Humans use only 10 percent of their brains. Actually, that's a myth, but it's probably not a myth that many of us utilize only about 10 percent of our iPhone's capabilities. In this weekly column I share tips and tricks for beginners, or anyone who wants to make use of the other 90 percent of their iPhone's abilities.
You've likely heard and seen the big changes to the new operating system for the iPhone and iPad. This week I'm going to give some tips on features for iOS 7.
1. Little Blue Dot
Have you noticed a little blue dot next to one of your apps on your home screen? It takes the place of the "New" title over the app that informs you the app hasn't been opened yet.
2. Set reminders
I use the reminders feature on my iPhone almost everyday (I have a horrible memory). I tried to make myself a quick reminder to send a Thank You card to someone and found the + button had disappeared from Reminders. I wasn't in a place where I could access Siri to make the reminder for me, so I emailed myself to remember the thank you note. Later, when I had more time, I looked into how to add a reminder without using Siri. It was simple—just tap on the line underneath the last reminder and you can add another.
3. iTunes Music and Videos
After I updated my iPhone, I was going to play some music before I saw that every single song I had in my iTunes library on my computer was now showing in my Music app. The same thing happened with my videos. I prefer only seeing what I've downloaded onto my phone and not the hundreds of songs that I own. Maybe you do too. To change it, go into Settings, scroll down to Music then turn off Show All Music. You can do the same thing with Videos if you don't want to see everything in your iTunes Library.
4. App folders
Last week I showed you how to make folders on your home screen by dragging one app onto another. Before iOS 7, though, you could only fill a folder with up to 12 apps on your iPhone and there was a 16 app limit per folder on the iPad. Now, you can fill a folder with as many apps as you want. Be aware though that you can only see nine apps at a time so you'll still have to swipe to see the others.