Since iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S were released last week, there have been several tips and tricks posted all over the web that I’ve found useful and I wanted to put these all in one place so you could benefit from them too without having to search high and low to find them yourself.
- Have Siri pronounce your name correctly or call you something else entirely, via TiPB. As I mentioned in this week’s podcast, I have Siri call me “Mistress” (other alternatives I had in mind were too long or, um, not entirely family-friendly for use in public).
- Use Siri to tweet, via Mashable.
- Define contact relationships for Siri (so you can just say “Call Mom” or “Text my husband” and the like), via TiPB.
- Disable Siri when your iPhone is locked to prevent others from using it if it’s lost or stolen, via Business Insider. This is a setting enabled by default and is a potential security issue since anyone could get your personal information by asking Siri “What is my contact information?” or other similar questions even when your iPhone is passcode-locked.
- Change your iMessage caller ID to hide your phone number, via Cult of Mac.
- Enable emoji in iOS 5, via 9to5Mac. Yay! You don’t have to use a 3rd-party app to enable emoji anymore!
- Creating different lists in the Reminders app, via TiPB. The neat thing about this feature is that you can then use Siri to add to these lists. For example, I’ve created a list titled “Shopping” in Reminders and I can just tell Siri, “Please add milk to my Shopping list” and she’ll do it. This makes Reminders far more useful for me beyond reminding me about tasks at specific times and locations.
- A list of Siri commands to add punctuation, special spacing and characters and more to text you dictate, at Crush Apps. You can also download this list to carry around with you if you have the Paperless app (link opens iTunes), which is one of my favorites for keeping lists.
If you’ve come across any other tips you’d like to share, post them in the comments!
at least seven days to go for my new iphone. O2 kinda messed up with my shipping.
never ever get one from O2, they want 60 € more for : NOTHING!
but its funny to hear someone saying “master” to me, cant expect give me more funny names!
would love to read a review of headphones/headset , Sennheiser, AKG or anything else for traveling and homeusing, closed preferable
you have bought thouse B&W, how do you like them, small review would be nice, compared to something would be great!
I’m really enjoying the B&W P5’s. I don’t plan on doing a review of them, unfortunately, but I found plenty of great ones already out there as I considered buying them. Check out this one from Head-Fi, one of the most well-known sites for audiophiles: http://www.head-fi.org/t/538682/bowers-wilkins-p5-mobile-headphones-review
I’m not an audiophile but find them to be far better than most headphones I’ve owned, particularly the OEM Apple ones included with the iPhone, which I used to think were just fine. The P5’s are not quite as crisp as my Etymotic ER6-‘s in-ear headphones but they work great with my iPhone and iPad, and I love the way they look as well.
It sounds like O2 charged for expedited shipping but somehow messed it up – hope you get that sorted and refunded and that you get your iPhone sooner than expected!
For headphones with iPhones have you considered Beats by DrDre by Monster, they have excellent sound quality and have a built in mic and can control all 4th generation or higher apple tech (including iPhone 3GS). Although they will leave a slight hole in your pocket.
Honestly, I never once seriously considered the Beats as I have rarely read anything good about them from audiophiles. Reports that I’ve read indicate that they are bass heavy and their plastic construction feels cheap given their price tag. I listened to a test pair briefly in a store and did not like their sound signature.
Here’s a review comparing them (and other headphones) to the B&W P5’s that I ended up buying: http://www.head-fi.org/t/536880/review-fashion-vs-function-phiaton-ms400-b-w-p5-monster-beats-solo-v-moda-crossfade-sony-xb700-hd25-1 While the Beats weren’t the worst there, they did not fare well against the P5’s at all.
The P5’s also have an in-line controller with a microphone that works just like the OEM headphones Apple includes with the iPhone. And that cord is easily replaceable if something happens to them (B&W kindly gave me a free spare one upon request that I’m keeping just in case).
great ! thank you very much, i am going to read all the reviews!
what dslr do you have, since you mentioned it once before?
its a nice page, keep posting more news, it makes my working day go faster 😀
You’re welcome!
I have a Nikon D40. It’s on the low end of Nikon’s DSLR offerings but it works quite well for me since my photography skills are pretty basic and I don’t need DSLR-quality pictures for most of what I do.
I’m working on posting new content here regularly so stay tuned. 🙂
Great post!
Please add power saving tips too.