We provide here some iOS 7 tips and tricks guide walks you through some of the new features and knows how to perform common tasks and some of secret iOS 7 tips and tricks that are difficult to find. These are our favourites let us know yours in the comments.Check out our iOS 7 review for the full lowdown.
1. Make text larger and easier to read:
If someone’s eyesight is on the wane you don’t necessarily have to switch to a larger phone. That’s because Apple has included a ‘Dynamic Type’ mode that makes text larger in supported applications you can solve this by using this, To adjust the setting go to Settings/General/Text Size and adjust the slider as you see fit. Not all applications support it, but they should increase in number as applications are updated to support iOS 7.
2. Camera shoots in burst mode:
The redesigned Camera application has a nifty trick up its sleeve. If you want to shoot in burst mode, taking multiple shots in quick succession, just click and hold the volume-up button.
3. Quit multiple applications (Multitasking):
May be you know that you can quit running applications by double tapping the Home button and switch over the offending application upwards, but you might not have tried it with multiple fingers to force quit more than one application at a time. We have made it work with three applications on our iPhone, although doing the same on an iPad means getting your nose involved too.
4. Correct Siri’s pronunciation:
We do not want to pick on Siri, but it few times makes a right hash of pronouncing names. You can fix this just by saying “Siri that’s not how you pronounce that”. It will then ask you to say it again to learn the name better.
5. You can Block people you do not like:
We are sure you get on with everyone just fine,many times it might be necessary to block certain people from calling you. IOS 7 finally allows this. It is easy to activate. All you have to do is go to their entry in the Contacts application and scroll down to the ‘Block this contact’ option.
6. Notifications are gone:
When you receive a new notification, you can still swipe right to open the appropriate application but if you just want ignore of it you can now swipe up to hide it.
7. New balancing acts:
IOS 7 is bad news for new applications developers is not only has the Control Center killed the market for flashlight applications, but Compass has done the same for spirit level applications too. If users launch the application they will see the familiar dots at the bottom of the screen that indicate there is a second screen, swipe it and you will see a spirit level for all your checking things are flat needs
8. Turn off parallax movement and wallpapers:
If you found motion sickness, or just don not like ‘parallax’ effect in iOS 7 it can be turned off. It’s tucked away in the Accessibility section, so head to Settings/General/Accessibility and find the Reduce Motion option. Done and done.
9. Block contacts, Phone, Face Time and Messages:
If someone has your number and you wish they did not? Add the number to your Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap Block This Caller to refuse incoming calls, messages (including SMS and MMS) and FaceTime calls.
10. See the time stamps (Messages):
IOS 7 like to keep things nice and minimalist, but if key information is not visible there is a good chance it is just a swipe away, so for example in Messages, you won not see time stamps against each SMS, MMS or iMessage. Swipe left if you want to know when they were sent.
11. Search your emails, contacts, messages, applications, music and more:
IOS has had universal search, known as Spotlight, for ages and it has not changed much for iOS 7. The only difference is how you access it. In previous versions it had its own ‘screen’ to the in iOS 7, Spotlight search is accessed by swiping down on the icon grid on any home screen, see graphic above. This shows the search box and on screen keyboard and it works the same whether you are using an iPhone or iPad.
By default it searches for a huge range of things, pretty much anything that has a native application. It even searches for podcasts. You can customize what are searches for by going to Settings/General/Spotlight “Search” and selecting what you want.
12. LED flash for notifications:
The Accessibility section of the Settings application has long been a source of useful tweaks, and it is still the case in iOS 7. This is an oldie but a goodie. Prefer a light to vibrations, You can make the LED flash… erm… flash when you have notifications. Go to Settings/General/Accessibility and scroll down to ‘Hearing’ where ‘LED Flash for Alerts’ resides.
13. Save minutes by FaceTime Audio calls:
Those of you lucky enough to have unlimited data plans but limited minutes will like this one. IOS 7 adds the ability to have audio only calls using FaceTime. Just go to the desired contact and press on the phone symbol next to FaceTime. Alternatively, you can search for your contact in the FaceTime application itself.
14. Get a quick view of your day:
Apple has made better the Notification Center for IOS 7 to include what it calls Today View. Today View can show you a number of different things, but by default it shows you the date, a summary of the weather where you are, and the appointments you have on any given day. Scroll further down and you can see your calendar for the day, up to date stocks and shares info and a short summary of your schedule for the next day.
15. Stop people snooping on your messages and appointments:
New Notification Center is a nice addition iOS 7, but it does throw up one obvious problem, as it is accessible from the lock screen, anyone could view your appointments and excerpts of your messages without your pass code.
Luckily Apple has thought of this and it is possible to customize the Notification Center available from the lock screen, or even turn it off entirely.
To do so, go to Settings/Notification Center and under ‘Access on Lock Screen’ disable the features you want to limit or turn off both ‘Today View’ and ‘Notifications View’ to turn off the Notification Center from the lock screen entirely.
16. Location Services (see where you have been):
IOS 7 keeps an eye on where you go to help it personalize features such as the Notification Center, and to help improve the accuracy of Maps. If you fancy a look you’ll find it in Settings/ Privacy/ Location Services/ System Services/Frequent Locations. You will see a list and a map, with blue circles showing where you have been and when. You can clear the history from this page, and if you think it is a little creepy you can turn it off from the System Services page.
