warmth or searing stadium lead, the combinations are limitless. So over the next few steps we’ll learn how GarageBand on iOS 9 enables you to model legendary guitar ‘rigs’ or sounds using built-in amps and stompboxes. Tune up, plug in and rock out!…

If you’ve been using the web version of Twitter on your iPhone, you’ve been missing out. The free Twitter app has all the features of the website but is easier to use and enables you to quickly swap between multiple Twitter accounts with a single tap. The app lets you manage your followers, view your mentions and direct messages, and respond to them. The Search facility shows your saved searches as well as trending topics. You can also control all facets of your profile, from your image to your URL and bio. The interface is easy to use, with one-tap access to mentions and messages. Push notifications when you get a new mention or message make it even more convenient. And when the Twitter app is on your iPad, your…

If you’re ready to share things online and Facebook or Twitter isn’t flexible enough for you, Tumblr may be the answer. It’s more than a simple blogging platform. It has an easy-to-use interface where you can manage your posts, follow other Tumblrs, control your blog’s appearance, and most importantly, create new blog posts. The iPhone app allows you to post 6 different types of media: text, images, quotes, links, music, and videos. You can use the iPhone Camera Roll directly without having to dig around in a file system, but the Tumblr app has a few more nifty features that many users overlook. For instance, you can create posts and schedule them to run at a later time. This automation can be very useful when you’re trying to build up…

Enjoy playing games on your iPhone? You need to check out Game Center. With this app you can see how well your friends are doing and issue challenges to them when you’re feeling competitive. Game Center lets you keep track of games you and your friends have played, and see how you stack up against them. It even lets you compete against people you don’t know in multiplayer games. Use Game Center to invite friends using their nickname or email address. Once you’re connected, you can see what games your friends are playing, their status, and how they’re doing. To begin, start Game Center and sign in with your Apple ID: the current games you’re playing on your iPhone will automatically connect with Game Center. Take a minute to customise…

There have been plenty of games featured over the last few pages that offer five minutes of fun, but they might not be for someone who likes to invest heavily in a game. There’s only so much blowing up targets, or mastering of a puzzle that you can do. For those looking for more substance, the App Store is packed with some staggering simulation and strategy games. These are all about creating your own worlds to get lost in, and enthralling stories to follow to their dramatic conclusions. This used to be the realm of PC gamers, but because the iPhone is now such a powerful device, game developers are jumping on the mobile bandwagon to provide gamers with more and more epic sim games. Here’s your chance to build…

It does not matter that the iPhone 6 Plus is so big because Apple has cleverly employed tools to make any available app run within the high density display. Many apps have already been enhanced to take full advantage of the display and even those that have not will still work well. This alone is a huge advantage for Apple because the app ecosystem is so popular that any new device is immediately greeted with a huge amount of development to support the features. The limited number of iPhone models also helps app development.…

If you balked at the bulkiness of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus then luckily for you Apple has produced the iPhone SE: a smaller, more compact alternative based on the design of the classic iPhone 5. Crafted from bead-blasted aluminium for a finish that is almost satin-like, the iPhone SE is lightweight and perfectly built to sit your hand. And, like the aforementioned classic iPhone models, it features a 4-inch Retina display to make all of your favourite apps look stunning. Before you get any ideas that the iPhone SE is in any way lacking compared to the iPhone 6 range then it is worth pointing out that the size is the only thing ‘retro’ about this handset. Beneath the scaled-down exterior lies the same A9 chip that powers…

You might think that the Settings app would contain a spattering of options to change specific features of the iPhone, but it actually presents you with a huge list of options which contain further settings within them. The list has grown over time and can be confusing at first, but the best advice is to take a long look at what is available and to then only change what you need to. The number of options will also expand as you install new apps because many will push their individual settings to the main Settings panel, so that is something to be aware of if you are struggling to make changes in an app. Here, we will highlight the most useful settings and also show you how to navigate through…

3D Touch sounds like a gimmicky feature to add to the latest iPhone and one which may prove useful from time to time, but it is only when you start using it every day that you realise how transformative it really is. It is the first major redesign of the iPhone interface since the original phone was released and could be described as a right-click mouse button, but it actually goes much deeper than you may at first expect. It works by sensing the degree at which you press the screen and this can then feedback results depending on the amount of pressure. A firm, but light touch lets you peek at emails and other content, and a further harder touch will fully open the content you are viewing. In…

You may think that keeping a contacts list is an easy thing to do and it certainly can be if all you need is an accurate listing of your friends and colleagues. However, if you want more, the standard iPhone Contacts app is more than capable of providing it. You can set up as many groups as you need and separate your acquaintances into logical listings, which will speed up your people finding every single day. With groups you can still access all of your contacts with one tap if needed, which is handy, and you can even link contacts together to share data. For example, if you have accidentally created a duplicate of one person, simply use the ‘link contacts…’ option and they will magically merge into one contact.…

Siri is a brilliant invention from Apple and can be used for much more than you might expect. We will highlight some of the more popular and lesser known features, but the best advice is to just speak to Siri and see what answers you get back. Web searches are built in and Siri is also capable of interacting with many default apps including Maps, Contacts and Calendar. However, it is the way that Siri works that is most impressive: you can speak naturally and it will understand you. The more you use it, the more accurately it will recognise your voice and over time you’ll find yourself speaking to it just as you would a friend. Don’t ever feel restricted by what you believe it can or cannot do…

You’ve always been able to use one Apple ID as the main account for multiple iPads and iPhones, and it has worked well, but it can lead to confusion and even annoyance as purchases are shared between people. Family Sharing, a new feature from Apple, is designed to take those problems away by letting you use one account for payments and so benefit from using an app or song on more than one device, but it includes a degree of separation by using different Apple IDs for family members. You will see when we explain the process that there’s not much to learn here and that it will work for you consistently without you needing to think about what is happening, and your children will be able to feel like…

Apple’s Mail app has got all the tools you could ever need to keep your emails neatly organised. From your initial Inbox, you can sort your messages into multiple folders so that you can always access what you need, when you need it. The Mailbox feature is super-handy, too. For example, creating different mailboxes allows you to keep your emails of different topics separate. Say you’re planning a party – create a specific ‘Party’ mailbox and send all of your emails about the party to that mailbox; then, when you need to quickly and easily find some details, you can simply navigate to your Party mailbox, where all the emails will be there waiting for you! Flagging messages is also a great feature – simply tap the flag icon on…

It would not be cruel to say that the iOS Notes app has historically been too basic for many people, but that has all now changed with the release of iOS 9. All of a sudden the app is capable of offering all of the mediarelated features that you need, and it is also more connected to other apps than ever before. You can now insert images into new notes and also add sketches, which can be drawn with a variety of tools that work like a standalone drawing app. Each object can be moved around within the note and all of the data is held in place when the note is shared. From web links to photos to task lists, they can all be included in a note and…

Apple’s Maps app recently received a muchrequested update, which is the ability to use public transport and to search routes based upon what is available. Not only does the app show you the availability of public transport, but it treats it just like driving in that you get duration approximations, exact route steps and instructions throughout your journey. Despite being an excellent standalone driving and walking navigation solution, having this new level of assistance really does lift it much higher than ever before, and the solution is now starting to become invaluable to millions of people. More cities now have a visually stunning flyover tour available, most of which make you feel like you are really there, and the ‘nearby’ function is yet another bonus to be aware of. You…

One little-known feature of the iPhone Health app is the ability to create an emergency contact card, which is populated with the most important information about you. Should an emergency occur, anyone who has access to your phone can quickly retrieve information such as blood type, the medication you are taking and lifethreatening allergies. You can also include notes and advise if you are an organ donor on your card so every base is covered in the simplest and most effective of ways. It is easy to access from the front screen of your phone and the person reading it will not have access to your personal data. They can access it immediately, although we admit that they will find it easier if they know where to look by already…

The built-in apps on your Apple device work perfectly with the hardware and are optimised to take full advantage of the operating system. So while alternatives like Microsoft’s Office suite are still worth a look, Apple’s own iWork apps offer similar functionality, complete compatibility and a much nicer interface. Also,_since the iWork apps are designed to work the same on Mac and iOS, you won’t be frustrated by missing features. But Apple knows that many people still use Microsoft Office, and it has therefore made it quick and easy to import and edit Microsoft files using iWork apps. You can continue to enjoy the improved interface of iWork on your iPhone without having to transfer to a Mac or PC to work on a full version of Office. Better still,…

For creating professional presentations, or just cool photo slideshows, Keynote has no equal. The app is incredibly powerful and gives you practically all the abilities of its Mac brother on the iPhone. What this means is that you can create some truly amazing-looking slides with beautiful imagery, fonts and animations. But where your creation can really shine is in the details, and it’s here that transitions will really matter. Keynote offers an array of beautiful transitions to give your presentations a professional sheen. You can even set up automatic transitions, so all you have to do is hit the Play button to get things rolling. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to create cinema-worthy presentations in Keynote using these incredible and easy to-master techniques. App used: Keynote Price: £7.99/$8.99…

iTunes started life as a way to purchase and download music from your computer onto your iPod. Since then it has expanded to cover films, TV shows and audiobooks. As with apps, you can access iTunes purchases across all of your compatible devices. iTunes also comes with its own recommendation service called Genius, which uses your previous purchases to highlight music, films and shows you might like. When it comes to music on iTunes, you’ll be making an outright purchase of an album or single that you can then transfer to other devices. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to download the music to your device since purchased music can be streamed via the Music app as long as you have an internet connection. TV shows are also purchased outright,…

The iTunes store is full of top-quality content to enjoy through your iPhone, including movies that you can buy or rent. Buying a movie obviously means that it’s yours to keep to watch whenever you want, but renting is a cheaper way to keep abreast of all of the latest movie releases. When browsing the iTunes movie store you will notice that some movies can be rented as well as purchased outright. If you tap on the ‘Rent’ option then you will agree to pay the rental fee using the credit card associated with your Apple ID and the movie will be downloaded to your device. You will now be able to watch it through your Video app, but be aware that you only have a limited window to do…

iBooks provides iOS users with an almost limitless library of literature, non-fiction, audiobooks, comics, publications and more to be accessed from your iPhone. No matter what genre you are into, you’ll be able to find a great read in the iBooks Store. iBooks is connected directly to the iTunes Store and content for iBooks can be found in either app. Once you’ve found a book you want to buy, it can be purchased on your iTunes account and downloaded straight to iBooks. The beauty of iBooks is that there is a lot of free content available, especially with classic literature; in fact, in the Top Charts section of iBooks you’ll be able to browse between Free and Paid content. Any purchases made through the iBooks app will also be available…

Thanks to the previous iOS 9 update, you’re now able to take awesome time-lapse videos with the built-in Camera app. Time-lapse videos work in the opposite way to slow-motion videos, speeding up long clips in a fast-forward style. This is the type of footage you’ll have seen in documentaries when clouds are racing through the sky. Rather than filming continuously, time-lapse footage takes photos at intervals, leaving you with this sped-up version of events. The Camera app enables you to create this impressive type of footage in just a few easy moves. The time-lapse feature is perfect for condensing a beautiful, burning sunset into a short but dramatic video clip, or capturing a long and winding journey into just a few seconds of footage. This innovative feature has broadened the…

App used: iMovie Price: £3.99/$4.99 With iMovie on your iPhone you are no longer limited to adding your clips in a linear order to put your movie together. With the various insert options on offer, you can now create cutaways, add images side by side to each other and quickly edit your clips before adding them to your timeline. The more time you spend shortening your clips from the clip library, the easier it will be for you to edit your movie in the timeline. Rather than dumping your entire clip into a timeline, you can shorten it to roughly the length you want it to be, and then insert it. By doing this you are effectively building an assembly cut of your edit, which can then be further refined…

The iOS version of GarageBand is a great way to create new tunes, with its built-in keyboard and fantastic array of Smart Instruments that make it easy to create great music even if you can’t play an instrument. However, you can also try your hand at editing other artists’ songs, since you can import audio files from the Music app directly into GarageBand. The app treats the tracks as regular live audio files, so you’re free to edit, chop and change them as you wish. As well as being able to edit the song on its own, you can also take advantage of GarageBand’s library of Software Instruments to add your own flavour to the track. Not only that, but you can add live audio – so if you have…

WhatsApp has changed the way millions of people communicate from their phone every day and has deservedly achieved a great deal of success. It works over multiple platforms, is extremely well priced and is as reliable as any other competing service. You can use it to make contact with friends and colleagues, but when used for group chats it takes on a whole new form – collaborative, fun and efficient. Setting up a new group takes seconds and only requires the acceptance of the people you invite to the group for you to immediately start sharing thoughts, images and other media. We will demonstrate the process and show you how beneficial groups chats can be, but we are certain that once you start a group everyone within it will become…

There’s just so much great information out there on the internet, but weeding through junk to find it can take time. That’s where Flipboard comes in. Flipboard is a content management app that aggregates the stories you are most interested in from online news sources and social networks. Flipboard dishes these up in a pleasant interface that feels more like turning the pages of a glossy magazine than scrolling through a web page. But unlike reading a magazine, you have the ability to save stories and articles for later reading, you can control the font sizes for to content even more readable, and best of all, you have control of the subject matter and source of the content you’ll see. If there’s data you’re not interested in, you can mute…

As you’ve already discovered in this book, your iPhone is made even better by the stunning range of Apple-made and third-party apps available on the App Store. The range of apps on offer is quite incredible – and the Games section is absolutely no different. Whether you’re looking to test your brain with a mind-boggling puzzle game, use your iPhone as an educational tool for your children, or let your hair down and get engrossed in a stunning firstperson shooter or your favourite sports game, the App Store has you well and truly covered. So why would you play games on your iPhone when you’ve got an ultra powerful desktop machine or next-generation games console sitting at home? Well you’d be foolish to underestimate the power of the mobile device…

There’s a lot of fun to be had with an iPhone, as you’ve probably already guessed by now. Whether that’s watching movies and TV on Netflix or editing your favourite photos in Pixelmator, your iPhone has fast been replacing your laptop as your go-to device. The iPhone has also championed other skills, none more so than learning. More and more schools are using the mobile devices as educational tools, so why not use it at home to teach essential skills to your children. Learning doesn’t have to mean dusting off the dull textbooks you learned from growing up – now you can use your tablet to keep kids engrossed in the subject matter and boost their brain power at the same time. In this section we’ll take a look at…