iPhone 5s Tips and Tricks

Photography

Camera in Control Centre

Access your camera quickly by swiping up from any screen — including the Lock screen — and tapping the Camera icon.

Panorama

You can easily shoot panorama photos from left to right or right to left. Just tap the arrow to switch the direction.

Burst mode

Capture multiple shots of the action — for as long as you hold down the button — by snapping 10 photos per second. And real-time analysis suggests the best photos of the bunch.

Photo filters

Apply one of eight live photo filters to any picture. Just choose a filter to see the effect before you take the shot, or apply it later.

Mapped pictures

View the locations of your pictures on a map by tapping the location heading under Years, Collections or Moments.

Working with Text

Format text in Mail

Double-tap any word to bring up the options menu, tap the arrow and select the B I U option to bold, italicise or underline your text.

Define a word

In apps like Safari and Mail, you can define a word by double-tapping it to bring up the options menu and then tapping Define.

Swipe Gestures

Delete a message in Mail

Simply swipe from right to left on messages in your inbox to quickly delete them.

Go back in Mail

To go back, swipe left to right from the edge of your screen.

Spotlight search

To open Spotlight search, swipe down from anywhere on the Home screen — such as the middle. Then type in what you’re looking for to quickly find it on your device.

Messages

View timestamps of your messages by touching and dragging message bubbles to the left.

Weather

View all your locations by pinching to see a collapsed view. To reorder locations, simply drag them where you want. Swipe from right to left on a location to delete it.

FaceTime

FaceTime audio

Now you can make audio-only FaceTime calls. On your contact’s card, tap the phone icon in the FaceTime section.

Maps

Get there with Quick Route

When Maps drops a pin on a location, you can get driving directions to that location almost instantly. Just tap the Quick Route button next to the location’s name.

See up close with Flyover

Tap the 3D icon to switch to Flyover view and explore selected cities from the air. You can zoom, pan and rotate around landmarks.

Tilt and rotate your view

As you’re looking at a map, use two fingers to tilt or rotate the view. Maps keeps the names of the streets and places where they belong. So everything’s easy to read, and you won’t get lost.

Share a pin

In Maps, drop a pin on a location you want to share. Then tap the pin and select Share. Now you can share the location via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Twitter or Facebook.

Calendar

New views in Calendar

View your calendar by list, day or month. Switch to landscape view to see a full five days.

Swipe gestures

Tap the month name in the left corner to change to Month or Year view. In Day view, you can swipe the week bar at the top to jump to days in the next or previous week.

Search for specific events

Tap the search icon for a list view of every event in your calendar.

Music

Create playlists

In the Music app, tap Playlists, then tap Add Playlist and give it a name. Now tap any song or video to add it to the playlist. You can add individual songs, entire albums or all songs by an artist.

Musical landscape

While browsing your music collection, switching to landscape view displays a mosaic of your album covers. Swipe to scroll, pinch to zoom in and out, and tap to play.

Mail

Insert a photo or video

When you’re composing an email, touch and hold in the message to see the “Select, Select All” menu. Tap the arrow and select “Insert Photo or Video”. Now you can choose a photo or video to attach from your Camera Roll, albums or shared streams.

Keep your inbox clean

You can delete or move messages in batches. From your inbox, tap Edit, select the messages you want to organise, then tap Trash or Move.

Get back to your draft

Touch and hold the Compose button to switch to your list of saved message drafts.

Safari

Single sign-in

Sign in once under Settings, and you can tweet or update your Facebook status directly from Safari, Photos, Camera and Maps.

Manage open Safari pages

Drag and drop to rearrange your tabs. To close tabs, tap the X or just swipe them off the screen.

Create web clips

Quickly visit your favourite websites by creating web clips for them on your Home screen. Visit the site and tap the Share button. Then select “Add to Home Screen”.

AirPlay and Wireless

Broadcast live with AirPlay

When connected to a Wi-Fi network, you can use AirPlay Mirroring to share exactly what’s on your iPhone with your HDTV connected to an Apple TV. Just access Control Centre by swiping up, tap AirPlay and select your TV.

Print wirelessly from iPhone

AirPrint makes it easy to print email and web pages from your iPhone to your AirPrint-enabled printer. To print an email, tap the Reply icon and select Print. To print a web page, tap the Share button and select Print. You can also print photos, documents and more.

Accessibility

View more accessibility tips and tricks

Have text read back to you

iPhone can read text out loud in apps like Mail, Safari, Messages and iBooks. Just turn on Speak Selection in Settings > General > Accessibility. Then go to the app, highlight the text you want to hear and tap Speak.

Control font size

Adjust fonts to your preferred reading size in all apps that support Dynamic Type. Simply turn on Larger Type in Settings > General > Accessibility. Then choose your desired font size.

Get flashing alerts

Your iPhone can give you a visual alert for incoming calls and texts. Just go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on LED Flash for Alerts.

View closed captions

To turn on the captions in closed-captioned movies, just go to Settings > General > Accessibility. You can even customise captions by size, font type and colour.

Merge left and right audio

Play left- and right-channel audio in both ears to accommodate hearing loss on either side. Just go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Mono Audio.

Settings

Enable emoji characters

Access all sorts of smileys, animals, shapes and other peculiarities from the emoji-enabled keyboard. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Add New Keyboard and select Emoji. Now when you type, just tap the globe button and choose the emoji that fits the mood.

Keyboard tips

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard to turn on or off features like Auto-Capitalisation, Auto-Correction and more.

Do Not Disturb

In Settings, turn on Do Not Disturb to silence sounds from incoming calls and notifications. You can allow calls from your favourites, specific contacts or contact groups. Enable Do Not Disturb manually or schedule a recurring time.

Compass

Access a level or an inclinometer by swiping left in Compass.

Find My iPhone

If you’ve lost your iPhone, Find My iPhone can help you loc