The post Android/iOS tip: Tired of tapping? Type with your voice appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>
Do your tired fingertips need a break from all that typing on your Android phone or iPhone? Here’s an easy-to-forget trick that’s worth a try: voice typing.
Think of voice typing as a way of letting your Android phone, iPhone or iPad take dictation via the magic of voice recognition.
Tap the little microphone button, then start dictating to your iPhone or iPad.
Now, keep in mind that voice recognition on mobile devices still isn’t perfect; indeed, I wouldn’t recommend using voice typing for long, drawn-out emails or anything with precise language or numerics.
That said, voice typing is perfect for barking out a quick text message (“See you at the restaurant!”) or a bright idea you just had (“Square pegs instead of round ones?”).
For iPhone and iPad:
- Start voice typing by tapping the little microphone key to the left of the space bar.
- When you do, a waveform will appear inside a gray background. See it? If so, start talking, then tap “Done” when you’re finished.
- Your words will pop right into the spot where the cursor was last blinking.
For Android phones, you can start voice typing by tapping the microphone button at the top corner of the keypad.
For Android phones and tablets:
- On the standard Google keypad, you’ll find the microphone button sitting in the top-right corner of the keyboard. Tap it, wait for the red microphone to appear, then start talking. Unlike on the iPhone and iPad, your words should start to appear on your Android screen almost immediately after you say them.
- See a word you didn’t mean? Tap the pop-up “Delete” button to give it another try, or tap a word to pick a new word from a list of alternates.
- Done dictating? Tap the microphone button, then tap the keyboard icon. You can also tap the microphone button to pause voice typing momentarily.
Bonus tip
Android and iOS handsets typically rely on data connections to interpret your words and turn them into text—meaning no Internet, no voice typing.
As long as you have a language pack installed, you can use voice typing on your Android phone even when it’s offline.
There is an exception for Android phones, however, as long as you’ve downloaded a speech-recognition pack to your Android device’s on-board storage.
Once you do, your device will be able to take dictation without any help from Google’s remote servers.
Tap Settings, then tap “Language & input,” make sure the “Google voice typing” option is checked, then tap the little Settings icon right next to it. Then tap “Offline speech recognition” and see if your device has a language pack pre-installed. If it does, great—you’re all set. If not, tap the “All” tab and choose a voice pack from the list.
Click here for more iOS tips, or click here for help with Android!
The post Android/iOS tip: Tired of tapping? Type with your voice appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS tip: Can you create your own “Groups” in the Contacts app? appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>Hi Carolyn! So, yes; you’ve stumbled onto a feature in the iOS Contacts app that’s both intriguing and infuriating.
For those of you who aren’t that familiar with the Contacts app, you can access your contact “Groups” by tapping the Groups button that sits in the corner of the main Contacts screen.
Tap the button, and you should see a list of grouped iOS contacts that you can show or hide in the Contacts app, depending on whether a given group is selected.
So, what kinds of contact groups will you see on your iPhone or iPad? Most likely, you’ll see an “All iCloud” group, and you may also have groups such as “All Facebook,” “All Twitter,” and “All Gmail,” depending on which social and email accounts you’re signed into via iOS.
Select a group, and the contacts in that group will appear in the Contacts app; uncheck a group, and its contacts will be hidden.
All well and good, but what if you want to create your own Groups? Well, you can’t—or at least, not directly on your iPhone or iPad.
Instead, you have two options…
1. Use the Contacts app on your Mac
Are you using a Mac, and is your Mac signed into your iCloud account? If so, you can create and manage custom contact Groups using the Mac version of the Contacts app.
- Just launch Contacts, hover your mouse over the “iCloud” heading in the left column of the Contacts window, then click the little “+” button that appears.
- Type in a name for your new contact group, then start dragging contacts from the “All Contacts” group into your new group.
- Now, launch Contacts in your iPhone or iPad, and your new contact group should appear on the Groups screen.
- Tap the Hide All Contacts setting at the top of the Groups screen, then check only your new contact group. Tap the Done button, and you’ll see only the contacts you’ve added to your new groups.
Note: The Mac version of Contacts lets you create “Smart Groups” that are created automatically using search terms and other criteria. Nice, but be aware Smart Groups won’t sync with iCloud.
2. Use iCloud.com
Don’t have a Mac? Never fear. You can always create new contact groups by logging into iCloud.com on the web.
- Visit iCloud.com, enter your login name and password, then click the Contacts icon.
- In the left column and near the bottom-left corner of the screen, you’ll see a little “+” button. Click it, then select New Group.
- Name your new group, then start dragging in contacts from the All Contacts group.
- Check your iPhone or iPad; your new groups should already be synched in the Contacts app.
Hope that helps, Carolyn. Still have questions? Let me know!
Bonus tip
There are plenty of third-party apps in the App Store that’ll let you create contact groups directly on your iPhone or iPad, but the groups won’t appear in the Contacts app; instead, they’ll only appear in the third-party app you downloaded.
The post iOS tip: Can you create your own “Groups” in the Contacts app? appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS 7 tip: Looking for something? Don’t forget the Search box appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>In many of the iPhone’s and iPad’s core applications—from Mail and Contacts to Notes, Messages, and yes, Music—there’s a search box sitting quietly behind the title bar at the top of the screen.
The iPhone’s “Spotlight” search box will simultaneously scour your mail, messages, music, calendars, and more.
To reveal it, all you have to do is pull down on the screen with your finger.
Mind you, you won’t always find a search box by pulling down on the screen. The Calendar app does, for example, have its own Search button (in the shape of a magnifying glass), while the Photos app doesn’t have a search box at all.
Then again, there’s always another iOS 7 search feature you can try: the universal “Spotlight” search box, which you can access by pulling down on your iPhone or iPad home screen.
Spotlight search will scour your contacts, apps, music, videos, notes, mail, calendars and more all at the same time, or you can use it to search the web or Wikipedia for your search term.
It’s an efficient yet easy-to-forget way to quickly jump to, say, a specific song or contact on your iPhone or iPad without having to pull up an app first.
Click here for more iOS 7 tips!
The post iOS 7 tip: Looking for something? Don’t forget the Search box appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS 7 tip: Make it easier to double-click the Home key appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>If you don’t (or can’t) click fast enough, you’ll just wind up back on the home screen.
By tweaking a single setting, you can make the iPhone’s “home-click” speed much easier on your thumb.
Well, here’s the thing: you can actually slow down the speed with which you need to double-click (or triple-click, as the case may be) the Home key, perfect for those of us lacking split-second reflexes.
Here’s how…
- Tap Settings, General, Accessibility, then scroll all the way down and tap “Home-click Speed” (it’s under the “Physical & Motor” setting).
- Now, pick a new double-click speed—either Slow or Slowest.
- When you tap a new option, your iPhone will “buzz” three times to give you an idea of how quickly (or slowly) you need to double-click.
Bonus tip
Got an iPad? If so, you can use a special four- or five-finger gesture to switch between apps. Get the details right here.
The post iOS 7 tip: Make it easier to double-click the Home key appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS tip: How to forward iMessages or text messages via email appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>Hi Amro! Yes, there is a way to forward text messages or iMessages from your iPhone or iPad to an email address, but I warn you: it’s a bit clunky.
The method I’m about to explain will only forward the actual text in your message thread—meaning no date or time stamps, nor will there be any labels telling you who was “speaking” at any given time.
Oh, and if you want to forward a lengthy thread, prepare for a lot of tapping.
All set? Here we go…
- Open the Messages app, then open the thread with messages you’d like to forward.
- Tap and hold a message until a black bubble with “Copy” and “More…” buttons pops up, then tap “More.”
- A row a circles will appear on the left side of the screen, with each circle sitting next to an individual text or iMessage. Tap a circle to select a specific message, or tap them all to select the entire thread. (Sorry, folks—there’s no “Select All” button. Yep, I know.)
- Done selecting messages? Tap the little curly arrow in the bottom corner of the screen, then type in an email address into the “To:” form at the top. If you type in the email address for a contact in your iPhone’s or iPad’s address book, their address should appear as an auto-fill option as you type. Finished? Tap Send.
- The forwarded message should appear in the recipient’s email inbox as a “plain-text” email attachment. Also, keep in mind that the message itself will come from your carrier’s text-messaging service (complete with an email address like “[email protected]”) rather than from your regular email account. Just double-click the attachment to open it.
So no, not a perfect solution, Armo, but better than nothing. And if anyone else out there has a better idea, I’m all ears.
Note: You can only forward text messages to an email account with an iPhone or iPad with a cellular connection. If you try to forward text messages from, say, a Wi-Fi-only iPad, you’ll get an error message.
Bonus tips
- Just want to forward a few iMessages or text messages rather than an entire thread? You might be better off taking a screenshot of the messages and forwarding the image.
- Are you using the Messages app on the Mac? If so, you’ll find recent message threads stored in the Messages window, and you can copy and paste them quite easily. No, you still won’t get time stamps, but at least each message will be labeled with a name.
The post iOS tip: How to forward iMessages or text messages via email appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS 7 tip: How to get rid of the red badges on your apps appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>
Too many red badges on your iPhone’s or iPad’s home screen? Just flick the “Badge App Icon” setting to “off”.
Good news: it’s easy to turn off any annoying alert badges on your iPhone’s or iPad’s home screen, provided you know where to look.
- Tap the Settings icon on your iPhone home screen, then tap Notifications. Once you do, you’ll find two lists of apps; the first list (“Include”) covers all the apps that appear in the iOS Notification Center, while the second list (“Do Not Include”) ticks off the apps that…well, aren’t in Notification Center.
- Now, let’s say you want to turn off the red badge for the iOSs Facebook app. Scroll through both Notification lists until you find the entry for Facebook, then tap it.
- To zap the badge, just switch the “Badge App Icon” setting to off.
The post iOS 7 tip: How to get rid of the red badges on your apps appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iPhone tip: 4 ways to decline a voice call appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>Indeed, there are now (by my count, anyway) at least four ways on an iPhone to send an untimely call to voicemail. Some of them are fairly considerate, others are downright rude.
The good news, though, is that each method is relatively easy, even when you’ve got your iPhone in one hand and your keys in another.
So, ready to duck some calls?
Here we go…
1. Send the caller instantly to voicemail
Here’s the most abrupt way to zap your caller to voicemail purgatory: when a call comes in, just double-click the “sleep/wake” button along the top of your iPhone. Either that, or tap the red “Decline” button on the touchscreen.
The moment you do, your iPhone will stop ringing, and your caller will hear the dulcet, prerecorded tones of your voicemail greeting—a telltale sign that you’re either a) out of wireless range, or b) dodging their calls.
2. Let a caller (eventually) roll to voicemail
So, your iPhone starts ringing, you see the caller ID, and you just don’t want to take the call—but you don’t want your caller thinking that you’re blowing them off, either.
Just double-click the iPhone’s “sleep/wake” button to instantly send a caller to voicemail, or single-click to silence your phone and let the call eventually roll to your voicemail greeting.
If that’s the case, try this: instead of double-clicking the sleep/wake button, just single-click it instead. Or, here’s another option: single-click one of the volume buttons.
Doing so will silence your iPhone’s ringer, but your caller will still hear your phone ringing.
Eventually, the call will roll to voicemail, and your caller will (fingers crossed) simply figure that you couldn’t get to your phone, or perhaps that you were taking a much-needed midday nap.
3. Decline a call with a text message
Don’t want to decline a call without letting the caller know you’ll ring back? You can send a text message—such as, say, “Can’t talk right now, call later?”—at the same time as you decline a call, perfect for letting a spurned caller down easy.
Tap the “Message” button to send a pre-written text message to a caller you’d rather dodge.
Here’s what you do…
- When your iPhone starts ringing, you’ll see the standard “slide to answer” slider at the bottom of the screen. Just above the slider and to the right, you’ll see a “Message” button.
- Tap that button, and you’ll get to choose between a series of canned text messages, including “I’ll call you later,” “I’m on my way,” and “What’s up?”
- Tap a message, and it’ll be sent instantly to your caller, just as they’re hearing your voicemail message.
- You can tap “Custom…” to compose a custom message on the fly, or you can create your own pre-written messages by tapping Settings, Phone, Reply with Message.
4. Decline a call, then get a reminder
So, let’s say a call comes in that you really do want to answer—just not right this second.
One option is to decline with a text message, as we just saw. Another is to decline the call but remind yourself to call back.
Tap “Remind Me” to get a reminder about a missed call later in the day, or once you arrive (or leave) a specific location.
When the call comes in, tap the “Remind me” button just above the “slide to answer” slider.
Doing so will send your caller to voicemail, and you’ll get a choice: Get a reminder about the missed call in a) an hour, b) when you leave your current location, c) when you get home, or d) when you arrive at work.
Want to change the time of your reminder? Just open the Reminders app on your iPhone, find the missed-call reminder that your iPhone just created (tap one of the reminder lists, or use the search box), tap it, then tap any of the reminder settings (such as the time or the location) that you’d like to change.
Click here for more iPh0ne tips!
The post iPhone tip: 4 ways to decline a voice call appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iPad tip: Expand and shrink web videos by pinching, not tapping appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>That’s because the button you tap to expand a video—you know, the one with the two little arrows—doesn’t shrink the video once you’re in “full-screen” mode.
The button on the left will expand a web video to fill the iPad’s screen, but the button on the right won’t shink it back to size. Confused? Try pinching instead.
Instead, the button with the arrows makes a full-screen video expand even further, hiding any black “letterboxing” bars at the edges of the screen.
If you actually want to shrink a full-screen video back to size, you need to tap the “Done” button rather than the button with the arrows.
Kinda confusing, if you ask me.
Well, here’s a trick I recently learned: instead of tapping a button to expand or shrink a web video on the iPad, just try pinching instead.
Once you tap the “play” button on a video embedded in a web page, you can pinch “out” with your fingers to expand the video to full-screen mode.
(Tip: Make sure to pinch the web video in a quick motion to expand it; if you pinch, hold, and slowly open your fingers, you’ll expand the entire page.)
Ready to shrink the video back to size? Pinch “in.” (The pinch-to-shrink gesture doesn’t require nearly as much finesse as the pinch-to-expand gesture does.)
That’s a lot easier—and way more intuitive—than dealing with the arrows and the “Done” button.
Bonus tip
The pinch-to-expand and pinch-to-shrink gestures also work (quite nicely) in the YouTube app for iOS.
Looking for more iPad tips? Click here!
The post iPad tip: Expand and shrink web videos by pinching, not tapping appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS 7 tip: 6 more things the Home button can do appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>Well, most of the time, you’ll just wind up back at the home screen—or, if you’re already on the home screen, the multitasking screen will play a brief game of peek-a-boo.
But if you flip some switches deep in the Settings menu, you’ll be able to choose between six new functions that triple-clicking the Home key can activate.
Tap Settings, General, Accessibility, then scroll all the way down to a setting labeled “Accessibility Shortcut.”
Just tap the Accessibility Shortcut feature (or features) you’d like to activate. Note that Guided Access, which must be togged on or off from a separate screen, is grayed out.
You’ll now see the six (or maybe just five—more on that in a moment) actions that your iPhone/iPad can take when you triple-click the Home key. They include:
- Guided Access: A mode that locks your iPhone or iPad into one app while (if you wish) disabling the Home and Sleep buttons, as well as specific areas of the touchscreen. (I like to call this the “baby-proof” mode.) Unlike the other items on the list, you can’t toggle it on and off from the “Accessibility Shortcut” screen; instead, you’ll need to back up to Settings, General, Accessibility, Guided Access. Read more…
- VoiceOver: Pick this option, and your iDevice will switch to a mode where it reads aloud web pages, email, and navigation labels on its touchscreen, perfect for iPhone users with impaired vision.
- Invert Colors: In this mode, your iPhone or iPad reverses the colors on its screen, resulting in a display that shows white text on a black background for email, text messages, and most web pages. The inverted colors don’t stop there, though; wait until you get a load of the groovy white-on-black home screen.
- Zoom: Find yourself squinting at the tiny text on your iPhone’s/iPad’s screen? Turn on the Zoom function to magnify the display with a three-finger tap. Read more…
- Switch Control: Lets you control your iOS device using one or more physical or virtual switches. For example, you can use the switch (which you can “flip” with a Bluetooth accessory, by tapping the touchscreen, or even by nodding at your iDevice’s FaceTime camera) to select an item, virtually rotate or shake your handset, or press the sleep/wake button. Read more…
- AssistiveTouch: Activates a mode that lets you “pinch” or swipe the display—or even “shake” the entire phone, for that matter—without actually having to pinch, swipe, or shake, an essential feature for anyone without the full use of their fingers. Read more…
Just tap a feature to switch it on when you triple-click the Home key.
If you select more than one item, your iPhone or iPad will ask which one to activate whenever you triple-click Home.
Don’t want your iPhone/iPad to do anything when you triple-click the Home key? Then make sure all five items (or six, including Guided Access) are unchecked.
The post iOS 7 tip: 6 more things the Home button can do appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>The post iOS 7 tip: 7 super iPhone shortcuts you gotta try appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>Well, here’s the thing: once you know a few secret shortcuts, you’ll be flying around your iPhone’s interface like a pro.
Read on for seven super iPhone shortcuts, from opening a favorite website and taking a screenshot to sifting through your email drafts and zipping to the top of a web page.
1. Quickly get to your email drafts
So, you were composing an email on your iPhone and decided to stop in the middle for some reason—and before you moved on, you tapped the “Save Draft” button so you could finish the message later.
Want to get to your email drafts in a hurry? Hint: try long-pressing the Compose button.
All well and good, but where are your old email drafts when you need them?
Luckily, there’s an easier way to pull up your saved email drafts for all your iPhone/iPad email accounts, and it’s just a “long-press” away
2. Create a calendar event directly from email
An invite to a can’t-miss event just landed in your inbox, and you want to mark it in your iPhone’s calendar before you forget—and while you’re at it, you’d like to add the sender’s name to your address book.
Well, good news: you’re just a few taps away from saving the date in your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) Calendar app, or from creating a new entry in your Contacts app—all directly from the original email message.
3. Zip back to the top of a page
You just finished scrolling down a lengthy New York Times story on the iPhone, and you want to go back to the beginning to see the photo again—but you’re dreading the prospect of having to flick, flick, and flick all the way back to the top of the page.
There’s a super-easy way to jump back to the top of a web page.
Sound familiar?
4. Create keyboard shortcuts
Tired of repeatedly tapping your street address, your job title, or common phrases like “on my way” or “you there?” on your iPhone’s virtual keypad?
If so, get this: your iPhone will let you create your own, custom keyboard shortcuts for … well, just about anything.
Once you’ve tweaked the right settings, you can ask “you there?” in a text message by simply tapping, say, “yt”. You could also conjure your street address, your official title, or a phone number in just a few keystrokes.
5. Add a favorite web site to your home screen
Got a web site you love that doesn’t have its own fancy iOS app? No problem. You can add any site you like to your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) home screen in only a few steps.
Want to add a favorite site to your iPhone’s home screen? Easy.
Once you’re done, your favorite site will have a home-screen icon that looks just like an app; tap it, and you’ll jump immediately to the page.
6. Take a screenshot
Ever wanted to take a quick snapshot of your iPhone’s display? Or have you taken a screenshot by accident, without quite knowing how you did it?
Well, taking a screenshot on the iPhone (or iPad, or iPod Touch) is a nifty, easy trick—so easy, in fact, that more than a few puzzled readers have written in, wondering how snapshots of their iPhone’s home page wound up in their mobile photo albums.
7. Launch the camera from the lock screen
Is something beautiful happening right before your eyes, all while your iPhone is hidden away in your pocket?
Never fear. Thanks to the camera shortcut on the iPhone or iPad lock screen, you may still be able to capture the moment.
Click here for more iPhone tips!
The post iOS 7 tip: 7 super iPhone shortcuts you gotta try appeared first on here's the thing.
]]>