Apple’s iPhone is an attractive device for people who want to do more than just make phone calls; exchange email and text messages; and play music, movies, and games. The device functions like a miniature computer, enabling you to access the Internet via Wi-Fi and cellular data networks, make free video calls, and run a wide variety of apps. After you’ve been using your iPhone for a while, you probably will have the basics down, but the device has a number of features that you may not be aware of.
Zoom
Savvy iPhone users are aware that they can double-tap the device’s touch-sensitive display to zoom in on a section of text or a photograph, which is particularly useful when loading a website in the native Safari Web browser. You can also pinch two fingers outward to adjust the size of a block of text. However, if you have difficulty seeing some details, you will want to zoom the entire display instead of just one element. To accomplish this, press the device’s “Home” button, then tap “Settings,” Accessibility,” and then tap “Zoom.” When the Zoom feature is activated, you can magnify the entire screen by double-tapping the screen with two fingers held together.
Invert Colors
Sometimes you will be reading a document or viewing a web page with your iPhone and experience difficulty making out the details. Fortunately, you can take advantage of a seldom-used feature to invert the screen’s colors. Press the iPhone’s “Home” button, then tap “Settings,” “General,” “Accessibility,” and then tap “Invert Colors.” Now everything on the screen will look like a photograph negative.
Speak Selections
When you are too busy or unable to read some text, you can let your iPhone read it aloud for you. To enable this feature, tap “Settings,” then tap “General,” and then tap “Accessibility.” Select “Speak Selection.” There are options you can set to adjust how quickly the iPhone will read to you, as well as to highlight words as the device reads them to you. When you want to hear text read to you, simply select a section and then tap “Speak.”
Enlarge Keyboard
For people with big fingers, typing on the iPhone can sometimes present a challenge. You keep touching the key next to the key that you intended to use, and then you have to delete it and start over. You can make the keyboard larger with a simple gesture. For example, if you are typing an email message or a memo with the Notes app, simply rotate your iPhone 90 degrees so it is positioned horizontally, in landscape mode. The keyboard will instantly enlarge to accommodate the new orientation, making it easier for you to hit the right keys when you type on the device’s virtual keyboard.
Closed Captioning
If you need to watch a TV show or a movie from Apple’s iTunes Store but you are not a native speaker of the language being used, often times you can view closed captioning, just like you can when watching a TV show or when selecting subtitles in a DVD or Blu-ray movie. Tap “Settings,” and then tap “Closed Captioning” to turn on the closed captioning feature before watching your video.
The more you use your iPhone during the course of your daily activities, the more uses you will likely find for the device and the more enjoyment you will get out of it. You’ll also boost your productivity with the assistance of various business, utility, and other helpful apps.
This article was written by Sheldon Armstrong, a techie who loves keeping up with the latest in technology and writing about them online. Have you ever needed to find an iPhone you lost? Check out kensington.com for their great gadgets to prevent you from losing your phone ever again!