The amount of technological know-how that went into the production and
perfection of your Apple gadgets is much more than anyone can learn in a
lifetime. Simply documenting all of the things that your iPhone, iPad
or Macintosh computer can do secures employment for hundreds of Apple's
technical writers.Even with all that effort, years of untold updates to iOS and OS X have made it nearly impossible to keep track of everything that your Apple gadget can do. Users are constantly finding little (and sometimes not so little) ticks and functions hidden in Apple gadgets. By the way, these surprise features are often called "Easter Eggs" in tech-speak. These undocumented tricks are available on your gadgets, they're just not always so obvious.
Today's Apple tip will teach you a few of the best features that you may not know about yet. Some of them will make your day-to-day activities easier, while others are fun to know about and use.
Are you ready to master your Apple gadget?
1. Quick access screen
Need your camera even faster for that unexpected George Clooney sighting? Again on the home screen, just swipe up on the camera icon in the lower right corner. The camera app is instantly available for your photography pleasure.
Your Mac computer has a few tricks as well. Say you need a quick calculation. Sure you could load the calculator app and click away. But if you need a quick answer, however, then Apple has got you covered with far fewer keystrokes and clicks.
Getting access to your computer's other apps is still a bit old school. You actually have to open the applications folder and double click on the desired program, However, as a shortcut for frequently used apps, just drag the icon from the apps folder to the dock at bottom or side of screen, depending on where you put it.
2. Rich text, videos and animated GIFs in iOS notes
If you see a GIF that makes you laugh, then you can save it to your Notes app. iOS 8 brought support for GIFs, videos and rich text files in the Notes app.Saving a GIF in the Notes app is easy. Simply tap and hold the image then copy it. Then jump over to the Notes app and tap where you want the image to go. Now tap-hold and paste the image as a GIF.
It's a great way to keep track of the best GIFs that you see while you're reading your favorite news and editorial sites. Your Notes app can also sync with all of your Apple gadgets with iCloud. Find out how to set up iCloud in this helpful tip.
3. Secret volume level
If you think that your Mac computer lowest volume level is still a little too high, then you're not alone. That's because it's not actually your computer's quietest setting.First, lower your computer's volume as far as it'll go. You should see a speaker with a slash through it. Now, press the mute button on your Mac keyboard.
4. Disable notifications
Your iPad and iPhone's iOS 8 system and your Mac's OS X Yosemite are closely connected. So closely connected, in fact, that most of the notifications that you see on your phone will probably also pop up on your Mac computer.Not all of us are too keen on having all of our emails and business calls follow us everywhere that we go. That's why turning Do Not Disturb on can be such a lifesaver.
Do Not Disturb will silence all calls and notifications that would normally make the phone ring or vibrate. You can choose specific people to accept calls from, but Do Not Disturb silences all calls by default.
To turn on Do Not Disturb on your iOS device, tap the Settings icon. Find and tap the Do Not Disturb icon. You can manually enable Do Not Disturb, or schedule Do Not Disturb for specific times.
Note: When manually
enabling Do Not Disturb mode, you'll see a moon icon appear on the
upper-right hand side of your gadget. This is there to remind you that
your gadget is silenced and not receiving calls.
You should see the Do Not Disturb option. Click it to enable or disable Do Not Disturb on your computer.
5. Batch rename
OS X Yosemite came along with one of the most useful features that you might not have ever heard about with it. It allows you to rename files in batches, rather than having to rename them on a case-by-case basis.Simply click-drag across the files that you want to rename, right click (or control-click) and then click the "Rename X items" option.
