A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about some tips and tricks of iOS 6 that I thought readers would find helpful. Turns out there are tons of tips for iOS 6 out there, so here’s a Part II!
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I love using Emoticons in texts — those little smiley faces, people, various foods, etc. just really add a certain fun vibe to my messages. You too, could enjoy these on your iOS device. I had originally downloaded a third-party Emoji app but turns out they are actually just an international keyboard already built into your device.
To launch, simply go into Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards. Tap, Add New Keyboard and find Emoji. If you open Messages, or any other app where you can type, next to the space bar you’ll see a little globe icon. You can use that to switch between your regular keyboard and your new Emoji keyboard. Have fun!
You might not be using Siri to her full potential. Did you know Siri is an expert on movies? You might have already known that you can use her to see which movies are playing at a movie theater near you, but did you know you can also ask her about which actors have appeared in the same movies together? For example, you might ask, “What movies star both Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd” and Siri will reply with her answer. Test her knowledge!
If you’re finding the sweet Siri seems to be wrong or confused when you try and use her — correct her. Perhaps you asked her to call your friend “Aaron” but it thought you said “Erin.” Fix this mistake so she won’t make it again. After Siri tells you she doesn’t know what you’re talking about, scroll up and find the speech bubble that Siri displays. If you tap the bubble and it will allow you to edit what Siri heard and you can then resubmit the command. (Ed. Note: This is awesome. And it works. -KH)
I recently learned that there is a super easy way to share your photos on your device with your friends and family. You’re able to do this between iOS devices and Macs (running Mountain Lion). Simply open Photos on your device. Tap Photo Stream in the toolbar, click the plus (+) symbol and enter a name for your group of shared photos and select the contacts you’d like to view them. You can then add photos that already exist on your device. Friends and family can even comment on them and “like.”
I rarely ever have my phone out of vibration mode. A cool feature is the ability to create custom vibrations for texts and ringtones. If you’d like to know who’s calling you without even looking at your phone you can create a vibration for a specific contact. Open Phone or Contact, select contact, and tap the edit button. Scroll down to find the ringtone field and below that will be a vibration field. If you select that you’ll be able to choose from a selection of vibration patterns. Even further down, however, is the option to create your very own vibration. Tap Create New Vibration and start creating your own sweet rhythm.
Hopefully you’ve learned some sweet new tricks to play with over the weekend. Enjoy!