iPhone 5 Tips

Internet Browsing

• Private Browsing (#1)

As you use your phone to browse the web, information on the sites you visit, the search query you've typed will be saved on the browsers memory. And if you share your iphone5  with your friends and family, this data will be readily available to those who have an access to your phone.  If you do not want  this from happening, activate the Private Browsing by going to Settings, Safari, Privacy, then turn on the Private Browsing button.

If you do not want websites to store your information whilst visiting their pages, you can opt not to accept cookies. Do this choosing Never at Accept Cookies menu.

• Clear History, Cookies and Data(#2)

If you have used your iPhone5 to browse the internet before setting on the Private Browsing option, you might first need to clear your history, cookies and data. And to see which websites has managed to save some data from your browsing habits, check it from Settings, Safari, Advanced, Website Data. You have an option to delete the site from the list or delete all. 

Which one not to delete? 

This depends on who have the access on the phone. If it's just you alone, then I will leave the data from emails and social networks. I will just erase that from banks or shopping and any site that involves financial transactions. Why? Just in case the phone is lost and somebody manages to get an access.

• Auto Fill(#3);

This function is useful in filling out online forms, especially when you are fond of joining websites that asks you to input the same personal entries. When turned on, the Auto Fill function uses the information stored under your name in Contacts. Or if you are creating a profile for one of your friends, you can automatically fill in his details as long as it is saved in his profile. 

You can Access this by going to Settings, Safari, Auto Fill, My Info then choose the entry where you keep your information.

• Reading List

Action Button

If you come across an article you want to read later, most of the time, you just hit the bookmark button and the web address is saved in the bookmark for later access. The disadvantage of this method is, your bookmark continuously piling up of addresses creating clutter especially when you seldom tidy up your list when you no longer need it or have finished reading what you've wanted to read.

A solution for this is to use the Reading List instead of the Book Mark. You can save a website to read later without adding it to your bookmark by pressing the action button  when you are browsing then press Add to Reading List.To get back to the saved reading list, tap the bookmark icon and the Reading List is at the top. Once you've accessed the saved item, it will be automatically deleted from the list.

• Reader's Aid

And whilst reading, you can magnify the text of the article without necessarily pinching it out to zoom the page with your fingers. You can even take off all the distractions like adverts and photos by using the Reader in Safari. It is activated when you tap on the title of an article, the Reader button will be available at the address bar. A tap on the reader will give you the option to increase or decrease the size of the text, by tapping on the relevant icon. The text then will be auto fitted into the screen for easier navigation and reading.

Texting

• Keyboard Shortcut

Predictive text helps texting quick and easy. The only downside to this is, it spells out the whole word in english. You can not use a shortcut of words when the function is on. Another way to compose text quickly is to use keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't matter if you use any language or several languages, or write abbreviations of words. It does understand and spells out words the way you want it, only in a flash and quicker way.

Try the function by going to Settings, General, Keyboard, Shortcuts, Add New Shortcut then enter the Phrase you want to use and the Shortcut for the phrase, one letter for each word and do not leave a space between the letters.

Useful when texting the same phrase or word every time.

• Customized Vibration

Allocating a customized ringtone to a contact lets you know who is calling before you answer the phone. This function has been around for sometime. How do you know who is calling when your phone is on a vibrate mode?

You can now predict who is calling you or sending you a message when your phone is on silent mode by just  observing the vibration it makes. There are several preset vibrations you can choose from to assign to your contacts. You can also make a new customized vibe by going into Settings, Sounds, Ringtone, Vibration, Create New Vibration then tap on the screen to make your own sequences.

To set up the customized vibration to your contacts, go to the name of your contact, tap edit and choose the preset vibe or the one you've made.