iOS 5 tips and tricks

[sparkyscott21]

iOS 5 brings a built-in dictionary that is easily accesible from Safari and many other apps. The next time you see a word on an iPhone or iPad that you want to define, instead of downloading or launching a separate dictionary app, you can quickly access definitions directly from iOS:

Double-tap on the word to define

Select “Define” to open that word in the dictionary

Tap “Done” to exit the dictionary app

This should be familiar to Mac users, where a very similar feature is in OS X Lion, which summons a dictionary with a three-fingered word tap.

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How To: Show The Battery Percentage Meter From The Lock Screen Of Your iPad 2

Many users would have the battery meter in the top right hand corner of their iPad 2 showing the percentage of battery life, along with the battery icon.

Some people may not like the percentage meter, or have yet to turn it on as it is turned off by default.

The following guide has been tested on iOS 5 on an iPad 2. I also tested this on iOS 4.3 with an iPad 1 but it did not work.

Please note the percentage meter will only be presented when the iPad 2 is connected to a power source and charging.

In order to proceed we will assume you have the percentage meter turned off. To check go to the Settings > General > Usage area of your iPad 2 as shown below.

To this view of the lock screen:

You may notice that the screen on the iPad 2 goes black just after the percentage is shown. If that happens simply press the Home button once and you will be presented with the percentage again.

When you unlock your iPad 2 you will only be shown the normal battery icon and the percentage meter will disappear.

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[sparkyscott21]

New to the iPhone with iOS 5 is the ability to set and use custom text tones. Having long been able to switch between Apple provided text tones, since this new feature means any ringtone file can be set as a custom SMS sound, and you can also set custom text alert sounds on a per contact basis so you’ll know who is texting you based on the alert sound alone.

Change the SMS Sound on the iPhone

If you’re tired of the default “Tri-tone” text tone, here is how to change that sound:

Tap on “Settings” and then tap on “Sounds”

Tap on “Text Tone” and select from the list, custom text tones with appear under “Ringtones” whereas defaults will appear under “Original”

Select a text tone to use and close out of Settings

Tapping a text tone will play a preview of the sound, the checkbox alongside the tone indicates it’s the current setting.

Set Custom Text Tones Per Contact

SMS alert sounds can also be customized on a per person basis:

Tap on “Phone” and then the “Contacts” tab on the bottom

Locate the contact to set a custom SMS tone for and tap on their name

Tap on “Edit” and tap on “Text Tone”

Just as above, tap on a new text tone to set it as the default for the selected contact

Remember free iPhone ringtones can be made with iTunes, and they can be used for text tones as well. Generally the shorter the text tone the better, unless you want to hear a song play when someone texts you.

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[sparkyscott21]

How To: Set The Music Volume Limit For iOS Devices

As a parent I am continuously worried about the impact of headphones and earplugs on my children. As a result I try to limit their usage of such accessories as my hearing has been damaged over the years listening to music through headphones at excessive levels.

Apple as with most other portable music player manufactures have introduced ‘Volume Limit’ to counteract the concerns of parents or for that matter anyone who has an interest in protecting one’s hearing.

Volume limit simply prevents the volume output from being raised higher than a preset rate.






To set this on your iOS device simply go into your settings area and click on the Music icon which will then load the relevant settings as can be seen in the above image.


Your next step will be to click on ‘Volume Limit’ which is ‘Off’ by default. Doing this will load the next screen as can be seen below:



You will notice that you have a volume slider bar and then a ‘Lock Volume Limit’ button. Simply drag the slider bar to indicate the maximum volume you wish this device to output then press ‘Lock Volume Limit’.

The next screen to appear, as can be seen below, will request you set a four digit passcode. You will also need to type the same passcode in a second time to confirm the first is correct.






Once the settings have been confirmed your display will look like this:



You will notice that the volume level bar is greyed out indicating it can not be changed.

Now a user of the device can change the volume up or down within the range of the preset limit.

A user can unlock the volume limit by simply clicking the unlock volume limit button and typing in the four digit passcode.

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[sparkyscott21]

Occasionally through the standard iOS upgrade process, but most commonly when jailbreaking, the iPhone can reboot and get stuck on the Apple logo. Turning the phone on and off generally doesn’t help, as you’ll be continuously stopped at the white Apple logo and the iPhone never boots. This is different than being stuck on Recovery Mode, which shows the ‘Connect to iTunes” graphic on the iPhone screen, but can be fixed in a similar manner by using DFU mode and iTunes.

Connect the iPhone by USB to the computer

Launch iTunes

Put the iPhone into DFU mode by holding the Power button for 3 seconds, while continuing to hold the Power button also hold the Home button for 10 seconds, now release the Power button but continue to hold the Home button for another 15 seconds

iTunes will alert you saying an iPhone has been detected in recovery mode, click “OK”

Now select the iPhone in iTunes and click on the “Restore” button

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[sparkyscott21]

New to iPhone and wondering how to change your signature to something a little more custom and personal than “Sent from my iPhone?” Luckily, it’s easy to do and it can save you a lot of time when you are writing your emails. It also will reduce the chances of making contact detail errors. Here’s how.

1. Tap on the settings application on your home screen.

2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

3. Scroll down to Signature.

4. Enter whatever details you would like.


Note: This signature will be on all your outgoing mail so make sure it’s appropriate for all your contents!

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[sparkyscott21]

If you want an iPhone to appear as new, you need to reset the device to it’s factory settings. This is ideal if you plan on selling an iPhone or are going to transfer ownership of the device to another individual, and can also be a helpful troubleshooting technique.

The reset process will remove all data on the device, you will want to backup the iPhone manually or to iCloud just in case.

Reset iPhone with iPhone Only

Warning: This will removal all data, music, photos, everything, from the iPhone.

Launch “Settings” and tap on “General”

Scroll to the bottom of General and tap on “Reset”

Tap on “Erase All Content and Settings”

Enter the iPhone passcode, and confirm the reset by tapping on “Erase iPhone”

Resetting the iPhone on device can take a while depending on the model, the warning dialogue will give you a rough estimate but it can range from a few minutes to over an hour to restore the device completely. During this time the phone is otherwise inoperable.

At this point you’ll either want to leave the iPhone in it’s factory state for a new owner, or restore from backup.

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[sparkyscott21]

Can’t remember what folder you stuffed that iOS app into? If you have a ton of apps on your iPhone or iPad, try rearranging them all by their actions (or by verbs), rather than by the apps category.

Although you’ll have to do this manually by moving apps around and renaming or creating folders yourself, it’s actually more intuitive and it’s easier to find things based on what they help you to do rather than some rough categorization that isn’t always the most descriptive. You could go beyond iOS and do this with OS X Lion’s LaunchPad as well, but the larger Mac screens and optional nature of Launchpad seem to make folders much less necessary there.

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[sparkyscott21]

Restoring an iPhone or iPad to it’s default factory settings is easy whether you are restoring as a troubleshooting step or just preparing to transfer ownership of the hardware. You can reset the iPhone on the the device itself, but if the device is unresponsive, stuck on a boot loop, or otherwise needs to be restored directly, the next choice is to connect the iOS hardware to a computer and use iTunes.

Using iTunes is also typically faster than resetting through the iPhone or iPad itself, so keep this in mind if you tried the on-device method but it took forever.

How to Restore an iPhone or iPad with iTunes

If you want to restore to factory settings, do not restore from a backup during this process:

Launch iTunes

Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the computer and select it within iTunes, if it’s not visible check the “Show” button

Click on the “Summary” tab and click on the “Restore” button





iTunes will prompt you to back up the device, this is recommended but if you want factory settings only click “Don’t Back Up”

At the confirmation screen, click on “Restore” to begin restoring the device to factory settings

When finished, iTunes will alert you the device has been restored, but restoring may take a while. When the device is done, the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch will boot up and be reset completely to factory settings. This means that pre-iOS 5 will require the device to be connected to iTunes to finish, or after iOS 5 you will be presented with the familiar set up screens.

As mentioned before, to maintain the factory settings do not select to restore from a backup when this process is finished, otherwise you’ll simply be left with a device that has a freshly installed iOS but with the same data as when you started.

If you encounter error 3194 during this process, you probably jailbroke your device at some point and need to change the the hosts file.

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[sparkyscott21]

iOS is generally very stable but every once in a while you’ll encounter a third party app that isn’t. Apps can freeze or become stuck, you’ll usually know instantly because the iPad or iPhone becomes unresponsive to touch behavior or something within the app is clearly running amuck. When this happens the best thing to do is to force quit the app.

Force Quit an App in iOS

This will be the same on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

Hold down the Power button at the top of the device until the “Slide to Power Off” message appears and then release the power button

Now hold the Home button at the base of the screen until the app forcibly quits, this can take several seconds

You’ll know force quitting was successful because the app will close and you will be returned to your home screen and icons.

iPhone and iPad apps should rarely freeze, if you continuously encounter stability issues you may want to backup and then reset to factory defaults or restore to try and resolve the problems.

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