Best camera apps
If the
iPhone 5’s
own camera app is just a bit too minimalist for your liking, there are
oodles of third-party apps to try. One of the most popular is Camera ,
which adds a barrel-load of modes and feature, and lets you pick
separate focusing and exposure points. Pro Camera gives you the control
options that the basic camera app lacks, including ISO, software
anti-shake and oodles of filters.
Have your own favourite iPhone tricks? Let us know yours in the comments.
26. Download AppShopper for bargains
One
of the best ways to track price drops and popular new apps is
AppShopper. It’s an App Store tracker app that monitors activity and
displays it in a much more dynamic way than the App Store itself. You
can look for apps that have recently dropped in price, look at the
brand-new apps that are attracting attention and setup a list of
favourites, tracking when they go down in price.
25. Auto downloads
iOS
6 lets you leave it to automatically download apps you already own to a
new phone. It's handy if you upgrade your iPhone every year, you lucky
thing. You'll find this option in the iTunes & App Stores menu of
Settings. Here you'll see auto download sliders for apps, books and
music.
24. How to delete apps
An easy
essential, this one. To delete apps on your iPhone 5, simply hold a
finger down on an app icon until it starts to jiggle. This will also
make a little red icon appear at the corner of your apps. Tap the red
icon to delete the app.
23. Essential apps
There
are hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps available on the App Store,
and if you’re an iPhone veteran you’ll already have a bunch of
favourites that you rely on daily. Some of our top recommendations
include note-taking app Evernote, pretty newsreader Flipboard, Facebook,
Twitter, BBC iPlayer, eBay and YouTube. Let us know your favourites in
the comments.
22. Best free games
There are
thousands and thousands of free games on the App Store, and many of
them are downright awful. Freebies worth checking out include Hill Climb
Racing, Real Racing 3, the original Angry Birds, Tap Defense, JellyCar,
Jetpack Joyride, TapTap Revenge Tour, Triple Town, Dropship and Drop7.
Browsing
21. Private browsing
Like
your desktop browser, the iPhone 5’s Safari browser can be set to
Private Browsing mode, which won’t save any of the places you’ve visited
for other people to check up on. You’ll find the Private Browsing
switch in the Safari sub-menu within Settings.
20. Select Your Search Engine
From
this Safari sub-menu you can also select the search engine the iPhone 5
will use for its Internet searches. Your choices are Google, Yahoo! and
Bing. We honestly can’t think of a reason why anyone would pick
anything but Google, though, short of an irrational hatred for the big
G.
19. How to save web images to the gallery
Another
neat half-hidden feature of the iPhone 5 Safari browser is that you can
save images easily from within the browser. Just hold a finger down on
an image until a menu pops-up. One of the options in the menu is “save
image”, which will save the pic to your phone’s gallery.
18. Install a data monitor if you have a mobile data limit
Unlike
the latest version of Android, iOS does not currently offer a
particularly good way to track how much mobile data you have used.
There’s just a global data counter within the Usage part of the iPhone
5’s Settings menu. There are apps that will do this for you, though, and
let you know when you’re approaching your data limit. One to try is the
freebie Data Monitor.
17. Saving pages for offline reading
If
you want to save some of your data allowance, you can save pages for
offline reading in the iPhone 5’s Reading List. To do this, just press
down on a page until a menu pops-up. In this menu, one of the options
will be “Add to Reading List”. You can access you Reading List by
tapping the book icon in the Safari nav bar. Reading List will be the
top option.
Battery Life
16. Turn off mobile data
The
best way to conserve battery is to turn off mobile data. 3G is one of
the most serious battery leeches in the mobile world. Of course, turning
off data will also mean you can’t browse the web unless you’re in a
Wi-Fi zone, so it has its disadvantages.
15. Turn off… Everything else
If
your battery is low, turning of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will help eke out
those extra few minutes before conking out. The other big contributor to
battery life zapping is the screen’s backlight. You’ll find the
wireless connectivity switched in the Settings menu, and the screen
brightness slider in the Brightness & Wallpaper section within
Settings.
Security and Money-saving
14. Increase security with a passcode
The
most basic security measure to make with an iPhone 5 is to add a
passcode to the lock screen, making any users input a four-number code
once the phone has become locked. To setup a password, you need to go to
the General section of the Settings menu and select the Passcode Lock
menu item. Here you can choose your four-number code and select how
often you want the passcode to be required – from every time the phone
goes into standby to once every four hours.
13. Turn off Roaming
Although
EU leglislation has limited how much carriers can charge for data while
you’re abroad in Europe, you’ll still pay a pretty penny to check your
emails. And don’t even think about trying to stream video. Head out of
the EU and you’ll pay crazy rates to boot. You’re best off turning off
roaming altogether, and relying on Wi-Fi while you’re abroad. You’ll
find the Data Roaming switch down the bottom of the Settings >
General > Mobile Data menu.
12. Find My iPhone
Apple’s
ultimate weapon against iPhone theft is Find My Phone. This is
something you’re asked if you want to enable when you first start-up
your iPhone. Should your iPhone be stolen, it allows you to track the
device on a web browser using the iPhone 5’s GPS transmitter. It’s dead
clever. Unlike many iPhone core features, it has a separate Fine My
iPhone app, available from the App Store. You’ll need a MobileMe account
to get it working, though.
Video and Music
11. How to add files to apps
Many
apps have their own stores of “associated” files. For example, a
third-party video player might have a stash of videos, or an ebook
reader a stash of ebooks. These are added to the apps as documents,
sync’d over iTunes. You don’t add them to your iTunes library, though,
but within the iTunes sync menu when your iPhone is plugged into your
computer.
10. Third-party apps will stop you needing to transcode videos
Some
of the most useful third-party apps that use these documents are video
players. The iPhone 5 can’t play many different video formats
off-the-bat, but with a media player solution, the phone can play all
sorts including MKVs, without needing to convert them to an
iPhone-friendly type.
9. How to transcode videos to iPhone format
If
you want to watch downloaded videos using the native video player,
you’ll most likely have to start transcoding files. Bits of software
that can do this include Handbrake and Visual Hub. However, transcoding
is a laborious process, so we recommend downloading a decent third-party
video player if you have a big library of downloaded videos.
Siri
8. Location-based reminders
Siri
is the iPhone 5’s voice assistant. She takes an audio file of what you
say over to Apple’s servers, which then decipher it and do their best to
help with whatever you’re after. You can ask Siri to make
Location-based reminders, which will pipe up when the iPhone 5’s GPS
tracker has calculated that you’re in a certain place. To turn on Siri,
check out the Siri sub-menu in Settings > General. To access Siri
once enabled, you just need to hold down on the Home button.
7. You can Tweet through Siri
As
well as grabbing you information from the web, Siri can write tweets
for you. However, we strongly recommend checking what she’s made of your
words before posting, especially if you have an accent that she might
stumble over.
Storage
6. There are accessories to expand your storage
iPhones
do not let you plug in memory cards to increase the phone’s storage.
It’s not something Apple has ever allowed. However, there are
Wi-Fi-based solutions that can give you more room to play with fairly
effectively. The last we looked at was the Kingston WiDrive
.
Devices like these are Wi-Fi transmitters that connect directly to the
iPhone, through the medium of an app. They either have their own
internal storage or offer a card slot. Files on these data drives can
then be imported using the iPhone.
5. What is iCloud and how to use it
iCloud
is Apple’s own cloud storage service. It doesn’t get all that much
attention, but it’s a massively important part of the Apple
infrastructure. By default, it’s used to back-up most of the data on
your phone, including photos, contacts, emails and calendar entries.
Apple gives you 5GB of storage for free, and should you need more you
can pay a little extra for more. You’ll find iCloud info and storage
options in Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup.
4. iTunes Match
A
more immediately exciting use of Apple’s cloud services is seen in
iTunes Match. This is a service that you pay £21.99 a year for, and it
lets you stream your entire music collection from the cloud to your
phone, freeing-up any internal storage you might otherwise have had to
expend on music. You have to “sync” your music library with iTunes
Match, and can have up to 25,000 songs.
Camera and Photography
3. Turn on HDR
For
casual photographers, there’s little reason not to use the HDR mode of
the iPhone 5’s camera app. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and is a
mode that melds two different exposures in a single photo to create the
most detail-filled shot possible. The iPhone 5 automatically captures a
non-HDR shot with each HDR one too. What’s the downside? HDR mode is
significantly slower than standard shooting, to make time for the
processing of the HDR shot.
2. Use the volume key as a shutter button
Apple
lets you use the iPhone 5’s “volume up” button to take photos, as well
as the touchscreen. This button is in a near-perfect position to take on
the role as a shutter button. This even works when using a three-button
remote control, including Bluetooth headsets. So you can effectively
use a wireless headset as a remote shutter control. How cool is that?
1. Get a quick look at the photo you just took
For
the first good old while using an iPhone 5, we always used to tap the
Gallery shortcut at the bottom of the camera app’s screen to look at
photos. However, it turns out this is completely unnecessary. Just swipe
left-to-right from the camera preview screen and you’ll instantly be
taken to the camera roll, which shows you your photos, starting with the
most recently-taken one.
And a few extra for good luck....
Top camera tips
The
key to getting good basic shots is about focus and composition. Try and
line-up the horizon with the edges of the screen to avoid wonky photos,
or alternatively switch on the grid in the camera Options menu if you
find this all a bit tricky. Getting photos in-focus is all about staying
still, funnily enough. The
iPhone 5 has a pretty quick focusing system
thanks in part to its decent F/2.4 lens, but try your best to keep your
hands still until the exposure has definitely finished to get the best
shots.
