If you’ve recently picked up Apple’s newest smartphone, the iPhone 5s, or were prompted to upgrade a previous model iPhone or iPad to iOS 7, the latest mobile operating system, you’ve noticed a number of cosmetic and functional changes over iOS 6.
Here are some tips to get the most out of the newest changes to Apple devices:
- Control Center – The biggest functional change is the addition of a central control panel to access the most commonly changed settings. Now swipe from the bottom of the screen to the top in any view, even when the screen is locked, to toggle Airplane Mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb. From this screen, you can also access common apps like Camera, Calculator, Clock, and even the new LED flashlight.
- Siri – Siri has some useful options to make her more user friendly. Access the menu for Siri by opening Settings and navigating to General > Siri. Here, you can change Siri’s gender and enable automatic activation by moving the phone to your face. If Siri ever mispronounces a word, you can tell her by saying, “That’s not how you pronounce that,” and following the options to change Siri’s pronunciation.
- Location Tracking – Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services to toggle which apps have the ability to track your location. This allows them to provide location based content, suggestions, broadcast your location with status updates, help with navigation, or provide relative marketing and ad content. However, any application can be disabled from using Location Services in this window as well. Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations to see a list of recent location activity.
- iTunes Radio – Access iTunes Radio in the Music app. This is a new feature available on all Apple devices that is comparable to Pandora music streaming. It allows you to select an artist or genre and listen to related music streamed online. As songs are played, you’ll have the ability to choose the ones you like and the ones you don’t to further refine what future songs are selected and played.
- Touch ID – The new iPhone 5s comes with a fingerprint scanner that can replace most of the functionality of a traditional passcode to unlock the phone and provide authentication for application logins and App Store or iTunes purchases. To enable Touch ID, go to Settings > General > Passcode & Fingerprint > Fingerprints. Choose to Add a Fingerprint, pick the finger you want to use for authentication, and follow the on-screen instructions to create your ID. In the future, you’ll be prompted to use your fingerprint in place of a passcode where possible.
