iPhone Tips
Just in case you didn’t know, here are some tips to particular functions on your iPhone.
The following requires the device to be on…
Press Power button: Put device into sleep mode immediately.
Press Home button: Go to search panel.
Press Home button twice quickly: Access switcher panel on the bottom. (swipe right once for iPod/music player controls, and again for volume).
Press and hold any icon for 3 seconds: Moving Springboard icons mode (Home button to exit)
Press and hold Home button for 4 seconds: Initiate Voice Control.
Press and hold Power button for 4 seconds: Access slider to turn off device
Press both Power and Home buttons and release immediately: Snap photo of current LCD screen and put into photo collection.
Double tap the Caps key on the keyboard and it will change to blue and remain in Caps mode until you tap it again.
The following requires the device to be on and in sleep mode…
Press Power button: Access slider to exit sleep mode.
Press Home button: Access slider to exit sleep mode.
Recovery Mode
You can force your device into a special Recovery Mode. In this mode, the iBoot is running on your device. You need a USB cable connected to your iPhone for this mode to be activated.
Turn off your iPhone. Connect one end of the USB cable to the iPhone. While holding Home button down, connect the other USB cable end to a computer. Keep holding the Home button until you see an image of a USB cable and iTunes logo on your iPhone. Just run iTunes to reflash your firmware at this stage.
If you wish to exit this mode without reflashing, simply disconnect the USB cable and hold Power down for 6 seconds, which will power off your iPhone. Turn on your device again, and it should be back to normal.
DFU Mode
You can force your device into a special “DFU” mode (Device Firmware Upgrade). In this mode, the iBoot is not running on your device. You need a USB cable connected to your iPhone for this mode to be activated.
Connect one end of the USB cable to your iPhone. Connect the other USB cable end to a computer. Turn off your iPhone (fully off, not just in sleep mode). Press and hold both Power and Home button for 8 seconds. The LCD screen should turn on with the Apple logo and then go blank again during that 8 seconds. Keep holding both down for 2 more seconds and then release Power button only, but keep holding down Home button for about 10 more seconds. Your iPhone is now in DFU mode with screen still blank. Note that if at any time during this process you see an Apple logo on the screen (besides the initial one in the beginning), then you have done it wrong. You can now use iTunes to flash new firmware without iBoot running. To confirm you are in DFU mode, you can disconnect the cable and try to power on the iPhone normally (it should be unresponsive).
To exit DFU mode without re-flashing, disconnect the cable and hold both Power and Home button for 10 seconds. Turn on your device again, and it should be back to normal.
Undo Typing
To quickly undo typing recently done, just shake the iPhone. A pop-up will ask you if you want to do the undo feature.
Special Safari Protocols
In addition to http://, https://, ftp:// protocol identifiers, the iPhone also supports tel://, facetime://, and mailto://
You must have a complete and valid URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for it to work. Safari will then launch the appropriate application to handle it.
tel://NUMBER will pop up a dialog asking if you wish to make a cellphone call to NUMBER using the baseband.
facetime://CONTACT will pop up a dialog asking if you wish to make a video call to CONTACT using Apple’s Facetime over Wi-Fi.
mailto://EMAIL_ADDRESS will launch the mail program to compose a message to EMAIL_ADDRESS.
Make a call from Safari
If you find a phone number in Safari that you’d like to call—say the phone number at a restaurant you’d like to make reservations at—there’s no need to jump to the phone component. Just tap the number; iPhone will dial it for you. This is also the true with phone numbers and URLs embedded in e-mails and SMS chats; tapping either one will place a call or open a Web page, respectively.
Recover ‘lost’ e-mails
Suppose you try to send an e-mail, but the iPhone can’t get network access. You might think your message has gone completely, but don’t worry—it’s still on your phone. A temporary Outgoing folder is created, and the message winds up in there. You can access this temporary folder from the main screen of the sending account; the folder will disappear once network access is available and the message is sent.
Rebooting your iPhone
What if your iPhone suddenly becomes unresponsive. Pushing the Home button does nothing. Hitting the On/Off button produces the same discouraging result. I think we have all been there. What do you do? Apple’s first reset tip is to press and hold the Home button for about six seconds to quit any application that might have locked up your iPhone. If that doesn’t work, trying pressing and holding both Home and On/Off; after about 10 seconds the Apple logo will appear. (This reboot trick takes a little big longer than the iPod equivalent—holding down Select and Menu usually restarts your music player after four seconds.)
These procedures may vary from iPhone to iPhone or revision to revison. Just comment on it. Also, if you have a tip useful to our community add it in a comment and we will list it.