Tips & Tricks for Your iPhone

So, here is my first technology blog post! These are some cool tips & tricks you may not know you could do with your amazing iPhone. The points are bitesize, therefore it won't take you long to read this!

1. Turn Your iPhone into a Force Touch Trackpad

If you have an iPhone 6s or iPhone 7 you can use the 3D touch feature to do some cool things! When you have your keyboard on screen, you can actually force touch it and you can then move the cursor around the screen like a mouse! Very handy, for example, if you want to correct a letter in a word, which can be quote precise on a small iPhone screen.

2. Speak Out Notes for Your Phone to Write for You

You can enable dictation and speak out what you would like your iPhone to write for you - your own personal assistant! When you have the keyboard showing on the screen, you will see a small button with a microphone symbol. Press this and voila, your phone is ready for you to dictate your message. You can even say "question mark" or "exclamation mark" and it will insert these characters.

3. Use Siri to do Things Hands Free For You Whilst Driving

You can set up Siri so that when you say "Hey Siri", Siri will be activated, awaiting your command. You can then ask Siri to do things for you like, "Please play my recently added playlist" to activate your iTunes or "Take me to Wembley" for Apple Maps to begin turn-by-turn directions for you. This helps you to not even have to look at or touch your iPhone whilst driving.

4. Zoom in on Your Videos Whilst Watching Them

Not every know that when you watch a video you recorded on your iPhone, you can now pinch the screen to zoom in, even during playback! If you are a dancer or sports person, for example, this can be very useful when watching yourself back during training.

5. How to Lock Both Exposure and Focus When Taking Photos

You can press and hold the screen on object you would like to focus on and the camera will fix the focus on that layer and adjust the exposure accordingly. Now you are free to adjust the shot by moving the camera and it will remain focused on the same layer and remain on the exposure setting. Nice!

6. Help I am Trying to Find a Picture of a Friend in my Huge Photo Album

Don't fret, the photos album now has a folder titled People, where it will recognise faces in your photos and will group your photos by faces. Smart stuff! You can now find your photos of John in one handy place!

So, here we have it, here are just a few tips & tricks that you may not know you could do with your iPhone. I hope it helps you. Feel free to comment with some of your favourite tips.

by Filipe de Barros

Filipe provides friendly support & training for Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad. He loves helping people use Apple technology to enhance their personal lives & businesses.