OSX Daily has an exhaustive list of commands you can ask Siri. If you’re new to the iPhone (Really? Who are you?), or you’re not taking advantage of Siri, it’s worth checking out. The list is more than a year old, but still valid.
Tagged: iPhone
How to charge your iPhone in half the time
It never fails; you’re busy, not paying attention and have a meeting across town in an hour, when you notice that your iPhone is down to 15% charge on the battery. Simply plugging it in for 15 minutes before you head out the door isn’t going to give you enough charge to get you through the day.
Here’s a little-known secret to get you the battery charge you need in half the time it would normally take.
Plug your iPhone in as you normally would, then open the Settings app and turn on Airplane mode at the top. Doing so turns off WiFi, the cellular radio, Bluetooth, pretty much everything that typically drains the battery even as it’s charging.
I’ve verified that this works, and works well. My iPhone charged in nearly half the time it would normally take.
I wish I could take credit for discovering this trick, but I found it at AlliOSNews.
Mail Pilot public preview available
Mail Pilot for Mac public preview early sign-ups are now live. On Thursday, December 5, the first batch of public previews will go out. Sign up now to be one of the first to get Mail Pilot for Mac.
Mail Pilot users can quickly manage and productively organize their inboxes with a simple, task-oriented approach, tailored for the desktop. Mail Pilot for iPhone is already available, and quite popular.
iPhone 5S slow-mo video at work
Skin your iPhone earbuds for better sound, fit and style
As any iPhone user can tell you, the Apple-supplied EarPods (or earbuds if you have an iPod Touch) absolutely suck as far as fitting. Though they’ve improved greatly with each hardware update, I still can’t find anyone who doesn’t say they fall out of their ear constantly because they simply don’t fit right.
Enter EarSkinz. For $11 you can get these covers that slip on the supplied EarPods/earbuds that claim to not only fit better and add comfort, but improve the sound quality as well. And of course, the 11 color options allow you to choose one that best fits your style.
Dear Apple, let’s talk about photos
Peter Nixey talks about 5 things that would make managing photos better in the Apple ecosystem. I agree with all five points.
How to block text message spam on the iPhone
If you frequently get text message spam, you’ve no doubt considered sticking a pencil in your ear out of frustration. Before you soil a perfectly good pencil, take a look at OSXDaily’s excellent tutorial on how to block text message spam on your iPhone.
Apple’s Headphone Remote: more than just volume control
Though Apple’s headphones are a source of frustration to many users, for a variety of reasons, nobody can argue the usefulness of the built-in remote. At first glance, it appears to offer nothing beyond volume control. But Apple has actually built-in quite a few handy features for controlling your iPhone with it. Here are some lesser-known shortcuts.
- Tap the center button twice and hold it down on the second tap to fast-forward through a song. To rewind through a song, tap three times and hold it down on the third tap.
- Skip to the next song by double-tapping the center button, and tripple-tap to hear the previous song.
- Take a photo while in the built-in Camera app by tapping the volume up button.
- Press and hold the middle button for two seconds, then release it to ignore an incoming call (sending it to your voicemail).
- Tap and hold the center button to activate Siri.
iOS device screen chart for developers
Keep an eye on and reduce your iPhone data use with Onavo apps
Onavo Count for iOS is a great iPhone/iPad app that tells you how much mobile data is consumed by each app you use. Onavo Extend helps reduce your data use by intelligently compressing data before it’s sent to your iPhone or iPad by up to 500%. These free apps are particularly useful for those who are on low-tier data plans and don’t want to go over their data allotment.