iPhone For Dummies

Edward C. Baig is a long-time technology columnist and author whose work has appeared in USA Today and aarp.org, among other outlets. He is also author of the latest edition of Macs For Dummies. Bob LeVitus writes the "Dr. Mac" column for the Houston Chronicle and has more than 85 technology books to his credit. The two have teamed up to write all previous editions of iPhone For Dummies as well as all editions of iPad For Dummies.

Introduction 1


About This Book 1


Foolish Assumptions 2


Icons Used in This Book 2


Beyond the Book 3


Where to Go from Here 3


Part 1: Meet Your iPhone 5


Chapter 1: Unveiling the iPhone 7


The Big Picture 8


The iPhone as a phone and a digital camera or camcorder 9


The iPhone as an iPod 10


The iPhone as an Internet communications device 11


Technical specifications 11


A Quick Tour Outside 12


On the sides 12


On the bottom 13


On the front 14


On the back 16


Status bar 16


Home Sweet Home Screen 18


The first Home screen 19


The second Home screen 20


The dock (all Home screens) 22


Chapter 2: iPhone Basic Training 23


Activating the iPhone 24


Turning the iPhone On and Off 25


Pointing a finger at Touch ID 26


Facing up to Face ID 28


Continuing the setup 29


Locking the iPhone 30


Mastering the Multitouch Interface 31


Discovering the special-use keys 33


One-handed keyboard 34


The incredible, intelligent, and virtual iPhone keyboard 34


Anticipating what comes next 34


Correcting mistakes 37


Choosing an alternative keyboard 38


Cutting, copying, pasting, and replacing 38


Multitasking 40


Navigating beyond the Home Screen 41


Organizing Icons into Folders 42


Visiting the App Library 43


Watching Widgets 44


Proactive Searching 45


Notifications and Today view 46


Chapter 3: Synchronicity: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPhone 51


A Brief iCloud Primer 52


The Kitchen Sync 54


First things first: About iPhone backups 54


Sync prep 101 56


Syncing Your Data with iTunes or Finder 61


Syncing contacts 62


Syncing calendars 63


Advanced syncing 63


Synchronizing Your Media 64


Music, movies, TV shows, and podcasts 64


Photos 67


Manual Syncing 68


Chapter 4: Understanding the Phone-damentals 71


Making a Call 72


Adding contacts 72


Setting up favorites 74


Viewing the Recents list 76


Dialing with the keypad 77


Accessing voicemail visually 77


Recording a greeting 80


Voice dialing 81


Receiving a Call 81


Accepting the call 81


Announcing the caller 81


Rejecting the call 82


Replying with a text message 82


Blocking callers 83


Silencing unknown callers 83


Avoiding disturbances 84


Choosing a ringtone 85


While on a Call 86


Juggling calls 87


Making conference calls 88


Handing off calls 89


Seeing is Believing with FaceTime 90


Part 2: The PDA iPhone 95


Chapter 5: Taking Control of Your iPhone 97


Controlling Control Center 98


Summoning Siri 101


Figuring out what to ask 103


Siri shortcuts 104


Using dictation 104


Correcting mistakes 105


Making Siri smarter 105


Typing to Siri 106


Chapter 6: Texting 1, 2, 3: Messages and Notes 107


Getting the iMessage 107


You send me: Sending text messages 109


Alert: You’ve got messages 110


Being a golden receiver: Reading and replying to text messages 110


MMS: Like SMS with media 113


Massive multimedia effects 114


Group messaging has never been better 118


Taking Note of Notes 119


Chapter 7: Twelve Indispensable Apps and Utilities 121


Working with the Calendar 121


Year view 122


Month view 122


Day view 122


Week view 124


List view 124


Adding Calendar Entries 125


Displaying multiple calendars 128


Responding to meeting invitations 129


Subscribing to calendars 129


Sharing a family calendar 129


Calculate This 130


Punching the Clock 130


World clock 131


Alarm clock 132


Stopwatch 133


Timer 133


Voicing Memos 134


Making a recording 134


Listening to recordings 135


Trimming recordings 135


Adding a title to a recording 136


Reminding me 138


It’s a Wallet 141


Dropping in on AirDrop 142


Controlling Lights, Locks, and More 144


Using the iPhone in the Car 144


Unlocking the Car 145


Measuring Things 145


Translating Text or Speech 146


Keeping in Good Health 147


Part 3: The Multimedia iPhone 149


Chapter 8: Music to Your Ears: Audio on Your iPhone 151


Introducing Your iPhone’s Music Player 152


It’s music, just not your music 152


My Music is Your Music 156


A library without library cards 156


Play it again, list 158


Share and share alike 160


Taking Control of Your Tunes 162


Customizing Your Audio Experience 164


Setting preferences 164


Setting a sleep timer 165


Using your voice to control your music 166


Listening to Podcasts with the Podcasts App 167


Shopping with the iTunes Store App 168


Chapter 9: “Smile”: Taking Pictures with Your iPhone 171


Taking Your Best Shot 172


Making Photos Come to Life 174


Keeping Things in Focus 175


From the front to the rear — and back 176


Firing up the flash 177


Night mode 177


Using zoom 178


Two (or three) rear cameras are better than one 179


Applying filters 180


Binging on burst shooting 181


Using the self-timer 183


Tracking Down Your Pictures 183


Choosing albums 185


Viewing all your photos 186


Making memories 187


Categorizing your pics 189


Adding captions 191


Searching for pictures 191


Sharing your photos 192


Admiring Your Pictures 194


Maneuvering and manipulating photos 194


Launching slideshows 195


Storing pictures in the (i)Cloud 197


Editing and Deleting Photos 198


Livening Up Live Photos 201


More (Not So) Stupid Picture Tricks 203


Chapter 10: Starring in a Blockbuster: Video on Your iPhone 207


Finding Stuff to Watch 208


Playing Video 209


Shooting Video 213


Going slow 217


Going fast 218


Capturing stereo 219


Editing what you shot 219


Sharing video 220


Watching video on TV 221


Augmented reality 221


Restricting video and other usage 222


Part 4: The Internet iPhone 223


Chapter 11: Going on a Mobile Safari 225


Surfin’ Dude 225


Exploring the browser 226


Blasting off into cyberspace 226


I Can See Clearly Now 228


Opening multiple web pages at a time 230


Looking at lovable links 231


Book(mark) ’em, Danno 232


Altering bookmarks 234


Viewing open pages on other devices 235


Letting history repeat itself 236


Launching a mobile search mission 236


Saving web pictures 237


Reading clutter-free web pages 237


Translate web pages 238


Private Browsing 239


Sign in with Apple 239


Smart Safari Settings 240


Chapter 12: The Email Must Get Through 243


Prep Work: Setting Up Your Accounts 244


Setting up your account the easy way 244


Setting up your account the less easy way 244


See Me, Read Me, File Me, Delete Me: Working with Messages 248


Reading messages 248


Filter mail 250


Managing messages 251


Threading messages 253


Searching emails 255


Darling, You Send Me (Email) 258


Makin’ messages 258


Settings for sending email 267


Setting your message and account settings 269


Special Mail options on 3D Touch and Haptic Touch models 272


Chapter 13: Tracking with Maps, Compass, Stocks, Weather, and Files 273


Maps Are Where It’s At 273


Finding your current location with Maps 274


Finding a person, place, or thing 275


Views, zooms, and pans 276


Timesaving map tools: Contacts, Recents, Guides, and Favorites 278


Smart map tricks 281


Contemplating the Compass 285


Taking Stock with Stocks 285


Adding and deleting stocks, funds, and indexes 286


Details, details, details 287


Charting a course 287


Weather Watching 288


Keeping Track of Documents with Files 289


Part 5: The Undiscovered iPhone 291


Chapter 14: Setting You Straight on Settings 293


Sky-High Settings 294


All about you 294


Airplane mode 295


Wi-Fi 296


Bluetooth 297


Cellular 299


Emergency SOS 300


Report, Sound, and Appearance Settings 301


Notifications 301


Control Center 302


Do Not Disturb 302


Privacy 302


Sounds 304


Happy Home button (iPhone 7, 8, and SE models) 305


Brightening up your day 305


Auto-lock 306


Home Screen 307


Wallpaper 307


In General 308


About About 308


Software update 308


Storage 308


Background App Refresh 309


Siri & Search 309


AirPlay & Handoff 309


CarPlay 310


VPN 310


Battery 310


Touch ID/Face ID & Passcode 311


App Store 313


Wallet & Apple Pay 313


Screen Time 313


Date & Time 315


Keyboard 316


Language & Region 317


Fonts 317


Dictionary 317


Accessibility 318


Reset 321


Phoning in More Settings 321


Promoting harmony through Family Sharing 321


Sorting and displaying contacts 322


Nothing phone-y about these settings 322


Find My 324


Chapter 15: Apps-O-Lutely! 327


Finding Apps 328


Browsing for apps 328


Finding more information about an app 329


Downloading an app 330


App Library 330


Updating an app 332


Deleting and Organizing Your Apps 332


Deleting an app 332


Organizing your apps 333


App Clips 335


Apple’s Arcade 335


Books, Newspapers, and Magazines 336


Books app 337


Newspapers and magazines 338


Chapter 16: When Good iPhones Go Bad 341


iPhone Issues 342


But first 342


Recharge your iPhone 343


Restart your iPhone 344


Reset (force restart) your iPhone 344


Remove your content 345


Reset your settings and content 345


Restore your iPhone 346


Renew your iPhone with Recovery mode 347


Problems with Calling or Networks 348


Sync, Computer, or iTunes Issues 350


More Help on the Apple Website 351


If Nothing We Suggest Helps 352


Dude, Where’s My Stuff? 353


Part 6: The Part of Tens 355


Chapter 17: Ten Appetizing Apps 357


Shazam 357


Action Movie FX 359


Halide 360


Evernote 360


Words with Friends 2 361


IMDb 362


Libby 363


Waze 364


BeCasso 365


Dark Sky 365


Chapter 18: Ten Helpful Hints, Tips, and Shortcuts 367


Use QuickPath for Speed and Accuracy 367


Autocorrect is Your Friend 368


Assault on Batteries 369


Tricks with Links and Phone Numbers 371


Share the Love and the Links 372


Choose a Home Page for Safari 372


Like a Time Machine for iPhone Backups 373


Create Ringtones for Free in GarageBand 374


Getting Apps Out of the Multitasking Screen 376


Taking a Snapshot of the Screen 377


Index 379