When my dear friend Jen (From Australia) recently posted on Facebook that she was jumping onto the iPhone bandwagon. There wasn?t a shortage of replies on which iPhone she should buy (iPhone 4 vs iPhone 4S ? 16GB. 32GB etc). As expected, I advised her to wait for the iPhone 5 (or ?new? iPhone) coming out in the next few months, but there was so much more I wanted to tell her to get the most out of her iPhone. So for this post, I will give a brief introduction to newbies that are jumping onto the iOS bandwagon.
iOS ? Not too flashy, stable and gets the job done
This is the operating system that runs all iPhones and iPads. It is simple and basically what you see is what you get. All apps generally run well on it. Within the app, there are very few options for customization. If you want customization like how your icons should pop out, changing the system font etc etc ? Go get an Android phone.
Ringtones are standard but there are ways to customize it ? Apps like ?RingBuilder? or “1500 Ringtones Unlimited” lets you do just that. The process generally involves:
(1) Emailing the Ringtone to yourself
(2) Save it on your computer
(3) Save under Tones in iTunes
(4) Sync to your phone
Same goes for Wall Papers ? there is an app for that called ?Pimp your Screen? with tons of HD pics for you to use as your phone?s Wallpaper or Lock screen Pic.
As far as making your iPhone?s screen look different, there are lots of apps like these to help you along your way. Not to mention the gazillion iPhone cases available out there.
Helpful Tip: Never Lose your phone?s contacts again.
If you have ever lost all your contacts after losing a phone, this tip may come in handy.
It not exclusive to the iPhone but you can actually store (retrieve) your contact list to a cloud server like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo mail. In my case, I sync all my contacts to Gmail. So every time I add a contact on my iPhone, it is updated automatically onto my Gmail server?s contact list. I have 2 phones ? 1 update and all phones get it. Likewise, if I lose my phone ? I just sync my new phone with the same set of contacts.
Here is how its done (for Gmail):
Step 1
Tap “Settings” on the iPhone, and then select and tap “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and “Add Account.”
Step 2
Select and tap “Microsoft Exchange” and type your Gmail address within the “Email” text box.
Step 3
Type your Gmail address and password in the “Username” and “Password” text boxes. Tap “Next.” Tap “Cancel” if you see the text “Unable to Verify Certificate” displayed.
Step 4
Type “m.google.com” within the “Server” text box and tap “Next”
Step 5
Initiate the Gmail contact sync by enabling “On” next to “Contacts.” The sync should start.
If you are using another mail server ? the only part that changes is step 4 ? where the name of your server changes accordingly (Yahoo, Hotmail etc etc)
Editor’s note: You may refer to our step-by-step guide to learn about how to sync Google contacts and calendar.
The Largest App Store in the World
The iTunes app store has the most Apps out there with well over 500,000. There?s an app for everything and all of them work on an iPhone (due to the iPhones uniformed infrastructure). The app store allows you to make anything out of your iphone with a click of a button. Here are some programs that I use
- Eagleeyes ? Lets me monitor my apartment in Singapore via CCTV
- Dropbox ? access or email my PC/Laptops files on my phone
- Pulse Reader ? Customize and read my news feeds
- iTunes Remote ? use my iPhone as a remote for playing music via itunes while I am at home.
- Awesome Note/Evernote ? View/Store/Edit notes that are synched across my iPhones/iPad/Desktops/laptops
- iMessage/Whatsapp/KIK Messenger/Line Messenger ? replacing SMS ? these apps let me send messages for free. Also when I change a SIM card or number on my phone (i.e. when I travel and buy a top up SIM card) ? messages arrive at the original inbox so I don?t have to inform anyone of any changes in my phone number. Great for sending pics/videos and voice.
- Beejive/Agile Messenger/IM+ Pro ? For my friends that are not on phone messengers I use these apps for conventional Internet Messaging via MSN Messenger/Yahoo/Gtalk/Facebook.
- Pic Collage ? Instead of sending photos individually, I like to send several Pics in a postcard format, all done within my phone
- Snapseed ? Powerful App that edits my photos on the go
A Whole New World
For those that are upgrading from a Blackberry or even a Nokia Symbian Phone, the iPhone can be a very engaging tool. The iPhone presents information previously view on other phones in a whole new light sometimes bringing boring stuff like RSS feeds to life with excellent formatting (i.e. Pulse Reader, Flipboard).
If you are one of those new comers, I welcome you on board the iOS users bandwagon and hope that you enjoy it as much as most of us have. I will continue to update you with future installments on tips and tricks on the iOS.
